For you who have just graduated from college—and they will forget—in my third year of engineering school, I was not doing very well. In fact, I was failing electromagnetic fields and waves.
I remember going home to North Carolina, to Mount Olive, which is a very, very small town. But it has gone throughout the world because it has Mount Olive Pickles. If you have ever bought Mount Olive Pickles, that is where they come from. But anyway, it is just a small little farm town.
My dad had a body shop there where he would bang out fenders on dented-up cars and paint them over—a one-man little shop. I went home, and Dad said, “Well, how are you doing in school, son?”
I said, “Dad, I am not doing well at all. I just do not know if I will make it.”
He said, “It is okay, son. You can always come back to Mount Olive and work with me in the body shop.”
What an inspiration.
I did go back, and I succeeded and graduated upon that word of encouragement. May the Lord encourage us today. Can we begin with prayer?
Lord, I thank You, I worship You, and I praise You. Lord, it is all about You.
As we come this morning, Lord, we would ask that, as we share Your Word—how precious it is—the Holy Spirit would move upon it, that it might touch our hearts and get into our spirits and souls, Lord, that we might respond to Your Word as You would have us do.
Lord, anoint me this morning as I share Your Word. May I just share what is on Your heart. May all of us be able to receive what You want to say this morning, by the grace of God. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Okay, we need to read some Scriptures. Last week I shared on the Lord’s Table, but these Scriptures are critical to what we are continuing to share on this morning. Turn to Acts 2.
This is the theme verse: Acts 2:42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine
and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread,
and prayers.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. In Acts 2:46:
And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread at home,
they did take their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God.
Let us go to Acts 20:7, speaking of the first day of the week.
And upon the first day of the week,
when we were gathered together to break bread,
Paul discoursed with them,
intending to depart on the morrow;
and prolonged his speech until midnight.
So I hope you are planning on staying with us today. But they met on the first day of the week to break bread, and then Paul preached to them.
Let us go to 1 Corinthians 10:16.
The cup of blessing which we bless,
is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break,
is it not a communion of the body of Christ?
Then turn to 1 Corinthians 11:23.
For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said,
This is My body, which is for you:
this do in remembrance of Me.
In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying,
This cup is the new covenant in My blood:
this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup,
ye proclaim the Lord’s death till He come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread,
and drink of the cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself,
if he discern not the body.
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly,
and not a few sleep.
But if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,
that we may not be condemned with the world.
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait one for another.
And I will stop there.
As I have been sharing, this series is about the recovery of the life and testimony of the early church. It is so important to grasp what happened here, because the church was born. It was birthed. It was a living organism.
That organism took on a life form, and that life form came from the very life of Jesus Christ. That life form took on these four basic elements: the teaching of the Word, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
In other words, these outward evidences of the life of Christ became the testimony of the early church. The enemy, as we have been sharing, struck immediately to begin to attack the life within the church.
He does not mind if the outward form of things remains, so much as long as he can destroy the life that resulted in those outward forms. Down through history, we have seen attacks on the Word of God. Right before the Reformation, during the Dark Ages, the Word of God was almost nonexistent and almost unavailable to the Christian world.
But the Lord began during the Reformation to recover His Word and give it to His people.
This matter of fellowship—of really entering into the fellowship of the Father and Son, which the apostle talks about—is almost nonexistent today. We get together, we share, and we have social functions within the church. But how often do we really share the Lord’s life with one another?
How often do we sit down and say, “Brother or sister, this is what the Lord has done in my life”? As we share Christ with one another, you would be amazed at how many times you find the answer to your problems in your own personal life without even asking.
It is this matter of fellowship—how critical it is—not only individual fellowship, but corporate fellowship.
In the matter of prayer, we know that when the Lord revealed the church to Peter, He said that whatsoever shall be bound on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. That is the charge to the church.
Its basic function in prayer is to bind and loose. We know it is church prayer, not just individual prayer. Yet the prayer meeting has almost diminished in church history. Many do not even gather on prayer-meeting night. Often they receive a short message or sermon, gather, and pray about a few personal needs.
