Matthew 26:29
Today we’re going to take a closer look at one of the most basic traditions of the church and see what the Word of God says about it. That tradition is communion or the Lords Supper.
“Speed Slider”
Last time we touched on the tradition that most churches celebrate known as the Lord’s supper or communion.
Let’s read the verses we left off at last time, Matthew 26:26-28,
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Both Catholics and Protestants believe that Jesus instituted a sacrament and an ordinance, or a mandate, for the church in this verse when he passed the cup and broke the bread with his disciples in the supper on the night before His crucifixion commonly called “The Last Supper”.
The Roman Catholics teach that the biscuit and the wine used in this ritual turn into the real flesh and blood of Jesus. The name given to this transformation of the biscuit and wine into the real blood and the real body of Christ is called transubstantiation.
For a start both these judgements are of individuals whereas the judgement of the nations is exactly that, judgement of the gentile nations, and they’ll be judged on how they treated the nation of Israel through it’s horrendous persecution in the great tribulation.
We finished off last time in Matthew 25:33 and to recap we should read Matthew 25:31-32 again to get the continuity going.
Matthew 25:31-32,
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
This is happening after the King has come in His second coming and is now reigning from David’s throne in Jerusalem according to prophecy.
How will God gather all the nations together? Well, we know from Joel chapter 3 verse 1 and 2 that it’ll all happen in the valley of Valley of Jehoshaphat, outside Jerusalem, but what are the mechanics of how all these nations will stand before the King?
We don’t know. We haven’t got a clue because these are things that God Himself knows and even if He did reveal it we wouldn’t have a hope of understanding it. However, if we believe in God and Who He is, the Almighty Creator of the universe, by faith we have no problem in believing that He not only can do this thing but that He will do it, and it won’t be hard for Him either.
Let’s move on now to Matthew 25:33-40,
And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?
When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
So here, The King, Jesus Christ, judges the gentile nations.
It seems to teach that nations are saved or lost en masse, in a group, all together.
It brings up another question. Don’t individuals make up a nation? Isn’t a nation just the sum total of all the individuals in it?
Yet time and again throughout the Bible we see God dealing with nations. The most prominent of these of course is Israel but there are over 70 nations spoken of throughout the Bible and many of them don’t exist today because God judged them.
We must remember that God does deal with nations as whole.
The Old Testament is packed with instances of nations punished because of their sin.
Just a few of these passages are, Isaiah 10:12-19; Isaiah 47:5-15; Ezekeil 25:6-7; Amos chapters 1 and 2; Obadiah 1:10; Zechariah 14:1-5.
It’s not unreasonable to believe that nations will continue to experience divine retribution.
This doesn’t mean that every single individual in the nation will be involved in the outcome, but that the principles of divine justice will be applied on a national basis, as well as an individual basis.
Today individual Jews are offered salvation freely by God’s grace the same as the gentiles and yet time and again we see that the nation as a whole is spoken of by God and it’s immensely important to Him.
The point at where individuals become nations, and are therefore treated as a collection rather than as individuals, is just not that clear and God hasn’t deemed it a requirement for us to know.
We trust in His Word alone, by faith, realising that just because some things are not clear to us today, doesn’t mean they’re not completely clear to God.
Also, this event is still in the future so we simply cannot be as sure of the details as we can about events that have already happened in history.
One thing is certain, and that is that at this judgement of the nations the criteria that they’ll be judged on is their treatment of quote, “My Brethren”.
We do know that there are three groups involved in this judgement as we said last time, the sheep nations, the goat nations and “My Brethren”.
Who are “My Brethren”? Israel! This is about how the nations treated Israel during the tribulation.
This could be the whole remnant of Israel who believe on Christ in that time and are heavily persecuted and martyred to death for that belief.
It could also be, as many scholars speculate, the 144,000 Jews sealed at the time of the Great Tribulation who’ll go out over the entire world to preach the message of the gospel of the Kingdom, and to be ready for the King’s imminent coming. They’ll also be under heavy persecution from Antichrist.
Anyone who would give even a cup of cold water to either of these two groups will do so at the risk of his life.
Despite this, some will choose to protect them, feed them, hide them, etc. And, to their surprise, these nations will be singled out and spared. Also, to their surprise, the nations that did not bless Israel at this time will be cast into everlasting punishment.
We can see a historical pattern here in how nations rise and fall in relation to their treatment of the Jews. The Babylonians, The Persians; The Greeks, The Romans and Nazi Germany to name a few.
It all goes back to Genesis 12:3 and God’s promise to Abraham,
I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The King places the sheep nations on His right hand, and the goat nations on the left.
He then invites the sheep to enter His glorious kingdom, prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
The reason given is that they fed Him when hungry, gave Him drink when thirsty, welcomed Him when a stranger, clothed Him, visited Him in sickness, and went to Him in prison. The righteous sheep profess ignorance of ever showing such kindnesses to the King; He hadn’t even been on earth in their generation.
