Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 1, 2021 | Good Question - Why Do We Practice Communion?

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August 1, 2021 | Good Question - Why Do We Practice Communion? · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, welcome.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, before we get into our sermon today, uh, we've got a special sort of opportunity uh for all of us to get a backstage look into what was going on uh this summer and sort of as the one uh this summer in the student ministry.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um as you know, every single summer uh we bring six summer interns in to just basically put the pedal to the floor and sprint for 10 straight weeks uh and spending time with our student ministry.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um this summer has been wacky and wild, it's been a lot of fun.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's been a fantastic group of summer interns.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've had four camps, we've had a mission trip, we've had about a hundred one-on-one student interactions that they have done.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so um we have a little video that I love for you to watch.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, as sort of is tradition here at TBC afterwards, you'll have an opportunity uh to sort of show thanks to the interns if you would like, and a love offering to them that will be distributed at the end of the summer.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: But before that, I would love for you to just uh watch this great video that Sam put together about our summer with the interns.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Connor Krause, student pastor here at Topeka Bible Church, and I've got to let you know, these six summer interns are absolutely fantastic.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: We could not do what we do here at the church and all the programs and events that we've got going on without these people.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, three guys and three gals who have come dedicated to spend time with our students this summer, discipling them, sharing the gospel with them, leading them to life in Christ.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here in a second, you'll have the opportunity to hear us ask some questions to them and hear their perspective on this summer.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And though it's only a few minutes, I hope you get a glimpse into seeing how wonderful and truly fantastic they have been this summer serving our church community.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Drew.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is my third year interning.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, my name is Courtney, and this is my first summer interning at TBC.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: Hi, I'm Emily, and this is my second summer interning.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_07: My name is Jaden, and this is my first year interning.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_06: My name's Ben.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_06: It's my first year interning.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, my name's Anna, and this is my second year interning with TBC.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_06: What was your favorite part about working with the students this summer?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so I was with the freshmen and sophomore boys, and I think my favorite part about being with them is the fact that they're in a stage where they're vulnerable and they're willing to try new things.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_06: Um pouring into them and sharing the gospel with them is really easy, but they also are willing to share it back to other people.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: I had the junior high girls, and I would say that my favorite thing about being with them all summer was just that, like, once you found common ground with them, no matter like who they were with, um, the awkward feelings kind of would melt away, and it would like be really good ground for building these genuine and really fun relationships with others.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_07: So I was with junior high boys, and I say my favorite thing was the boundless energy that they had and their ability to find joy in the most random of things.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_07: It's very inspiring.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_07: What was your favorite part about the summer?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_05: My favorite part about the summer was watching our volunteers invest into the lives of kids during summer sizzle.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_05: We had volunteers dressed up in crazy outfits for the whole week.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_05: They came to all of our events and they just did such an amazing job.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_05: They went above and beyond and they truly made the event so special.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_07: My favorite part about the summer was at Sky Ranch.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_07: We had a lot of lights and a lot of glove sticks, and we danced our hearts out to a bunch of really awesome throwback songs, throwback for me and throwback for the kids.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think my favorite part of the summer was when we went to Camp Barnabas with the students.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was just really cool to see these same students that we've been pouring into all summer then have an opportunity to pour into these other kids who really needed it, and they just loved so well that week, and it was really rewarding to watch.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: What was the greatest lesson you learned this summer?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_04: This summer I really learned throughout all of the events that we did that not all of our gifts are the same as interns, but all of our gifts are super valuable when it comes to doing great ministry in general and youth ministry for us.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_06: My greatest takeaway will probably be that all of the hard work and all of the planning and everything that goes into an event is all worth it in the end, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how tired you are, or whatever other obstacle stands in your way.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned that relationship is one of the most valuable things that we can give to students in the youth ministry.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw that they responded so well to having someone that's there for them consistently.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you just see that it means so much to them that they know they're welcome and wanted in our youth group.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: What is your favorite thing about Topeka Bible Church?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_05: My favorite part about TBC really comes from interning last year.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_05: I really did not know anyone at this church, and I was honestly a little afraid of meeting so many new people, but your church and your community has quickly surrounded me with so many new friends and mentors and people that I don't know what I would do without now.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so thank you for loving me well and for loving the people of your community well.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So my favorite thing about TBC would have to be the time and the energy and the resources poured into the youth ministry.