Before we begin this meditation, please know that Br. Tobin is available to visit on the telephone (203.200.9177) as to questions you might have about the Lord's Supper, or make a visit  to you in person or over Zoom to demonstrate our teaching.

We make this offer in that these meditations are consistantly the most frequented posts on this site.

And it is clear that the Lord wants to revive a biblical Lord's Supper free from Roman dogmatism and Protestant neglect.    

12.6.2014

A Risen Priest Forever, A Slain-Risen Lamb Forever, With Flowing "Blood" and Spirit Forever, So Why Not Eat His Risen Body And Drink His Risen Blood At His Table?

"In your light we see light itself"  Psalm36,9

Key Scriptures

1. "The Lord has sworn and will not relent, 'You are a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.' " Psalm110,4.

A priest is one who offers "Qorban", sacrifice, bringing precious things close to God which allows his people to come close, usually blood sacrifices. So a priest forever, on earth, or in heaven always has access to some sort of body and "blood," physical while he was physically on earth, Spiritual after he rose (and in the mind of God, Himself, before Jesus was incarnated).

He's a priest and we are priests in his new heaven-based priesthood (1Peter2,5 and 9), but since physical sacrifices ended with him, what we do at the table of the Lord is a Spiritual sacrifice (1Peter2,5), a living memorial to our risen Lamb and King, a Spiritual sacrifice that  renews our Spiritual covenant that comes by way of an actual, robust and personal faith. 

He commanded this memorial sacrifice (table n. 31) which is more than a memory (http://www.zionpentecostmission.com/table-of-lord-meditation-n31.html). I could have a memory of the Lord, anywhere, but 1Corinthians10,16 speaks of more, an actual communion, as actual Holy Ghost fellowship, between His Spirit and our spirit. For this actual Spiritual fellowship we approach the table in the light of Spiritual revelation and prophecy with which Jesus instituted it.

2. "But on that day [Lord comes back in glory for judgment and final liberation of Israel and the kingdom] my people will know my name and know that it is I the Lord who speak; here I am."  Isaiah 52,6

The risen Jesus is one with the eternal I am, the eternal living presence of God, and also an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek, without a beginning or end to his life. So as priest from above, and as the risen Lamb King of Revelation 5,6, he always has access to some sort of "blood" ie Spiritual blood. It must be spiritual blood because 1Corinthians 15,50 says that physical "flesh and [physical] blood cannot inherit the kingdom."

Jesus rose with a spiritual body (1Corinthians 15,44). Thus, His priesthood and ours is administered with and by things of the Spirit, not physical things.

3. "So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them they shall see and that which they had not heard they shall consider." Isaiah 52,15

Only the earthly Hebrew Priests would sprinkle physical blood. After Jesus shed his physical blood, the first and primary thing that was promised to be sprinkled down was His Holy Ghost, His "Spiritual" blood so to speak, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 52,15, which we also gain at the table by our blessing of the bread and the cup.   

4. "All who dwell on the earth will worship the beast- all whose names  have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Revelation13,8

This verse, with Jesus as the eternally slain lamb, in the Spiritual realm, in the eternal mind of Himself, lines up with the post-death vision of John 19,34 of eveflowing "spiritual" or "risen" blood, and everflowing water, ie the Holy Ghost, same as the pure river of "water of life, clear as crystal, proceding from the throne of God and of the [risen, ie with Spiritual water and Spiritual blood in Him] Lamb." Revelation 22,1.

Since when does water flow from a lamb?

Water only flows from a lamb if it's an eternal "I am" lamb, and Jesus is just that. So the water of the Holy Ghost here at Revelation 22,1 and John 19,34 is the interchangeable corrollary of the blood and water that flowed out of his side after the physical man Jesus died on Calvary.

5. "Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, sufferred outside the gate." Hebrews 13,2

Again, the blood of a sacrifice in his word is equated with the Holy Ghost sanctification of our physical humanity, that is by his blood sacrifice we had access by faith to his Holy Ghost sanctification.

So, likewise at the table, our Spiritual memorial, our spiritual sacrifice, to our eternal lamb-king, by our offering and blessing the bread and wine become sanctified, set apart, holy. They become his "risen" or eternal "blood" by our blessing and his acceptance of the sacrifice. Thus, His flesh is capable of being eaten in holiness, and his "blood" capable of being imbibed in holiness.

