July 4, 2004

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Mural Worthey

Hopewell, Virginia

Introduction

The Sunday night series that Jeremy and I are presenting is titled "Things Ordained of God." Jeremy presented the positive aspects of the observance of the Lord’s Supper last Sunday evening. Tonight, I will present some errors and abuses of the Communion.

But first, we have been using the word ordinances. The Bible refers to both physical and spiritual ordinances of God. Note some passages:

"And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover." (Exodus 12:43.) "And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do." (Exodus 18:20.)

"Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." (Heb. 9:1.) ". . . which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Heb. 9:10.)

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? . . . Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" (Job 38:31,33.)

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8:3-4.)

Ordinances refer to both physical things in the creation as well as to spiritual things put in place by God. From physical things, like the sun, moon and stars, we receive specific blessings from the hand of God. Likewise, from the spiritual ordinances we received intended and planned blessings from God above. Think about the specific blessings that come from prayer that cannot be received from the communion or singing. Each brings spiritual blessings as ordained of God.

Here are some abuses or errors associated with the Communion.

#1: One is not saved until one communes

This error is based upon Jesus’ words in John 6. He said that he was the bread that is come down from heaven. If a man eats of it, he will not die. The Jews asked, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? (verse 52.) Jesus replied, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed." (verses 53-55.)

We should note that Jesus has not yet instituted the Lord’s Supper. He did that the night that he was betrayed. The disciples would not have understood Jesus to be referring to the Communion at all. The words simply mean that if one follows Jesus and partakes of his life, he has eternal life abiding in him. Jesus, as the Messiah, should be embraced.

The first time that I heard John 6 used that way was during a campaign in Arkansas. Some were baptized during the week. One of the members of the church was concerned because the person had not observed the Communion and could not until Sunday. He assumed, based upon a misunderstanding of this passage, that the person was not yet saved until he partook of the bread and wine in the Communion.

Others pressing a literal interpretation of this text believe that in blessing the bread and wine it becomes the body and blood of Jesus.

"We believe, teach, and confess that in the Lord’s Supper the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present, and that they are truly distributed and taken together with the bread and wine." (Formula of Concord, 1576, Creeds of Christendom, Philip Schaff, 137.)

The argument in that day was over two positions concerning the Communion: the sacramentalists and those who believed that the bread and wine became the literal body and blood of Jesus. Jesus’ words: Take eat this is my body were taken literally. But the next verse says that this cup is the new testament in my blood. (1 Cor. 11:25.) He did not mean literally the cup or new testament. The contents of the cup represented the blood of our Lord. As Guy N. Woods wrote, If the bread and wine transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus we would all become cannibals by taking the communion. (Commentary on John, Woods, 133.)

The error of the sacramentalists is that the bread and wine are just small portions to represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ. That is, they say that the Communion is just a communion between the believer and the Lord. But, as Jeremy pointed out, the word koinonia means fellowship or participation. The one loaf represents not only the body of Jesus on the cross, but it also represents the spiritual body of Christ, the church. "For we being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." (1 Cor. 10:17.) There is a fellowship and sharing among the members of that body in the Communion. The bread and wine do represent the body and blood of Jesus, but the elements also show the communion of the believers in the body of Christ. We all partake of the Supper of the Lord. For this reason, the Communion should not be partaken alone at home. There is an assembly of the saints together to share in this Supper.

The mistake of the sacramentalists is continued by these words: "The bread and cup are not used in worship that we may thereby commune with one another, but that we may commune with him . . . When we comprehend that worship is a personal matter and that the Lord’s Supper is communion of one soul with his one Lord, then will we realize that whether another’s lips have touched the same brim has no bearing." ("Meeting the Issue: One Container," L. L. Gieger, Gospel Advocate, April 12, 1951, 232.) This statement over-states the personal element in Communion. If this were true, then we could commune at home alone.

The controversy in the church over the one cup was caused by a literal interpretation of Paul’s words to the Corinthians. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" (1Cor. 10:16.) Paul also wrote, "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body. For we are all partakers of that one bread." (10:16-17.)

To be consistent, if we insist upon a literal meaning of one cup we should also insist upon a literal meaning of this is my body and this is my blood.

Basil Overton had a good reply to the false notion that the cup must be a single cup. He said that Paul wrote this letter probably from Ephesus. He also used the word we in saying, the cup which we bless. The word we included Paul at Ephesus and the Christians at Corinth. Brother Overton said that they must have had a mighty long straw to reach from Ephesus to Corinth so they could all drink out of one cup!

