Communion: Our Personal Calvary: A Fuller Life Through His Body and Blood

By Finbar Desir

Communion is one of the end-time mysteries of God—designed for believers to gain masteries over the affairs of life. It offers a complete and comprehensive package for believers’ life insurance in God. It is one of the most sacred ordinances in the Bible, yet often misunderstood by many.

In Communion: Our Personal Calvary, author Finbar Desir explains that the Lord’s Supper enables every Christian to participate personally in Jesus’s sacrifice on Calvary. In presents, in simple terms, a deeper understanding of Communion, gained from in-depth study of the Scriptures and revelation from the Holy Spirit. Desir examines Jesus’s words and actions regarding Communion, the New Covenant, Jesus’s suffering and death, and the linkages between Communion, Passover, and the Day of Atonement.

Though Christians know that Jesus died for our sins, most are unaware of the many other benefits He purchased for us through His suffering. These include healing, restitution for harm we cause to others, elimination of curses, and more. We can access all of these through Communion, which Jesus described as food for our spiritual development, and which is the perfect approach to the Father.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664218697

Finbar Desir

Finbar Desir was born in St. Lucia, West Indies. He completed his undergraduate studies in Canada, then worked in St. Lucia for several years. Afterwards he migrated to Canada, earned a Master’s degree from McGill University and worked as an agricultural engineer for 34 years. Throughout his life, Desir continued his walk with the Lord, becoming an ordained minister in 2004. He and his wife live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, with their children and grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2021 Finbar Desir.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB Copyright ©2016, 2018 by Bible Hub

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-1870-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1871-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1869-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900404

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/26/2021

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 What Did Jesus Say about Communion?

Chapter 2 Communion and the Sacrifice on Calvary—Forgiveness of Sin

Chapter 3 Communion and the Sacrifice on Calvary—The Temple Sacrifices

Chapter 4 This Is My Body

Chapter 5 This Is My Blood

Chapter 6 Communion and the Day of Atonement

Chapter 7 Communion and the Passover

Chapter 8 Receiving Communion

Chapter 9 Moving Forward

Appendix

Citations

FOREWORD

There is no doubt that Communion is one of the end-time mysteries of God—designed for believers to gain masteries over the affairs of life. It offers a complete and comprehensive package for believers’ life insurance in God. It is one of the most sacred ordinances in the Bible and yet most disdained and grossly misunderstood among many believers. In Jesus’s discourse on the subject in the Gospel of John chapter 6, some of his disciples left him because it was a hard teaching; to many others, it was simply unacceptable (Jn 6:41–43; 61–62; 66 NIV).

In the Old Testament, the Passover was not only the last ordinance before the exit of God’s people in Egypt; it was to be a lasting ordinance. This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. (Ex 12:14 NIV). The Last Supper, which later translates to the Communion, was not just the last ordinance before Jesus went to the cross. It was to be a lasting ordinance. Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19 NIV). If it’s such a lasting one, it’s vitally important we have a thorough understanding of it.

Therefore, I commend the courage of the author, Finbar Desir, in demystifying the difficulties surrounding this subject and presenting one of the most profound yet simple approaches to this essential subject on Communion for Christian living. The author brings us to the reason and real motivation behind the Communion—explaining the detail and significance of every component of the Communion and its relevance to believers of Jesus Christ. He lays bare the sufferings of Jesus Christ and the inexhaustible benefits arising therefrom. He beautifully links up how Jesus’s death connects us with the Abrahamic blessings.

I couldn’t agree more when the author says Jesus’s flesh and blood constitute top-quality spiritual food for our spiritual development (Jn 6.55). It’s quite revealing the way he connects the Holy Spirit within us with Jesus in us through the Communion and how that translates to God’s presence in every believer who regularly partakes in the Communion. One thing stands clear in the author’s writing on this subject; every statement is backed up by scriptural references. Such detailed work and huge cross-references are highly commendable. His personal experience and sound knowledge of these biblical principles provide a balanced view of a much-misunderstood topic of once saved, forever saved.

This book is a classic on the subject of Communion, and I encourage anyone who wants to have a fundamental perspective on Communion to glean the wisdom from the pages of this book and experience a healthy working relationship with God by following the principles shared in this book. I recommend it as a must read if you want to access the full benefits of Communion. It will change your life. Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding (Prv 23:23 BSB). Investing your time in reading the book is a worthy investment of a lifetime. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them (Jn 13:17 NIV). Happy reading!

