The Centrality of Communion | Francis Chan

[music] Welcome to the Crazy Love Podcast. Finally, after a long hiatus, we are back and excited to catch you up. In this week's episode, Pastor Francis Chan speaks on the importance and the power and partaking in the Lord's Supper. For the early church, we see communion being the primary reason to gather and worship. Our hope and prayer is that communion would no longer be an afterthought the church, but that the presence of Christ and the breaking of bread would be central. This message was from the We Are Church gathering on September 12th at the Fox Theatre. So praise God, we hope you are really encouraged. Let's jump right in. You know, you never know how something is going to turn out the first time you try it. And we just thought, let's get the church body together for communion. And I was praying about this yesterday and it's so easy to get distracted with details when you go to a new place and you try something different. I mean, one thing the elders were together on was we need to get serious about devoting ourselves to the Lord's Supper. It's just something we see in scripture, something we see in that early church and we want to just have a real reverent time coming before the body and blood of Jesus. And yet when we get together in a place like this where we've never been, it's weird and you have a different group and you kind of don't know where to sit. Do we put all the Chinese over here? Like how do we mix this up and everything else? But again, like for myself, I'm like, okay, this is a little strange. We've never done this before, but I don't want to get caught up in the details. So yesterday I was praying because it's very easy to come to a gathering like this and not think about loving other people. I was looking at the Lord's Supper and I was reading in John in the context of the Lord's Supper in John chapter 13, starting in verse 12. It says, "When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, 'Do you understand what I have done to you?' 'You call me teacher in Lord and you are right for so I am.' If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you." I want you to imagine for a second. I mean, what if this was like a setting where Christ Himself in the flesh, Christ in the flesh, try to imagine right now Jesus washing your feet. Okay, in fact right now just close your eyes for a second and can you imagine your Creator, the Son of God coming down in the flesh, taking your shoes off and Him washing your feet. Imagine the disciples who saw Him perform so many miracles. They saw Him walk on water, raise the dead and now He's about to die for them but before He does it, before He goes to the cross, He walks to each disciple and just starts washing their feet. And now you understand why Peter is like, 'No, you don't wash my feet, you're my Creator, you're God, you don't wash my feet in Jesus if you don't let me do this. You have no place, you have no part in Me.' Like Jesus washing our feet, the Creator, I just think, could there be anything more awkward, more unfitting than the King washing our feet. And then Jesus' words were, 'Okay, now that I've done that to you, I want you to do that to one another.' He goes, 'This was an example, he goes, like the verse says, 'He goes, 'Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.' So I'm praying about this, going, 'God, okay, we did not come here so that you could have a great experience. We did not come here so that I could have a great experience. We came here saying, 'God, we want to honor you.' Right? That's why we gather, is that God, we want you to be honored. And so I'm reading the scriptures, going, 'God, what would honor you most as your children come together?' And that passage is pretty clear, that we should come in with this idea of loving one another, serving one another. Like if we're trying to honor him. And I was just ashamed because I thought, 'How many times have I come into a church gathering without the thought of serving the other people there?' And loving them. We get caught up in just getting here on time, the awkwardness or whatever, just thinking about different things. Some of us were stuck. Some of us, you know, here's the Son of God saying, 'Look, if I can wash your feet, I think you guys can go around and serve one another.' 'If I the Lord wash your feet.' I'm not asking you to gather to wash my feet. Jesus didn't say, 'Okay, now you guys take turns and wash my feet.' He says, 'I want you to wash one another's feet now.' Because I gave this as an example to you. And so I want you to think, like when you came here this morning, that the thought of loving others even enter your mind. Did you walk in the room going, 'Who can I bless? Who can I serve?' God used me to love on people today. Is that the attitude you came in with? Because sometimes I know some of us just get stuck. We don't even know it. Like I get caught up in myself in my own mind. Like sometimes I don't realize how self-centered I am. And I'll show up to the church gathering. I'll show up to communion thinking about myself rather than taking the example of Christ who came. He was that the whole Lord's supper was about Him dying for us. And then Him washing the feet of the disciples and He says, 'Okay, as I thought about God, how do you want to be worshiped?' And we're thinking through the service and what do we want to do? And do we start off with a song? Do we start off with this? How do we start this? And it's like, Lord, what do you want? Because sometimes we think worship is singing. We're going to start worship now. So let's sing. Once a guitar gets going, 'Okay, it's worship time.' But we're just thinking, you know what? What honor God the most is if we worshiped Him by actually loving each other. And I know we live in a different culture now where the washing of the feet doesn't mean the same thing. It's not something we do here. But there's other ways that we can serve each other. It's maybe looking somewhere in the eyes and actually caring when you say, 'How are you doing?' And maybe when you find