But dealing with the principalities and powers we see in Ephesians 6, dealing with the real issues behind the issues, we do not seem to get at that as a church. This matter of corporate prayer, this matter of executive prayer—prayer of authority—has almost been lost down through the ages.
The Lord is working in this age to recover the life of prayer within His church, as He is trying to recover the life of fellowship and the life that is behind His Word.
We have come now to this matter of the breaking of bread—how critically important it was in the life of the early church. The enemy could not eliminate the outward form, and he began immediately to attack the life of this matter of breaking bread.
Remember, in 1 Corinthians, where we just read from, Paul was saying, “I cannot commend you, Corinthians.” The ones of you who are more well off are gathering together right before we have the Lord’s Table. You are having a meal together. You are eating well, you are drinking well, but the poor among your midst are not able to. They come, and when we go to have the Table, they are hungry while you are full.
In fact, some of you have drunk so much wine that you are already drunk. He says, “I cannot commend you. This is unworthy. You are taking the Table in an unworthy manner.” Many among you are sick as a result of this, and some within your midst have even died because of the Lord’s judgment upon you.
It was a very serious issue that Paul was dealing with in the life of the very early church, not many years after it had come into birth. So we see how the enemy began to attack this matter of the Lord’s Table almost immediately, and the life of the Table.
Last week I shared how, because he could not totally eliminate the early church from participating in and having the Lord’s Table, he attacked the nature of it. He tried to alter the nature of the Lord’s Table.
Out of the Dark Ages came what is called transubstantiation, or the Mass that the Catholic Church holds. They purported that what is happening there is a reenactment of the Lord’s death on the cross, and that when you take the fruit of the vine and the bread, they actually become the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. You are partaking of His body and blood and reenacting His death on the cross.
Brothers and sisters, that is heresy. It is not a reenactment at all. Taking the Lord’s Table is the spiritual reality that we need to enter into. It is not a reenactment.
But you see how subtle the enemy is. He tries to change the nature of what the Table is.
During the Reformation, the fathers of the Reformation recognized the heresy of this and how it was taking away from Christ. They said, “Wait a minute. No, no, no. The bread is still the bread, and the fruit of the vine is still the fruit of the vine. It has not changed. There is no transubstantiation here. That is heresy. That is like cannibalism.”
They were right and accurate, but their reaction was unfortunately wrong. They said, “Look, it is just symbolic. It is a symbolic act. It is something we do symbolically. We love the Lord and remember Him, and these elements are all symbolic.”
Brothers and sisters, it is not symbolism. It is spiritual reality that we enter into when we take the Lord’s Table.
The enemy actually succeeded in changing the nature of the Lord’s Table. Today we have transubstantiation and we have symbolism, both of which miss what the Lord wants in His Table and what the basic nature of the Table is.
As a matter of fact, since it became symbolism, the Quakers said, “It is not spiritual, and we are not going to take the Table.” The Quakers do not even take the Table. Many within Protestant churches only take it once a month or at Easter time. It is something kind of added on to the message that is given.
The enemy has succeeded very much in diminishing the life and testimony of what this Lord’s Table is all about.
I have mentioned that the Lord’s Table is spiritual reality. That is what it is about. So, brothers and sisters, when we come to take the Table, we take it in faith. All that is without faith is sin.
What does that mean? To enter into the spiritual reality means you need to be in the spirit. When you come, you are looking to the Lord. Your spirit is before the Lord. As you consider this Table, as you consider the cost and the price the Lord paid for you, you begin to transact in your spirit with the Lord.
The Lord touches your heart, and you enter into the reality of what the Table is about. The blood has its meaning to you, as well as the broken body. That is the spiritual reality that we need to be careful to enter into each week.
If we come and in our hearts just say, “Oh, okay, I have done this so many times. It is just an act of symbolism. It is not that important,” brothers and sisters, that is the work of the adversary in the hearts, minds, and lives of God’s people, trying to diminish this very important aspect of the life of the church of God.
Now remember this. In the book of Luke, the Lord is very clear. Luke reports that the Lord said to the disciples, “With great desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.”
Brothers and sisters, this supper is for the Lord. It is a time in which His children can gather—His brothers and sisters, I should say, God’s children. It is a time in which we can get with our elder Brother and share our hearts with Him.
