The Body and the Blood: A Biblical Study of Christ and Communion

By Randy J. Widrick

The Lord’s Supper, also known as Communion, was instituted directly by the Lord Jesus Christ on the night He was betrayed. Wonderful blessings await you, as a believer, by taking Communion according to the Scriptural conditions set forth by the Lord Himself. Do you know them? Are you aware of the connections to the Old Testament Passover Feast? In what situation would taking Communion possibly be detrimental to you? Why is it necessary to examine yourself? These questions and many more are answered for you. A must read for all who desire to learn, believe and appropriate all the blessings of Communion.

The Communion service, ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ on the night He was betrayed is your invitation to an ongoing, intimate, active, vibrant celebration with your Savior.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664252813

Randy J. Widrick

Randy J. Widrick currently resides in Binghamton, New York, with Josephine, his wife of forty-one years. They have been actively involved in teaching, preaching, writing, and music ministry in churches in upstate New York, Colorado, and Arizona since 1980 and currently are members of Hands of Hope Ministries, Free Methodist Church.

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Copyright © 2022 Randy J. Widrick.

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make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations are taken from The New American Standard

Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,

1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5282-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5283-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5281-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022900171

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/06/2022

To Josephine (Joey), my hero, friend,

and wife of forty-one years who saw me not for who I was but for whom Christ could make me.

Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established (Proverbs 15:22).

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 What Is Communion?

Chapter 2 In Remembrance of Me

Chapter 3 Christ is in Me! I am in Christ!

Chapter 4 We Proclaim His Death Till He Comes

Chapter 5 Christ Is Our Passover?

Chapter 6 The Flesh of the Lamb, the Body of Christ

Chapter 7 The Glorious Communion Celebration

Chapter 8 Judging the Body

Chapter 9 The Necessity of Faith

Chapter 10 Partaking of Communion as a Believer

Commonly Asked Questions

A Word to Those Who Administer Communion

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Henry Ausby, senior pastor, Hands of Hope Ministries, Free Methodist Church, Binghamton, NY

• John Adam Widrick, executive director, The Bridge House, Lebanon, TN

• Josephine A. Widrick, lifestyle coach

• Valerie Hoffman, editor

INTRODUCTION

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice (John 18:37). Jesus Christ made this dramatic declaration as He stood before Pilate facing death by crucifixion.

Pilate responded in John 18:38 with a statement that echoes down to us more than two thousand years later, What is truth? This is a question you will have to answer for yourself. Your answer will determine your actions. Your answer will determine your destiny in this life and in the next. Is there even a next life? Is there absolute truth? If there is absolute truth, who has it? Leaders? Politicians? Professors? Doctors? Scientists? Priests? Ministers? Our parents? Me? You?

Have you ever taken the time to question what you believe to be true? Can you clearly state where you find truth? Is mine different from yours? The modern argument when opposing viewpoints are discussed is the easy statement, Well, that’s what you believe, and I respect that, but I don’t see it that way!

You are welcome to believe whatever you choose to believe. We respect and protect that God-given freedom.

Many years ago, I sought desperately to find the truth, the meaning in life, something I could live for … something I believed in so strongly that I would die for it. Have you found something like that? I didn’t find it in my career. I was a master at messing up relationships, both mine and others’. The answer for me wasn’t in education, making money, or driving fast cars. My experience with drugs was short-lived, thank God, after my first trip was a bad one. Except for the prayers of my faithful mother, the situations I found myself in could easily have resulted in an early death.

Finding no answers and feeling life had no meaning, thoughts and plans for suicide formulated in my mind. If there is no truth, no purpose, no meaning, then what is the reason for living? I had tried everything … almost everything. I looked on the shelf of my efficiency apartment. My eye landed on my old, dusty Bible. I remembered all that I had been taught when I was a child. The words and verses from my past blazed out at me. That night, I met truth. He had a name: Jesus Christ! I remembered His words in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Bible said that if I believed in Him and invited Him to take over my life, He would forgive me of my sin, come into my heart, and live in me. I believed what He said. Thoughts of hopelessness, despair, and suicide were driven out by a candle light of life and love that has been burning brighter and brighter for more than forty years.

Over the years, each and every one of His promises that I have trusted has proven to be true, as He said. I have found the Bible to be the absolute Word of God. My desire is to look only at what the Bible says about Communion (not to add to Scripture with my own opinion) and then show you what Christ did because of His love for you. You, as a reader, will have one of three common responses to what you read in these pages about the Bible, Jesus Christ, and Communion.

1. You will choose to believe the Word of God and act on it by faith, receiving and appropriating His benefits.

2. You will think about it and want to examine it further.

3. You will reject it as foolishness and may not even finish the study.

Even the men and women who lived when Christ walked this earth had the exact same responses. Humankind has not changed much; we just think we have. My task here is not to argue with you; it is to proclaim what the Bible says about Communion, about Christ. My prayer is that with an open mind you will consider the truth contained here, so you can experience all the spiritual blessings provided