He explains that in befriending one of the least of His brethren, they befriended Him. Whatever is done for one of His disciples is rewarded as being done to Himself.
Now we finish off with verses 41 to 46,
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The unrighteous goat nations are told to depart from Him into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels because they failed to care for Him during the terrible Time of Jacob’s Trouble. They’re surprised also.
When they try to excuse themselves by saying they’d never seen Him, He reminds them that their neglect of His followers was neglect of Himself.
Again, we see here a different age than we live in today and God working differently with mankind.
Here a person’s works are important to have any hope of entering the Kingdom.
God’s desire is that men should be blessed. Hell, and eternal punishment was not originally intended for the human race, however, if people willfully refuse life by rejecting God’s way to that life, they’re choosing death by default.
The Lord Jesus speaks here of “everlasting”, or eternal fire, eternal punishment, and eternal life.
The same One who taught eternal life taught eternal punishment. Since the same word for eternal is used to describe each, we can’t accept one without the other.
The Judgment of the Gentiles reminds us that Christ, and His brethren, Israel, are one. What affects them affects Him.
Now, in Matthew chapter 26, the final events in the life of Jesus unfold immediately before the Cross.
There’s the plot to arrest Him; the anointing by Mary of Bethany; the selling out by Judas Iscariot; the celebration of the first Lord’s Supper; the predicted denial by Peter; the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; the betrayal by Judas; the arrest by the chief priests; the trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; and the denial by Peter.
Every incident and detail in this chapter points to the Cross. There’s a precision here that gives the impression that Jesus is trapped in the circumstances, and He has no control over them. But this is anything but true. He’s at all times the master over the circumstances, and He’s very much the King in command as He draws near the Cross.
In this chapter, and chapter 27, we should remember His determination to go to Jerusalem to die when He was at Caesarea Philippi six months previous. We saw that in Matthew 16:21,
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
He’s moving according to God’s timetable, and He’s forcing the issue. He’s not the helpless victim so often depicted, caught between the religious elite and Roman power.
The things in this chapter are vitally related to our salvation and there should be an awe about it all as we study them.
Matthew 26:1,
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples,
“When Jesus had finished all these sayings”.
What sayings? The Olivet Discourse, which was prophecy, where He laid out all the things that would come to pass before He would come again and set up His Kingdom.
He’s answered their questions regarding that and now He’s got something else for them.
Verse 2,
“You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Now let’s read ahead through verses 3 to 5 and look at something interesting and we read,
Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him.
But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
In Verse 2, Jesus again tells His disciples that He’s going to die. This is the sixth time He’s told them.
Six months before, at Caesarea Philippi, He announced His soon coming death as we just saw. And now He sets the time of His death.
He tells them that He’ll die during the Passover. But the religious rulers had other plans.
But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
The very ones who would put Him to death on the Passover were the ones who said that they’d not crucify Him during the Passover.
He said that He would die during the Passover. When did He die? During the Passover!
You see, Jesus, not His enemies, set the time of His execution. He’s in command; He’s the King in Matthew’s Gospel.
We’ve continually stressed that Jesus came to fulfill prophecy and the law. The whole reason for Him performing all the miracles and signs was to prove to the Nation of Israel, and by extension to us, Who He was, that He was The Christ, the promised Messiah. And all they had to do was just believe that.
Outwardly, He seems more helpless and weaker than at any other time, but He’s still in charge.
The bitter hatred of His enemies had led them to plot His murder, and they wanted to do it their way, but they’ll not be permitted to do that. The closer Jesus gets to the Cross, the more like the King He becomes.
In God’s Sovereign plan Christ would not be put to death at the hands just the Jew, which it would have been had the High Priest let the people kill Him. It had to also involve the Gentile in order to explicitly fulfill, Psalms Chapter 2.
Let’s look at that and let’s break it down as we go,
Why do the nations rage the King James says heathen, (who are the nations, the heathen in Scripture? Gentiles, the non-Jew.)
And the people plot a vain thing? (And who are “The People”? Israel, The Jews.)
The kings of the earth set themselves, (we know that this was Rome. David didn’t know that when he wrote this. But now we know that at that time, the kings of the world were the Caesars and the rulers of Rome. They set themselves, not just the Gentile rulers, but who else?) And the rulers (who are they referring to? The religious rulers of Israel. So now you have the Gentile rulers, which was Rome, and the religious rulers of Israel) take counsel (now what’s the next word?) together…
See, it wasn’t just a Jewish conspiracy or a Roman one.
Prophesy dictated that they’d work hand in glove to reject the King and that’s exactly what they did do.
Now to Matthew 26:6-7,
And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.
In these final days leading up to the Crucifixion, Jesus goes back to Bethany to spend the night. Bethany’s just outside of Jerusalem. Then He goes back into the Temple again the next day. And that’s His schedule throughout those days leading up to His Crucifixion. So here again, He is back in Bethany for the evening.
