Jesus’ Presence

Before Jesus ascended, he said, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We sometimes wish that we were able to see the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh, to walk with him through the fields, and to hear him teach. Yet it is possible for Jesus to be with his people in a very real sense. While in the flesh he was as it were “the prisoner of an hour and place”. Only when he was no longer present as a man among men and women could his presence be manifested to all people in every place through the power of the Holy Spirit. That was the reason Jesus said that it was "expedient" for him to go away (John 16:7). Now, as we open our hearts to him, he will come and live in us. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Bread
The Lord's Supper is effective–it does something. This is curious language to most of us. We understand how we do something, take the bread and break it and the cup and drink it, but we may not see how God does anything. We do not come to the table to simply learn something with our minds: we come to meet God. God does something.  He communes with His people.  God and His people meet here and something happens. The weight of His presence is sensed because of the joy of forgiveness of sin.  He is here.  He is with us!  Break the bread of life today and rejoice!

Cup
God is doing something in our midst as we celebrate. Here we touch eternity. Here God gives love, forgiveness, acceptance and we receive. God acted in the Old Testament, and the result at times was a Red Sea parting, fire consuming a burning bush, or fire coming down from heaven consuming a sacrifice.  He also had a pillar of His glory that would move.  When ever God acts, whether then, or now, we are in awe and we adore.  In the Lord's Supper Jesus acts.  He eats with us.  We are like Mephibosheth and He is like David the King.  We deserve to be put to death, but he bids us come, and eat and drink.  God is dining with us, we are also doing something.  We are meeting God.

A Table in the Presence of My Enemies

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies
— Psalm 23:5

From the day that we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, everything changes for us. Gone was that ever-present guilt that used to nag us day and night. There is no longer an empty hole deep inside of our soul. In the place of those things, God gave us what is best described as the peace that surpasses all human understanding. God placed a new joy in our hearts and gave us the hope of heaven when we die.

But in our relationship with Christ, we also gained enemies. That is what David is saying in Psalm 23:5, "You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies . . . " You see, we as Christians face three primary enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world with its enticements is the external enemy. The flesh with its vulnerabilities and appetites is the internal enemy. The devil working with these two foes is the infernal enemy. Combined they are a powerful adversary.

The best antidote against this powerful, unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil is an intimate relationship with the Shepherd, as we feed at His table. When we sit at the table of the Lord, we are satisfied because we know everything we need is there. And we don't hunger for anything else. I'm not saying that Christians are temptation proof. What I am saying is that we are no longer as drawn to temptation as we used to be. We see the world for what it is—a cheap imitation of the truth.

As Christians, we can feast at the Lord's table and no longer desire the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. God has prepared a table before us.

The Supper is Symbolic

So if anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup.— 1 Corinthians 11:27-28

Matthew 26 contains one of the most well-known events in human history and certainly the most famous meal ever eaten, the Last Supper.

As the disciples sat together, Jesus said, " 'Take it and eat it, for this is my body' " (verse 26). He then gave thanks and offered them the cup and said, " 'Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many' " (verses 27–28).

Jesus, as He often did, was speaking symbolically. To say He was speaking literally here does not fit with the word pictures He often used. After all, Jesus said He was the Bread of Life. And didn't He say that He was the Door?

So, do we insist that Christ is an actual loaf of bread or a door? Of course not. Nor should we insist that the bread and the contents of the cup are actually Christ's body and blood. There is no evidence of a supernatural process that transforms the cup's contents into Jesus' blood and the bread into His flesh.

Therefore, as we participate in Communion, we don't want to overly mystify what it represents. We don't want to think of the bread as flesh and the cup as containing blood.

On the other hand, we don't want to devalue Communion by thinking it means nothing. Clearly, the Scriptures warn us about taking part in Communion without recognizing its significance (see 1 Corinthians 11:23–30).

The bread and the cup are not holy elements in and of themselves. But they do represent something that is very holy. So it is with great respect and reverence that we come to the Communion table, recognizing it is a symbol of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

I Need Christ, My Bread!

Without bread, I become thin like a skeleton; and, in time, I will die. Without thought, my mind becomes dwarfed, yes, and it deteriorates until I become an idiot, with a soul that just has life, but little more. And without Christ, my spirit must become a vague, shadowy emptiness. It cannot live unless it feeds on that heavenly manna which came down from heaven. Now the Christian can say, "The life that I live is Christ;" because Christ is the food on which he feeds, and the sustenance of his newborn spirit.

Jesus Calls His Guests to Dine

Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10  and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The Lord’s Table is to be, a gathering of the guests of Jesus Christ.  We are called to bring before our mind when we meet what has been done to give us white robes.  It is not our righteousness.  It is not our own blood and labor that has redeemed us.  We gather to the Table of the Lamb.  We cry out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The invitation is to the guests of Jesus.  But we are not only the guests at this wedding feast.  We are the Bride dear ones.  We come to feast with our Bridegroom.  Do you have on your wedding garment? 

He is impeccable.  Christ is unstained, unspotted.  No heart of rebellion was in Him.  His body was broken for your rebellion.  You who once were rebels, come.  The King invites you – Come and dine! Come and take in the Body of Christ.  He is here with us even now.  Let us commune with Him at His Table.

The Bread

Have you come to feast on the unleavened bread of Christ’s righteousness today?  When Elijah was afraid, he ran for his life into the wilderness.  Perhaps that is where you are today.  We find that Elijah even wanted to die there.  He had just seen the greatest victory, yet he was crushed by despair.  Do you feel weak?  Come to the Table. You see the Angel of the Lord went out to the wilderness and cooked up a meal for him and “touched him and said, ‘Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:5b).

The food we need today is Christ.  Feel the compassion of Christ.  Arise and eat!

The Cup

Are you thirsty for Christ’s love?  Are you tired of the world’s dryness?

The Lamb cries out: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1).

Perhaps you’ve stumbled in your life and you think God loves you less.  You feel unworthy to come to His Table.  Sit where you are.  Christ girds His servant’s towel and in His infinite meekness He looks into your face with love and says:  Isa 44:3, “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, I will pour floods upon the dry ground:.” Are you thirsty?

Drink the cup and remember the blood of the Lamb of God that completely satisfied the justice of God.