Communion Connection

Will you celebrate Him with me today as we partake of His meal?

A Celebration Transformed

Communion finds it’s origin in Passover

Communion was inaugurated by Christ while celebrating Passover with His disciples

Communion memorializes the death of Christ - Christ was killed during Passover Feast The institution and ritual of the Passover supply us with one of the most striking and blessed foreshadowments of the cross-work of Christ to be found anywhere in the Old Testament

The Lord’s Supper Inaugurated

Luke: On the eve of the “exodus” he will accomplish in Jerusalem (), Jesus redirects the Passover meal and makes it a celebration of the “new covenant” in his blood (22:14–20).120 The death and resurrection of Jesus are the new exodus that eclipses the exodus from Egypt as the definitive moment of God’s glorifying himself in salvation through judgment. Just as the Passover meal was a regular celebration of God’s glory in salvation through judgment, so the Lord’s Supper replaces the Passover as the commemoration of God’s deliverance of his people through the judgment of their enemies.

Mark: Fittingly, the new exodus, like the first, is inaugurated by a Passover meal.82 At that meal Jesus redirects its symbolic elements.83 The unleavened bread that symbolized a hasty departure from Egypt will henceforth symbolize his pure body, broken on behalf of his people. The cup, likely the third cup that symbolized redemption, will henceforth symbolize his blood, “poured out for many” (14:22–24). Through the judgment that will fall in the breaking of his body and shedding of his blood, salvation will come, and Jesus will next drink of the fruit of the vine in the kingdom of God (14:25).

Implications from the Passover

Exclusive - celebrated by the Redeemed - those who have the circumcision of the heart (Regenerated) 43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; 44 but every man’s slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. 45 “A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. No foreigner allowed to eat it - vs 43 and 45 Center: 46 only slaves who have been redeemed. Who becomes a part of the people of God - redeemed slaves - that is who Israel was. They were to allow those who were once like them to participate...vs 48 - the alien who becomes circumcised can experience this --> YHWH’s deliverence is for the whole world - Jews and Gentiles

Celebratory - Why do we celebrate? It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of my deadness and slavery in sin

Nourishing - food for our soulsThe pascal lamb was first a sacrifice unto God; second, it then became the food of those sheltered beneath its blood.Another central image for the Eucharist in the New Testament is the idea of the Eucharist as food for the difficult and perilous journey that we must make in this life. Typological reflection upon the institution of the Passover meal draws this dimension out. The Israelites were to eat the meal “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover” ( NIV), for they were to begin the journey from Egypt to the promised land immediately upon eating this meal.

Orientates our Mission: Proclaiming God’s salvation. It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of my deadness and slavery in sin. Salvation must be what every man and woman, every family and every local church and the church as a whole is to declare 12:1-4

Orientates our Mindset: remember what you are saved from and how you were delivered. Christ accomplished your salvation once and for all on the cross you don’t stay behind - you leave behind the bitterness and journey to the Promised Land Christ intends his disciples to understand that his sacrifice, his body and blood offered upon the cross, is simultaneously a recapitulation and summation of the depth of meaning of the Passover meal, and a deliverance from a deeper slavery shared not just by Israel but by all of humanity to the powers of sin and death ().So it is with Christians as they pass through this world. Their home is not here: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (). Therefore does God say, “I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims” (