This incident took place in the home of Simon the leper. Why did they call him Simon the leper? Did he have leprosy? There was a time when he had this disease, but Jesus had undoubtedly healed him.
Now, in comes this lady with an alabaster box of precious ointment and she came to Jesus and anointed both His head and His feet with fragrant ointment and John 12 verse 3 expands on the incident. Let’s read,
Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Now we know through John that this woman was Mary.
Now back in Mattew 26:8-9,
But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
John 12:4 also tells us that it was Judas Iscariot who led the agitation against her, although all the disciples all agreed with him.
How much did they really care about the poor?
Were they the same as many people today who’re always talking about taking care of the poor but do little or nothing about it themselves. We live in society full of hypocrisy! The evidence of how concerned we are is always in what we personally are doing. Are we trying to make an impression, or what they call “Virtue Signalling” today, or are we genuine?
Now to verses 10 to 13,
But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me.
For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.
For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.
Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel (that’s the Kingdom Gospel. That He was The Christ) wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (And, of course, just about everyone has heard of this woman.)
This world will always have poor people and there’s nothing governments and politicians can do to stop it.
The Word of God says that the poor will always be with us until The Lord comes back again.
Now, Remember after death, the body was anointed with ointments and perfumes. So, Jesus says, “She’s doing this in view of my burial.” Did they know what Jesus was talking about?
No. We’ve already looked at those verses. This Mary that anointed Jesus didn’t know that she was putting on a burial ointment.
Now to Matthew 26:14-16 where we see Jeus being betrayed,
Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.
So, from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.
This deed of Judas Iscariot’s is so dark and evil in contrast to Mary’s act of love.
Dante gave Judas and Brutus the lowest place in The Inferno, and no one since then has said he was wrong. This man did the lowest and basest thing a man could when he betrayed the one to whom he should have been loyal.
“He sought opportunity to betray him.” You see, the arrest had to take place when Jesus was alone, that is, when the crowds were gone.
Judas waited for just such a time.
To verses 17 to 19 now,
Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ‘ ”
So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.
Now the Lord Jesus’ll go with His twelve disciples into the Upper Room, and there He’ll make the announcement that one of them will betray Him.
Now verses 20 to 22,
When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve.
Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”
And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
Every one of those men knew that he had it within his heart to betray Christ, if we’re honest, that’s why we should keep close to Him through His Word.
Now there is a debate here about whether this was actually the Passover meal.
John, in John 13:1-2 seems to say this was not the Passover, but a supper that took place before the Passover, and that Jesus was actually crucified on the Passover. Let’s read that,
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,
Even this passage of Matthew that we’re in doesn’t actually say it was the Passover meal it says in verse 19 that the disciples prepared the Passover.
Mark 1:16 infers the same thing, as does Luke 22:13.
However, getting bogged down on this only succeeds in taking our attention off the most important issues.
We’re still in Matthew 26:23-25,
He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me.
The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”
It’s interesting to notice that Judas didn’t call Him Lord as the other disciples did as we saw in the previous verses. At this moment Judas left the room, and according to John’s record in John 13:30,
Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.
Now we come to Matthew 26:26-28 and yet another passage of scripture around which is a lot of misunderstanding.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Traditionally this passage has become known as the Lord’s Supper.
Both Catholics and Protestants believe Jesus was issuing a command or a sacrament for the church when he passed the cup and broke the bread with his disciples at this supper.
However, we must keep in mind that the church, which is Christ’s body, hadn’t been revealed at this time, and everyone at that table was a Jew looking toward Pentecost and the kingdom come.
You and I, as gentiles, wouldn’t have be welcome at that table!
Most church goers today believe the Lord’s Supper was a New Testament celebration instituted by Jesus in this passage, in Luke 22:14-20, and in Mark 14:22-25.
It’s well proven that the twelve didn’t understand the mystery of the cross that night. In the resources below this episode list we have a list of verses that prove the disciples had no clue at that time about what was unfolding.
It’s pretty evident that the twelve weren’t having a celebration that night from the fact that Jesus called out his betrayers.
In Verse 21 which we’ve just seen we read this,
Now as they were eating, He (Jesus) said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”
We certainly don’t get the impression they’re in any sort of celebration.
And then verse 22 which we’ve also just read we see,
And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
And in John’s gospel in John 13:21, even Jesus is not at ease as we read,
When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”
The point is this wasn’t a joyous celebration!
Now, where does the church today get the instruction for what we call communion?
Is it from Jesus in the four Gospels?
It’s only in Luke 22:19, that Jesus told the disciples this,
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
We need to remember that the audience were Jews, the 12 Jewish disciples who would judge the 12 tribes of Israel in the kingdom.
In neither of the accounts of this supper in Matthew or Mark do we have this command of Jesus to “do this in remembrance of me.”
