The Lord's Supper
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Where did The Lord’s Supper originate?
Where did The Lord’s Supper originate?
The Lord’s Supper is the fulfillment of the Jewish Passover.
****Tell about the Passover
The Passover was a Jewish festival that the jews were required to celebrate every year that reminded them of the time when God delivered them from the Egyptians.
Passover was founded by God when He brought the final plague on the Egyptians, this plague was the killing of the firstborn males in all of Egypt. God’s plan was to bring forth the death angel that would pass through all the land of Egypt and all whom the death angel descended died, this was to make the Pharoah of Egypt let the Israelites go who were enslaved by the Egyptians. However God always had a plan to protect His people as He does today. To keep His chosen people protected God commanded that each Israelites house sacrifice a lamb and rub the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their house and to stay inside. At night when the death angel went through the land, it would “Passover” all the houses that the blood had been applied. After this plague the Pharoah finally decided to let the Israelites go, so the passover was to be remembered every year by the Israelites to remind them how God through the blood of the lamb, set them free from their enemies and protected them from death.
The Passover festival consisted of the Israelites having to perform this in their homes and eat the Lamb inside as well as eating unleavened bread. For 7 days they could only eat bread that was unleavened.
How is Passover related to the Lord’s Supper?
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”
At the same time that Jesus has His last supper with His disciples and institutes the Lord’s supper, it just so happens to be the same time as passover, and right after passover Jesus is sacrificed.
And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
During the Passover Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper to the disciples by telling them to eat the bread that represents His body and drink the wine that represents His blood. This is very similar to how the Jews participated in Passover, the blood of the lamb was wiped upon their doorposts and the body of the lamb they ate. Thus Jesus is explaining to them that He is the Lamb that will be sacrificed. Except His blood wouldn’t be applied to the outside of our homes, but it would be applied to our very hearts.
When John the Baptist first saw Jesus come to his baptism he said John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” So even before this passover meal Jesus was called the Lamb of God.
In the same way that the blood from the lamb during the Passover was applied to the houses of the Israelites and protected and delivered them from their enemies and death, so does the blood of Jesus Christ when it is applied to our bodies save and deliver us from death and our enemies once and for all, by cleansing us from our sins and giving us His Spirit of Life.
The Lamb from the Old Testament protected the Israelites from earthly death, however through Jesus’s sacrifice we are protected from eternal death and given eternal life.
All this to say that the Lord’s Supper is a sacred event that allows us as Christians to remember that the powerful blood of the Lamb of God has been applied to our bodies and we are forever cleansed and delivered from the curse of sin which is death!
The Bread:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
When Jesus died He was giving up His body for us.
******^^EXPLAIN
Our bodies are the ones that deserved to be on the cross, but Jesus willingly gave His body so that we didn’t have to.
Eating the bread is taking a deep moment to reflect and remember Jesus’s body being layed down for you.
The Blood:
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
After the disciples had eaten the bread Jesus told them to drink the cup of wine to symbolize His blood that would soon be shed for them.
When Jesus died His blood was physically shed for you and me, and by taking the time to participate in communion we are remembering Jesus’s blood that was shed for our cleansing and physically applying it to our bodies.
It is by Jesus blood that we are all imparted in the new covenent. The old covenent required the bloodshed of bulls and rams to have the forgiveness of sin, but by Jesus’s perfect sacrifice and blood a new covenent was formed, one that only required faith in Jesus Christ.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
By participating in communion we are boldy proclaiming that Jesus has died for us and that by His death we are forigiven and saved.
Communion is a powerful ceremony for us to gain closeness with Jesus before He comes back. Therefore it is also a symbol of intimacy with Jesus. Although Jesus was soon to be leaving this world, He still wanted His disciples to be close to Him while He was gone, and by participting in communion we are doing just that. We are connected with Jesus’s body in a spiritual and physical way.
Jesus told His disciples to have communion often, displaying how frequent He wanted to be with them.
Of course Jesus is always with us, but communion is a gift given to us by Jesus for us to be closer to Him and connect with Him more.
Before We Take Communion
There are certain parameters that we must follow before we take communion.
Communion is a gift from Jesus and it is very sacred.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
Here the Apostle Paul tells us that communion must be taken with the right heart. Before we participate we should always take a moment to examine ourselves and make sure there isn’t any sin in our life that we have not repented of and if there is then we can simply repent and participate.
The Bible is very clear in this passage that there can be judgement passed onto someone by them participating is a unworthy manner.
We are remembering the body and blood of Christ, therefore it must be fitting for us to be pure in our hearts before we participate.