Join Rick Hughes in this episode of The Flatline as he unravels the depths of a church ritual often misunderstood—the communion. With a focus on adhering to divine procedures, Rick explains how doing a right thing in a wrong way is rejected by God’s justice, regardless of one’s intentions. Through scripture analysis and practical insights, he guides you to understand and appreciate the critical importance of taking communion with the right mindset, fully aware of its significance in our spiritual lives.
Welcome to The Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the FLOT line, F-L-O-T, FLOT line, Forward Line of Troops. That stands for a main line of resistance in your soul that’s made up of 10 unique problem-solving devices taught in the scripture. I learned them from my pastor years ago. When you learn these 10 problem-solving devices and apply them into your life, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress. That’s why you’ve heard me say adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional. Because adversity is what circumstances do to you and stress is what you do to yourself. So if you’re interested, listen up. Listen to me as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if I can do that, I want you to orient and adjust to the plan. I’m not a pastor. I’m an evangelist. We have radio shows that go all across America every Sunday morning. We operate by faith. We believe that God’s in it. God will pay for it, and we thank you for listening. Thank you for ordering our books. Everything here is free. We don’t sell anything. It’s always for you, and it’s free of charge if you’d like to have it. You can go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, and you can see a list of what we offer and what’s available. I would like to thank you for all of you that have ordered our new book, These Things. I’m certainly glad what you’re getting out of it. You’re enjoying it. And thank you for praying for us as we try to get out this next book, God’s Grace in Aging. And hopefully by the end of November, we’ll have it available to be mailed out. Okay, a lot of things to talk about. I get phone calls every day. I get letters every day from different individuals from California to Maine. And I’m very grateful. I’m grateful to hear the good things, how this show has turned your life around and how many of you are looking for a well-qualified pastor. But in my many years of experience as a Christian minister, I’ve learned one thing. I discovered one thing for sure. There’s one particular church ritual that’s totally misunderstood. That’s what I’d like to talk to you about today, something that people really do not understand. And as a result of not understanding it, they abuse it. Yep, it’s something that’s very critical for you, and you probably have done it recently. It’s a ritual that must be corrected if those who partake in it wish to enjoy happiness. and be free of divine discipline in their life. It’s a church ritual that if you partake in it, you have to understand what you’re doing so you can be happy and free from problems in your life. So the one thing that we all must learn is that God requires absolute adherence to correct procedure. God requires absolute adherence to correct procedure. And when you’re involved in doing this ritual, doing a right thing in a wrong way is absolutely rejected by the justice of God, no matter how honorable your intentions may be. So you have to remember this. God’s plan requires absolute adherence to correct procedure when involving in this ritual. And again, I’m gonna say it one more time, doing a right thing in a wrong way is totally wrong and rejected by the justice of God, no matter how honorable your intentions may have been. So the book that I recently published called These Things, with the help of my associates, this book details the farewell lessons our Lord taught the disciples the last night he was arrested. And it all began in an upper room where they were partaking of the Passover meal, which is a ritual, that they celebrated remembering the freedom and the exodus of the Israelites or the Jewish slaves from Egypt during the time of Pharaoh Ramsey II. This Passover meal celebrated God’s faithful provision to deliver the enslaved people. And after the Passover meal, we find our Lord telling them this would be his last Passover with them until the millennial kingdom was established. And so I’m going to read now from Luke 22, 17 through 20. Listen carefully. You probably have done this ritual. In Luke 22, 17 through 20, then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread and gave it, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. You with me? These words, this do in remembrance of me is a present active imperative in the Greek New Testament of the word poio, poio, do, dio, poio. And it means do this in remembrance or recalling or recollecting what I did. So what we have here from the Lord Jesus Christ is a direct order to the disciples to recall something. They were ordered to establish this ritual in order to recall what he did for them. My body given for you, the new covenant purchased by my blood, his spiritual death on the cross. Luke 22, 20 talks about the Mosaic law is no longer in effect. Christ is now the way to God. It used to have to go through the Mosaic law, but no longer. Now it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So taking the Eucharist elements is a church age worship ceremony that you perform in memory of Jesus Christ. And as a believer, you must concentrate on the person of Christ’s work and his saving work and who he is and what he did when you eat and drink the elements of the ritual so taking communion is a test did you ever think about that it’s a test what kind of test it’s a test to see what you actually remember because he the lord jesus christ wanted them to remember him by having this last meal with them and giving them communion So what I’m talking about