Daily devotion – Saturday 3rd April 2021
The Lord’s Supper- Easter 2021
1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
During the meal in the upper room Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples saying – Luke 22:19 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.”
Then after the meal He took a cup of wine and gave it to them saying, Luke 22:2, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
I want to give you three great truths from this blessed gathering.
1. The centrality of Jesus death. Jesus was giving instructions for His own memorial service. They were to eat bread and drink wine in memory of Him. Moreover, the bread would stand not for His living body but for His body given for them and the wine for His blood shed for them. In other words, death would speak from both the elements. So, it was by His death that He wished to be remembered!
2. We learn the purpose of Jesus death in the Lord’s Supper. According to Matthew, the cup stood for “My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin.” Matthew 26:28. This is an amazing claim that through the shedding of His blood in death God would establish the new covenant promised through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31), one of whose greatest promises was the forgiveness of sins.
3. Thirdly, the Lord’s Supper taught the concern for the need of us to appropriate personally the benefits of Jesus death. For in the events of the upper room the disciples were not spectators only but participants. Jesus not only broke the bread but gave it to them to eat. Similarly, He not only poured out the wine but gave it to them to drink. Just so, it was not enough for Christ to die; we have to make the blessings of His death our own! The eating and drinking were, and still are, a vivid acted parable of receiving Christ as our crucified Saviour and of feeding on Him in our hearts by faith.
The Lord’s Supper, as instituted by Jesus, was evidently not meant to be a slightly sentimental “forget me not”; it was rather a drama rich in spiritual significance.
Let us prepare our hearts, examine our lives and look forward to coming to this blessed table this Easter Sunday here at Calvary Chapel Secret Harbour.