Thursday
Evening Bible Study
June 7,
2007
Introduction
We are in the night that Jesus will be betrayed. We are in the middle of the meal known as
“The Last Supper”.
:26-29 Communion
:26 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."
this is My body – What does Jesus mean by this?
There has been a lot of discussion about this over the centuries.
The Catholic church teaches that when an official ordained priest says the
right words, that the bread turns into the real, literal flesh of Jesus Christ
and the wine turns into the real blood of Jesus.
They believe this so much that when they are finished with the “Eucharist”
and there are leftovers, they have a special way of disposing of the leftovers
since they have actual flesh and blood in front of them.
What does the Bible say?
1.
Flesh versus Spirit
After Jesus fed the five thousand, He gave a very disturbing teaching. He began top tell them that He was the “Bread
of Life” (John 6:35) and what that
meant. This is a passage that the
Catholic church will often refer to, but pay attention to what it says.
(John 6:53-56 NKJV) Then Jesus said to them, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
His blood, you have no life in you. {54} "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks
My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. {55}
"For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. {56} "He
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
Some of the people were quite confused. It sounded like some kind of
cannibalism. Some of those who were
following Jesus didn’t follow Him any more because of this (John 6:66).
But look at what Jesus said right after this:
(John 6:63
NKJV) "It is the Spirit who
gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are
spirit, and they are life.
The Catholic church would say that the bread becomes
literal flesh, but Jesus is saying that it’s not the “flesh” that counts, it’s
the “spirit”.
Jesus is giving a spiritual teaching, telling us about the
lesson of what it means to “eat His flesh” – throughout the entire chapter of
John 6, Jesus makes is very clear that the key to eternal life is “believe”,
not the actual eating of literal flesh.
(John 6:35-36 NKJV) And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread
of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall
never thirst. {36} "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not
believe.
(John 6:40 NKJV)
"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees
the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up
at the last day."
(John 6:47 NKJV)
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has
everlasting life.
2.
The importance of remembering
Luke records Jesus as saying,
(Luke 22:19
NKJV) And He took
bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My
body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
The whole point of communion is about remembering. It’s about remembering what Jesus did for
us. It’s not about some magical thing of
turning bread into flesh. Those of you
raised in the Catholic church – did the wafer taste like a wafer or like flesh?
3.
The Passover itself
This was the meal they are eating, and it was meant to be reminder
of what God had done before. It
was also supposed to be a way of teaching the children about their faith.
(Exo 12:14 NKJV)
'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a
feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by
an everlasting ordinance.
Now Jesus is giving a new thing to remember, His death for our sins.
Jesus is replacing the ritual of the Passover, which was intended to be
about teaching and remembering, with a new ritual, communion.
The Passover meal is called the “Seder”.
There are all sorts of things done during the Seder to teach and remind
the people at the table of how God delivered the Israelites from Egypt.
Part of the tradition is that there is a plate with three
“matzot”, three sheets of unleavened bread.
At the beginning of the meal, there is a time known as the “Yachatz”, when
the middle matzot is broken, the larger half is called the “afikomen” and is hidden until the end of
the meal as a sort of dessert. During
the meal certain foods are eaten, the story of the first Passover is told, and
two cups of wine are drunk. At the end
of the meal, the afikomen is taken
out and eaten, followed by the third cup of wine known as the “cup of
blessing”. Then songs of praise are
sung, followed by the fourth and final cup of wine.
I wonder if Jesus was using the afikomen as the picture of His body. It was the second of three pieces of bread –
reminding us that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity.
Perhaps the cup that Jesus refers to as the blood of the
New Covenant is the “cup of blessing”.
When Paul was teaching on the problems of eating things
sacrificed to demons, he wrote,
(1 Cor 10:16 NKJV)
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?
Lesson
The body
1.
Bearing our sins
One aspect of the bread is to remind us of the physical body of Christ that
died on the cross.
Luke says “My body which is given for you” – He gave His
life for us.
Matthew records that Jesus “broke” the bread.
When Paul talks about communion, he teaches us that Jesus
said
(1 Cor 11:24 NKJV)
"Take, eat; this is My body
which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
Whatever this breaking is, it was “for” us.
The breaking could not be a broken bone because Moses wrote,
(Exo 12:46 NKJV)
"In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the
flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
John records that indeed none of the bones of Jesus were
broken (John 19:33-36)
How could He be “broken”?
