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Articles 2014-2017
When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Jesus’ words “fervent desire” reveal how much He had eagerly looked forward to having this final meal with these men. It would be their last Passover celebration before it was fulfilled at Calvary.
…for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
The Passover that Israel celebrated every year had foreshadowed an event that would soon take place at Calvary. Jesus, the Lamb of God, would take the sin of the world into himself. He who knew no sin would become sin and sin would die. Its power would be broken and men would be freed to walk with God like He had. It took God to be a man, to show us how to walk with Him, and to be the One to lead us out of our spiritual bondage.
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Clearly, the kingdom had already come in some measure because the King had come. He was able to say to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God was in their midst (Luke 17:21 NAS). Since the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out corporately on God’s people and since He was addressing a group of Pharisees, “in your midst” is probably a better translation than “within you.” Since the King was in their midst, the will of God was being done on earth in One Man just like it was in heaven.
Though God’s kingdom had to some degree been revealed in Jesus’ personal ministry, it had yet to be more fully expressed across the earth. First, Christ would pay the price to redeem humanity. Then He would ascend to take His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Following His enthronement, He would come in the power of the Holy Spirit so that millions across the earth would be filled with His Presence. Indeed, what was revealed in one nation would ultimately be revealed across the whole earth. Today, Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords; all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. Here is undeniable good news.
Prior to the Passover supper, our Lord took a cup of wine and had the disciples divide it among themselves. A few years later, when Paul was instructing the Corinthian believers about the Lord’s Table, he referred not to this cup but to the one after supper (1 Corinthians 11:25). So what was the significance of this cup?
Scholars tell us that at the Passover celebration, the Jews would sing from Psalms 113 - 114 prior to the meal. Perhaps it was at this point that Jesus passed the first cup of wine. Consider these Psalms.
Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is to be praised.
Since the Passover feast was to commemorate and celebrate Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, you would think that their singing would reflect a more local perspective. But the first thing we notice in Psalm 113 is how God’s name will be praised not just in Israel, but across the whole earth, as far as the East is from the West, from horizon to horizon. The Passover feast in its expression of Heaven’s focus reveals God’s heart for worldwide deliverance and salvation.
The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens.
The Lord is high not only above Israel, but above all nations. In those days the gods were known to be territorial deities. All the nations had their various gods, which were of course, the fallen angels, the principalities who influenced regions and drew people to worship them.
But when God’s people would speak of Him, the pagans would become angry. The Jews would declare their God to be the only God, the true and authentic Creator of the heavens and the earth. And the wicked would get furious. Here is the root of both anti-Semitism and of persecution against true believers in Jesus Christ. While so many want to talk about cultural and religious equality, the true God talks about truth and deception. And the truth that sets men free also gets many upset.
But the truth is that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Period. He is not some regional, half-baked deity. He is the Lord of heaven and earth.
Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?
It is an act of humility for the Lord to just look upon our planet. That’s how awesome and majestic He is. We are impressed and amazed as we consider Niagara Falls, the oceans, the Alps, and the seemingly innumerable number of stars in the heavens. But for God, it is an act of humility just to look in this direction. He is enthroned so high that He must stoop down just to see the earth and sky.
He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes–with the princes of His people.
The Jews would sing these words thinking of how God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Similarly, before we came to Christ, we were enslaved to sin; we were without understanding of spiritual reality, and we were totally unprofitable (Romans 3:11 - 12). We were nothing. Yet God took us out of the ash heap of history and out of the dustbin of the earth and brought us to himself that we might sit at His table with the princes of His people, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the many mighty believers in Christ of the last two thousand years. We have been invited to come, to behold, and to spend time with the King of the universe.
At a wedding reception there are many tables. But there is always one set aside for the groom and the bride. And that is the table to which we have been invited. Believers are not those who sit at the side tables. We have been invited to sit at the Lord’s Table. What a sacred and holy privilege. Our God paid a great price for us to have this honor.
He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!
God takes unto himself those who cannot bear or produce anything of value, and brings forth from our lives His love, His righteousness, His presence.
Then they would sing Psalm 114.
When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
God’s sanctuary was His house, which He located in Judah. And the entire nation of Israel became His dominion, the place where He revealed His authority and rule.
The [Red] Sea looked and fled; the Jordan [River] was turned back.
