Tony Evans - The Purpose of Communion (12/30/2025)
Summary
In this sermon, the preacher teaches that communion is far more than a memorial—it is an active participation in Christ’s body and blood that brings believers into deeper intimacy with Him, allowing His victory over Satan to become our present reality. Drawing from 1 Peter 3:18–19 and 1 Corinthians 10:16–21, he explains that just as Jesus proclaimed victory and deliverance on Saturday between His death and resurrection, communion enables us to proclaim freedom from demonic strongholds and experience spiritual deliverance today. The key takeaway is that communion renews our union with Christ, confronts demonic influences in our problems, and provides a unique level of intimate partnership with God that breaks the enemy’s hold on our lives.
What communion is designed to do is bring you into a deeper level of intimate partnership with the Lord so that his speaking to the spiritual realities that inform our physical realities can take us to a place in the spiritual where Satan is no longer running our lives.
On Good Friday, Jesus died from 12 o’clock to three o’clock. The Son of God bore the wrath of God for our sins. The world became dark at the death of Christ because of the divine judgment that he bore. On Sunday morning, he rose. He got up from the grave, but you haven’t heard enough sermons about Saturday.
On Friday, he died; on Sunday, he arose.
What Happened on Saturday?
But 1 Peter 3 says that on Saturday he was busy. Between his death and resurrection when he died, he was alive in the Spirit. It says so; his body lay in Nicodemus’s tomb, but Jesus in his Spirit was very much alive. In the life of his Spirit, it says he visited those who were incarcerated.
So, after Jesus died, before he arose, he went on a ministry trip, and according to verse 18, he was put to death in the flesh, and verse 19 states that he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.
So, between Jesus’s death while still alive in the Spirit and his resurrection, he went and talked to spirits that were trapped in order to bring about their deliverance from that which was illegitimately holding them hostage.
He brings up Noah—two things happened with Noah: the world was judged, and eight people were delivered because of the ark. He ties the ark to the work of Christ, Jesus being the ark. Judgment fell, but at the same time, deliverance was given because of sin working itself in the world.
He declares that there was a proclamation.
Did you know that at the heart of communion, you are a communion? You should be proclaiming something. The first thing you can proclaim is, «Satan, go to hell,» because that’s where he is. You can declare he no longer can hold you hostage; he can no longer put you in prison where you can function in the way God designed you to function because he holds you as a prisoner of war and illegitimately hostage.
At the very same time, you can declare your freedom and victory because he says that in Noah’s time, eight people were saved. Then Jesus came back physically and rose from the dead.
So he died on Friday, delivered on Saturday, and rose to a brand new life on Sunday.
Remembering Means Participating
He says when you have communion, you are to remember him. But what does it mean to remember? Does it merely mean to recall? Okay, think back and remember that something happened. Certainly, remembering includes recalling, but is that all?
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, one page back from our central passage. Verse 16 says, «Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?» Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Look, if a nation is real or not, those who eat the sacrifices are sharers in the altar. What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we?
Please notice a word throughout that passage. He talks about the bread, he talks about the drink, and then he says you have become sharers. He says partakers or participants.
So when he says in chapter 11 to remember, he is not just saying, «I want you to recall something in the past.» What he’s saying is he wants you to participate based on the past with something in the present. He wants you to be a sharer or a participant.
He says there are two types of sharing: there is the table of God and there is the table of demons. You can participate with either.
When you go to lunch with someone and you say, «Let’s have lunch; let’s break bread together,» you’re not just talking about food. You’re talking about fellowship, getting together, and connecting. Now, maybe you talk to him on the phone or maybe you see him in passing, but the moment you bring up a table, you’re bringing up another level of intimate conversation, communication, and attachment to them because you are now sharing; you are now participating; you are now partnering.
Communion: A Unique Intimacy
What communion is designed to do is bring you into a deeper level of intimate partnership with the Lord on a spiritual level so that his Saturday can become your Sunday, so that his speaking to the spiritual realities that inform our physical realities can take us to a place in the spiritual where Satan is no longer running our lives.
It is the point of intimacy that God has uniquely given his people, unlike your general Christian life. If you are associated with him, it takes what he did 2,000 years ago and allows you, through communion, to experience it today.
He says in 1 Peter, «He arose, and he has gone to heaven.» He is not physically here, but he is spiritually here.
He wants you to remember that the same thing he did 2,000 years ago in delivering us from sin, the hold of Satan, and bringing us to victory is what he does today. He wants to give you the experience of that around his ordinance called communion. He does it there unlike he does it in any other place. It’s a level of intimacy that you don’t get through doing anything else because it is his spiritual, intimate presence through the act; it is going deeper with him.
He says you cannot drink from both tables. All week long, the evil one wants us to drink from his table, and he says when you drink from his table, you’re drinking demons.
In other words, the problem that you face is not just the problem that you face. The problems or challenges that you, I, or we face are problems that have been demonized, which is why they don’t go away. They don’t go away because it’s not just the thing; it’s the thing that’s been infiltrated by demonic influence.
Once it’s been infiltrated by demonic influence, trying to deal with the thing without dealing with the demons doesn’t solve your problem, which is why it won’t go away because the demons don’t leave.
It has been infiltrated by demons, and so just getting counseling that doesn’t deal with the spiritual doesn’t solve your problem because the demons aren’t going away just because you go through a 12-step program.
Communion is designed to deal with demons. It is designed to deal with spiritual prisons. It is to deal with our sin but also to be the foundation of our deliverance because of our union with Christ, established with baptism; it is renewed through communion.
There has been no time when intimacy with Christ is at its peak, its most dynamic, and exciting moment than around the bread and the cup.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your perfect sacrifice and victorious resurrection. Thank You that through communion we can participate in Your deliverance and proclaim victory over every demonic stronghold. Help us to come to Your table with reverence, proclaiming Satan’s defeat and experiencing the deep intimacy and freedom You purchased for us. Renew our union with You today and set us free from every spiritual prison. In Your mighty name, Amen.