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Outline:

If you haven’t been with us the last two Sunday’s we’ve been working our way through a sermon Jesus gave at the end of John 6 known as “The Bread of Life Discourse.” Though we’ve already tackled the meat of the sermon, there is one concept that demands a thorough examination because it really gets to the heart of what Jesus is actually communicating.

Let’s set the stage beginning with verse 51… Jesus says, “‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’ The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’

Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, 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 eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats 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 he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.’”

Before we conclude our time in this amazing sermon next Sunday, a discussion about the true meaning of Communion is warranted because many have taken Jesus’ exhortation to “eat His flesh and drink his blood” and twisted it to mean something it frankly doesn’t.

In Luke 22:19-20, as Jesus is celebrating the start of Passover with His disciples (this would be the night He would be betrayed by Judas and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane), we read that “Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.’”

Please note that at a minimum all Christianity believes that in instituting Communion Jesus gave significance and deep meaning to both “the bread” and “the cup.” And yet, arguments, disagreements, and divisions have arisen over the muddled nature of the phrase Jesus uses when He refers to the bread as “His body” and the cup “in His blood.” For example…

The Roman Catholic Church holds to a bizarre position know as Transubstantiation (“trans” meaning “change”). Catholics believe that during the actual consecration of the Lord's Supper by the presiding priest, the physical elements of the Eucharist (the bread and wine) experience a literal transformation into the actual body and blood of Jesus. This reality explains why only the priest is allowed to handle the elements themselves.

In the 1500’s Martin Luther taught a variation of this position know as Consubstantiation (“con” meaning “with”). Luther believed the bread and wine do not become the literal body and blood of Jesus like the Catholics, but instead co-exists with the body of Christ so that the bread and wine are both bread and wine and the body of Jesus. John Calvin would add that this miracle took place only in a spiritual sense enabled by a person’s faith.

A contemporary of Luther, Swiss reformer Zwingli argued that the bread and wine were “mere symbols” that represented the body and blood of Jesus. When Zwingli debated the issue with Luther at Marburg, he made the case that Jesus also said “I am the vine” and “I am the door” but in these instances we understand Jesus was speaking symbolically. I would add this position is largely consistent with the illustration of Jesus being “the bread of life.”

In a twist to Zwingli’s position, David Guzik writes, “According to Scripture, we can understand that the bread and the cup are not mere symbols, but are powerful pictures to partake of and enter into as we see the Lord’s Table as the new Passover.” It’s been said that while the Roman Catholics overemphasize the elements, Protestants underemphasize them.

Read the Rest at: http://www.c316.tv/sermons/306