Bread & Wine: the Body of Christ United

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Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2020-06-14

Video cover image by Seattle Parks —CC BY 2.0

  • The simple celebration to remember Jesus is so often misunderstood.
  • If we get what was so terribly wrong with the way the Corinthian church was breaking bread,
  • then we have the key to bringing joy to the heart of Jesus.
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Sermon Outline - Bread & Wine: the Body of Christ United

Goal:

To explore the richness of breaking bread together,
especially as an expression of unity.

Plan for today

  1. The Seven Reasons for Breaking Bread
  2. The Importance of Shared Meals
  3. One Body in Christ
  • so why do I not call it “Communion”, or “The Lord’s Supper”, or “The Eucharist”
    • Simply because this is the name the Bible most often calls it

Named in the Bible

breaking bread 12
the Lord’s table 1
the Lord’s supper 1
love feast 1
communion/participation 1
eucharist (thanks) 0
  • Summary from over a year ago:

A. Seven Reasons for Breaking Bread

  1. Look backwards as we remember Jesus’s death
  2. Proclaim what he has done as a witness to others
  3. Demonstrate our unity in Christ
  4. Celebrate that our sins are washed away
  5. Obtain a blessing as by faith we receive the benefits of Christ’s death
  6. Picture of depending on Jesus for sustenance
  7. Look forwards to feasting with Christ in glory

B. The Importance of Shared Meals

imageoffline eating_together.jpg Eating together

Shared Meals in Ancient Times

  • Eating together ==> public symbol of friendship
  • In Ancient times, the Covenant meal ==> after making a covenant, the two parties would eat together

Old Testament Shared Meals

  • Exodus 12: The Passover Meal
  1. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
  • Exodus 24: A Supernatural Meal
  1. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,
  2. and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
  3. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Matthew 9
Jesus shocks people

  1. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
    “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
  2. As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.
  3. When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples,
    “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Acts 2 - The Early Church

  1. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
  2. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
  3. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
  4. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
  5. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

Pliny (Roman governor)

  • Wrote to the Emperor Trajan less than 100 years after Christ
  • Confused about Christians and asks Emperor for advice
  • “it was their custom to disperse and to come together again to partake of food, of an ordinary and harmless kind”

Today, new science supports this

  • The Vagus Nerve connects the brain to the whole of the body and regulates stress or relaxation
  • The process of eating makes our bodies send a message to our brains to be more open to social interaction
  • So meals put our brains into social mode

C. One Body in Christ

Jesus’ prayer in John 17

  1. The glory you gave to me I have given to them,
      that they may be one
        just as we are one
  2.     I in them and you in me,
      that they may be perfectly one,
    so that the world will know that you sent me,

1 Corinthians 10

  1. The cup of blessing that we bless,
      is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
    The bread that we break,
      is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
  2. Because there is one bread,
      we who are many are one body,
    for we all partake of the one bread.

1 Corinthians 11:17–34

  1. But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
  2. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,
  3. for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
  4. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
  5. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
  6. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
  7. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you,
     
    that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
  8. and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
  9. In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
  10. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
     
  11. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
  12. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
  13. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
    …
  14. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
  15. if anyone is craving food, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

based on NET Bible

Why was this so serious

  • It attacks the very mission of the church:
  • “that they may be perfectly one,
    so that the world will know that you sent me,
  • This is why Jesus hates it when Christians fight
  • If there is one thing Satan loves to do it is to set Christians against each other
  • “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Eph 4:26–27

What can we do?

  1. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28) Live this out!
  2. Be slow to anger amd do not judge the heart
    Assume good intentions:
    Do not assume you know why someone does or says something
  3. Eat together

1 Corinthians 13 – Live by these words

  1. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
  2. or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
  3. it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
  4. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
  • You can only do this with Christ in you!

Updated on 2020-06-14 by Andrew Fountain