(Psalm 114:3 Amplified Bible)
It was not just that Moses waved his staff and the Red Sea fled before Israel. It was not just that God breathed an East wind all night long so that the Red Sea split before them. It was that the sea itself looked and saw what God was doing. It recognized that He had taken a bunch of slaves and made them His house, His kingdom. Since the God of heaven and earth was arising, all the Red Sea could do was to part before His people and submit to His work. The Psalmist gives personality to the creation and informs us that nature itself was designed to respond to its Creator and to His work among men.
But it was not just the Red Sea that opened before them; the Jordan River parted for them as well. When they got to the edge of the Promised Land, the priests who carried the ark put their feet in the water and the Jordan stopped and backed up all the way to a town called Adam. And the people walked on dry ground into their inheritance just like they walked on dry ground out of their bondage. Both exit and entrance required the miraculous intervention of God.
Similarly, God worked a miracle when He brought us out of the world. We are not in God’s house simply because we were persuaded; we were born into it. God brought us to birth by His Holy Spirit. The One who said that light would shine out of darkness, out from nothingness, is the One who has manifested His life in us. When people are born of the Spirit, it is a miracle. Authentic Christianity is not a philosophy; it is a revelation of life.
So also will be our going in. Our Promised Land is not simply heaven; we will face no giants to oppose us when we die and go to heaven. Our inheritance also has to do with life on this earth; it is full of giants, and we must fight for it. Scripture does not tell us to wrestle with principalities and powers; it informs us that we are already doing so. Therefore we must take up and put on the spiritual armor that Heaven has supplied (Ephesians 6:10 - 18). And then we must stand in the great salvation that Christ has purchased for us.
Spiritual giants are opposed to us embracing our inheritance. It seems to me that our Promised Land is the realm where Jesus lived when He walked the earth. He lived in a place of unity with His Father and perfectly revealed Him among men. Jesus was the first to live fully in the land of promise in the land of Israel – the first in Israel’s history to entirely lay hold of the spiritual inheritance. And He is the first-born of many to follow; He is our Joshua. What Israel experienced through Christ’s life and ministry for over three years, the nations of the earth will experience through a people filled with His presence.[18]
Every giant or spiritual principality over every region of the earth is opposed to us going beyond where we are in our relationship with the Lord. And where we are is not where we are going; but it is on the way. And we must discover the way forward into His destiny for us. It simply is not enough to plan for heaven when we die. Don’t get me wrong. If I went to heaven today, I would be quite happy about it. But God has targeted the earth; His kingdom is emerging here. And His name shall be glorified among the nations.
The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.
Notice how creation responded in the past causing the Psalmist to ask why. And then notice how he turns toward the present and the future and commands the whole earth to respond again.
As the Jews sang this Psalm prior to the Passover meal, whether they knew it or not, they were rejoicing about more than simply their deliverance from Egypt and their entrance into Canaan. When God parted the Red Sea, Israel participated in an event that had ramifications far beyond their own experience.
As awesome as it was with pillars of fire and cloud, Israel’s exodus was also a type of another exodus that would one day affect the whole earth. We see this truth revealed when Jesus was on the mountaintop talking with Moses and Elijah. Scripture says they were discussing His departure (Greek, EXODOS) that He was about to accomplish (Greek, PLEROO – to fulfill) at Jerusalem (Luke 9:28 - 31).
Israel’s mass departure was prophetically foreshadowing the second great exodus that occurred when Jesus was crucified, buried, raised and ascended. At that time, we as a people went into heavenly places in Him. We participated in this amazing event when we repented of our sins and were baptized. Just as Israel had been immersed into Moses in the cloud and the sea (1Corinthians 10:2), so also we were immersed into the greater Moses, Jesus Christ through water and the Spirit.[19]
We were crucified with Him when He died (Galatians 2:20). We were buried with Him through baptism into death, and then raised out of death in Him to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3 - 4). And as a result, we were in Him when He ascended back to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty. We have made exodus and are now seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4 - 6). Literally millions of people have made exodus in Him, and many millions more are yet to be added to that great event through repentance and baptism.
As a result, when we commune with God, we do so from a heavenly locale. When we gather to worship, our meetings are to reveal corporately God’s throne room where the King of the universe meets with His subjects. Such gatherings are to be more significant than the U.N. general assembly, the U.S. congress, or the President meeting with his cabinet. This is the King of the universe interacting with His people.
The Scripture teaches that He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). But we must learn to live there; our destiny lies in coming into what has already been paid for. It is not that we are to strive after our inheritance, but that we are to pray for one another that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to see what was in God’s heart when He called us (Ephesians 1:18). What Jesus purchased for us is so much more than where we are now. He is leading us into the realm where He lived in His Father as He ministered in Israel two thousand years ago. Here is where the spiritual blessings will be found.
