JackHammer

You might guess that “communion” is a special word designated for this special event ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ with His disciples in Matthew 26. You would be guessing wrong. The English term “communion” is found only four times in three verses in the King James Version, but the Greek word translated “communion” (koinonia) twenty times in eighteen verses. Only one of these times refers to the Lord’s Table—1 Corinthians 10:16, 17—and that to describe the unity of the local church, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), pictured through the bread and the cup.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

The ordinance of the Lord’s Table draws church members together into fellowship through the sharing of the common symbols for the Lord’s blood and body. A church unifies through conjointly partaking of these common elements with their close association with Jesus Christ.

In Greek literature before the New Testament, koinonia was the favorite expression for the marital relationship as the most intimate between two human beings. In so doing it described a common life shared. Paul described this communion when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:4

The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

The husband and wife share each other’s body, declaring ownership of each other. The Shulamite said it this way in Song of Solomon 2:16

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

Like the groom prepares a home for his new wife, the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for His bride whom He will someday receive to Himself (John 14:1-3). The husband and wife relationship is modeled after the one of Christ with the church. English pastor John Wade Robinson combined the thoughts of the Shulamite and the truth of the Lord and His bride, when He wrote the words to a well-known hymn in 1876, a year before his death.

Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know;
Gracious Spirit from above, Thou hast taught me it is so!
O this full and perfect peace! O this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease, I am His, and He is mine.

Heav’n above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green!
Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen;
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as I now know, I am His, and He is mine.

Things that once were wild alarms cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed on the loving breast.
O to lie forever here, doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear, I am His, and He is mine.

His forever, only His; Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss Christ can fill the loving heart!
Heav’n and earth may fade and flee, firstborn light in gloom decline;
But while God and I shall be, I am His, and He is mine.

This is the communion between the church and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am His, and He is mine. He belongs to me and I belong to Him. We share this life and the one to come with our heavenly groom.

1 Corinthians 10:16 is the third use of koinonia chronologically in Scripture. We get introduced to the word the first time in the New Testament in Acts 2:42. “They continued in . . .fellowship.” Two verses later, Luke uses the term “common,” a related word (koinos): “And all that believed were together, and had all things common.” I am His; He is mine. You are ours and we are yours. Ephesians 4:4-6 portrays this as

one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Is there anything negative about this? Sure. Sin hinders and potentially ruins fellowship. Any love of the world brings an illegitimate partner into this God-ordained arrangement. It contradicts I am His and He is mine. Sin and unfaithfulness don’t discern the body of Christ. They belie the truth of commonality that God requires. We examine ourselves before eating and drinking to ensure this isn’t happening.

We have things common with one another in the body of Christ and we have things common with our Lord and Savior. We have communion.

I knew a man who was once quite emotional about the Lord’s Supper. Apparently, when the topic was introduced over dinner, he began crying as he stated, “I just love the Lord’s Supper.” Paul also gets emotional as he corrects the Corinthians about the practice of the Lord’s Supper. As he speaks to them, he points out that in their practice, they actually were NOT eating the Lord’s Supper.

When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. (1 Corinthians 11:20)

By telling the Corinthians that they were not eating the Lord’s supper, he was saying that what they were doing was wrong and because of their practice some had gotten sick among them and even died. The problem of the Corinthians was that they came together to celebrate a feast, to have a supper, but they thought it was their supper and that they could do whatever they wanted at the supper. The eating and feasting got so out of hand that God had to judge them.

Because of the specific problems the Corinthian church had, we no longer have those problems when observing the Lord’s Supper. When we come together, it is to eat the Lord’s Supper. I believe, though, that we must beware of the same danger the Corinthians gave in to. They thought it was their supper. It is the Lord’s Supper. We do not own it. He is the Host. He is the one that sets the table and feeds us there. And he does feed us at His supper.

We should recognize that in that title there are two words. ‘Lord’ and ‘Supper.’ Here we have spiritual and physical. Many that claim Christ’s name try to make the supper completely spiritual. They will even go so far as to say that the elements of the supper undergo some fantastic or magical transformation into the actual body and blood of our Savior. That’s too spiritual. Others, in reaction, claim nothing spiritual is taking place at all. The supper is purely physical and only a memorial.

