Introduction
Previous lessons in this series:
Last week we talked about communion being a time of remembrance of what Christ has done, is doing, and will do. This week the emphasis is on communion as Fellowship. We were created to be in fellowship with God. Out of this dependence on God we are called into community with one another.
“Like grains of wheat gathered from scattered places, ground into flour, kneaded into dough and baked as bread, they had merged their identities and become one.” - Harold Fey
The first and greatest command that Jesus gave in his proclamation of the gospel is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Both dimensions of communion - relationship with God and relationship with others - are mediated, made possible, and sustained by Christ Jesus. We cannot live in communion with one another except through the gracious presence of Christ. Nowhere is this more powerfully expressed than in the Lord’s Supper. This event is one in which we declare that life is found in communion with God and with one another.
1. Communion is Fellowship With Christ (1 Corinthians 10:14-16)
1 Corinthians 10:14-16 ESV Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:16 AMPC
The cup of blessing [of wine at the Lord’s Supper] upon which we ask [God’s] blessing, does it not mean [that in drinking it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the blood of Christ (the Messiah)? The bread which we break, does it not mean [that in eating it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the body of Christ?
In the Lord’s Supper we sit at the table with Christ - enabled by the cross. Hicks: “To eat and drink at the Lord’s table in his kingdom is to eat and drink with Christ. We fellowship Christ and experience the reality of spiritual communion through the altar of Christ’s body and blood. … Just as the altar enabled Israel to sit at table with God, so the cross enables Christians to sit at table with Jesus. Thus, eating and drinking at the table of the Lord means to experience the shalom which the altar produced between God and his people.”
In the Lord’s Supper we sit at the table with Christ - encouraged by His presence. Ferguson: “The Lord promised to be with his disciples always (Matt. 28:20). The Lord’s supper is a pledge of that continuing presence. In the bread and wine there are presented tokens of his body and blood. These are a pledge of continuing fellowship with him.”
In the Lord’s Supper we experience an encounter with Christ. Smith: “Our practice of the Lord’s Supper should always make it abundantly clear that our host is the Lord and that this is first of all an encounter with him.”
In the Lord’s Supper we sit at the table with Christ - with one another. 1 Corinthians 10 speaks of a communion - koinonia - with the body and blood of Jesus. Koinonia can also be translated as participation or fellowship. Two events are sustained and renewed simultaneously:
The relationship of the community with Christ, of God’s people with their Lord.
The relationship of human persons with one another.
2. Communion is Fellowship With One Another
1 Corinthians 10:17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
The Lord’s Supper is to demonstrate unity in the church. Ferguson: “The communion with the risen Christ establishes a communion with fellow believers. There is a unity through allegiance to a common Lord. … Communion shows one’s participation in the church, for the church is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). It is only in the one body that the benefits of Christ’s death are received.”
The Lord’s Supper is to demonstrate peace in the church. Our peace is with Christ and with one another. Smith: “We are gathered in the company of Christ. Our fellowship is given meaning by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, and it is the living Christ who calls us together and enables us to be in communion with one another.”
The Lord’s Supper is to demonstrate grace from Christ and with one another. Smith: “The Lord’s Supper, then, is never a solitary and individual event. It is always a meal of the community of faith hosted by Christ as an event wherein we both declare and experience the grace that we are at peace with one another.”
The Lord’s Supper is to demonstrate thanksgiving for Christ and one another. Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
The Lord’s Supper is to demonstrate forgiveness from Christ and for one another. Colossians 3:13 “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
The Lord's Supper demonstrates Welcome from Christ and to one another. We declare this peace when we greet one another and welcome one another to both the event of worship and the meal itself. Romans 15:7 “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
The Lord’s Supper recognizes our mutual acceptance and also our commitment to love and serve one another. So we come to the table with hope, even for strained and difficult relationships. We receive the grace that enables us to accept others, forgive others, love others, and, as God enables, live in peace with others insofar as it depends on us (Romans 12:18)
“There are two realities signified by the sacrament: one is contained in the sacrament, namely Christ himself, and the other signified but not contained, namely the mystical body of Christ, the companionship of the saints.” - Thomas Aquinas
3. Communion is a Fellowship that Observes the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:27-34)
1 Corinthians 11:27-34 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
The Lord’s Supper is vulnerable to corruption. While it is good to spend time in self-reflection, Paul is addressing the abuse of the Lord’s supper. The Corinthian church was divided along socioeconomic lines, and this was inconsistent with the meaning of the Supper.
