olori

Jesus is food nourishment to our spirit just as food is nourishment to our fleshly body. Without food out fleshly body will die. Without the spiritual food that Jesus offers us the spirit will die. We must always feed on the Word, and Jesus is the Word.

Jesus was speaking in a parable, this was to separate the chaf from the wheat. The need to make the disciples remember, and teach this to others, the need to keep only the true believer, and this applies to us today. If you were not to understand this and tought of eating worldly flesh and blood, it would be repulsive to us. But to know and to believe in Jesus, what could be better? The 12 had the eyes to see and the ears to hear, they had true belief that Jesus was the Son of God. The crowd did not have eyes to see and ears to hear, they did not really believe Jesus was the Son of God. They held to the Word of Jesus. They knew the truth and the truth set them free.

His Flesh, is His life which is the ultimate sacrifice that had to be made to forgive our sins once for all. He makes the New Covenant with us using His flesh as the bread of life.

I believe this means that we are eating the spiritual bread of life. The Word of God is the everlasting bread. And when we eat the Communial Bread, which represents Jesus body in the flesh it is a renewing of the covenant He made with us. I believe nibbling is when we are not fully aware of the significance of this covenant, and making a meal is when we fully understand the covenant, stand on it, and it is truely a time of thanksgiving and worship to the King of Kings, and a renewal of the covenant.

We as the divisions in Corinth are the same. It just has a different color to it. There is bickering, jealousy, back biting in our churches today. There is sexual immorality that is not usually addressed by the church. Though I have not seen it in the church I am now attending, I am sure there is some division as this is human nature. The church I am now attending does address the issue of sexual immorality. The need for unity is very serious. Jesus prayed for unity of ALL that heard and believed His message. That includes us today. I do believe bickering congregations that know they are bickering are sinning if they do not recondile before taking the LORD's Supper, are sinning. Though I must admit, I had never thought about it til now.

We are to be one with the body of Jesus. We are to be recounciled to our brothers and sisters if we have a problem with them. We are to be one with the body of Jesus Christ. He is the Head and we are the body. We are to ask for forgiveness if we have offended anyone, and to forgive if we have been offended.

The "cup of blessing" is a blessing and thanksgiving to God. It is not about me, but about worshiping God. When the "cup of blessing" is lifted heavenward it is God that is to be blessed.

Only the 12 Apostles were at this meal with Jesus. They were the 12 closest to Him. It was the instituting of the New Covenant, just before He was taken to soon be sacrificed. An unforgettable meal with close friends, sharing and enjoying each others company in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. To remind me Jesus is my close friend. God wants to be our friend too.

The Apostles drinking the Cup of the Covenant were agreeing to the New Covenant. They drank this cup with Jesus, just as the 70 Elders ate the covenant meal with God. I believe we are reinacting the Covenant Meal with Jesus everytime we partake of the LORD's Supper. We are revalidating the promises made.

Under the New Covenant we are cleansed of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. Who died once for all. Eliminating the ritual sacrafices that were made in the Old Covenant, these had to be repeated over and over again. The Gift of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenent comes to live in each of us who chose Jesus as our personal Savior, accept that Jesus is God in the flesh, died for our sins, and rose on the 3rd day. He promises to write His Word in our hearts and in our minds. In the Old Covenant very few had the Holy Spirit, those that did were Kings or prophets, elders. God promises to wipe away our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, and promised us a new helper, the Holy Spirit. To love and trust in God, believe in Jesus as God in the flesh, and obey.

It was ratified with signs, a meal, blood offering. They promised to love God only and to obey Him. Young bulls were offered as burnt offerings. The blood from the young bulls was sprinkled. The fellowship offering of the young bulls was eaten.

Jesus was showing his disiples that that scripture was being fulfilled. He was referring to Isiah 53, showing the suffering sevent. Jesus was slaughtered like a lamb. He suffered physical and I am sure spiritual pain.

