Good afternoon Church family,
I enjoyed worshipping Christ Jesus our King together with you on Sunday. What a King that we have Who rules us and cares for us with His angel army on our side! What a blessing.
This Sunday is Communion Sunday, meaning that we will take the Lord’s Table as a form of remembering the Gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 11:26, we’re told this pertaining to the Lord’s Supper,
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
The word for “proclaim” is a preaching word. It means to announce broadly or to pronounce some kind of news. It’s a forceful word.
It’s good to remember that when we participate in the Lord’s Supper together by eating bread and drinking the cup together, we are participating in a divine object lesson that Jesus set up for us as a perpetual reminder of our life in Him and His life for us.
Communion is a choreographed object lesson of the Gospel that we do together. So pray for our communion as if you were praying for the pastor to preach because it should be a powerful display of the Gospel to both believers & unbelievers. Never underestimate God’s power to convert a person through this display.
Therefore, communion is “preaching to the eye” as it is a proclamation of the full Gospel: not only did Jesus die for our sins, but He rose again, hence, is coming again.
That’s the message of communion that we boldly proclaim as an entire Church when we eat the bread that represents Jesus’ body and drink the cup which represents His blood. We are, together, preaching with our actions the first coming and second coming of Christ. We are together preaching (proclaiming) with our body language that we believe Jesus died for us and rose again. Indeed, we ‘proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.’
I love the balanced message behind communion in Paul’s mind. We remember that Jesus died for us, but He’s coming again! We remember the somber (He died for us!) but we remember the joy (He rose again and is coming again!).
May this be in your mind and heart as you prepare for communion this Sunday. Again, it’s a way for the entire Church family to preach the Gospel together in action. In that way, you might call the Lord’s Table, ‘unified preaching.’ We will be using our body language to preach, that is ‘to proclaim’ the Gospel of Christ together.
Are you ready to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ as your intimate (He enters into you) and risen Lord this Sunday?
As you prepare for it, it would be good to prepare your kids for communion too. Here are a few non-inspired tips for how you may manage that mission:
- Communion is about showing that you have done something with the life of Jesus. That’s why we drink and eat the bread and cup which symbolizes the body of Christ crucified for us. There is something for us to do. Therefore, you may want to ask your kids, “have you done something with Jesus in your life? Have you believed in Him? Has He entered into you?
- Communion is also a divine object lesson of Christ entering into us. You could ask your kids if they understand that Jesus lives in them? Bread and wine (or grape juice in our case) are energizing substances. Is your child living with Christ as their energizing source of obedience? Do they understand that His grace empowers them (like food) to obey, to do good things for Him? They cannot on their own do good or live the life of Jesus. He must live through them just as food energizes us to do whatever we might do.
- Just have a Gospel conversation with your kids this week! I don’t believe it makes sense to take communion until you understand what it means and you are a true part of the covenant community of God via faith in Him. Make sure that they understand the Gospel. You might be surprised in either direction.
- Use discernment as you are their parent. Speak in their language to their mental capacity. Communion has deep meanings and simple meanings, as you can hopefully understand from the above explanations.
Lastly, we will be singing a new song on Sunday in preparation for preaching through Psalm 62. Please listen to it for the sake of familiarizing yourself with it:
With Christ’s love,
