Lord's Communion
Many people have misunderstood the real significance of the time of observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Passover. A passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11verse 26 has been read to mean that we do not know how often nor when we are to take this ordinance. The statement is, “For as oft as ye do this ye do show forth the Lord’s death until He comes.” If we are not told how often to partake of this feast (as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthian 5:6-8) then surely it isn’t good works, for Paul states very plainly in his letter to Timothy that the Scriptures thoroughly furnish the man of God unto all good works. It behooves us then to search the Scriptures for any information that we might lack along this line. Some will say that we should take it each Sunday. But these same people contend that Christ arose from the dead on Sunday morning. But He arose at the end of the Sabbath (Saturday) not on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1). Why then do they wait till the time, which they state, is the day of His resurrection to celebrate His death? Rather inconsistent isn’t it? Others say that we should take it every fifth Sunday or every thirteenth Sunday, while others once a year. Can we celebrate His death or do this in commemoration of His death, and still be consistent? How often do people celebrate His Birth? Every week? He just died once, and it certainly would be out of place to celebrate His Death more than we should His Birth, or at any other season than at which He died.
The Passover has a history that is not often taken into consideration by some. The Passover as a religious festival originated in the land of Egypt, at the time that the children of Israel came out of bondage and were ordered of God to be kept by them in commemoration of their deliverance. The record of this is found in Exodus chapter 12. In Exodus 12:4, we find the Lamb was to be kept until the 14th day and in the evening late that day before sunset it was to be sacrificed. Christ died about three o’clock in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. Therefore the type met the anti-type the same day of the month and the same time of the day. There are Scriptures that say the day at Evening is the Lord’s Passover.
Christ ate the Passover with the disciples the evening of the 14th. His death upon the cross-instituted the Lord’s Supper. The Passover was more than the commemoration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The blood of the Lamb was atonement for their sins (Numbers 9:13). The one who refused to eat was cut off. The same is true with those who refuse to accept the blood of Christ, our Passover, for the remission of sins.
“This day shall be unto you for a Memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever” (Exodus12:14). Before Christ they (Israel) kept the feast; today we take the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper once a year. It is the same command, but different practice. Christ ate the Passover the night before His death; He took it after the sun had set on the 14th day of Nisan (Exodus 12:6; Numbers 28:16) according to the Jewish calendar. Jewish time begins at sundown and ends at sundown.
The lamb was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day when it was to be sacrificed in the evening (the evening began just after 12 o’clock, and continued till sunset). “Ye shall keep it in His appointed season; according to all the ceremonies” (Numbers 9:3).
The Memorial is to be kept as a remembrance of the severity and goodness, or justice and mercy, of God forever (Exodus 12:14)
Ye shall keep it a feast--it shall be annually observed and shall be celebrated with solemn religious joy, throughout your generation--as long as ye continue to be a distinct people, an ordinance--a divine appointment; an institution of God Himself, neither to be altered nor set aside by any human authority. Forever. An everlasting or endless statute because the representative of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world; whose mediation, in result of His sacrifice shall endure while time itself lasts, and to whose merits and efficiency the salvation of the soul shall be ascribable throughout eternity. This, therefore, is a Statute and Ordinance that can have no end, either in this world or in the world to come (Deuteronomy 16:6).
No religion can exist without sacred times for worship when men could rejoice in what their God had done. Such season were provided for the Hebrews. They furnished specific occasions for the assembling of the people to give outward form to what should have been implanted in their hearts (Numbers 28:16).
The Passover Lamb, which was also called the Paschal Lamb, was the animal that was to be sacrificed on this occasion, which was the name of the institution itself. Paul copies the expression in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ our Passover (that is, our Paschal Lamb) is sacrificed for us.” The month of Abib or Nisan is the approximation of March or April, and “thou shall therefore keep this Ordinance in his season from year to year” (Exodus 13:10).