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can just see that kids exit the youth ministry just on fire for God and really ready to pursue Him their whole lives.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the most valuable things that we can have.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think my favorite part about Topeka Bible Church is just the community that we have here and how it kind of spans all age gaps.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm very close with some of the kids here and obviously the people in the youth group, but I also have a lot of really great mentors that are adults and older, and just this community here has been really immersive for me and very welcoming, and I just love that about this church.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: As a guy who got to work with them every single day, that was just about 10% of what they've done.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you are interested, and uh you can do it now, you can do it another time if you so desire.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, we do have an opportunity for you to give uh back to the interns.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was an intern for two summers here at TBC.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you what a blessing it is for those who do give, and also they live on ramen.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um for like$50, you can feed one for an entire year.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um but here uh if you would like to give, there are some boxes at the exit of each auditorium, black boxes that is uh designated for the summer interns.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Also, if you're watching online, there's gonna be a little scroll banner at the bottom with a QR code that you can um use your smartphone to get access to our giving page.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just make sure you select TBC Student Uh Ministry 2021.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So um you're welcome to do that at the end of the service.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, hey, that's totally fine.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: We just appreciate your support of the student ministry every single summer here at TBC.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: So with that being said, we do have a sermon this morning.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's why we're here.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So uh as we have been continuing in our series called Good Question, let's talk about it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there is uh an image that I want to bring to your mind for a second before I get to my question here.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it happened when I was uh working a summer at Kanicook.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was a counselor there, if you're familiar with the ministry out in Branson.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh at every single one of the camps in uh at Cannecook, there is a bell on campus.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And throughout the week, at all times of the night, and all times of the night, right, um, you can hear this bell being run, rung periodically.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And if you like I was, if you were new to Canicook, you have no idea what this bell is and and why people are ringing it at 2 a.m.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: in the morning.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Until you recognize, you ask as I did, perhaps, and I could have done it in a better way, um, but you ask as I did, why are people ringing this bell so often?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they say, well, that is because some child has accepted Christ.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the counselor and the kid get to go and ring that bell together and tell the world uh that they have accepted Jesus, that they have made him the savior of their life, and that their life is going to be forever changed.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so after that, the the sound of bells when you're going to sleep is much more of a comforting sound than you would ever imagine.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there's things that we have here in the church, and I mean like capital C church, not necessarily TBC, um, that God has given to us that we don't always appreciate the full weight of until we understand the meaning behind it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so our question for this morning is why do we practice communion?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we um use these little tiny plastic grape juice and wafer cups uh together once a month?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what's the what's the point behind all of it?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: See, it's one of those things that if we don't understand fully, we're gonna miss the point.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And at the very best, communion can become uh five minutes out of a Sunday once a month where we feel really close to God.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: At its worst, communion is an opportunity to criticize the what I'm pretty sure is styrofoam, masquerading as a cracker that sits on top here.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I get it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but if you've been in the church for a while, uh you've probably done this dozens, if not hundreds, of times, and there is an opportunity there for the familiarity and the routine of it all to just sort of sink in, and it just becomes something that we do, and sometimes in the fall makes us late to see a Chiefs game, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: So here's my goal for this morning is that um we can look at communion.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna kind of, it's gonna be a bit of a blitz, but we're gonna look from beginning to end here in the purpose of communion, why we do it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And my goal is that by the end um of this morning, that you would have a much deeper satisfaction and understanding and why as a church we partake in this sacrament, right, or this ritual, this this um uh this ceremony, why we do it, and that you would also understand this verse that we're gonna finish the day with in 1 Corinthians, where Paul says that there were some in the early church who took communion, and because they did it in an unworthy manner, they were sick, and some even died.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you might say, Does communion even have that much power?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Can it do that?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was just mass-produced grape juice in a cup.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it does have a lot of meaning behind it.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dive in this morning, and uh, I hope you've got your Bibles.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you always have your Bibles handy, but I hope you've got them handy now because we're going to be moving around in the Bible a little bit as we track what is communion and why do we practice it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, first, we're gonna be in Exodus 12, 3 through 11, because the Lord's Supper and Communion, it actually begins at Passover.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so Exodus 12 is where the Israelites in Egypt are given the ceremony of Passover.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for context here, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: We are, this is Moses.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: He is trying to, you know, let my people go.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening right now.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we are at the end of the plagues.