Each one of us should be in heart communion with the Lord as we are having the Table. I know how the enemy works on us to distract our minds and hearts with all that is going on in our very busy lives. We are all guilty of not being properly prepared sometimes.
But brothers and sisters, this is a time to commune with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and to remember Him.
The Lord’s Table is not transubstantiation. It is not a reenactment. It is not some mystical change in the elements. It is not symbolism.
In the Lord’s heart and eyes, it is a spiritual reality. It is a transaction between you and Him.
It is just like going home. We meet afterward and share a meal together. But if you are home with your family and you are sharing a meal, it is a family time. We also know how, in these days, family times are very rare.
But this is the Lord’s family time. That is what the Table is about.
I do have some things I want to share to finish up this thought of the Lord’s Table. I have mentioned how the enemy is going to try to change the nature of the Table—to make it symbolic, to make it a tradition.
Something that you just do: “Hey, you come on Sunday morning, we are going to have the elements there, we are going to sing some songs, say some prayers, and things like that. I can just kind of come to the time together, and if something touches me while I am there, I will enter in. If it does not, I will be thinking about other things.”
Now, I say that kind of harshly, but brothers and sisters, we need to face up to the reality of who we are and what we do. All I can say is that it is a very important time to the Lord. It is a very, very important time for the Lord.
We need to consider: if it is such an important time to the Lord, should it not be an important time to us?
Today is Mother’s Day. It is a worldly celebration, and I am not saying it is wrong to recognize your mother. I recognize mine. I sent her some flowers. She is in North Carolina, and she called me to thank me and tell me how much she appreciated it. I do not have any problem with that.
But the Lord’s Day is once a week, a special gathering. Every day, it has been rightly said, is the Lord’s Day. We should be communing with the Lord every day.
But in the life of the early church, in the beginning they were meeting from house to house daily. Yet once a week the whole church would come together, on Sunday, and they would have the Table together and worship the Lord together. He was the center, and He was all they thought about.
That is what I am talking about. To the Lord, it is important enough that we do it. He says, “As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of Me.”
Paul makes this very clear in the verses we read in 1 Corinthians 10, when he says it is the communion of the blood of Christ and the communion of the body of Christ.
Now, this word communion is koinonia in Greek. It is the same word for fellowship. It could have been interpreted, “It is the fellowship of the blood of Christ, the fellowship of the body of Christ.”
In other words, fellowship is interaction, is it not? When you fellowship with someone, you are interacting. This time of communion means that you are fellowshipping in the blood of Christ and in His body.
Basically, that means as you fellowship with the Lord Himself, the appreciation of the blood and its meaning to you personally should touch your life. It is the same with His broken body, given for you and broken that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ might be given to you and you might receive His life personally.
It is also a time of affection between the Lord’s church and Himself. It is more than just individual. That is why we gather together to do this.
It is the Lord’s affection for His assembly. It says that He gave His life for her, He died for her, and He is washing her with the water of the Word to make her spotless and without blemish.
This matter of communion is a time of fellowship with the assembly and the Lord Himself. It is individual, but it is also corporate in nature.
It says that we, being many, are one body. It is the body of Christ, the church meeting and assembling together—not just here in this room, not just the saints in Richmond, but the saints all over the world—gathered to meet with the Lord.
He says the body is one. It is one loaf, one body. That means to us, brothers and sisters, that we cannot exclude anyone who wants to take the Table as long as they are a Christian.
They might not agree with our theology. They might not agree with the way you handle your children. They might not agree with a lot of things. But if they are the Lord’s, if they belong to the Lord, you cannot refuse them from meeting with the family.
We are one with the entire assembly of God. That is part of the testimony of the Table.
Not only is the Lord’s Table fundamentally a communion or fellowship; it is also a public testimony.
You remember that when they had the Lord’s Table, just prior to that they had the Passover meal. At the end of the Passover meal, the Lord stood up, broke the bread, and instituted the new covenant with the disciples.
What is the Passover about? The Passover was an event that happened in the life of the nation of Israel when God delivered them out of Egypt. Egypt, as we know from Scripture, represents the world.