This miracle is no greater than the sanctification that comes from any faithful priestly blessing (Leviticus9,24 shows how fiery and powerful this is), from baptism in the Spirit, from his glory choosing to stay, or not, in the physical temple of Jerusalem (see Ezekiel 9-11)

This teaching, as God reveals it, is based on the biblical logic of Revelation 13,8, Isaiah 52,15 and John 19,34 ie the ever flowing, eternal, availability of Jesus' sprinkled or Spiritual blood and by Jesus' own prophetic words at the last supper.

The Blessing of Bread and Wine Has Always Been A Holy Consecration Of Them 

My research to date indicates that it wasn't until the late 19th century, say with the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown-Bible Commentary of 1869, that Protestant Reformers began to slightly waver as to the clearly indicated actual blessing of the cup according to 1Corinthians10,16 (biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-16.htm).

The first Protestant Reformers, the Waldensians in 12th century, in Northern Italy, blessed the bread and wine. (The Waldensian Way To God, J. Visconti, Xulon Press, Sept. 1, 2003, p. 135)

The Belgic Confession of 1561 emphasizes, at Article 35 and in the face of the Spanish Inquisition, the importance of the supper. It assumes a blessing of the bread and wine as instituted by Jesus (present day Refromed Church of America governing the Lord's Supper, at section 2.2, emphasizes at the "Prayer" section the importance of Christ's blessing the bread and wine at the supper. see rcus/direct-supper/).

This gives way to what for all intents and purposes sounds like a real and risen presence depicted in 1Corinthians10,3-4 and is very close to what we are teaching at Zion Pentecost Mission:

"As certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands and eat and drink the same with our mouths...we also do as certainly receive by faith (which is the hand and mouth of our soul) the true body and blood of Christ our only savior, in our souls, for the support of our spiritual life."

(quoted from Daniel Hyde's "We Confess: An Exposition & Application Of The Belgic Confession, Article 35: Of the Lord's Supper. Br. Hyde does a great job explaining Article 35 and provides much food for the revival of the supper) www.reformedfellowship.net/articles/hyde_daniel_belgic_july 2003)

The 2nd London Baptist Convention of 1689 chapter 30, Articles 3 and 7, clearly indicate the power of our priestly consecration:

Art. 3: "The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed ministers to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use, and to take and break bread; to take the cup, and communicating also themselves, to give both to the communicants."

Art. 7: "Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of belivers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist

English Baptist John Gill, a staunch Clavainist, in the mid 18th century in his exposition on 1Corinthians10:16 said this: 'The cup of blessing which we bless, meaning the cup used in the Lord's Supper, which being set apart for that service, is taken up, and the name of the Lord called upon and over it, [bold added for emphasis] ... the whole church joining with the administrator, both in the act of blessing and praise over the cup, and in the participation of it.' https://www.biblestudytools.com/1corinthians/10-16.html 

In others words, the blessing of the bread and wine has been biblically normative Christianity well into the 20th century.

Why then have so many Protestants stopped blessing the bread and wine?

Some, perhaps because they have recently discovered or already knew that the blessing of the cup at the Hebrew seder was really a blessing of God for providing its contents. But as we have note in Meditation n. 31, Paul goes out of his way to make sure that everyone knows that the cup and contents are blessed, in distinction to the pagan utensils and offerings of other non biblical Corinthian sacrifices.

Others, perhaps because they subscribe to Ulrich Zwingli's idea that the blessing is merely perfunctory and not consecratory, leaving the bread and wine as mere symbols, so why bother blessing them? For a comparison of the major historic ideas about the supper:http://www.zionpentecostmission.com/table-of-the-lord-meditation-n.-16.html

But what we're adding in this Meditation n. 32 is that an eternal high priest and the risen lamb of God always has access to "blood" and spiritual sacrifices and he has delegated us Christians, all his priests (1Peter2,5 and 9), to consecrate ordinary wine and unleavened  bread, so that by our faithful and holy blessing they contain and are the only "flesh" and "blood" Jesus has now, risen flesh and blood, real food and drink, miraculous food and drink by its very blessing by us and Jesus too, similar to the miraculous food and drink Israel was given in the desert by God (cf 1Corinthians10,3-4).

For a short video of the supper: http://www.vimeo.com/63572579

Again, please feel free to contact me with questions:

Tobin Hitt
203.200.9177