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we've got bloody water, we've had hail, we've had frogs, we've had locusts, we've had them all, okay?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And now we come to the end where the final plague and the one that will deliver Egypt, God's chosen people, um, deliver the Israelites from Egypt, is going to be the death of the firstborn.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So in Exodus 12, verses 3 through 11, I'll go ahead and read for us.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Tell the whole community of Israel, God is speaking to Moses, that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers' families, one animal per family.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people, you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: You must have an unblemished animal, a year old male.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animal at twilight.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses where they eat them.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: They are to eat the meat that night, they should eat it, roast it over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roast it over fire, its head as well as its legs and inner organs.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: You must not leave any of it until morning.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Any part of it left until morning you must burn.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Here is how you must eat it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: You are to eat it in a hurry.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: It is the Lord's Passover.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, why does the Lord's Supper, why does communion begin with Passover?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you probably picked up some of the elements, right, that were present there.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And what's happening here, it's so interesting.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: God is, it it's there's a bit of a debate on when God truly made sort of Israel his people, but some people would say that it was here when he gives them their own calendar separate from the Egyptians, when he gives them their own ritual separate from anything else that was going on, and calls them into his own so that they would recognize that he is God.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so here in Passover they are given this command, this ritual.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And notice one really interesting thing is that it says that if there's any meat left over, because a whole lamb or a goat for a family is quite a bit.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: He says, but if there's any left over, you were to burn it.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because this isn't just like any other meal.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't about necessarily sustenance, but rather it is about the meaning behind what is going on.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so, though I wish we could talk about that so much more, that is that is the impetus.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: That is the beginning of Passover, and that is also the beginning of what Jesus picks up on later in the New Testament when he declares that he is the Lamb.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Paul cements this idea in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, when he says that Christ is our Passover lamb and that he has been sacrificed.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you see this, it's not even a thread, it's a rope, it's a steel cable connecting these two ideas.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: That Jesus, not only has he fulfilled the law, right, but he is the sacrifice that was done at Passover.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Passover was actually an animal, but Christ has taken on these things.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to share with you for just a second that for a nerd about the Bible, this is super interesting to me.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: There are eight different ways that what we just read connects back to Jesus, and I want to share those with you real quick.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover anticipated the death of Christ in at least eight particulars.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb had to be without blemish, and Jesus was without sin.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb had to be a male, and Jesus was a male.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb had to be young, a year old, and also what that meant was you had to sacrifice something that you had already raised.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: You couldn't just take a brand new lamb and sacrifice it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You had to have one that, you know, could conceivably be a part of your flock and beneficial to you.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: There was sacrifice involved.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Had to be a year old, and Jesus was a young man.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb had to be examined over a period of four days from its selection to its killing, and Jesus lived a meticulously examined life.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb had to be slain in public before the whole assembly, and Jesus was slain in public.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: The blood of the Passover lamb on the Israelites' doorposts was a sign that God would not destroy the family's firstborn, and Jesus' blood is the sign of his death, and that through that death believers are saved from coming judgment.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Seven, none of the bones of the Passover lamb were to be broken, and none of Jesus' bones were broken when he died, despite the brutality of his death.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, the time of sacrifice of the lamb was to be done between noon and evening, and Jesus died at twilight at approximately 3 p.m.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there are all of these connections that are bridging between Jesus and the Passover.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: But our our topic this morning is not Passover, it is the Lord's Supper and why we celebrate that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so for that we have to go to the Last Supper.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to go to Luke 22, verses 14 through 20.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's where we will pick up.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, there are a couple different places we could have gone in the Gospels for this.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Luke 22, verses 14 through 20.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Alright.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go ahead and read for us again.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And keep in mind as we're reading this, everything that Jesus is doing, because the last supper, what they were having, was the Passover meal.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so when the discipl when Jesus sends the disciples to go and prepare the Passover, they're eating a Passover meal right now while Jesus is establishing himself as the Lamb of God.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh verse 14.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: When the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Then he said to them, I have fervently desired to eat.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And by the what is being said there fervently desired, what it translates to is like, I have been desirous of this desire.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's like doubling down.