Not only was Israel’s exit from Egypt a prophetic foreshadowing of the Church’s exodus at Calvary, her corporate entrance into Canaan was as well. The Church is coming into a fuller apprehension of our inheritance in this life. And as the Psalmist commanded, the whole earth will tremble at God’s presence. Just like the Jordan River and the Red Sea parted, creation will one day respond again as God’s people came into the measured full stature revealing corporately God’s Son, Israel’s Messiah made known through a body. It is this corporate maturation process coming to fullness among the Gentiles that will make Israel jealous and turn to her God.
And He took bread, gave thanks (Greek, EUCHARISTEO) and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
While many use the word “Eucharist” to refer to the Lord’s Table, it simply means to give thanks. When we arise in the morning and give thanks to the Lord for another day, we are being “Eucharistic”. If we are then thankful for our breakfast, that meal becomes a “Eucharistic” event. The point is that for a believer, all of life is to be “Eucharistic”. Notice how Paul uses this word.
in everything give thanks (Greek, EUCHARISTEO); for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
At the last supper, Jesus said to take the bread in remembrance of Him. Of course, it makes sense that these men could remember the cross because they were there when He died (Luke 23:49). When Jesus was arrested, His disciples had scattered from Him. But then they returned and were there at the cross. So, days later, or years later, they could take the bread and the cup and then remember. How can someone remember something if they were not there?[20]
But a few years later Paul told the Corinthians that he received from the Lord what he had delivered to them that they should take bread and break it in remembrance (1Corinthians 11:23 - 24). But how could they remember? Had they been there? In one sense, the answer is “yes”. Anyone who has repented of their sin and been baptized into Christ through water and the Spirit has been immersed into Him at His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.[21]
Today, we are in heavenly places. This does not mean that we are to try and envision ourselves in some mystical habitation. But we are simply where God is. Not only is He alive in us; we have been plunged into Him. And He is far above all the territorial ruling spirits influencing the nations. We have been brought into union with the Lord God of heaven and earth. This good news needs to break in more fully upon our souls.
Because of what has been accomplished at Calvary, there are times when I feel very dead to sin and very alive to God (Romans 6:6 - 12). But there are other times when people or certain circumstances push the right buttons in me, and sinful thoughts and attitudes will surface. At those times I feel rather alive to sin and not very alive to God. So I repent. At that point, the Bible says that I am to reckon myself to be dead to sin and alive to God. But the question remains. How can I get to where I more fully appreciate that I am in fact truly dead to sin and alive to God? The Lord’s answer is that I must come to His table.
Consider what Jesus said at the last supper. He did not actually say to eat the bread in remembrance, but to eat it into remembrance. The Greek word is EIS. It is translated variously in the New Testament as “unto,” or “to,” or “into.”
In other words, the Lord has given us a powerful tool in the war against sin. As we eat we are to experience a growing awareness in our hearts of what He purchased for us. Our participation in the Lord’s Table takes us further in our experience of remembering our own death, burial, and resurrection in Him. He purchased far more for us than what we yet understand. And sometimes Calvary seems a bit foggy and distant. But as we take the bread into remembrance, we trust Him to take us into a greater conscious perception of His perfect solution to our sin and of our participation in it.
There have been times when I partook of the Lord’s Table where His presence was very real and He gave me encouraging insights in His word. But there have also been many times when everything just seemed rather dry. But the promise remains. I have been partaking of the bread and wine with the Lord’s people for decades and because He is faithful I am more aware today than in years past that I am indeed dead to sin and alive to God. In other words, the Lord’s Table is greater than mere symbolism; the power of God is present as we obey Him to actually take us further into possessing our inheritance in Him.
Many have often said that communion always seems to them like a ritual, like simple rote and repetition. But that perspective reveals a giant who is opposing us in the land. Our enemy wants to keep us out of our inheritance. So he keeps trying to convince us that there is no real point to the communion table. But we must rise up and fight the giant. Begin to pray that God would come and open up His word when we break the bread. “Lord, would you not speak prophetically to us as we partake at Your table today? Would You not quicken songs in the hearts of Your worshippers? Would you arise with encouraging exhortations and take us further in our awareness of Your great victory at Calvary?”
Let us take heart. Let us rise up, take up the sword of the Spirit, and let us advance.
Amen.
Donald Rumble – December 2015
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