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What is the significance of the Lord’s Table?  What is it about this time that makes it so important?  Why do churches go through all of the trouble of setting aside the morning services for that ordinance? 

     Communion is important to us because through it we are partaking in the presence of Christ.  Back in church history, during the reformation, there was an influential theologian named Ulrich Zwingli.  Zwingli only saw communion as nothing more than a memorial.  On the other hand, when it came to communion, John Calvin went beyond just seeing it as a memorial.  Calvin understood that when we take the elements, we are experiencing the spiritual presence of Jesus in a mystical way.  He was right.  We are fellowshipping with the living Christ, and not just thinking of the memory of Jesus’ death 2000 years ago.  We partake in His presence now!  He is with us at this very moment.  1 Corinthians 10:16 brings this out:  “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?”

     The word that is used for “sharing” is koinonia and it means “to have in common, to have partnership and to participate with.”  Frequently the word is translated “fellowship”.  When you share in communion, you are participating in spiritual fellowship with Jesus.  It’s more than a symbol. It’s a profound partaking of His presence. 

     Communion is also important because by it we are exhorted to cleave only to Christ.  God wants our devotion to Him to be unrivaled.  When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are to come with absolute loyalty.  During World War II, Vice-Admiral Takijiro Ohnishi, commander of the Japanese naval forces in the Philippines, sensed the Japanese planes and pilots were inferior to the U.S. forces.  He concluded that there was only one chance for success, and that was to crash-dive bomb-laden zero fighters on to the U.S. carrier decks.  And so as the war in the Pacific closed in on their homeland, some 4000 aviators intentionally crash-dived their planes into U.S. ships.  Those suicide squads came to be known as kamikaze fliers.  Can you imagine the degree of dedication and devotion which those kamikaze pilots must have had?  What allegiance to their cause!  Many of them must have been young men in their twenties or thirties with their whole lives ahead of them.  No doubt, quite a few were married and had children at home. 

     I wonder how many of us are that devoted to Christ.  I wonder how many of us have that level of unrivaled devotion.  Now listen, it is with the loyalty of a devoted kamikaze flier that God wants us to be exclusively given over to Him.  We need to follow the orders of our Commander no matter what the price is, especially if the Lord’s Table is going to be a holy communion.  Our loyalty to Christ, our commander, should be a given.  This was the Apostle Paul’s concern based on I Corinthians 16:20-22:  “I say that the things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.  Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we?”  I don’t think so.  His plea is that we separate ourselves from idolatry.  I trust that you are cleaving only to the Lord these days, and not bowing the knee to any other god.

     Please join us at Bear Valley Church this Sunday morning as we worship the Lord.  Our services are at 8:15 am, 9:45 am and 11:15 am.  If you live outside of Bear Valley Springs, please call the office at (661) 821-0183 for a gate pass.