out what the struggle is that you would actually be one that fixes the situation with your resources and time or with your prayers. And I want to have a time of actually loving one another by worshiping God, worshiping God by just maybe even going up to a stranger in this room that you don't even know or maybe the Holy Spirit will lead you to a specific person and just minister to one another. However, the Holy Spirit leads you. But I want you to spend some time praying because the Bible says we've all been given gifts from the Holy Spirit. spirit and the point of those gifts were to minister to one another, to bless each other, that if you came with the heart like I want to bless someone by the power of the spirit today. And so I want to pray for you because I know some of you have been stuck. Stuck in your own head. Some of you have been obsessed with thinking about things this week that have nothing to do with the cross. See this is what the communion table was all about was like whatever you've been thinking about this is bigger than that. I promise you it's bigger than that. Whatever you're obsessed with right now this is bigger. Some of you the enemy has you angry about something. This is the time to let it go. Some of you the enemy has you fearful. Some of you the enemy has you anxious and worried about something. For some of you you come today and you're ashamed of something. All these things keep you from really enjoying the presence of Christ. All these things keep you from loving other people. Some of you maybe you're you come with a critical spirit and man I want to pray for you that you come going okay I'm going to see if Francis says anything wrong today. Just come rather than with a heart to just love people and pour your life out for others and I'm going to pray for that but right now I want you to bow your heads close your eyes. I want you to pray for yourself. Ask God to give you super natural love for the people in this room by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy Father we come in this room to worship you and we need your Spirit Lord. I need your Spirit right now even to pray as I ought with the reverence and fear I should have for you. The love and the confidence God we need your Spirit and right now Father you command us to love one another. This is your new command. This is how we abide in you by loving one another. So Father I ask right now by the power of your almighty Holy Spirit God would he change us God. Take away the self-centeredness God right now and give us a Holy spiritual the Holy Spirit super natural love for each other. In Jesus name amen. So let's honor the Lord right now by taking the next 10 minutes or so and just loving on each other however the Spirit calls you to do that. If it's just going up to someone and just saying can I pray for you or or being honest with your own struggles and allowing others to bless you by praying but let's let's take some time and by the power of the Holy Spirit let's just talk to one another fellowship with one another minister to one another and then I'll come back in like 10 minutes. All right let's head back to our seats. You know as I was I was praying about this yesterday I was thinking about how there's so many things that can divide us today right and what's crazy to me is that communion itself which was meant to bring the body together it's the very thing that divides a lot of believers from each other. I go gosh how satanic is that that the death of Christ that was supposed to make us perfectly one and coming to the table with one bread one piece of bread was supposed to signify his body being one and yet nowadays some of you we come from different backgrounds right I don't know how you did communion growing up but some of you would walk in this room and and and think about all the ways that the enemy could divide us right now. Okay Jesus who died to make us perfectly one and yet some come from a tradition where where there's a there's a liturgy that I'm supposed to say over the bread and cup otherwise there's no blessing in it. Some of you you're going well that's not even an unleavened bread that has yeast in it we don't do that in our tradition. Some of you come in you're going wait you got these little plastic cups with these these wait for so it's not even coming from one bread and in my tradition we had one loaf and we all drink from the same cup you know and then and so you there's so many things right now you're going well because what if I said this morning hey we're all gonna drink from the same cup right and immediately some of you guys would leave right there's no way or you would pass there's no way you're gonna do it then others say okay if you're gonna pray over that bread and you believe it turns into the body and blood of Jesus then I want no part in that others would say well if you just think that's a symbol and there's nothing to it I don't want any part of that. Do you see how crazy this gets you know and I was thinking Lord what do I even because I've been studying in some of the elders we've been studying together like you know we are church was all about this book right where where we go when I read this book and what this book says about the church it is very different from what I experience right we wrestled with that we're gonna gosh I read this in this book when did it become a service that you just attend for an hour sing for 30 minutes listen to a sermon for 40 minutes and then go home when did that transition happen because I don't see that in the scriptures I see this family I saw these people that were committed to one another and so we our whole fight and we continue to strive and fight imperfectly I want you to know we have imperfect elders at we are church we are imperfect and but we're striving going gosh we want this we want to do this as biblically as possible and so whenever we see something now we go gosh I don't know for doing this right we study the scriptures we look at church history we go what what was it like back then because we all know they didn't have all of this and a stage