It was custom of the Jews at Passover to roast the meat without leaven or any honey (Leviticus 2:11). Unleavened bread or cakes were baked, having no leaven (Leviticus 6:17). Leaven ferments the dough as sin produces corruption, and is therefore a symbol of mortal corruption (1 Corinthian 5:8); therefore it is excluded from the Passover, as it is to commemorate the haste of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Unleavened bread is the symbol of purity; bitter herbs are the symbol of affliction, which they endured in Egypt, and leaven symbolizes corruption.
The Passover was a kind of a sacrament, uniting the nation of Israel to God. It was to remind them of the past afflictions, symbolizing the new life, and cleansed from the old ways of the Egyptians.
The Jews divided the days into morning and evening; till the sun passed the meridian all was morning or afternoon; after that all was afternoon or evening. Their first evening began just after twelve o’clock, and continued till sunset; between twelve o’clock, therefore, and the termination of twilight, the Passover Lamb was killed, shortly after the time of their daily sacrifice, they slayed the Passover Lamb, which was about the ninth hour, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon (Exodus 12:6).
The detail of the Crucifixion of Christ following His trial by the Jewish and Roman authorities was led forth for Crucifixion, Preparatory to the actual ordeal itself. He was scourged, the prisoner was bent over, tied to a post, while the Romans victor applied blow upon blow upon His bare back with a lash intertwined with pieces of bone or steel. The trial went on all night and throughout the early morning. They Crucified Him at a place called Calvary. The darkness began at the sixth hour (Luke 23:44), about our twelve o’clock noon and lasted till the ninth hour (Mark 15:33-34), which answered to our three o’clock in the afternoon, when he gave up the Ghost (died).
Christ ate the Passover the preceding even, which was the beginning of the fourteenth day, Wednesday. The Jews begin their day at sunset, we at midnight. Thus Christ ate the Passover on the same day as the Jews. Christ kept this Passover at the beginning of the fourteenth day, the precise day and hour in which the Jews had eaten their first Passover in Egypt.
And in the same part of the same day in which the Jews had sacrificed their first Paschal Lamb, about the ninth hour, or three o’clock, Jesus Christ our Passover was Sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7)! For it was at this hour that He yielded up His last breath, then after the Sacrifice being completed Jesus said, “It is Finished.” He was laid in the tomb about sunset on that Wednesday, and arose about sunset “at the end of the Sabbath” (Saturday) Matthew 28:1. He fulfilled His prophesy by being in the heart of the earth Three Full Days and Three full nights (Matthew 12:39-40).
Men are ignorant of Divine things and must be taught (John 6:45). Only those who can be considered as proper teachers of the unlearned and are thoroughly instructed in whatsoever Christ has Commanded, and who are entrusted with the public ministry of the Word should care that they teach not human creed and confession of faith in place of the Sacred Writing, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
This is the first institution of what is termed the Lord’s Supper. “Jesus took bread,” unleavened bread and gave thanks and gave it to His disciples (Matthew 26:26-28). Bread as a symbol of the body of Christ suggests the staff of life, the very basis of life itself. The breaking of the bread suggests the breaking of Christ’s body in a redemptive sacrifice. Wine (Grape Juice), as a symbol of the blood of Christ, suggest the pressing out of Christ life, the bruising by Divine wrath. Together they symbolize the Sacrifice of the Life of Christ.
As we receive the elements, symbolic in their nature, we submit again to receive the merits of Christ, not as if it needs to be renewed periodically, but as a continual commemoration of the time when God’s mercy drew us into grace and imparted Christ’s righteousness to us. As a memorial to Christ’s death it is a renewal of obedience to Christ’s will--an acknowledgment again that our salvation is solely through the body and shedding of His blood.
“This is my blood of the New Testament” (Luke 22:20) simply means “the New Covenant.” Covenant signifies an agreement, a contract, or compact between two parties by which both are mutually bound to do certain things with certain conditions and penalties. This often signifies not only the Covenant or agreement, but also the sacrifice which was slain on the occasion by the blood of which the Covenant was ratified; and the contracting parties professed to subject themselves to such a death as that of the victim in case of violating their engagements. For the testament is of force after men are dead: it is of no strength (Hebrew 9:15-20).
