Important principles that are related to the Eucharist or the Communion Service

1. The first is that Communion or the Lord’s supper is a test for true Christian fellowship. And by true Christian fellowship I mean fellowship with God, occupation with Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship with God the Father is found in 1JO 1:3, Indeed our fellowship is with the Father,

Fellowship with the Son is found in 1CO 1:9, God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is found in 2CO 13:14, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

That is the first principle of the communion service, it is a time for fellowship with God.

2. The communion service is a test of your application of doctrine.

Your ability to focus your attention on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is dependent upon your understanding of the many things that TLJC has done for you through His death on the Cross. The more you know about Jesus Christ and His saving work on the Cross, the greater is your capacity to enter into the meaning of the communion service. Therefore there is time to concentrate, think about, meditate on the unique person of Jesus Christ who went to the Cross to be judged for your personal sins and mine.

3. Ritual without reality is meaningless. And in this ritual there are two factors;

a. The bread which speaks of the impeccability of the humanity of Christ and His qualification to go to the Cross as the lamb without spot and without blemish.

b. The cup which represents the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

The actual concept then is understanding the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

4. The ritual of eating and drinking portrays salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Both eating and drinking are non-meritorious functions. All members of the human race can put food in their mouth and have it metabolized as well as be able to drink and receive the necessary nourishment! The reason for this is because God in His grace has provided the necessary equipment to metabolize food. Therefore when we eat the bread we are saying in effect I have personally believed in Jesus Christ. When we drink from the cup we again recognize that faith in Christ is based upon the work of our Lord on the Cross.

5. The importance of relating the communion service to worship.

JOH 4:24 tells us, they who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth or doctrine. Therefore it is necessary that we be filled with Spirit and that we are able to concentrate on doctrine rather than on things about us and the problems that we have.

6. The importance of the rebound technique because this is the means of recovering fellowship and being filled with the Spirit. This requires that you understand that every believer is a priest and he represents himself before God in the privacy of his priesthood. This is why the apostle Paul said in 1CO 11:28-32, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So the apostle Paul says in 1CO 11:23-26, 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.

ROM 5:16-17, And the gift [TLJC as the last Adam, referring to the incarnation and His efficacious work of the Cross] is not like that which came through the one who sinned [Adam]; for on the one hand the judgment [or the judicial verdict]arose from one transgression [Adam’s sin] resulting in condemnation [universal condemnation to the human race], but on the other hand the free gift arose from or because of many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

What we are going to note is the fact that we have the foundation of divine righteousness and when we attain capacity for life through doctrine resident in the soul, we have blessing in time which is parlayed into blessing in eternity with a resurrection body minus the old sin nature. The resurrection body which we have in eternity is the foundation for blessing in time being parlayed into blessings in eternity.

If the blessings in time surpass what Adam and the woman had in the garden under perfect environment, it follows a fortiori that the blessings in eternity are going to be infinitely superior under an environment and a foundation which excludes the old sin nature, excludes cosmos diabolicus, the devil as the ruler of this world and provides the very resurrection body that Christ has. And this is a part of 1CO 2:9, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.

It all begins when we are given a resurrection body like the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that in the body of Jesus Christ, there was no such thing as a contaminated cell. That’s why TLJC could not have died physically, except by an act of His own will exhaling His own air and not inhaling again. Therefore in LUK 23:46, And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last. The physical body of Jesus Christ was so fantastic that literally He had to give up His own life because they couldn’t take it from Him.

After TLJC paid the penalty for sins, He announced that salvation was finished. Then He bowed His head and gave up His life.

The religious Jews were always up to something. They would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. This is the typical evil of religion. They were very particular about the superficialities of life while ignoring, avoiding or rejecting the things of eternal importance. They had just demanded and secured the execution of the only perfect man who ever lived…their own Messiah. Now in their hypocrisy they are concerned about a man hanging on the cross during the Sabbath.

Now what is meant by the preparation? It is the Greek word paraskeue which refers to the day when the Jews prepared either for a weekly Saturday Sabbath or for a special feast Sabbath. The Jews who were so fussy in observing all of this ceremony and ritual which spoke of Christ had just witnessed the Passover right before their eyes…..but, did they believe?

