AFTER THE BREAD AND WINE

December 2, 2001 pm
MF Blume

Genesis 14:18-24  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.  And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

1Cor 11:23-26  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 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. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.


Abram, whose name later was changed to Abraham, journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees towards a land that God would show to him, as the result of a call from God to do so.  In doing so, he actually did not fully fully obey God’s demands in his departure.  God told him the following:

Genesis 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
However, we read that when he did leave, the following occurred.
Genesis 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Terah, his father, led him, rather than God leading him.  Instead of leaving his family, Abram was actually led by his family!  However, they only came so far as Haran, and it was there that Terah died.
Genesis 11:32  And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Abram proceeded to continue his God-given journey, but he still held on to some more family.
Genesis 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Without fully following God’s will, Abram was somewhat lacking in his experience with God.  And this seems to be the case with most people who begin to follow the Lord.  In fact, I think. God expects it.  We are, after all, newly born again when we follow the Lord on a journey to all truth, led by His Spirit of truth.  And newborns are not perfect in their walks, nor are they safe from all slip-ups and failures.

So Abram speaks of the Christian soul who is seeking the will of God, albeit, with some difficulty in fully obeying the Lord due to the pulls of the flesh.

As time passed, he arrived in Canaan, at the place called Shechem, the same town where Joshua led Israel centuries later when it was time to re-enter this promised land first given to Abram.  There, Abram built an altar to God.

Famine soon arrived, and Abram once again acted in the flesh and journeyed to the south into Egypt to be safe from the famine.  Is it not interesting that this same thing occurred with Jacob and his family, while Joseph was in power in Egypt after having been sold by his brethren into slavery?

And just as God later wanted Israel out of Egypt and back in their promised land, God told Abram to get back out of Egypt and return to Canaan.

Genesis 12:10  And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
While in Egypt, he ran into problems with his wife and Pharaoh took her to himself in his house.  God assisted Abram and Sarai, and Pharaoh was struck in God’s wrath with a warning to release her to Abram.  Through Pharaoh’s anger with Abram’s failure to inform him of Sarai’s marriage to Abram, God managed to get Abram back out of Egypt.
Genesis 12:20 - 13:1  And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.  And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Genesis 13:3  And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai.

While in Egypt, Abram acquired much wealth, and servants, among whom was Hagar, the future mother of a child who should have never been born.  Abram simply made mistake after mistake.

But something changed in Abram’s life and dedication to God in Chapter 13.  Due to the overabundance of livestock and servants amongst both Abram and Lot’s possessions, strife occurred over confusion regarding whose livestock was whose.  So Abram did something that was quite selfless. He offered Lot to choose which direction he wanted to take in their separation.

Genesis 13:10-12  And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Abram came to a place in himself where he began to trust God moreso than he had up to this point.  He did believe God enough to leave Ur, yet he took his kindred with him.  And after arriving in Canaan, when famine hit, he independently figured it best to descend into Egypt in order to avoid starvation.  He did not seek God about that decision.  He simply felt it in his best interests to do so.  And we discover that he got himself into trouble while down there.  But this time it is different. Abram is not going to choose what to do.  He gave Lot that option, and Lot took it.

Lot did not ask God which direction he should choose.  We learn that although Sodom looked like the Garden of Eden, the men there were very wicked in the sight of God.

Genesis 13:13  But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Had Lot decided to pray and seek God’s will about going to Sodom, the Lord surely would have foretold the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah due to their sin in the devastation of fire and brimstone.  Nevertheless, Lot did not think to seek God’s will about his direction.

But Abram, in simply giving Lot the choice, perhaps learned from his past experience that it is not best to simply decide what one wants to do.  One must seek the will of God, for it is God whom we are serving, after all.  This “I am going to do it my way” attitude and mentality has go to leave our Christian lives.  It must not be our wills, but His will that we fulfill.  Are we serving God or aren’t we?

We find that things indeed did begin to change for Abram.  Time passed and four enemy kings of Sodom attacked the city and its five ally kings, and conquered Sodom.  In the siege, Lot was taken captive and news reached Abram.  Abram stirred up and raised a veritable army from amongst his servants and rescued Lot, defeating the four enemy kings who conquered five other kings!  Quite a feat!

But the real wonder occurred when after the war and successful rescue of Lot, A priest and King of a City named Salem met Abram.  His name was Melchisedek..  This man brought bread and wine with him and blessed both Abram and God.

Genesis 14:18-20  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Something affected Abram so much when he met this priest that it impacted him very powerfully.  He gave tithes of everything he had.  This king was from Salem, the root word for the name Jerusalem.  Is it any wonder that after meeting Melchisedek, something within Abram sought forever after for the City built by God, New Jerusalem?
Hebrews 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
From that day onward he looked for the City this King came from!

After the Bread and Wine.

