The Body Of Christ Broken For You Understanding Communion Part 1 of 2

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Today we are talking about communion. This is a kickoff of a two-part sermon series, and today we’re spending more time on the body of Christ. When you get hungry, what happens? You eat something, right? You get hungry.

So let’s say you’re hungry and you eat some bread and this bread that you eat, you’re going to have to eat again and again and again because you will continue to get hungry. But what if there was this bread out there that you could eat and never be hungry again? This is called the miracle bread. Do you want it?

You say, ‘Wow, I could eat that bread and never hunger again. I do. I want it. How much?’ I say, ‘It’s free.’ No, it’s free. There is bread that is here that you can eat and never hunger again. You say, ‘No it’s not.’ Yes, it is. It is the body of Christ. You can eat this bread and never hunger again.

You say, ‘Well I take communion every week and I still get hungry.’ That’s because you’re not understanding communion. Let’s understand communion. Dive into this with us. Get your Bible ready. This is a serious sermon series. Make the commitment, come back next week where we talk about Jesus’ blood or the blood of Jesus and what that can do for you.

Today we’re talking about the body, the body of Christ. Luke 22 Verse 19, “and He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it. And He gave it to them saying ‘this is my body given for you,’” and then the keywords, “‘do this in remembrance of me.’”

Those words are there, and a lot of people glance over them; they glaze over them, they forget them and that’s it. This is the key. This is done in remembrance of Jesus. You say, ‘What are you talking about, of course it is.’ Communion is an act of remembrance. You are to eat the bread, to show you remember what Christ did for you. What did He do for you? Maybe you don’t know.

Jesus gave you His body. His body was broken for you. He died for you. He died on a cross for your sins. John 6:51 says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Living bread, it’s His flesh. Become the carnivore, become the cannibal. You’re eating the flesh, the body of Jesus Christ. His body was broken for you, and you are going to eat that and feed yourself. Why? That you will never hunger again so that you will live forever.

You aren’t eating physical bread. This isn’t yeast and flour that you’re eating. You’re consuming the body of Christ. What is our body made of? What is the body of Christ made of? Flesh, meat, skin, bones. Really? That sounds disgusting.

You’re not taking a bite of his physical flesh, He died 2,000 years ago. It’s not here anymore, besides his body never stayed there. He rose and went into heaven so His body is nowhere to be found anyway. You can’t take a bite of it. It’s gone.

What are you eating then? This yeast bread? Oh, this is the body of Christ. This is not the body of Christ. This is in remembrance of Christ. That’s the confusion. Many people think communion is the body of Christ. It’s not the body of Christ. It’s an act of remembrance. You’re eating the bread which symbolizes what Jesus did for you.

He died on the cross. You aren’t eating the physical bread. You’re eating spiritual bread when you do communion. And so when you use this as a remembrance of Christ and then know in your mind that you need to feast on the body of Christ and be fulfilled spiritually.

Your spirit needs to be filled as well. Your spirit hungers and thirsts, for what? Righteousness. For good things, for God, for the fruits of the spirit. Your spirit is hungry. Feed it. How so? The Bible.

What else, what else is the body of Christ? We say we already eat the body of Christ. His body, if you eat the body of Christ, you will live forever. What is the body of Christ? It’s believing in Jesus but it’s also, we’ve talked about this before, we are the body of Christ.

For example, maybe I am, I’d like to say I’m the brain in the body of Christ, but maybe I’m a hand. I’m a foot. I’m a foot in the body of Christ, really I am. How do I know that I am a foot? Because it says, “How beautiful are the feet of the people who bring good news.”

Guess what, that’s what Paul said, and I’m bringing good news through this, throughout the world, through Social Media Ministries, therefore I must be a foot in the body of Christ. I’m a foot. Humbling, isn’t it? What are you? You’re a part of the body of Christ, we have to come together.

We’ve talked about this before in a sermon series about knowing who to follow, so check that out on YouTube. Part of it is the importance of going to church. You can look at it on the podcast if you want, but we are the body. We are the body of Christ.

So Jesus said you must feast on His body or eat his body, eat His flesh and you will live forever, eat. Does that mean you eat your fellow brothers and sisters? Let me have your forearm there sir in the church pew, no. It means fellowship with them. Read the Bible with them, and pray with them, and feed your spirit with the body of Christ.

This little piece of bread or this communion cracker or wafer or whatever they’re chinsing down to nowadays is not the body of Christ. This is a representation of the body of Christ. He died. That’s what you’re remembering. He died.