and a 40-minute sermon out of the new testament they didn't have a new testament they didn't have a Bible for 300 years so what do they do you know we're so used to waking up having our devotions reading the scripture but what do they do back then when you most people couldn't even read and if they could read they don't have a Bible I'm not in comfort hundreds of years later as a lot of things we do we go okay well let's take advantage of the opportunities we have but at the same time we go back and go what did they do so Christ ascends into heaven what do the believers do Paul goes to a new city explains the gospel to them in a couple weeks and then he goes to the next place what did those believers do they don't have a Bible they don't have a preacher They just learned about Jesus. This is what they did. Communion was central. Communion was so precious to them because what the apostles passed on was on the night in which Jesus betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. It was something that they did in their homes. That's why it says in Acts 2.42 that they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. They were devoted to this. Some of us have been devoted to prayer. You know, in Acts 2.42 it has those four things where they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching to prayer to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread. This was their devotion. They want to know what the apostles taught us. What do we learn from them? They were devoted to loving one another. This was the fellowship. We are going to become a family. We are going to become one. I am devoted to this. I am devoted to prayer. And I hope you still get excited about praying because this is what happens over time. It's like, hey, let's pray. Just close your eyes. It's like it's no big deal. It's just no big deal to talk to the one who is keeping you alive. The communion is one of those things where we can lose our fascination and maybe you've never even had it. But I encourage you, study it yourself. Don't take my word for it. Study it yourself. What did those early believers believe about the bread and the cup? They all believed that there was some sort of mysterious presence of God, that there was something special when the believers gathered together in unity. They believed that Christ's real presence was somehow. I'm not going to fight about exactly how, when it happens or how it happens, and exactly to what extent this is the body and blood of Christ. Okay, let's not divide. But they were in agreement for 1500 years that there was a real presence of Christ in the elements. And when the elements were prayed over, something happened. And I was sitting down just going, God, how can I even pray a prayer that won't be divisive? How can I even lead this in a way that unites the body? Because we read in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, "When you gather together, it's not for the better, but it's for the worst." He goes, "Because when you gather for the breaking of bread," he goes, "I hear there are divisions among you." He says, "You know what? Just don't even do it. If you're going to come divided, please don't take of this." Because don't you understand the very celebration is how Christ made us one. And so back then, when they had different, "Well, I'm rich, you're not, I'm successful, you're not, I'm more intelligent than you." It's just like all these divisions. Guys, man, some of you may have a better understanding of the Eucharist than I do. Some of you are bothered that I even use the word the Eucharist because it just sounds too Catholic to you. Call it the Lord's Supper, call it communion, call it the breaking of bread, call it. You see all the things the Lord wants to do? And all of that keeps us from just being blown away. I mean, if Jesus was in this room and we had the opportunity one at a time to walk up to Jesus, what would you be thinking? We would be fascinated, right? And all the things that would normally divide us of, "Oh, no, Francis isn't wearing a mask." It's okay, I'd read up on it if you were the guy in the front. It's okay. As long as there's a distance, okay? And that's why we gave you little cups. We just like, "Hey, let's make this as painless as possible because we don't want any distractions." But normally, should we show, have a show of hands of who's vaccinated and who's not? You can fight about that. You want to show hands who thinks we should recall the governor and who shouldn't? You want to have a, there are so many things to fight about right now. But the presence of Christ, when you believe the Son of God is in our midst, and you really believe that at one point I was His enemy, and I could be in hell right now, suffering for all of eternity. But God so loved this world. And He had His Son, the Word, who was with Him in the beginning, become flesh, and take the form of a man, a servant, and subject it himself to death, even death on a cross, so that we could be forgiven. And then He rose again, and He tells us in John chapter 15, He says, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love." These things I've spoken to, that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Your love has no one in this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. That Jesus says we could abide in Him right now. That right now, this very second, He wants to abide with us. And He says, "That abiding will happen as you obey my command." And my command is this, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. A few weeks ago, the elders and the elders wives got together and we had a time of communion. Just a time to fellowship with each other, love one another, and then we spent like two hours before taking of the bread and cup, just confessing sin, just bowing down in reverence, just weeping before the Lord in His presence, then we broke bread, then we took of the cup. And then afterwards, one of the persons there asked for healing. Can we pray for healing? And so we laid hands on her and prayed and she was immediately healed. I thought, "Whoa, I