And when the king of Sodom came with all the worldly treasures to offer Abram, Abram had already been impacted by Melchisedek.

Genesis 14:21-24  And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
Abram would accept nothing from Sodom.  It was too late!  He came in contact with a king that gave him much more than material wealth.  He got bread and wine!

After the Bread and Wine.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 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. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

Matthew 26:26-28  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it; and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The bread and wine is a very prominent picture in the minds of the New Testament Church.  It speaks of the greatest event to occur for all mankind… the cross of Jesus Christ.  His body was broken and His blood was shed in His death on the cross.  The bread and wine point us to this great truth.

Notice that Abram received bread and wine after a particular series of events occurred.  The significant change in events was in not deciding to go his own way according to his own desires as he did in going to Egypt.  In choosing to let Lot take the direction he wanted, he opened himself up for God’s will.  And we read God did indeed give him His will.

Genesis 13:14-17  And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
Abram was finally away from his kindred, as God initially demanded.  And Abram also did not seek his own will.  God was able to speak to him.  People, God cannot speak to us about His will when we simply go about trying to fulfill our own wills.  Unless we open time for God to speak to us, we will simply fill our minds only with what we decide we want to do.  God would very much like to guide our lives, however the thought may never even cross our minds to seek His will in such times of decision.  And if we do not give God opportunity to speak and direct us, he will not.  But after God saw Abram’s offer to Lot to choose direction, God saw opportunity to lead Abram.  And its no coincidence that a war was then won and Melchisedek came and gave Abram the bread and the wine!

This is very significant.  Bread and wine point ahead to the breaking of the body of Christ and the shedding of His blood in death.  In order for Christ to fulfill the will of the Father, there was the issue of His human will that had to be dealt with.  And deal with it, He did!

Luke 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Christ prayed in the Garden to see the cup of suffering pass from Him.  But He would not be staunch in that desire should the will of the Father direct differently.  The key to the success of the man Christ Jesus in saving mankind through His death on the cross began with the willingness to deny his own will and seek the will of the Father.

It was after this that Christ’s body was broken and His blood was shed.  And if it had not been for that self denial, none of us would enjoy salvation today!  None of us would feel the joy of eternal life and the feeling of being in the presence of God’s Spirit!  Thank God he denied His fleshly will.

Since Abram showed the exact same self denial, bread and wine was brought to him.  Spiritually speaking, this represents the element God looks for in order to be able to bless us with His will and power!  You see, once Jesus denied His human will, and died, resurrection power hit that broken body three days later!  Resurrection power raised Him from the dead.

After Abram had the bread and wine due to having been noticed by God to deny himself, just as Jesus would centuries later, God resurrected Abram’s very bowels!

Genesis 15:3-6  And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Abram believed God for resurrection power.

Up until this point, Abram had no supernatural experience occur in his body.  But when God saw his self denial, matching that of Christ’s to come, the bread and wine that would ever be a symbol of Christ’s broken body and shed blood that led to RESURRECTION, was given to Abram.  And it so impacted Abram that resurrection power occurred in his aged body in raising his reproductive abilities up from the dead.  Paul described this very thing as follows.

Romans 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
When we follow the Lord’s will and walk in self denial, God sees the very same elements of self denial Christ manifested, and we identify with Christ’s death in a special way.  We in effect receive BREAD AND WINE of His denial into our lives and make it part of our experience.  Putting the bread and wine into our bodies in communion supper represents the identification of Christ’s self denial in seeking God’s will and not our own.  And since the bread and wine represent His death that led to His resurrection, we are indicating that resurrection power is dwelling within our lives!  And that power will raise us up above and over any trouble that comes our way.

Abram faced a crisis.  He was to be father of many nations, yet he did not even have a son, and was too old to father any children.  But after the bread and wine, resurrection power hit Abram!  And Abram had faith in resurrection power.

The same thing later occurred with Sarai.  Life would soon come from a dead womb, just as Christ would resurrect from a dead tomb!

People, God is looking for the same self denial in your lives as Jesus manifested when He died on the cross, as represented by the bread and the wine.  If He finds it in your daily lives as Christians, you are being provided with unseen bread and wine – spiritual communion – as you are learning of Jesus.  Learning of Jesus is feasting on bread and wine.

Matthew 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
When God sees that, and you are learning of Christ and feasting on His bread and wine, then you get the same resurrection power within you that He is!  You are in union with Him.  He is in you.  The bread and wine is HIM!  Putting bread and wine in your mouth during communion supper represents the fact that Christ is in you!  Resurrection power is in you!  But it is stressing the SELF DENIAL that Christ manifested in order to later experience resurrection.  And that is precisely the picture in Abram’s life!
Romans 4:12  And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
No wonder Abraham was the father of the faithful!

Let’s feast on bread and wine, church!  You'll never be the same, after the bread and wine!

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