Greeting Members and Friends
It time once again for our weekly Sunday School preview so thanks for joining me and welcome back. “An Everlasting Covenant” is our November unit focus. This Sunday’s lesson entitled “Remembering the Covenant” is about how to think about and partake of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is one of two ordinances or observances in the Missionary Baptist church. The other one is baptism. Both of these were commanded of the Lord and both serve a special role in the church.
The Lord’s Supper was instituted by our Lord in order for the church to remember and refocus on His mission, the sacrifice that was made on behalf of the church and our role in carrying on the work Christ left for His church to do. The scripture text of the lesson indicates that the church at Corinth was not observing this sacred ordinance in the matter it is intended. Evidently, they were incorporating it in their social gatherings or “love feast” where food and wine and other social practices of their day and culture were taking place even to the point of excess.
To partake of the Lord’s Supper in this matter was “unworthy” of the ordinance and made light of the blood and body of the Lord. To do such a thing also brought into question the sincerity of their repentance of their sins and commitment to the Lordship of Christ. But they were young in the faith, unfamiliar with the requirements of a holy God and were still engaging in many of the ungodly practices of their culture. They had to be taught the proper way to do things and be weaned off of the ungodly habits they were accustomed too.
The Lord’s Supper is therefore a solemn separate time set aside in the life of the Church for the members to reflect on the sacrifice of the Captain of our salvation and to examine our own lives in light of that sacrifice. It is a time for the body to reassert its bond to one another and commitment of fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord to reach the world with the gospel. We must be careful not to repeat it too often that it becomes meaningless ritual or too infrequent that we lose sight of the urgency and focus of our calling. To get a fuller understanding of this lesson read the daily SS readings found in your SS book and on our website and mobile app. Well, that’s all for this week’s preview. Be sure to join us in Sunday School this week for a fuller discussion of this lesson and the general topic of an everlasting covenant. So, until then
Grace and peace
Pastor Jordan