“For where a Covenant is, there must be necessarily introduced the death of that which establisheth the Covenant, because a Covenant is confirmed over only the dead, and is of no enforcement at all while that which establisheth the Covenant is alive.” Thus is undoubtedly the meaning of this passage; and we should endeavor to forget that testament and tester were ever introduced, as they totally change the Apostle meaning. Wherefore, as a victim was required for the ratification of every Covenant, the first Covenant made between God and the Hebrews, by the mediation of Moses, as not dedicated “Renewed” or solemnized, without blood--without the death of a victim and the shedding of blood and “this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many” (Matthew 26:28).
No man can carry his love for his friend farther than this, for when he gives up his life, he gives up all that he has. “This is proof of My love for you I will give in a few hours, and the doctrine which I recommend to you, I am just going to exemplify Myself. I have admitted to you into a state of the most intimate fellowship with Myself and have made known unto you whatever I have heard from the Father” (John 15:15). Ye are my friend if ye do whatsoever I command (John 15:14). “But a man’s testament, if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth” (Galatians 3:14-18).
“Bread,” as the most universal solid food is often used figuratively for food in general. The word “Bread” is used by the Lord in a mystical, but very true and precious sense in His discourse on “the Bread of Life” (John 6:48-51). As important as is solid food (Bread) to our bodies, so necessary is the Lord to our Spiritual life. And so, in the “Breaking of Bread at the communion” services, some partake it in a very real way of Christ, while others, not discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink condemnation to themselves (1 Corinthian 11:27-30). The Bread meant His Flesh, (His Life), which He was about to give up to save the life of the world. Here, our Lord plainly declares that His death was to be a vicarious sacrifice and atonement for the sins of the world. Our Lord terms His Flesh the “True Meat” and His Blood the “True Drink” (John 6:53-58), because those who receive His grace merited by His death would be really nourished and supported thereby unto Eternal Life.
That the Lord Jesus the same night, took bread and He brake it (1 Corinthian 11:23), if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever (John 6:25). In reading these verses we will note that Paul is reprimanding the Corinthian brethren for their conduct in observing the Lord’s Supper as well as other things (1 Corinthian 11:26-34). Then in verse 23 he relates unto them how that same night Christ was betrayed took bread. Many people have misunderstood the real significance of the time of observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Passover. A passage in verse 26 has been read to mean that we do not know how often nor when we are to take this ordinance. The statement is “For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He comes.” We are not told how often to partake of this feast (as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 5:8). Christ ate the Passover the night before His death on the cross, and instituted the Lord Supper then. The Passover was a Memorial, which they kept once a year, so, as often as you take it (once a year), do it in remembrance of the death of Christ.
In the New Testament, new, sweet wine, or grape juice, may imply that the disciples was known to drink only unfermented grape juice (Isaiah 63:8). The means for preserving grape juice were well known. At the Last Supper Jesus spoke of “The fruit of the vine” (Matt.26:29; Mark 14:24-25), as in the Passover Ceremonies. The term wine indicated that the drink was unfermented, as the bread was unleavened. Whatever use Jesus or others made of wine is no proof that its use in our tense age is wise. The Bible speaks of New Wine (gleukos) as grape juice, and (oinos) for fermented wine. The Nazarites were not even to touch grapes while under a vow (Judges 13:4-14; Luke 1:15). In Proverbs the preacher stated that fermented wine mocks a man. And that it at first dulls his senses and gives him a sense of well being but later it makes him appear foolish to others (Proverbs 20:1). Beginning with an older message that had originally been delivered to Israel before the fall of Samaria, the prophet was warning against foolish action. “They have erred through wine, and strong drinks” (Isaiah 28:7).
The meaning of the ordinance is suggested by these usages, as Eucharist (meaning “to give thanks”); the Communion; a Memorial feast in commemoration of Jesus’ death; a sacrifice of praise, and the presence of Christ.
He (Christ) does not partake of the subsequent cup and bread, which He gives to His disciples, as the new Supper is to supersede (replace) the Old Passover. Christ became the Lamb that was to be sacrificed (Isa. 53:1-10) that brought to an end of the Passover memorial to a New Covenant. The Lord’s Supper is a Seal of this New Covenant in His blood the sign that “we were all made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 10:4). The pledge that He once loved us so dearly that He gave Himself for us shows us He still loves us as intensely as ever.
