Paul
the apostle “delivered” to
the church members in Corinth, “That
the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread”,
and in chapter eleven and verse
twenty-four of First Corinthians, Paul shared with the Corinthian
church members how Jesus said, “Take,
eat: this is my body, which is broken for you”,
where we read:
And
when he had given thanks, he broke it,
and said, Take, eat:
this
is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
The verse begins, “And
when he had given thanks, he broke it,
and said, Take, eat:”. Paul
began with the words, “and when”
which means “and after the time” “he
had given thanks”
which means “Jesus was grateful, said grace and was thankful”,
“he broke it” which
means “tore, rent and separated the bread”, “and
said” or
“uttered, proclaimed, charged and instructed”, “Take”
which means “lay hold of, claim, procure and take possession of”
“eat”
or “devour and consume”. Paul referred to Jesus giving “thanks”
and
instructions concerning the “bread”
portion of His “supper”
which the church members were to “take”
and “eat”.
The
verse goes on to say, “this
is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
Paul
continued with the words, “this is my
body” which
means “the bread is Jesus' corpse”, “which
is broken”
or “torn, rent and separated” “for
you” which
means “for the church members”: “this
do” or
“take, make ready and participate of the broken bread” “in
remembrance”
which means “in recollection” “of
me” which
refers to “Jesus Himself”. Jesus told his disciples the “bread”
was His “body”
which was “broken” and torn apart for each of them, and they were
to “remember”
Him when they partook of it.
When
we consider these words from Paul, we see his instructions concerning
“the Lord's supper” according to the manner Jesus set
forth with His disciples. Jesus took some “bread, gave thanks”
to God for it, “broke” and distributed it to His disciples
as he gave instructions for them to “take and eat” it.
This “sacrament” of the church was initiated by Jesus and further
continued by the disciples and Paul. When we participate in
“communion, the eucharist or the Lord's supper” as Christians, we
are to follow the instructions and guidelines set forth by Jesus and
continued through the apostles, and as we “eat of the bread”,
we are always to remember how Jesus gave His body to be “broken”
and “sacrificed” for our sins. Let all who read understand and
obey.
Next
time Paul shares with the church members how Jesus, “took
the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in
my blood”,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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