THE POWER AND PURPOSE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (HOLLY COMMUNION)

THE POWER AND PURPOSE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (HOLLY COMMUNION)

What it is:  The Lord’s Supper is:-

1.                      A symbolic meal established and commanded by Christ to remember His sacrifice, acknowledging in the benefits of His death.

2.                  It is a thanksgiving to God and a fellowship with Christ and believers, an expression of our commitment to God and our relationship together as believers in Christ’s body. A unity in demonstration. Some call it the Eucharist which is a Greek word for thanksgiving. Acts 2:42 says, “They joined with the other believers and d e voted themselves to the Apostles’ teachings and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.”

3.                  The Lord’s Supper is an Ordinance (an authoritative decree), a required ceremony with a set pattern, a sacrament. An Ordinance involves certain Christian rights or forms of ceremonies, among these are; Water baptism, Holy Communion, Child Dedication, and Matrimony. These are rituals or acts of faith and obedience to God (Mathew 28:19). They are symbolic rites setting forth the central truths of the Christian Faith, a visible enactment of the Gospel message.

4.                  The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic meal established and commanded by Christ to remember His death (and by extension, His resurrection). It is a thanksgiving to Christ and God for what He has done. It is a time of joy and fellowship (1 Corinthians10:16) with each other.

(i)                                    It replaces the Passover feast, which symbolized the deliverance of God’s people from the slavery of sin and death through Christ’s death.

(ii)                                It symbolizes Christ’s death for forgiveness and remission of our sins (Mathew 26:28).

(iii)                            It is a seal of new covenant in Christ’s blood, an assurance of eternal life now.

(iv)                             It is a promise of the second coming of Christ.

(v)                                 A pledge of eventual Messianic triumph.

5.                   The Lord’s Supper is a cross over, meaning deliverance. Your present difficult situation is not permanent. It has just come to pass. God is about to bring you deliverance, and raise you to a new level well above it.  When Israelites crossed the Red Sea, Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian army ceased to be an issue. God wants to take you through your Red Sea, this is your moment of Crossing over. In Acts 2:42 it is referred to also as the breaking of bread while in 1 Corinthians 10:20 it is the Lord’s Table, still others call it a Love Feast. Genesis 14 mirrors it when Melchizedek, brought Abraham into a covenant relationship with God, a binding relationship between the two, that changed Abraham’s life. In Africa, we understand a covenant relationship better especially in the setting of a marriage covenant. Our parents through covenant have endured many challenges and paid a high price to give us, their children the great privilege of a home to spring into life from. When you are in a covenant relationship, with God your life takes on an upward trend, or else you remain stuck until you meet one who will speak God’s word of blessing upon you and propel you to your breakthrough in a covenant relationship.  

Elements of the Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper has two Cardinal elements namely:-

1.                      Christ’s Body – He died for our sins and His body was broken. The body which He has now is yours and mine, multiplicity of the original. This is the power of Jesus’ death. We are each a part and parcel of the body of Christ. The church is the body of Christ. Hitler tried to thwart Christianity by killing millions of Jews but as we know today there are even more Christians about 3 billion while Hitler is dead and forgotten. God’s Kingdom currently is being manifested through the Church. By divine design the church is the most powerful force in the world today – you need to stay in it to be safe and blessed.

2.                  Christ’s Blood – This symbolizes salvation, thanksgiving, (1 Corinthians 10:16, Hebrews 9:26). Our salvation is expensive because Christ shed His blood. Christ established our salvation and His blood sealed it. Because of the shed blood, we have forgiveness, plus cleansing from sin and its consequences.

WHY DO WE CELEBRATE?

We celebrate:-

(a)         To remember and keep fresh in our minds Christ’s death so that we remain thankful. It brought us back into relationship with God (Galatians 2:20). Never ever forget that Jesus died fro you. As we celebrate, we are saying Christ died for us. As we partake of His body and His blood, we get reminded and participate His second return.  Live your life like Jesus is coming today. 

(b)        We confess Christ as Saviour and Lord through proclaiming His death (and by extension His resurrection). 1 Corinthians 11:26 “for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s return until He comes.”

(c)         We participate in the body and blood, and so get nourished (Ephesians 3:17). Because Jesus has a life giving spirit. When we partake of Him, we in turn receive life.

(d)        Luke 22:20, we come into a covenant relationship with Jesus and each other as members of Christ’s spiritual body.

(e)         To get manifold blessings  from  God, for example, healing through  faith in Christ Isaiah 53:4

(f)            We are  observing a rite which was commanded  by Christ (Mathew 28:20)

HOW DO WE CELEBRATE?

1.                 We do this by first discerning the body of Christ. Discerning in  Greek comes  fro  two words;

‘Dia’ – to separate, or discriminate  and

‘Krino’ – to Judge, investigate, discriminate, consider. This essentially means knowledge and understanding gained through separating, investigating and interpreting.

We need to get the true picture of what the Body of Christ is. As a child of God, and a member of the body of Christ, you should be able to relate carefully and responsibly with the brethren in the body of Christ with due care and caution. We cannot afford to ignore or assume each other, but rather through knowledge, understanding, valuing, and appropriate relationship with each other get good results, possess and bring God’s Kingdom down. Value the body of Christ. Jesus highly values His body therefore take care how you treat and relate within the body of Christ.  The body of Christ is also a Universal (past, present and future) Church, but it is through Local Church that the Kingdom of God is manifested.  We need to be part of it. The Church is high and above the systems of the world.  Let us partake the Communion worthily and genuine fellowship with other fellow believers.