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: He's so excited, or so has been so looking forward to this opportunity to share this truth with the disciples.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, Take this and share it among yourselves, for I tell you, From now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, This is my body which is given for you.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way he also took the cup after supper, and said, This cup is the new covenant and my blood which is poured out for you.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got this connection, right?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Back to Exodus.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: The unleavened bread is his body.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: The cup of wine, of watered down wine, is his blood.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he's drawing out these two very particular things that are represented here.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And one is the body, and one is the blood.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: But they represent two separate things.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: The body represents the sacrifice of Christ, and the blood represents the new covenant.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the body, this unleavened bread, the cracker, when we eat that, and what he was telling the disciples is that every time that you eat this in this way, you are to remember my sacrifice.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we understand that the disciples probably didn't totally understand what was happening here because Jesus was speaking about events that were going to happen the next day.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is like Thursday night of Passion Week.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: A good Friday is the following day when he is going to be crucified.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: But know that he says that the bread is so that they would remember him.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And for a God who is so giving that he would give of himself.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: It is interesting that this sacrament, this ritual that Jesus was giving to the church that was supposed to carry on in perpetuity, right, that they were supposed to remember him.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not yet what we get from God when we believe in Jesus.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that is so often the track that we sort of follow.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: It is how a lot of our evangelism is oriented.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, if you follow Jesus, you can find joy.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you follow God, you get to go to heaven.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go to hell.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And while all of those things are true and peace and joy do come from knowing Christ, the foundation of it was remembering his sacrifice, giving glory to God.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Recognizing the penalty that he paid on our behalf.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was the broken body.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: The blood was the new covenant.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And new covenant, there's a whole nother sermon on new covenant stuff here.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: But suffice it to say that the new covenant, it was getting rid of the old covenant, the old covenant that had been given to Moses, the laws of ritualization that said that they needed to sacrifice animals like a lamb in order to pay the penalty for their sins every single day.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I am the final sacrifice.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: All of those things are wrapped up right here, and my death is going to be the final death.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: My sacrifice is going to be the final sacrifice, and you are going to live in freedom through me with God.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: That is the new covenant.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is the thing that we do celebrate.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if you would like to read more about that, it's in Jeremiah, it's in a couple places in the Old Testament.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: But Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 33, very clearly the prophet says, God is going to bring about a new covenant, one that he will write on their hearts rather than on tablets of stone, referencing the Ten Commandments.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: So these two things, this is what Jesus is drawing out at the Last Supper.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: And imagine being a disciple for a second, being in the upper room, and Jesus has said, I'm going to die.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I know you followed me.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're going to be scared.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: But listen, this is going to be for you.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what you need to know.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: This Last Supper, this communion, is so that you may know and always remember me and what I have done for you and the promises that have been kept through this.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So now we need to go to this is our second to last passage here.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because a question might arise.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to take a little detour, okay?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: This is the very oddly marked non-K tag lane when you're going through I-70 that everybody has gotten mixed up on at one point or the other.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to take a little detour because if this is what we are celebrating when we take the elements of the Lord's Supper, there's actually a pretty intense debate throughout time and history about what is actually happening when we celebrate the Lord's Supper.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a Catholic background or a Lutheran background, we're about to hang out.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: So John 6, verses 47 through 58.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is again setting the scene here.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus has already just very recently fed the 5,000, uh, with the unlimited fish and loaves of bread.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what we see here is basically a walking commentary.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It takes place over a couple of probably days as Jesus is moving on from uh the feast of the 5,000 and teaching and heading back to his uh sort of base of operations in Capernaum and the synagogue there.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: And they're asking him these questions, but they're know this there are a whole lot of people who are following Jesus just because he did a miracle, not because he's the Son of God.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: So he's about to sort of rock their world.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh John 6, 47.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I am the bread of life.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: In John, that's the first of Jesus' seven I am statements.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right, he's also the shepherd, he's the gate, he's the true vine.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: I am the bread of life.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And at that moment everybody said, What?