Hey Church!
This weekend is communion Sunday! When we take up the elements of bread and juice, we affirm our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation. The elements testify to all five of our senses that we have been spiritually crucified with Christ and that the life of righteousness we live is no longer we who live but Him living in us (Gal. 2:19-20). We are a new creation: the old has gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).
Even so, after we have ingested the emblems of Jesus’ death, we do not then cease to suffer the corruption of sin in our flesh. We are, at the same time, “righteous” and “sinner.” (see Rom. 7:15-25). As we walk with Christ, the Spirit helps us to die more and more to sin in order that we might live more and more like Him.
When fire appears in the Bible with reference to God, it often represents the glory of His holy presence, which comes upon the righteous as a means of purification but upon the wicked as a means of judgment. The righteous are not destroyed by His fire but refined by it, like precious metals having dross burned away (Rom. 6; Prov. 17:3). But the wicked, having not been justified by Christ, are utterly consumed when He appears (Malachi 3:2-3; Luke 3:16-17). The work of our hands will, likewise, either be established and approved by Him as part of His temple-habitation or burnt up like useless chaff (see 1 Cor. 3:10-15).
So, what does refining fire have to do with taking communion this Sunday?
Every time we share communion together, the pastor reads the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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.” In the same way also he took 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.
That much you have heard before! But he continues:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Before we take communion, we are meant to first take an honest look in the mirror and examine ourselves. This is one of the reasons we encourage you not to hurry through communion but to take time to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and lead you to repentance wherever it may be needed (Psalm 139 is a great prayer for this occasion). The bread and juice are, to the righteous, a sweet foretaste of the heavenly wedding feast to come–His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. But to the unrepentant and unbeliever, they are emblems of judgement and wrath. There is a winnowing and fire-like testing of our faith involved in taking communion.
So, prepare yourselves for communion with God. Let us be purified by time in His presence this weekend, even before you come to church, so that we may gather around His Table with joyful, sober gratitude for the depths of mercy He has shown us. The worship team will be singing these words as you do:
“I want to be tried by fire, purified; You take whatever you desire; Lord, here’s my life.” (“Refiner” by Maverick City).
Your brother,
Ryan