Sermon Outline

Key Verse: Acts.2:42

Main Points:

  1. Communion brings an impartation from the saints: Matthew 18:20
  2. Communion unites the Head and the Body: Colossians 2:19
  3. Communion builds our spirit: 2 Kings 2:9
  4. Communion increases our faith: Romans 1:12
  5. Communion increases the dominion of our spirit: 2 Kings 5:26
  6. Communion brings power and unity of spirits: Psalms 1:1
  7. Communion should have boundaries: Saul and Jonathan

Additional References:

  1. 1 Corinthians 14:26
  2. Deuteronomy 32:30
  3. John 6:63
  4. Colossians 2: 5

 

Sermon

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts.2:42).

This is the communion of saints. The first believers who gathered in Jerusalem had heard the teachings of Jesus directly. They wanted to put it into practice and do it completely. Today we only attempt to live like this. It is not right to say this is simply a historical fact that we don’t need to follow. They stayed in the Word. Remember, at that time there was no written New Testament. The apostles, who had met Jesus and heard from Him, were literally the only walking talking New Testament. There has to be a communion of the saints.

A lot of major problems arise because people don’t come together. But there is a principle of communion of the saints that must be observed. People don’t realize that this communion is God ordained. You don’t realize it but God brings people together. At times He sends one person who can be a blessing for you. You need to know that sometimes in Holy Communion there is more that comes from God – somebody might suddenly come and have something for your life. I want you to know that our spirits are not bound by this physical body. Everyone who walks with God does not only have the gift of the Holy Spirit in his life. Didn’t Paul say, “How is it brethren when you come together everyone of you has a psalm, a doctrine, has tongues, has revelation, has an interpretation?” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

Communion brings an impartation from the saints

We meet together not just to have a good time but also for an impartation. Yes me tell you, when I just came to the Lord, about 10-12 of us used to meet together. But I used to be seeking God, praying and meditating. I didn’t meet anyone of them. Then the Lord showed me that there were some things in their lives and spirits that they had harnessed, gathered and imparted into my life in ways that my mind didn’t comprehend or understand. If I have reached this level of spirituality, it is because of the communion of the saints. There is always an impartation when saints gather together. There is power when we gather together. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in My name I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

When we come together there is a blessing. You know Peter had fished the whole night but had not caught a single fish. But in the morning a multitude of people had gathered around Jesus and He went into a ship and preached. What was the result? Blessings were released in Peter’s life. He miraculously caught fish. Not only that, Jesus connected with Peter and made him a fisher of men.

Communion unites the Head and the Body

The Holy Spirit always changes us when we gather together. Our spirits are changed and He puts something unprecedented there so that our spirit has the necessary quality and quantity to impart to others. You don’t realize when it happens. When I come here to preach and teach here is an impartation. God has imparted something in me to be a blessing to many here. Some might say, “I will learn from Jesus directly at home.” But you don’t have complete perfection there. There you are attached to the head but not to the body. The head is the main part but the body is complete only when all the other parts also are together. Then there is a flow of energy, power and revelation. It is written “and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together increase with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:19).

Some are no longer part of Christ because the whole body is not together. Every joint does something for you. You don’t realize what happens when a believer comes together and joins with another believer. The Bible says, “One can chase one thousand two can chase ten thousand” (Deuteronomy 32:30). You can imagine the power that operates in Holy Communion. God is a Spirit and when we gather together as spirit beings, He works through our spirit.

Communion builds our spirit

Remember what Elijah told Elisha when he was about to be taken away? Elijah said, “Ask what I shall do for thee, just ask” (2 Kings 2:9). Now these are very special moments, very special which occur only after you have come into a deep communion. Elijah and Elisha had been together for 10 years. You don’t know the power of communion. It’s not just coming to church and then running back home as soon as it is over. There has to be a holy communion.

