How to Receive Communion: Eight Attitudes of Grace

Communion comes in many forms, from outdoor chapels and crowded conferences to living rooms and nursing homes, with homemade bread, crackers, common cups, or individual servings. The Lord’s Table is not finally defined by its logistics, because God has honored many settings and given grace through them. The question is how Christ’s people receive what he offers.

Jesus links humility to communion when he washes his disciples’ feet before the Last Supper. Humility admits the need for grace, but it also does the harder thing: it receives grace rather than holding it at arm’s length. The Eucharist, a word that means thanksgiving, calls Christ’s people to recognize salvation as the most wonderful, needed, sacrificially offered gift ever. Thankfulness keeps the Table from becoming something casually consumed without noticing its cost.

The disciples model vulnerability when each one asks, “Am I the one, Lord?” Jesus’ warning about betrayal does not leave the blame safely on Judas; it exposes the possibility of sin in every heart. Vulnerability invites Christ’s rebuke, correction, and forgiveness instead of protecting hidden rebellion. Paul then makes consideration unavoidable, because communion belongs not merely to Jesus and an individual but to Jesus and his church. The Corinthians treated the meal as a private possession, shaming the poor and disregarding the body of Christ. Consideration therefore treats relationships within the church as seriously as relationship with Christ himself.

The bread and cup also call for awe. Communion uses simple, common elements to convey the loftiest reality: participation in Christ’s body, blood, death, and resurrection. Awe does not mean crawling to God as though he has not invited his people; it means receiving his invitation with deep respect and wonder. Joy belongs beside awe because the risen Christ makes forgiveness and adoption real even when burdens, wounds, and questions remain.

Communion also resists mechanical routine through expectancy. Christ invites his people into a living conversation at his table, where he may meet, encourage, correct, empower, or reassure them. Yearning looks beyond the present moment toward the Father’s kingdom, because every taste announces Christ’s death until he comes again. The Table is an appetizer, not the banquet itself. Christ’s people receive a little taste now so that they will long for the fullness still ahead.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Receive grace with real humility. Humility is more than agreeing that sin exists. Humility stops trying to manage grace on personal terms and accepts the lowly, serving love of Christ. Jesus’ towel and basin show that the Lord who deserves all honor comes near enough to cleanse his people. [36:28]
• 2. Let gratitude honor Christ’s costly gift. Thankfulness sees the bread and cup as far more than familiar religious objects. Ingratitude turns the greatest gift into something handled carelessly, like a child smashing a gift because it was not the preferred brand. Gratitude receives salvation as undeserved mercy, given at immeasurable cost. [39:36]
• 3. Invite Christ to expose hidden rebellion. Vulnerability asks, “Am I the one, Lord?” rather than assuming failure belongs only to somebody else. Confession becomes honest when the heart permits Christ to name what it would rather conceal. Forgiveness is not threatened by that exposure; forgiveness is precisely what makes such honesty possible. [41:04]
• 4. Treat Christ’s body with consideration. Communion cannot be separated from the people Christ has joined together. Paul’s warning shows that contempt for fellow believers corrupts participation at the Table itself. Love for Christ takes concrete form in patience, fairness, shared concern, and refusal to shame those he has welcomed. [44:02]
• 5. Come hungry for the coming kingdom. Communion gives a real taste of Christ now, but it also creates longing for what remains unfinished. The bread and cup announce that death will not have the final word and that Christ will come again. The appetizer is meant to awaken hunger for the banquet in the Father’s kingdom.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [31:50] - Many Ways Communion Is Served
• [35:01] - How Communion Is Received
• [35:21] - Humility at the Table
• [37:05] - Thankfulness for Grace
• [39:58] - Vulnerability and Confession
• [41:27] - Consideration for Christ’s Body
• [44:20] - Awe and Joy in Communion
• [49:11] - Expectancy: Meeting the Living God
• [51:56] - Yearning for the Coming Banquet
• [54:12] - Eight Ways to Come to the Table

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 11:23-34
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.”

Observation questions

1. What problems in the Corinthian church does Paul identify when they gather for the Lord’s Supper, especially in the way some people treat those with less? [42:16]
2. According to 1 Corinthians 11:23–34, what actions does Paul tell the church to take before and during their gathering for communion?
3. What does Paul mean by “honoring the body of Christ,” and how does the passage connect this to the way believers treat one another? [43:04]
4. What different settings and ways of serving communion were described, and what was identified as more important than the logistics? [34:48]

Interpretation questions

1. Why does Paul treat the Corinthians’ selfish behavior at the Lord’s Table as more than bad manners or poor hospitality? What does it reveal about their understanding of Christ and his church? [44:02]
2. How does self-examination in 1 Corinthians 11 differ from trying to make oneself worthy enough to receive grace? How can examination lead to repentance and forgiveness rather than fear?
3. Why is communion both personal and shared? How does the truth that believers are one body change the meaning of receiving the bread and cup together? [41:37]
4. Paul says that communion announces the Lord’s death “until he comes.” How does that future hope keep communion from becoming only a remembrance of the past? [52:34]

Application questions

1. Humility includes not only admitting a need for grace but also receiving it. Where might pride make it difficult to receive Christ’s forgiveness, help, or correction? [36:33]
2. Gratitude recognizes salvation as a costly and undeserved gift. What practices could help a believer approach communion with fresh thankfulness rather than treating it as a familiar routine? [39:38]
3. The disciples’ question, “Am I the one, Lord?” leaves room for Jesus to expose sin rather than assuming the problem belongs to someone else. What is one area of attitude, behavior, or relationship that may need honest examination before God? [41:00]
4. Communion calls believers to take their relationship with the church as seriously as their relationship with Christ. Is there someone in the church toward whom there is impatience, avoidance, resentment, or indifference? What step toward consideration or reconciliation might be possible? [44:10]
5. Awe and joy belong together at Christ’s Table: awe at his holy sacrifice and joy in forgiveness and adoption. Which of these is easier for you to experience, and which one do you need God to deepen? [48:35]
6. Communion is an opportunity to meet with the living God, who may encourage, correct, empower, or reassure his people. What do you most need Christ to do in you or say to you right now? [50:36]
7. The Lord’s Table gives a taste of the coming kingdom and awakens hunger for what is still ahead. How does hope in Christ’s return shape the way you face a present burden, disappointment, or longing? [52:44]