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Jews argued among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus doubles down.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just as the living father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is the bread that came down from heaven.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: It is not like the manna your ancestors ate, and they died.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: The one who eats this bread will live forever.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: He said these things while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, later on we didn't read this part, but it says that there were a lot of disciples, not necessarily the twelve, the apostles, but there were a lot of disciples who left Jesus because of this teaching.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it was sort of a watershed moment in his ministry because there were so many, there were crowds, there were throngs of people who were following him, right?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: He just fed the five thousand men, probably, you know, however many uh women and children, too.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: There were all these people who were following him because he was doing miracles.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the problem was Jesus is not a genie.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he was not there to just heal the sick, heal somebody who was paralyzed, uh, so that they would ultimately die in their sin later on.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, he was there to be the sacrifice, the Lamb of God for the world.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so he sort of cuts this away and he makes this very applicable statement to those who think that everything is in the physical realm, and he says, You think that you need bread, I am the bread of life.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And if you eat of this bread, you will not ever die.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, well, I'll get to this in a second, but I want to I'll get to why we believe what we believe in a moment.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: I did want to share, though, really quick.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um Jesus was teaching in Capernaum.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is little 18-year-old Connor who was there and got to go.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: I cut out a picture with Gala U in the background of it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, you you didn't make the message, but um but anyhow, this is a reconstruction.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is the foundation, this is built upon the foundation of the synagogue in Capernaum, uh, where Jesus, it just says, was giving this message.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's house is literally a stone's throw from this spot, and that's the place where Jesus would have slept and stayed while he was doing ministry in Capernaum.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyhow, just for your interest, I always love seeing those kinds of things.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so now you we take this passage, though, and we say, okay, eat my flesh, drink my blood.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty clear statement.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is the uh takeaway there?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the cat this is your vocab for today.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Transubstantiation would be the Catholic view of uh communion, or what they would call Eucharist, which means thanksgiving.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the trans word means change, and what they are saying literally happens is uh that the bread and the wine uh literally do change, not in um taste or appearance, but do literally change into the body and blood of Christ.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um in the early church, uh the language was used very specifically, talking about the body and blood of Christ, so much so that the Romans who were persecuting the Christians, one of their charges against them was that they were cannibals.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so this transubstantiation is that the body and blood literally changed into the wine and the bread.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: So moving on from that, I had catechism I could read to you, but we're just gonna keep trudging forward.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the next view would be the Lutheran view and its consubstantiation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: To be clear, um, they would reject this specific word, but it's it's the one that frankly a lot of people use to describe it.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: They would use Lutherans specifically would use the word sacramental union.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh con means with.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so their interpretation of this passage is going to be that um, right, Martin Luther, uh, a whole 95 thesis guy back in 1517, he was a Catholic priest.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: He was a Catholic monk.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so he said, Well, I reject transubstantiation.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: The doesn't seem like the bread and the wine are changing to me, but he took very clearly that um ode to Christ literally being present in communion, and said that Christ's body and blood are literally with, in, and under.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the phrase that is used.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: The elements, though they are not specifically changed.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, you get to what we believe.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you might say, why does all of that matter?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a lot of stuff that we take for granted here in the church that like people were burned at the stake for while they were arguing about it, and we just sort of throw away on a slide, like I just did.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: But we practice communion, and Protestants and a lot of people do this, um, and that means sharing in the Greek.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so we believe that this passage in John that Jesus was speaking symbolically, a couple quick reasons for that, would be that um, A, he is making a connection back to the feeding of the 5,000.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the bread of life, right?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's similar to when uh he's at the woman, uh, with the woman at the well and says, I am um the true water, right?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: The water that never um you will never need to drink again, you will never be thirsty again if you drink of me.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, Jesus was using the symbolism of the well there.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Similarly, we believe that he was using the bread here to talk about um uh the bread of life.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Elsewhere, it says continuously that if you eat of his flesh, that you will have eternal life, and if we are in truly a physical realm in that interpretation, as literal as we possibly can be, then it would be that they took a bite out of his arm, that they would live forever.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we know that that's not true, and also don't believe that that's what Jesus was teaching.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, at the very end, Jesus says that these things are of spirit and of life, they are not of the physical realm.