I’d like to begin with sharing a very familiar communion verse. Exodus 12:23 “23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.” If that’s not the verse you expected, just stay with me for the next few minutes and we’ll discover how this all fits together. I’m sure we all remember that way back in the second book of the Bible... Exodus, we read about how the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and how God struck Egypt with 10 plagues because they would not allow Israel to leave. The verse we just read is about the 10th plague, which was the death of every first born in all of Egypt. And we have to remember, that the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt at that time. Let’s back up and look at that verse in the context of what was going on. Exodus 12:21-23 “21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.”
23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. God instructed Moses to tell the people of Israel to take a perfect lamb and sacrifice it, taking some of the blood and putting it on the door posts of their home, so that when the destroyer (death angel) came by to strike the first born of Egypt, he would see the blood and pass over that house. Notice that God didn’t automatically save all of Israel from the plague, just because they were Israelites. He promised to save the ones who followed His instructions and covered their door posts with the blood. We can’t expect that just because we have been born into a Christian home and our parents took us to church, that we are saved. We have to follow God’s instructions for our own salvation. Exodus 12:24-27 “24 And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. God instituted the Feast of Unleavened Bread to commemorate the Passover night. He gave Israel instructions to how to sacrifice and prepare the lamb and told them they were to do this every year as an everlasting ordinance. He set this in place before the actual night of the Passover event.
1,500 years later, when Jesus was on the earth, the Israelites were still celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread every year, which was referred to as The Passover. Matthew 26:17-19 17 Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” 18 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.” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.” The last meal that Jesus had with His disciples before He was crucified...that we refer to as “The Lord’s Supper” was a meal during The Festival of Unleavened Bread, celebrating The Passover. So, during that meal, when Jesus instituted what we know as communion, He was revealing that He would now be the sacrificed Passover Lamb. You see, at the heart of the matter, this celebration that we’ve had just yesterday, that we call Christmas, is really all about God sending the perfect spotless, sinless sacrificial Lamb that will be an acceptable atonement for all that we are guilty of. Do you think the shepherds were thinking about that when they saw the baby Jesus in a manger? Well, maybe the shepherds did know something about this. There is historical support for the idea that these were not just your average run of the mill shepherds. Around Bethlehem there were herds of sheep being raised that were for sacrificing at the temple in Jerusalem.
The shepherds who tended them were Levitical Shepherds and their job was to identify and protect the lambs who were spotless and perfect so they could be used by the priests at the temple as a sacrifice to cover the sins of the people. There is Jewish historical evidence to support this idea. So perhaps the shepherds that the angel appeared to, were actually expecting the Messiah. I’m not saying they understood that the baby they found in a manger would be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, but there is a reason they were chosen. God was not just looking for random people who were near the manger to come see the baby. Looking at Jesus as a new born baby, even as men who understood the need for a sacrifice to cover sin, how could they or anyone think this little baby would grow up to become the perfect spotless sacrifice for our sins. But that is exactly what Jesus was thinking back on when He instituted The Lord’s Supper. His time was almost at hand and He was telling His disciples not to forget what was about to happen. Matthew 26:26-28 “26 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.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” The disciples would have understood the symbols of the blood and body because they had been celebrating Passover their entire lives. But now Jesus is saying that from this point forward you are not celebrating the salvation that God provided Israel
from Egypt and the Death Angel, but the salvation that His body and blood would provide from sin and eternal death. And Just as The Passover was instituted by God The Father before Passover night, Jesus instituted Communion before the event of His sacrifice. So we are not only to remember His death, but to celebrate the salvation His blood brought to us, just like the celebration of the Israelites that the death angel passed over their house and wouldn’t touch them when they were covered by the blood of a perfect lamb. When we take communion we are remembering and celebrating that the blood of Jesus has covered us and we cannot be touched by eternal death. When death sees the blood, it has to pass over us, because it has no authority over us for eternity. Probably the most used scripture during communion comes from 1 Corinthians 11. Here The Apostle Paul is writing the church at Corinth and he wasn’t happy. I think we’ve grown up reading the communion verses with the wrong emphasis. 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 “17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. 21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 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. In this passage, Paul doesn’t seem happy...or calm. This wasn’t the sweet quiet moment of communion that we see today in churches. Paul is fired up about how the church in Corinth was misusing communion. It is from this platform that he launches into the verses we normally associate with communion. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “23 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; 24 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.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” At this point Paul tells us to Examine yourself before you take communion. This is not just some church thing that we do out of habit. We have to take this very seriously and make sure we completely understand the meaning behind what we are doing when we eat the bread and drink the cup. The first and most fundamental thing to understand is that this is something for believers. So let me say this...if you are not sure about your status of being a Christian or not, communion is not something you should take. If you want to be sure, let me explain to you how you can know.
1 Corinthians 11:27-28 “27 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. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” The examination that Paul requires of the Corinthian church was more of a big picture request to understand what the Lord’s Supper is actually about and to be sure you are not taking it with the wrong motives. 1 Corinthians 11:29-30 “29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” This is not a church pot luck where you are trying to get in the front of the line. Our motive is that we are remembering and proclaiming The Lord’s death until He comes. We celebrated His birth this week. We teach what He taught us. Now it’s time to remember His death and what that means to us as Believers.
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