haar

The significant of the 12 Apostles drinking the cup of the Covenant. The action sealed the New covenant. This confirmed the new Covenant on behalf of all of us. The 12 Apostles correspond to the 70 elders that God invited to up to the mountain. They ate and drank- the Covenant meal to ratify the Old Covenant on behalf of the rest of Israel. The significance of us drinking the Cup of the Covenant. Whenever we drink the Cup at the Holy Communion, we affirm the New Covenant where Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb and the represent blood of the Covenant. When we do, we partake in the Covenant Meal and share with one another and with Jesus. We remember this signicant act of grace and love of our God.

The difference between the new covenant promised by Jeremiah and the old: The old covenant was characterised by the repeated failure of the Israelites to fulfill their own part of the covenant. They would sin and God would punish them and they would repent but would sin again. In the new covenant promised by Jeremiah, God promised to make things easier for His people by writing His laws in their minds and hearts. They would also not require a teacher to teach them about God as His Spirit would be in them (and would teach them all things). The promises God made in the New Covenant: Salvation, eternal life, forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility under the New Covenant: We are to have faith in God. Trust in Him and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was God who came in te flesh and died for our sins.

How the covenant was ratified: Moeses built an alter with 12 stones representing the twelve tribes o f Israel, burnt sacrifices were offered and bulls were killed. The blood of the bulls was sprinkled on the alter and then the Book of the law was read to the Israelites. They all promised to do all the Lord has asked them to do. Moses then sprinkled the blood of the bulls on the people thus sealing the agreement (covenant) where God promissed to be their God, bless and protect them. On their part, the Isaraelites were to love and serve only God and not to worship other gods. The promise made by the people: They affirmed that whatever the Lord said, they would do. What was sacrificed: Bulls What was sprikled: blood of the bulls killed for the sacrifice. What was eaten: The flesh of the bulls.

The Words of the Institution say that the blood of the lord Jesus christ was poured out for the forgivenes of many. The sacrificial death of Christ made it possible for the sins of many who confessed and believed in Him to be bloted out. Such redeemed individual should no longer live with any guilt for their past sins as they have been blotted. Such amazing grace! It is important to confess our sins before taking the Holy communion becased by eating the bread and drinking Holy Communion water, we are participating in Christ death and fellowshiping with Him. How can we share with the holy One with our sins? Sin is evil and unholy. Our fellowship with the Son should be with absolute holiness as He has commanded that we should be holy because He is holy.

Jesus purposely pointed the disciples to the phrasing of Isaiah 53 because it is a passage that contained the prophesy about the kind of death He as the Messiah would go through for the redemption of mankind. He did that so that if they understood the passage, they would understand the reason for His death to fulfill the prophessy in the passage. The chapter, Isaiah 53, helps to explain the meaning of Christ's death in that it explains how the Messiah would suffer and die for the sins of others even though He was without sin. The messiah was to go through this suffering and death willingly with all humlity. This prophesy was fulfilled in Jesus and by Him when the jews wickedly handed Him to be crucified. They thought they were harming Him but the fact was that they were merely playing into the perfect plan of the Lord God for the salvation of many.

Jesus referred to the nature of his vilent death in the words of the Institution to prepare the disciples' mind that His sacrificial death would be horrible and would be on the cross. At that moment, the disciples could not imagine how their Master and Lord could go throgh such an ugly experiemce. Later, they must have realised that the cost their salvation and that of the whole mankind was very high.

The Old Testament sacrifice involved the killing of an animal and the blood of the animal was used to atone the sin of the individual sinner. The blood of animal was shed because without the shedding of blood there was no remission of sin. God is loving and would not want man to die, He thus instructed the substitution of man by the animal. Man who deserved to die beacuse his sin was thus saved. This act shows God's Grace: the sinner did not merit the salvation and favour, yet he got it. It also shows God's mercy because his sin deserved purnishment and death but because of God's mercy, an animal was used to take the punishment of the sinner.

