Jesus Promises His Life for You

Mark 14:22-25 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”
 
LOVE’S great promise for you. Jesus promises to give you his broken body and shed blood. You’ve heard this many times when Communion (the  Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist) is offered in a worship service. This is the promise from the Son of God that he is giving himself to all who believe in him. How do you respond?
   Do you consider God’s gift with reverent awe and joyful wonder? We mourn the sin that caused Jesus’ suffering. We wonder at his deep love to so dreadfully suffer the cross, so we can live with him in the kingdom of God. That’s why Communion must be celebrated with a reverent heart to receive the LORD God’s eternal gift to you.
   The apostle Paul instructs us to a worshipful response to Jesus’ New Covenant of grace: 1 Corinthians 11:26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 
   You can properly receive the power of Jesus’ promise only if you approach Communion with a faith in Jesus’ work on the cross, a repentant heart to confess your sins and a joyful heart to believe God forgives your sin.
   Jesus’ promise is holy. He is the Son of God perfectly completing the Father’s covenant of salvation first stated in Genesis 3:15 “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The crucifixion is sin’s strike on Jesus’ heel. It is also the act the crushes Satan’s authority over the world. God will judge a casual or irreverent approach to Communion. That’s why some churches properly instruct people in the church to refuse Communion if they do not believe Jesus is Savior, or if they are unwilling to confess and repent of sins. It is also the church’s responsibility to refuse Communion to those who exhibit outward sin and do not repent.
   Communion is a private and a public demonstration of your faith in Jesus’ promise. You privately pray to God to repent of your sins and to receive the elements in faith. You publicly demonstrate this faith when you take the elements. This meal is telling God and telling your brothers and sisters in the church that you are faithfully responding to Jesus’ command, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19b)