The Significance Between the Passover and the Lord’s Communion:

The Meaning and Purpose of the New Covenant

By Teresa Carr

The Significance Between the Passover and the Lord’s Communion: The Meaning and Purpose of the New Covenant By Teresa Carr The first communion ever recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible was Genesis 14:18-20, between Melchizedek king of Salem and Abraham. After Abraham received the blessing God delivered his enemies into his hands. Before the exodus while still in Egypt, God commanded Moses and the Israelites to eat unleavened bread, eat of the lamb without blemish and take a bunch of hyssop and dipping it with the blood of lamb and put on the lintel and two side posts of the doors of their dwelling and hide themselves until the morning when the angel of death was sent to kill the firstborn passed over them. This symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ who became the Passover for us. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians he express the significance of the Passover as our communion with Christ. He expressed that purging out the old leavened the turning away from our sins, that we have become a new lump that we are unleavened made new for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (I Corinthians 5:7). The communion in today’s Christian churches, is the holy sacrament of the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, after pronouncing a blessing over bread and wine, Christ said to His disciples, “Take, eat, This is my body . . . This is my blood . . . This do in remembrance of me.” Most Protestants call the sacrament communion, or The Lord’s Supper. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the name Holy Eucharist. In the Anglican churches the ceremony is called Holy Communion. Roman Catholics also use these two names. Some Protestants churches observe the ritual monthly or weekly. Others observe it every three months. Roman Catholics must receive communion during the Easter season, and often they receive weekly or daily communion. Communion, for Catholics, is an integral part of the Mass. In September my church’s Sunday School adult class lesson was about the blood covenant in the time of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. God told Moses to institute the passover before they left the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:1-16, 24). We learn about when God told Moses and Aaron that the first month of the year (Nisan, in the spring about March-April) of the Jewish calendar. This began on the 10^th day when they selected a year old male lamb without blemish. On the 14^th day the lambs were slaughtered and the blood was placed on the doorposts and lintel with hyssop. This was the day of the Passover. This is significant because Jesus was crucified in that same month and during the week of the Passover. The significance of the Passover, the lamb, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the wine, and the hyssop all signify the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When the blood was a sign on the houses, God saw the blood He passed over them. In the New Testament, when Jesus shed his blood on the cross for our sins it was a sign that when we applied the blood to the doorposts of our hearts, God’s judgment will pass over us. Christians commemorate this day as an everlasting covenant from our freedom from the bondage of sin with the shedding of Christ’s blood and offering up his body as a sacrifice for our sins. On the night of his betrayal, arrest and trial, Jesus kept the Passover feast with His disciples in the Upper Room (Mark 14:14). He made advance arrangements for all the provisions; including the lamb, the bitter herbs, and the unleavened bread. This meal was served with the customary grape drink. Jesus did not stop at the eating of the meal, which symbolized thanksgiving and hope. He took the menu and transformed it into a new covenant of promise. Jesus himself became the spotless Lamb without blemish offered as expiation for our sins. The unleavened bread was to represent His body to be broken on the Cross. The wine, red from the skins where it was stored, was to represent His shed blood. The blood of the wine brings healing and cleansing. It brings peace, answers to prayers, freedom from fear, divine protection and divine provision. It was Jesus who first identified His sacrificial death with the Passover event (Luke 22:15-20). He compared Himself with the Paschal lamb, and referred to His death as the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. The New Testament writers relate the death of Christ to the sacrificial death of the Passover lamb. The apostle Paul said, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed” (I Corinthians 5:7b). John refers to Christ as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Peter speaks of “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (I Peter 1:19). As the Lamb of God, Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the world. Three days after Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross His Father raised Him from the dead. Finally Jesus had conquered death and hell. Once we believe in Jesus and what He had done for us we become victors over death through Him. His resurrection redeemed us from the bondage of sin and death and we’re promised everlasting life in Him. Without the sacrifice of His blood we are forever lost and without the resurrection of His body there is no eternal life. God’s plan was to save, like the blood that was on the doorposts, an act commanded by God led to freedom from bondage. The plan to remember this act in worship tied the promise of freedom to the realization of freedom. Obedience to the Lord is important to all generations, and God tells us how to remember His work in saving us. Just like the Exodus deliverance was the important saving work in the life of the Israelites. It was the beginning of God’s redeeming work that continued with the making of the covenant at Mount Sinai and finished with the cross of Jesus Christ and His glorious resurrection. Just receive it by faith. AMEN! The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? – I Corinthians 10:16 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. –Luke 22:19 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. –Matthew 26:28 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Moses) Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he (Moses) kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. –Hebrews 11:24-28 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. -I Corinthians 11:20-34 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saying he that receives it. –Revelation 2:16-17 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. –Revelation 19:7 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinks my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. –John 6:53-56 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. -Hebrews 13:20-21 REF: Scriptures: Rev. 2:16-17; Psalm 78:25; Matt. 26; Mark 14; Exodus 16:32-33; Hebrews 9:4; I Kings 8:9; 2 Chronicles 5:10; I Samuel 6:19; I Chronicles 13:9-10; Colossians 1:13; Matt. 4:3-4; Luke 4; Deut. 8:3, 15; John 6:32-35; Isaiah 53:3-5; Matt. 9:17; Lev. 17:11; James 2:26; I Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 4:15; I Thessalonians 5:23; Proverbs 23:7. ©2007. Teresa Carr. Skyhouse Communications & Mega Grafx Studio.

Mega Grafx Portfolio Gallery Stock Illustration Publications Blog Links Contact