"For as often as you eat this bread
and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." ~
1 Corinthians 11:26
The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion,
is instituted by
our
Lord Jesus Christ
upon the eve of His atoning death,
being a religious partaking of bread and wine, which, having been presented before God the Father in thankful memorial of
Christ's inexhaustible sacrifice, have become
(through the sacramental blessing)
the communion of the body and blood of Christ.
The name" Eucharist" is derived from the eucharistesas (" gave thanks") of the institution and was the most widely used term in primitive times, as applied to the whole service, to the consecration of the bread and wine or to the consecrated elements themselves
(compare 1 Corinthians 14:16).
The Lord's Supper is fundamentally (but not solely) intended to evoke our hearts' remembrance of the divinity and blessing of Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
The Bible uses the phrase “breaking of bread” in various forms. Acts 2:42-46depicts the early church breaking bread as part of their fellowship: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." The early Christians came together frequently for shared meals, which involved the breaking of bread.
"Communion" is derived from 1 Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
At the Last Supper, Jesus took a cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Moments before, the Lord had broken the bread and given it to His disciples with the words,
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” (verse 19).
With these symbolic actions
Jesus instituted the ordinance of communion,
or the Lord’s Table
The “new covenant” that Jesus spoke of is in contrast to the
Old Covenant, the conditional agreement
that God had made with the Israelites through Moses.
The Old Covenant established laws and ceremonies that
separated the Jews from the other nations,
defined sin, and showcased
God’s provision of forgiveness through sacrifice.
The New Covenant was predicted in Jeremiah 31:31–33.
The Old Covenant required blood sacrifices, but it could not provide a final sacrifice for sin. The Old Covenant required repeated, daily sacrifices of animals as a reminder of the people’s sin. But, as Scripture says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
Under the Old Covenant, the same inadequate sacrifices
were constantly repeated.
For every sin, the process was replicated,
day after day, month after month, year after year.
The Old Covenant never provided a full, complete sacrifice for sin. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Hebrews 8:7, ESV).
Jesus came to establish a “better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22), a “new covenant” that Jesus said was in His blood. Jesus shed His blood on the cross to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) and ratify the new covenant between God and man. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took the cup and said to His disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27–28). By “this cup,” Jesus referred, by metonymy, to the contents of the cup, which was the “fruit of the vine” (Mark 14:25). This was representative of Christ’s blood. Jesus gave His disciples the cup, infusing it with new meaning, and told them drinking it was to be a memorial of His death: it was to be drunk “in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Now, “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (verse 26).
The New Covenant
is based on faith in the shed blood of Christ
to take away sin,
not on repeated sacrifices or any other kind of work
(see Ephesians 2:8–9).
Because Jesus is the holy Lamb of God,
His one-time sacrifice is sufficient to atone for
the sins of all who believe in Him.
We “partake” of Jesus by coming to Him in faith (John 1:12), trusting that His shed blood (and broken body) is sufficient to pay for our sins. The elements of bread and wine commemorate His death and the shedding of His blood. When we eat those elements in communion with other believers, we affirm our faith and fellowship in Christ.
In his vision in Revelation 19:7–10, John saw and heard the heavenly multitudes praising God because the wedding feast of the Lamb—literally, the “marriage supper”—was about to begin. The concept of the marriage supper is better understood in light of the wedding customs in the time of Christ.
These wedding customs had three major parts. First, a marriage contract was signed by the parents of the bride and the bridegroom, and the parents of the bridegroom or the bridegroom himself would pay a dowry to the bride or her parents. This began what was called the betrothal period—what we would today call the engagement. This period was the one Joseph and Mary were in when she was found to be with child (Matthew 1:18; Luke 2:5).
The second step in the process usually occurred much later, when the bridegroom, accompanied by his male friends, went to the house of the bride at midnight, creating a torchlight parade through the streets. The bride would know in advance this was going to take place, and so she would be ready with her maidens, and they would all join the parade and end up at the bridegroom’s home. This custom is the basis of the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13. The third phase was the marriage supper itself, which might go on for days, as illustrated by the wedding at Cana in John 2:1–2.