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: He is making a distinction.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: He is attacking this view that those who were following him were only concerned about this life and not the next.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyhow, if that if your eyes just glazed over during that segment, we're going back into the sort of the main highway now for our final passage.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I just wanted you to know a bit of the context behind why we call it communion, not Eucharist, which means Thanksgiving, why we believe it's symbolic and not the literal body and blood of Christ.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: We believe it's just a symbol of the upper room that we are continuing on in faith.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: The last section and the one that I think is going to get maybe the most attention this morning.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 17 through 34.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Please turn with me there as we just read something kind of wild.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: This is the the only, as you're turning there, this is the only um time in the New Testament, which is where it would be, that we see um the practice of the Lord's Supper continuing in the local churches.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: By this point, we're past Acts.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the churches have gone around Europe and uh the Middle East.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, Paul, who has been planting these churches and is writing letters back to these churches, has instituted the Lord's Supper as something that they are supposed to carry on as a way to honor, write his Jesus' sacrifice and the new covenant.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: But what a shock.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are some problems going on.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so Paul speaks into that in 1 Corinthians 11.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: He says Now on giving this instruction, I do not praise you.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: What a great way to start out.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Since you come together not for the better but for the worse.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: When you come together, then it is not to eat the Lord's supper, for at the meal each one eats his own supper, so one person is hungry while another gets drunk.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or you despise or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why should I say to you?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: What should I say to you?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: Should I praise you?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do not praise you in this matter.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let a person examine himself.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: In this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: For whoever drinks, eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Back to the message on intermediate heaven falling asleep is a way in the New Testament they talk about those who have died.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: If any one is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together, you will not come under judgment.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like just wait till Dad comes home.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: So um so we're in the early church, the Lord's Supper is being given, but it's not being done correctly.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's a reverence here, right?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's a respect to the ceremony that is not being respected.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that um just in our church now, there are different, um, right, the Jews and the Gentiles have come together, there are different races, different cultures, there are different economic levels, and that seems to be one of the things that Paul is really drawing out here is he says, You're coming, and some of you have made it into a feast where you get drunk, and others who have nothing have come in and are starving.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you have just made it into basically this party.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: And with using the fact that part of it includes wine, you have started getting drunk too.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: What a disgrace.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um, nobody is going to um probably get too uh loosey-goosey on grape juice that is in a thimbleful, but back then they didn't have these kinds of things.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: They were working off of Paul's instruction, but they had messed it up.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I want to give you this morning is our takeaway is three things.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Three specific things that I think Paul is warning the church in Corinth about here.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: And to be honest with you, I have a pretty big weight about it because I think there is no reason to doubt that those who still take communion in an unworthy manner can get sick and possibly even God would take them home.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't think there's any reason to doubt what Paul is saying here.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: We are in a New Testament age.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: It is a New Testament church, Jesus is resurrected, and this is a sacrament that we have continued.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: What they're doing, their instructions are the same instructions that we are following now, and Paul is saying that doing it in an unworthy manner is possibly dangerous for you.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, three things that I think we can draw from Paul that can help us make sure we appreciate communion, um, value it, and not take it in an unworthy manner.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, first, communion is a unifying event.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: It cuts across all racial, economic, and social realities.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: That is the common denominator of Christianity, is that we believe in Jesus Christ.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: That you might have heard of uh theological triage, that there are primary, secondary, and tertiary concerns about what you believe on these specific issues.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: But as brothers and sisters in Christ, we all believe in the body and blood of Jesus that has saved us from our sins.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're familiar with the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed for his involvement in an assassination plot upon Hitler in 1945, um one of the defining moments of his life was as an 18-year-old child who, by the way, he got a PhD when he was 21.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, calm down.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um as an 18-year-old, he went to Rome because he wanted to travel there.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: And though he was Lutheran, he went to uh St.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's Basilica for Catholic Mass on Palm Sunday and saw tens of thousands of people taking the Eucharist, and he said that this was one of the defining moments of his life, where sort of the prevailing question for the rest of his journey on earth was, what does the church look like?