They say that on any given Sunday any professional football team may beat a superior team. If you have been a fan of football for any length of time, you know this is true. It is also true that on any given Sunday a church may have a division or trouble within the community of faith. These struggles are difficult and are often used as an excuse by those who don’t believe to not be a part of a church. However, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 shows that Paul understands this and even more there are spiritual ramifications. It is interesting to me that in 1 Corinthians 11:19, Paul tells us that there are differences, but why? He goes on to say that it is an opportunity for us to see who is approved by God. The Corinthians came together to eat the Lord’s Supper and they went ahead and ate their meals and did not wait on some of their brothers and sisters. Paul gives us a good directive in this passage about what the church is all about. It is not about individual or cliquish groups. The Lord’s Supper is about the whole body of Christ coming together and even waiting for the other if necessary and finding restored relationships with each other and God. Maybe one of the spiritual gifts that we need to learn is how to view the entire body and not just a few. On any given Sunday, we have an opportunity to be approved by God by participating in forgiveness, patience, mercy, and by coming together as one body focusing on the sacrifice of Christ. On any given Sunday, we take the bread and drink the cup and proclaim the death of Christ until He comes again.
Archive for the ‘Lord’s Supper’ Category
Day 257: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 — “On Any Given Sunday”
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010Day 212: Acts 20:1-12 — On breaking bread
Saturday, July 31st, 2010On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Acts 20:7
So many lessons in today’s reading — indeed, so many in this one verse — but let’s concentrate on one or two.
Why do you attend worship?
- Is it because you’re part of a family, and wherever the family is, that’s where you want to be?
- Is it because there’s a biblical precedent for doing so?
- Is it to worship and praise and honor The God of Creation?
- Is it to partake of what we call the Lord’s Supper?
- Is it to hear a portion of God’s Holy Word preached?
Maybe all of these are reasons you attend. I’d suggest these are all not only valid reasons to gather together to worship, but also that none of these is the reason we should be there. Yet we’re told the express purpose of the saints at Troas for meeting was to “break bread” — a reference to the Lord’s Supper. So does this mean that when we assemble as a church, the most important thing we do is participate in the Communion service? I’d say that’s arguable, and I’d argue the negative position of that particular premise.
But my purpose this morning isn’t to argue — it’s to make you think.
I believe any time we start to think in terms of being there for the Lord’s Supper, and if we’re there for that, the rest is pretty much a bonus, then it’s time to re-think why we even attend worship in the first place. Isn’t partaking of the bread and the cup something you can do at home with your physical family? So there must be a reason besides this one observance to make a special trip to a special location to meet with a special group of people for a special time.
Here’s my take on it; feel free to disagree in the Comments section below: we are there on Sunday for the same reason we are placed here on earth — to worship the One who put us here. That’s it. It’s my opinion that the reason Luke is telling us the church at Troas met in order to break bread, is not because the Holy Spirit through Luke is giving us a hint that this is the most important act of worship. He’s simply stating a point of fact. So when we meet together tomorrow, let’s sing as if it were the last song of praise we’ll sing this side of Heaven, let’s listen to the Word proclaimed as if it were indeed coming from the lips of Jesus Himself (because it is God-breathed), and let’s partake of the Lord’s Supper remembering that it commemorates the express reason Jesus came to earth — to seek and to save that which was lost.
Day 136: Luke 22:63-23:12 — Cheering Death?
Sunday, May 16th, 2010We all have different ways to focus during the Lord’s Supper. I believe it is the most important few minutes of my week and I assume that you probably feel the same too. A chance to commune with God…how humbling, how wonderful. The question I pose to you this week is — what do you think about?
I’m sure we all think about different things. I try to remember the sequence of events leading up to the Cross. I try to put myself in the moment — to hear the sounds, see the faces and feel the intensity in the air. I have often thought about that the same crowd that shouted a triumphant return to Jerusalem is now the same crowd that is cheering his death. I think about Luke 22:63-65 and how my Lord and Savior wasn’t even treated with common decency before his death.
If you read anything at all about serial killers or people being executed, you will probably notice that it usually draws a crowd. When Ted Bundy was executed in 1989, there was a crowd outside the prison chanting and cheering his death. Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City bombings was executed to the echoes of cheering outside the prison walls. Yet neither was beaten and mocked on the way to the gallows.
Jesus suffered far more than just the cross. He looked into the eyes of the people he came to save and saw their hatred for him. He listened to them mock him and scream for his blood.
Praise God that Jesus loved me enough that he still carried out God’s plan. That’s what I think about.
