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THE APOSTLE PAUL ON
THE TABLE OF THE LORD
Part 2
REVIEW
Last week I began with this overview of the basis of
Christianity being the Resurrection of Jesus, and the basis of
salvation being the Passover. Again, Jesus is the bridge
between the Old and New Testament. And, as we have learned the
entire depiction of Christianity is written into the Old Testament
in the Spring Feasts of the Jews. Also we have learned that
the bridge spanning the time from the end times back to the days of
Jesus, are the shadows of the Spring feasts of the Jews, fulfilled
by the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
The meaning of those feasts, which begins with
Passover, and ends with Pentecost, is the message that is cast as a
shadow into the future of the Church to become relevant in the time
known as ‘the end times’.
As I have taught, Jesus died on Passover, rose on
First Fruits, and was offered on Pentecost. But the shadow cast by
those feasts is being cast by the Messiah, and in order to be
completed as the Messiah, He had to return to His divinity,
completing the act of salvation. He does so publicly by
ascending into the clouds, and taking with him those captives that
He had set free from their graves on First Fruits.
The Ascension is a separate act, away from the Jewish
Feasts because had the Jews accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, there
would have been no need to reveal the mystery of the Church.
But, the Word of God can’t come back void, so a substitute became
necessary to accept the Word, and make it so.
The message of the Messiah written to the Jews is
transferred to the Church and it’s future is fulfilled in Christ by
the Ascension. All of this is part of the shadow cast by
Jesus, who is the Messiah. The fulfillment of the Feasts of
the Jews produces the Messiah, who is rejected. So the
substitutes are offered a covenant with heaven and rulership in
God’s Kingdom on Earth as the reward for accepting Him on Faith
alone. The Messiah ascends to heaven, taking captive to
himself the captives that He set free by His death and resurrection,
and does so forty days after He rises, fulfilling the sign of Jonah.
So, God moves the completion of the Abraham covenant
ahead to a time when He would return to deal with them, just after
completing the covenant made with the substitutes.
The timing for the end of the substitutes covenant,
and His return to the conclusion of the Abraham covenant was locked
up centuries before in the Prophecy of Daniel. So, in order to
understand the timing of the end times, one must bridge the time by
going back to Daniel’s time and following the trail that leads
forward to the end times.
If you have been studying with me long enough, we
have trod that trail through history together already. If not,
I suggest you get a copy of the teaching on Daniel and Revelation
and study it. It holds the key to end times, when the covenant
with the Church ends, and it receives it’s reward.
But, that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.
That was all review to set the stage for this teaching about the
Table of the Lord. What most Christians call Communion.
The Church made a ritual of taking Communion
centuries ago, while Paul was still living. He wrote to the
Corinthians about their abomination of the practice that he had
taught as a simple, daily remembrance of the work of Christ and what
it meant for us.
Jesus was eating the Passover meal when He instituted
this practice. It was done in the home of John the Apostle’s
mother. The Passover commemorated the last night in bondage,
and was done in the home. Paul taught it to be done daily, in the
home. It wasn’t meant to be a ritual. It’s purpose was
simplicity itself. Simplicity, as I have pointed out on many
occasions, is the essence of the truth which is God.
I know I have told you the story about how this
simple act of remembrance that is so important in the Christian
walk, went from the simple act that was taught by Paul, to an orgy
for only the rich and depraved that was rooted in the church at
Ephesus.
Paul taught that, daily, Christians should take a
curst of bread and a cup of drink, as Jesus had done when He
instituted this as a remembrance, and upon taking the curst and the
cup, to pray; Lord have mercy on me a sinner, while in contemplation
of the saving act of Jesus on the cross, as a graphic flash of
memory of what the animal in the temple went through in our place,
because it would have been us paying for our sins with spiritual
death, if it weren’t for the cross.
God was graphic with them to burn the understanding
of what, ‘for sin comes death’ means, into their minds forever.
Jesus didn’t just die for our sins, he died graphically! A
picture burned in the minds of Christians forever! The price
paid for you to become a citizen of heaven, with all its rights and
privileges, for the simple act of speaking it forth.
PART 2
Partaking at The Table of the Lord is an act of
faith. Faith is an action, based upon belief and sustained by
confidence, and this act of faith is the expression of that
confidence in God’s word.
Our Ministry encourages a return to the New Testament
simplicity of this event. The New Testament converts partook
in their homes. Jesus instituted this in a home while eating
the Passover meal, which celebrated the last night in bondage in
Egypt, which was eaten in their homes.
