Sitting Down Together

This morning, we gather to do something very special in the life of our church, and I am not talking about the business meeting. In fact, we could have the best, most efficient, most productive business meeting of all time and if we were not sitting down to receive the bread and the wine, then it would be pointless. Taking the Lord’s supper is one of the most crucial things we can do at church. I hope you believe that based on the Scriptures.

But I want to ask you a question about it. Why do we gather together to partake in communion? Does it matter that we do so? Would it be the same if just did it on our own at home?

The last time we did this as a church, Pastor Thomas preached a message from 1 Corinthians 11 on what it means to be right in our relationships with other believers as we participate in Communion, and how we must reconcile our relationships with others.

The passage we read this morning was the same passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Throughout the book, he dealt with rampant carnality in that church. As we read this morning, when they came together to have the cup and the bread, it was not for the Lord’s supper because they were doing it selfishly. They needed to be first reconciled with their brothers and sisters before they could be right with God to partake in Communion.

I was thankful for this Biblical message because it highlighted a necessary concept for us as a church.

We must not neglect the horizontal nature of our faith. God requires that we love Him with all our heart, soul and strength. And taking communion is a wonderful time to develop and cultivate our love for God as we eat and drink in remembrance of Him. We experience physical elements proclaiming the Lord’s death with His future coming in full view. But God also calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And taking communion is a time, not only for deep personal praise and adoration, but also for looking around at our brothers and sisters in deep love and true appreciation as we all sit at the feet of the cross so to speak.

Today, I believe it would be good for us to meditate on some Truths of Scripture that give us a lens through which to view our brothers and sisters as we take Communion together. Some of these truths may be very familiar to you, but I want to make sure that we are applying these truths to both the way we view Communion, and also to our lives as well. I hope like me, that you can ask, do I really believe these truths with the way I live?

My goal is for us all to be able to answer why we take Communion together by the end of this message.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Eph 4:1-6)

In these verses Paul is reminding the Ephesian believers of their shared position in Christ.

The most important thing about us is that we are in Christ! We have more in common with a Christian Iraqi person than a secular politically conservative person from Nebraska.

As noted, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in part to deal with the division that was taking place amongst the church at Corinth. They were fighting against one another. Why? Ultimately, we might say the primary reason was their “carnality” or their fleshly mindedness. They thought too much about material, earthly things. Their lack of unity was caused by neglecting to think of spiritual realities.

We have the same problem when all we think about is what we can touch. However, when the most significant thing about the other people in this room on Sunday morning is not the difference in their background or socio-economic status, then when I see them, I see we are the same.

As a product of my time, when I think deeply about something, I often am reminded of movie scenes which have impacted me profoundly. I know I need to read more books, but as a child,I watched movies! One such movie scene is from the animated Disney movie, Tarzan. Tarzan is about a man named Tarzan who was raised by apes in Africa. As a young adult, he meets other people for the first time as they are on a scientific survey trip. The movie is about all of the drama that ensues from their interaction.

The particular scene that comes to mind is when Tarzan first meets Jane, the woman whom he befriends and with whom he "falls in love." There is a moment when he starts to understand, this person is like me! No other animal looked like him, but this one was different. He puts up his hand to her hand and sees how similar they are. And the movie pauses on his face, and even though they are animated and not real, you can see the realization in his eyes that "this creature is like me!"

This ought to be the kind of feeling we have when we look around at our brothers and sisters on Sunday morning. Especially when we gather around the Lord’s table, what do we see? Do we see brothers and sisters who are in Christ just as much as we are? We ought to cherish the reality of our sameness in Christ.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (1 Cor 12:27-30)

From this passage and others liek it, we see that Paul refers to not just the local gathering of believers when he uses the word "church" in His teaching, but that He also taught about a kind of “universal” church. This “universal” church is not universal because it includes all people, but it includes all Christians everywhere. Also, at Brookdale, we believe that, eschatologically, God has a special purpose for the entire church or Body of Christ as distinct from Israel and other groups of people too.

The point here is this: one day the whole church, will be gathered together as the entire people of God, and their cohesion, or their unity, will glorify God. Together, they will celebrate who God is and what He has done for His people. They will feast together at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and rejoice in the sacrifice Christ made for us.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” (Rev 19:6-9)

So the idea of coming together, of sitting down to eat and drink together, I believe, is a foreshadowing of that great fellowship to come. We will, all of us, sit down together to commune with God in Christ in this special, tangible way. Right now, we are acting out a reality that is different from daily life, but is so important to God. For us who are so caught up in the day to day grind of working and surviving it can seem kind of “other-worldly,” but that is the point!

