Preparing for corporate worship

Covenant Community Church will observe the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, July 1, which is our custom on the first Lord’s Day of the month. In writing about this memorial meal, the apostle Paul said in I Cor. 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” God’s Word explains in this verse that part of this observance is gospel proclamation. Everyone who partakes of communion is preaching the gospel of Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is not only a means of remembering what Christ has done for us, but it is a means of declaring the good news of His saving work – to one another, to unbelievers who may be present, to the unseen beings who observe what we are doing. For instance, we are proclaiming to the demons the sufficiency of Jesus’ work – that His death has atoned for sin and delivered captives from their clutches. This is not the only time participants in corporate worship proclaim the gospel. We also do it when we sing gospel-focused songs and read gospel-drenched passages corporately. The Lord’s Supper is, however, a God-ordained means of gospel declaration we should be aware of as we partake of the bread and cup. May we do so this Sunday.