The new feast (memorial) was to be annual. Christ has become our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), to be observed once a year on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (Exodus.12:6). The Passover deliverance was once for all wrought at the Exodus. The Passover feast yearly revived it to the believing Israelites souls. Christ was once for all sacrificed for our redemption never to be offered again; the Lord’s Supper continually recognized Him and His finished work to the soul, so that we feed on Him by faith (Heb.9:25-27, 10:1-18), as to “Breaking of the Bread.” Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan and His Resurrection was three days later on the 17th day (Saturday) at the setting of the sun (Matt.28:1).
Turning from the doom of the sinner to the danger of the mission Church, Paul rebukes the pride that can suffer such a stain, which is a reminder of the extent to which this foul infection can spread, then applies a happy application of the Christian symbolism of the Paschal feast. All leaven was removed from the home of Israel on the 14th day of Nisan (Ex 12:15). It is the duty of the Church to remove all stains to maintain its high moral standards among its own members. Christian fellowship must be withheld from anyone bearing the name of brother if he lapses into idolatry or sexual sin. Now the most important of all is that each one should examine himself (1 Corinthians 11:27-31) but what we want to do is examine the other fellow, pointing out his faults and why he should not take of the Supper. “Purge out therefore the old leaven (sin) that ye may be a new lump (person) as ye are unleavened (without sin). For even Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of Malice and Wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” One must be sure he has rid himself of all malice and hatred; examine himself “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (dead).” This could have a two-fold meaning. Many are weak and sick Spiritually, and many are asleep Spiritually as to what God required of them. Paul admonished us to “study to shew thyself approved unto God.” To examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith, prove yourselves (1Corinthian 13:5). So let every man prove his own works (Galatians 6:4). Then he is ready to partake of the Lord’s Supper after he examines himself if he is worthy.
Have you examined yourself? Are you worthy to partake of the Lord’s Supper? If not why not ask God to forgive you and turn from your evil ways? He will forgive you.
Many people have misunderstood the real significance of the time of observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Passover. A passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11verse 26 has been read to mean that we do not know how often nor when we are to take this ordinance. The statement is, “For as oft as ye do this ye do show forth the Lord’s death until He comes.” If we are not told how often to partake of this feast (as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthian 5:6-8) then surely it isn’t good works, for Paul states very plainly in his letter to Timothy that the Scriptures thoroughly furnish the man of God unto all good works. It behooves us then to search the Scriptures for any information that we might lack along this line. Some will say that we should take it each Sunday. But these same people contend that Christ arose from the dead on Sunday morning. But He arose at the end of the Sabbath (Saturday) not on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1). Why then do they wait till the time, which they state, is the day of His resurrection to celebrate His death? Rather inconsistent isn’t it? Others say that we should take it every fifth Sunday or every thirteenth Sunday, while others once a year. Can we celebrate His death or do this in commemoration of His death, and still be consistent? How often do people celebrate His Birth? Every week? He just died once, and it certainly would be out of place to celebrate His Death more than we should His Birth, or at any other season than at which He died.
The Passover has a history that is not often taken into consideration by some. The Passover as a religious festival originated in the land of Egypt, at the time that the children of Israel came out of bondage and were ordered of God to be kept by them in commemoration of their deliverance. The record of this is found in Exodus chapter 12. In Exodus 12:4, we find the Lamb was to be kept until the 14th day and in the evening late that day before sunset it was to be sacrificed. Christ died about three o’clock in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. Therefore the type met the anti-type the same day of the month and the same time of the day. There are Scriptures that say the day at Evening is the Lord’s Passover.
Christ ate the Passover with the disciples the evening of the 14th. His death upon the cross-instituted the Lord’s Supper. The Passover was more than the commemoration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The blood of the Lamb was atonement for their sins (Numbers 9:13). The one who refused to eat was cut off. The same is true with those who refuse to accept the blood of Christ, our Passover, for the remission of sins.