The Gospel of John records the supper but doesn’t even mention the breaking of the bread or the taking of the cup at all. In fact, John speaks mainly of the washing of the disciples feet.
We simply don’t find the words “communion” or “The Lord’s Supper” in any of the Gospels.
So, where do we find the basis for the tradition we know of today as communion?
Next time we’ll uncover the foundations of communion purely from what’s written in The Word of God and setting aside church tradition which has given us many different versions of this event known as “The Lord’s Supper” or “Communion”.
Until then, may God bless you with the knowledge of the truth.
The basis for this belief is John 6:54-56 which read, and it’s Jesus Himself speaking,
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
We’ll look at just what Jesus is saying in these verses shortly.
In Protestant churches along with the modern charismatic churches, this tradition of Communion is rigidly followed but without the belief of the Catholic version of transubstantiation. These churches don’t generally believe that the little biscuit and the wine mystically turn into the real blood and flesh of the Lord, but they do believe that the tradition itself is a command given to the church by Jesus Himself.
To get a perspective from the Bible on the whole idea of Communion or The Lord’s Supper or The Lord’s Table, we should remember that in our verses, Matthew 26 verses 26 to 28, the Church, which is Christ’s body, had not even been revealed yet. Jesus has not yet died, been buried and resurrected. Also, everyone at that table was a Jew looking toward Pentecost and the kingdom come.
Well-meaning pastors and teachers teach that the Lord’s Supper is a New Testament celebration instituted by Jesus even though the words “Communion” or “The Lord’s Supper” or “The Lord’s Table” don’t appear in Matthew, Mark Luke or John. They’re simply not in the Red Letters, the words spoken by Jesus.
It’s well proven that the twelve disciples present on that night did not understand the mystery of the cross and we have a list of verses that prove this in the attachments below this episode list. Also, that supper was a solemn affair as Jesus called out his betrayer.
In the version in Luke 22:21 Jesus says,
But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.
Also in the Matthew 26:22 recording of that same moment we read,
And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
It certainly doesn’t give the impression the supper wasn’t a celebration.
This tradition of communion that most of the church celebrates today is only very briefly spoken of by Jesus in the Gospels.
In fact, if you count the verses there’s, only four verses each in Matthew, Mark and Luke that speak about the bread and the wine and John doesn’t talk about it at all.
But when you look at church history and you see The Last Supper, The Lord’s Supper, The Lord’s table, Communion and the Eucharist have become an important part of the Christianity across all denominations.
As we’ve seen throughout this study of Matthew, Jesus was not revealing the body of Christ anywhere in His Earthly Ministry.
That so-called Last Supper that He ate with the disciples before he died was not speaking to people He’d taught to be the body of Christ. That wasn’t the language he used. He was speaking to the righteous Nation, the little flock, the lost sheep of the House of Israel that believed he was the Messiah and, primarily, to His disciples.
So, what is our pattern for Communion today and why do we observe it at all? Why would we regard the so-called Lord’s Supper as being a critical part of church today?
Because the doctrine surrounding Communion doesn’t come from Jesus’s earthly ministry in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, but from the apostle to the Gentiles, the apostle of the Church Age, The Dispensation of Grace, Paul.
Paul’s the only one in the Bible to use the term The Lord’s supper and that’s in 1st Corinthians 11 verse 20.
And, He’s the only one to use the term the Lord’s table in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 21.
He’s the only one in the entire Bible to use the word communion and then only in his letters to the Corinthians, twice in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 16, once in 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 14 and once in 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 14.
It’s Paul in the seven verses he writes about what happened that night of this last supper that gives us more detail than any of Matthew Mark Luke and John’s accounts of it.
It’s here, in Paul’s writings, that the Church sees an ordinance.
In fact, that term “ordinance” itself comes from Paul’s epistle in 1st Corinthians 11 verse 2. It’s not something Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
Now, it is odd Paul should use this term because Jesus came teaching the law and everyone under His ministry was under the law, but Paul said you’re not under the law, or under ordinances.
So, what happened the night Jesus was betrayed? What was going on?
Well, the popular version is that Jesus calls his disciples together for his last meal. It’s the last meal because He knows the hour’s come in which He’s going to die. He’s spoken of this previously to his disciples about his need to die to fulfill the scriptures. He told them, “They’re going to crucify me and Scourge me and then I’ll rise in the third day.”
However, the 12 disciples did not understand what he was talking about. They just didn’t get it!
So, Jesus calls His disciples together one last time on the day of the Passover and they’re going to observe this Passover meal together.
Jesus gives them what would become the centrepiece of Christian religious tradition, the broken bread and the cup, where he breaks the bread and says take this. This is my body and then he takes the cup and says this cup is my blood of the New Testament.
Jesus gives the bread and the wine to them to eat and drink.