As we come to the Table, we need to remember that we are giving a public testimony. Part of our testimony is that we do not belong to the world anymore; we are delivered from the world. We belong to the Lord now. That is why we are gathering around His Table.
The world has no part in the Table. I do not know if there are any here who are not Christians, but if you are, the Table may seem a little awkward, as it should, because you can only enter into it spiritually.
In order to enter into it spiritually, you have to have the life of Christ abiding in you. Only that life can communicate with the life of Christ. So really, the Table is not for the world. It is for His own—those who belong to Him because they have submitted to Him as their Lord and Savior.
That is who can appreciate the Lord. Those are the only ones who can really appreciate His work on Calvary’s cross. It is a public testimony that we no longer belong to the world, but that we belong to Christ.
It is a remembrance. The Lord said, “As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of Me.”
I found this very interesting because I looked up the word remember and remembrance. I looked at all the references to remembering in the New Testament and the Gospels. This is the only place where I find that the Lord directs us to remember something.
Now, you may find it, and that is okay. If you do, let me know. He did say, “Remember Lot’s wife,” but He was explaining to the disciples that they could not look back once they had committed to Him. In a sense, that is very applicable to the Table, is it not?
But here He says, “As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of Me.” The only thing that I know of that the Lord has asked us to remember is to remember Him. I think that is very, very significant.
He did not ask us to remember all these other things that have happened in our lives. He said the one thing that is going to be necessary in our lives is to remember Him.
Of course, we need to remember His Word. Of course, we need to remember to study His Word and to pray. The disciples exhort us in the epistles to remember to do all these things. But the Lord is very instructive. He says, “Remember Me.”
If you remember Me, if I am kept first in your life, all the other things will work themselves out.
That is why it is important that we get together once a week. That is what the Lord would say to us: “It is important for you to come to My family time. It is important for you, lest you forget, lest those fiery passions for the Lord Jesus Christ that were in your heart when you were first saved diminish or be quenched.”
It is a love feast, brothers and sisters. That is what the Lord’s Table is all about. It is a time in which we remember the Lord’s love.
It is also a time in which the assembly can come together as family and say, “Lord, I know You love me. I can look at this Table. I know You gave Your blood for me. I know You broke Your body for me. You gave Your body that we might be one together. And Lord, I love You.”
I may not be worthy. I may have done a lot of things that were wrong this week. But I do love You, Lord. That is all. Oh, how much the Lord wants to hear His children say, “I love You.”
I know you cannot do it from a heart that is not in tune with Him. But should that not tell us something? Should it not tell us that our heart needs to get in tune with Him?
It is a public testimony and a remembrance—a remembrance to see Him fresh. This Table is a demonstration of His love for you and an opportunity to return that love that we have from Him back to Him.
As we do that, do you know what happens? The love grows. The love grows. The love in our hearts grows for Him.
I think I can speak to men on this one more than the ladies. Men, it is very hard—at least for my generation—it was always very difficult to tell anyone that we loved them.
Things have changed quite a bit in the last few years, but in my generation, you did not express your love, at least publicly. But I can tell you what: that is not the Lord’s heart.
His heart is that publicly you would express your love for Him. You know why? Because as you express your love for Him, it will touch somebody else’s heart, and that love in their heart will germinate. It will increase. That is the way it works. That is why it is public.
It is an announcement. The Lord’s Table is an announcement. It says that it shows forth the Lord’s death until He comes.
Why is this important? It shows forth the Lord’s death. Our testimony to the world is that it is in the Lord’s death that we find our salvation. It is in the Lord’s death that we have life.
There is no other name under heaven that has been given by which a man can be saved other than the name of Jesus Christ. It is an announcement to the world.
You may say, “Well, much of what is considered the world is not here, other than what we carry within our hearts, which may be a lot.” But it is also a testimony to the principalities and powers of darkness, and to the good angels.
I think the angels that have been loyal to the Lord are somewhat amazed that we sinners can still appear before Him, that God would even allow us to come before Him, because we have failed Him so much.