“This day shall be unto you for a Memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever” (Exodus12:14). Before Christ they (Israel) kept the feast; today we take the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper once a year. It is the same command, but different practice. Christ ate the Passover the night before His death; He took it after the sun had set on the 14th day of Nisan (Exodus 12:6; Numbers 28:16) according to the Jewish calendar. Jewish time begins at sundown and ends at sundown.
The lamb was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day when it was to be sacrificed in the evening (the evening began just after 12 o’clock, and continued till sunset). “Ye shall keep it in His appointed season; according to all the ceremonies” (Numbers 9:3).
The Memorial is to be kept as a remembrance of the severity and goodness, or justice and mercy, of God forever (Exodus 12:14)
Ye shall keep it a feast--it shall be annually observed and shall be celebrated with solemn religious joy, throughout your generation--as long as ye continue to be a distinct people, an ordinance--a divine appointment; an institution of God Himself, neither to be altered nor set aside by any human authority. Forever. An everlasting or endless statute because the representative of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world; whose mediation, in result of His sacrifice shall endure while time itself lasts, and to whose merits and efficiency the salvation of the soul shall be ascribable throughout eternity. This, therefore, is a Statute and Ordinance that can have no end, either in this world or in the world to come (Deuteronomy 16:6).
No religion can exist without sacred times for worship when men could rejoice in what their God had done. Such season were provided for the Hebrews. They furnished specific occasions for the assembling of the people to give outward form to what should have been implanted in their hearts (Numbers 28:16).
The Passover Lamb, which was also called the Paschal Lamb, was the animal that was to be sacrificed on this occasion, which was the name of the institution itself. Paul copies the expression in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ our Passover (that is, our Paschal Lamb) is sacrificed for us.” The month of Abib or Nisan is the approximation of March or April, and “thou shall therefore keep this Ordinance in his season from year to year” (Exodus 13:10).
It was custom of the Jews at Passover to roast the meat without leaven or any honey (Leviticus 2:11). Unleavened bread or cakes were baked, having no leaven (Leviticus 6:17). Leaven ferments the dough as sin produces corruption, and is therefore a symbol of mortal corruption (1 Corinthian 5:8); therefore it is excluded from the Passover, as it is to commemorate the haste of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Unleavened bread is the symbol of purity; bitter herbs are the symbol of affliction, which they endured in Egypt, and leaven symbolizes corruption.
The Passover was a kind of a sacrament, uniting the nation of Israel to God. It was to remind them of the past afflictions, symbolizing the new life, and cleansed from the old ways of the Egyptians.
The Jews divided the days into morning and evening; till the sun passed the meridian all was morning or afternoon; after that all was afternoon or evening. Their first evening began just after twelve o’clock, and continued till sunset; between twelve o’clock, therefore, and the termination of twilight, the Passover Lamb was killed, shortly after the time of their daily sacrifice, they slayed the Passover Lamb, which was about the ninth hour, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon (Exodus 12:6).
The detail of the Crucifixion of Christ following His trial by the Jewish and Roman authorities was led forth for Crucifixion, Preparatory to the actual ordeal itself. He was scourged, the prisoner was bent over, tied to a post, while the Romans victor applied blow upon blow upon His bare back with a lash intertwined with pieces of bone or steel. The trial went on all night and throughout the early morning. They Crucified Him at a place called Calvary. The darkness began at the sixth hour (Luke 23:44), about our twelve o’clock noon and lasted till the ninth hour (Mark 15:33-34), which answered to our three o’clock in the afternoon, when he gave up the Ghost (died).
Christ ate the Passover the preceding even, which was the beginning of the fourteenth day, Wednesday. The Jews begin their day at sunset, we at midnight. Thus Christ ate the Passover on the same day as the Jews. Christ kept this Passover at the beginning of the fourteenth day, the precise day and hour in which the Jews had eaten their first Passover in Egypt.
And in the same part of the same day in which the Jews had sacrificed their first Paschal Lamb, about the ninth hour, or three o’clock, Jesus Christ our Passover was Sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7)! For it was at this hour that He yielded up His last breath, then after the Sacrifice being completed Jesus said, “It is Finished.” He was laid in the tomb about sunset on that Wednesday, and arose about sunset “at the end of the Sabbath” (Saturday) Matthew 28:1. He fulfilled His prophesy by being in the heart of the earth Three Full Days and Three full nights (Matthew 12:39-40).