Then, after the meal, He goes to the garden to pray the famous prayer where He sweats drops of blood and he prays, “Let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Then, in the garden, Judas comes and betrays Him with a kiss and the officers arrest him, the disciples run away, and the rest is history.
He gets dragged before the judges and the priests and then the Roman Governor, Pilate, and eventually He’s crucified.
That’s the popular version and there’s nothing unbiblical about any of it. That’s the way the Word of God presents it.
But within that version we have this so-called center of Christian religious tradition, the bread and the cup.
It’s everywhere in the church. It’s performed every week in many denominations and people have killed and died for it but we’re trying to break from what’s purely tradition, what people think the Bible says, and see what the Bible actually tells us about this.
As we said we only find Jesus talking about what we know as communion in four verses in each of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John doesn’t record it at all. If we only had the Gospel of John to introduce us to Christianity we wouldn’t find any description of The Lord’s Supper, The Lord’s Table, communion or even the passage, “Take, eat this is my body.”
Some may say that John 6:53-58 is where Jesus taught The Lord’s Supper in the Gospel of John, where He says eat my flesh and drink my blood.
But here He was talking to unbelievers, not Believers and he wasn’t talking to the church, the body of Christ, at all and we’ll look at those verses more closely shortly.
The rest of the story about the night Jesus was betrayed we get from Paul in 1st Corinthians 11. Even this phrase, “The night He was betrayed,” is from 1st Corinthians 11 verse 23.
It’s in Paul’s epistles we find the popular explanation of this supposed ordinance of the Lord’s supper in the Church today. We also find the most detail we’re going to find in Paul’s account of it.
It’s very interesting that 1 Corinthians 11:23, Paul says this,
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
He doesn’t say here that He read this in the gospel of Matthew or in the Gospel of Luke. Instead, he says he received this by revelation from the Lord.
Paul received a lot directly from the Lord. He received revelation of the dispensation of the grace of God. He received the revelation of the mystery, the Body of Christ, from the Lord. He received an apostleship directly from the Lord and here he says he received this account of what happened that night from the Lord.
Remember, Paul wasn’t even there that night. He wasn’t one of the disciples.
Jesus told him.
In this verse he also refers to, “that which also I delivered to you.” Paul had already delivered this revelation from the Lord to the Corinthians and he’s reminding them of that fact.
You see, in this passage of scripture, Paul’s getting stuck into the Corinthians for their wrong attitude, their wrong motives in carrying out this communion meal.
How did the early Church in Corinth and Ephesus learn those things? Remember, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John weren’t written at the time Paul was ministering to these churches!
That content was ministered through the apostles and Prophets who communicated it by revelation of the Lord. When Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their Gospels it was by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but that information was already being communicated by prophets and apostles in the church already.
So, Paul says that which he received of the Lord by Revelation he’s already delivered to them, but now he’s writing it in this letter for us to know as well. We should say here that there could well be a lot of oral tradition that we have no record of; revelation that was given by Jesus that was not ever recorded, but it’s what is written that’s the only truth we can rely on.
So, from 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 to see exactly what Paul says to these very carnal early Christians at Corinth.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
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 in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
It’s difficult to see the connection of what Paul says to the Corinthian church with our celebration of the Lord’s Supper today.
The situations are quite different today. In that day the Lord’s Supper was preceded by a social meal. It was probably celebrated in the homes and could have even been celebrated daily.
Acts 2:46-47 tell us,
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
The church in Corinth followed the procedure of having a meal in connection with the Lord’s Supper. They had these dinners for fellowship, and they were called an agape or “love feast.” This was a part of the fellowship of the church.
And, Paul’s not talking about a building here. He’s talking about when the believers come together, the true church, the Body of Christ.
Today when we speak of a church, we usually identify a building as the church. The building is not the church, it’s just a building. The church is the people.
It’s difficult for us to think like that but it’s true. There’re huge numbers of people today who meet together in a building every week who’re not members of the real church, the Body of Christ because they don’t believe in the grace of God, and that in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ we’ve been redeemed from the law of sin and death, and the penalty, which we should have paid, has been paid for us by Christ who died in our place.
In that day the social gathering led into the so-called Lord’s Supper. It was kept separate, but the meal always came before it. Later on, these feasts were separated, and they’re not practiced like that today. In most churches we don’t have a social dinner before the Lord’s Supper, although I know of at least one which does.
Because of that separation, and possibly only because of it, we don’t copy the bad situation that’d become common in the Corinthian church where the fellowship dinner turned into a bit of a drunken party and a farce.
In 1st Corinthians 1:20-22 we see this,
Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry, and another is drunk.
What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
It’s impossible for them to take the Lord’s Supper in the right frame of mind and with the right attitude because of the way that they conducted themselves the feast which preceded it.
Some poor people would come to the meal, and couldn’t even bring a simple dish they were so poor, and they were hungry. Next to them would sit a rich bloke who had all the best food and dessert, but he wouldn’t pass one bit of food to the poor bloke who was hungry.