What John’s vision in Revelation pictures is the wedding feast of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) and His bride (the Church) in its third phase. The implication is that the first two phases have already taken place. The first phase was completed on earth when each individual believer placed his or her faith in Christ as Savior. The dowry paid by the bridegroom’s parent (God the Father) would be the blood of Christ shed on the Bride’s behalf. The Church on earth today, then, is “betrothed” to Christ, and, like the wise virgins in the parable, all believers should be watching and waiting for the appearance of the Bridegroom (the rapture). The second phase symbolizes the rapture of the Church, when Christ comes to claim His bride and take her to the Father’s house. The marriage supper then follows as the third and final step. It is our view that the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven between the rapture and the second coming (during the tribulation on earth).
Attending the wedding feast will be not only the Church as the Bride of Christ, but others as well. The “others” include the Old Testament saints—they will not have been resurrected yet, but their souls/spirits will be in heaven with us. As the angel told John to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). The marriage supper of the Lamb is a glorious celebration of all who are in Christ!
In John 6, Jesus is actually telling the crowd that He is superior to the Torah (cf. John 6:49-51) and the entire Mosaic system of Law. The passage from Sirach states that those who eat of the Law will "hunger still" and "thirst for more"; this language is mirrored by Jesus when He says, "He who comes to Me will never be hungry, he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). Jesus is not commanding people to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood.
He is telling them the core of all Christian doctrine:
belief in Jesus Himself
"The work of God is this: to believe
in the One He has sent,"
John 6:29
There is a very clear analogy in John 6
to the days of Moses and the eating of
manna.
In the days of Moses,
manna was God’s provision
for food for the Israelites as they
wandered in the wilderness
In John 6, however,
Jesus claimed to be the true manna, the bread of heaven.
With this statement Jesus claimed to be God’s full provision for salvation.
Manna was God’s provision of deliverance from starvation.
Jesus is God’s provision of deliverance from damnation.
Just as the manna had to be consumed to preserve the lives of the Israelites,
so Jesus has to be consumed
(fully received by faith) for salvation to be received.
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘
This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’”
~ Luke 22:19-20
"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying,
"Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
~ Matthew 26:26-28
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all
partake of the one bread." ~ 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers." ~ Acts 2:42
"So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." ~ John 6:53-58
and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." ~
1 Corinthians 11:26
The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion,
is instituted by
our
Lord Jesus Christ
upon the eve of His atoning death,
being a religious partaking of bread and wine, which, having been presented before God the Father in thankful memorial of
Christ's inexhaustible sacrifice, have become
(through the sacramental blessing)
the communion of the body and blood of Christ.
The name" Eucharist" is derived from the eucharistesas (" gave thanks") of the institution and was the most widely used term in primitive times, as applied to the whole service, to the consecration of the bread and wine or to the consecrated elements themselves
(compare 1 Corinthians 14:16).
The Lord's Supper is fundamentally (but not solely) intended to evoke our hearts' remembrance of the divinity and blessing of Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
The Bible uses the phrase “breaking of bread” in various forms. Acts 2:42-46depicts the early church breaking bread as part of their fellowship: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." The early Christians came together frequently for shared meals, which involved the breaking of bread.
"Communion" is derived from 1 Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
At the Last Supper, Jesus took a cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Moments before, the Lord had broken the bread and given it to His disciples with the words,
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” (verse 19).
With these symbolic actions
Jesus instituted the ordinance of communion,
or the Lord’s Table
The “new covenant” that Jesus spoke of is in contrast to the
Old Covenant, the conditional agreement
that God had made with the Israelites through Moses.
The Old Covenant established laws and ceremonies that
separated the Jews from the other nations,
defined sin, and showcased
God’s provision of forgiveness through sacrifice.
The New Covenant was predicted in Jeremiah 31:31–33.
The Old Covenant required blood sacrifices, but it could not provide a final sacrifice for sin. The Old Covenant required repeated, daily sacrifices of animals as a reminder of the people’s sin. But, as Scripture says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
Under the Old Covenant, the same inadequate sacrifices
were constantly repeated.
For every sin, the process was replicated,
day after day, month after month, year after year.
The Old Covenant never provided a full, complete sacrifice for sin. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Hebrews 8:7, ESV).