mean it was awesome. It was awesome." And then a few days later in our gathering in EPA, again, let's continue on this theme of reverence and sacredness before the body and blood of Christ. And again, we experienced miracles. Like, I just walked away going, "Whoa, that was the craziest service I've been a part of, that was amazing." And then other times, we took of communion, and I've been leading in different places because I am just obsessed. This is like my favorite thing to do on earth now. I know that sounds weird to some of you, but I'm going to know the early church they were obsessed with this, because there was some real way that they were commuting with God. That's why we call it communion. We say these words. We don't even think about what we're talking about. This unity you can have with Christ at the table. It's different from everything else. And I'm telling you, I've had these intimate times with God, where it's not just me talking about Him, but it's like, "Ah, Jesus, it's like you're right here." And yesterday, what the Lord was speaking to me was He was showing me times when, you know, because I saw those miracles, those times when we took a communion. So then there were other times we would take a communion, and I'm waiting for a miracle. And almost disappointed that I didn't see any miracles that morning. And yet, when I look back, I go, "But Jesus, I had such a great, you know, like I'm sobbing at times like this intimate time with God." And He was showing me yesterday that sometimes I get distracted. I get distracted by these miracles. And it's easy to chase miracles rather than chasing the presence of God and intimacy with Him. And I was going, "Wow, I had such sweet, sweet moments with you." And I want that. I want that more than the miracles. It's kind of what my cousin is here today, and when we were growing up, every once in a while grandma would come from Hong Kong and visit. You remember, she always like passed out 100 dollar bills. And it's soon, like as a teenage kid or 10-year-old kid getting a 100 dollar bill, it's like, "Wow, that was awesome." And sometimes, you know, they'd go gamble and win more, and then we get more 100 dollar bills. And so pretty soon, guess what my thought was when grandma is coming from Hong Kong? Yeah, how much am I going to get this time? Just in my own greed and selfishness rather than, "Oh cool, grandma is going to be here." And God was just showing me, "You can be that way with my presence too." Yeah, I'll distribute gifts as I choose, but don't get lost in those. Enjoy my presence with you. And that's my prayer today, is that all of you would just have the most intimate time with him. Whether he heals you or not, whether he gives you a supernatural gift or not, the greatest gift is his presence with us. That's what they came together to celebrate was he is present. Don't let this get old to you. I mean, if I told you Jesus is going to be here today and you could touch him, some of you, if I said, "Okay, but the only way you can touch him is if you walk here." Man, coming from Fremont or San Francisco, if I knew I could touch Jesus and I just had to walk to Redwood City, I would do it in a heartbeat. If I could shake his hand, if I could hold him, if I could touch him. See, there was some mystery in communion of the real presence. That's why this is what I am most excited about. It's like, while this communion, this abiding, it's his body, but something special happened. That's why you see, in the story in Luke 24, after Christ rose from the dead and he's walking with those strangers, or walking on, it says that very day, verse 13, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that happened. While they were walking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with him, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What is this conversation you're holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to them, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet might indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it as the women had said, "But they did not see." And then he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures that things concerning himself." So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly saying, "Stay with us for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were open, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures." And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying, "The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon." And then they told what happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. It's a fascinating story, right? Jesus walks up to these two guys that witness everything, and he says, "He explained all of the scriptures to them." But they still didn't know who he was. It's not crazy. Jesus himself was teaching them better than anyone on earth could teach them. They explained everything from Moses through all the prophets and explained why Jesus had to die, and they're just going, "Wow, that was amazing, that's amazing, that's amazing." They get to the house. They don't recognize him. Then the moment he breaks the bread, something happens. Something happened in the breaking of the bread. That's why these early believers were devoted to this, because they're saying there's something that happens. Jesus prayed, and then the bread broke, and then there was something. This is how, you know, Paul says, "This is the way you declare his death until he returns." This is the way we proclaim it. The way we proclaim it is not, "Let's get the best speaker to explain the gospel." No, because Jesus Himself was explaining the gospel on the road to Emmaus. It was just when He broke the bread. There was something that happened. When He blessed that bread and that cup and He began, suddenly their eyes were open. That's why the early church looked at this and said, "Okay, Jesus said, 'This is my body, broken for you.' There was something real about this. So I'm going to pray for these elements. And I'm just telling you right now, I don't know. I don't know. I'm