Both of these are Gnostic problems. But we are not Gnostics. The Gnostic separates the physical from the spiritual. The Bible believer sees both present all the time. To the Christian, there is no difference between the secular and the sacred. All ground is holy ground. We don’t pick ‘A’ or ‘B.’ We see ‘A’ and ‘B.’ How does all this relate to the Lord’s Supper? If God commanded us to observe His supper in remembrance of Him, there must be some spiritual benefit to obeying Him, if only just the act of obedience. As we discuss the other titles of His supper, we’ll see other spiritual benefits to this Christian ordinance. Is His supper a way of receiving grace? Yes. Saving grace? No. Nonetheless, Christians also need grace. We are to grow in grace, be strong in grace, and more. One of the ways a Christian does that is by partaking in the Lord’s Supper. It’s not just the lost that need grace.

The Lord’s Supper is His supper celebrated with thanksgiving in communion with other believers because of our fellowship in Christ. We show loyalty to the Lord’s Table as we remember His broken body and shed blood, which washes away our sin.

Here comes yet another particle in the blogosphere. There are millions of these particles and yet we want to add more to the mess. And the question is “Why?” Isn’t there enough smog in the blogosphere? Aren’t there enough opinions to keep us distracted from our purpose. “Why are you adding to the din?” you might ask. Our answer is rooted in those questions.

There is much too much smog in the blogosphere. There is a need for steady, relentless purification. There are way too many opinions that keep us from our work. There is a need for something more sure than opinion. Yes, there is a lot of din, and we want to add to it the steady, monotonous driving of a jackhammer.

We hope it’s not monotone, but we strive to continually return to the Word of God for the answers. Always going back to the same place—that’s monotonous. But only the Word of God will break the rocks we have before us.

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)

Many independent fundamental Baptists are like rocks. If they’re not, the “movement” is. We’re so entrenched in our ways, there’s nothing that will change us. We want everyone else to change, but any suggestion of change is viewed as a capitulation to modernism. We say that we should be growing (changing) from our Bible reading and study, but we’re too set in our ways to consider that the Bible might suggest some other way. We need the continual hammering of the Word of God.

The culture around us is Godless; that culture has hardened much of Christendom; and many who claim to be the same as us (or were with us) have, in their own way, accepted this culture also. They’ve become hardened to the Word of God and need to be broken by it again—not with personality, or human forcefulness, but by the incessant pounding of the Bible. The job is hard because the rock is hard, but because the Word does the job, I can be joyful as I hang on to the jackhammer.

In the midst of this, the lack of substance among us is often glaring. There’s stony ground under our shallow soil. We “pay tithes of mint,” but we’ve omitted more serious issues. We’ve been too scared to address weightier problems. Or, we’ve been satisfied with shallow answers to deep questions. Because of this our detractors or attackers can with credibility question our own credibility. We need serious answers to real issues on a profound level that is understandable by all.

It is a hard situation; but we must not lose heart! We have the tool for the job. Our mission is to continually use the Bible to edify believers and expose error within the framework of Christian joy.

See Jack. See hammer.

See Jack hammer.

Hammer, Jack, hammer.

Jack can hammer.

Jack likes to hammer.

We will hammer Jack.

Hammer Jack hammer.

Jackhammer jack.

Jack likes to hammer.

Jack does not like to be hammered.

Jack is not hammered.

It is bad to be hammered.

Bill is hammered.

Hammer Bill hammer.

Boys like to hammer. My boys like to hammer. I am fixing my deck, getting it ready for paint, pounding nails, scraping, hammering. I can’t find my hammer. Whenever I lay it down, my hammer disappears. My sons are hammering. They are hammering the deck. They like the noise of it. They like to pound. I ask for my hammer back. I hit the nail. The hammer drives the nail into the board. One hit, and the nail is buried. My two-year old daughter hears me pounding. “Bang!” she says. “Bang, daddy!” I am not paying attention. “Bang, daddy, Bang!” I am too busy banging. I don’t hear her. She walks over to me. “Bang, daddy! Bang, bang!” My mind snaps out of the fog. “Yes, Laura, bang!” I say. She is satisfied. She wanted to hear my acknowledgement. She likes hammers too.