There is nothing to prevent Christians from taking
these elements themselves every day as an act of simple faith, to
remind themselves what Christ did for them. This is the time
to grab hold of God’s promises and literally defy your own
experience, and no matter what the circumstance, know that forever o
Lord, thy Word is settled in Heaven! If God promised it, claim
it and know that you have it. That then becomes an object of
faith that you hang your body on, defying every circumstance until
it’s either fulfilled here, or becomes a ticket to heaven where
forever God’s word is settled.
In our crusade to rescue the simplicity of this act
of faith, we don’t need any new trues, we need to rediscover the
truth that is already written.
I hear the fear that is expressed by some that you
have to examine yourself, because if you eat and drink unworthy, you
eat and drink damnation! Well, then nobody can eat and drink
at this table. That fear destroys your right to be a
beneficiary of what Jesus established at this table, because nobody
is worthy! We are all unworthy, made worthy only by the blood
of the Lamb.
And you receive the benefit of that worthiness, the
minute the heart believes it and the mouth proclaims it. All
it takes is the recognition of the truth that Christ paid the price,
and that God will take my trusting faith in what he has said that he
will give me, for Christ’s sake, and literally stamp me with the
righteousness of Christ, where I am immediately placed in heavenly
places, and looked at through the spectacles of Christ where my
faith is taken as though it were Christ’s performance. That’s
what grace is; unmerited favor.
Let me make a distinction here. In I
Corinthians 11, Paul never said that he that eateth and drinketh
unworthy, eateth and drinketh damnation. What he said was that
he who eateth and drinketh unworthily; and adverb,
which modifies the verb, not the noun. It describes the action
not the actor.
Paul’s complaint to the Corinthians was about the way
they were partaking. Their worship act had turned into an
event that had forgotten what it was all about. Going to
partake at the Table of the Lord requires a focus on the Lord
Himself. Jesus simplified it; do this in remembrance of me.
Paul defined that eating and drinking unworthily was
doing it without discerning the Lords body, and what those elements
represented. What the Corinthians were doing was the perfect
example of acting unworthily because they were not focusing on the
representation of the emblems.
The Bread is representing the broken body. The
cup symbolizing the blood which contains the life poured out by one
whose life could stand in for us all. No matter how good the
intention, the very effort of examining your own worthiness takes
your eyes off of His worthiness.
I’m not worthy, and neither are you, but we can
partake worthily, every day, in our home, by discerning the
salvation actions of the Lord. And the 11th chapter
of I Corinthians warns that if you don’t partake worthily, (krima is
the word in the Greek) temporary punishment, sickness, weakness and
death is what you bring upon yourself. Not the ultimate
damnation of spiritual death depicted later on in the chapter by the
word katakrino.
So, failing to discern the meaning of these elements,
brings a temporary punishment, including death. To discern the
meaning is to know that we are covered. That’s what atonement
means; covering. The curse fell on Him, we walk out from
underneath. God can take our faith as though it were His
righteousness, including the faith to believe what I am saying
right now.
Now, Why is there bread? If sin is the only
thing at issue, all you need is the cup. There is bread,
because as Peter said, with his stripes you were healed. I
believe in healing, but I like it to happen because of your faith in
the truth of God’s word and the recognition that when God took care
of the sins of the world, he put some icing on the cake. He
gave you the right to claim the promise of healing and act on it,
and I’d do it even if I died in the process. With His stripes
I was healed.
People need healing today, so take the bread and say
it with me now, With His stripes I was healed, , as we eat the crust
of bread in Jesus name, in full discernment of His healing work.
The cup. You’ll never be worthy by trying to,
“live a clean life”. You will never be worthy by trying to
clean up the house until its deserves the presence of the King.
Faith in God’s word turns God loose to move into the dirty house and
start his own cleaning process, and He can do it! I’ve learned
that all I have to do is teach the word of God, and let your faith
in God’s word produce His results. Every person that I am
reaching today with this study became worthy the moment they
believed that God meant what He said.
As you discern the cup and meaning of the element,
you are as worthy as anyone who partakes, so say with me; Lord be
merciful to me a sinner, as we take the cup in Jesus name.
Glory be to God!
Now, with that understanding of Paul’s teaching on
the Table of the Lord, Paul opens up for us the way to keep our
personal relationship with God at it highest level. The act of
participating in communion with Him while in the midst of the memory
flash of what He suffered and died for is the “oil” you need to fill
your lamp with every morning, so your light will burn brightly all
day.
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Humbly,
Your brother in Christ
Brother Sal
"The Prophecy of Daniel The Book of Revelation
The Rapture of the Church and the Mideast Today"
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