The Lord’s Supper was being held, as was almost all early Christian worship, in the homes of the wealthy. This would be a necessity - the homes of the wealthy were large enough to hold a small congregation. But it created a potential problem. The owners of these homes would sometimes have private meals with their peers just before the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, thereby emphasizing the socioeconomic distinctions rather than unity within the Corinthians church community.
Hicks: “The corinthians exhibited their spiritual arrogance by dividing the body into the very socio-economic strata that the gospel intended to obliterate. … The gospel intends to unite diverse groups, transcend culture and fallen distinctions, and testify to the ‘common union’ of the body of Christ. The Corinthians drank judgment upon themselves because they denied the gospel by the way they conducted what was supposed to be the Lord’s Supper.” They were, in effect, humiliating those who had nothing or little. They ate their fill, ignoring the poor, thereby doing more harm than good.
If we eat and drink in a manner that violates Christ and the body, we pass sentence on (make a judgment about) ourselves.
The issue is not whether we are worthy of partaking in the Lord’s Supper. We are always unworthy. It is always by mercy that we come to this table. It is always a gift. The critical question is whether we discern or recognize the body of believers with whom we have gathered. Hicks: “ To discern the body is to partake of the supper in a way that bears witness to not only the unity of the body of Christ (church) but also to the koinonia (fellowship) of that body which transcends all social and economic barriers.”
“Consequently, to eat and drink worthily is not about private introspection, but about public action. Paul is not stipulating a kind of meditative silence on the cross of Christ or an introspective assessment of our relative holiness. on the contrary, to eat in an ‘unworthy manner’ in this context, is to eat in a divisive manner like that which existed at Corinth. … When the church fails to embody those values, then it denies the gospel.” - John Mark Hicks
Smith: It is unfortunate, then, that for so many the Lord’s Supper has become little more than an occasion for a personal, moralized self-examination out of a sincere concert that we are sinners who need to be more holy. … The vision of holiness in the New Testament, however, is highly communal. Holiness is experienced as we grow up in Christ together. There is no holiness without unity in the body of Christ.
4. How can we emphasize the communion / fellowship aspect of the Lord’s Supper?
Consider if you have a break in unity with a brother or sister and what you might do to build a bridge that relationship.
Consider for a moment the beauty of communing together. Look around and observe the Family of believers in a moment of connection with Christ and each other.
Remember something you did to serve a brother or sister. Or remember how someone has served you in the name of Christ.
Ask God to direct your thoughts toward some act of service you do in fellowship with others.
Picture Jesus at a banquet table and thank him for inviting all of us to eat with him.
Conclusion
In the Lord’s Supper, we declare our unity not only with those immediately present, a particular gathering of Christians, but also with all Christians everywhere. The key word for today is COMMUNION / FELLOWSHIP. Christ himself hosts us at this meal. We welcome others even as Christ welcomed us (Rom. 15:7). Christ reminds us of his love and his peace and receives us afresh into his company. He draws us to one another, for in Christ there is no male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile (Gal. 3:28), east or west, rich or poor. The supper anticipates the consummation of the kingdom when we will see Christ face-to-face and will gather from every tribe, tongue, and nation… In the Lord’s Supper we experience a foretaste of this.
Smith: “...The Lord’s Supper enables us to receive the peace of Christ, to live in the peace of Christ, and to be a means by which the peace of Christ comes to our world.”
Ferguson: “The Lord’s supper is expressive of the central realities of the Christian faith and of what the church is all about.”
Note: Much of this lesson leans heavily on Gordon T. Smith’s book, referenced below. - JED
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