Communion with Christ in Christian preaching emphasizes the intimate fellowship and ongoing spiritual connection believers maintain with Jesus, drawing from themes of grace and transformation. Illustrations often use sensory images such as fragrance or vessels to depict how Christ’s presence fills and sustains the soul, highlighting both the depth of His grace and our own receptivity (John 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:16).
Lack of fellowship with Christ shows a lack of love and true relationship with Him.
What! is Christ thy Brother, and does he live in thine house, and yet thou hast not spoken to him for a month? I fear there is little love between thee and thy Brother, for thou hast had no conversation with him for so long. What! is Christ the Husband of his Church, and has she had no fellowship with him for all this time?
— Spurgeon
Deep joyful communion with Christ surpasses all previous spiritual experiences.
The king dineth with his prisoner, and his spikenard casteth a smell. He hath led me to such a pitch and degree of joyful communion with himself as I never before knew. When I look back to the things past, I find myself to have been a child at A B C, with Christ. Pardon me: I dare not conceal it from you; it is as a fire in my bowels in his presence as I speak it. Rutherford.
Closer communion with Christ makes believers shine to God but appear dark to the world.
The nearer the moon draweth into conjunction with the sun, the brighter she shines towards the heavens and the earth; so, the nearer the soul draws into communion with Jesus Christ, the come-lier it is in the eye of the Spouse, and the blacker it appears in the sight of the world. He that is a precious Christian to the Lord is a precious puritan to the world; he that is glorious to a heavenly saint is odious to an earthly spirit. But it is a sign thou art an Egyptian, when that cloud which is a light to an Israelite is darkness to thee. It is a sign thou movest in a terrestrial orb, when thou seest no lustre in such celestial lights.
Believers vary in closeness to Christ, from constant awareness to occasional attention.
Some value the presence of their Saviour so highly, that they cannot bear to be at any remove from him. Even their work they will bring up, and do it in the light of his countenance, and, while engaged in it, will be seen constantly raising their eyes to him, as if fearful of losing one beam of his light. Others who, to be sure, would not be content to live out of his presence, are yet less wholly absorbed by it than these, and may be seen, a little farther off, engaged here and there in their various callings, their eyes generally upon their work, but often looking up for the light which they love. A third class beyond these, but yet within the light-giving rays, includes a doubtful multitude, many of whom are so much engaged in their worldly schemes, that they may be seen standing sideways to Christ, looking mostly the other way, and only now and then turning their faces towards the light.
— Payson
Spiritual union with Christ continues beyond physical death in heavenly communion.
I have communion with my dearest love before the throne. He waits for me; he beckons me away. I want to be a meet partaker with my dear, dear, holy husband, now in light. I want to feel a fuller degree of the spirit in which he lives. O Lord! thou knowest our union was far more in the spirit than in the flesh: thou hast said, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." Are we not still one?
— Mrs. Fletcher
Believers on earth and in heaven draw near to each other through communion with Christ.
When the spirit of the living Christian draws nigh to the throne of grace, there is then between him and the spirits of the just made perfect a real nearness, the thought of which should be most consolatory to those whose friends have fallen asleep in Jesus. They are then breathing the same atmosphere of communion with Christ which those breathe who are with him in paradise. The radii of a circle, in approaching a centre, cannot but, in the nature of things, draw near to one another; and two hearts, though separated by oceans and mountains, yea, though separated by a greater gulf, which divides the seen from the unseen world, if both approach that great centre of attraction in the spiritual world, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," cannot but really and truly draw near to one another, though there may be no outward visible token of such nearness. Dr. Goulburn.
The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of spiritual grace, communion, and thanksgiving.
Names of the. It is called a sacrament; that is, a sign and an oath, — an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; an oath, by which we bind our souls with a bond unto the Lord. It is called the Lord's Supper, because it was first instituted in the evening, and at the close of the Passover supper; and because we therein feed upon Christ, the Bread of life. (Rev. iii. 20; 1 Cor. xi.) It is called the communion, as herein we commune with Christ, and with his people (1 Cor. xii. 13, x. 17). It is called the eucharist, a thanksgiving, because Christ, in the institution of it, gave thanks (1 Cor. xi. 24); and because we, in the participation of it, must give thanks likewise. It is called a feast, and by some a feast upon sacrifice (though not a sacrifice itself), in allusion to the custom of the Jews feasting upon their sacrifices (1 Cor. x. 18). C. Buck.
True satisfaction in ordinances comes from spiritually tasting Jesus, not mere ritual attendance.
When a man goes thirsty to the well, his thirst is not allayed merely by going there: on the contrary, it is increased by every step he goes. It is by what he draws out of the well, that his thirst is satisfied. And, just so, it is not by the mere bodily exercise of waiting upon ordinances that you will ever come to peace, but by tasting of Jesus in the ordinances, whose flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed.
— M. Cheyne
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