What To Be Doing During Communion
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
By Rev. John Hannem,
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I read of a small-town church in upstate
Eventually he called aside one of the lay leaders of the church and said, "I don’t know what’s wrong, but I have a feeling that there’s something wrong." The man said, "Well, pastor, that’s true. I hate to say it, but it’s the way you do the Communion service."
"The way I do the Communion service? What do you mean?" ... "Well, it’s not so much what you do as what you leave out." .... "I don’t think I leave out anything from the Communion service." ... "Oh yes, you do. Just before our previous pastor passed the tray of juice to the people, he’d always go over and touch the radiator. And, then, he would--" ... "Touch the radiator? I never heard of that liturgical tradition."
So the younger man called the former pastor. He said, "I haven’t even been here a month, and I’m in trouble." ... "In trouble? Why?" ... "Well, it’s something to do with touching the radiator. Could that be possible? Did you do that?" ... "Oh yes, I did. Always before the tray of juice was passed to the people, I touched the radiator to discharge the static electricity so I wouldn’t shock them."
For over thirty-five years, the people of his congregation had thought that was a part of the communion service. The pastor that wrote the article joked that the church has now gained the name, "The Church of the Holy Radiator."
That’s a ludicrous example of how easily people can get caught up in tradition.
Traditions get started, and people endure traditions for a long time. They mix it up with practical obedience to the living God.
This morning I want us to think through what is Biblical and what is traditional about the Lord’s Supper and see if we can bring about some freshness to our observation.
I. Reconciling Read 1 Corinthians 11:17-22
Paul begins these thoughts on communion with a stern scolding of the Corinthians.
Just as parents sometimes have to scold their children in order for them to develop into mature adults, so too we as children of God sometimes have to be scolded. And Paul felt that this church needed to be scolded for this particular problem.
What was the problem? Well in NT days, it was common not just for the Corinthian church, but for most churches, to combine the Lord’s Supper with a kind of pot-luck dinner. Not only did they participate in the Lord’s Supper, but they also shared their evening meal with other believers. That may seem like a somewhat strange way of doing it today, because there aren’t any churches that I know of that do it that way now. But you may recall that it was during an actual meal that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. DeVinci called it The Last Supper.
It was during an evening meal that the Lord instituted the ordinance of communion. So it is not that much of a stretch to see why the early churches were following that pattern.
However, there was a problem with the way they were doing it. It’s a problem that has to do with their attitude. Their attitudes in partaking of this meal were appalling.
The first wrong attitude that Paul addresses is that they were divided. Paul has spent much of the first three chapters of this book addressing the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church. They had divided their local church into sects of people who liked to do certain things in certain ways. The Corinthian church was divided; it wasn’t unified.
And this division in the church was most problematic during their communion.... Now why would division be a problem during communion? After all, communion is a private thing, isn’t it? Communion is something that is between an individual and God, isn’t it? ... The answer to those questions is a resounding: NO!
You see, although communion is a time where a believer privately speaks to God in his own heart, communion is a congregational event. Communion should be a time of reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we participate in communion, we should allow God to evaluate our relationships. And when there are relationships with other believers that aren’t right, we are partaking of communion in an unworthy manner.
If we partake while holding a grudge against a brother, we are sinning. Paul will say more about this at the end of this chapter.
Division in the body of Christ is sin. Paul is saying that if we partake of the Lord’s Supper without first being reconciled to our brothers and sisters, we are misplacing our priorities. And the church cannot ever expect to be what God wants it to be if the church is not willing to do things in the proper order. We must first go and be reconciled to our brothers. The church will never be a healthy church without reconciled relationships.
