2026 Mar 01 Communion
Notes
Transcript
Communion
Communion
When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.
And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves;
for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”
And when He had taken some bread and 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 in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
This is an activity that our Lord Jesus very much wanted to eat with His disciples. It was an activity that He had the disciples prepare for just as He was about to sanctify Himself by obeying the will of the Father in going to the cross and paying for our sins. Verse 19 clearly says that that He gave His body for us. Vedrse 20 tells us that the cup was poured out for us. These things were not said by accident or for clever turn of phrase by Doctor Luke. The reason that Christ’s body becomes bread for us is that by that body once purchased salvation for us. Although His cricified flesh has no merit or advantage in itself, when we eat this bread by faith, we understand that Christ offered Himself to God as full atonement for all of the sins of humanity. Matthew and Mark both reference the cup in the same way. The blood of our Lord Jesus was shed for the remission of sins. Remission, a middle English word coming from Latin “remissio,” is the noun form of the verb “to remit,” which effectively pays a debt, a charge, or a penalty. It literally means to forgive a debt, in this case, all of our trespasses against a holy God, as we prayed earlier.
I like how John Calvin puts this: “In order that we might feed aright on the flesh of Christ [in a spiritual sense according to Calvin, not the eating of human flesh], we must contemplate the sacrifice of it, because it was necessary that it should have been once given for our salvation...”
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 says, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
In other words, we are to thoughtfully and clearly think about how our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed His own life to cause the forgiveness of our sins. He cancelled our sin-debt by paying for our cosmic crimes against Himself by Himself. He paid the penalty due us. God was so pleased with that sacrifice that Christ rose from the dead, but even before that, the temple veil, a very heavy ceremonial barrier curtain was torn from top to bottom to open access to the throne of God to man directly. Top to bottom, indicating God tore it and not man, which would have been bottom to top.
As we think on that, let us give thanks:
We thank you Lord Jesus that you were willing to lay aside all your heavenly glory and become human to be the perfect sacrifice to pay for all our sins. We thak you that you not only cancelled the debt and expunged our records before you, but that you opened access to your very throne so that we may come and worship you at your invitation. We come not because we are compelled but because we are allowed. We give you our thanks.
[bread] This is the body of Christ, given for us. Partake of the sacrice given for you.
[cup] This is the New Covenant ratified by our Saviour’s blood. Partake of the sacrifice given for you.
Let us pray:
Thank you Lord for saving us, and thank you for making it possible to follow you. Help us to do so as we go through our daily lives today, tomorrow, and always, for we pray in His holy name, our Lord Jesus Christ.