Jael liked hammers. She loved God. So she used the hammer. She pounded the nail. She drove it straight and true. One hit, and the nail was buried. She drove it through Sisera’s temple. She buried the nail in the ground. She fastened his head to the floor of her tent. “So he died.” That’s what the Bible says. “So he died.”

The Israelites sang. They sang about Jael. They don’t sing sappy songs. They sing the songs of Zion. They sing about nails. They sing about hammers. They sing about a woman with the workman’s hammer. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. The Israelites like these songs. They like violence. They like to sing about it. They like women with hammers.

Hammers have many uses. Hammers drive nails. My sons like to drive nails. They hear me driving nails on the deck. They want to help. My son finds a nail. He finds an old nail hole in the deck. He drives the nail into the hole. Hammers are useful for driving nails. Hammers are useful for building things. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. The hammer drives those nails. Maybe this blog will be a jackhammer. Maybe it will be like nails and tent pegs. Maybe it will be effective. Maybe it will build. Maybe it will help. We hope it will. But it can only be effective as the Word of God drives it. God rolls up his sleeve. God makes bare his holy arm. His Word accomplishes His purpose. It will not return void.

Hammers are useful for repairing things. I am repairing my deck. Nails have come loose. My hammer drives them back into their holes. The claw of my hammer pulls some nails. Those nails did their job. Now they are being replaced. My hammer will replace them. Maybe this blog will be a hammer for repairing, for restoring. Maybe it will be useful for that. The Word of God repairs. The Word of God restores. The Word of God reforms. And sometimes it pulls nails. Some nails need to be pulled. They had their use. They did their job. Now they need replaced.

Hammers are useful for tearing down. Hammers break things. Hammers crush things. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? I wonder if Gideon used a hammer. He cast down the altar of Baal. He built an altar to Jehovah. Maybe he used a hammer.

We also must cast down altars. We must cast down imaginations. The high things that exalt themselves against the Lord. We must cast them down. Our weapons are not carnal. They are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. The hammer is mighty that way. God’s Word is that hammer.

Maybe the Jackhammer will tear down. Many things need to be torn down. The Jackhammer should tear down what needs torn down. It must break the rocks. The rocks that must be broken. But it must never be laid to that Rock. May every hammer be broken that is ever laid against that Rock. A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

The Jackhammer is laid to the rocks. The little rocks that harden themselves against God. It crushes those rocks. It grinds them to powder. Smashing rocks is hard work. Crushing rocks takes grit, sweat, muscle. Smashing rocks makes a mess. People don’t like messes. Sometimes, people will complain. “Look at all the dust it makes. And the noise. I can’t stand the noise.” We will break rocks anyway. Rocks need to be broken. Some won’t like the attitude. We will grit our teeth. It won’t be pretty. Some will complain that we don’t seem nice when we break rocks. We will break rocks anyway. We will use the Jackhammer. It might hammer us as well. That is good. We too have fallow ground. Jackhammers can break fallow ground. May it all be broken, to the glory of God.

The day will come when the Hammer will be silenced. The chiseling and fashioning will be finished, the sound heard no more. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. We also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. The stones are a preparing. They will be made ready first, then brought to the house. He will not bring us one minute early. When He has perfected, then he will fit us to the wall. We long for that day, when the work is complete, the hammering done. But until then, we will hear the sound of the hammer.

We at Jackhammer want to break rocks. We want to build, to repair, to break, to crush. We intend to drive nails. Sometimes for ox-goads. Sometimes through the temple. Maybe even yours. And when we need it, we want the Hammer to crush us. We hope you enjoy, sometimes as spectator, sometimes as participant. Sometimes the Hammerer, sometimes the Hammered.