Men are ignorant of Divine things and must be taught (John 6:45). Only those who can be considered as proper teachers of the unlearned and are thoroughly instructed in whatsoever Christ has Commanded, and who are entrusted with the public ministry of the Word should care that they teach not human creed and confession of faith in place of the Sacred Writing, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
This is the first institution of what is termed the Lord’s Supper. “Jesus took bread,” unleavened bread and gave thanks and gave it to His disciples (Matthew 26:26-28). Bread as a symbol of the body of Christ suggests the staff of life, the very basis of life itself. The breaking of the bread suggests the breaking of Christ’s body in a redemptive sacrifice. Wine (Grape Juice), as a symbol of the blood of Christ, suggest the pressing out of Christ life, the bruising by Divine wrath. Together they symbolize the Sacrifice of the Life of Christ.
As we receive the elements, symbolic in their nature, we submit again to receive the merits of Christ, not as if it needs to be renewed periodically, but as a continual commemoration of the time when God’s mercy drew us into grace and imparted Christ’s righteousness to us. As a memorial to Christ’s death it is a renewal of obedience to Christ’s will--an acknowledgment again that our salvation is solely through the body and shedding of His blood.
“This is my blood of the New Testament” (Luke 22:20) simply means “the New Covenant.” Covenant signifies an agreement, a contract, or compact between two parties by which both are mutually bound to do certain things with certain conditions and penalties. This often signifies not only the Covenant or agreement, but also the sacrifice which was slain on the occasion by the blood of which the Covenant was ratified; and the contracting parties professed to subject themselves to such a death as that of the victim in case of violating their engagements. For the testament is of force after men are dead: it is of no strength (Hebrew 9:15-20).
“For where a Covenant is, there must be necessarily introduced the death of that which establisheth the Covenant, because a Covenant is confirmed over only the dead, and is of no enforcement at all while that which establisheth the Covenant is alive.” Thus is undoubtedly the meaning of this passage; and we should endeavor to forget that testament and tester were ever introduced, as they totally change the Apostle meaning. Wherefore, as a victim was required for the ratification of every Covenant, the first Covenant made between God and the Hebrews, by the mediation of Moses, as not dedicated “Renewed” or solemnized, without blood--without the death of a victim and the shedding of blood and “this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many” (Matthew 26:28).
No man can carry his love for his friend farther than this, for when he gives up his life, he gives up all that he has. “This is proof of My love for you I will give in a few hours, and the doctrine which I recommend to you, I am just going to exemplify Myself. I have admitted to you into a state of the most intimate fellowship with Myself and have made known unto you whatever I have heard from the Father” (John 15:15). Ye are my friend if ye do whatsoever I command (John 15:14). “But a man’s testament, if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth” (Galatians 3:14-18).
“Bread,” as the most universal solid food is often used figuratively for food in general. The word “Bread” is used by the Lord in a mystical, but very true and precious sense in His discourse on “the Bread of Life” (John 6:48-51). As important as is solid food (Bread) to our bodies, so necessary is the Lord to our Spiritual life. And so, in the “Breaking of Bread at the communion” services, some partake it in a very real way of Christ, while others, not discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink condemnation to themselves (1 Corinthian 11:27-30). The Bread meant His Flesh, (His Life), which He was about to give up to save the life of the world. Here, our Lord plainly declares that His death was to be a vicarious sacrifice and atonement for the sins of the world. Our Lord terms His Flesh the “True Meat” and His Blood the “True Drink” (John 6:53-58), because those who receive His grace merited by His death would be really nourished and supported thereby unto Eternal Life.