Jesus came to establish a “better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22), a “new covenant” that Jesus said was in His blood. Jesus shed His blood on the cross to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) and ratify the new covenant between God and man. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took the cup and said to His disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27–28). By “this cup,” Jesus referred, by metonymy, to the contents of the cup, which was the “fruit of the vine” (Mark 14:25). This was representative of Christ’s blood. Jesus gave His disciples the cup, infusing it with new meaning, and told them drinking it was to be a memorial of His death: it was to be drunk “in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Now, “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (verse 26).
The New Covenant
is based on faith in the shed blood of Christ
to take away sin,
not on repeated sacrifices or any other kind of work
(see Ephesians 2:8–9).
Because Jesus is the holy Lamb of God,
His one-time sacrifice is sufficient to atone for
the sins of all who believe in Him.
We “partake” of Jesus by coming to Him in faith (John 1:12), trusting that His shed blood (and broken body) is sufficient to pay for our sins. The elements of bread and wine commemorate His death and the shedding of His blood. When we eat those elements in communion with other believers, we affirm our faith and fellowship in Christ.
In his vision in Revelation 19:7–10, John saw and heard the heavenly multitudes praising God because the wedding feast of the Lamb—literally, the “marriage supper”—was about to begin. The concept of the marriage supper is better understood in light of the wedding customs in the time of Christ.
These wedding customs had three major parts. First, a marriage contract was signed by the parents of the bride and the bridegroom, and the parents of the bridegroom or the bridegroom himself would pay a dowry to the bride or her parents. This began what was called the betrothal period—what we would today call the engagement. This period was the one Joseph and Mary were in when she was found to be with child (Matthew 1:18; Luke 2:5).
The second step in the process usually occurred much later, when the bridegroom, accompanied by his male friends, went to the house of the bride at midnight, creating a torchlight parade through the streets. The bride would know in advance this was going to take place, and so she would be ready with her maidens, and they would all join the parade and end up at the bridegroom’s home. This custom is the basis of the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13. The third phase was the marriage supper itself, which might go on for days, as illustrated by the wedding at Cana in John 2:1–2.
What John’s vision in Revelation pictures is the wedding feast of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) and His bride (the Church) in its third phase. The implication is that the first two phases have already taken place. The first phase was completed on earth when each individual believer placed his or her faith in Christ as Savior. The dowry paid by the bridegroom’s parent (God the Father) would be the blood of Christ shed on the Bride’s behalf. The Church on earth today, then, is “betrothed” to Christ, and, like the wise virgins in the parable, all believers should be watching and waiting for the appearance of the Bridegroom (the rapture). The second phase symbolizes the rapture of the Church, when Christ comes to claim His bride and take her to the Father’s house. The marriage supper then follows as the third and final step. It is our view that the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven between the rapture and the second coming (during the tribulation on earth).
Attending the wedding feast will be not only the Church as the Bride of Christ, but others as well. The “others” include the Old Testament saints—they will not have been resurrected yet, but their souls/spirits will be in heaven with us. As the angel told John to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). The marriage supper of the Lamb is a glorious celebration of all who are in Christ!
In John 6, Jesus is actually telling the crowd that He is superior to the Torah (cf. John 6:49-51) and the entire Mosaic system of Law. The passage from Sirach states that those who eat of the Law will "hunger still" and "thirst for more"; this language is mirrored by Jesus when He says, "He who comes to Me will never be hungry, he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). Jesus is not commanding people to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood.
He is telling them the core of all Christian doctrine:
belief in Jesus Himself
"The work of God is this: to believe
in the One He has sent,"
John 6:29
There is a very clear analogy in John 6
to the days of Moses and the eating of
manna.
In the days of Moses,
manna was God’s provision
for food for the Israelites as they
wandered in the wilderness
In John 6, however,
Jesus claimed to be the true manna, the bread of heaven.
With this statement Jesus claimed to be God’s full provision for salvation.
Manna was God’s provision of deliverance from starvation.
Jesus is God’s provision of deliverance from damnation.
Just as the manna had to be consumed to preserve the lives of the Israelites,
so Jesus has to be consumed
(fully received by faith) for salvation to be received.
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘
This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’”
~ Luke 22:19-20
"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying,
"Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
~ Matthew 26:26-28
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all
partake of the one bread." ~ 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers." ~ Acts 2:42
"So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." ~ John 6:53-58
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