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Proclamation
(16th in the series of expositions on Communion delivered on Feb 4, 1979)
1 Cor 11:26 reads:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
The word 'proclaim' is used 18 times in the NT. It is used of proclaiming the Gospel (1 Cor 9:14), the Word of God (Acts 17:13), and especially used to proclaim Christ (Acts 17:3, Phil 1:17,18 Col 1:28), to proclaim the person of Christ including His resurrection (Acts 4:2), the forgiveness of sin through Christ (Acts 13:38), the way of salvation in Christ (Acts 16:17). It is used in the proclamation of the prophets which is centered particularly on the person of Christ. It refers constantly to the oral proclamation done by actions (the acts of eating and drinking). The word 'proclamation' does not have this kind of meaning that we proclaim simply by doing something; it must be an oral proclamation that goes with the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. It tells us what the Early Church did, whenever Communion is celebrated, they would expound or explain something about the meaning of Communion or explain in that connection the meaning of Christ's death, that means preaching His word along with Communion. This practice has almost completely disappeared from the church today.
For the Early Church, the death of the Lord Jesus was a central event which was constantly being proclaimed. This leads us to realize the close relation between Communion and the Jewish Passover. Every time the Jewish Passover was taken, there was a proclamation as to what it means. In Exo 12:27 and 13:8, it is commanded that there must be proclamation (it is not optional). In Exo 13:8,9 it says:
And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, "It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt." And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.
You must explain that every time when you take Passover, what they are doing, the proclamation has become a testimony, to testify the great thing that the Lord has done to us, especially to me. It reminds us of Gal 2:20.
The Early Church explains constantly what they are doing. It is a church that lives and understands what they are doing. In every household of the church, they knew what and why they were doing it. It is an occasion to testify what the Lord has done for me.
The next point worth noticing in [Exo 13] v9 is the sovereignty of God, with God being King. "It shall be a sign to you... that the law of the Lord be in your mouth...". Speaking forth the word of God means to live under His kingship, under His law (being obedient to Him), only so do we partake worthily of the cup (See 1 Cor 11:27).
Doesn't it become repetitive? If all the preaching has only to do with one point on salvation, they have a defect. However, it is also important to realize that there is something which cannot be repeated often enough. In 2 Pet 1:12-15, Peter constantly speaks of the need of a reminder. Peter uses the word 'remind' three times, there are some things which are very important to be reminded of again and again. In this case, Peter is speaking in v11 on how to enter into eternal life, and from v3 onwards about holiness and about the quality of life that the Christian should live. So Peter is reminding them again and again because it pertains to their salvation. The only way to grasp something perfectly is through constant repetition, not in a mechanical manner, it must be practiced with full concentration to discover the errors in order to hit the target. Why do we read the Bible again and again? So repetition is essential, but it depends on how we repeat; in mechanical repetition we will get to nowhere, it is vain repetition.
Another kind is that your mind is concentrated - this is the way that we should come to the Communion. That's why there is proclamation at the Communion that everywhere we can ponder on the death of the Lord which can help us to go a little deeper. That's the secret of spiritual progress. Ponder it spiritually, ever more deeply until the wonder of it begins to seize you. This is precisely where we fall, every time we hear of it, we do not take it to heart.
Have you ever meditated on the death of Christ in such a way that your heart begins to get excited? Tears begin to come down. In Luke 8:18, it says:
Take heed then how you hear.
The problem is how you hear. Maybe sometimes at the Communion, it will hit you what it means that Jesus died for you. Paul in Rom 10:17 says:
So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.
Any kind of faith? Of course not, it depends on how you hear, faith comes by hearing only if you have the right attitude. Notice "...the Lord's death..." (v26). You have to be a Jew to let the force of these words hit you. "The Lord" is the Greek name for Jehovah (o kuvrioV 'o kurios'), so it means 'the death of God for us' in v26. No wonder this became the stumbling block for the Jews - who has ever heard of the death of God? In 1 Tim 3:16: "Great... is the mystery" for God was manifested in the flesh, and it is the love of God that He died for us and bought us with His own blood. If this does not strike you, then Communion would be meaningless to you, but if some wonder of this begins to strike you that God loves you to such an extent that He died for you in the person of Christ, you will never cease to wonder at the death of Jesus. Every time then, when we hear the proclamation, we will go deeper until the richness strikes us. God delivered me out of the bondage of sin - this is not something that others can get you to see; you have to see this yourself or you don't see at all.
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Communion Series:
- Worship
- A Sharing in the Body of Christ
- God's Expression of Love to Us
- Pressing toward the Mark of the High Calling
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