Communion Archives – Sonshine's Journal

August 8, 2024August 8, 2024

The Significance of Communion

Matt 26 Honoring Jesus

As we read this chapter we are overjoyed at the blessing of the communion service but saddened by the events that follow it. How often do we rejoice in our communion services but then leave and betray Him as Judas and Peter did? Where is our heart? Why do we fail to honor this time and its message? We are so time oriented and task oriented that we fail to identify the significance of this precious time. We live moment to moment but not Jesus. He could foresee the future for these men and He can foresee the future of our lives as well.

This week as you go to worship and prepare for communion, stop and consider what each element means and how it should impact our lives. Be humbled to remember that Jesus established this for us as our reminder of His death, burial and resurrection and our future in His kingdom where He will once again observe the Passover with us in His kingdom.

September 11, 2023September 11, 2023

The Shedding of Blood

Ezek 45: The picture of the shed blood begins in Exodus as a picture of God’s overarching protection. Ezekiel is told that in the future, the priests will reinstitute that practice, and it mirrors that of Exodus 12, where the angel of death would see the shed blood and pass over the household on the night of the last plague where the death of the firstborn of Egypt would be taken. The Hebrews author reminds his audience that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. [Heb 9:22] Christ was the completed fulfillment of this when He shed His blood on the cross for the payment of our sins.

If Christ fulfilled this through the shedding of His blood, why then is it then reinstituted? Perhaps to remind us of our sinfulness and the price that had to be paid. Surely, this should stop us and remind us of the night in which He was betrayed. He then said: “this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink of it in remembrance of me.” [1Cor 11:25] Take heed, beloved, as you partake and seek cleansing of your sins and the price paid

February 20, 2023February 20, 2023

Commemorating and Remembering

Lev 22, 1 Cor 11:26 God loved his people so much that he established memorial days that they might focus on who He is and His provision for their every need. The seven feasts all pointed to Christ, who was yet to come. When He came, he established communion, or what we call the Lord’s Supper, to point to God’s eternal plan to be completed. As NT believers, we are not responsible for keeping the OT memorials but for studying them as a way of enhancing our faith. Only in the NT are we commanded to keep the Lord’s Supper as a way of remembering Jesus Christ as our perfect sacrifice.

The Hebrew word for “feasts” is (moadim) and means “appointed times.” They reveal God’s story of the plan of redemption of the Son of God’s death and resurrection and the promise of his future coming. The one requirement for all is seeing them as a sacred observance. We are to honor the Lord as his called sanctified saints, and it should be done in holiness and reverence. With that comes the reminder that they were not to profane or treat what is sacred with irreverence.

The principle in this chapter is a reminder of what we are not to do with the Lord’s Supper. When we observe the Lord’s Supper, we are to be reverent as it reminds us of the price paid for our redemption.

April 7, 2014

“What will your R.S.V.P. Say?”

As Jesus ended his earthly time with his disciples he had them prepare the Passover, his last meal with them before the cross. He emphasized that as they partook of the bread and wine that it represented his body and his blood shed for them. Although they did not totally understand the significance of this night until after the Resurrection, they quickly instituted what we know as Communion. In this way they obeyed his command to remember his death until he returns and when we may all celebrate it with him in heaven.

In Proverbs 9, Solomon used an analogy of two banquets prepared by Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly. Lady Wisdom is busy preparing a dinner for the guests, the naïve who lack understanding, sending out the dinner invitations to come and feast at her table. The invitation reads: “Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!” She sends her slaves to gather those invited to come. In contrast Dame Folly, who is naïve and does not know anything, sits at the door of her house calling to the passersby, come and taste of the “stolen waters which are sweet.” This reminds us of the parable Jesus taught in the NT of a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son and invited many guests. However, those who were invited offered excuses and would not come. Thus he said ‘the ones who had been invited were not worthy.” Why were they not worthy? They did not come when called.

Our King is busy preparing a sumptuous banquet for us and invites us to come. Will we offer excuses or be ready? God’s banquet leads to life eternal but Dame Folly’s only offers separation and death.