Matthew 26:26-29 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it,
and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
This last Wednesday evening, our church study group finished the final session of the 7-part video series titled “Basic: We are the Church” by Pastor Frances Chan. The Luke 22:17-20 account of Jesus introducing Communion to His disciples includes the command to “do this in remembrance of Me.” Pastor Chan states that this is a very important statement as it is a human tendency to forget things. We can very easily get caught up in our work, enamored with our goals, focused on our activities, and distracted by the busyness of life that one day you stop to think about your life and realize that you [Jesus Follower] have not been following Jesus, excluding Him from nearly every aspect of your life. How often do you find yourself thinking about Jesus – His life, His death, or His resurrection and what they all ultimately meant? Not just eternally, but there is no activity, career, goal, or stage of life in which remembering Jesus is not essential. 1 John 5:11 says, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”
Ephesians 1:4-8 “Just as He [Lord God] chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” Communion is participation of the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist; the celebration of the Lords supper, and is the solemn act of commemorating the death of our Redeemer. At the cross, Jesus Christ defeated sin and death.
The breaking of the bread represents Christ’s body broken for our sins, and the drinking of the cup represents the shedding of Christ’s blood and death to pay for our sins. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 asks, “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, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” The Greek word for communion is “koinonia”, meaning fellowship, association, community, joint participation, intercourse in the death of Jesus Christ in the blessed exchange of our sins for His righteousness. Communion proclaims the Gospel of Salvation and this Christian church ritual is to be backed by a lifestyle that proclaims the same truths that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from our sins, rose again in victory over death, and supernaturally transforms and empowers us to follow Him daily.
In Christ, Brian
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