But the angels are learning. They realize that the reason we can come before Him is because of the power in His blood to take away our sins. They are learning.
To the principalities and powers of darkness, it is also a testimony, and it is one they fear. Every time we celebrate the Table, in reality, brothers and sisters, it is telling the enemy that his time is short.
The Lord won the victory at Calvary’s cross. The Table says, “Yes, the Lord went into death, but He came out, did He not?” Until He comes—He came out of death. He conquered death. He overthrew death.
That is part of the testimony of the Lord’s Table: that death has been overthrown and its power has been stripped. Eternal life has won out.
We show forth the Lord’s death. The enemy trembles.
It says that we can hasten the day of the Lord. How do we hasten the day of the Lord’s return? By following the Lamb wherever He goes, by loving Him dearly.
We hasten His return as the body matures, as we are willing to go the way of the cross, that His life might be manifested in our lives. We hasten the Lord’s return. The enemy hates that.
The enemy hates the Table because he knows that without the Table, we will lose that freshness of first love, and he can extend his time a little longer. It is also a reminder to him that he has been defeated.
Would you not hate it if every week you were reminded that you had been defeated in some matter? Whoever had defeated you would come up every week and say, “You have been defeated.” Week after week after week.
That is our public testimony: that the enemy has been defeated, that the Lord is the victorious One over the grave. That is what the Table is about. It is an announcement that we make.
It says, “Until He comes.” That is our hope. Until He comes, until the Lord returns, we share this Table together. We have hope, brothers and sisters.
I would just like to say something about hope. I could speak another hour on hope because it is one of the most critical matters in your life. The only hope you will ever have that is steadfast and sure is Jesus Christ.
Without Christ, I have to say, you have no hope. Do the best you can. Whatever—enjoy life, because you have no hope. Enjoy your life for a season, I would say.
Of course, my real heart is that you would come and find your hope in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. He is the hope of the world. He is the hope of salvation.
We have the hope of His returning to us and seeing Him face to face. Have you ever been hopeless?
If you have reached the age of forty—and maybe less, maybe twenty, maybe ten—I do not know. There may have been some point in your life that you felt absolutely hopeless.
When you are hopeless, the Lord has such difficulty working in your life. Psalm 33:22 says:
Let Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in Thee.
The Lord wants to have mercy upon us. But if we have lost our hope in Him, it is so difficult for the power of God to work in your life.
I think we all understand how we can get into those states of hopelessness, but that is not God’s heart. Our hope is always there because our hope is not based on events that happen in our lives. Our hope is based on a Person, and that Person is the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we lose hope in Him, where can His mercy come from? Do not give up hope.
I want to encourage anyone who may feel hopeless today: just ask the Lord to return that hope to your heart, because that is where our hope comes from. It comes from the Lord.
Our hope does not come from good things happening to us. I can tell you that. I have learned that through experience. Our hope does not come because we have experienced good things. Our hope comes from the Lord Himself.
It is something He has to give to you. Let me say this: He wants to give it to you, but we have to receive it. We have to say, “Lord, I receive Your hope today. I feel hopeless, but I receive Your hope.”
Well, let me go on. I have gotten a little off the subject. We have talked about the nature of the Table. Now: preparing to take the Table.
I do not know if you even think about preparing ahead of time to take the Table. But what if I did not prepare this message? I could mumble a few words, maybe give a little encouragement, but it would be far less than what the Lord would want.
That is the way it is with this time of fellowship with the Lord. We need to be prepared in our hearts.
It says that we should not take of the Table unworthily. Now, we need to be clear that none of us are worthy to take the Table.
It seems a little odd because the Lord says, “Do not take it unworthily.” Are we worthy to take the Table in ourselves? We are much like the prodigal son.
The prodigal son had gotten the father’s blessing and wasted it. The Lord’s grace is available to us all the time, but we so often just waste His grace. We do not take advantage of His grace.
We find in our lives that we are distant from our Lord. We have traveled away from Him. We have taken the blessing and somehow gotten away from the Lord, just like the prodigal son left and wasted all those blessings.
He found himself at a distance from his father. He was not at home. Is there anyone here this morning who is not at home, who finds yourself in your heart at a distance from the Lord?
