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.
This verse has been used as a command to have communion. Some even will say communion is a good time to check yourself to make sure things are clean in your life or clear between you and others. The fear they have is taking the ceremony unworthily and judgment being placed on them. Once again, tradition has been received over Truth.
The Word of God centers around Jesus Christ, not around us. Remember, if we go to God's Word focused on getting to know Him more, rather than taking a self-centered approach to His Word, our own lives will become more fulfilled. For example, if we go to The Word with the mindset of: I would like to get to know who God is instead of: “What can you show me, God, to help me get through this day." When we focus on God through His Word and prayer, He, in turn, begins to work those things out in our life we thought were so important.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Getting back to communion;
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.
When Christ said to do this in remembrance of me, what was He saying? First, what meal were He and His disciples having? Answer the Passover feast. What was the Passover? About 1500 years before Christ, the night before Israel was allowed to leave Egypt, where they had been in slavery and bondage. The Lord was going to pass thru the land and suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite the firstborn of every family. If the children of Israel had slain a lamb without blemish and marked the doorposts of their home with the blood of the lamb, the Lord would pass over them. This is where the Passover name came from. From that time on, once a year, the Passover would be celebrated and remembered how the Lord had delivered Israel from bondage.
Fast forward to the night Christ was having His last Passover feast meal with His disciples. The Bible says Christ looked forward to having this last Passover with His disciples.
Luke 22:15 And he said unto them, With desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer:
Why did He desire this? He was about to show the disciples the deeper and fulfilled meaning of the Passover. Israel in bondage was a shadow of the bondage that sin has on mankind. The spotless lamb that was slain each year was but a shadow of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Lamb of God being slain upon the cross for the sin of the world. 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 and not death. That blood was a shadow of the blood of Christ that He shed on the cross and His blood that can give everlasting life. So Christ was showing His Disciples the true meaning of the Passover. He no longer wanted the release from Egyptian bondage to be remembered but the blood that He was going to shed, and did shed on the cross that would free all 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 physical and spiritual healing for us all free from the effects of sin. So from then on, as often as they ate that bread and drank that cup, they were to remember Christ and His suffering. How often would they have that meal? Once a year at Passover. But surely Christ's sacrifice and resurrection were meditated on daily by them that believed. And once the Gentiles were invited into The Kingdom message, they too could partake of the Passover tradition, but in remembrance of Christ, not deliverance from Egypt.
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 does ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
Christ wasn't saying do this often; He was just saying when you do it, do it in remembrance. They would do it once a year, and now Passover, its true meaning is revealed.
Luke 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
This was not a time to examine one's life for the worthiness of eating the bread or drinking the cup. Worthiness was all wrapped in Christ. When Paul said in;
1 Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Some in the Corinthian church were partaking because they wanted to eat and drink and weren't considering at all the message behind the bread and wine. This is why many were sick and died because they were just eating and drinking for self-indulgence, not in remembrance of Christ. This was not set up for self-examination but for Christ's examination.
Fast forward to Acts 28:28 Be it known therefore unto you that The Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. The message of The Kingdom to Jews and Gentiles has been paused because of unbelief by the Jewish nation, and a new message was delivered to Paul. A message where there is no Jew or Gentile, a message not pertaining to feasts or Sabbath days or holy days or ordinances (communions) or washings (baptisms). It is a message with a new hope of the appearing of Christ in glory, not Him coming in clouds with a shout and sound of a trumpet, a hope of heaven, not a city built by God with 12 pearly gates. Spiritual blessings in Heavenly Places, not sign gifts. A walk by faith, not by sight. Worshiping Christ in spirit and in Truth. A message covering all aspects of your walk for today. This message is distinct and was hid in God since before the foundations of the world. There is no reflection of earthly things but only heavenly. We don't need emblems of bread and wine to have a Passover, communion, or remembrance of what Christ did for us. We worship Him in spirit and in Truth.
We are not spiritual Israel or the Bride, but we are The Church of His Body. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood but the principalities of the dark. But sadly, as God's message was rejected, that was spoken by the prophets, and spoken by God in the flesh, and then His disciples. So was God's message of The Mystery, which was sent to Paul for us today, rejected and is still being rejected today. That is why Paul said in 2 Tim 1:15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me... Paul had been given a message that fulfilled God's Word, but most don't realize it even exists. But if we are diligent in seeking Christ and His Word, which are one and the same, and remember 2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, then we can be part of Gods fulfilled Word, and we can have The Hope of Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed Hope, and the Glorious appearing of The Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Write comment (0 Comments)The One Great Requirement of the Word:
"Rightly Dividing" It.
