Communion

 

From: TFTW Bible Collge

Communion may also be called the “Lord’s Supper.” The act is taken from the event of the Passover supper that Jesus had with His apostles before He went to the cross. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:26-29) Jesus told the apostles to partake of the bread and the fruit of the vine to remember His body and His blood. The bread was not literally His body and His blood had not been shed yet. Jesus was speaking figuratively. By partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine (grape juice), we remember the body and blood that was given as a perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.

We have an example of the Christians and the apostle Paul doing this act on the first day of the week. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” (Acts 20:7) The idea of “breaking bread” is a figure of speech referring to the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Christians did this on the first day of the week and an apostle is seen taking part. Therefore, we also do this on the first day of every week to be like the church in the 1st century.

The items of the Lord’s Supper are 1) unleavened bread, and 2) unleavened fruit of the vine (grape juice). Remember, that the Lord’s Supper was instituted during a Passover meal. A Passover meal was to remember the night the 10th plague was given to Egypt and the Israelites who spread blood on their doorpost were spared. (Exodus 12). The Israelites were told, “Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.” (Exodus 12:20). Leaven refers to yeast or the thing which makes bread rise. The Israelites were going to be freed from slavery, and God wanted them to be ready to go. They were not to bother putting yeast in the bread and letting it rise. Yeast is also the thing which makes grape juice ferment into alcoholic wine. There would have been no yeast in the fruit of the vine Jesus served to His apostles. It was a Passover meal and yeast was not allowed. Today, we also partake of unleavened bread and non-alcoholic grape juice.

But, why do we partake of things without leaven or yeast, when we are not preparing ourselves to leave slavery in Egypt like the Israelites did? We remember things without leaven because leaven is an analogy for sin or bad teaching. “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees... Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:6,12) When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth for the first time, he had to scold them for glorying in someone who was sinning. Instead of glorying about it, Paul told them to remove the sinner before his sin spread throughout the body of the church. “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. 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.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8) 

The church in Corinth was told to separate themselves from this sinner until he repented so that he might learn how serious this sin was and turn away from it. Then he would be able to return to the church and to God. But, notice that Paul calls this sinful act as “leaven.” The Lord’s Supper is to remind us of Jesus. Since leaven represents sin, we eat unleavened bread and non-alcoholic grape juice and it reminds us that Jesus did not have sin. He was sinless and without leaven. Unleavened bread and fruit of the vine were used in the Passover when Jesus implemented the Lord’s Supper and it reminds us of sinless Jesus.