This Is My Body: the Importance of Christ’s Body (Matthew 26:26-30)
length: 63:06 - taught on Feb, 12 2026
Class Outline:
Thursday February 12, 2026
While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Should we separate the spirit from the body?
There has been a tendency in paganism to separate the spirit of a man from his body and classify the spirit, or immaterial part of him, as something that can ascend to greatness (however defined) and that it is best, indeed desired for the body to be left behind or discarded.
The Scripture shows opposite passions at their full strength: as in the unchanging and the changing. The Bible clearly states that God does not change to the point where He will not bend His justice an inch to the sinner; and then the Bible states clearly that God became a helpless baby.
On the day He was born, the world changed forever. Life would never be the same. In fact, He would completely turn the world upside down.
History is not an endless cycle of repeating events.
God designed a life for humanity by which they could always keep in touch with Christ, and not from a distance.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
Note the progression or crescendo: hear, see, touch. We are to live in this way, which John will go on to show in this amazing letter.
We are to do so; hear, see, touch Him when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in a special way, as a group - His body.
Logos and meaning:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
The logos, or “word,” was a very common term to ancient philosophers (500 BC Greeks) and they used it to mean “order,” “thinking,” “meaning,” and other ideas of the mind all built on words.
But when Jesus came, the logos was no longer an idea of the mind; it was the Man Jesus born in Bethlehem. This has incredible ramifications.
Man is always looking from outside in, or inside out:
Meaning was not a universal science of thought - cosmos evolving ever onward with man along for the ride and grabbing from it what he could.
Nor was meaning situated in humanity itself - we are the world, meaning will arise when we all become one culture in peace (think of some futuristic Star Trek movie - they throw in a lot of different looking aliens to complete the picture).
Meaning was one Man opening His arms to embrace all people in Him.
And how was He to accomplish it? Through the ultimate act of love - He was going to give His body / His life for all. He is meaning. He is order. He is logos.
He gave us the bread as His body so we could hear, see, touch and remember - He alone is meaning, nourishment, life which He gave us by His sacrifice of Himself.
Importance of material in the Bible:
The importance of material reality and material bodies is not something that becomes apparent in the Bible only with the incarnation. In the creation in Gen 1, God sees all the material stages as good, and at the end of six days it is “very good.”
“Christ came in the body, died in the body, was resurrected in the body and ascended in the body to heaven. Now from heaven He fed His body on earth - the church - with His body and blood through the Spirit.” [Tertullian]
The human body is not an ornament, or employed as an external aid. It belongs to the very nature of every person; Christ as well.
“He took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples and said, “This is My brain.”
His body, our bodies, are not bad. They are a real part of our very nature.
For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.
The attempt to disembody mankind:
Very early in the church, a form of early Gnosticism often labeled Cerinthianism after the 1st-2nd century teacher Cerinthus, taught that the divine Christ temporarily inhabited Jesus the man and then left just before the cross. Docetism taught that Christ only appeared to have a body.
This lie began early:
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
Satan has gone to great trouble to disembody mankind, and this has taken on a more insidious campaign in our modern times.
Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
"Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired,
But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;
6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure.
7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come
(In the roll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Thy will, O God.'"
A bull or sheep could never give itself willingly.
Cyberspace is a disembodied space. It tempts us with the unlimited possibilities of an existence outside all physical constraints in which we can be anywhere (even two or more places at once), see anything and do anything in an electronic reality.
Why would meaninglessness come from disembodied living?
“While we exert ourselves to grow beyond our humanity, to leave the human behind us, God becomes human.” [Bonhoeffer]
Whereas modernity is embarrassed and frustrated by the body, the Bible embraces our corporeal existence from head to toe and brings hope to our modern people who want to damage or deify their bodies: comfort to all who are uncomfortable in their own skin.
Joseph of Arimethea asked for the body of Christ and put the Lord’s body in his own tomb. (all four Gospels)
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.
And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. 29 But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. 30 When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight
We speculate here, but look at what is shown to us. When He broke bread, He was revealed. I pray that this will be true every time we do as well.
The importance of our body:
JAM 2:17
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Connect
Subscribe to our mailing list |
Grace and Truth Bible Church of Salem 1900 Hines S.E. Salem, Oregon 97302 |
 |
letters@cgtruth.org |
|
© Grace and Truth Bible Church of Salem All Rights Reserved. |