Because His blood was poured out for many, and His death was the marker of the new covenant. It was prophesied that He would be tortured, have a violent death. This was necessary for the remission of our sins. God hates sin, and He had to turn His face from the Son. I have tried to put myself in the diciples place to think what it would have meant to me. I think they probably did not have a full understanding of what was really going to happen, or why. When Jesus was taken He had to stop the diciples from trying to protect Him. They probably started getting an understanding of what was going on when Jesus arose from the dead and then ascended into heaven. I think the full understanding didn't come until the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

Man had become sinful when Adam fell, and condemed to die because of their sins. So God provided a way for man to be saved. The way was the sacrifice of an animal. The blood was life. Without blood there was no forgiveness of sin. So, by the sacrifice of an animal, using the blood to sprinkle on the altar, and pouring in front of the altar, sin was forgiven. But this had to be done over and over again to have sin forgiven. For the blood of an animal could not forgive sin once and be forever. It could not cover everyone. That is why all had to bring their own sacrifice to the priests.

This shows the great love Jesus has for us. To be repelled by sin, yet He was made sin that we could live. What a great love He has for us. It makes me want to be in the center of His Perfect Will. Want to be more like He is. I do not think I could ever be worthy of such a sacrifice. I am grateful that I do not have to be worthy, that He loves me so much that He became sin to redeem me, to bring me into righteousness, I can never praise Him enough, I can never thank Him enough, I can never do enough to repay that kind of love. It inspires me to want to walk in His will for the rest of my life. To do as He would have me to do. To share Him with the lost, to win souls for God. It is the least that I can do and it is what He wants us to do. To share the gospel.

Jesus came to redeem us to God. He was the one sacrifice that forgave our sins once for all. I believe He also came to show (teach) us how to live. He came that we might be made righteous.

Just as sin entered into the World by man, Adam, the first man, then Christ had to enter as a human and die in the body to take on the sins of the world. He became sin, and died on the cross for our redemption. It had to be a living blood sacrifice, animals could not do it, and a spirit does not have blood. Christ was tempted by every temptation that we are tempted by. Yet He is sin free. He know what we go through when we are tempted, which makes him the perfect High Preist. I think, perhaps the gentile would not have been brought in as a child of God, and the religion would be much as it was in the Old Testiment. The Jewish people would still be making sacrifices. And we would still be waiting for the Mesiah to come. We would not have the hope, or the promises that God gave us. We would still be lost sinners. For the Bible tells us sin can only be forgiven with blood.

I think it might have something to do with the continuous sacrifices made with animals in the old testiment. These sacrifices could not atone for our sins. If they could they would not have to be done over and over again. Jesus came to us in the flesh, as a mortal man. Because He was tested and remained sinless, He was then able to take our sins into Himself. This way he bore the punishment of God's wrath for us sinners, once for all. It had to be His Perfect, Sinless body to do this. It was the only perfect acceptable sacrifice for God to bring us back into his family.

This is quite humbling. I feel such a great priviledge to have been included as the priests, to partake in the sin offering. To be constently reminded of what Jesus did for me, for us sinners, is what communion is all about. To be able to come to the LORD's table and commune with him is awe inspiring, and causes Worship at a different level. WE MUST NEVER FORGET WHAT HE DID FOR US.

Just as the priests in the Old Testament partook of the sin offering for atonement, we now partake of the atonement of our sins that was the sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross. This we do when we eat the bread and drink the wine/juice, just as the priests ate a portion of the sin sacrifice.

It is all important to me. It shows the greatest love of all time. A love that none of us in the flesh could even begin to imagine. The sacrifice that was so horrific, was done willingly and lovingly by Jesus. God's love for us is unconditional, knows no boundries. I believe this is one of the most, if not the most, important thing we as christians do. Christ died so that we could live. I do not think I could name one part of the meaning as more important than the other.

The words Given, Broken, Poured Out and Forgiven. They all refer to what Jesus did to bring us to righteousness on the cross.

It is a sharing of, participation with others. It makes me a stakeholder in His sacrifice on the cross. It is an honor and priviledge to participate in the blood and the body

Because they were participating in eating the sacrifices of idols, and he was reminding them of what the cup of the LORD was to them. They were taking communion and eating the sacrifices made to idols. The idols were actually demons. They would arouse God's jealous and wrath. They would have been in danger from the demons.

It tells the believer and non-believer alike that Christ died on the Cross for the redemption of our sins. It is important because it keeps us in constant rememberance of what God, Jesus did for us. The love that is greater than any other love. I think when the church switches to a different central theme it is no longer Christ oriented. And other things become more important than the reason we are here, which is to be Christ like.