kaza_communion

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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 He took the cup also 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 Cor. 11:23-26

To remember the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross and for the confirmation of our faith in the benefits that our Lord secured, the Lord established the Communion or Lord’s Supper.  The elements of the bread and the fruit of the vine are visual aids that remind the believer of Christ’s humiliation when He willingly gave Himself to die under the wrath of God in our place. 

The Lord’s Supper was given to the church as a permanent reminder and Christians have partaken of the elements for two millennia and in all the places where biblical churches have been established. Faithful churches have recognized and affirmed that the bread and cup do not change into the literal body and blood of Christ during Communion but is symbolic of Christ’s substitutionary death and the infinite price that paid for the redemption of God’s people. 

On the most recent trip to visit pastors and churches that HeartCry partners with, I had the privilege to view and participate in the Lord’s Supper in Kazakhstan and Belarus. I was blessed to hear the gospel preached and view the Lord’s people joyfully receiving the bread and the cup as instructed by the Word of God. In both locations, the evangelical witness is small, but the Lord has established churches to proclaim the glorious Person and work of Christ. The pastors in Kazakhstan and Belarus administered the ordinance and declared to the faithful believers who were gathered that the blood of Christ had secured their forgiveness and of their responsibility to live by faith in the spiritual reality that they are “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”