The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist should be a sacrament of worship, repentance, healing, deliverance, and empowerment for ministry for individual christians and for the whole church. It should be a unifying experience that is repeated often. Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Why has the Holy Communion been so neglected by a large portion of the church? Why has it seemingly been such a cause of disunity? The Church needs to understand that Jesus commanded us to remember and honor Him and His sacrifice. He promised to personally be in this sacrament. We cannot fully understand how He does this because it is a holy mystery. We may misunderstand but we have no right to explain away, ignore, or obfuscate this holy sacrament. We need His presence in the church and in ourselves, but we have substituted our own programs instead. How tragic!
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” (John 6:51)
The Holy Communion is central to the liturgy. It is the culmination of the liturgy. In fact, the liturgy is designed to prepare the heart of each communicant to receive the presence of Christ. Without an understanding of this aspect of Holy Communion there would be little reason for the liturgy. Without the Holy Communion, the readings from the lectionary would still be beneficial, the sermon might be a valid interpretation and application of the Gospel reading, and corporate prayers and worship could be uplifting and received by God. But something would certainly missing.
The liturgy is worship, but what type of worship is it when Jesus’ sacrament is left out? He sacrificed so much that we might receive Him into ourselves. We must sacrifice ourselves and our praise and worship to Him. Worship is not entertainment. Worship is engagement with God on the deepest level.
Most of the churches now, especially the pentecostal and baptist and most of the charismatic, are Zwinglian: that is they say that the bread and wine are only symbols of the body and blood of the Lord. But He didn’t say ‘this is a symbol of My body’ and ‘this is a symbol of My blood’ but ‘this is My body’ and ‘this cup is the new covenant in My blood’. We have what we say, so if we say and think and believe that these are only symbols rather than actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ than that is what they will be. Accordingly the communion service suffers neglect because it has been deprived of its true and holy power. Also substituting juice for wine also detracts seriously from the power and holiness of the Lord’s Supper.
I am in agreement with this comment for the most part, but take some issue with the necessity of using wine. Jesus used wine and only a small amount needs to be consumed. Nevertheless, not everyone is able to drink wine for various reasons. Full communion is still possible without the use of wine for those who seek it.
Check out the post http://revivalministry.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/new-reformation/