The voluntary laying his live encourages me because it indicates the tremendous magnitude of love Jesus had (still has) for me that he willingly went trough such agony just for me. This singular act made me a son of God and joint heirs with Jesus. I am not only redeemed, but I have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of the Light, the Kingndom of the Lord Jesus. I am a Prince, a priest and the son of the Most High God. This should inspire me to worship, adore Him and to live a life of obedience to Him.

The Holy Trinity had pre-arranged the redepmtion of man who had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Since the wages of sin was death, if something did not happen, man, who God so loved, would perish. In obedience to the Father, Jesus who was (IS) God, AGREED to come in the flesh to offer Himself as a living sacrifice in order to redeem man from eternal death. This was willingly done by Jesus as a demonstration of the tremndous love the Godhead had (have) for mankind. If He did not want to die, He could have commanded fire from above to destroy those that arrested Him. The enemy thought that they were harming Jesus but the truth was that they were playing into the pre-arranged plan for salvation of the whole world.

Why Christianity insists on physical birth, physical suffering, physical death and physical resurrection. Jesus was God (Joh 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.; GNB) Therefore He could not die as God. Thus He had to incarnate to become mand born with a human flesh, lived in the flesh, suffered and died bodily. I wonder how my faith would have been if Christ atoning sacrifice did not involve the physical body. I probably could never be able to imagine how the Ominipotent God coud die. He had to be man to die.

Since the fall of Adam, sin bearing had always involved a physical body. The animals that were sacrificed to atone the sins of the people by the Priests were animals that were physically killed. The blood of animals could however not atone sin permanently. The ritual had to be repeated every year. God had to devise a permanent way of atoning for sins through the physical suffering and death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself prophesised that He would suffer and die for the salvation of many. He meant His physical death. This is the reason for the incarnation, God becoming man so that he could die for our sins (as God, He could not die). Thus Peter merely restated the obvious.

I have never been very concious of the fact that whenever I participated in the Lord Super, I was actually a sharer in the cross until Pastor Ralph opened my mind to this fact! I believe that from now on, whenever I participate in the Lord Super I will be very concious of the fact tha I am shiaring in the Lord's sacrifice on the cross. It is really exciting to realise that I am connecting to the Lord through the eating and drinking of the Lord's Super. The thought of sharing in His suffering and death is overwhelming and my heart is lighted up even right now. I can not wait for the next Holy Communion service to experience a fresh re-union with my Lord. How does this affect me? Well, I think the knowledge that I am a sharer, participant having a common interest with my Lord Jesus is heart warming. It refreshes my mind, heart and hope for real reunion with Him when He returns or when I join Him. I have said this before that, my perspective of the Holy Communion has changed since I started this programme. It is no longer viewed as a routine but a refreshing time when I commune with my Lord, sharing in His sacrifice on the cross, connecting to Him and having a part in His death. No wonder why Paul said in Col 3:3 "For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God". Praise God

The priest take a peace of meat from the sacrfice and eat it. By eating a peace of the meat from the sacrifice on the alter is a 'participation' because the priest by that act, becomes one with the sacrifice, the person whose sin is to be atoned and God who forgives the sin. He is inolved so to speake in the atoning process. Paul states that as the priests participate in the alter of sacrifice by eating a peace of meat from the roasted sacrfice, so we too, do participate in the blood when we take the cup and in his body when we break the bread. We thus identify with Christ in his suuffering and death. We share in his blood, body and are united and joined together as one.

Koinonia means means common interest, sharing and having something in common. To participate or to share in the blood of jesus means to share in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, identifying with His suffering, rembering Him and the therefore re focusing our minds and hope on our heavenly home. So, when we take the cup during Holy Communion, we participate or shre in His blood. It is like His blood mixes with our own and becomes one! This keeps Christians on the right track.

