God is Redeemer

When you study of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, you discover that it is a soul-stirring experience because of the depth of meaning it contains.

To fully understand the Lord’s Supper you have to go within the pages of the OT to the time of the Passover.

The Passover was the most sacred feast of the Jewish religious year.

It commemorated the final plague on Egypt when the firstborn of the Egyptians died and the Israelites were spared or redeemed because of the blood of a lamb that was sprinkled on their doorposts.

The lamb was then roasted and eaten with unleavened bread. God’s command was that throughout the generations to come the feast would be celebrated. The story is recorded in Exodus 12.

From the passover to other pinpoint prophecies concerning a redeemer to come are also mentioned throughout OT text.

PROPHECIES CONCERNING A REDEEMER

Jesus, the lamb of God, the perfect Son of God, became the fulfillment of the countless Old Testament prophecies concerning a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53).

Psalm 22:12–17 NKJV

12 Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.

Isaiah 53:4–7 NKJV

4 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. 6 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. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

These prophecies found in the OT are fulfilled in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ the Lamb of God.

Jesus is the fulfillment of all seven feast of Isreal which where instituted by God for Isreal to observe and obey. They where for times and seasons. Just as the Passover was an appointed time, a foreshadowing of an event to come. So to are all the other feasts God commanded the Israelites to observe.

Now fast forward over 1500 years later from the passover in Egypt to the Cross of Christ. Out of heaven comes one ordained to die for our redemption.

During the Last Supper—a Passover celebration btw—Jesus took bread...

Luke 22:19–20 NKJV

19 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.” 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

Jesus was becoming the fulfillment of a prophecy made 1500 years prior.

A NEW COVENANT IS MADE

The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant when Christ, the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7 was sacrificed (Hebrews 8:8-13

1 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

Hebrews 8:8–13 NKJV

8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “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— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The sacrificial system was no longer needed (Hebrews 9:25-28

Hebrews 9:25–28 NKJV

25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Holy Communion is a remembrance of what Christ did for us and a celebration of what we receive as a result of His sacrifice. Christ is our Redeemer.

So let us prepare ourselves now to observe this sacred ordinance in remembrance of Christ, through His life, death and resurrection we are redeemed and we look forward to the blessed hope of His return.

1 Corinthians 11:23–32 NKJV

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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 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. 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. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 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.