This meal had become gluttony and drunkenness for some while some remained hungry.
The fellowship was broken, and the purpose of the meal was nullified. There couldn’t be the intended fellowship when there was a situation like that.
Paul says, “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?”
If they were not going to share in true fellowship, they should have eaten at home. What they were doing was fracturing and rupturing the church. It had become a big party where they were in no condition to remember the death of Christ at all. It would’ve been all fuzzy and hazy to them.
Paul says, “Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.”
Our point here is that most people think that in Matthew 26 here Jesus is giving an instruction to the church for the carrying out of this so-called Lord’s supper, communion.
However, the main thrust is not the breaking of the bread here but Jesus’s betrayal by Judas.
The most important thing that interrupted Jesus Earthly Ministry was Judas’s betrayal. Without judas’s betrayal we don’t get the cross, and we’ll come to that shortly.
Jesus doesn’t say here to make sure you establish this act as an institution, an ordinance of the church now and forever. Neither does Mark, Luke or John say that in their accounts of this supper.
However, there is something important going on after Jesus was betrayed that’ll be central to Christianity for now and forever and we’ll get to that in a little bit.
In the Gospel of John in chapters 13-17, Jesus spoke a lot more about that last night and the events at the supper than the breaking of the bread. In fact, John doesn’t even mention the bread and the wine at all.
In John 13:26, Jesus starts telling the disciples new things and that was after Judas left to betray Him.
He says in John 13:34-35,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In John 14:2-3 we have the famous sayings,
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
This is the last Testament of Jesus Christ. A testament is a will declared and stated upon someone’s death but initiated before their death. That’s what a testament is and that’s what Jesus is giving here in John 13-14.
He’s giving his last instructions to the disciples before he dies. Later He’ll give instructions on his resurrection but here He states doctrine before he dies. However, in John 13 14 15-16, in the account of this last supper, we find no information about the bread and the cup at all.
We do find foot washing instructions and we do hear of Him going to his father’s house, and we hear him talking about the comfort of the Holy Spirit coming down.
In John 15 we get the famous passage,
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
This is all spoken privately to the disciples without Judas.
In John 16 Jesus warns them of the persecution that’ll come on and how the comforter, the Holy Spirit will help them.
He tells them the hour has come when they’ll be scattered every man to his own and how they’ll leave Him alone and how He won’t be alone because the Father is with Him.
John 17 is His prayer to the father, that lengthy prayer where He talks about the glory He’ll have in the Father when He dies and goes back to Glory.
So, we have a lot of chapters here to learn what Jesus is talking about that night he was betrayed but very few verses record Jesus talking about the bread and the cup.
We said all that to show that the doctrine, the authority and the ordinances of the Lord’s supper, communion, we get from Paul.
We shouldn’t try to put the accounts of the four Gospels in the same context Paul’s later teaching.
For instance, in Matthew 20:22 we read,
But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
Jesus still had a cup to drink after he left the room that night and went to the garden. We remember what he prayed in the garden, that this cup would pass from me.
What’s this cup? Is it a meal or something He’s drinking? No! That cup is Him dying on the cross!
Matthew 20:23 we read,
So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
The cup Jesus is talking about here is his death.
He says they’ll be baptised with the baptism He’s to be baptised with.
They’re already baptised with water, as Jesus Himself was. They were baptised by John’s baptism under repentance where Jesus was baptised without
Sin, but they’ll also be baptised with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The baptism He’s talking about here is his death. He’s being baptised into death, being identified with death. Baptism means to be put into something, to be identified and immersed into it.
Jesus is God Who can never die, but He puts on flesh that can die.
He’s baptised into death, identified with it for the sake of humanity and He asks, “Can you drink my cup? Can you be baptised with my baptism?” The answer of course is no!
But, He says you shall drink my cup, my baptism, talking about the fact that they’ll die for Him. But, it’s not going to be accomplishing what He accomplishes.
Jesus prays in the garden about a cup. It’s his death his cross, His shed blood. The point is that the rest of the story’s not just about those few verses. The bigger picture the more important thing was Christ’s death on the cross that’s what was going on and that’s why the Betrayal was so
Significant.
That’s the catalyst that caused the death and the cross.
Now, what Paul’s teaching is on the ordinance of the eating and drinking of the bread and the wine
Paul even uses the term ordinance. He uses the term the Lord’s supper and the term the Lord’s table, and the term communion which Paul uses exclusively, it’s nowhere else in the New Testament.
In fact, Paul talks more about the Lord’s Supper, communion and the Lord’s table than water baptism or Hell which is very interesting.
It’s the opposite in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John where Jesus talks more about water baptism and Hell than the so-called Lord’s Supper.
That just shows us the emphasis of what they’re writing about.
Paul speaks more about that meal than any other writer of the Bible.
Paul’s gospel begins where Matthew Mark Luke and John ends.
