COMMUNION

Come fill your soul and find rest

And thus you shall greet him: “Peace be to you, and peace be
to your house, and peace be to all that you have.” 1 Samuel 25:6

Holy Communion

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; 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.” 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.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-25

Today Christians have a special ceremony when they eat and drink to remember Jesus. This ceremony is called Communion, or The Lord’s Supper.

Communion is such an important church ordinance that it has a prominent place in our worship service. It is a sacred time when we reflect on and remember all that the Lord has done for us, while also looking to the future.

Three of the Gospels give an account of that last Passover, when the Lord instituted the New Covenant, as He instructed His Disciples, giving new meanings to the bread and the cup, (Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–23).

In 1Corinthians 11:23-26… Here we find instruction given to the Church of
God through Paul, an Apostle of God, who received it himself from Jesus Christ, and now records it in God’s Word.

The bread is a symbol of Christ’s body, representing the whole person of Christ, everything about Him: the prophecies foretelling His coming, His immaculate conception, the announcement of His birth in Bethlehem to the shepherds, His special names (Yeshua, God’s Salvation; Immanuel, God with us), His sinless life, His ministry, His sacrificial death and His sovereign resurrection, fulfilling the plan, the purpose and the provision of forgiveness and eternal life from God.

Hebrews 10:10, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.”

Jesus tells all His disciples to do this in remembrance of Him. This is a command for all true believers to follow, just as being baptized in water is also commanded by the Lord. Neither of these (water baptism or the Lord’s Supper) will save us, but they are to identify us as believers and followers of Christ, servants of God who seek to obey and honor Him.

Paul says that when we celebrate Communion, when we participate in the Lord’s Supper, we testify to the world that we belong to God through Jesus Christ, who is coming again.

Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:17-18, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

Here at First Baptist Church, we administer the elements in reverent observance on the first Sunday of each month. Regardless of when or how often it is observed, it is understood that all baptized believers from any Christian denomination are welcome to come to the Lord’s Table. As long as it is observed then we are keeping the commandment of our Lord to do it until He comes again.   Our Lord is not dead He is very much alive and He is coming back to get all those who belong to Him, to take us to be with Him forever.

That being said, each believer should approach the communion service and meal with humility, joy, reverence, and a heart of repentance. We do so for this reason: we are commemorating the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, therefore, we should be humble and at the same time, joyous—that because of the finished work at Calvary our sins have been washed away by the shedding of His blood. Each person taking the bread and the cup should take time to examine himself or herself, in reference to for we each ought to evaluate our own beliefs and behaviors toward God, God’s Word, and God’s people.

Repentance is our position inwardly because when we are aware that Jesus lives in us, we also pause to think of the kind of home we are giving Him to dwell in. We allow Him to change our lives so that we live the way He wants us to live. It is for this reason, the Apostle Paul wrote, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup” (1 Cor. 11:28). The Lord’s Supper helps us look inward, to examine ourselves because of the great meaning in this ceremony, which is IN REMEMBRANCE OF CHRIST

If you profess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you have the right, the privilege, and the command to take communion.