{"id":11722,"date":"2016-08-17T01:30:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-communion\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:30:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:36","slug":"the-importance-of-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>1 CORINTHIANS 11:27\u201334<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(1 Corinthians 11:30)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The Lord\u2019s Supper is the sign of Christ\u2019s presence among His people and of their unity in Him. As Paul chastised the Corinthians for their factionalism, he called attention to the fact that by warring with one another, they were abusing the meaning of the central ritual of the church (1 Corinthians 10\u201311).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The Bible teaches us that Jesus gives Himself to us in the Lord\u2019s Supper. Physically, Jesus is located at the right hand of the Father in heaven, so there is no transformation of the bread and wine into His physical body. On the basis of scriptural teaching, the church determined at the Council of Chalcedon in 431 a.d. that Christ\u2019s humanity is not mingled with His deity, so that it cannot be spread out over space. Thus, in the Lord\u2019s Supper, the Holy Spirit communicates Jesus to us, and makes us present to His person in heaven, but Christ does not come to \u201chide\u201d in the bread and wine.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The Lord\u2019s Supper is dinner with Jesus. It is the meal we take with God on the Lord\u2019s Day. Common sense as well as biblical theology indicate that we should eat with God every week, on His day. Sadly, the church has either surrounded the Lord\u2019s Supper with superstitions, or else neglected it, doing it only monthly or quarterly. But if we understand the great gift that God offers us when He invites us to His house to worship and dine with Him, we will not neglect the sacrament of Holy Communion.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The unity of the church is a unity in Christ. The Lord\u2019s Supper seals that unity to us in that we all feed on Christ, and thus are all together made partakers of the same body. The Corinthians, however, were eating the \u201cLord\u2019s Supper\u201d in various groups aligned with their factions. Such behavior was a grave offense to God, and showed that they neither understood nor appreciated the death of His Son and the gift of the sacrament.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The Lord\u2019s Supper always acts upon us when we participate in it. When we receive it in faith, we derive benefit and nourishment from feeding on Jesus Christ. When, however, we harbor sin and abuse the Supper, we receive judgment from God. The Corinthians were experiencing sickness and premature deaths because they, as a church, were offending God at His Supper.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Kings 23\u201325<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>John 7:1\u201324<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Few churches enjoy Holy Communion on a weekly   basis. Some claim that to do so would demean its meaning by becoming common.   Yet we gather every week to worship God. Others say it would be impractical.   Discuss with your pastor what would prevent you from celebrating a weekly   communion observance.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Matthew 26:17\u201330 \u2022 Acts 2:42\u201347<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>wednesday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>may<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 CORINTHIANS 11:27\u201334 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 11:30). The Lord\u2019s Supper is the sign of Christ\u2019s presence among His people and of their unity in Him. As Paul chastised the Corinthians for their factionalism, he called attention to the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-communion\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNION&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}