At the front of many restaurant menus is a section entitled “Appetizers.” These delicious items are intended to whet your appetite and tide you over until the main course is delivered. You probably have a favorite appetizer on the menu of some restaurant. Maybe it is chips and salsa, guacamole, an awesome blossom (extra awesome), or hot wings. Whatever your fancy, every time you order these items it is a special treat in advance of the main event.
When Jesus gathered with His disciples in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion to celebrate the Passover meal together, He took bread and wine and informed His disciples of their new symbolic significance. Every time the disciples were to eat this bread and drink that wine from that day forward, they were to remember the Body and Blood of Christ that would be sacrificed the next day to provide forgiveness for their sins. As followers of Christ today, we still partake of these elements on a regular basis looking back in memorial on the once and for all death of Christ for our sins.
Before Jesus ended that first “Last Supper” with His disciples, however, He said one more peculiar thing. Jesus says in Matthew 26:29, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” What an amazing statement by the Savior! Jesus was actually setting a dinner date with His dudes. He was reserving a table for 13 to celebrate His return and establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth. Jesus was promising to come back and fellowship with His followers over some bread and wine. Guess what . . . as believers in Jesus Christ, He has also offered us a dinner reservation with Him upon His triumphant return to earth! In a sense, Jesus was telling His disciples that the symbolic communion meal they were to eat was merely an appetizer, whetting their appetite for fellowship and preparing them for the main event of His second coming which was would one day occur.
This Sunday at Wildwood, we will be continuing our series on 1 John by looking at 1 John 2:28-3:3. At the conclusion of this message we will be sharing communion together. We will be having symbolic bread and juice in memorial of what Christ has done in the past, and looking forward to the day we will eat with Him face to face in the future. Our passage in 1 John talks about us living in light of Christ’s second coming, so it will prove a fitting communion passage for us to consider. Check out these verses before Sunday, and join us in either our 9:30 or 10:50 services. Hope to see you there!