Introduction and Importance of Communion

Bobby Dagnel 0:00

Good seeing everyone. We are, uh. Uh, you know, even when I was pastoring, I'd, uh, you know, first started out, you know, communion would always be something tacked on to the end of the service, but, uh, I always thought it was something of such a weight and importance that I really wanted the service to be built around that, uh, my messages and all that instead of just being an after the, after the fact, uh, event that we did. And so, uh, this morning I think it's appropriate that, uh, we do the same as I'm, uh, sharing with you. Uh, about communion and this, uh, meal that the church, uh, has shared for over 2000 years together in community with one another. Of course, it has its moorings, the Passover meal, uh, God's people. And so much of what God has done with his people has been built around the meal, the common meal that is shared together. Um. I want to continue in that, in that vein, as we think about a communion meal as the people of God, as a community of faith, the, the enrichment of faith, the vividness that it brings to life. Uh, I wanna speak this morning on the subject of a nutritionally rich existence. A nutritionally rich existence. If you have your Bible, a smart device, whatever it is you follow along with, I encourage you to open it. Open your Bible to John chapter four and follow along with me as, uh, we explore verses 31 through 38 in this idea of a nutritionally rich existence. I, uh, I, I'm sad that I have to start off with some bad news, looking at some data, uh, from the Centers for Disease Control. Uh, the numbers don't look good for us. Uh, the latest data, and this is trending in a, in a negative direction as well, it's not getting any better, but the data shows that 42.8% of Americans are obese. 32.5 are overweight. That means over 75% of our population is either obese or overweight. They link that to our diets, highly processed foods, uh, high fat diets, and a lack of AC exercise, but the real issue. Is, is diet, nutrition, uh, our eating habits, because it doesn't matter how much you exercise, you could never outrun a diet, can you? And so what, what is significant is what is it that we are using to fuel. Our bodies. You think about how much time in a day we spend foraging through our pantries, through our refrigerators, and we spend all day hungry. We're always looking for the next meal. What am I going to snack on? And through the course of a day, uh, we have been hungry, we have eaten a lot, and yet our bodies are deprived nutritionally. Those hunger pains that we get, the brain is sending signals to the body that what I need is nutrition. Now we, we provide food, we all eat until we're satisfied. But, but nutritionally, we never come to a place where we are satiated, where the nutritional needs of the body are, are satisfied. And so we keep feeding it empty calories and we do so until we are full, but we are never satiated. It nutritionally. And so what the body longs for is nutrition, and that becomes the very thing, uh, that we deprive it from. Well, the same thing happens spiritually. Uh, Jesus has set forth, and of course the word of God has set forth for us that, that, uh, have a nutritionally rich existence. To develop and to grow and to mature as a spiritual people. Well, there's some things that need to be practiced. It takes great intentionality. You need to, you need to study the word of God. Uh, you need to join together with God's people in rhythmic, continual worship. You need to pray. You need to serve, you need to need to give all of these things or the disciplines that add to our spiritual wellness, our spiritual maturity and and development as the people of God. Sadly, like our physical diets, we want to use substitutes, we want to use. Fast food instead of going to church, perhaps in, in a rhythm, in a pattern, not forsaken, the abandoning of ourselves together, the writer of Hebrew says, which has become the habit of some. Uh, we go to church. What, when, when it's convenient. Uh, instead of, instead of studying the word of God, instead of picking up the biblical text each day and immersing myself into the text with a prayerful attitude, uh, what sayeth the Lord. To me, instead of knowing the word of God and understanding the word of God, uh, we, we, we buy the most popular book at the Christian bookstore, or we listen to our favorite podcaster. Uh, instead of having that dynamic relationship, and I would hope that we would understand this, is that when we are a part of a, of a local body of believers, uh, I believe that there is this mystical union between the, a pastor that God calls a congregation, that he serves as an under shepherd and the working of the Holy Spirit, that there is a triangle, uh, a dynamic. There of God speaking through a pastor to an under shepherd, to a congregation at an appointed time, that the message you hear as a member of a congregation is the message that God's spirit has laid upon the heart of that under shepherd for you and his people for a time such as this. And a podcaster can never do that. Some favorite pastor off somewhere over on the west coast, he's going to speak a message that is, that in that dynamic is appropriate for his people in that time. Uh, but it's not necessarily a message that was for you in that dynamic that I just described. And so we have to be careful about the fads. We have to be careful about the trends. We have to be popular, we have to be aware of, of, of, of avoiding that, which is just popular. In the moment, I think we do well to hear the author of, of Hebrews writing in Hebrews chapter 13. Let me read this to you in Hebrews chapter. Hebrews chapter 13, Jesus, the writer of Hebrews would say something to this, to this very effect. Remember those he said in verse seven. