Eucharist
ICS Daily Devotions

John 6:57-58 (NKJV) 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.”

The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion is also known as Eucharist. It is a giving of thanks.

The Protestantism view (Professor Wayne Gruden of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School pg. 392 of Bible doctrine on essential teachings of the Christian faith) is that the bread and wine symbolised the body and blood of Christ and gave a visible sign of the fact that Christ Himself was truly present. It is that Christ is also spiritually present in a special way as we partake of the bread and wine.

There are many practices in the Old Testament that foreshadow the work of Christ, especially the Passover. Jesus was aware of His purpose of being on earth and what was going to happen to Him. He knew that He is the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, the perfect sacrifice that will satisfy the wrath of God towards the sin issue of mankind, that His work of atonement would result in reconciliation between God and man and bring about peace and restored fellowship between them.

We cannot have any relationship with God, unless we believe in His work of atonement through His shed blood, broken body, death, and resurrection. We will have no part with God if we do not accept Jesus Christ because the law and the works of man can never give us a right standing before a just, holy, and righteous God. The only way back to God is through Jesus because He is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody goes to the Father except through Jesus.

Every sacrifice in the Old Testament was an imperfect sacrifice because the blood of animals could only cover, but never remove the sins of mankind completely. Those sacrifices always pointed towards the final and perfect sacrifice on the cross. The Lord’s Supper mirrors the sacrifices in the tabernacle or Temple where there were offerings of a sacrifice and the application of the blood. The Holy Communion has the bread that symbolises Christ’s broken body, and the cup that symbolises Christ’s shed blood.

Matthew 26:26-28 (NKJV) 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.

Sermon Series: The Holy Communion