HOLY COMMUNION SERVICE, EBCC DELHI
Time: 11 A.M.
Place: EBC Church, Nasirpur, New Delhi
The Worship Service started with the Local Pastor reading from the Scripture and having the opening prayer. Praise and Worship was led by the Worship Team. The congregation then had mass prayer and Upa Chinsum dedicated the monetary offerings to the Lord.
This Sunday’s program is Holy Communion Service. Before the Communion Service, the Local Pastor had a short sermon, talking about the message/story of the Cross. Reading 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”, he dwelt on the meaning/significance of the Cross. He quoted from the William Barclay’s Commentary on the five meanings/significance of the Cross:
There is the claim that the great promised time of God has come.
- There is a summary of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
- There is a claim that all this was the fulfilment of prophecy.
- There is the assertion that Jesus will come again.
- There is an urgent invitation to men to repent and receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Pastor said that the Cross signifies the above five points and not just being a mere Christian. He explained the meaning of the words “those who are perishing” in 1 Corinthians 1:18 by quoting John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Thus, the term “those who are perishing” mean those who do not believe in Christ. Among those who do not believe in Christ, the Jews and the Greeks are included.
(i) To the Jews that message was a stumbling-block. There were two reasons.
(a) To them it was incredible that one who had ended life upon a cross could possibly be God's Chosen One. They pointed to their own law which unmistakably said, "He that is hanged is accursed by God." (Deut.21:23). To the Jew the fact of the crucifixion, so far from proving that Jesus was the Son of God, disproved it finally. It may seem extraordinary, but even with Isa.53 before their eyes, the Jews had never dreamed of a suffering Messiah. The Cross to the Jew was and is an insuperable barrier to belief in Jesus.
(b) The Jew sought for signs. In Jesus they saw one who was meek and lowly, one who deliberately avoided the spectacular, one who served and who ended on a Cross--and it seemed to them an impossible picture of the Chosen One of God.
(ii) To the Greeks the message was foolishness. Again there were two reasons.
(a) To the Greek idea the first characteristic of God was apatheia. That word means more than apathy; it means total inability to feel. The Greeks argued that if God can feel joy or sorrow or anger or grief it means that some man has for that moment influenced God and is therefore greater than he. So, they went on to argue, it follows that God must be incapable of all feeling so that none may ever affect him. A God who suffered was to the Greeks a contradiction in terms.
(b) The Greek sought wisdom. They believe in gnostics/gnosticism whose tenet is “Ignorance is evil/sin”. But ignorance is not sin/evil. Knowledge is good and we should all seek it. But knowledge without Godliness leads to the path of trouble.
Thereafter, the Local Pastor conducted the Holy Communion Service with the help of the Deacons. All the baptized and eligible Members of the Church took sacrament in accordance with Jesus’ instruction at the Last Supper when he gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and gave them wine, saying: "This is my blood”.
The Pastor then had benediction and the service concluded.
-Joyful Tonsing,
(Media Team)
