The title of my communion meditation today is, "His Purpose." I read from Acts 17: 22-31 (NLT). All Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation and are used with permission.
22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
In his address, Paul acknowledges the religious zeal of the Athenians and offers a description of the Unknown God they worship. Paul explains to his audience that there was an earlier time in which God permitted the nations to seek Him and overlooked their ignorance in their attempts to find Him. With respect to God as the father of humankind, he agrees with one of their poets, Aratus of Soli, who said, "We are his offspring." We are not surprised then that the nations, His children everywhere, should search to know who their father is. But those days are now over because the Unknown God has revealed Himself plainly. He has fixed a day and appointed a man to judge the entire world in righteousness and commands all men everywhere to repent! In assurance of His claim, He raised His appointed man from the dead, never to die again! The audience was okay with Paul's discourse up until he mentioned the resurrection of the dead. In his audience were the Epicureans and Stoics. The Epicureans believed that death was equivalent to annihilation. The Stoics denied the existence of personal identity after death, all persons being absorbed into the cosmos. We are not surprised at their response as the Epicureans and Stoics had been debating their respective philosophies for centuries; nevertheless, Dionysius, Damaris and others came to believe in God's appointed man, Jesus. When we partake of the bread and drink from the cup as the church, we collectively affirm that Jesus sacrificed His life to save us from our sins, He was resurrected from the dead and there will be a day in the future in which God will judge the world through Him. For each of us personally, we grieve for His suffering and death because of our sins and at the same time, we rejoice that we are saved through faith in Him. Let us pray.
Abba, Father. Today we bless and set aside this bread and the fruit of the vine in this cup to remember Your Son, Jesus. We know that the bread represents His body that was nailed to the cross, and the fruit of the vine represents His blood that He shed for us. As we pour out the wine from the cup, we are reminded of how Jesus poured out His own blood that our sins might be forgiven. We affirm today, Abba, Father, that we believe Jesus sacrificed His life to save us from our sins, He was resurrected from the dead and that you have fixed day in the future in which God will judge the world through Him. We join with You in proclaiming these truths to the world. We grieve for His suffering and death because of our sins and at the same time, we rejoice that we are saved through faith in Him. In His name I pray. Amen.
Today, Jesus invites you to partake of His supper. I read from Matthew 26: 26-28 (NLT).
26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” Let us partake of the bread.
27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many." Let us partake of the cup.
And the assembly of believers said, "Amen!"
Until next time, from Numbers 6: 24-26, "May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace."
Artist's Note: If you have questions about the Lord's Supper, I invite you to visit my website, https://eatthisbreaddrinkthiscup.com, for a brief overview. The Eat This Bread Drink This Cup podcast is listed in most podcast directories, and I invite you to add my podcast to your favorites and be notified of new posts. There is a written transcript that accompanies each podcast, and you are free to use the transcript in accordance with US copyright law. My prayer is that you will benefit personally from this time with Jesus and encourage others to observe the Lord's Supper. In these trying times, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus!