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were occupied were not benefited. Now the deeper life, the nutritionally rich life, as we are going to discover through the teachings of Jesus this morning, is that it comes from our service and our engagement, our obedient to the will of God and the purposes of God. That's why Jesus would, uh, would offer these verses, listen to them in verses 31 and 32 regarding food. Now remember the context of this, of this passage in John four. It comes on the heels of Jesus' engagement with the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well, and he's talked to this woman about, about living waters that that lead. To life. And in that, in verse eight, we know that his disciples have gone to the city to get food. And now on the heels of this conversation about living water, Jesus has something to say to his disciples about food. And meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. You see what these, what these disciples were thinking about and what we so often think about is just the moment. It's just the need of, of the moment, the, the immediate. Gratification, but what Jesus is going to do, just as water became a metaphor to talk to the Samaritan woman about living waters, waters, which she might partake and never thirst again. He's going to speak to these disciples about a food that they do not know. It becomes a metaphor for thinking about a nutritionally rich existence. That's what I wanna speak to this morning. I, I want to talk about four things from, from this passage that I think make for a nutritionally rich existence. I'm, of course, speaking in the spiritual realm, in the life of faith, but the same intentionality, the same deliberateness, the same forethought that it takes to planting our physical meals. If I'm going to, if I'm going to have a nutritional diet. If I'm going to, to, to avoid the fad diets, if I'm going to avoid the, the processed foods, the packaged foods, if I'm going to have a, uh, if I'm going to have a good, healthy nutritional diet, uh, it takes intentionality, doesn't it? Jesus is going to say the same thing is true in the life of faith, what God desires to accomplish in my life and yours. It's not gonna be done by the fashionable. It's not going to be done by the trendy or the popular, but here's the things that that will characterize a nutritionally rich existence as the people of God. The first thing notice in verses 31 through 34 is that a nutritionally rich existence has a sense of vocation. But if I'm going to have a nutritionally rich existence in my, in my communion with the father, in my walk with the Lord, then I'm going to have to have a, a vocational sense of my existence. Listen to these verses again. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food. That is what brings wellness purpose, meaning what brings nutri nutritional enrichment to my life. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his word. Jesus is saying, this is what charges my batteries. This is what gives me a sense of purpose and meaning. This, this is what enriches my life. It, it's doing the will of the Father. Jesus had a sense of vocation. Now there's a difference between an occupation and a vocation. What we should all embrace as followers of Christ is we should have a sense of vocation about our existence, about our daily lives. That's different from an occupation. An occupation, uh, is to have a task. You, you occupy space at a place where you've hired on, you, you, you've, uh, you're occupying space, doing a task for which you were hired so that you might receive a paycheck. And that's an occupation. That's not a vocation. Vocation is to do everything that you do with a sense of calling. It's the sense of calling that God has upon your life. You have answered the call of God in your life as a follower of Christ. His spirit prompted you, his his spirit convicted you. That spirit is calling you unto himself and you responded to that calling. And out of that calling, every facet of your life is impacted. You see, in the study of scripture, I've never understood this separation between the sacred and the secular. For a child of God, everything is sacred. Where, where you and I find ourselves, where our feet are on a daily basis because Christ dwells in you. That is a sacred place. These are sacred moments. These are sacred opportunities. These are sacred interactions that I have in some of the most me. What appear to be the most meaningless of places. Do you have that sense of vocation? You know, when I hear people talk about how miserable they are. At school, at work, whatever it is, whatever that thing is, it takes up the greatest portion of their day, whether it's the work, the school, whatever, and they say, you know, I just, I, I, I really dislike doing this. Well, when I hear a believer say that, all I'm hearing is that you have no sense of vocation. Because if I have a sense of vocation, then any task that, that might