Bread Breakers

 Hey yall! Welcome back to another Summitable blog post! Last night we met together (what is that, every Wednesday now?) at the church and enjoyed some frisbee, some kind of keep-away game, and a card version of golf (still confused on that one). To me, last night felt like a touch of the old pre-Covid Summit as we had some hangout, an organized game time (Scatter Ball), a volunteer game, singing and the message. It was awesome. If you would like to sing the songs we sang, they were "Jesus Messiah" by Chris Tomlin and "King of Love" by I AM THEY.

Since we got to the topic of breaking bread, I thought it would be helpful to have a demonstration of what that might have looked like for the early church. We had two students, each equipped with a stale baguette, duel to the breaking point. The first baguette to break lost. Unfortunately, this happened on the first strike, so they continued their duel down to the last nub of stale bread. Also unfortunate, this was not what the early church was devoted to when Acts 2:42 says they were devoted to the breaking of bread. What they were devoted was sharing meals together and honoring what Jesus did on the cross. To get a better understanding of what they were devoted to, let's read Matthew 26:17-30:

"17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. 20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” 23 Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.” 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

The meal that Jesus was sharing with His disciples was the Passover, which was a celebration of something God had done for the people of Israel in the Old Testament. To give you the quick version, basically the Israelites were all slaves in Egypt, and God had sent Moses as an ambassador to speak to Pharaoh and free them. Well, Pharaoh liked having slaves and said no, so God sent 10 plagues against Egypt and Pharaoh to convince him to let His people go. The 10th and final plague was the breaking point for Pharaoh, and for this one God was going to send the angel of death across the land, and the angel was going to kill the firstborn son in every household (including the Israelites' households). Through Moses, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and paint its blood across the tops and sides of the doorposts to their homes (kind of like a cross). When the angel came to their house and saw the blood, he would "pass over" and move on to the next house, and they would be safe. It was this "passing over" that the people celebrated with the Passover feast.

Now, in the passage in Matthew Jesus offers new significance to the meal. He offers the bread and the wine as His body and blood, "which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins". His disciples knew the context, so when He said this, they understood it to mean that He (Jesus) would be the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world. So, when God looks at us (those who have put their faith in Jesus), He sees the blood of Jesus and His judgment/wrath passes over us, just like the angel of death passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt.

The meal itself represented what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. You see, without food, what happens? You go long enough without it and you'll die. We need to eat or we die. Well, without the body and blood of Jesus being poured out on the cross, we will die. Romans 6:23 tells us "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Because of sin, we are doomed to die - eternal separation from God. We have a spiritual need, and Jesus's death on the cross fills that need just as food and drink fills our physical need. So when we share meals as the church, we are filling physical needs (because everyone needs to eat) and we remember how Jesus has filled our spiritual need (because everyone needs forgiveness for their sins, which is only found in Jesus). This is what the early church was devoted to - sharing meals and remembering Jesus.

I would also like to quickly note how Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples. If Jesus sings praises to God, then I think it is safe to say that we should all sing praises to God. Just saying.

So let's look to apply this to our group today. If we want to be devoted to the breaking of bread like the early church, then we should be sharing meals together and remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross. While most churches do not make a full meal out of it, almost every church observes Communion (also known as the Lord's Supper) during which the people eat bread/crackers and drink wine/grape juice together, in remembrance of Jesus' death on the cross and the forgiveness we received from it. If you are not already involved with a local church, I would like to personally invite you to our church (info can be found here). I strongly encourage you, if you have put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, to participate in Communion with your local church.

Another way to apply this message is to share meals together in your homes. I recognize that Covid-19 can make that rather difficult at the moment, but do what you can do to invite friends and fellow believers over to share a meal together - at home, at the mall, wherever. And when you do this, take a moment to remember how Jesus filled your spiritual need for life through the cross. Also, food is a great bonding tool. If you want to get to know someone or build a friendship, eating together is a great way to do that.

And finally, I would like you to look at one more verse, Deuteronomy 8:3 - "[God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (emphasis mine). Just as food nourishes our bodies, the Word of God (the Bible) nourishes our souls. We should be reading God's Word as often as we eat, which should be at least once a day.

In doing these things, we demonstrate our devotion to the breaking of bread. Now go break some bread!