I think one aspect of His brokenness took place on the cross
when our sins were placed on Him.
(Isa 53:6 NKJV) All we like sheep have gone astray; We have
turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of
us all.
David heard the cry of Jesus as our sins would be laid on
Him:
(Psa 22:1 NKJV)
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
These were the words Jesus spoke while on the cross.
He died for us, He died to pay for us.
Communion is a time when we remember that our sins were
“heaped” upon Jesus on the cross. His
bones weren’t broken, but His body was broken from my sins.
2. The church as the body
There is another aspect of the body in communion.
There is a very clear sense in Scripture that we, the church, are the body
of Christ. There is a sense in which
when we take communion, there is not just a communing with Christ, but a
communing with each other.
In the Jewish mindset, when you ate a meal with a person,
you were becoming “one” with that person.
I eat the same bread that you eat.
We are nourished with the same bread.
We become one.
The Greek word for “communion” is also the same word
translated “fellowship”. Koinonia means “sharing”, “having
something in common.
The church in Corinth was
having problems because they had divisions in the church, divisions in the body
of Christ. Paul recognized how the
problems could be seen in communion:
(1 Cor 11:20-30
NKJV) Therefore when
you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. {21} For in
eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and
another is drunk. {22} What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do
you despise the church of God
and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you
in this? I do not praise you. {23} For I received from the Lord that which I
also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was
betrayed took bread; {24} and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
"Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in
remembrance of Me." {25} In the same manner He also took the cup after
supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
Note Paul’s use of “remembrance” as well.
{26} For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
Communion is all about remembering Jesus’ death for us.
{27} Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the
Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
The “unworthy” manner is not particularly talking about
taking communion with unconfessed sin in your life, but the problems of verse
21 – being selfish, not sharing, getting drunk, etc.
{28} But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread
and drink of the cup.
Communion ought to be a time of self examination.
{29} For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and
drinks judgment to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body. {30} For this reason many are weak and sick
among you, and many sleep.
I’d say that in the context, “not discerning the Lord’s
body” could very well be the problems and divisions in the Corinthians
church. Paul would talk about more of
these problems in chapter twelve as he talks about the body of Christ – how people
didn’t feel they belonged, how some looked down on others.
It is important that we as a church realize that we are
all a part of the body of Christ. Even
in the bigger picture, there are other Christians we know who belong to other
churches, and they too are also a part of the body of Christ.
I think there is a sense of weakness that comes from not
recognizing the body of Christ.
2. Communion and healing
Here’s another thought on the broken body and the illnesses in the church
in Corinth.
One suggestion is that when Jesus spoke of His body being “broken”, He
might have been referring to the scourging that He would endure before being
crucified (John 19:1)
The process of scourging:
The scourging was called the “intermediate death” because
it was so painful, and because it took a person so close to death.
The condemned person would be led out to the front of the
Praetorium, where the crowd was.
The prisoner would be stripped, and tied to a low post,
stretching out the skin on the back so the whip would more easily cut
through.
The Jewish law had a limit of 40 lashes, but keep in mind,
these are Romans administering the scourging, so we don’t know how many times
Jesus was beaten.
The Romans used a “flagrum”, also called a “cat-o-nine-tails”,
leather strips with pieces of bone or metal weighing down the ends, designed to
tear the flesh as they hit.
Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, the
church historian of the third century, said (Epistle of the Church in Smyrna)
concerning the Roman scourging inflicted on those to be executed: The sufferer’s “veins were laid bare, and
that the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure”.
(McDowell’s “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”, pg.204)
Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering Messiah tells us something about the
scourging:
(Isa
53:4-5 NKJV) Surely He has borne our
griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God,
and afflicted. {5} But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed.
The “stripes” that Isaiah speaks of are the wounds
received through scourging.
Isaiah links the “stripes” with healing.
This “healing” certainly involves a spiritual
healing. Peter refers to this spiritual
healing when he writes,
(1 Pet 2:24 NKJV)
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having
died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
But could this also have involved physical healing as
well?
healed – rapha’
– to heal, make healthful. This is
the same word used in:
(Exo
15:23-26 NKJV) Now when they came to
Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.
Therefore the name of it was called Marah. {24} And the people complained
against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" {25} So he cried out to
the LORD, and the LORD showed him a
tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He
made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there He tested them, {26} and
said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what
is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes,
I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians.
