More Than Just a Ritual

Hello Everyone,

Just today I was watching one of my favourite Bible preaches quote, “If you make the gospel profound, the results will be simple, but if you make it simple to understand, the results will be profound”.

Jesus spent His ministry on earth doing just that.  He was more concerned with everyone being able to understand the heart and true nature of His Father, and His intensions towards us, than He was with impressing the elite, educated and devout, religious Pharisees.  He did this on purpose, so that everyone, without exception, both then, and now, could grasp and embrace His truth with all our hearts, and actually experience the life of freedom and victory we can have in knowing Him.

One life-transforming teaching Jesus gave was on communion.  To this day, it’s made to be more of a symbolic ritual, than an act of simple obedience by faith. Because of this, the results have become powerless for many of those who partake of it.  Mark 7:13 says, “Thus you are nullifying and making void and of no effect [the authority of] the Word of God through your tradition, which you [in turn] hand on. And many things of this kind you are doing.”  Now, when we follow and instruction Jesus clearly told us to do, but make it into a faithless ritual, we strip it of its power and cause it to have no effect in our lives.  However, when we obey what Jesus tells us to do, by faith, the results in our lives are nothing less than profound.  

Remember Me

1 Corinthians 11:25-26 says, “Similarly when supper was ended, He took the cup also, saying, This cup is the new covenant [ratified and established] in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink [it], to call Me [affectionately] to remembrance.

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are representing and signifying and proclaiming the fact of the Lord’s death until He comes [again].”

Jesus instructed us to take communion regularly, so that we would constantly be reminded of the New Covenant we have with Him.  This New Covenant is so powerful and can only be activated by faith.  Now we know that faith comes and is made stronger the more we hear God’s Word (Romans 10:17). Just the same, our faith and confidence in living in the full benefit of our New Covenant is made strong every time we take communion, reminding ourselves of what the finished work of the cross has made available for us, in Christ Jesus.

Let’s take a close look at the words Jesus said, when He taught on communion.

In John 6:35, Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry, and he who believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me will never thirst any more (at any time).”  When we take communion by faith, we are reminded that because of what Jesus did, we are able to have an intimate relationship with Him, where we are fully and completely satisfied by Him.  He is the beginning and the end of our faith and our portion in this life.

In verse 48-51, He says, “I am the Bread of Life [that gives life—the Living Bread].  Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and [yet] they died. [But] this is the Bread that comes down from heaven, so that [any]one may eat of it and never die. I [Myself] am this Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and also the Bread that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).”  When we take communion, we celebrate the truth that because of the finished work of the cross, by faith, we have eternal life in Christ.  

Now pay attention to what He says in the next couple of verses: John 6:53-58 says, “And Jesus said to them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood [unless you appropriate His life and the saving merit of His blood].

He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has (possesses now) eternal life, and I will raise him up [from the dead] on the last day.

For My flesh is true and genuine food, and My blood is true and genuine drink.

He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood dwells continually in Me, and I [in like manner dwell continually] in him.  When we take communion, we are reminded of the inseparable connection we have with Christ Jesus, by faith, through His Holy Spirit Who indwells us.  We are never alone, there is no distance between us, He will never leave us!  1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”  One translation says our spirits are laminated to His Spirit.  You can’t tell where He begins and we end, or where our spirit begins and a His ends.  

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.”  In John 1:1-3, we understand that Jesus is the Word of God.  When we take communion, we remind ourselves that Jesus lives in His Word, and as we receive it by faith, it will nourish our spirits and renew our minds, causing us to live in the fullness of His promises, as our spiritual inheritance.

Remembering Empowers Us

In the book of Joshua 1:8, God gave Joshua clear instructions to constantly remind himself of His Word.  As Joshua was faithful to do this, he would find that all fear and anxiety was replaced with empowering faith, resulting in supernatural wisdom, success and prosperity in all he put his hand to.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”  

Just the same, Jesus instructs us to constantly be reminded of what the finished work of the cross won for us, whenever we partake of communion.  As we do, we will find all fear and anxiety being replaced with empowering faith, resulting in supernatural wisdom, success and prosperity in all we put our hand to.

Let’s take another look at what Jesus wants us to keep in the forefront of our minds, according to those scriptures in John 6, especially when we partake of communion.

Firstly, we must remember that Jesus is the only One Who truly satisfies us. Secondly, because of Him, we can enjoy eternal life with Him. Thirdly, since His Life dwells in us, we have an inseparable connection with Him right now! Fourthly, He is His Word, which nourishes our spirits and renews our minds.

Now, I haven’t even started on what the Word teaches us regarding the significance of the shed blood and broken body of Christ for every believer, and the importance of reminding ourselves of it every time we take communion.

Johnathan Shuttlesworth gives a pretty detailed teaching on this that will certainly give your faith a power boost!  It adds a dimension of victorious, faith building power every time I partake of communion.  I’d like to spend some time talking about it in my next letter, so be expectant and don’t miss out on reading it!

Much love,

Jenny