seem so redundant, any, any task that, that, any existence that seem, that would appear to others to be just a grind while others around me are saying, you know, I really don't like it here. I'm just trying to get through the day and get to my, get to my paycheck. With a sense of vocation. I'm understanding that in my calling, I'm doing my, my task, whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it under the Lord and not under men. I'm seeking to do this thing in a way that brings honor and glory to him. That sense of vocation, it impacts my, my role as an employee, as as a student, as a husband, as a father. There is no arena of life that goes untouched. Is not impacted by that sense of vocational call of God upon our lives. We see it in the life of Jesus. Listen to the words of verse 27. At this point, as disciples came, they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you seek? Why do you speak? With her because he had a sense of vocation. Everyone else would dismiss a Samaritan, wouldn't they think? In our day and time we under, we failed to appreciate completely the, the prejudice and the tension that existed between the Jews and, and the Samaritans. I don't really have time for all the historical background of that, but I can frame it in a modern context. You, let's imagine the people group that you despise most. I know our temptation is, oh, I don't have a group like that, pastor. I, I'm much too holy for that. No, no. Let, let's get past all that. Let's, let's just imagine the people group that you really don't care for, for whom you know in your heart you have a prejudice. Multiply that times 10, multiply that, whether it's hate, just dis disregard or whatever, a dismissal of that people group. Multiply that by 10 and only then do you begin to understand the prejudice that existed in that moment. They cannot fathom. They cannot imagine why Jesus would be having a conversation with a Samaritan. Woman, see Jesus understood. In this sense of vocation that I have, every place is sacred. Every person is sacred with whom I interact with a sense of vocation. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, God is using in the process of possibly drawing others unto him. I'd ask you, have you come to that place where you have a sense of vocation about, about your life, an understanding of your faith and your relationship with the father, and in that sense of vocational call that that leaves no stone unturned that impacts every arena of your life. Because Jesus says it is. It is in this context, doing the will of the Father, wherever I am, even in Samaria. In this, I find enrichment and fulfillment. Everything becomes important. Everything becomes significant.'cause it's an opportunity to glorify the father and to showcase him and to show the fruit of the spirit, the spirit of Christ in a way that others may not. People that would never enter a church, they will watch you, they'll watch me. The second thing that makes for a nutritional existence, nutritionally rich existence, is not only is it, is it an existence that is vocational? But it's also one that is insatiable. Insatiable. It's never satisfied. Notice, let's just begin in, in verse 32, but he said to them, I, I have food. Remember, they've asked the question about food. Did somebody feed him that we didn't see or know about? You know, Jesus says here in verse 32, I have food to eat that you do not know. Yeah, that's, that's difficult for them to understand. We've, we've heard your teachings, we've heard everything that you've had to say, oh, we've, we've seen your, your miracles. Well, they, they can imagine that, that there's more to know that there's, that there's more to understand. And of course we understand they have a lot. We know from hindsight there's a lot more that's coming, a lot more that, that they have failed to comprehend and understand at this point. But what we see in verse 33 is that these disciples have taken Jesus far too, literally, he says, so the disciples were saying to one another, no one has brought him anything to eat. Did he Jesus speaking about food, they're, they're thinking literally about food. We see that Jesus is misunderstood numerous times in the Gospels, don't we? Where people took him literally where he was just using something literal as a spiritual metaphor. Nicodemus Jesus in that conversation about being born again. Nicodemus was, was taking him literal, how is, how can one be born again? He's thinking in terms of spiritual birth. The Jews, when Jesus would speak about the temple, they were thinking about a literal temple. The Samaritan woman thought he was just talking about water, but Jesus had this unique way, none bearing here. Of course, uh, it's nonetheless true here, but Jesus had that way of taking the literal. That which people could see and observe, he took, could take those and he could fashion them into something, uh, that, that had bearing upon their spiritual life and their understanding of the father. But what I want us to see here is that there's always more. To be understood, always more to be pursued in the life of faith, never reaching a place of being satisfied. Listen to verse 34. We see it even in the life of Jesus. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. If you could see that in, in the, in the original language, in the Greek text, the verb tense is continual. Ongoing. This isn't a one time deal. This isn't past tense. He said, my food is to do the will, verb tense, continual, ongoing. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. It is something that, that is continual and ongoing. Jesus used the same word on the cross. He says it is finished. Wasn't really finished though, was it? The work of Christ, the work of the Spirit continues on through the body of Christ. The church Jesus had no sense of having arrived and knowing the will of God and doing the will of God. You see it, it makes for a nutritionally rich existence. When I continue to hunger and thirst, never being satisfied with what I've experienced, what I've known, what I've understood previously, who can know the mind and the heart of God, it creates an insatiable appetite. And leads to a nutritionally rich existence. A third thing God would have us notice about this kind of existence is that it has a providential awareness That shouldn't surprise us. Do not say Jesus said. Jesus said, do you not say he's offering a little proverbial statement here? Do you not say there are yet four months? And then comes. Harvest. Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields. And they, and they are white for harvest already. He who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for E, for life. Eternal so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. Now, I don't want you to be confused by this statement here in, in verse 35, what the point that Jesus is making to his disciples and to us, that you're behind. You're already behind. We are already behind in what we should be doing and what we should be accomplishing for the kingdom of God. Now, what Jesus says here in, in verse 35, it's apparently some little parochial, um, uh, some colloquialism, some little local phrase that, that maybe these disciples were, were familiar with, because nowhere else do you find that little proverbial statement. It's found nowhere else in extent literature. We find it nowhere else. I think the closest thing that, that we could understand and what he's saying here, do you not say they're yet four months, and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your li eyes. Look on the field. They're white for harvest. That first clause there, they are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. You think you have time and be patient. Phrase we would be familiar with is Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't get in a big rush. Rome wasn't built in a day. That's not what he's saying in regard to the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying to his disciples, this doesn't need to be your attitude, this attitude that people have about agriculture with this agricultural truth. There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. That is not a spiritual truth. He's saying for us there should be a, a sense of urgency. We, we don't have the privilege of delay between sowing and reaping and harvesting as, as in a agricultural metaphor. No. The calling that we have and what we are called to our mission there, there's an urgency. Look, the fields are white. Under harvest play on this. I think that's happening. That could be easily missed, you know? Um, wheat is not necessarily white when it's hard. It has a golden hue when, when wheated is, is ready for, for the harvest. Now there is a, there is a rot, right? I guess that would, would appear, uh, uh, that would appear white in, uh, appearance if it was left in the field too long and not harvest it. I really don't think that's it. I think what Jesus is describing here. Has to be connected back. And this is always good biblical interpretation. Uh, our tendency is, is to, is to lift a text out of its context and just make it apply to whatever we want to make it apply to. But good biblical exegesis always requires context and, and so I think good biblical acts of Jesus and understanding of what Jesus is describing here requires of us to go back to what he was dealing with previously. The Samaritan woman, the miracle that, that she experienced, she went back after putting down her water pot, verse 38, verse 28, went to the city, said to the man, come see a man who told me all things that I've done. This is not the Christ is it. And all of those men, they, they went out of the city. And we're coming to him now. I think as Jesus is dealing with these disciples and their understanding of, of this kind of food for which they should truly long for, I think he looks across that field and he sees the men of Samaria coming from that Samaritan city wearing their white robes look. Here's your opportunity. A people that you would dismiss, a people that now you, you are understanding that God is going in the, in the redemptive purposes of God, he is even going to save the Samaritans. Well, if that's true, uh, listen, it's gonna take a long time. It's gonna truly take a work of God for the Samaritans to come to faith. I know they have no interest in the things. Of God. If God's gonna save him, he's gonna have to do it himself. Jesus is saying, no, there's an urgency about this moment. The fields are wide into the harvest. They're coming. This is the opportunity. Now, he realized the importance of these, these kinds of providential moments. You see the awareness that we ought to have in our, in our existence as the people of God. Every one of us in the truest sense are