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Today we will observe the Lord's Table on Resurrection Sunday. Mark 16:1-7;
Resurrection Sunday is the day that Jesus was vindicated because it is when God the Father demonstrated through Jesus' resurrection that He had accepted Jesus' work on the cross on behalf of all of mankind. Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1John 2:2; 1John 4:10;
The Lord's Table is a celebration of Jesus' deaths on the cross. Luke 22:14-20; that make our resurrection to eternal life possible. 1Cor 15:21-22;
The bread represents Jesus' body given in physical death the cup represents His substitutionary forensic spiritual death that was the atonement for sin.
In physical death, our Lord Jesus Christ had a trichotomous separation. His body went into Joseph's tomb. His human spirit went into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven. His human soul went into the Paradise compartment of Hades where all the Old Testament believers resided until He took them to heaven after His resurrection.
Jesus had to die physically so that he could be resurrected just like we have to die physically so that we can be resurrected.
The Hypostatic Union dispensation was terminated with the resurrection, ascension, and session of the humanity of Christ. The Church Age dispensation will likewise terminate in the exit resurrection and catching up of the Church. 1Thes 4:16-18;
There could be no resurrection until after Jesus Christ ascended to the Father after His resurrection and so far the only resurrection that has occurred in human history is Jesus' resurrection. John 20:17;
Physical death is the predicate for resurrection with the exceptions of the rapture generation of the Church Age and the believers who are physically alive on this earth at the end of the millennium.
1Cor 15:50-52; "Now this I affirm, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does perishable inherit imperishable."
His resurrection was the reunification of His body, soul and spirit into an incorruptible resurrection body that can never die. 1John 3:2; tells us that our resurrection body will be just like His.
Jesus' resurrection is the pattern for resurrection that Paul describes in 1Cor 15:20-24; as occurring in four stages starting with Jesus on Resurrection Sunday.
Gal 4:4; But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons...
This is how God expresses His unfailing love for us. John 3:16-17;"God had such unfailing integrity love for those who were enslaved to the spiritual rulers of the cosmic system, that He gave His uniquely born Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 Because God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world may be saved through Him.
This is how God accomplished what the Law could not do. Rom 8:3-4; God achieved what the Law could not do because of the inability of sinful flesh God did this by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and He was judged as our substitute so that the righteousness required by the law could be fulfilled in those who do not walk in accord with the flesh but walk in accord with the Spirit.
Paul discusses resurrection as God's ultimate victory in 1Cor 15:50-58;
As we observe the Lord's Table we recall and commemorate our Lord Jesus Christ who is the personification of truth and therefore the source of all happiness and freedom, He is the greatest victor of all time and eternity in the spiritual war that invisibly rages to this day.
Jesus' objective was to fulfill the Father's plan to provide a way of salvation for the entire human race and simultaneously create an entirely new spiritual species by means of the spiritual victory that He won on the cross with His judgment and substitutionary forensic spiritual death, followed by His physical death and the burial of His lifeless physical body in the tomb and His resurrection before dawn on Resurrection Sunday 3 days and nights later .
Our celebration of the Lord's Table recalls God's judgment of our Lord for the sins of the entire human race and His substitutionary spiritual death that was God's answer satan's accusation that our righteous holy immutable God was somehow unjust.
God resolved the problem of how to justify the ungodly without compromising His own perfect righteousness through the imputations made possible by Jesus' work on the cross.
The cross is also where God's Word of truth forever defeated the devil's false accusations lies, and deceit that presently hold sway on this earth and in client nation USA.
In sending Jesus Christ to receive the imputation and judgment for all personal sins and die as a substitute for the sins of the entire human race God unilaterally demonstrated His unfailing love not just for those who believe in Him but for everyone, believer and unbeliever. Rom 5:8; 1John 2:2;
We respond to God's unfailing love by complying with God's grace mandates that are revealed in His Word of absolute truth. John 6:40; 1John 5:2-5;
Our celebration of the Lord's Table is therefore the reciprocation of our personal love for God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of all mankind. We therefore focus on Him as we partake of the elements of the Lord's Table that remind us of what He did for us. Luke 22:19-20;
Paul goes on to tell us about the how and the why of Jesus' mission in . 2Cor 5:21; Jesus became sin in our place so that we can become the righteousness of God when we comply with God's mandate to believe in Him.
