Lesson: THE COMMUNION, AN ITEM OF
THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION
TEXT: 1Cor. 10:15-18
MEMORY VERSE: 1Cor. 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup. you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (RSV)
INTRODUCTION:
The word, “communion” is an abstract or spiritual noun and can only be illustrated with a material representation. For instance, the bread and wine are the visible representations of the invisible communion. Before a physical bread and wine harmonize with the spiritual reality of an invisible communion, it has to be understood figuratively. Bread (old Hebrew – ‘le’chem’ and Greek – ‘artos’) was common and remained a staple diet to the Jews and others in antiquity – the Israelites, the Greeks, the Romans and the Egyptians. Even in the present Middle East, other food stuffs are of secondary importance compared with bread. The Scripture seems to speak of “bread” as food in general (see Gen.3:19; Matt. 6:11; Eccle.10:19).
OBJECTIVE: In this lesson, we want to see the following:
1. The rationale for its recommendation by Jesus.
2. Its application to the Christian Faith.
3. As a practical to the theory of preaching Christ and
4. The authorized candidates and its timing of observance.
PRESENTATION:
Step I: THE RATIONALE FOR ITS RECOMMENDATION BY JESUS
(a) Contrary to the perspective of Solomon that a feast is made for laughter and wine for merry (Eccl. 10:19a), this communion feast of bread and wine is for sober reflection.
b) It (as the ceremonial water baptism) does not first have effect outwardly. It is not just a physical ritual. Beyond that, it reminds man of his direct contact or reunion with his God through the atonement of Christ (cf. 1Pet. 3:21: Matt. 26:26-28).
i. It commemorates, instructs, Inspires, assures as well as place a responsibility in the believers’ minds of a renewed partnership with our Father in heaven for the wellbeing of His mankind (cf. 1Cor. 3:9)
i. It provides believers with the consciousness of grace (not law) which converted the individual from carnality to now focus on what method there is best suitable to adopt in order that the best of Jehovah’s loving impact be expressed and felt by the neighbourhood (Tit. 2:11-14).
Step II: THE LORD’S SUPPER’S APPLICATION TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
(a) Although we are saved through Christ’s teachings, His atonement is the reason and serves as the very reason commemorating His death gains greater significance before God than His birth.
i. He commands, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (1Cor. 11:25).
(b) Jesus, symbolically as the bread of life, has been broken (slaughtered) in order that it becomes possible to be shared to all spiritually hungry.
i. He said He is the life giving bread God has sent from heaven to the world (see John 6:33) first in WORD form to FLESH form (cf. John 1:1, 14) and this, we have believed.
Step III: IT IS THE PRACTICAL OF THE THEORY OF PREACHING CHRIST
(a) As the Holy Spirit reminds us, Christians, of our oneness with Christ and one another, that is how the one kind of bread ąnd wine taken to remember Jesus’ atonement for us reminds us to work for the good of each other to the glory of God in Christ (see our text).
i. It serves to remind adherents that they are brothers and sisters under Jehovah’s Fatherhood and Christ’s Lordship making them closer than they used to be as the first Christians exemplified.
(b) As a practical of the theory of preaching the love of God in Christ for mankind, Christians’ interdependence is reinforced for the good of each other.
(c) It also reminds the Christians of their status in society as God’s light to banish ignorance in peoples’ hearts and as His salt to preserve God’s love from moral corruption (see Mat. 5:13-16).
(d) It teaches us to number our days thereby always reflecting soberly on how best to live and to die to glorify the One Who lives in us (cf. 1John 4:4; Gal. 2:20; Col.1:27).
Step IV: AUTHORIZED COMMUNICANTS AND TIMING OF OBSERVANCE
(a) The early Christians first finished their love feast (physical meal) before commemoration of the Lord’s death in communion (a spiritual meal) (cf. Jude 12; Acts 2:42,46).
b) This, later, was abused as in Corinth that the materially wealthy Christians would have a faction for merry making and sometimes got drunk before the actual
Lord’s Supper.
i. This was an unworthy manner because they created divisions (walls, denominations) in the body of Christ and also partook with the spirit of drunkenness (1 Cor. 11:17-22, 29).
c) Nobody is worthy (not guilty) to partake of the body and blood of Christ. As a matter of fact, all of us are not worthy.
i. The Corinthian Christians were unworthy because of their ACTIONS; not their PERSONS.
ii. But we who sincerely appreciate the essence of Christ’s atoning sacrifice are worthy. Conversely. those who preferred themselves worthy to others are most likely to be the self-righteous and, thus, unworthy.
III. “It is possible for an unworthy person to partake worthily,” someone has said. This is similar to how the Apostle Paul, through humility, saw himself “the chief of sinners” (see 1Tim. 1:15).
iv. The timing for observing the communion is not regulated. It’s optional in the phrase, “as often as” as in our memory verse.
– The feast Jesus and His original Apostles commemorated had a deliverance background.
– It was to remind the Jews of their material deliverance from Egyptian bondage done annually.
– Therefore, to stick to that background would make communion of the Christian saints to be observed yearly. But we had since left that old system.
v. The technicality in the observance of the feast is not as significant as the consciousness of the crucifixion and the aftermath divine lifestyle.
CONCLUSION:
Communion of the saints with Christ and one another is a practical illustrating the verbal and/or theory of preaching the salvation of mankind through the sole and exhaustible atonement of Christ. If people were not barred from receiving it when it was preached in a theory form, they should equally not be barred from receiving when it is being shared practically in the communion bread and wine in keeping with “1Cor. 11:28-31”. So, closed communion should only be preferable in the midst of believers who are still in infancy like the Corinthians above. But everyone must be encouraged to walk towards perfection-the divine standard (cf. Matt. 5:48).
EVALUATION:
1. What kind of meal is the Lord’s Supper?
2. What makes a meal the Christian communion?
3. Why were the Corinthians partaking in it unworthily?
4. What is the divine timing for observance of the Lord’s Supper?
For more on the theme, ‘Christian Tradition’,Click here, here and here
PRAYER: Thank God for His Word and pray that the oneness of all believers in Christ advocated and emphasized by Christ be reinforced in the communion of the saints.