That is what this Table is about. He says, “I need you home. There should not be any distance between us. You need to return home.”
You are not worthy. So how can we take the Table?
Say, “Lord, I am not worthy, but I take Your blood, Lord. You have exhorted me to enter boldly because of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
In other words, if in our hearts we repent and we come back to the Lord and acknowledge who we are and what we are not to Him, we should really do that before we come to the Table.
We should be exercised before the Lord and get those issues straight, so that when we come, there is no distance any longer. We find ourselves, when we come, feeling at home.
If we do not feel at home, we need to face up to the fact that there is an issue that needs to be dealt with. We need to come worthily.
Our worthiness is really because of the Lord. He makes us worthy. What the Bible is talking about is not being worthy to take the Table—because none of us, in a sense, are worthy—but He has made us worthy because of His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross.
But the issue is coming in an unworthy manner, just being kind of lackadaisical about it, just coming. The Corinthians were just partying, some of them, right beforehand. The Lord said, “Look, what you are doing takes away from the Table.”
In fact, I do not know how you can take the Table and come in such an unworthy manner, because it is not what My Table is about.
The Passover meal had just occurred, and there are a couple of things you need to know about the Passover meal. The Passover meal is also the celebration of unleavened bread.
Unleavened bread—that is what the Lord broke. No leaven.
For the Israelites, they were very careful to sweep their houses clean and all that. In a spiritual sense, we need to do the same thing. We need to be before the Lord, exercised before the Lord about our lives, and present ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will take care of the leaven in your life, but we have to give Him the opportunity.
Remember, the Lord said, “When you see a man with a pitcher of water, follow him to the upper room.” Water of purification.
This idea of unleavened bread and purification, this sense of holiness—there should be a sense of holiness about the Lord’s Table. “Lord, we need to be pure before You as we come.”
The only way to be pure is in the blood of Jesus Christ. The only way you can be washed clean is in the blood of the Lamb. So there needs to be that sense of holiness and purity before the Lord.
Now, I want to be very clear. I do not want to confuse anybody. We do not celebrate the Lord’s Passover, but those elements are still there as we proceed into the Lord’s Table.
In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says the Lord is our Passover. All those Old Testament pictures are speaking of the Lord, and you have the reality now, so you can do away with the picture. The Lord says, “I am your Passover.”
That is why we no longer celebrate Passover. We celebrate the Lord. They celebrate an event in the Passover because the blood was put on the doorposts and the angel of death passed over them. They celebrate this event. We celebrate a Person—our Passover.
What a difference. Oh, brothers and sisters, what a difference. What an opportunity we have.
He goes on to say, “Prove yourselves. Examine yourselves.” Do not just come casually. Do not just come by habit. Do not just come as a tradition, something you are doing. Think about what we are doing.
Come in faith: “Lord, I am coming to share a meal with You. I am coming to fellowship with You and my brothers and sisters, just to center upon You and You alone. I do that in spirit and faith. It is real.”
I am not practicing some symbolic act. I am not just going through the motions. It is real.
I want you to know, every time you come here and we celebrate the Lord’s Table, it is real to the Lord. It needs to be real to us. We are meeting with the Lord. It is family time. It is fellowship time. And it is public.
We should be able to open our mouths as well as our hearts.
Now, let me say something. The Lord knows what is in your heart, brothers and sisters, and of course that is always primary. But this is a public testimony to the principalities and powers—the good angels as well as the dark ones.
They cannot read your heart, but they can hear what you say. So if there is something on your heart to say to the Lord, I suggest you say it.
It has been pointed out by some that they really struggle with being able publicly, during that time, to say anything—to say, “Lord, I love You,” or whatever. It is the same with prayer-meeting time.
Brothers and sisters, what the enemy has done is wrap you around the axle. He has your mind centered on yourself rather than the Lord. It is self-consciousness.
I asked the Lord if He would give me liberty to do this today, and I think He has. So I am going to do it right now. I want to pray for the release of everyone whose tongue seems to be bound up today.