The one great requirement of the Word is grounded on the fact that it is "the Word of Truth." And this fact is so stated as to imply that, unless the Word is thus rightly divided, we shall not get "truth"; and that we shall get its truth only in proportion to the measure in which we divide it rightly.
Write comment (4 Comments)Paul Was An Apostle Twice,
Both Before And After Acts 28,
That Leaves A Number Of Questions
If Paul preached only one message in the course of his ministry here on earth, and that message was concerning the Dispensation of The Mystery, we are led to wonder about a few things.
For instance, when on the Damascus road, Paul was given the order to preach the things which he had seen (Acts 26:16). The last record that we have of Paul seeing anything he could preach prior to his trip to Damascus was the sermon of Stephen (Acts 7:58 and Acts 8:1). Was Stephen preaching the Dispensation of The Mystery? Just wondering!
Again, in Acts 28:23, Paul is preaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel, and he does so from Moses and the prophets. Now is this a part of the Dispensation of the mystery?
If Paul never preached concerning the King and The Kingdom, how did the people at Thessalonica get the impression that he was preaching to another King besides Caesar? Just wondering!
In Romans, the last epistle of Paul before the events of Acts closed, it is proclaimed that the Gentiles are partakers of the spiritual things of Israel. Are we to believe that the Dispensation of the mystery is where Gentile believers share in the hope of Israel?
In Gal. 4:26, Paul speaks of Jerusalem, which is above, as the mother of us all. Is this the hope of the Dispensation of The Mystery? This is also the hope of the seven synagogues of Asia in Revelation, and it comes down to the earth.
Paul had received sign-gifts from The Spirit, as did The Twelve Apostles. In fact, every believer received a sign-gift during the Acts period up until Acts 28:28. Are these sign-gifts also a part of The Dispensation of The Mystery? Could it be that the faith healers and the folks who speak in tongues today are the real body of Christ? Just wondering!
In Romans 7, Paul speaks of the law as being holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Is this speaking to those who belong to The Church of The Dispensation of The Mystery?
After Paul had preached for some time and had on several occasions turned to the Gentiles, he stood before the council in Jerusalem in the defense of his Gospel. Peter stood up in his defense and declared that he had done this (preached to Gentiles) first (Acts 15:7). If Paul preached nothing but The Mystery, then Peter must have proclaimed it first in the house of Cornelius. But here we have trouble. After all, was it Peter, or was it Stephen who preached it first?
At Athens, Paul declared that there was One coming Who had been raised from the dead and that He would judge the world. Is this One The King of kings (and The King of Israel), or is it The Head of The Church, which is His Body that will judge the world? Just wondering!
On his last visit to Jerusalem, Paul shaved his head, made a vow, and worshiped in The Temple. Is this a part of the Dispensation of The Mystery?
In Romans 11 the Gentile is described as being grafted into the olive tree. Was this a secret?
Strictly speaking, The Hope of Israel was their Messiah.
But with the coming of Messiah were connected many other things which also were a part of the hope of Israel.
In Ezekiel 37:4-11 we read of the valley of dry bones. It is a picture of Israel beginning to believe Jesus is Her Messiah, the bones come together, and when they stand up, Israel knows Her Messiah, and the Resurrection of Israel happens. She enters with Messiah into The Promised Land and The Times of The Kingdom. Daniel 12 begins with the same hope.
But it is in Isaiah 66 that we find something that we can link with Revelation 12. You will note that the travail of the woman, who is Israel, is the birth pangs mentioned in Matt. 24:8. Now Isaiah speaks of a manchild born before the birth pangs and then children after the travail. In Revelation 12, we see that there is first a man-child born, and then the time of tribulation, after which is The Resurrection at the seventh trumpet. The man-child is evidently the overcomers, faithful ones who died rather than serve Antichrist and the Beast.
So far, these have to do with Israel, the baptism by fire in the tribulation, and The Resurrection.
We go to John 11:23-27, and we find something about the last day, which relates to the same times. In reference to the last day, the Lord declares that He is The Resurrection and The Life. He then shows that He will be The Resurrection for the believing dead on that day, and He will awaken those that sleep. He also shows that He will be Life to believers who are alive on that day, for they shall never die.
This is a further explanation of Rev. 11:15, where the last or seventh trumpet sounds and the kingdoms of the earth come under the rule of The King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul speaks of this great event in 1 Corinthians 15:51-58. He describes what happens at the last trumpet, speaking of the raising of the dead and the change of the living as in John 11. Note the use of the word sleep here and in Daniel 12.