Jesus came to do God the Father's will Heb 10:5-7; He demonstrated obedience to the Father's unique plan for His life by living a perfect life while under maximum pressure from the devil and his minions.
He is presently seated in glory, honor and majesty at the right hand of God the Father because the Father has exalted Him above every created being and God will require that every created being bow down and acknowledge Him as Lord of all to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11;
He completely and perfectly fulfilled the directive will of the Father by submitting to God the Father thereby unilaterally providing a way of salvation for every human being who ever lives on the earth as the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Rev 13:8; KJV John 1:29;
While we were God's enemies and enslaved in the devil's gulag, Rom 5:10a; He demonstrated his unfailing love for us by giving his uniquely born Son "monogenes" who invaded the devil's gulag the miracle of the virgin birth. Matt 1:21-23; Luke 2:7; John 3:16;
Jesus allowed himself to be humbled under the mighty hand of God and accepted God's judgment for the personal sins of all of those who were enslaved in satan's gulag and in His spiritual death He became the substitute for their death sentence so that by simply believing in Him God was free to impute His eternal life and His righteousness to them. Luke 22:41-42; 1John 2:2; 2Cor 5:21;
God the Father forsook Him while he was being judged for the sins of mankind so that those who believe in Him would never ever be forsaken. Mark 15:34; Heb 13:5c;
God 's perfect holiness was satisfied with Jesus' substitutionary spiritual death on the cross with the result that He is free to extend grace, mercy and forgiveness to the entire human race and to rescue them from their fallen state of deception and depravity without compromising his perfect righteousness and justice because Jesus willingly laid down his life as their substitute. John 15:13 ; 1John 3:16;
This is why Jesus Christ is the only way to a relationship with God John 14:6 , salvation Acts 4:12 and eternal life John 3:16;
This is also why the believer's salvation and eternal life are irrevocable. Rom 11:29; Believers are protected by God. 1Pet 1:3-5; John 10:26-29;
Anyone can appropriate God's Grace gift of salvation simply by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins, was buried and resurrected on the third day 1Cor 15:3-4;
This is what Paul and Silas told the Philippian Jailer to do when he asked "what Must I do to be saved?" Their answer in Acts 16:31; is that Anyone, anywhere, anytime, can be saved in a moment of time by simply believing in Jesus Christ.
Jesus left his friends, the members of His Royal Family, this one and only ritual in the church age The Lord's table that our Lord commanded us to observe in remembrance of Him.
The mandate is found in 1Cor 11:24; in the second person plural present active imperative of the Greek word " poieo" translated "do" where Paul references Jesus' instruction to His disciples in the upper room. Luke 22:19-20;
An expanded translation of 1Cor 11:24 taking into consideration the tense mood and voice of the Greek word "poieo" would be " Keep on doing this in remembrance of me"
This is the mandate that establishes the Lord's Table as the only ritual that God's Word specifies for Church Age believers.
The ritual of the Lord's Table is a test of our capacity to concentrate on our Lord Jesus Christ by our recall of God's Word as we partake of the elements that represent what He did on the cross for us.
We have these instructions for partaking of the Lord's table from the Apostle Paul starting in verse 26 of 1Cor 11.
1Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
We understand from this that we are to examine ourselves the imperative mood is a command to start doing something and stop doing another privately in our thinking.
We do this In the privacy of our priesthood, and when we find we are not compliant with God's word, we apply rebound the first problem solving device, and simply acknowledge any sin we can recall as described in 1 John 1:9;
Having examined ourselves, and having been purified of all unrighteousness by God we are then commanded to partake of the bread and the cup that represent Jesus' work on the cross.
The bread represents the physical body in which Jesus bore the sins and received the judgment for every sin of every person who ever lives in a sin infused mortal body past present and future.
1Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1Cor 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
eat the bread
The cup represents Jesus' substitutionary spiritual death on the cross that paid the penalty for every sin ever committed with the result that Jesus purchased our freedom, redeemed us from the slave market of sin, spiritual death, and eternal condemnation in the lake of fire that is freely available to everyone who will simply believe in Jesus for a single moment.
1Cor 11:25 In the same way, He took the cup also after supper saying This cup is the new covenant in my Blood do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
drink cup