missionaries that we're, where our feet are planted and at, at any course of the day, we are the presence of Christ in that moment. I have a sense of vocation. In any moment, I have an awareness, uh, that, that any encounter could be a, a providential encounter. And to exist that way, the way that Jesus did just, uh, the routines and the highways and the by waves of everyday life and how he could turn those moments into something for the kingdom. Oh, don't, you know, it's a, it's a nutritionally rich existence. It's what gives meaning and purpose to life far beyond anything, this world. Can offer us in its temporal awareness. Which brings me to a final element of this nutritionally rich existence. Not only is it vocational and in and and insatiable and providential, but it's also communal. Notice it's communal acts aspect in verse 37. For in, in this case, the saying is true. One sows and another. Don't, don't ever underestimate your providential moments. Don't ever underestimate these providential encounters. These men from the Samaritan city are coming. Don't ever underestimate the don't, don't think that that, because you don't, don't dismiss them saying they have no interest in things of God. The woman told them about it. They're coming to see. Here's your opportunity for, in this case, the saying is true. One soaps, one soaps in another. Reaps I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. You've got to see yourselves as a part of a community experience of what God is doing, what God is accomplishing through his people, the totality of his people. Not just you at the brochure on a street corner, but how is God going to use my encounter with some individual that I may not even know And your encounter with that person, uh, 200 miles from here, a person that you don't even know who can even imagine how God is going to use the communal aspect of his people. To bring individuals into a life and relationship with him, that my witness and your witness, God uses all that. You know, only time in eternity will measure all of this. Joining in another man's work. I mean, that's the very thing John and Peter did in Acts chapter eight. You know, Philip was already working among the Samaritans. That Samaritan revival there in Acts chapter eight. Well, John and Peter came and, and validated that God's spirit is moving upon. Yes. Even the Samaritans bill was already working. Collectively, that's what we're doing as a community. Of faith, it's understanding who I am, vocationally. It's understanding how my life is a part of the providential purposes of God. And when I have this understanding, and all believers have this understanding, there is a communal quality that comes to bear on this great salvation that God is accomplishing. So you're, you're here this morning. I'm, I'm standing here this morning because of an untold number of people that would impact my life. Could've been your grandparents, your parents, some pastors, some Sunday school teachers, some classmates, some coworker that was a believer, and you watched and you observed, you asked questions. In a way, unbeknownst to you, this community of believers God used in providential ways, in this faith that is yours now that that goes back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the judges and the kings, the disciples to us here today. We're all here because of of others, because of how God used a community of people to accomplish his salvific purposes. Alex Haley name, you're familiar with the author of Roots. Alex Haley was a successful author, writer. He said whenever he. He said, whenever I started becoming a little too full of myself, being pleased with who I am and what I accomplished as Alex Haley, when I would feel pride welling up in me, he said, I would sit in my office and I would look at a, a picture that I had framed on my wall, and it was always very humbling. It was a picture. Of a turtle on a fence post. It was a reminder that if you ever see a turtle on a fence post, someone put it there because turtles don't climb fence posts. We are where we are because we stand now on the shoulders of others. God has used in a communal way to be a part of his salvific purposes. You and I are here because of others. I wonder as we sit here and talk about this, who will come to faith because of you? Who will come to faith because of you. Now that, that's a question for which there is no answer.'cause I think time Eter eternity. I think you and I are going to be shocked when our life comes to an end and we are immediately in the presence of God when then we shall know fully as we have been fully known. When no longer are we seeing through a glass dark lake. Yeah, but now face to face, I think you and I are going to be shocked, never imagining the impact and the influence that we had in others coming to faith that we can't even imagine. See, when you, when you and I have that sense of vocation. When we have that sense of providential importance, when I have this insatiable appetite for the things of God, when I understand the importance of my presence, of how God uses my presence in any moment of the day to influence others, and together we have this communal impact, well it's then it's then. You and I have a nutritionally rich existence as the people of God. Let me have a word of prayer, and as I'm praying we'll pass out our communal elements. Our Father, how grateful we.