They did not! Blinded by their religion and their superstitions, the Jews failed to understand the real significance of the Holy days. The principle again is that ritual without reality is meaningless.

It was the Roman custom to leave a body nailed to the cross until the flesh rot away. However, Jewish law demanded that the body of any criminal be put out of the sight during a Sabbath or feast day in order not to pollute the land, DEU 21:22-23. Therefore, the Romans would break the legs by using a heavy mallet in order to crush their bones and cause the body to hang! These filthy pious religious Jews certainly did not want their victim, whom they had railroaded through the courts to be hanging on a cross during one of their high Sabbaths.

Therefore we read in JOH 19:32, The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him;

The Roman soldiers went up to the two thieves, one on each side of TLJC. And in order to be able to take them down before the Sabbath, the soldiers pounded their legs until their bones were crushed. Once the bones are crushed, the body hangs and suffocates. Then in deeper shock and unable to force themselves up to relieve the pressure on their muscles, the thief’s could not exhale in their lungs and so they died of suffocation. Now, the Jews were waiting for the same thing to take place at the cross, however, notice vs 33.

TLJC was already physically dead. The fact that the soldiers did not break His legs is a fulfillment of specific promises contained in the O.T. scriptures as verse 36 says.

God keeps His word to you and me today just as He did throughout all the generations leading up to the Cross. Passover after Passover, through nearly 1500 years, the Jews had carefully prepared their Passover lamb in such a way as never to break even one of its bones. Every time they went through this ritual, they were saying in effect, God’s word is true and God will fulfill His promise. So, in spite of the insidiously evil demands of the religious Jews….in spite of Pontius Pilate’s orders…in spite of the entire Roman army, not one bone could ever be broken. Because “God keeps His word”.

The soldiers had laid down their mallets when one of them picked up his spear and hurled into Jesus’ side. In doing so, he fulfilledZEC 12:10…“They shall look upon Me (the Lord) whom they have pierced.”

The point is that if our Lord didn’t choose to die Himself, He would still be hanging on the Cross and the Jew’s relatives would still be waiting for Him to die. Why? You can’t die when you’re perfect!

Remember Adam and the woman could die in the garden of Eden until they became spiritually dead first.

Our Lord did not die spiritually like Adam and the woman, He died a substitutionary spiritual death which is much different than a real spiritual death. The death of Christ on the Cross is separation from God in a state of total perfection and impeccability. So He could never die physically unless He willfully chose to! They saw Him beaten and bloodied and so disfigured, one would hardly know it was a person standing there. There was no other way for Him to die except for Him to choose to die because every cell in His body was perfect. There was no way for Christ to die physically except by His own volition and that’s what He did. That’s why He said in JOH 10:17, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

So we are going to receive a body like TLJC in resurrection form to be able to live with Him forever and ever. And because we will have this type of body, the blessings in the eternal state are exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. Things we know about the resurrection body of Jesus Christ:

1. His body retained the nail prints. He had some kind of epidermis similar to ours since it showed scars. In Heaven we won’t have scars, but Jesus will.

2. His body retained the scar of the wound in his side, JOH 20:25-27.

3. It was recognizable as a human body, JOH 20:26-29. He made 17 post-resurrection appearances.

4. His body could be touched, LUK 24:39-40. It had substance.

5. He carried on conversations so his body had some system of vocal cords and the use of air, JOH 20:26.

6. His voice was recognizable immediately, JOH 20:16.

7. His body had flesh and bones LUK 24:39-40.

8. On one occasion he ate, but he didn’t have to eat, He could eat or go without food, LUK 24:30,43.

9. Apparently its’ structure is different because Jesus walked through closed doors, JOH 20:19,26.

10. The resurrection body was able to appear and disappear, LUK 24:31.

11. The resurrection body could move vertically or horizontally, MAT 28:10, ACT 1:9-10.

12. Our resurrection body will be exactly like His, PHI 3:21, 1JO 3:2