Sunday
Morning Bible Study
July 10, 2005
Introduction
I think that sometimes we get some pretty incorrect ideas about what
communion is all about.
Illustration
A little 2 ˝-year-old girl, Kelli, went with her neighbor friend to church
for First Communion practice. The pastor has the children cup their hands, and
when he gives them piece of bread, he says: “God be with you.” Apparently this
made quite an impression on the little girl. She came home and told her mother
to cup her hands and bend down. Kelli took a piece of bread from her sandwich,
placed it in her mother’s hands, and whispered, in her most angelic voice: “God
will get you.””
:22-26 The Last Supper
:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and
gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
bread – it was made it in the form of an oblong or round cake, as
thick as one’s thumb, and as large as a platter.
At the beginning of the Passover meal, the head of the family, would say
thanks using these words:
“Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth
bread from the earth.”
The meal was to remind the people of the great deliverance that God
performed in delivering Israel
from slavery in Egypt.
Jesus would add new significance to this meal. This would be a different
deliverance, a deliverance from sin caused by His death on the cross.
Lesson
What Communion isn’t
Transubstantiation – which means
“change in substance”. Transubstantiation became an official doctrine of the
Roman Catholic church in AD 1215.
This is a great word to impress your friends with. It has to do with what
the Roman Catholic church teaches on the subject of communion.
The RCC teaches that when the priest says the words “This is my body” and
“This is my blood”, that the bread and wine change literally into the body and
blood of Christ.
The Catholic church teaches that the event that takes place during
communion is a continuation of the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus again dies for
your sins and you now participate in this through taking the bread and wine.
The Creed of Pope Pius IV stated: “I profess that in the Mass is offered to
God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the
dead;...there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together
with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is a
conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole
substance of the wine into the blood.”
There are a couple of problems with this teaching:
1. This gives the idea that the work of Christ on the cross was unfinished
because the sacrifice is reenacted over and over again each time the Mass is
performed.
Yet on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30)
The writer of Hebrews said,
(Heb 10:11-14 NKJV)
And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. {12} But this Man, after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down at the right hand of God, {13} from that time waiting till His enemies
are made His footstool. {14} For by one
offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
2. It ignores the concept of human speech, the “metaphor”.
Jesus said He was the “vine”. Does that mean that He is a vegetable?
Just as when we are looking over a map and say, “This is England,”
“This is America,”
“This is Mexico,”
etc., we do not mean that that piece of paper is England,
but we mean that those marks upon it represent those respective
countries.
At the Last Supper, Jesus Himself was actually, literally physically
present at the Last Supper, yet He said that the bread was His body and the
wine was His blood. Would the disciples have thought that the bread before them
had turned into Jesus’ flesh? No, they
would have seen it as a symbol.
This was meant to be a symbol.
3. If the wine becomes actual blood, then Jesus is asking the Jews to do
something forbidden in drinking it. God commanded the Jews to never eat or
drink blood (Lev. 17:10-11).
:23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them:
and they all drank of it.
given thanks – eucharisteo –
to be grateful, feel thankful; give thanks
This is where the word “Eucharist” comes from. It means literally, “Good
Grace”.
all – all of the disciples present in the room. But this doesn’t
include Judas Iscariot who had already left the meal.
:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is
shed for many.
testament – diatheke – a
disposition, as in “the last will and testament”. It’s an agreement, a
contract. The first two-thirds of your Bible is called the “Old Testament”,
meaning the old contract that God had with man through the keeping of the Law
of Moses. The last third of your Bible is called the “New Testament”.
At the end of the Passover meal, there was a closing blessing and then a
cup of wine shared by the family. This cup was the third of four cups on the
table, and was called the “cup of blessing” (1Cor. 10:16)
Jesus called this cup the blood of a new
covenant.
The Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, had also been initiated with blood. At the foot of Mt.
Sinai, Moses read the Law to the
Israelites and then sprinkled the blood of a sacrifice on the people calling it
the “blood of the covenant” (Ex. 24:8).
But this would be a “New” covenant, a new agreement between God and man. Jeremiah
spoke of the “new covenant”
(Jer 31:34 NKJV)
"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."
How did God make it possible for our sins to be forgiven?
Through the blood of Jesus Christ. Matthew records Jesus saying,
(Mat 26:28 NKJV)
"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Lesson
You can be forgiven
The Bible teaches that Jesus is God. The Bible teaches that Jesus made the
choice to leave the glory of heaven and take on lowly human flesh. Why would
Jesus do this? Jesus came to earth in order to become a sacrifice. When He died
on the cross, He didn’t just sacrifice a single human life. He sacrificed an
eternal, immortal, infinite life. That means that His sacrifice was like no
other. His sacrifice could pay for the sins of the entire world, once for all
time. His death was enough for the world. His death was enough for you.
You may think that you’ve done things that can never be forgiven, but
you’re wrong.
God can forgive you because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.
:25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine,
until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom
of God.
Jesus will not be drinking any grape juice or wine until He comes back and
sets up His kingdom on earth.
One of the elements of communion is to remind us that He is coming back. Paul
wrote,
(1 Cor 11:26 NKJV)
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's
death till He comes.
It would seem that Jesus would not drink of the traditional “fourth” cup of
wine or the “cup of consummation”. This is the cup He’ll drink when He comes
back.
