Communion Meditation

There are a lot of reasons that I attend the church of Christ and not any other kind of religious organization. For instance:

• We use the BIBLE as the final authority.

• We have no other creed.

• We have no denominational affiliation.

• We do Bible things in Bible ways.

• We call Bible things by Bible names, and insist upon this! For instance, we are simply Christians!

• We teach God’s simple plan of salvation when we teach that a person needs to believe, repent, confess, be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a person must be faithful unto death. We do not oversimplify it by saying believe only, or making it harder than God intended by adding to it! We take seriously the message of the book of Revelation about “adding to and taking away” from the Word of God.

• We insist that God’s plan is not only the right plan, but the ONLY plan unto salvation and faithful living!

Like I said, lots of reasons, and I could go on and on and on. The one I would like us to concentrate on for just a couple of minutes is that we meet on the first day of every week in order to devote ourselves to the Apostles’ Doctrine, to the breaking of the bread, to fellowship and to prayer. In particular this morning, around the Lord’s table, “the breaking of the bread.”

Churches do many things out of convenience, and one of the things that churches often do is to make communion simply a matter of convenience. To do this they might have to cut out the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis, because it just takes too much time out of the service. Besides, if you take it every week, it will get old; ritualistic; it will have no meaning. Some churches have placed communion in a side room and tell the congregation that it is there if you desire to take it. Others, because the first day of the week is too full, offer communion now, when it is more convenient, on a Saturday evening. And this list goes on and on.

“Doing Bible things in Bible ways” forces me to take the Lord’s Supper in the way that it is commanded in the New Testament, not just simply when it is convenient.

Let me offer you these suggestions in partaking if you are in Christ: 

• It is a remembrance for the Christian of the death of Jesus, that which saves us! That is one reason it has no meaning to the non-Christian. They have not come into contact with the death of Jesus yet. And it is just a remembrance! I do not have my sins forgiven when I partake of the Lord’s Supper. I have my sins forgiven at baptism, when I am baptized into His death and continue to have them forgiven as a Christian when I confess my sins to God (I John 1:9). I am glad that I do not have to wait until Sunday to have my sins forgiven. Communion is a remembrance of the death of Jesus, which saves us! To not partake is to say to God that it is not important.
• Acts 20:7 says, “And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.” One of the reasons the early Christians even met on the first day of the week, that is Sunday, was to partake of the breaking of the bread. Some would say that is only one verse that says they partook on the first day of the week. Let me ask you: how many times does someone have to tell you something before you do it? If we only have one verse, does that make it any less important?
• Partake of the emblems SERIOUSLY! It is NOT just a ritual! Communion is something that God, in His infinite wisdom, has told us to do every first day of the week. He knew we would forget! He offered the Hebrews of the Old Testament the Sabbath to remind them of their salvation from bondage (passing through the Red Sea). It was a weekly reminder to keep their minds always in tune that God had saved them. In a similar way, celebrating the Lord’s Supper on the first day of every week keeps in our minds ALWAYS that God has saved us! I Corinthians 11: 27-30 – Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

I Corinthians 11:24 – “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 – In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Celebrate, Christians, with us as we offer the emblems before us. And remember, as you partake, that Jesus died for you.