Divisive, attacking attitudes, and the Lord’s Supper do not go together because the Lord’s Supper is about forgiveness; not revenge. The Lord’s Supper is about unity; not division. Brothers and Sisters who have had differences during the week should be reconciled in their own hearts before they participate in the Lord’s Supper. And so one of the things you should be doing during communion is reconciling, another is…
II. Remembering Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
Remembering our Savior and all that was accomplished upon the Cross of Calvary is clearly a very important part of Communion. Jesus said to do this in remembrance of Him. As we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are to remember the sacrifice that was made for us on
The only thing that can save you from hell is believing that the blood shed on
Jesus died for you—all you have to do is believe it—there is no other way! God’s law, that will never pass away, says there must be death for sin. The wages of sin is death. And Romans says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
So since all of us have sinned, there has to be death. It’s either yours or Jesus’. .... And you get to decide whose it will be for you. Will you die and go to hell for your own sin or will you believe that Jesus died for you and thereby spend eternity in heaven with Him? If you accept Jesus’ death for you, then you should be eternally thankful! And when we partake ofcommunion give thanks as you remember the great price that was paid for your sin!
We remember that nothing but the blood of Jesus has saved us from hell! Remembering is a very important part of what we do during communion. Another is…
III. Repeating Read 1 Corinthians (NIV),.
Jesus said that when we partake of this meal, we proclaim His death until He returns. We are to continue participating in this meal until He returns. We are to continue doing this until Jesus returns. We are to proclaim the story of
The word “repetition” today has become synonymous with “boring,” but this repetition is so valuable to us as human beings. The more we repeat things; the more we remember them. The more we repeat things; the more we believe them. The more we repeat things; the more other people believe them. So reconciling, regarding, remembering, and repeating are very important parts of communion. Then continuing on there is…
IV. Repenting Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
Repenting means to feel sorry for sin, to ask forgiveness for sin, and to make a plan to avoid it in the future; that is repenting. Paul says that before we partake of communion, we should examine ourselves. Anyone who eats or drinks communion without recognizing the holiness of Jesus partakes in an unworthy manner. We consider His sinless life; that is holiness. And as we consider how holy He is, we should acknowledge how unholy we are; how sinful we are. To do otherwise is partaking in an unworthy manner because we aren’t really considering the awesomeness of Jesus and the awesomeness of what He has done for us.
To come before Him without recognizing the fact that we aren’t worthy to be there is extremely disrespectful to an Almighty God! So we should examine ourselves before we come into His presence; before we partake of communion.
Paul tells the Corinthians that because they weren’t partaking in a worthy manner a lot of their people were sick and dead. That is certainly something to consider, isn’t it?
Usually when we get sick, most of us wonder if it was something we ate or maybe it was some sort of a bug. But clearly, Paul says that another reason for sickness is because of partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. And obviously, if the church is not partaking of communion in a worthy manner, the church is not going to be a healthy church.
And so during communion we should be reconciling, regarding, remembering, repeating, repenting, and finally…
V. Responding Read 1 Corinthians 11:33-34
Responding goes, hand-in-hand, with repenting. Not only should we repent, we should also make a change in our lives. It’s not just a matter of feeling sorry for what we did wrong. It’s not just a matter of asking forgiveness for what we did wrong. It is also making the changes necessary to keep it from happening again. That means we prayerfully ask God to enable us to look for the way of escape from temptation that 1 Corinthians 10:13 says He will always provide instead of falling for the tricks of Satan again.
For example if you are repenting for sin in your life… It is good to feel sorry for what you’ve done wrong. It is good to ask forgiveness for what you did wrong. It is good to desire to be pure. But you’ve got to get serious about trusting God to help you end it.
You’ve got to get serious about believing that Jesus can help you out of this and you are going to follow Him and not the leading of Satan.
Paul told the Corinthians that because they were disregarding the poor, they should wait for each other. They had to respond. They had to make a plan to stop sinning. They had to make a plan to start regarding others above themselves.
During Communion, we need to respond. We can’t just pray during Communion. We need to make a plan of how we are going to respond during the coming week as a result of our time of Communion together. What will your response be during the coming week?
Conclusion: What should I be doing during communion?
1. Reconciling ourselves with others.
2. Remembering the price that was paid for our salvation.
3. Repeating the importance of the Lord’s death until he comes again.
4. Repenting of our sin.
5. Responding to God by getting our lives back on the right path.
I hope that we are seeing what communion is all about. It is about meditating on relationships. It’s about meditating upon our most important relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s about meditating upon relationships with others. It’s about realigning ourselves with Christ, the cross, and our commitment. The rest is simply ritual!