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Transcript 227B — Understanding Communion
CALLER: Could you tell me about Communion? They used to say that it miraculously changed into the body and blood of Christ, which I know is ridiculous. But I just wondered, how are we to view it? Some people say that whenever you eat or drink, you should remember the sacrifice of Christ. I know that it's like a remembrance of Christ's death, but a lot of people just do it once a month, or something like that. You know, they set it up as a special time.
HC: Your question really has to do with the nature of the Communion service and the frequency of its occurrence. Now to get a little bit of a perspective, let's look at the Old Testament ceremonies that God commanded. They had the Passover. That was celebrated once a year. They had the Feast of Tabernacles. That was a once a year observance. They had various baptismal rights, like the priest had to wash his feet and hands before he could go about his priestly duties. There were quite a number of these ceremonies in the Old Testament.
Now in the New Testament, after the cross, all of this was fulfilled in Christ, but God did give us the sacraments. One was that of baptism. That is, the command was that there was to be water baptism. And that really carried the same essential meaning as Old Testament circumcision. It was a sign, an outward official declaration that we had become a member of the Kingdom of God, a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
But then you have the matter of Communion. Now it's interesting that Christ instituted the Communion service right after He ate the Passover, didn't He? In the upper room, He ate the Passover, and then He instituted the Lord's Supper. And so this puts the Lord's Supper and the Passover in a very interesting relationship to each other.
Now the Passover was remembering the angel that passed over the camp of Israel when they left the land of Egypt. The avenging angel did not kill anyone in the home if there was blood on the door posts. And this was pointing to Christ, who is our Passover – the fact that He would provide the blood whereby we would be saved from the avenging enemy.
Now the Lord's Table, the Communion service, is looking back on the shed blood of Christ. We read in I Corinthians 11: "This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way also 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. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."
Therefore the Communion Supper is looking back on the cross, just as the Passover Supper was looking forward to the cross. Now therefore we begin to sense that probably we ought to partake of the Communion service not less frequently than at least once a year, because the Passover was celebrated once a year. The Bible is silent as to any rules concerning the frequency of its observance There are churches that celebrate the Communion service once every three months. That would be very Biblical. Some celebrate it once a month. That's very Biblical. Some celebrate it weekly. That also, I suppose, could be looked upon as Biblical, because the Bible is silent concerning its frequency.
However, in the light of the fact that it is so related to the Passover, I have a feeling (and this is only a feeling, it's not a Biblical admonition of any kind.) that it certainly would be proper and probably wise not to celebrate the Lord's Supper too frequently, lest it become very commonplace, and lest it lose its significance. But that's only a personal observation. It's not a Biblical declaration.
CALLER: I don't think too many little kids know what they're doing when they take Communion. I remember when I took Communion the first time after I was saved, it really meant something to me.
HC: You're making the observation that we ought to know what we're doing when we partake of Communion, and therefore little children ought not partake. And you are absolutely correct. The Bible says that if anyone does not discern the body, he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and is bringing judgment upon himself.
Now the only person who can discern the body is someone who is born again, somebody who knows what it means to be saved. And therefore we ought to be really careful to know that we're born again before we partake of the Lord's Table.
CALLER: Thank you very much, and I won't take any more of your time.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.