Communion - Why We Do It!

Job 19:25-27 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

There is no HOPE that is greater than to recognize and acknowledge that the One in whom we place all of our hope is the One who paid for our sins, overcame death and is now actively involved in our lives while waiting for that day when we join Him in heaven.  Communion is a chance to REMEMBER that and to REFLECT upon that TRUTH!   This service is truly a celebration! 

Each of our Communion services includes three aspects of celebration.  We celebrate the past ministry of Christ through the bread and the cup, the present ministry of Christ by doing foot washing and the future ministry of Jesus Christ around a meal together.  Here are explanation of each aspect.  

The Love Feast (Matthew 26:17-30)

We will begin with a meal which represents the future ministry of Christ to the believer.  This simple meal represents the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that will take place when Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, redeems us and takes us to heaven to be with Him.  This is time where the church – known in Scripture as the BRIDE OF CHRIST – is brought together with the Groom – Jesus Christ – and we have a Marriage Feast together.  Ours is a simple meal but we have a great time around the table talking about what we think Heaven will be like!  You can read more about this in Revelation 19.

 Foot Washing (John 13:1-20)

Next we celebrate the present ministry of Jesus Christ in our lives as believers.  This present ministry involves the ongoing process of being clean before God.  We have a time during the service to spend time quietly confessing sin and experiencing that daily forgiveness with God.  This is a time of individual prayer to ask God to forgive us of any sin that may be in our lives at this time.  We then dismiss for the men go to one area and the women meet in the Joy Fellowship Room.  At this time we wash each other’s feet.  It is not a scrub down washing or power washing, it is simply a symbolic splashing of a little water over each other’s feet and then drying them off.  We have a good time singing and sharing together as we do this.  This practice comes straight out of John 13 where Jesus did it as an example for us to follow regularly each time we share in communion.

The Bread and Cup (Matthew 26:26-28)

The final part of our service is when we share in the Bread and the Cup – This is a celebration of the past ministry of Christ and represents His great sacrifice for our sins and the payment that was made so that we could experience eternity in heaven with Him if we just acknowledge Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives.  

We enjoy doing this together as a family of believers a Osceola Grace and would invite you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to join us this Sunday, November 22 right after our worship service.   Our kids can join us for the meal and then will be dismissed to childcare during the foot washing and bread and cup portions of the service.