Communion 16.03.24

For Communion this week we’ll read a short passage from Genesis 3 followed by 1 John 1

Before he made Eve, the Lord gave the one law about the tree of knowledge. This instruction was passed on to Eve by Adam.

Eve was Adam’s wife proving that marriage is for man and woman from the beginning.

They had no shame in their innocence, everything was good.

But when Adam and Even ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they realised they were naked and felt fear and shame because of their sin.

The Lord placed a curse on the serpent, and sad consequences for Adam and Eve and all mankind.

Genesis 3:17-21

Then finally to Adam saying, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

So the body (bread) and the blood (by the death of an animal) were there at the beginning but they were reminders of their sin. They could only look back in regret. 

We can remember what Adam and Eve did to break our fellowship with God, to make us lose our place in Paradise.

But we can now remember the sacrifice Jesus made that brought us back to God and ultimately back to Eden.

Jesus said the bread is his body broken for us and that the wine is his blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He took our fear and shame and said take his body and blood in exchange. Our sins are washed away and removed as far as the east from the west. 

Now when we take Communion He said to do this in memory of him. We might remember our own sin but we are reminded that Jesus’ death on the Cross triumphs over our sin!

1 John 1:5-10

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

The devil fools us to thinking we can sin and it won’t touch us but thanks to the price Jesus paid, when we come into the light, we live in fellowship with God and with each other and his blood cleanses us from all sin.