His body was killed for you. It wasn’t really broken for you, but the bread was broken apart. Christ’s body, yes, figuratively was broken but no bones were broken in Him for you, but His body was broken, just like the bread is broken on communion day.

Communion isn’t forgiving you of your sins or making you like Christ, it’s simply a reminder that Christ died for you. It’s exactly like carrying a cross in your pocket or wearing a necklace of a cross or the fish or something like that. It’s simply a reminder.

It’s like this, this ring is not my marriage. This ring is a reminder of my marriage. If I take this off, I’m still married, but it’s a reminder of marriage. It’s not the marriage. A lot of people put the significance in the ring. It’s not the ring. Oh, I know the power of the ring. The ring doesn’t have any power. If I lost this, I’m still married. I still love my wife. Nothing changes, I just lost my ring. I can get a new one. Maybe expensive, but it’s a symbol. It’s a symbol.

Just like this, this is a symbol of the persecuted Christians around the world. It’s a symbol. This doesn’t mean I’m one of them. But it means that I think about them every single day. You get a tattoo of something, it doesn’t mean you are that. It’s a symbol. It’s a reminder. Communion is a reminder of what Christ did for you.

This symbol, the reminder doesn’t do anything for you. The cross in your pocket doesn’t do anything for you. By having that cross on your necklace doesn’t mean you’re saved, doesn’t mean you believe. It’s just a reminder of what the cross means. The cross was a symbol of execution. Do you carry a gauntlet around in your pocket too? An electric chair, yep, I got an electric chair around my neck, no.

It’s a symbol of what it represents, and it represents that Jesus died on the cross. Communion bread is a symbol of Christ’s body. Communion is really only meaningful to those who believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior. That’s where this is going.

Do you believe Jesus died for you? When you take communion, do you know what it truly means or are you just going through the motions, walking through the crowd and lying, hoping to get a blessing from the priest or the father or whatever other false doctrine might be teaching you? Yeah, false.

If they’re not teaching you that it’s a representation of the body of Christ, that really what it means is that Christ died for you, then guess what? They’re falsely representing communion. Now, a lot of churches aren’t going to be up there every communion Sunday delivering a 20-minute thing like this on communion. They’re going to get up there for five minutes, do communion, and get to the message.

But if you really ask them what it means they better be giving you an answer along these lines: that the bread is a representation of the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is really all of us, the members of the church, and we need to feed on it in order to feed our spirit. How do we feed on it? Fellowship, church, meeting with others, reading the Bible, praying, getting closer to God.

You have to feed your spirit, not your face. Feeding your face is a reminder of what we are supposed to do to feed our spirits. So if you don’t know Jesus Christ, if you have not accepted Him into your life as your Savior, then you need to do that. You need to do it right now. Pray, ask, ‘Dear Jesus, thank you so much for dying for me.’ He died for you.

He died for you. So that you could go to heaven. You no longer have to sacrifice a lamb every time you do something wrong, all you have to do is ask Jesus to forgive you. And say, ‘thank you, thank you for that. I want to live my life for you.’ Give Him permission to lead your life.

You say, ‘He’s God, he doesn’t need permission.’ He does because He gave you free will. He gave you a choice. He’s here, waiting. Just like this, I could hand this to you and you could say ‘Well, you’re my elder or you’re my boss, you could force me to take it.’ Say, ‘I’m giving you the choice, and you can choose to take it.’ God’s not forcing you to do it. He wants you to choose. Choose Him.

Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, say thank you for dying for me, and ask Him to lead your life. You want to live for Him. Other people may not understand the meaning behind communion. Therefore, help them. Show them. Teach them. Or they may have it misinterpreted. They may think that magically dinging the chimes at mass brings the incarnation of Jesus into the bread and then you’re feeding your spirit.

A lot of churches do that. Don’t laugh. A lot of churches do. They have the meaning misinterpreted. That means it’s your job to help them out. What is the meaning? Jesus is the bread of life. Eat it and never die. He is the miracle bread. You can eat this bread and never die. How can you eat it? We’ve gone over it, but let’s read this story.

John Chapter 6:47-59, “I tell you the truth, whoever believes,” this is whoever believes in Jesus, “has everlasting life.” You can believe in Jesus, you can have everlasting life. This is Jesus talking, “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert yet they died.”

So they ate that manna in the Old Testament, and they died. That was the bread from heaven. God gave them bread from heaven to eat every morning. And it was bread, a wafer that tasted like honey. That’s why a lot of communion, churches, they have like honey crackers or honey bread or something with that little sweetness because it reminds them of the bread of heaven, manna that God sent down.