Brethren were (are) serious about their insistence upon using one cup in the Communion. Someone even wrote this poem about the controversy:

We could just as logically argue for one Bible in each church as we could for one cup in the Communion. In the synagogue at Nazareth, they brought to Jesus the book of the prophet Isaiah. (Luke 4:17.)

There are some who insist that we cannot partake of the Communion after six o’clock on Sunday evening. The reason, of course, is that according to Jewish time Sunday ends at 6 PM and afterwards Monday begins. Therefore, those who commune during this evening service are really communing on Monday and not on the first day of the week.

Early in the Bible after the creation, the evening and the morning were counted as a new day. (Gen. 1 & 2.) One the Day of Pentecost, Peter said, "For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." (Acts 2:15.) During the crucifixion of Jesus, the Bible records "now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." (Matt. 27:45.) Both these statements are based upon counting from the daylight hours in the morning around six o’clock. The third hour is about nine o’clock. The sixth hour is noon. All of these are based upon the Jewish method of counting time.

However, in the Bible we also have the Roman method of counting days. John 19:14 says the crucifixion occurred about the sixth hour; Mark 15:25 says the third hour. The solution to these differences may be to consider that one uses the Roman method (John) and the other uses the Jewish (Mark).

The preaching of Paul to midnight and the communion at Troas raises the question of when did the meeting begin. (Acts 20.) It seems that the meeting began after six on our Saturday evening, thus the first day of the week. But since the Bible uses both the Roman and Jewish methods of counting the day, we should be careful about binding either of these for people of other nations. In the West, we follow the Roman method of counting the days. If we desire to bind the Jewish method, should we not also bind the names of the days of the weeks and months? Sunday is not a biblical name for the first day of the week. The Jews did not have names for the days of the week, but used numerals to refer to the seven days. Thus, the first day of the week in Acts 20:7. (The Feasts of the Lord, Howard and Rosenthal, 34.)

As we noted with baptism, some place too much emphasis on taking the Communion. We put too much theological weight on this ordinance. It cannot bear it alone. We have not done all that the Lord commands us when we have completed the Sunday observance of the Lord’s Supper. This would be similar to thinking that the sun is all we need; that the sun can take the place of the role and function of the moon.

I have found it interesting that we tend to put too much into the ordinances of baptism and the Supper, but we do not do that with the giving, attendance or evangelism. Where are the brethren who so practice the Great Commission that think their salvation rests almost entirely on it? There may be some, but the majority of the church does not.

It is evident that we think that we are saved by the Communion because some want to participate in this part of worship, but they will skip the Bible class or sermon. Some attend only on Sunday morning to take the Communion and not attend any other service! They are putting too much onto the ordinance of the Communion. It cannot carry the weight of the whole of Christianity.

This was a major problem with the Corinthian church. Paul wrote, "For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body." (1 Cor. 11:29.) Verse 29 is similar in meaning to verse 27. The Corinthians failed to honor the Lord in several ways: by divisions among them fracturing the body of Christ, by the class divisions between the wealthy and poor, by eating and drinking without proper consideration of the spiritual meaning of the feast, and by sinful conduct of their lives.

We too can dishonor the body of Christ by: a) keeping the Supper as a ritual, b) trusting in ourselves for our salvation rather than trusting in Christ Jesus, c) failing to love one another and have fellowship in the faith, d) and by emphasizing the physical correctness of what we do while ignoring the spiritual meaning.

This is another abuse and error associated with the Communion. That is, we miss something very significant when we emphasize the physical elements surrounding the Communion and devalue the spiritual meaning. We could partake of the Communion on the right day, have the right elements, and still miss the most significant aspects of the ordinance.

When Flavil Nichols was with us in a Gospel Meeting, he gave to us a devotional that he uses to remember important aspects of the Communion of our Lord. He used the numbers 1-7 to remind him of these things: 1- there is one Savior; 2- there were two thieves crucified with Jesus that day; 3- there were three languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin) to write his accusation; 4- his garments were divided into four parts by four soldiers; 5- he had five wounds (contusion, laceration, perforation, penetration, incision) inflicted on him; 6- six hours of suffering on the cross; and 7- six sayings are recorded from Jesus while on the cross.

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till he comes." (1 Cor. 11:26.)

Many misuse this expression to mean that Christians can partake of the Communion according to any frequency they desire. Some partake monthly, once a quarter, and even yearly. Some in the church now are partaking on Sunday and other days of the week. In the Bible there is a strong connection made between the Lord’s Day and the Lord’s Supper. Once that connection is disregarded, then any frequency on any day is open. Yet, the practice of the early church in Scripture and immediate history thereafter shows that the Christians observed the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day.