—Dr. David Adeosun

Senior pastor

Redeemed Christian Church of God, Habitation of Peace

Guelph

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Having given me the inspiration and the revelations to write this book, I thank the Lord for giving me the invaluable help of the following special people:

• My wife, Leona, for her encouragement, her questions, her challenges to the ideas I was presenting, and her constant meticulous editing of the manuscript.

• Jake DeBruyn, my colleague from the office, for his deeply insightful critique of my first draft. This helped me develop this manuscript in a way that would be relatable to a broad Christian audience.

• Sophia Gustave, my daughter, for her painstaking, critical editing of my writing style and editorial evaluation of the presentation. She vastly improved the quality of the manuscript, helping me present the material in a format that met high standards.

• Kevin Desir, my son, and Merissa Ruben, my ‘grand-daughter,’ for their technical assistance with photography.

• Pastor David Adeosun, PhD, senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God—Habitation of Peace, Guelph, Ontario, for his support, suggestions, and strong encouragement, as I was presenting ideas that could be considered controversial.

INTRODUCTION

This book is written to show that Communion, the Lord’s Supper, is our personal Calvary. This means that Communion is Jesus’s way of providing personal access to Calvary for each one of us, to participate in His total sacrifice for us. Communion takes you directly to the foot of the cross. It is just you, Jesus, and the Father, with the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In Communion, Jesus’s sacrifice is all about you. It is all for you!

Communion becomes a personal transaction between you and God the Father, through the perfect sacrifice of His Beloved Son, with the facilitation and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This interaction between each of us and God the Father covers more than salvation. It covers the whole range of our relationship with God. It is the greatest manifestation of the New Covenant that Jesus established for us in His blood.

Growing up, the event that had the biggest impact on me was the celebration of Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection. I was always intrigued, and saddened, by the biblical descriptions of His suffering, seeing what Jesus went through for us. The most exciting church event for me was the triumphant celebration of Jesus’s resurrection on Easter Sunday mornings, after the sobering accounts of His intense suffering and painful death on Good Friday. Part of these events was the Last Supper, in which Jesus used bread and wine to represent His body and blood sacrificed on our behalf. As a little boy developing through the ages of seven to twelve, my favorite pastime was to play a game of pretending to celebrate Communion.

We have a great store of knowledge about the Last Supper, in which Jesus gave us His body and blood to consume, in the form of bread and wine. The act of consuming the body and blood of Jesus is commonly known as Communion.

First, let us define the word communion. The term is first used in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, in First Corinthians. It is used to identify the practice of the Lord’s Supper by the first Christians, at the time of the apostles: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16 KJV). Here, the word communion means sharing, participation in. The word has come to mean partaking of, or consuming, the body and blood of Christ through the elements of the bread and wine, or grape juice as used in some churches.

(Note: A list of the books of the Bible and the abbreviations used in this book are given in the appendix.)

Jesus tells us in the book of John that He is the only way to the Father: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6 NIV). In Communion, we are approaching the Father through the blood of His Son. It is through Jesus’s blood that our sins are forgiven. His blood cleanses us from evil and makes us holy in the sight of the Father. Therefore, I believe that Communion is the best way to approach the Father.

Communion is not a ritual. At Communion, Jesus brings us to Calvary to personally participate in His sacrifice for us. He died for us on Calvary over two thousand years ago; this sacrifice was done once, for all time. However, when Jesus instituted Communion just before His sacrifice on Calvary, He asked us to repeat it often. In First Corinthians, Paul tells us: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor 11:26 NIV).

Jesus did two major things when He instituted Communion:

1. He separated the offering of His body from that of His blood, to highlight additional benefits of His sacrifice:

a. His sacrifice links His New Testament Communion to the Old Testament Passover, in which the lamb’s blood was used to mark the houses for salvation, and then the flesh was eaten (Ex 12). This is discussed further in chapter 7 of this book: Communion and the Passover.

b. It helps us to focus on His suffering. This opens to us other important benefits of His sacrifice for us, such as restitution. This is discussed further in chapter 4 of this book: This Is My Body.

c. It enables us