1 Corinthians 10:16-17
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? For we being many are one bread, and one
body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
1 Corinthians 11:23-31 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. Wherefore whosoever
shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man
examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink
of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For
this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For
if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Jesus' body died on the cross.
- And we are dead by the Body of Christ.
Roma 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
Jesus prayed and requested that we be not removed from the world but kept from the evil in the world.
John 17:15 I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil.
We are in the world, but we are safe in this world.
- HOW IS THAT SO?
- HOW DID THE FATHER ANSWER JESUS' PRAYER THAT WE BE SAFE IN
THIS WORLD OF EVIL?
- The cross.
Galatians 6:14-16 But God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
We are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us.
- Therefore, we are safe from the evil in the world.
- It can have nothing to do with us since we are crucified to
it.
- But we must believe this and understand it and claim it in
order for us to enjoy it.
Paul referred to communion supper immediately after speaking about the Body of Christ being the Church -- one bread.
- He said that Jesus told us that we are one bread with Jesus
as His body and then told us to to eat bread realizing it is the Body
of Christ in symbolic form.
Jesus broke it and said He was to be broken for the disciples.
- They were to do that in remembrance of His death until He
comes again.
- We must recall every now and then, until He comes, what this
death was all about.
- We must remember Him.
The great truth to remember is that His body was broken in death as us, because sin demanded our deaths.
- If we do not recognize that the Body of Christ was broken as
us, then we do not discern the Lord's body.
We are the Body of Christ.
- We died with Him.
- We must discern His body, or we drink and eat damnation to
ourselves.
How does this happen?
If we do not appropriate Christ's death as our own deaths then we are lost.
- Also, We will lose out in every trial that comes our way
because we will not know we have power over everything since we died
with Christ and are risen with Him.
Until He comes, there are trials in this world.
- And we will have to remember what the cross was all about
until He comes.
- We will have to remind ourselves that we died with Him.
- That Body is us, the Church.
We must discern this til he comes.
- We died to sin.
- We are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to
us.
What would we rather do? Battle and fight in every trial in our
own weak strength, or stand on the fact that Jesus won the Battle over
it all a long time ago, and know that we are seated far above every
power in this world that would seek to fall us, and not lift a finger
of self effort but simply command the enemy to flee?
Many wonder how they could be over all power and enemies if they fail now and then.
- The fact is they forgot about their union with Christ and
their victory through their deaths with Christ, and they go about the
battle in their own strength.
Israel forgot that God was with them when they were to enter Canaan and conquer the land.
- They thought about how weak they were and how strong the
enemies were.
- They forgot all about their union with God.
- When you look at your own strength, you will see the greater
strength of the enemy.
- But you are not alone!
Remember, until He comes, in a world of trials and enemies, that you are united with God, and you and God are a majority.
You must know that Christ died as you.
- You must discern the Lord's body.
Paul said that The reason so many are weak and sickly is because they do not discern the Lord's Body.
- They do not see the union of themselves and Christ, so they
can't exert faith in it and cause God to empower them.
- And therefore they cannot defeat the enemies of sickness and
stress, etc.
- They don't know how to defeat these things.
Jesus resurrected from the dead and declared that all power in heaven and earth is his.
- Then he said that the disciples must teach all nations,
baptizing them into His NAME.
- In other words, we must get into Him and enjoy all power in
heaven and in earth.
- He has all that power and we are baptized into Him and can
then enjoy that power for our battles in life.
We need to feast on the bread and the wine. if we eat Him, he said we will live by Him.
John 6:57 As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me.
He is the bread of Heaven.
- We eat the bread and think of this representing Jesus' flesh.
- And we see that whatever He has within Himself by the way of
victory, is what we have in ourselves, since we are united with Him,.
- And putting the bread into ourselves is indicating that
whatever is in Him is in us.
- We are reminding ourselves of that until He comes.
We are reminding ourselves of that while in a world of enemies against us.
That is why we must come together, and learn the word of God so that we can discern the Lord's body when sickness and other enemies attack.
- Many are sick and weak because they cannot discern the
Lord's body.
- And many cannot discern the Lord's body because they do not
learn about it.
- And they do not learn about it since they stay away from the
worship and Bible teaching services too much.
- We are feasting today on the bread and the wine.
- We are learning what is in us.
- We are learning about our unions with Christ.
- We are discerning the Lord's Body here today.
- Take home with you what you learn here.
- Live by it.
- In the week, when battles occur, do not forget your unions
with Christ.
- You are in the name of Jesus since you were baptized into
Him (Romans 6:3).
- And if He has all power in heaven and in earth, and you are
baptized into Him, the next time you face a battle do not forget
you are in Him.
- Discern the Lord's Body -- the church.
- Discern yourself!
- The Church is not a building but is the people united with
Christ in His victory over all enemies.
- So when you face an enemy, face it in the name of Jesus
Christ.
- Remember you have all power in heaven and earth since you
are in Him who has all power in heaven and in earth.
- And rebuke the enemy in Jesus' name.
- And nothing by any means shall harm thee.
- To understand what it means to be in Jesus' name is to
understand you are united with Him in His death, burial and
resurrection.
- And that means you are also ascended with Him above all
principalities and powers.
- He is seated above all power (Eph. 1:20-23).
- And we are risen and seated together with Him (Eph. 2:5-6).
- We have God's power towards us according to the power with
which He raised up Christ.
- According to that same power.
- The degree of power we have is according to the degree of
power with which God raised Christ above all powers!
- We are above all powers!
- Do you get this?
- Are the eyes of your understanding opened to see this?
- Can you discern the Lord's Body?
- When the Lord says he has all power over heaven and earth,
say, "Yes, I do!"
- When the Lord says He can defeat anything , say, "Yes, I
can!"
- YOU ARE UNITED WITH HIM.