The more this idea of being the church, the people of God, feasting together feels like coming home to us, the more we are orienting ourselves to God’s desires and plans. May our hearts long for us to be united as the church, the people of God.
Listen to the prayer of Jesus.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)

This is God’s vision for His people.

For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Eph 4:12-16)

Just so you are aware, I know that I have discussed many of these truths before at Brookdale, but my desire is to apply them, or contextualize them, to Communion. In fact, I preached a whole message on Ephesians 4 before.

What is clear from the verses we have just read is this: the church is to build up itself. Being part of a church means taking ownership of other people’s spiritual growth on some level. And when we gather to take the cup and the bread, we should see others in that light. I have an obligation to contribute to their growth.

Is that the way you view gathering with the church at all? Do you view Sunday morning as an opportunity to break into other people’s lives?

But Will, you’re a pastor, it’s your job.  I am asking you to just believe what God says about this. These verses teach us that we need not just the pastor's contribution to the spiritual growth of our church, but "what every joint supplies" and "the effective working by which every part does its share." I do not say these things to brow-beat you and make you feel guilty. I am telling you that if you are a part of this church, I need you. God has led you here and His plan is for you to use your gifts to bless the whole body toward spiritual growth.

Jesus reconciled us together, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, rich and poor, whatever ethnicity to whatever other, etc., for more than just sitting in the same room. He brought us together that we might grow together.

where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. (Col 3:11)

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phil 2:1-4)

Let’s be honest. To be a truly unified church will not be easy. It costs something to live according to Philippians 2. Ephesians 5:21 tells us to “submit to one another.” To put others before myself at church, especially sometimes on issues that are deeply personal to me, is a sacrifice. But isn’t that the point? Isn’t that how God intended for it to work? Isn’t that feeling of loss teaching us, molding us to look more like our Jesus?

I mention it often, but I do it because I think it is so important. As Americans, we LOVE freedom! Liberty is one of our highest values. We like feeling like no one can tell us what to do. We praise those who are unique and do “their own thing.” Yet church is anything but “doing our own thing.”

When we come to the gathering, we pray together. We sing the same songs. When we take the Lord’s supper, we eat and drink the same thing at the same time.

We Americans appreciate the beauty of creative originality so much. We love hearing stories of people who make their own way. This is all well and good in its place. But when we come to church, when we take communion, we must see the beauty of doing these wonderful things together.

And this doing of things together is a sanctifying force in our lives. It teaches us that this is not about me. It grates against the grain of our selfishness and consumerism. Our natural tendency, especially in a setting where we are in an audience watching, is to view ourselves as customers enjoying a product or service, but the Lord’s supper is a time when we all serve each other by submitting to what the church is doing together. In fact, that is what every worship service is. We all submit, not to what we want to do, but to what the church is singing, saying, praying, and preaching together!

And this is so good for us, that we might be more like Christ who came not to be served but to serve others and give His life as a ransom.

In closing, as we prepare our hearts and minds to partake in the Lord’s supper, I want to ask you this question:

What does it mean to be a part of a church? How would you answer this question?

I’d like to illustrate a summary of these truths that we have reflected upon today with an object lesson.

When you join a church, you become part of something. You become mixed together with a whole bunch of other parts too. But we can be mixed together in different ways.

One way of mixing things together is like these decorative flattened marbles. We come into contact with all these other marbles, but if I take this one out, it is the same as before. It can come and go with no consequence.

But we can also mix things together like this Koolaid. Once I mix this Koolaid in with this water, there is no going back. No one can tell me anymore where the water begins and the Koolaid ends.

Whether we realize it or not, this is what it is to join a church. Sometimes we can avoid a lot of the mixing that happens, but we can’t avoid all of it. And I want to be clear, sure, sometimes God does lead us to leave a church. Our pastors are committed to trusting God as He guides
you to be at whatever church He has for you.

My point this morning is this: when we come to Lord’s table as a church, we must view ourselves as the Koolaid. And that conviction, that this is what we are, must be lived out not just during this service, but throughout the week at Life Groups. It should be lived out in our dining rooms and our backyards. It should be at children’s baseball games and recitals. We must live out being IN CHRIST together. We must be the church that Jesus prayed for. We must take ownership of our mutual spiritual growth. We must be made like Christ in submitting ourselves to the needs and work of the body.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. (1 Cor 12:12-14)