Breaking The Bread . . . Of Liife

BREAKING THE BREAD . . . OF LIFE

SCRIPTURE:

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, unleavened - no yeast, no rising, flat bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

Mar 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake I it and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.

Luk 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. The Passover - Celebrating Israel’s deliverance from Egypt

The Passover was the first and the chief of the three great annual festivals, commemorative of the redemption of God's people from Egypt, through the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb divinely appointed to be slain for that end; the destroying angel, "when he saw the blood, passing over" the Israelitish houses, on which that blood was seen, when he came to destroy all the first-born in the land of Egypt

(Exd 12:12, 13 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. (13) And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.) --bright typical foreshadowing of the great Sacrifice, and the Redemption effected thereby. Accordingly, "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working," it was so ordered that precisely at the Passover season, "Christ our Passover should be sacrificed for us." Jamison, Faucet, and Brown

The Jewish day began at sundown; so Jesus eats the Passover and will be killed on the same day . This must have been a very moving commemoration for Jesus; the Passover remembered the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, which was the central act of redemption in the Old Testament; now Jesus will provide a new center of redemption (David Guzik).

B. The Lord’s Supper

Luk 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper- The bread and the wine were elements used in the Passover; Jesus fills them with new meaning, as tools meant to commemorate a new act of redemption, and to demonstrate our personal fellowship with Jesus Himself.

C. What is the nature of the bread and the wine?

1. The Church of Rome holds the idea of transubstantiation, which teaches that the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.

a. What if you dropped the bread or the blood.

b. What about the leftovers?

2. Martin Luther held the idea of consubstantiation, which teaches that the bread

Remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by faith they are the same as Jesus'

actual body. Different than the Roman Church, but not far from ansubstantiation.

Martin Luther insisted that there be some kind of presence of the body of Jesus because Jesus said this is my body.

3. John Calvin taught that Jesus presence in the bread and wine was real, but only spiritual, not physical.

4. Zwingli taught that the bread and wine are mere symbols that represent the body and blood of Jesus.

5. Scripturally (According to David Guzik), we can understand that the bread and the wine are not mere symbols, but they are powerful pictures to partake of, to enter in to, as we see the Lord's table as the new Passover.

D. Give thanks in Matt. 26:27 is literally the word eucharist; this is why the commemoration of the Lord's table is sometimes called the Eucharist.

2168 eucharisteo yoo-khar-is-teh' from 2170; TDNT - 9:407,1298; v

AV - give thanks 26, thank 12, be thankful 1; 39

1) to be grateful, feel thankful

2) give thanks

E. Jesus re-interprets the Passover elements (David Guzik):

1. The bread no longer symbolizes the hurried departure of Israel out of Egypt; but instead, it now pictures the broken body of the Messiah.

2. The wine no longer symbolizes the blood of the lamb, but now the blood of the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.