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that image of tens of thousands of people who could not all speak the same language, who needed translators to understand what the Pope was saying, who were from different backgrounds, different social classes, um, different races, different, I mean, just everything that could not be the same, they were brought together by taking the body and blood of Jesus.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so the question for us this morning is are you bringing in anything when you take communion that is causing division, whether outwardly or inwardly?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I say this as a matter of just deep love.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I have seen some of y'all's Facebook posts, and the way in which some of us are treating others around us is so divisive.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is so hurtful, and it is so painful.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: The primary, like top of your list thing with brothers and sisters in Christ is that you are unified with them.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the communion, what we take once a month, is supposed to remind us of that every single time.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: That we are unified with everybody here, everybody in CAB.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: We are one church, Topeka one church, U.S.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: one church, world one church, because we're all following the same instructions.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: Very simple and very direct.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the second thing I believe we take from Paul is that communion is a signifying event.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds us that Christ has died and will return.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you go back to that passage in Luke 22 where Jesus is speaking to the disciples, if you know, if you're looking for it, you will notice how often Jesus says, The kingdom is coming.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: The kingdom is coming.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this so you so that you know and can remember that my kingdom is coming.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because he knew, he knew about Peter's betrayal, he knew about in a second later he was gonna talk about Judas.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: He knew what was coming, and he knew that they would be shaken and disturbed by his death.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says, I need you to remember this, and I've been desirous to meet with you and talk with you, to let you know that we are in this new age, that tomorrow is gonna change the world, and that you're gonna do this now.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna do this when you meet together as a church to remind everybody in the room that my promises are still true, that I haven't forgotten you, and that even though I'm not here, which is one of the things that they were freaking out about, understandably, that I am still with you through my spirit.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Communion reminds us that Christ has died and will return.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so though there are a number of them that we could point to, the question as you approach communion here in just a minute or two, is do you appreciate and still believe in the promises of God?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Or are they just something that you're saying that you believe in because you don't want to let the cup pass you by?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Are you just saying that you believe in Jesus, or do you truly believe in your heart that he has died for your sins so that you may live forever with God?
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: The third and final thing is that communion is a reflective event.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: We must examine the attitude of our hearts toward God.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: I've dabbled in this a little bit, but I just want to reinforce.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of Paul's strongest rebukes against this church was that they were taking communion as just something that was going on.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: They were making it into a drunken party, in fact.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I know I know we're not doing that here, but at the same time, in our familiarity with communion, do we still appreciate it as much as we should?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like when we do have to struggle to, and I and you will watch me struggle to get this little cellophane thing off of the cracker, is that undercutting what it's truly representing?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Is that undercutting the fact that we are running just a little long today?
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: And communion is something that we can still rejoice in together as a church.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: So heading into communion, I want you to think about these three things.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have divisions in your heart?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you trust in the promises of God?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you treat communion with the sincerity it deserves?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because um, I would love for you to just reflect for a moment on the uh the pretending as if communion, you were there with Jesus in the upper room when he was giving it to the disciples, that he was speaking this same message to you.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna uh step off for just about 30 seconds here, and I want you to reflect on these things, to appreciate his sacrifice in the new covenant.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll come back on and I will read just those passages from 1 Corinthians 11, and we will take the body, the flesh, the bread of Jesus together, and then we will take the cup and the blood of Jesus together as well, and then we'll be done.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: So just for a moment, consider these things.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: On the night when he was betrayed, Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way also, he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and every time moving forward, when we have the opportunity to take communion together as a church, uh what this represents and how wonderful it is that God has given this to us as a way to continually invite him back into our lives if maybe he had been gone for a while.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would also encourage you to just continue to consider that body and that blood, that Jesus died for your sins, and that through his blood you have been made right with God.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: No matter where you're at, no matter where you're from, no matter your background or what you've done, that you can be right with Christ.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me and then we'll be dismissed?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for today.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your goodness.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for communion.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the body and the blood, the flesh, Lord, and the blood that you have given to us so that we might live forever.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: God, it is a beautiful thing and a serious thing that we do because our faith matters so much.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, please help us today to recognize you as the giver of all good things, including your death and resurrection, so that we may be free to have a relationship with you forever.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, have a great Sunday.