is the communion service is a remembrance service. If you’ve taken communion, I hope it’s just not ritual without reality to it. It’s designed to be a test. What kind of test? It’s designed to be a test of what you remember and what you recall about the work of Christ. You know, as well as I do, many times people take communion and don’t really remember anything. Some people even nod off during communion. And some people don’t know what to think. I mean, their minds may wander as they wait for the bread to be passed to them or they wait on the cup to come around to them. And they just let their minds drift and let their minds wander and they don’t really focus on anything. Well, what I want to do today is teach you what you should focus on if you intend to take communion again. Because when you take communion, the very first thing to get correct is to make sure you are in fellowship with God by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Because if you take communion with known sin in your life, you’re doing the right thing, but you’re doing it in the wrong way. May I warn the pastor, if you’re a pastor, if you pastor a church, do not ever offer communion to your congregation without first telling them, don’t take this ritual lightly. It’s not a ritual with no reality to it. There is something that has to be done. It’s a test to see what you can recall or remember about the work of Christ. So Paul wrote about remembering that and warning about taking communion lightly. Listen to what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 30. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take and eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, he also took the cup. And when he had supped, he said, the cup is the new Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord’s death till he comes. Wherefore, here’s a warning now, verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, there’s the word again, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself because he does not discern the Lord’s body. And it is for this reason that many are weak, many are sick, and some are dead. Wow. Did you know that taking communion out of fellowship can do that? You should never, ever put the elements to your lips with known sin in your life. If you have known sin in your life and you have not rebounded, don’t do it because Paul is warning you here. Don’t take it unworthily. Don’t take it out of fellowship. Now, what do I mean about that? Well, I mean, you were indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God when you got saved, Ephesians 1.13. And in Ephesians 5.18, you’re told to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. That’s how the Christian life functions. That’s how it works. You are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit when you take communion. The opposite of being filled with the Holy Spirit is being under control of your sin nature. and you’re out of fellowship with God, unconfessed sin in your life, you’re doing the right thing, taking communion ritual, but you’re doing it in the wrong way. Moses did the right thing in the wrong way at Meribah when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, got him in a big jam. God expects you to understand this is not a joke. This is very serious. Do this in remembrance of me. Don’t play games with God. Don’t play religious games with God, especially with God’s sacraments. When God says that a certain thing is to be done in a certain way, he means do it this way. So as you can see, God expects us to follow his orders, not our own emotions. That’s where we get in trouble. This leads us to communion and why many believers are sick, why many believers are ill, and why some believers may even be dead. When you receive communion, don’t do so with known sin in your life because sin breaks fellowship with God and quenches the Holy Spirit. Thus, doing a right thing in a wrong way is simply, literally an insult to our Lord. In regards to the Lord’s mandate, do this in remembrance of me, you may wonder what exactly am I supposed to remember? Please do not forget that the bread or the wafer that you’re going to consume when you take communion represents the body of the Lord which was laid down for you. And when you take that element, remember things and thank God for them because they were necessary in order for our Lord to be qualified to redeem us out of the slave market of sin. If they weren’t necessary, he couldn’t have done it. He could not have saved you if he didn’t meet these requirements. So when you take communion bread, a wafer, when you put it in your mouth, think about these things. Number one, The bread represents the body of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, the anointed Son of God. And when we take that bread, we’re remembering the body of Christ, okay? Sure. There’s some things you have to remember about the body of Christ that are really unique. So let me ask you this. What do you know about the body of Christ that is unique? You say, well, I’m just taking the wafer, and I say this is the body of Christ. But what do you mean by that? So let’s talk about that for a minute. The first thing you should remember when you bow your head and you take that wafer and the pastor tells you take and eat, you’re remembering first of all the virgin birth. He was born of a virgin. That’s what you remember. When you put that thing in your mouth, you’re remembering my Lord was born of a virgin. It’s critical you remember this, because Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, therefore it had nothing to do with any sin. Why is that necessary? Well, he had to be virgin born, and the reason is because Adam’s original sin is the origin of sin in the human race. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, could have nothing to do with sin, or he would not have been qualified to go to the cross and redeem us out of the slave market of sin. He would not have been the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish had he not been born of a virgin. Romans 5, 12 tells us, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and now death has passed on all, because all have sinned, but not Christ. He was not born of a man, he was born of a virgin. No man had anything to do with his birth. Listen to Matthew 1, 18. Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise. When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, that means before they had sex, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. And then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, was not willing to make her a public example, but put it to mind to put her away privately. But while he thought upon these things, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, Do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all of this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the Lord by the prophet, saying these words. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had told him to do and married his wife and did not know her until they had had their first child. Later, of course, they had other children. The fact that no man had anything to do with Mary’s pregnancy is indeed proof positive, 100%, that our Lord did not receive the imputation of Adam’s original sin upon his birth because the sin nature is passed down through the man. And had Jesus been conceived by the seed of Joseph, he would have received Joseph’s sin nature. Had the Lord been conceived by the act of procreation, Joseph would have given him the sin nature, and we would have had a flawed Savior, and our Savior would not have been in the same, he would have been in exactly the same boat as us, needing to be redeemed himself. So thank goodness our Father planned a miracle. the miracle birth of a virgin conception when you put that wafer in your mouth you better remember that he was born of a virgin secondly what else should i remember that that bread represents his celebrity ship think about that superficial human celebrity ship is nothing compared to the true celebrity of the universe which is jesus christ our lord And when we consider the impact of this event, we realize that no other person’s birth in the history of the world was announced by an angel. Nobody, no messenger from God announced anyone else’s birth except Jesus. Listen to Luke 2. Here we go. Identifying the real celebrity of the universe. Here it is, Luke 2, 8 through 14. There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field. keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were afraid. And the angel said unto them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. That is his divine celebrity ship. and it is much more recognized than any human celebrity status. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, is the most influential person in the history of the world. Yes, celebrity ship, that piece of bread represents a celebrity ship. He is what is known as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So when you put the wafer in your mouth, remember that. He’s virgin born, he is a celebrity. But it also represents something else. It represents what we call impeccability. This concept recognizes that during his entire life he never sinned. His whole time he was on this earth, he never committed one sin. You could also call this the hypostatic union, meaning he’s God and man in one body forever. As God, he could not sin. As man, he was able not to sin. He never sinned. Never, so he was impeccable. So when you drink the cup, what should you recall? You recall his virgin birth. You recall his celebrity ship. You recall his impeccability. You recall his sacrifice on that cross and how it removed the barrier between God and man. He did it. He removed the barrier between God and man. Romans 5, 8, God committed his love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This act of substitution provided peace between God and man. It’s because of that redemption that you and I can be reconciled to God. We were reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. The barrier to God is removed. God was satisfied with the payment made by his son. 2 Corinthians 5, 19. To this witness, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the very word of reconciliation. So what does that cup represent to you? Well, when you put that cup to your lips and you begin to drink it, first of all, you’ve got to remember that you’re redeemed. That cup represents your redemption. My redemption from what? Out of the slave market of sin. I’m redeemed out of the slave market of sin. If I’m a believer, if I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior, I am no longer under judgment. I have been redeemed. I have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death on the cross bought your salvation. And because of that redemption, now we are reconciled, another R word. We’re redeemed and we’re reconciled to God. That means the barrier between God and man is removed because God is satisfied and God was justified by the payment that his son made for us. I read it to you. Let me read it again. 