Holy Communion

The Holy Communion is a Jewish tradition which is completely scriptural. It is where we the believers in Christ Jesus, come together to partake from the Lord's table which consists of the Bread and Wine, where the Bread represents the Body of Christ, and the Wine represents the Blood of Christ. The first time Communion is mentioned in the Bible is when Melchizedek, the king of Salem, meets Abraham with bread and wine in Genesis 14:18. The first time the Jews partook of the Holy Communion together as a nation was during the final plague in Egypt, as mentioned in Exodus 12. The Jews celebrate this day as the "Passover". The Bible says, when the Lord brought them out of Egypt, there was none who was weak among them. The Bible says:

"He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes" - Psalms 105:37

Our Lord Jesus, who is the Jewish Messiah, celebrated the Passover in the upper room along with all of His 12 disciples by partaking of the bread and wine before His crucifixion. The Bible says:

"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" - Matthew 26:26

The wheat goes through crushing before it is made into flour. The flour is pounded several times as a dough, and finally it is baked in the firey oven. Jesus's body went through the Roman scourging where He was wipped and beaten. Finally, when He hung on the cross, he suffered the firey wrath of God's judgement, which is why He said "I thirst", as recorded by Apostle John in John 19:28. This way the Bread represents the Body of Christ. Notice that in the above verse our Lord says "this is my body" and not this is a piece of my body. The Bible says:

"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" - Matthew 26:27-28

The grapes are crushed and kept in the dark before it becomes wine. Our Lord shed His precious Blood and was in the grave for 3 days, where He was resurrected on the 3rd day. This way the Holy Communion consists of 2 elements, namely the bread and wine, which points to the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord Jesus cried out "it is finished" in John 19:30, the word for "finished" in the Greek is the word "teleo", which is a verb mentioned in the "perfect tense" in the New Testament. Perfect tense means that this action is done once forever and it will never ever be repeated again. Our Lord said:

"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" - John 6:54

The Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ has to be discerned separately as 2 different elements in the form of bread and wine. When we partake of the bread, we remember our Lord's Body which was scourged for our healing. The Bible says:

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" - Isaiah 53:5

When we partake of the wine, we remember our Lord, who shed His precious Blood for the forgiveness of all our sins, and that today we are forgiven, justified, and have fellowship with God not because of our works, but because of the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says:

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" - Ephesians 1:7

When we partake of the Holy Communion calling ourselves as sinners, or saying that we deserve the sickness, we are negating the finished work of Christ on the cross. This is not the way to remember Christ whose Body was scourged, and whose Blood was shed. The Bible says many of the believers are sick and they die soon because they are not discerning the Lord's Body, but instead are partaking of the communion in an unworthy manner. The Bible says:

"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" - 1 Corinthians 11:29

When we do not discern the Lord's Body while eating the bread that by His stripes we are healed, and while drinking the wine that we have been forgiven by His Blood, we are partaking the communion unworthily. We remember Christ by acknowledging His finished work on the cross, by seeing ourselves as the children of the Most High God, that we are healed, justified and forgiven as the righteousness of God in Christ.