Communion: Common-Union

COMMON-UNION
(That the World may Know...!)

Our sole objective is to get people to Jesus by making Him known. He does the working of transformation by transforming the human heart. This is the power of the Gospel which is to be demonstrated in all the world–and then the end shall come!

This is the central theme of Christ’s Departure Discourse: John 13:1-17:26. We must see this as a continuum and desperately reach out for its reality in our lives in this hour.

At the center of their gathering is the Table of the Lord - an altar! If we are to demonstrate the reality of our Living Lord in the earth we must begin here–there is no way around - no shortcuts. Our response to the drawing of the Father to the Son is worship–this is the only acceptable response. Romans12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (And we cannot crawl off the altar.)

For Christ Mary’s womb was an altar, the manger was an altar–the Cross was an altar toward which He was gazing.

See the causative effect of the altar in the relationship of Christ with His disciples - even the betrayer. John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. (Also: Philippians 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.)

The expediency of the altar and the subsequent deed serve to flush out the perpetrator. Unrighteousness cannot remain in this context–good and evil, light and darkness cannot coexist at the altar of the Lord. “Common-union” requires openness and transparency. (D.A. Carson - “Christian zeal divorced from transparent humility sounds hollow, even pathetic.”)

We evangelicals have something to learn from our liturgical brethren. The Table of the Lord - the Altar - is at the center of their worship. (We all have some form of liturgy.) For us the center of our worship is the pulpit - a man!

At an altar the blood is shed - the blood establishes (ratifies) the covenant. Luke 22:20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

The altar itself is not the covenant–it is the basis for the covenant. Hebrews 9:16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

Covenant is the heritage of this land. From 1680-88 18,000 Scottish Covenanters gave their lives for their belief. They were covenanted toward God with one another for the good of their land.

Dutch Sheets, “(We must) lay down our own agendas for the good of the region.” Each individual member or organ of the body does not exist to seek its own agenda, it only exists for the good of the whole–and their it finds its relevancy.

Leviticus 17:11 ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’

The life is in the blood: covenant gives birth to the community - the Body of Christ!

1 Cor. 10:16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

Josh McDowell - “All truth is taught (reveled) in the context of relationships–throughout all of biblical history.”

The Community/Body is the place of His Presence. It is where He dwells by His Spirit (Eph. 2:19-22 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,...). It is also His House or the place He conducts His business. Luke 2:49 And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Or affairs; lit. in the things of My Father.)

“God is not just saving individuals and preparing them for heaven; rather, he is creating a people among whom he can live and who in their life together will reproduce God’s life and character.”1

The community is the witness in the world–to make Him known. Even to this extent: Eph. 3:10 “...in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

This is the way we - the church - will recapture relevance in our society - there is no other way. We must present truth in new (old) way. The way we are doing it in the Western Word is not working. Even 9-11 could not shock our hearts back to life. A blip appeared on the screen, but soon faded.

“The early believers did not have buildings called ‘churches’; they did not ‘go to church.’ They were the church, and at appointed times and places they assembled as the church (1 Cor. 11:18).”2

John 12:20 Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; 21 these therefore came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came, and they *told Jesus. 23 And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Gordon D. Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God, Hendrickson, Peabody, MA, 1996, p. 66