Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Communion: The Visible Gospel”*

*1 Corinthians 11.23-34*

Acts 2:37–47 (ESV)

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The reason that I begin with this account of the early church in Acts is to lay the groundwork for understanding the nature of the Christian church.

I continue to see how much work that we need to do in order to recapture what Christian community is meant to resemble.

We have come to a point in Christianity, where we view Church as a place and the service merely as a weekly event.

On the contrary, we need to remember that those who have repented of sin and trusted in Jesus Christ have transferred citizenship.

We have been relocated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

In western society, many of us have been brought up in a rugged /individualism/ that has affected our understanding of Christianity as well.

We think that our spirituality is an /individual/ pursuit, that we make our /individual/ decision to follow Jesus and, having done so, will continue to /individually/ choose how we go about /our/ Christian walk.

However… When we look more closely at the biblical text, and we begin to understand that our choosing Christ was actually only because of God’s initial calling on us, it causes us to reconsider.

And then we see that does not call /individuals/, he calls out a people – his church.

And when God calls your name, he doesn’t expect you to walk around aimlessly while you try to figure out how you are going to live your life on your own.

God calls us to find our place within his family.

You have gained access to the Kingdom of God!

You now have transferred allegiances.

If it helps, you can even visual it.

You once belonged to the kingdom of God’s enemy.

But you have left that fortress or city because the Great King has called you to his eternal Kingdom.

And as you enter the walls of this new city, you have become part of this grand family.

You see people of all different shapes and sizes, ethnicities and social classes.

God has promised to call people from all over his creation.

And he has done so that testimony of him might be spread to all peoples and that he would be glorified.

And you are a piece of this grand scheme.

If you have trusted Christ, God has called you from eternity past to be included in his kingdom.

To continue the visual… Upon entering the city, you are given new garments.

You shed your old tattered garments and put on the new ones.

You are now clothed with Jesus Christ.

You are then given a manual and are told that everything you need to know about the King and how to live in his kingdom are included here.

And you are expected to study it and live it.

Why?

Because to conform to it will bring the greatest unity to the kingdom and its greatest effectiveness to the purposes of this community.

And yet it includes a blessing to the one who does so.

Consider how ridiculous it would be to enter the gates of this city, and to think that you could come in and make up your own rules.

And everybody else thought this way as well.

What would this place look like?

Right, not so good…

This is where we find ourselves this morning.

We come together as inhabitants of this kingdom and we strive to know more about our King and the way that he desires us to live for him.

We haven’t come /to /church, but /as/ the Church.

(We understand, of course, that not all here have trusted Jesus Christ.

And yet we consider it our privilege to declare the gospel in this setting as it has effects on both believers and unbelievers.)

I wanted to establish this at the outset because it is crucial for what we are after in this mini-series on life in the Church.

The topics I have selected are critical and fundamental for us as inhabitants in the Kingdom of God.

The Bible has a number of expectations.

And yet if we fail on those which are clearly foundational for us, we will be aimless in our pursuit.

Last Sunday we looked at /Baptism/.

I indicated that I believe baptism to be the first act of obedience on the part of the believer in Jesus Christ.

As you enter this new city, or kingdom, the first expectation is that he or she will publicly declare their new allegiance.

As one who has come from the kingdom of the enemy, he will declare “I have died to self and now live for Jesus Christ as symbolized in my baptism to his death, burial, and resurrection on my behalf.”

The kingdom has gathered and rejoices that another has been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and now lives within the Kingdom of God.

As I mentioned, this act will also hold the one being baptized accountable and will serve as an encouragement to the body of believers.

I hope that I have stated this clearly.

It’s not that the pastor gets brownie points for the number of baptisms he performs.

Rather, it is my desire that we are faithful to carry out the commands of the Lord Jesus.

If we do not individually carry out these expectations, they have ramifications for us corporately.

Though Scripture does not lay out bulleted list of steps, I am beginning to see a chronology emerge.

If baptism is the initial act of obedience, /Communion /will be the second and a continuing ordinance for the believer.

In other words, /baptism /is the initial act of identifying with Christ.

/Communion /is a sign of continuing in fellowship with Christ.

Keep this in mind as we begin to investigate /Communion.

/

I’ve entitled the message today *“Communion: The Visible Gospel”*.

I’ve included a working definition in the bulletin this morning.

And it indicates that “Communion is one of the two ordinances that Jesus commanded his church to observe.

This is an ordinance to be observed repeatedly throughout our Christians lives as a sign of continuing in fellowship with Christ.”

Let’s begin with the first point which is *Communion and Covenants.

*Where do we find the origins of Communion?

Is it merely an invention of Paul or Jesus in the New Testament?

Or do we find that it is rooted deeper within God’s story?

Many of us are familiar of the words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 11.

In fact, it is probably the longest section of Scripture that speaks to Communion.

And we will get to this text shortly.

But, let’s back it up a step from there and look into the Gospels.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 14.

It is the time of the end of Jesus’ life here on earth.

Jesus knows that he will be betrayed into the hands of his enemies and crucified.

He realizes that this will be the last opportunity to teach the disciples.

Read along picking up the text in Mark 14:12–16 12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

13 And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.

Follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.”

16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.”

So Jesus and the disciples are preparing to celebrate the Passover.

What is the Passover?

The account of the Passover is found in Exodus 12.

And if you remember, the Israelites at this time in their history were enslaved to the Egyptians.

They had begun to wonder if God would be faithful to his promise of making them a great nation.

They were merely slaves serving a foreign king and nation.

But the time came when God would deliver his people from their bondage.

He would use Moses as their leader and spokesman to demand that Pharaoh release them so that they could worship their God.