Now, they ate that and died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven which a man may eat and not die. Where is the bread? The bread that Jesus is sharing with his disciples? No, Jesus came down from heaven. He is the new bread of life. Jesus is the new bread. In the past, it was manna, the old covenant. Jesus is the new covenant. Now, He has the new bread. He is the new bread from heaven you can eat it and not die.

“I,” Jesus says, “am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.” And the disciples are like what is this bread lord? What is this bread? He says, “This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.”

The world, not just them. That means you can have it too. You can have this bread and live forever. “Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” They don’t get it. They didn’t get it. Even though Jesus said, hey just like those people ate manna, that came from heaven, I came from heaven and you can eat the body of Christ.

What is the body of Christ? I’ve told you, says Jesus, I have told you. We are all the body of Christ. And later, Paul even, in the New Testament, has to tell everyone again. He’s like man, these people are so stupid, how do they not get it?

You’re all the body of Christ, you’re all part of the same body, you’re all the body just as Christ is the head of the body. You know, the head of the church, we are all members of the church, members of the body. Just as the hand cannot say to the foot, and he goes on and on and on. I hope you get this.

You can get it. Why? Because you can have the Holy Spirit. These people didn’t have the Holy Spirit then. Jesus didn’t give it to them yet. Today, it’s here. You can have it. So they say, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They didn’t get it.

“Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood,’” Man, it’s like repeating himself again and again because these people are so dull.

“‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’” He said this not at the Last Supper, not while He was with His disciples. He said this while teaching at a synagog at Capernaum.

This is a different time, but it still relates to communion because later on when Jesus was at the Last Supper He said, “This my bread, this is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me” because He was. He had already told them He is the living bread that came down from heaven. He says, ‘Hey, I am the bread. Be in me. Eat my flesh.’

“Whoever remains in me,” whoever feeds on me “will live. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” That means if you feed on Jesus, that’s your spirit. Your spirit feeds on Jesus. He remains in you. He’s in you. In the Bible it says, “Have I said ye are not gods?” you’re not a god but God is in you, and you are in Him. You guys are connected. Feed on the body of Christ.

Now that’s not just simply the bread of communion. That bread at communion is done in remembrance of what Christ did for you, and He didn’t have to die in order for you to eat that bread. He had to die in order for you to be able to eat the bread and live forever.

If you have any questions or if this is confusing at all, comment below. Let’s get this straight, you must feed on the body of Christ. Remember, if we are all members of the church, we are all members of the body as Christ is the head of the body, that means this is part of the body of Christ. These sermons, these are part of the body of Christ. Feed on this. Feed your spirit. Your spirit is hungry. It hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Jesus is the bread of life. Ask Him to be in you, and you will never die. Your body may die, just like the bread that you’re eating is not going to live forever. This body will die, but the spirit will live forever.

Now, if you don’t believe in Jesus, or you don’t accept him to be your Savior, and you don’t eat the bread of life, then your spirit will not live forever. Your spirit will die and will be in hell. Death, apart from God, eternal separation. Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this message. Thank you for the clarification and for the interpretations that you have given us to be able to understand what communion means, to understand what the bread in communion means. That this bread that we eat on communion day is not simply you, it’s not simply a bread that we eat to represent that you died, it’s a remembrance. It’s an act of remembrance.

The bread that we eat is really more closely to manna. We eat it and we can die, we need to know that this symbolizes something more. Sure, we can eat this bread on communion day, but then we need to go over and feed our spirits so that we are eating your bread. You are the bread from heaven.

Thank you Jesus for coming here, for being that bread from heaven, and for telling us how important it is that we need to eat your flesh and remain in you. Thank you for telling us what that flesh is. What is the body of Christ, and how we can spiritually eat that flesh. Obviously, we don’t become cannibals and start eating our fellow churchgoers, it’s spiritually.

Lord, I ask that if there are those out there right now, that they’re still grasping this, that they would seek more, that they would grasp this and understand it, and that the words were clear, that this would be clear. And Lord that they would tune in next week, that they would come back for the conclusion of the message, to learn about your blood and how it covers them. In Jesus name, Amen.

Next week, we talk about the blood. Now it doesn’t mean that you’re going to become a vampire and start drinking the blood of your fellow churchgoers. It’s the blood of Jesus. We’re going to dive into it. I hope you got this. Stay in Jesus. Eat his flesh. Connect with the body of Christ. If you don’t know yet, know Jesus. If you don’t believe in Him, then take that step. Ask Him into your heart. If you need help, if you have any questions, comment below. God bless.