Since the dispensational divide of Acts 28:28, ‘communion’ is not to be considered today as it was during the Acts period. Yet, the verse below is misused today as if it is a religious command for believers today.

1 Corinthians 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Then some religious leaders also say ‘communion’ is a good time to examine or check yourself to make sure things are clean in your life or clear between you and others before ‘taking communion.’ They fear that in taking the ceremony “unworthily” (1Cor. 11:29), judgment will be on them. Once again, man’s religious tradition has been received over “the word of Truth.” Let us examine Scripture in this matter.

Fact: Believers have already been “justified” unto “everlasting life” “in Christ.” (cf. Rom. 6:3-4)

“… being justified [already] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Rom. 5:1)

We must realize that The Word of God centers around Jesus Christ, NOT around ‘our performance.’ If we go to God’s Word with the mindset of: ‘I would like to get to know the Lord,’ instead of: “What can you show me, God, to help me get through the day,” He, in turn, will begin to work out those things in our life that we thought were so important. Phili. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Jesus’ Passover instruction is repeated by Paul during the book of Acts when he was going to “the Jew first.”  

1 Cor. 11:25 After the same manner also he [Jesus] took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

When Christ said “do this in remembrance of me,” what was He saying?

What meal was Jesus and His disciples having?   Answer: ‘The Passover’ feast.

What was the Passover? About 1500 years before Christ, the night before Israel was to leave Egypt, where they had been in slavery and bondage for 400 years, the Lord was going to PASS thru the land and the destroyer was to come in unto their houses to smite the firstborn of every family. But, IF the children of Israel had slain a perfect lamb that was without blemish and marked the doorposts of their home with ‘the blood of the lamb,’ the Lord would ‘PASS OVER’ them. From that time on, Once A Year, the Passover would be celebrated in Israel, remembering how the Lord had delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt.

Now fast forward to the night Jesus was having His last Passover meal with His disciples. The Bible says Christ “desired” to eat this last Passover with His disciples. Luke 22:15 And he [Jesus] said unto them, With desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: 

Why did Jesus ‘desire’ this?  It was because He was about to reveal to the disciples the deeper meaning of the ‘Passover.’ Israel’s bondage under Pharoah was a metaphor for the bondage that Sin has on mankind. The spotless lamb that was slain each year was but a picture of Jesus Christ, the Perfect “Lamb of God,” being slain upon the cross “for the sin of the world.” Recall, if the blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts of the home where the Passover meal was being held, that blood would ensure LIFE, not death. That blood was a shadow of “the blood of Christ” that He shed on the cross to give “everlasting life.” So Christ was showing His Jewish Disciples the true meaning of “the Passover.” He no longer wanted their release from Egyptian bondage to be the issue … but rather that they remember the blood that He was going to shed, and that He did shed on the cross to free all the believers from the bondage of Sin, forever.

He, by the broken bread showed how His body was soon to be brutally mangled and broken to provide for spiritual healing from the effects of their “iniquities” and “transgression” (Read Isaiah 53:5-8), making Israel’s believers free from the effects of Sin, and its death penalty.

So from then on, as often as the Jews ate that bread and drank that cup, they were to remember Christ and His redemptive suffering. How often would they have that meal? Once a year at Passover. But surely Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection were to be meditated upon daily by them that believe. And once the Gentiles of that day during the Acts-period were invited to believe “gospel of The Kingdom” for Israel, they too could partake of the ‘Passover tradition,’ now in remembrance of Christ’s Cross-work, not being deliverance from Egypt.

So Christ was not saying do this often; He was just saying when you do it, do it in remembrance. Now having its true meaning is revealed, those Jews would observe the Passover Once A Year,

Luke 22:20 … This cup is the new testament [for Israel] in my blood, which is shed for you [of Israel].

So this was not a time to examine one’s own life for their worthiness of eating the bread or drinking the cup. 1 Cor. 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. No, the only worthiness involved was wrapped in Christ’s Worthiness of the ‘perfect Lamb’ to merit forgiveness by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. When Paul suggests that in finding one’s self unworthy, we ought to realize and be thankful for Christ As Our Worthiness… received by Faith in His Sacrifice for us.

At the time Paul wrote 1Cor, 11 there were some in the Corinthian church who were partaking because they just wanted to party, eating, and drinking excessively, they were not considering the message behind the bread and wine. This is why many were sick and died, because they were just eating and drinking in over-indulgence, not considering the sacrifice of Christ. This at that time during Acts was not set up for self-examination but for remembering the merits of Christ as God’s sacrifice ‘for the sins of the world.’

Now, fast forward to the end of Acts and the change that occurred.  “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Acts 28:28. With this verse the offer of “The Kingdom” promised unto Jews is paused (set-aside) because of the unbelief with the Jewish nation’s rejection of Christ. Thus, Israel had “fallen” and “cast away” for a time (Rom. 11:10-12, 15, 25).

Soon after a new message of pure Grace for ALL men was delivered to Paul, regardless of one’s race. Thus, today there is no more distinction at all between the believing Jews and Gentiles of “His body.” Paul’s pure grace gospel instruction for us today does not pertaining to any ‘ceremonial feasts, Sabbath days, holy days or ordinances (e.g., communion), washings (baptisms).’

Today’s gospel message is one of a new “hope” looking to the ‘appearing of Christ with His grace believers in Heaven’s glory’ (cf. Col. 3:4). This is not Him coming in clouds with a shout and sound of a trumpet to Rapture Israel. It is the blessed hope of “HEAVEN” (Titus, 2:13), not a city on earth built by God with 12 pearly gates, but rather “Spiritual blessings in HEAVENLY Places” (Eph. 1:3), not with the miraculous temporary sign-gifts but enjoyed in a walk of faith, not by sight, then to worship Christ “IN SPIRIT and in Truth” – totally without religious externalities. Thus today we are to;

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat [foods], or in drink, or in respect of an [religious] holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:” Colossians 2:16

So, Paul’s POST-Acts Gospel message is distinctly new, it was never prophesied. Rather it “was hid in God since Before the foundations of the world.” It has no likeness with earthly things, only the Heavenly. We don’t need the physical emblems of bread and wine or to have a Passover remembrance of what Christ did for us. We simply know Him and “worship Him in spirit and in Truth.” We of “His body” today are not spiritual Israel or the ‘Bride.’ We are “The Church, which is “His Body.” We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood, but with the fallen angelic “principalities and powers” of “darkness” (cf. Eph. 6:12).

God’s message that was spoken by Israel’s prophets and Jesus, and then by His disciples was rejected by Israel. Likewise, God’s Pauline message of “The Mystery” of the invisible “body of Christ” of today, is still largely being rejected today among religious Christendom. So Paul also experienced such rejection; “… all they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Tim 1:15). Yet there has always been a small band that has been faithful to the message of pure grace for all believers alike … throughout the ages since Paul.

Paul had been given a new pure (100%) grace message that completes God’s Word (Col. 1:25), but most don’t realize it even exists. Butt if we are diligent in seeking Christ and His Word (which are one and the same) and remember to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth (2 Tim 2:15), then we can grow to see the truth for today and be part of Gods fulfilled Word, having the “Blessed Hope” of HEAVEN;

“Looking for that blessed Hope, and the Glorious appearing of The Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in [heaven’s] glory.” Col. 3:4