TEXT: Deuteronomy 18:9-11

SUBJECT: Communion with the Living Christ

I wonder if less likely verses have ever been read at the Lord's Table?

The Lord tells His people to avoid "necromancers". What's that? It is a person who conducts a seance'or one who calls up the dead on behalf of the living.

Why should we avoid these people? Most of us would say, "Because they're all frauds or cheats. No one can speak to the dead. If you pay someone to do it, you're throwing your money away". That's very modern of us; very scientific; and very wrong!

The Bible says the dead may be contacted by the living. The witch of Endor conjured up the spirit of dead Samuel who spoke to King Saul. Was it really him? It was. For his word came to pass the very next day. The living witch contacted the dead prophet.

Was this pleasing to God? It wasn't. For He commanded, "Suffer not a witch to live". In brief, the Lord does not want His people to have fellowship with the dead.

I know what you're thinking: "What's this have to do with the Lord's Supper?" Everything. For in I Corinthians 10:16, Paul says,

The implied answer is "yes". Thus, in the Lord's Supper, we have communion (or fellowship) with Jesus Christ.

This means: He is not dead!

Our Lord died on the cross. The Roman soldiers saw Him die. And, being practiced in the art of crucifixion, they knew a dead man when they saw one. His disciples also knew He was dead. They wished otherwise. "We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel, [but] "our rulers delivered Him to...death". Jesus Christ died.

But on the third day, He rose from the dead and entered into a new and eternal life. More than 500 people saw Him alive, including some of the best educated--and most skeptical--men in Israel.

Since that time, millions have said "He is alive". Not because of what they heard in Church or read in the Bible. But because He is alive in their souls.

Jesus Christ is alive. The Lord's Supper, therefore, is more than a rite to remember Him by. It is a time of fellowship for the Church and its Savior.

At the Table,, we don't commune with a dead Man, but with the Man who "lives forever more". So, come on. He wants your fellowship. Come and enjoy His.