Paul had to remind the Corinthians that there was the cup of the Lord and the cup of demonds. The Holy Communion enabled them to participate or share in the death of Christ and be united with Him. While on the other hand by participtaing in any idol sacrifice, they shared and were joined with the demon. The Corinthians were thus warned that they could not participate in both or they would make theLord unhappy. His warning came at the time the Chorinthian Christians were indulging in idolatry, offering sacrifices to diffrent gods of Greek and others. They risked punishment from the Lord, a Jealous God who had clearly commanded His children not to engage themselves in idolatry.

The Holy Communion is a proclamation every time we take it because we remind ourselves of the death of our Lord Jesus. We annouce it again and again to every one of us participating in the Holy Communion. The proclamation is first to us and also to the non believers. The prclamation to us is important because it keeps the memory of the death of Jesus for our salvation fresh in our minds and hearts. It thus keeps our hearts/imnds united with our Lord. This helps us to remain in the Lord. The proclamation to the unbelievers is important because they need to know that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died that they may not perish but should have everlasting life. They are thus expected to give their lives to him. When the proclation shifts to a different focus, we loose tract of the significant objetive for which the Lord set for us to remember his death and proclaim it to ourselve and to the world. The consequenses will be the loss of salvation as we forget him and backslide.

Why remembering Christ is so important. We are called to rember His death so that our eyes will continue to be fixed on our heavenly goal (Home). We have to continue to remember that the reason for Christ suffering and death was to redeem us from the kindom of darkness for the Kindom of God. This is the Price of our Christian race. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO FORGET TIHIS. Christianity will become just another religion without hope for a heavely home if we neglet to rember Christ's death and living faith attached to it. Any athlet in a race that forgets that he is running for price looses focus and misses the goal. Similarly, if we stop remembering Christ, we will soon give way to the devil to drag us off the course of our race. The end result will be failing to get the Heavenly home and end up in hell.

Purpose of Passover meal for futre generation: To enable the future generation also to know how God delivered His Children, the Israelites from the Egyptians by His Mighty power when the messeger of death stroke the Egyptian fisrt born but miraculously passed over the Israelites. It was a memorial. Why it was reapeated: To keep the story of deliverance afresh in the minds of the people so that they could continue to appreciate God and stay with Him. Reating it also enabled the story to continue through generations. What would have happened if the Israelites had forgotten the story: The future generations would have missed the opportunity to know the God of miracles who delivered His Children and took the promissed land.

Dear all, My name is haar. I'm sorry I did not introduce myself the first time. I am from Lagos, Nigeria. Remain bleesed. haar

Any secular thing repeated very often runs the risk of getting mundane and loosing its value, but not the the things of the Spirit. This explains why we read the Bible every day and it does not bore us or become mundane. This is because the Holy Spirit of God working in us gives us a refreshing message each time we read the Word. An ordinary novel can not do this. When we take the Holy Communion each time, the Holy Spirit ignites our hearts as we remember our Lord Jesus again. Jesus commanded us to continue to do this because He knew the human mind very well that we could easily forget the His sacrificial death to redeem us and drift away or backslide. He did not want to loose us.

The totality of the Lord Supper is valuable to me. Remembering that His body was broken for my healing (by his stripes I am healed) and His blood shed for the remission of my sins to make me a child of the Most High God and a citizen of heaven is an experience too wonderful to comprhend! Thank you Jesus for saving me. Thank you Pastor Ralph for this study that has made the Holy Communion more meaningful to me. haar.

Action words: "Do this in rememberance of me" Sorry for my late respnse. I love you all. haar

It is not right to take the elements of the Holy Communion as mere bread and blood. The fact that they symbolise the body and blood of Jesus is one reason why every Christian should approach the 'table' and each element on the table with reverence. Any thing less demean our Lord. God bless you all. haar

My understanding is that the bread and wine are not literal. They represent love at its peak. They remind me of how our Lord Jesus suffered sacrificially by paying the peanlty of my sin. This hepls me to respond positvely by loving him and others too.