For I am the LORD who heals you."
Even in this passage, we see a beautiful picture of both
physical as well as emotional and spiritual healing.
The waters were bitter – just like our lives get when we
don’t learn to forgive others. Jesus
told the story about the man who was forgiven by his master of a debt of
$50million, but refused to forgive his friend for a debt of $50. The master responded …
(Mat 18:34 NKJV)
"And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until
he should pay all that was due to him.
A few weeks ago I heard Cynthia Swindoll share some of her
life story and the horrible torture of depression she suffered under for the
first fifteen years of her marriage to Chuck Swindoll. The torture finally ended when she was
counseled by another gal who shared with her that she needed to forgive the
people who had hurt her in her life. She
needed to forgive them because God had forgiven her.
When we have bitterness, God will show us a “tree”, God
will show us the cross. It’s at the
cross that we’ve been forgiven. We need
to take that forgiveness and learn to forgive others, even when it doesn’t seem
that they deserve it. Our unforgiveness
and bitterness only hurts us.
Communion ought to be a time of healing.
We ought to remember how His body was broken, the stripes
across His back, and the healing that comes from the scourging of Christ.
It might be a physical healing. It might be emotional. It might be spiritual.
:27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
"Drink from it, all of you.
In the Passover Seder, the eating of the “afikomen” was followed by the “Birkat
Hamazon”, the “Grace After Meals”.
This was a series of four “blessings” that were based on the Scripture:
(Deu 8:10
NKJV) "When you have eaten and are
full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has
given you.
After these “blessings”, the third cup, the “cup of blessing” was drunk by
the participants at the Seder.
:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.
The “Old Covenant” was God’s agreement with Moses, an agreement that the
Israelites would obey the Law and Yahweh would in turn be their God. This contract, or “covenant”, was initiated
by taking the blood and sprinkling it on the people (Ex. 24:3-8).
Thought the Law of Moses was a good thing, it’s purpose was to show man how
far short he fell from God’s standards.
All along God had planned for another covenant, a “New Covenant”.
Jesus is now initiating the “New Covenant”, a new agreement between God and
man.
(Jer 31:31-34 NKJV) "Behold, the days are coming, says the
LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah; {32} "not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the
LORD. {33} "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it
on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. {34}
"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother,
saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and
their sin I will remember no more."
Note: The
new covenant included things like
1. Putting
God's laws into the people's heart
2. Knowing
God personally, and
3.
Forgiveness of sins.
Just as the first covenant was initiated with a
blood ritual, so the second covenant, or new covenant, or new testament, was
initiated with blood, Jesus' own blood.
The cup we drink at communion is to help us
remember that blood and remember that we have this new relationship with God,
not based on our works, but on His work for us.
Lesson
The blood
“What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus”.
The little cups of grape juice are supposed to remind us of the blood of
Jesus that was shed for us.
We’ve been purchased:
(1 Pet 1:17-19 NKJV) And if
you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's
work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; {18}
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or
gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, {19}
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot.
We were purchased by the most expensive thing in the universe, the blood of
God’s Son.
His blood cleanses us:
(1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we
walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
:29 "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."
There is an aspect to communion that should make us look to the
future. The next time Jesus will have
communion with His disciples is when He comes back.
Maybe the next time we have communion, we’ll be having it with Jesus. Think about it.
:30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of
Olives.
It was traditional at the end of the Passover meal to sing from the
Psalms. The traditional Passover Psalms
were Psalms 113-118. They would sing the
songs at various points during the meal.
The last Psalm would be Psalm 118, the end of which is:
(Psa 118:22-29 NKJV) The
stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. {23} This
was the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. {24} This is the day the
LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. {25} Save now, I pray, O
LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. {26} Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. {27} God is
the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns
of the altar. {28} You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will
exalt You. {29} Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy
endures forever.
We’ve talked about the significance of this Psalm with Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem on Psalm
Sunday.
Jesus was the stone that the builders rejected.
He entered Jerusalem on “the
day” the Lord made – fulfilling Daniel’s prophecy of the Messiah’s coming in
Daniel 9:24-27.
The words “Save now” are a translation of “Hosanna”, which is what the
crowd shouted as Jesus entered Jerusalem.
Jesus would die on a cross – fulfilling the picture of binding the
sacrifice to the altar.