reading a lot of things, a lot of history. It's a mystery to me. I don't know if when I pray, there's some who believe that this bread actually transforms and it literally becomes flesh and blood, even though it still looks like bread and juice. Others say, "No, it's not till you take it and it comes into your body." Others say, "No, when you pray over it, the real presence of Christ enters into the elements, but there's still the elements." "Look, you guys, I don't know." And I'm reading different things about how these people repeated this prayer over and over and then other people repeated this prayer over and over. And then 500 years ago, someone popularized, "No, nothing happens to it." I lean towards something mysterious happens, but is it okay if I just pray and go, "God, I don't know, but I want everything that can happen, I want it to happen." God, I want every bit of communing with you. If this is going to turn into your flesh and blood in my body, then I want that. If this turns into your flesh and blood, whatever you want, God, like my mind is so limited, you know all things. And I'm just going to pray over these elements and say, "God, whatever you want to do, we want as much of you as our human bodies can handle." And if it's sacrilegious to you for this to become something different, then don't do that. Do you know? Like we don't know how am I supposed to know 2,000 years ago exactly how Christ wanted it when there are so many people who are questioning. And we just pray and faith and say, "God, what you do whatever you want to do to this bread, this cup, the bread and cup that you hold, whenever you do it, however you do it, to what extent you do it. Lord, we surrender to you. We come humbly going, "God, how could we possibly know outside the power of your Holy Spirit, but in a spirit of unity and love for one another, God?" We just humbly come and surrender to your omniscience, to your wisdom, to your power. So I'm going to pray for God's presence and then we'll just spend some time singing to him about his presence here with us. And then we'll take the bread and cup in a little bit, but right now if you would just pray with me. Father in heaven, we join the angels who have been worshiping you all night saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is to come." God, you are holy. You've existed forever. You are holy. You are so far beyond all of us. Holy are you. Holy are you. Holy are you, God. You were from eternity past. God, we've only existed for a few years. You are eternal. You always will be and you are here with us now. And so we humble ourselves, God, before your almighty holy presence. God, we surrender our finite minds. We're ashamed of thinking we're more intelligent than someone else in this room because we've studied more than our minds are capable of more. That is so ridiculous, Lord. You possess all truth and our only hope of knowing truth is asking you, God, speak to us, please. And God, we don't know. Exactly how to do this perfectly, God. God, we don't want to do this casually. Like it's just ordinary bread and juice. God, we're remembering the Son of God, our Savior. And we want to do it, Lord, with hearts of reverence and thanksgiving and fascination, God. We want to abide in you right now. And we want every bit of your blessing, Lord. We're so thankful for this bread and this cup and God. We're asking for as much of you as possible. We want to encounter you in your presence. And we ask that you do whatever you see fit to this bread and this cup. But we believe you can do anything. If you could become flesh and blood and be implanted into the womb of a virgin, then you can certainly turn bread and a cup into anything you want. And we just humble ourselves before your almighty mind and your power and surrender as your children and say, God, you know. Only you possess all truth. And we ask for a blessing on these elements that we're going to partake of. And give us faith to believe in your presence in this room with us right now. And as we sing to you, may we sing in faith, give us faith to believe that you are in this room with us and that you hear these words that we sing in adoration to you. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed. Took bread and he broke it and he gave it to his disciples. He said, this is my body. This is my body broken for you. Jesus, we're doing this in remembrance of you. We remember when your body was broken. For us, we worship you, Jesus. We worship you, Father, because the body was broken for us that we could become one with you and one with each other. We worship you for the cup of the new covenant, the blood of our Savior that covers our sins, his real blood that was shed on the cross for our sins when he took the wrath of God on our behalf. And he, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God through him. Jesus is in this room with us. Our Father abides with us, His Spirit dwells in us because of the cross. And we have come here today, Father, to worship you and to remember you and what you did. Thank you for your great act of love. And now, Father, we want to commune with you in the deepest way possible. If you have examined yourself and you have gotten rid of any bitterness or any division towards the body of Christ, if you believe that Jesus really was the Son of God who became flesh and died on the cross, to pay for your sins so that you could be brought near to God right now. If that's you, then take the bread. And let's take any of it together. And if you believe that the blood of Christ was poured out for our sins and you trust in His blood for your salvation, then all of you drink of it. Father, we want everything to revolve around you. Howlow it be your name. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Howlfather, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Thank you for listening to the Crazy Love podcast. We'll see you next week with a new episode. But until then, for more resources from Crazy Love Ministries or to support the work of Crazy Love, please visit our website at CrazyLove.org. Thanks.