A Messianic Communion Service
(Pastor Tim recently asked me to lead a short communion service during our regular Saturday morning service at Shalom. This was as short as I could make it.)
For the sake of time, please start coming up now to get your communion elements now, return to your seats, and when we’re all ready we’ll all take Communion together.
Jesus instituted Communion at the Last Supper, and what we now call the Last Supper was actually a Passover seder.
According to Chosen People Ministries, it was the Pharisees who were responsible for creating the same order for the Passover service that we observe today. The four cups of Passover wine, reclining at table, and retelling the story of Exodus were already part of Passover during Jesus’ earthly lifetime.
So what DO you do to prepare for Passover? Every Jewish person knows that the first thing you do to prepare for Passover is to get rid of any leaven you may have in your house. When it comes to Passover, leaven is a symbol of sin.
In a moment I’m going to ask all of us to get rid of our leaven as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper. We are going to get rid of our leaven by asking God to take it from us. This is what Paul told the Corinthians to do in order to prepare for Passover. In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NIV) he said:
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Before we all take Communion together, I am going to pray a prayer that says Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned in thought and/or word and/or deed, and in what we may have left undone. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent. Please cleanse us all from the leaven of sin. And then I’m going to say Amen.
If you can pray that prayer sincerely, please say Amen with me. But if there’s some sin in your life that you aren’t willing to repent of, please don’t say Amen--and if you cannot say Amen, then please don’t take Communion, because taking Communion in an unworthy manner is very dangerous. Paul put it this way:
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
That’s First Corinthians 11:27-32 (NIV)
Does everyone have their Communion elements?
Let’s ask for forgiveness. Repeat after me:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned in thought and/or word and/or deed,
and in what we may have left undone.
We are truly sorry,
and we humbly repent.
Please cleanse us from the leaven of sin.
Amen.
And now let’s take Communion!
Take the bread in your hand, and after I read 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, let’s all eat together. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 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.’” [Eat bread.] (At Shalom, the bread would be a tiny piece of motzo.)
Verses 25 and 26 say: In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:25-26 (NIV) [Drink cup.] Amen!
Margot Armer