That the Lord Jesus the same night, took bread and He brake it (1 Corinthian 11:23), if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever (John 6:25). In reading these verses we will note that Paul is reprimanding the Corinthian brethren for their conduct in observing the Lord’s Supper as well as other things (1 Corinthian 11:26-34). Then in verse 23 he relates unto them how that same night Christ was betrayed took bread. Many people have misunderstood the real significance of the time of observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Passover. A passage in verse 26 has been read to mean that we do not know how often nor when we are to take this ordinance. The statement is “For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He comes.” We are not told how often to partake of this feast (as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 5:8). Christ ate the Passover the night before His death on the cross, and instituted the Lord Supper then. The Passover was a Memorial, which they kept once a year, so, as often as you take it (once a year), do it in remembrance of the death of Christ.
In the New Testament, new, sweet wine, or grape juice, may imply that the disciples was known to drink only unfermented grape juice (Isaiah 63:8). The means for preserving grape juice were well known. At the Last Supper Jesus spoke of “The fruit of the vine” (Matt.26:29; Mark 14:24-25), as in the Passover Ceremonies. The term wine indicated that the drink was unfermented, as the bread was unleavened. Whatever use Jesus or others made of wine is no proof that its use in our tense age is wise. The Bible speaks of New Wine (gleukos) as grape juice, and (oinos) for fermented wine. The Nazarites were not even to touch grapes while under a vow (Judges 13:4-14; Luke 1:15). In Proverbs the preacher stated that fermented wine mocks a man. And that it at first dulls his senses and gives him a sense of well being but later it makes him appear foolish to others (Proverbs 20:1). Beginning with an older message that had originally been delivered to Israel before the fall of Samaria, the prophet was warning against foolish action. “They have erred through wine, and strong drinks” (Isaiah 28:7).
The meaning of the ordinance is suggested by these usages, as Eucharist (meaning “to give thanks”); the Communion; a Memorial feast in commemoration of Jesus’ death; a sacrifice of praise, and the presence of Christ.
He (Christ) does not partake of the subsequent cup and bread, which He gives to His disciples, as the new Supper is to supersede (replace) the Old Passover. Christ became the Lamb that was to be sacrificed (Isa. 53:1-10) that brought to an end of the Passover memorial to a New Covenant. The Lord’s Supper is a Seal of this New Covenant in His blood the sign that “we were all made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 10:4). The pledge that He once loved us so dearly that He gave Himself for us shows us He still loves us as intensely as ever.
The new feast (memorial) was to be annual. Christ has become our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), to be observed once a year on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (Exodus.12:6). The Passover deliverance was once for all wrought at the Exodus. The Passover feast yearly revived it to the believing Israelites souls. Christ was once for all sacrificed for our redemption never to be offered again; the Lord’s Supper continually recognized Him and His finished work to the soul, so that we feed on Him by faith (Heb.9:25-27, 10:1-18), as to “Breaking of the Bread.” Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan and His Resurrection was three days later on the 17th day (Saturday) at the setting of the sun (Matt.28:1).
Turning from the doom of the sinner to the danger of the mission Church, Paul rebukes the pride that can suffer such a stain, which is a reminder of the extent to which this foul infection can spread, then applies a happy application of the Christian symbolism of the Paschal feast. All leaven was removed from the home of Israel on the 14th day of Nisan (Ex 12:15). It is the duty of the Church to remove all stains to maintain its high moral standards among its own members. Christian fellowship must be withheld from anyone bearing the name of brother if he lapses into idolatry or sexual sin. Now the most important of all is that each one should examine himself (1 Corinthians 11:27-31) but what we want to do is examine the other fellow, pointing out his faults and why he should not take of the Supper. “Purge out therefore the old leaven (sin) that ye may be a new lump (person) as ye are unleavened (without sin). For even Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of Malice and Wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” One must be sure he has rid himself of all malice and hatred; examine himself “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (dead).” This could have a two-fold meaning. Many are weak and sick Spiritually, and many are asleep Spiritually as to what God required of them. Paul admonished us to “study to shew thyself approved unto God.” To examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith, prove yourselves (1Corinthian 13:5). So let every man prove his own works (Galatians 6:4). Then he is ready to partake of the Lord’s Supper after he examines himself if he is worthy.
Have you examined yourself? Are you worthy to partake of the Lord’s Supper? If not why not ask God to forgive you and turn from your evil ways? He will forgive you.