Day 133: Luke 22:14-20 — The Last Supper
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
The Last Supper has come to represent an image in a recent movie of a conspiracy of the church to hide Jesus’ wife and children. It has resulted in arguments between churches over how often you take it. I have often heard discussions about the mundane repetition that is not entertaining…in other words, it is boring. I am always surprised by these points of view. The Lord’s Supper is a historical fact that has been an integral part of worship since the early church. In today’s world of entertaining worship, it would be sacrilege not to have a praise team perform. However, to follow Jesus’ command to eat the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant is boring. How things have been turned upside down and our forms of worship ignores a command of Jesus to replace it with our worship desires. To ignore the Last Supper is to refuse to stand in the presence of mystery and wonder. It is disdain on the body of Christ. Have we forgotten its foundational message of what God has done to correct our broken relationship with Him and our neighbor?
The act of eating together paved the way for Jesus’ fellowship with his disciples, the crowds, and the outcasts in Galilee on various occasions and Luke emphasizes the meal scenes of Jesus’ ministry. Instituted at the time of the Passover meal, the Lord’s Supper also embraces and fulfills the celebration of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we declare that the Lord whom we worship is also the God committed to the deliverance of His people today. In the early church, the Lord’s Supper was observed in connection with a fellowship meal. The risen Lord becomes known to the early disciples in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30-31). The early Christians broke bread at home (Acts 2:46), they gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7), and problems arose when the meal did not express the oneness and fellowship of the church (1 Cor. 11:17-22). The supper, therefore, relates the community of believers physically and spiritually to the Lord, who laid down his life that we might live. It is a commemoration of the life and death of Jesus, a celebration of his real and spiritual presence now, and an affirmation of the hope that we shall eat and drink with him in the kingdom of God. I look forward to this Sunday, the next Sunday, and the next Sunday to take the Lord’s Supper and remember my Lord’s death until He comes again. I do not find this mundane, nor do I find the banquet in heaven something that I choose not to participate in. Each opportunity to take the bread and drink the cup is an opportunity to live the gospel and experience the grace of God that invites me to salvation.
Day 95: Deuteronomy 32:48-Joshua 1:18; Luke 4:31-5:11 — On the road
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Today’s readings detail an august, hallowed ending and bright, powerful, robust beginnings.
Moses blesses Israel by tribe, describing their futures and God’s work with them. He then ascends mount Nebo from which he sees that land to which he has brought Israel but into which he himself cannot enter; Moses had failed to revere God as holy before Israel, Numbers 20:8-13. His eye was not dim nor his vigor abated. He just passes from this life to the next. The Creator, YHWH Himself, buries Moses in an undisclosed location. Such a life, such a wonder of courage, intimate relationship between God and man; no prophet like him arose in Israel after him. Moses had laid hands on Joshua and he received the Spirit of God for the work ahead. Now Joshua will take them into that land, “Be strong and courageous,” Joshua 1:6-9. A new leader, a new land, new challenges. A work to be done, evil to be conquered, promises to receive, a kingdom to build.
Jesus, prophet and priest and king, comes to Israel; new wonders to herald a new age. Those denizens of the darker spirit world know Him, but He commands them to be silent, it is not theirs to reveal the Messiah. The works declare Him, the people begin to adore Him, to need Him. The fishermen enter rather abruptly into that procession by a boat load of fish. Peter falls and declares himself unclean. They leave all and follow Jesus, the Glorious Leader to take then to a new land, to face new challenges. A work to be done, evil to be conquered, promises to receive, a kingdom to build.
When the church comes together we see such a mix of lives, of people, like a living stream swirling and flowing. We smile as new parents scramble to “do something” about crying babies. We see ourselves in the aged…perhaps that IS “us”! The aged sing the songs of a faith that is now more exciting and full of hope for them than the day they first believed. New Christians and old soldiers of the cross share in worship and the bread and the cup. We travel with a great host, many entering ahead of us, many after us, moving on the road of life to a new land of promise. A work to be done, evil to be conquered, promises to receive, a kingdom of priests, a kingdom to receive. Jesus truly is that Way, that path for godly living now and the life to come, John 14:1-6, 1 Tim. 4:8.
Question: On what path and with what people do you travel?
Day 47: Leviticus 6:24-30 and Matthew 26:26-29 — Holy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010I was reading our daily bible reading and we have these two passages from Leviticus and Matthew. The first focuses on the holiness of the offering that was to be used for the sin offering. It could be eaten by those who were holy. However, it could not be eaten if it was used for atonement in the Holy place. It would have to be burned with fire (Leviticus 6:24-30). The second passage is the account of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. He instructs his disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant (Matthew 26:26-29).
Each Sunday, we come together to eat the bread and drink the cup. We read about the holiness of the offering in Leviticus. Holy does not just mean special or pure. Holy means set a part or dedicated to God. The priests had been sanctified to serve God. They were allowed to participate in eating the parts of the offering that were not used in the Holy Place.
Questions:
How much more special is the sacrifice of Jesus for the atonement of our sins? How holy is the bread and the cup that we take each Sunday? How blessed are we to be the priests of God that can now participate in the Lord’s Supper? How much preparation is made in our lives to take Holy Communion? Do we profane the Lord’s Supper by not taking it when the Lord’s Church gathers together? Do we profane it by not getting our lives right with God and each other? What do you think?