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul refers to the same event, except it is written sometime before the Corinthian letters. In 1 Thes. 4:15-18 he notes the archangel that is mentioned in Daniel 12. The trumpet is also spoken of. And the dead rise first (the Lord is The Resurrection to them). And then those believers who are alive rise up into the air (not heaven) with those who had been dead. They meet the Lord, Who is coming to set up His Kingdom as described in Revelation 11. So they do not stay in the air for long but come with the Lord to the earth. Note also that there will be clouds, just as at the ascension of the Lord. He comes in like manner as He left. The clouds are angels, sometimes called saints, and also plainly spoken of as His holy angels. Look up all these carefully. Angels have to do with Israel, the heirs of salvation. They are not connected with The Church.
Now, going back to Isaiah 66, we find there just what Nicodemus should have remembered but did not. He was told that he would have to be born again (Resurrected) in order to see and enter The Kingdom. He was told (plural YE) that his people Israel would have to be born again (Resurrected) so that they might enter The Kingdom. And the same was true of The King, for He is First Fruits, The First Born of them that slept. He is the new Head of the human race. As in Adam, all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Isn't our God Wonderful?
Write comment (0 Comments)1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one spirit are we all baptized into One Body.
The word spirit has the small "s" in the A.V. of 1611, and correctly so, for it here refers to the new nature or the new man in the believers of the first century. So it is by virtue of having this spirit that the Corinthian saints were baptized into or identified with one body.
1 Cor. 12:8-10 tells us that this body of believers was endowed with nine spiritual gifts; wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and their interpretation. And verse 7 says that these were given to every man, i.e., every man in that body. This is significant for every believer. When they believed that Jesus is The Christ received a sign-gift, no one was ever missed. This fulfilled The Lord's Promise of Mar 16:17-18 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Everyone who believed on Jesus Christ received one of these signs. Do you have one? Why not? Because no Christians after Acts 28:27-28 receive sign-gifts, they were for the last Dispensation. Now go thru The Book of Acts very carefully, and you will see every believer had a sign-gift and no one was missed. Christians today should have questioned this, and they would have known we were in a different Dispensation by this one proof alone. There are many others.
Back to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12:14-17 where this body is described as having feet, hands, ears, eyes, and the like. Now this body can not be The Mystery One Body of Christ because God protected His Secret not yet revealed by listing body parts on the head. Which members of The Church of The One Body are part of The Head? Now member because Christ Jesus and He alone is The Head of The Body.
This Acts period body was made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. The Jews are addressed in 1 Corinthians Chapters 10 and 11, and the Gentiles in Chapter 12. These Gentiles are described in Gal. 3:9 as being blessed by faith with faithful Abraham, as God made sure that was how the blessings of Abraham would come upon the Gentiles and that by faith, they would become Abraham's seed. These Gentile believers were at one time spoken of by The Lord as dogs that eat the crumbs that fall from Israel's table. But now they were partaking of Israel's spiritual things, and Israel was getting jealous. See Rom. 15:27 and Matt. 15:26
Paul writes to some length in Romans about this body made up of Jew and Gentile Christians. A prophecy is quoted in Rom. 9:25 concerning the fact that God would call a people His people who were not His people. In Rom. 9:28 the Gentile believers obtained righteousness which they sought not after. They were continuing to provoke Israel to jealousy (Rom. 10:19 & Rom. 11:11). And Rom. 11:17-24 describes them as being grafted into the olive tree as wild olive branches so that the original tree (Israel) might bear fruit.
This not only shows that they are unequal, the Jew being first, but it is plain that such a relationship does not and cannot constitute a joint body. Romans Chapter 2 tells us that the Jew is first in blessing and also first in punishment. Summed up, all this is proof that there was a fleshly distinction between Jew and Gentile in that body.
The Jewish believers were still under the law, but the Gentile believers had the gospel of the grace of God preached to them. So they became guests at Israel's table by grace, not by the law.
This body at Corinth had the hope of the coming Messiah and His Kingdom. Along with Israel, Gentiles had The Hope of the 1 Corinthians Gathering Together in chapter 15, by which they would meet the Lord in the air (not heaven) and come with Him to the earth to take part in His Millennial Kingdom. Heaven was never their hope.
Paul was still preaching this coming, the hope of Israel in Acts 28:20. It had been his constant theme until Acts 28:27-28 where finally, the salvation of God was sent to the Gentiles. Salvation was then no longer of the Jews, and this body ceased to be.
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