It is about coming close, connecting with each other and is related to faith. Elisha replied, “I want a double portion of your spirit.” Notice he didn’t say, “I want double portion of the Holy Spirit.” No. It is a personal pronoun “your spirit”. Let us not try to dissect this theologically – we know it is finally a form of the Holy Spirit. You can similarly argue that in Galatians the fruit of the spirit is the fruit of the human spirit and of the Holy Spirit. I take it to be both. It is the fruit of my spirit but it is also the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is because now I am so in union with Him that the union is producing something. It is mine and yet is His; it is His and yet it is mine. You find this principle in the scriptures. Elisha said: “Give me a double portion of your spirit.” – Personal pronoun. Did he know about the Holy Spirit? Of course he did. Those people knew the Holy Spirit. But what he wanted was the quality Elijah had developed in his spirit. The communion of the saints is not as easy as we think – it’s not just gathering around a table to eat. No. That is just physical fellowship and soul fellowship. The spiritual aspect of it is not done so easily. It takes preparation of hearts, preparation of lives, the kind of union we have in Him and walking in the light together. Elijah said to Elisha: “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken off, it will be done for you.” And it happened, and he (Elisha) got it.

Communion increases our faith

So many believers miss this power because they don’t believe in a church and in coming together. This is why their lives are always spiralling down. Paul writes, “that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me” (Romans 1:12). Paul could not live without the Holy Communion. He writes, “I long to visit you so I can share a spiritual blessing with you that will help you grow strong in the Lord” (verse 11). Do you see this? There is always an impartation but then he also says, “I am eager to encourage you in faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way each of us will be a blessing to the other” (verse 12 paraphrased). He then said, “I planned to visit you many times but I was hindered” (verse 13). The devil hinders and doesn’t want you to receive any impartation. Most of the impartations in the initial stages of my development came from the fellowship with the saints. Do you know that the impartation upon Elisha was so strong that he did double the number of miracles of Elijah? He walked powerfully in the spirit that he received from Elijah.

You don’t know what you are missing beloved. During this time of pandemic the devil hit the fellowship in the church. One person said, “God didn’t want the churches to thrive so he shut them down”. You don’t know it is the devils work, not God’s work.

Communion increases the dominion of our spirit

What did Elisha tell Gehazi? “Didn’t my spirit go with you?” (2 Kings 5:26). There is something in the development of our human spirit when it attains a certain quality and ability. John the Baptist was said to have the spirit of Elijah. So powerful did that man (Elijah) walk that his spirit man rose. Do you know our spirit man can grow? Your spirit can grow so powerful that it exercises dominion over a large extent – geographically and chronologically over the generations. In the Bible Paul’s spirit still lives and still imparts. In John 6:63, Jesus says: “My words are spirit and they are life.” Jesus still imparts. Paul’s spirit still lives and still imparts, through his writings.

Not only that, sometimes it is possible for our spirit to travel and move for impartation into the lives of others. Paul says in Colossians 2: 5, “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” He says “my spirit is with you” and it is not just a figure of speech because a figure of speech does not have the quality or the ability to see what is going on. But Paul says: “I can see you and I can behold what you are doing.” His spirit was translated into the Colossian churches and he could see, understand, experience and know what they were going through. When Elisha said these words to Gehazi, Gehazi had secretly asked some things from Naaman who had healed, thinking that Elisha wouldn’t know. So Elisha said, “Didn’t my spirit go with you?” The spirit realm is just like this.

Communion brings power and unity of spirits

In another message I will share about how we have communion with the saints who have gone before us. Something is imparted every time we unite. In the earthly sense, the communion of the saints is very powerful. The day will come when we will understand this realm and our spirits will know how to have communion. You can be there, I can be here and as we spend time with God, our spirits will meet in heaven. Hallelujah! The Bible says we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. I don’t know when, but a day will come, where for a time and a moment we will be gathered together in the heavenly places. Sometimes people ask me how I know certain things and say, “Today’s message was just for me. You gave the message and ministered to me. I was healed/I was blessed/I was delivered.” I know it because my spirit has been with the person in need. At times I know exactly what you are going through when I stand to preach. Don’t be shocked. Some of you who are married understand this because when your loved ones do something you know it. Something happens in their life and you know it. Like between twins. I know the feelings of my twin brother. I know his likes and dislikes as he knows mine. How? – We are twins. Some things we just know. A wife knows when her husband is walking down the stairs. She hears a sound and knows it is the sound of his shoes. What is this? It is the communion of the saints taking place – a powerful realm of fellowship and communion. When a husband and wife have been together for many years, they even start looking like the other. That is why it is very important to spend more time in the church than elsewhere. Blessings will flow. That is why Psalms 1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked; doesn’t sit in the seat of the scornful, nor stands in the way of sinners”. A lot of people still do this. Paul says separate from those people because there is a communion that is takes place.