I know your hearts want to give to the Lord. There are many in here, I think, who really want to give their hearts to the Lord and do it publicly. They feel that restraint, that heaviness, that bound-upness. So I am just going to pray for a moment, and we are going to release that.
Lord, we need to stand together. Lord, we do come to the throne of grace today. Lord, we recognize how important this Table is to You, how important fellowship with Your own is to You.
We know that there is a restraint on some, a binding up that the adversary has put on some. Lord, today, in the name of Jesus, we break those bonds. We break those chains. We loose the tongues of Your saints.
We loose them that they might be able to speak of Your love, that, Lord Jesus, they may be able to respond with what is in their hearts. We do it now in the name of Jesus. Let all be delivered in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Remember that the next time we gather, today we drove the stake in the ground that the bondage has been broken. If you will take that up in faith, you will find yourself free. If there are others who need prayer, we will pray.
It says that we need to distinguish the body, and I have touched on that already. It says that not distinguishing the body, you are guilty. In other words, we have to recognize that we are part of the one loaf, that we are all brothers and sisters all over the world, and we cannot exclude those who are the Lord’s.
If we cannot accept a brother or sister because we do not agree with their doctrine, but they are the Lord’s, we should not take the Table. It is very important.
The Lord loves all His own. Now, some of us admittedly are not easy to get along with. But that does not matter. I am the Lord’s, and I would appreciate it when we gather as family that we would share together—share the Lord together.
You know what? Sharing the love of the Lord is what breaks down all the walls. Somebody may not agree with my doctrine, but they have a hard time disagreeing with my Lord. They have a hard time disagreeing with the Lord’s love.
The Word speaks about judgment that had come upon the Corinthians. You are going to have to give me a little liberty on time. The Corinthian church—it said some had died because they were taking it in an unworthy manner.
This should tell us how real this Table is to the Lord. Discipline is involved concerning the Lord’s Table and taking it in an unworthy manner.
Remember this. Maybe if you forget everything else I said, remember that this Table is an interaction between you and the Lord. Interactions are going on, and should be going on, in your spirit as we are taking the Table with the Lord.
The Spirit should be adjusting you and correcting you. As you are before the Lord, sometimes the Lord will touch something, and you will have to say, “Lord, forgive me. I have done this,” whatever it may be.
Remember: it is an interaction. The Lord is interacting.
Remember what happened at the Lord’s Table, at the supper. There was an issue with Judas, was there not? He was not the Lord’s. Judas represented the man of the flesh.
The man of the flesh, no matter how much blessing he receives from the Lord, will never love the Lord. Remember that. We have that old man in here. He has been crucified with Christ, thank God. It takes faith to keep him there.
But the man of the flesh can never appreciate the love of Christ, and never will. The Lord sent Judas out before He had the Lord’s Table with His disciples. There was an interaction going on, a correcting and adjustment going on.
Remember right after the Table what the Lord did. The Lord took a basin of water, and He began to wash the disciples’ feet. What was He doing? He was interacting with them.
Just prior to the Table, they had been debating with one another about who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom, who was going to sit on His right hand, and who was going to sit on His left hand. They were jealous of one another.
So the Lord was dealing with them. He was gentle during the Table. Right afterward, it was so important to the Lord. They were transacting with the Lord. That is the point.
The Lord got down and shared with them this great principle: if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, you have to be willing to be servant of all. You have to be humble. You cannot be proud.
Then there was the self-confidence in Peter: “Lord, I will not deny You.” This was all happening during this time.
I want you to see the connection of the disciples’ hearts, the Table, and the Lord interacting with them. It is a real interaction. It is not just a symbolic act we go through.
We know how the Lord loved Peter so much that He dealt with him so harshly that He gave him over to Satan to sift him. The Lord’s words were, “Peter, I am going to pray for you.”
Brothers and sisters, we have a living relationship with the Lord, and we are taking this Table. It is a Table of adjustment and correction as well. The Lord is going to work in your life once you start getting real with the Lord.
The Lord will get real with us because it is His desire to get these things out of our lives.
The Table seems to be the place where the Lord has us come together and interact with Him. Of course, we can do that daily; we should. But this Table is a special place. The Lord honors this Table.
