The Last Supper Celebration instituted by Jesus (Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25 and Luke 22:14-20) and reconfirmed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 is called Thanksgiving by the early Christians. Yet the word thanksgiving is not in any of the scripture passages describing it. As it became known as the thanksgiving celebration, this appears to have been a result of the practice of doing it and what happened there. One of the elements of thanksgiving over our Re-demption is that the more we know and understand it, the more we will be giving thanksgiving. Here is a key phrase of thanks giving from Colossians Chapter 1. Col 1:12 “Giving thanks (continually) unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, 13 who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Here the message is that when we understand all the Jesus accomplished as it applies to us, your measure of understanding will be the level of continual thanksgiving you do. As part of a Communion service, this would be the first part of thanksgiving as the importance of the work of Jesus is stressed, especially in the meaning of what happened to His body and blood. This would be stressing the facts of Redemption. The second would be applying these facts to the lives of the participants so that they would be healed, prosperous and live long and fruitful lives as blessings released when you do Communion properly. The actions of thanksgiving would include: a) Giving thanks for the work of Christ in our Redemption to give us access to God by His death, resurrection and glorification; b) Giving thanks for the union of God and man by Holy Spirit with the born-again human spirit, i.e., communion. c) Giving thanks for past blessings manifested (divine healings, wisdom, peace, etc.); d) Giving thanks in advance for blessings to be manifest in faith after the Communion event; e) Giving thanks for the return of the Lord when He establishes His Kingdom on earth. One could expect to see manifested at the Communion service divine healings and other blessings, (as are being reported around the world today). This quintuple grouping of blessing would be the source of calling this event a Eucharist or Thanksgiving Celebration. So one would start or enter the event in gratefulness for past events and in expectation of future divine manifestations of goodness. To God proper Communion is a major event for regular Christian practice to release God’s blessings on the practitioners who perform it right. And the will of God, by the rebuke of 1 Cor 11:30, is that we do it right and get the blessing God has provided in it. The message is clear, God is not deciding who gets blessed, and rather our level of understanding determines that, not God.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 06:20:00 +0000
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