Tag: Communion
Bible verses about communion
What are some Bible verses about communion?
Matthew 26:26-28
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Acts 2:42
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:46
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
Luke 22:19-20
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
John 6:53-58
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”
Acts 20:7
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
Mark 14:22-25
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
John 6:35
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
1 John 1:3
That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
2 Corinthians 13:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Luke 24:30
When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
John 6:33
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Philippians 2:1
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
Revelation 19:9
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
1 Corinthians 12:13
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible verses are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® Copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Special thanks to OpenBible.info for the data gathered on the most well-known Bible verses.
Unleavened bread communion
Does a church have to use unleavened bread for communion?
Unleavened bread is bread formed in flat cakes or wafers with no yeast or other substance used to produce fermentation in the dough. Many times, such bread is used for the observance of communion, or the Lord’s Table. The bread Jesus broke and shared with His disciples at the Last Supper was unleavened, like the matzah that Jews still eat for Passover Seder today.
The night before His death, Christ gathered with His disciples to celebrate the Passover Feast (Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:15–20; John 13:21–30). When God first instituted this yearly festival, associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, He instructed the Israelites to eat only unleavened bread for seven days to commemorate the nation’s Exodus from bondage in Egypt (see Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:8; 29:2; and Numbers 9:11). So strict was the command that anyone who ate bread made with yeast during the festival would “be cut off from the community of Israel” (Exodus 12:15, NLT).
In the Bible, yeast or leaven is usually symbolic of sin, corruption, and decay (Matthew 16:6, 12; 1 Corinthians 5:6–8; Galatians 5:9). The unleavened “bread of affliction” used during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Deuteronomy 16:3) reminded the people of their hurried departure from Egypt when they had no time to wait for bread to rise. At the same time, the bread warned God’s people against corrupting influences (Exodus 12:14–20) and pointed them forward to the coming of the promised Messiah, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).
Jesus would have celebrated the Passover in exact obedience to the Law of Moses, and with the later addition, still practiced today, of four cups of wine representing sanctification, deliverance, redemption, and restoration, based on God’s four-fold promise to the Israelites while still in Egyptian bondage (Exodus 6:6–7). These elements are significant to Jewish Christians who embrace their deliverance not from physical slavery but from bondage to sin by their Messiah’s sacrifice (Romans 6:5–7; Galatians 5:1).
It is not wrong for Christian churches to celebrate communion with bread containing leaven or yeast. The church is under no law governing the recipe used for communion bread. Believers who wish to retain a connection with their Old Testament roots of faith may consider the experience more meaningful by using unleavened communion bread. But New Testament followers of Christ are not celebrating the Passover during communion. Jesus replaced the Passover with a new celebration in which the bread represents His body broken on the cross for us (Luke 22:19).
In 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, the apostle Paul addressed confusion and concerns about the importance, meaning, and practices associated with communion, along with severe warnings about not taking the observance seriously. He explained that the purpose of communion is to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (verse 26) and provide an opportunity for solemn self-examination for every believer and the church as the body of Christ (see verse 28). Each time we participate in communion, we proclaim the central tenets of our faith: that Jesus paid for our sins by offering His body in our place—shedding His blood and physically dying on the cross (Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 2:9; 1 Peter 1:18–19); that He rose from the dead (Acts 2:24; 3:15; Colossians 2:12); that He now lives (Romans 6:3–5; Ephesians 2:4–6; Galatians 2:20); that He will come again (Matthew 24:30; John 14:3; Hebrews 9:28; James 5:7–8); and that we are to share this good news with the world until He returns (Matthew 28:19–20).
Despite the importance of communion as an ordinance, there are very few specific instructions in the Bible regarding it, including how often it should be observed and methods of conducting a communion service. For the bread, some Christian churches break matzah, naan, or some other unleavened bread into smaller pieces and then distribute them to everyone present. Other Christian churches use white processed wafers. Some churches bake their own communion bread.
The Bible does not stipulate whether we should use leavened or unleavened communion bread or grape juice or wine. Neither does it specify the manner the elements are to be distributed. The elements are mere symbols of spiritual realities, “not the realities themselves” (Hebrews 10:1). Therefore, we may use any representational bread and juice, providing we partake of them reverentially. As Christians, our focus is not on the ritual but on recalling Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice—His body and blood given for the forgiveness of sins. The Lamb of God loved us so much that He offered Himself once and for all so that we might be saved (Hebrews 9:26; John 3:16–17).
Last Supper
What is the meaning and importance of the Last Supper?
The Last Supper is what we call the last meal Jesus ate with His disciples before His betrayal and arrest. The Last Supper is recorded in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:17–30; Mark 14:12–26; Luke 22:7–30). It was more than Jesus’ last meal; it was a Passover meal, as well. One of the important moments of the Last Supper is Jesus’ command to remember what He was about to do on behalf of all mankind: shed His blood on the cross thereby paying the debt of our sins (Luke 22:19).
In addition to predicting His suffering and death for our salvation (Luke 22:15–16), Jesus also used the Last Supper to imbue the Passover with new meaning, institute the New Covenant, establish an ordinance for the church, and foretell Peter’s denial of Him (Luke 22:34) and Judas Iscariot’s betrayal (Matthew 26:21–24).
The Last Supper brought the Old Testament observance of the Passover feast to its fulfillment. Passover was an especially holy event for the Jewish people in that it commemorated the time when God spared them from the plague of physical death and brought them out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 11:1—13:16). During the Last Supper with His apostles, Jesus took two symbols associated with Passover and imbued them with fresh meaning as a way to remember His sacrifice, which saves us from spiritual death and delivers us from spiritual bondage: “After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:17–20).
Jesus’ words during the Last Supper about the unleavened bread and the cup echo what He had said after He fed the 5,000: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. . . . I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . . Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (John 6:35, 51, 54–55). Salvation comes through Christ and the sacrifice of His physical body on the cross.
Also during the Last Supper, Jesus taught the principles of servanthood and forgiveness as He washed His disciples’ feet: “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:26–27; John 13:1–20).
The Last Supper today is remembered during the Lord’s Supper, or communion (1 Corinthians 11:23–33). The Bible teaches that Jesus’ death was typified in the offering of the Passover sacrifice (John 1:29). John notes that Jesus’ death resembles the Passover sacrifice in that His bones were not broken (John 19:36; cf. Exodus 12:46). And Paul said, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law, including the feasts of the Lord (Matthew 5:17).
Typically, the Passover meal was a family celebration. However, at the Last Supper, the apostles were alone with Jesus (Luke 22:14), which suggests that this particular meal has specific meaning for the church, of which the apostles became the foundation (Ephesians 2:20). While the Last Supper had implications for the Jews, it was designed for the church as well. Today the Lord’s Table is one of two ordinances observed by the church.
The Last Supper was rooted in the Old Covenant even as it heralded the New. Jeremiah 31:31 promised a New Covenant between God and Israel, in which God said, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Jesus made a direct reference to this New Covenant during the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). A new dispensation was on the horizon. In God’s grace, the New Covenant applies to more than Israel; everyone who has faith in Christ will be saved (see Ephesians 2:12–14).
The Last Supper was a significant event and proclaimed a turning point in God’s plan for the world. In comparing the crucifixion of Jesus to the feast of Passover, we can readily see the redemptive nature of Christ’s death. As symbolized by the original Passover sacrifice in the Old Testament, Christ’s death atones for the sins of His people; His blood rescues us from death and saves us from slavery. Today, the Lord’s Supper is when believers reflect upon Christ’s perfect sacrifice and know that, through our faith in receiving Him, we will be with Him forever (Luke 22:18; Revelation 3:20).
Communion