2 Corinthians 5, 19. To this witness, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and had committed unto us the very word of reconciliation. Well, who did he commit the trespasses to? To Christ. To Christ. Christ paid for our sin. All of our sins were dumped out on him on the cross. That’s why he cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because on that cross, our sins were put upon him, and he paid our penalty for our sin. No one else could have done that. Only the perfect lamb of God, born of a virgin, only the perfect lamb of God, the only true celebrity, only the perfect lamb of God that was impeccable could pay for your sin and my sin. And he did it. He bought us out of the slave market of sin. So when you put that cup to your lips and you drink that cup after having eaten the wafer, remember this. This is your sanctification. Yes, sanctification. What does that mean? You have been set apart to God through positional sanctification. That means that the Holy Spirit has come to seal you until the day of redemption. He has sealed you until the day of redemption. You have been positionally sanctified, set apart until the day of redemption. There’s positional sanctification, there’s experiential sanctification. What does that mean? It means that if you are a believer, When you use 1 John 1, 9 and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, you’re experientially sanctified. But you can break fellowship with God by committing personal sin, get under control of your sin nature, and then you have to rebound to get back in fellowship where you belong. Ultimate sanctification is when you go to heaven, you get a new body, a resurrection body. What a wonderful day that will be. But we’re talking about what? Your position of truth, position of sanctification. That cup, when you put it to your lips and you take a drink of that juice that you’re drinking, remember that. I have been set apart to God through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that cup also represents propitiation. Propitiation. Propitiation. Romans 3.25, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood because or through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. In God’s long suffering, God passed over the sins. You and I, we should be going to the lake of fire. You know that. We should be in the lake of fire. For by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and now death is passed on all men. And we are spiritually dead until we come to Christ and are redeemed and reconciled and born again. That could never happen if we didn’t know what he did with his body, if we didn’t know what that cup represents. If you just sit there and put it in your mouth and don’t think about these things, that’s an insult. If you just sit there and try to take communion, go through the ritual with no reality, thinking it’s going to bring you good luck or something special, that’s an insult. The Lord Jesus Christ said, this is a test. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember what I did for you. Remember what my body represented. Remember what my blood represented. Finally, that cup represents regeneration. We’re a new creature. If any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things become new. Remember, communion is a test to see what you can recall. Don’t let it become ritual without reality. And don’t take communion with sin in your life. I warn you, don’t do that. I’d read that to you earlier. I’d like to go over it one more time with you before we wrap this show up. So I’m going to back up just for a minute in my notes and get this passage out of here. And remember, All right, here we go. 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 30. Paul wrote this to the church at Corinth. Let a man examine himself, in verse 28, let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Examine himself means to make sure you’re in fellowship. For he that eats and drinketh unworthily, that’s out of fellowship with unconfessed sin in his life, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself because he does not discern the Lord’s body. It is because of this that many are weak, many are sick, and many are dead. Wow. That’s how serious this is. So when is the last time you took communion? Do you remember? What did you do during communion when the elements were passed? What did you do with them What did you recall? What did you remember as the Lord Jesus Christ instructed his disciples? Do this in remembrance of me. What exactly did you remember? Did you remember that he was born a virgin? Did you remember that he’s the only true celebrity? Did you remember that he was impeccable? And when you put that cup up to your lips, what did you remember? Did you remember how he redeemed you out of the slave market of sin? how God commanded his love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Did you remember that? Did you remember that you are now reconciled to God and sanctified and set apart through propitiation? Romans 3.25, God set forth as a propitiation by means of his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because of his long suffering. Did you remember a generation that you’ve been redeemed, made new, you’re a new person? A brand new person in Christ. That’s the neatest thing in the world to know. That you’ve been born again. You’ve had your physical birth. Now you’ve had your spiritual birth. And you are a new person in Christ. What a wonderful thought that is. Did you know that? So the next time you take communion, don’t go in there and just kind of sleep through it. Don’t go in there and just forget about it. Don’t make it a ritual with no reality to it. I hope you wrote these things down. If you didn’t, let us know. We’ll get you a copy of them. But you should remember these things when you take communion. It’s a test. And if you’re a pastor, I hope you will teach this to your congregation. Teach them not to take communion out of fellowship and teach them what they’re supposed to think during communion. I hope you will do that. My prayer is you’ll do that. And I pray this has been instrumental in helping you understand because I’ve had several people write to me and ask me about communion. And this is the truth. This is what you need to understand about communion. All right, if you want to contact us, that’s easy to do. You can always call 800-831-0718, 800-831-0718. I remind you, I’m not a counselor. I’m an evangelist. I’m not here to counsel you of your problems. I’m here to direct you to a well-qualified pastor where you can learn God’s Word, apply it into your life, and glorify God to the maximum. Until next week, thank you for listening. Please come back. Stay with us. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
