11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 11:25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. (New King James Version)

Today is the World Communion Sunday. The Communion Table is prepared in front of you. So, I will preach focusing on the Table.

Jesus established two sacraments; baptism and holy communion. Baptism shows that we accept Jesus and begin to follow Him. Communion shows that we are living in the fellowship with Jesus.

Baptism is a sacrament for initiation of the fellowship with Jesus, while communion is a sacrament for continuing fellowship with Him. Therefore we take the bread and grape juice only with the baptized people.

This does not mean that we try to get rid of unbaptized people. You can stay with us, and please see what we are doing. We really hope that you will fully understand the meaning of the holy communion service, and accept Jesus who is shown in the communion. Next time, I hope that you can participate the elements of the communion after being baptized.

We keep the holy communion four times a year. Next will be in January. It will take six week for baptism class. You have enough time to prepare next communion service, if you start the class right now. If you think about accepting Jesus and being baptized seriously, please contact me.

Communion and Elements

What the difference between worship service and communion service? In the worship service we praise God by singing, praying and listening to the preaching. We show our faith through our words, and God also shows His grace through the Word. We don't use any special tools or images. We use just word.

Since God is invisible, it's dangerous to use any materials or images for worshipping Him. We may limit God and misunderstand Him by using materials. We have to avoid the idle worship. However, we live in the world of materials, and want to feel God realistically. God knows our weakness, and allow us to use bread and grape juice.

Elements of the communion are holy. However we don't worship bread and grape juice themselves. These are the tools that make us taste the grace of God.

The reason why Jesus gave us bread and grape juice is that these are the traditional foods of the Passover Feast. As you know Israelites celebrate their salvation from the bondage of Egypt.

God punished the people by the plague that all the firstborn were killed. But children of Israel painted the doors of their houses by the blood of lamb. The plague passed the house. Therefore, they called the salvation "pass-over."

The Lamb that was slain for the Passover is Jesus Christ. John the Baptist introduce Jesus as "Behold the lamb of God who takes the sins of the world." Since Jesus took our sins on the cross, we are saved from the coming God's Final Judgement, and we are pardoned from our sins. We have moved from death to life.

The Lord Jesus on the night before He died as the Lamb of God, He kept the Passover meal with His disciples. The main dish of the passover is lamb. But before eating lamb, He first took bread and gave thanks to His Father.

After the maindish, they finish the meal with a cup of grape juice. In First Corinthians, Apostle Paul described the first Lord's Supper like this. 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 11:25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.

As you see the phrase,; "after supper," there is an interval between taking bread and taking grape juice. Between verse 24 and 25, they ate maindish.

Anyway, we remember Jesus, the Lamb of God by using the concrete materials; bread and grape juice which we can see and taste. God loved us not by just the words, but He loved us with more concrete love. By the love He actually sent His Son into the world.

Apostle John described Jesus like this. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life." The disciples listened Jesus' voice, looked into His face, and touched His body.

Jesus stepped into our history, and remained His steps on the earth. God's Grace is more than the words or pictiure. It became a person.

We took the bread by our hands. We taste the grape juice in our mouths. None never doubt that the bred and grape juice exist here. Because we are touching them. But, in the case of God's grace, we cannot see it or touch it. However when we receive the bread and grape juice, God show his grace in the visible way and gives us the assurance of His grace. We, believers, make sure the God's grace and rely on it through the holy communion.

Communion and Actions

There is still another difference between worship service and communion service. We worship God in spirit and truth at worship service, but we glorify God through the actions; eating and drinking. "Eating and drinking" has some meanings in the holy communion.

First, it means to give thanks to God. Like the Lord gave thanks to the Father, we also give thanks to God because of His faithfulness, grace, love, and salvation, we take the bread and grape juice.

Second, we confess that we live by the grace of God when we take the bread and grape juice.

Bread represents wheat. grape juice represents grape. Wheat represents grain, grape represents fruit. And both of grain and fruit represents the production of the land by the grace of God. We nurture our bodies by the production of the land. But we nurture our souls by the bread from the heaven.

Jesus is the bread of life. He came down from heaven to share His life with us. When we take the bread, we remember that we live by the life of Christ and enjoy the eternal life though we live in the mortal world.

Third, we accept Christ into our daily life and enjoy the fellowship with Him. Jesus told, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

In the time of Jesus, eating together has special meaning. Inviting someone to supper means that both of the host and the guest accept each other and reconciliation is established between the one and the other. God first forgave us and invited us to the communion table. Why don't we accept His invitation. We accept Jesus as my Lord, as my precious one in my heart through the communion service.

Fourth, we keep the Lord's Supper as a symbol of the feast in heaven. God will accept us into His Kingdom as the bride of Christ. The celebration is waiting for us. We are practicing for the celebration when we get together for the holy communion. We will taste the joy of heaven when Jesus comes again.

"11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." "Till He comes!" As we repeat the communion service, the day becomes closer and closer.

"Eating and drinking." It is almost our daily life itself. It may be worldly. But, God dare to use "eating and drinking" for remembering our precious savior. I believe that God teaches us to remember our Lord in the middle of the daily life and to glorify Him through the everything of our daily life; eating or drinking. Let's sit down at the table.