What Do We Preach When We Take Communion?

Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's episode of the Ask Me Anything Podcast, we listen in as Pastor J.D. talks about communion during a recent sermon.

Show Notes:

* Three words arise out of Paul’s theology of communion that you should remember in every communion service

* Proclamation
* Participation
* Examination

* Proclamation (verse 26)

* Normally you think of me, standing here, as the proclaimer, and I am. But Paul says the Lord’s Supper is itself a proclamation—the bread and cup are like visual aids; a sermon prop Jesus gave us to help us better reflect on the gospel.
* The first thing communion proclaims is that we need to be saved!
* Second, the bread and cup proclaim that you can be saved!
* Third, we proclaim that suffering and death are not the end.

* This table proclaims, “Death is not the end! Poverty is not the end. Jesus rose, and he will return again.”
* This table proclaims that our hardship, like Jesus’ cross, is part of bringing God’s good plan into the world.

* Fourth, this table proclaims that this church is first and foremost a community of the forgiven.

* The Lord’s Supper is a sermon, a proclamation, that destroys all these divisions.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody.
0:18.0	This is Matt Love, and this is another episode of Ask Me Anything with Pastor J.D. Greer.
0:22.6	And on this episode, we just wanted to kind of give you guys an opportunity to hear from one of the moments that Pastor J.D. has tackled a difficult question from the pulpit.
0:32.6	He's done that so much over the past 20 years of ministry.
0:35.6	So this is an original teaching from a recent sermon
0:38.7	that answers the question, what do we preach when we take communion? Let's hop right in.
0:49.3	For I recede from the Lord Jesus, what I also passed on to you. On the night when Jesus was betrayed,
0:56.3	the Lord Jesus took bread. When he had given thanks for that bread, he broke it. And he said,
1:02.0	this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took
1:07.9	the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this. As often as you drink it, do it in remembrance
1:15.1	of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's
1:20.7	death until he comes. Verse 27, so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord
1:25.6	in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
1:27.7	sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person therefore examine himself before he partakes
1:33.1	of this moment. In this way, let him eat the bread, eat the bread and drink the cup. For whoever
1:39.0	eats and drinks without recognizing the body, without recognizing what God has created, he eats and drinks judgment
1:46.6	unto himself, not blessing. This is why many of you, he says, are sick and ill among you and why many
1:52.8	have fallen asleep or died. Verse 33, therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to
1:59.8	eat, welcome one another.
2:03.7	You got to welcome.
2:04.6	It's not just between you and God in this moment.
2:06.6	It's between you and other people.
	...

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