In Philippians 2:3-7 for example, Paul writes,
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Paul’s saying this is the mind of Christ when we understand that we have a position in Heavenly places according to the mystery that’s been revealed to us through Paul, about the Body of Christ and Christ in us and us in Him.
We’ve been given all spiritual blessings and we’re complete in Christ but we’re on Earth temporarily and you’re dealing with other people, and we’re still in our flesh of sin.
We’re crucified with Christ, if we believe, and we’re dead with Him. Even though we have a position in Heavenly places we’re on Earth now and that’s what Paul’s talking about. Having the mind of Christ is charity. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves let every one of us please his neighbour for his good edification. Our neighbours are our brothers in the Lord.
The instruction here in this context is that if you’re strong, bear the infirmities of the weak as Christ who died for people’s sins. That’s what Paul’s teaching. He’s going back to the cross and using it as an example of our fulfilling the love of Christ with the sacrifice of humility and charity towards others.
See, Paul skipped a lot. Pentecost, Jesus walking on the water etcetera, and he skipped that meal too.
Instead, he went from Jesus’s incarnation and His death to what
we are now and he’s doing this to teach the Galatians, the Philippians, the Corinthians and the Romans, and us today that what Jesus did for us is also our example to how we ought to live in God’s grace and love towards other people.
Just as Christ died in the cross so that many would be saved, you and I need to reckon our old man dead or crucified with him that others may be saved. That’s the ministry you and I have today.
But, that’s not what was being taught back here that night Jesus was betrayed.
Jesus said this is my body eat it. This is my cup drink it. But now Paul is saying he died so that we might know how to minister to other people.
Paul’s explaining that this is according to the fellowship mystery.
This explanation of being in communion, or common union as the word means, with Christ and with each other is a part of the Fellowship of the mystery. Part of the revelation given to Paul as we see in Ephesians 3:9,
and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 we see,
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Does Paul say we’ve all been made to drink of a cup and a piece of biscuit every Sunday? No, it’s not all about the act, the taking of the cup and the bread, it’s about how we conduct ourselves and how we think about ourselves, and others based on what Christ did for us. Do we have the mind of Christ?
That’s what Paul’s trying to communicate to the Corinthians and to us today.
The Corinthians knew the gospel, but they weren’t living it. Paul’s saying to them that this should change our heart because if we trust what Christ did for us in His death on the cross for our sins. We’ve been bought with a huge price.
The Corinthians were coming together and were eating together but they didn’t care about the other people they were supposed to be eating with. They wouldn’t wait for them, and they wouldn’t give them food to eat even though some of them were starving even to death.
They weren’t taking care of them, and Paul says what they’re doing is not the
Lord’s Supper. They’re eating together but not how the Lord wants them to eat together. That’s why he explains in detail how to eat together, and part of the explanation is to remember Jesus the night he was betrayed. They were eating together then, but He gave himself to the others.
The typical Corinthian problem is thinking that Grace is me getting instead of Grace is me being able to give.
Because God gave grace to me, and I’ve received so much by that grace, I want to give to others.
Grace working through us is not saying I’m glad I’ve got all this stuff, that’s grace receiving, but not grace giving.
So, Paul’s teaching on eating and drinking is very clear.
In Romans 14:16-18 Paul writes,
Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
Many people, say that John is talking about the Eucharist in John 6:51-58 when he talks to unbelieving Jews. Catholics use this verse to justify transubstantiation or the wafer and the wine turning mystically into the actual body and blood of Christ. Let’s read that,
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
The Jews therefore quarrelled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, 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 eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
He who eats 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 he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
After that saying Jesus turns to his disciples, and he says that it’s the spirit that quickens, or makes alive, and the flesh prophets nothing, which means even if you think that wafer were to turn into actual flesh it doesn’t profit you at all because it’s the spirit that brings life.
It’s the words that Jesus speaks that gives life not the flesh, so do we think the night He was betrayed He was saying well this is my body, and it’s turning into my flesh?
Is He saying it’s symbolic of My flesh or it represents My flesh, so you need to eat it as a means of getting Grace from me?
No, the flesh doesn’t matter. His death on the cross mattered. His shed
blood matters.
If people could rightly divide Paul from Jesus after the flesh, maybe they wouldn’t have made a such a deal about what’s going on that night.
Nothing we touch, taste or put in our mouth or spit out of our mouth has anything to do with our spiritual standing with God and our salvation or our position in the church.
Paul’s teaching that it’s not about the food but our communion with one another, our common union. It’s not about food it’s about Christ.
Look at Hebrews 13:9,
Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
Now this is the author of Hebrews talking about a New Testament law a new
testament priesthood and Israel in their Kingdom and even the author of Hebrews says Meats do not profit you if you occupy yourself with them. It’s almost as if he’s already seeing a remnant of Jews who believe in Jesus
trying to practice a meat and drink ceremony which he says is not what profits you. It’s the New Testament, and It’s talking here about the New Testament to the House of Israel that Jesus ratified in His blood.