Communion should have boundaries

Sometimes people don’t know how much communion to have with the saints. You need to know that though God has given ministers, wonderful ministry gifts, yet they may lack in certain areas of the fruit of the Spirit. There was one minister that I had tried to help a lot. He sat with me, discussed with me four-five times. His Mentor was somebody from a different place. Because he was young and had great potential of becoming somebody for God, I took interest in him. I told him that I knew about his Mentor. I also said that the Mentor is a mighty man of God and an Evangelist but though he sometimes calls himself a Prophet, I didn’t discern the anointing of a prophet on him. These days many young enthusiasts are attracted towards the Prophetic ministry and so you find prophets everywhere. I said he is just an Evangelist and a mighty man of God. I told the young man to learn from and follow his mentor if he meets him.

I told him, “Take the gift that is there in his life, take all that is there.” But I also pointed out some of the flaws of the mentor:

  1. Finances
  2. His Prophetic occurrences
  3. Some doctrines

I warned him but he did not take the words seriously. He insisted that his mentor is a prophet. I again asked him to be careful in these areas. But he became exactly like that man because he didn’t know when to close his spirit to the wrong spirits and when to open his spirit to the right fellowship. We need to recognize certain dangers. These days, people listen or follow prophets blindly – more than an Evangelist or a Pastor. Why? – Because they love prophecy and they never judge whether it is in line with the Word of God.

One of the fastest ways for elevation in today’s modern world is to give a prophecy. If it clicks you become a spiritual celebrity overnight. I have come across some people who follow everything that the preachers say. Like lately we heard about prophecy concerning Trump winning the elections. Most of the prophets in US prophesied that he would be re-elected, but he wasn’t. Then the new wave of not taking vaccination came. Even some of our church leaders were carried away in it. You need to check the spirit behind it. One person said, “I will never take the vaccine because so and so prophet advised against it.” When the rule from the government came, he took it because he didn’t want to lose his job. But by doing this he supposedly displeased the so called prophet.

We need to recognize this danger: if somebody is under the dealings of God and you open your spirit, the same dealings come to you. Like God was dealing with Saul but Jonathan joined himself with him so when Saul died, he too died – a wasted life. These are things we have to know and be careful to walk in the ways of God.

Understand that the communion of the saints is a powerful thing that we must use with discretion. So there is an impartation of the gifting of the grace of God when you receive one another. Sometimes people I have never met opened themselves to our ministry and immediately grace began to flow into their lives. The communion of the spirit transcends physical bodies. That is why we talked about the law of the blessing, when you have been blessed. Some of you struggle with the weaknesses of our fathers because you take from them everything: lock, stock and barrel. It is important that we know when to close our spirits and when to open our spirits. Not only is there an impartation of gifts, there is what I call the magnification of the power of God. Where one chases a thousand, two chase ten thousand. A different level of power flows. As people receive different impartations, they operate differently. I pray that you don’t miss the gathering together for word or for breaking of bread. Then see how miraculously you will be exalted and raised in your life. Praise God!!!

 

Abstract

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts.2:42).

 

This is the communion of saints. A lot of major problems arise because people don’t come together. But there is a principle of communion of the saints that must be observed. People don’t realize that this communion is God ordained. Some important aspects of the communion of saints are:

It brings an impartation: If I have reached this level of spirituality, it is because of the communion of the saints. There is always an impartation when saints gather together.

It unites the Head and the Body: The head is the main part but the body is complete only when all the other parts also are together. Then there is a flow of energy, power and revelation.

It builds our spirit: The spiritual aspect of it takes preparation of hearts, preparation of lives, the kind of union we have in Him and walking in the light together.

It increases our faith: Do you know that the impartation upon Elisha was so strong that he did double the number of miracles of Elijah? He walked powerfully in the spirit that he received from Elijah.

It increases the dominion of our spirit: Your spirit can grow so powerful that it exercises dominion over a large extent – geographically and chronologically over the generations.

It brings power and unity of spirits: Something is imparted every time we unite. In the earthly sense, the communion of the saints is very powerful. Like between twins. I know the feelings of my twin brother. I know his likes and dislikes as he knows mine. How? – We are twins.

It should have boundaries: It is important that we know when to close our spirits and when to open our spirits.

I pray that you don’t miss the gathering together for word or for breaking of bread. Then see how miraculously you will be exalted and raised in your life. Praise God!!!