That is why He disciplined those who took it in an unworthy manner. When there are things in our lives that do not correspond with the Lord, He uses that.
Let me say it another way. How can you be adjusted? Most of the time, we are not willing for anybody to tell us what to do or to be adjusted unless we really know that person has our full interest at heart, right?
As a teenager, I was not always pleased with the adjustments my parents were making. But I did know they loved me. I did know they loved me. I knew that whatever they did was out of love.
Now, sometimes it was not, because they were not perfect. But the Lord is perfect, and He adjusts us out of love.
With that being said, we should be careful coming to the Lord’s Table. But remember, it also says that the Table is a Table of blessing. It is the cup of blessing.
The Lord is not bringing us to the Table just to put the hammer on us. He wants to bless us. Even His correction—is it not a blessing?
When we finally come through, when Peter finally came through, was it not a blessing? Not only to Peter, but to the whole church. It transformed Peter’s life.
It is a cup of blessing the Lord gives us. So we should not avoid the Table because we fear we may be judged. We should come worthily before the Table, prepared in our hearts to meet with the Lord and share with Him.
In His light, He may say something to you, and He may not. It is His choice. But He will work in your life as long as you are willing.
So it is a cup of blessing. I do not want anybody to fear the Table. We should not. In fact, the apostle says, “Do not absent yourself from the Table.” It is a blessing, not a curse.
It is important to the Lord. Important to the Lord.
The Lord’s Table was the center of worship in the life of the early church. I read from Acts 20, and I will not reread it, but you remember it says they met on the first day of the week to have the Lord’s Table, and then Paul preached until midnight.
I want you to get the emphasis in Acts 20:7. They gathered together to share the Lord’s Table on the first day of the week. Paul also ministered to them, but the emphasis is not on Paul’s ministry.
The emphasis is on the fact that they came together. Why did they come together? To share the Table. Sure, they came to hear Paul, but their primary purpose was to gather together on the first day of the week to share the Table.
The time of the Table, the time of worship, was always the center of worship in the early church.
What is our testimony? Our testimony is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is what the Table is all about.
We should come, worship Him, meet with Him, commune with Him, and fellowship with Him in the spirit.
I thought about one thought that might help clarify. The Table was the center because it is the Lord Jesus. It brings us to focus on Him and Him alone.
I watched the Muslims going around the tomb of their prophet, beating themselves on the back and bleeding. That is the way they celebrate. They are showing their willingness to sacrifice themselves for Islam.
The Lord does not want us to come and meet and say, “I am willing to sacrifice myself. Lord, look how I am going to sacrifice myself for You.” It is not a demonstration of how you are sacrificing yourself for the Lord.
It is a testimony to the Lord’s love. He died for you on Calvary’s cross. This whole Table is a testimony of love—of His sacrifice for you, not yours for Him.
We come together to celebrate love.
The Table, brothers and sisters, is so meaningful to the Lord. It should be centered on Him. Our worship is to be centered on Him, and the Table that He sets before us is the focus He gives so that we might focus on Him.
I said this last week, and I will end this week with this thought. I think it is so ironic that this aspect of the Lord’s life in His early church, so greatly revered by the Lord Jesus Himself, is the least revered among the saints of God.
It has become just a symbolic act, a tradition done at the end of a ministry, once a month, a couple of times a year.
Do you see how the enemy has worked down through the ages to destroy it? If you have seen anything of the importance of this Table, you see how the enemy is going to work to destroy it.
Do not let him destroy it. This is a day of recovery. We are to join with the Lord in recovering the life and testimony that we see in the early church.
May the Lord bless us. May the Lord really open our hearts and open our eyes to see what it means to have His Word, what it means to fellowship Christ together, what it means to be able to have authoritative and executive prayer together, and certainly how meaningful and significant the Lord’s Table is to Him and for us.
Lord, we come to Thee. We thank You that we have been able to gather today around You, Lord.
Lord, we want to say together: You are all that counts. You are the center of everything. Lord, all eyes should be focused on You and You alone. All hearts should be given to You and You alone, Lord.
Grace us that we might recover the life and testimony that we see in the life of the very early church; that, Lord, we might hasten Your return. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.