It talks about how the New Testament is not meats and drinks and yet that’s what the church has been occupied with for a very long time.
One of the other passages Paul teaches about that meal is in Colossians 2:13-14,
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
He’s talking about Jesus’s death and how we were dead in our sins and yet He had quickened us, or made us alive, together with Him having forgiven all our trespasses and blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. If there’s an ordinance that was against us He took it away.
Christ’s body was broken, and His blood was shed so that we could have life and peace and justification in Christ so we should think about our behaviour in that light. It really hits on what we believe in our heart.
The real bread was His body crucified and in the communion of the bread that we have it’s one body, the Body of Christ of which we are members. The cup that we drink is the cup that He drank after the meal not the cup he ate Drank in the meal.
It’s the cup He was praying about in the Garden of Gethsemane that night, the cup of the cross.
The real cup was that which Jesus had to do for others that was the cup he had to give his life up for other people. It’s far superior to any meal that we eat.
In Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 11:18-19,
For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions (The King James says Heresies which mean disunion not common union) among you, and in part I believe it.
For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
Those divisions and splits are based on doctrine. Because this is why they’re not eating the Lord’s Supper properly they have a doctrinal problem.
It’s not that they weren’t observing and keeping the table as a sacrament correctly, it’s that they had a doctrine problem which was leading to a behavioural problem and that was revealing itself when they came
together to eat.
How hard is it to eat together? Well apparently quite hard if you’re a religious community.
1 Corinthians 11:20-21 says that there’s divisions and we read again,
Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
Paul’s saying that when they come together, because of these divisions, this isn’t to eat the Lord’s Supper. There’s disunity and division not communion or common unity.
Our own meals at home can look like this. We can be full and your neighbour could be hungry because our neighbour wasn’t invited to our meal. That was our own right, and that’s what Paul’s saying in 1 Corinthians 11:22,
What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
If we’re going to have a community meal and our neighbours are all invited, we would have everyone in the community eat even if they can’t afford food.
If we’re hungry and we want to hog into the whole Buffet why don’t we go home?
The Corinthians were coming together with divisions and no charity.
In 1 Corinthians 11:23-27 we read,
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
He States what Jesus did which is giving his body and giving his
Blood.
“This do in remembrance of me!”
What are we remembering? We’re remembering that Christ died for us and we’re remembering that we would not be in the body of Christ unless He died for us.
We would not be in the church, The Body of Christ for eternity unless He
shed His blood for us and that’s what we’re remembering.
We don’t have to think about the elements themselves and the tradition associated with them, it’s about Christ’s death in the cross.
In fact, anytime we eat we might consider the Lord, which is why many Christians pray before they eat.
Paul then says, “for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup.” How often is that?
As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we do show the Lord’s death till he comes.
How do we show the Lord’s death? He wasn’t giving us bread and drink; He was giving us His body and His blood!
The only reason we take the bread and the cup together is because we all believe Christ died for our sins, which is why we can only have communion if we trust the gospel and we’re saved.
We can only have a common union with other believers if we ourselves are a believer. We can only be a part of the Body of Christ if we ourselves trust that Christ died for our sins when He said this is my body broken for you. It isn’t for you if you don’t believe His blood was shed for you.
For any Christian that believes, we have that agreement together and we gather together in that common agreement, that common union, that common belief.
When we partake of the broken bread and the cup, we eat and drink
because of what Christ did. The real remembrance is that Christ died for us, He rose again, He sent the spirit and He revealed the mystery that made us one in His Body, the mystery that before Jesus revealed it to Paul was hidden from before the foundation of the world as Romans 16:25, Ephesians 3:3 and 4, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:26 and 27, Colossians 2:2, Colossians 4:3, 1 Timothy 3:9 and 1 Timothy 3:16 and other places.
We wouldn’t know any of that if we kept yourself back in Jesus earthly ministry where we knew Him after the flesh.
It’s only after he revealed The Mystery of the body of Christ and who we are in Him that we can have the doctrine of communion or common union in Christ. Paul’s the only one that teaches that, and he teaches it in 1 Corinthians 10 and 2 Corinthians 12.
In Ephesians 3:9 where we have the Fellowship of the mystery.
That Fellowship is us brought together in Christ. That’s the real remembrance that we are the body of Christ. If we are His body and Jesus gave His body for others what’s that mean for you and me? It’s not all about us!
The Lord’s Supper is us eating as in the Lord together, for one another.
It’s not really about us coming together to eat.
Paul’s not giving some religious ritual to the Corinthians here, he’s setting up order in their assembling together by reminding them of who they are in Christ and what He did for them.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
That’s why we eat together, to remember what Christ has done for us.
Until next time friends may God bring you to remembrance of what He has done for you.
