Category Archives: Lord’s Supper

Pentecost

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In Leviticus 23:15-21, God gave instructions to Israel regarding the Day of Pentecost. This day was fixed by counting 50 days from the Passover. The Passover was on a Saturday. Thus, Pentecost was on a Sunday.

Pentecost had several names. One of the other names was the Feast of Weeks. It was also known as the Feast of the Harvest. It was partly to celebrate the blessings of the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest.

The Israelites were to consider Pentecost a ‘holy convocation’ (verse 21). In other words, they were to be serious in the things they performed on this day. They were to do no servile work on that day (verse 21). They were to sacrifice two lambs, a goat, two rams, and a bullock on that day. They also were to present God with baked bread. In Numbers 28:30, we read that the goat was sacrificed to make an atonement for the people. This goat was to be without blemish.

In Deuteronomy 16:9-12, God gives more instruction regarding Pentecost. In verse ten, God tells them to give him a free will offering on that day. They are to give ‘according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.’ They were to rejoice on this day, (verse 11). So, they were to be serious, considering it a holy day — but they were to rejoice. This would indicate that one can be happy, one can be appreciative, one can worship God, without being silly. One does not have to jump up and down, nor dance, nor scream, nor babble uncontrollably. Things are done with a purpose and orderly.

In Deuteronomy 16:11, the people were told to attend Pentecost ‘in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there.’ Thus, the people were not allowed to celebrate Pentecost just anywhere. They could not stay home and properly celebrate Pentecost. In verse twelve, they are told that part of the reason for this holy day celebration was to remind them that they were at one time slaves in Egypt. Now, they were a free people blessed with wonderful crops by God.

In Acts 2, we read about the establishment of the church. It is easy to see some of the parallels between the significance of Pentecost to the Israelites and its significance to Christians. We assemble on the first day of the week. We assemble in the place where God has put his name. Christ dwells in the church. The church has his name. This not a physical building, but is anywhere that Christians come together on the first day of the week.

The church does not have to sacrifice animals today because Christ gave his life as our sacrifice. But we remember his sacrifice every Sunday when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. Each person in the church gives a free will offering to God on Sunday. We consider the day a holy day given to us by God. Christians celebrate the day because it reminds us that at one time we were slaves in the world of sin (Egypt), but now we are free from sin in Christ. And as free, we can be happy in all the wonderful blessings that come from God.

I am glad that God had a plan of salvation. I am glad that he gave us the Bible so that we can read about his plan throughout history. He gave the Israelites shadow pictures of what was to come. Today we have the real things that he was talking about in the Old Testament. Study your Bible. Learn all you can about it. And then obey what God wants you to do.

By Mark McWhorter. Reprinted with permission of theBible.net. Copyright 2008.

Celebration or mourning?

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This evening’s sermon got me to thinking about funerals. That shouldn’t be surprising, really. After all, the title of the sermon was Feast or Funeral? One of the points Tommy made was that Christians should be joyful and not sourpusses (see, for example, Galatians 5:22 and Psalm 51:12). I believe the life of a Christian should be marked by joy, but I also believe that a Christian’s funeral should be a joyous occasion, celebrating the life of someone who formerly lived for Christ and now lives with
him. We’re sad to lose a friend and loved one, but we rejoice in his or
her new home. I’ve been to funerals like that, and everyone left
feeling encouraged.

This isn’t so much a post about funerals as it is about the Lord’s
Supper, which we celebrate every week. We are indeed called to the
table as a solemn memorial of Jesus’ death and a reminder of our own
sin (1 Corinthians 11:26, Romans 5:6-8). As solemn an occasion as it is though, it’s also cause for rejoicing. We rejoice the resurrection of the One who through His own righteousness has the right to a place at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56, Hebrews 12:2). The service of Communion with our Lord is a celebration of the grace and mercy the Father has shown us because of the sacrifice of His Son, and it is a perfect time to dedicate the coming week to His glory.

This may have come across sounding like the random thoughts of a
random mind, and perhaps it was that. I’d like to hear what others
think though. How about clicking the Comment link and sharing your
thoughts?

“Not discerning the body”

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For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 1 Corinthians 11:29 (KJV)

I grew up in a worship-three-times-a-week-take-communion-every-Sunday Christian home, and I still believe most of what I was taught as a young Christian. Such is not the case with this verse. I was taught this verse meant that if you didn’t have the right attitude when you partook, if you weren’t thinking about the right things, you were eating and drinking damnation to yourself because you weren’t properly respecting the physical body of our Lord. There are at least 2 reasons I don’t believe that’s what this verse teaches.

First, look at a fuller context of that verse — 1 Corinthians 11:26-29 (NIV)

26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27Therefore, 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. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

A total of 3 times in verses 26 through 28 Paul talks about eating the bread and drinking the cup—always both of them together. In verse 29 he again says “eats and drinks” (both), but he says “without recognizing the body”. If he were talking about the physical body of the Lord, why only the body? Why not the blood? He’s talking about the Lord’s Body, the Church.

Second, the whole second half of the chapter (verses 17-34) is devoted to “body life”, and what a cruddy job they were making of it there in Corinth. It’s important that Christians treat each other as the loving family Christ called us to be, and not like animals who tear and devour one another. This parallels Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:23-24, “…if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

This passage very definitely teaches us that we are to observe the Lord’s Supper in proper conduct, and indeed it also teaches we are to remember the sacrifice of our Lord as we partake. It goes further than that though, and teaches that we are to have proper relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters, and we’d best get it straight before we partake. If we partake every week (and I believe Apostolic and historical example teaches us to do just that), then that gives us at most 6 days to put out any brush fires between us and others in the Body. Is that what we practice?