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Cowgirl
Cowgirls for Christ
The Baby Sitter by Pamela Parker
REMEMBERING HIM TILL HE COMES
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." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
1 Corinthians 11:23-31, NKJV
COMMUNION is a special time for God’s people. There is always something special about commemorating our Lord’s death. It is in remembrance of Him that God’s people draw closer together than at any other time. Somehow as we put the bread in our mouth we relive the memory of Jesus’ willingness to give His life so that He could taste death for all of us. When we put the cup to our lips, we remember that His blood was willingly shed for our sins. Communion reminds us that everything we have in this life or the one to come is because of Him. Differences between Christians seem insignificant at such moments. Here we are reminded that all of us owe everything to Him.
This custom of remembering His sacrifice for our salvation reminds us of the "new covenant" God has given us a new relationship to Him in which we are no longer required to sacrifice the blood of animals. Jesus has now paid the ultimate price for our salvation. Each time we take part in the Lord’s Supper, we testify that we have participated in His new covenant. We have entered into an intimate relationship with Him by faith and have called on His name to be saved. In John 3:3, Jesus calls our salvation experience being "born again."
Physically we can only be born once. Spiritually we can only be "born again" once. But by taking Communion we are remembering our salvation experience and witnessing to others that we have had it.
Paul, in quoting Jesus, said we are to "proclaim [testify to] the Lord’s death till He comes." In a vital sense, when we partake of Communion, we are testifying that we believe in the two most important events in the Bible, the first and second comings of Jesus. As Christians we have accepted the historical fact of His first coming. But in Communion we are also testifying that we believe He is coming again. In some sense, it is but an interim ordinance. There will be no need for Communion in heaven to testify to His death until He comes, for He will have already come.
Paul gets to the very heart of the matter in warning, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Further, he warns us that "he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body." That is why when I lead Communion services, I always give members of the congregation a few moments to examine themselves spiritually. I want to give them time to confess all known sin so that they do not partake unworthily of the Lord’s Supper and bring judgment upon themselves. God in His marvelous grace has given His church this special service in which we should examine our hearts to see if there is any sin in our lives so we can confess it and go on in communion with Him.
After one Communion service a man asked to talk with me privately. The first thing he said was, "1 did not take Communion today because I don’t believe I have ever become a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home and have taken Communion many times, but I have never been saved." Then and there we knelt together, and he confessed his sin in the name of Jesus, acknowledging that Christ had died and adding, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart so I can honestly take Communion."
When we stood again, I noticed the Communion service was still in place, so I said, "Let’s fulfill that prayer request you just made." So all alone in the empty church the two of us observed the Lord’s Supper, and for the first time this man testified to the Lord’s death "till He comes."
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your only Son to die on the cross for my sins and the sins of the whole world. Forgive anything I have done that would cause me to be unworthy of Your love and mercy. If I have offended or sinned against any other person, I also want to confess and apologize for this offense. I want nothing to stand between us as I come to the Lord’s Table. Here I want to offer a pure witness—a cleansed partaking of grace until He comes. In Your name I pray, Amen.
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