:26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
Psalm 118 would be sung at the end of the meal, including things like:
(Psa 118:22 NKJV)
The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
By this time it would have been around midnight
when Jesus and the disciples left Jerusalem.
They will be spending the night camping out on the Mount of Olives
at the Garden of the “Oil Press”, the Garden
of Gethsemane.
Lesson
What Communion is:
I don’t want people to remember me for what I’m against. I want them to know what I’m for. I don’t just want you thinking about what
Communion isn’t, but what it is.
1. A symbol to remember
Luke records Jesus 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."
It’s meant to cause us to remember what He’s done.
2.
Healing
This is one of the wonderful things about the broken bread.
The bread represents Jesus’ body which was broken. When was His body broken? His body wasn’t just broken on the cross, but
also during His scourging. Isaiah wrote,
(Isa 53:5 NKJV) 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.
I don’t think this speaks exclusively of spiritual
healing. I believe there is physical
healing available from Jesus. I believe
taking communion is one way we can access that healing.
3.
Cleansing
This is what the cup reminds us of.
It reminds us of His blood that was shed so that we could be forgiven.
Communion gives me the opportunity to grasp the forgiveness that Jesus
offers to me.
(1 John 1:9
NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
4.
Intimacy with Jesus
Luke
24: On the Sunday after Jesus died, two of the disciples were walking
on the road on the way to Emmaus, totally discouraged that their Master had
been killed. As they were walking, along, Jesus started walking with them, but
they didn’t recognize Him. They couldn’t understand why this stranger was so
unaffected by the things that had just happened in Jerusalem.
Yet as they continued to talk, this stranger explained to them how it was
necessary for Jesus to die. This stranger went through the Scriptures, pointing
out the prophecies concerning Jesus.
(Luke 24:28-32 NKJV)
Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that
He would have gone farther. {29} But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide
with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went
in to stay with them. {30} Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with
them, that He took bread, blessed and
broke it, and gave it to them. {31} Then their eyes were opened and they knew
Him; and He vanished from their sight. {32} And they said to one another,
"Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and
while He opened the Scriptures to us?"
They ran back to Jerusalem to
tell the other disciples about what had happened and explained it like this:
(Luke 24:35 NKJV)
And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was
known to them in the breaking of bread.
It was the breaking of bread that had caused their eyes to be opened. This was the moment they realized they had
actually been with Jesus.
5. Priorities: Keeping first things
first.
It’s about remembering what’s important.
It reminds us of what Jesus did for us. It reminds us of who He is.
It’s something we don’t “move on” from. It’s something we never “out grow”.
The early church learned to take communion seriously. When the church was
born on the day of Pentecost, there were four things that they put into
practice immediately:
(Acts 2:42 NKJV)
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in prayers.
The two things in the middle, “fellowship” and “the
breaking of bread” are both phrases related to communion.
It’s important in the church that we continue to learn to
keep the main thing the main thing – that Jesus died for us and if it weren’t
for Jesus we’d all be lost.
6. Togetherness
It’s about what we have in common. It’s about belonging to one another.
I don’t see any examples of communion taking place by a single individual.
It seems to always take place in a group.
Paul had some instructions for the church
of Corinth regarding communion.
(1 Cor 11:27-34
NKJV)
{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.
This sounds pretty serious. What does it mean to eat in an “unworthy
manner”?
I’ve known people who thought that eating in an “unworthy manner” meant
having sin in your life. If they had committed a sin within two days of coming
to church, they would not take communion.
Being “unworthy” is not about whether or not you’ve sinned. Communion is for sinners. Communion is for sinners who have found
forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Keep
reading.
{28} But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread
and drink of the cup. {29} For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner
eats and drinks judgment to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body.
This seems to be a key phrase. What does it mean to “not discern the Lord’s
body”? (NIV – “recognizing”)
I would think that at the very least, it means that we don’t understand
that Jesus died for us. Communion should not be taken by a person who does not
trust in Jesus.
But there’s more to it than just that …
{30} For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many
sleep.
There was illness and death in Corinth.
{31} For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. {32}
But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be
condemned with the world.
Learn to take care of the problems so God won’t have to.
{33} Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait
for one another. {34} But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you
come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
What does it mean to “discern (recognize) the Lord’s body” (vs. 29)?
Paul isn’t talking about the bread. He’s talking about the
church. The next chapter (1Cor. 12) explains how the church is the “Body of
Christ”.
The problem in Corinth
was with the divisions in the church (vs. 20-22).
I think Paul is talking about examining our hearts
concerning our relationships with one another.
Do I realize that the people around me make up the “body
of Christ”?
Illustration
The movie “Hook” is a retelling of the Peter Pan
story. Peter Pan (Robin Williams) has
grown up, gotten married, become a lawyer, and has kids of his own. When his kids are kidnapped by Captain Hook
(Dustin Hoffman), Peter goes back to Neverland to rescue his kids. When he arrives, none of his friends (the
“lost boys”) recognize him. They think
he must be a pirate because he’s a grownup.
All grownups are pirates. But then
one of the littlest kids comes up to Peter and begins to study him. He walks around Peter. He touches Peter’s face. He looks into his eyes and says, “Oh, it’s
you”. They hadn’t recognized him.
Do you recognize the body of Christ? Do you realize that some of the brothers and
sisters with which you may be having problems with are not pirates but are
actually a part of the body of Christ?
Do we need to “wait” for each other before communion?