 Okay, welcome back everyone Let's go into And we'll just go down. We'll go to chapter 28 the Lord's table And let's study from there now We've established a couple of facts on what the cross is and what the blood of Jesus does Now I'm sure all of us Partake in the Lord's table and we do know what the Lord's table is the Lord Jesus himself said You know do it in remembrance of me He gave us the instructions on how to do it and again great Apostle Paul writes about it he exalts the church and Corrent on how we must you know very Respectfully and honor if in an honorable way partake in the Lord's table, but let's look at What it what happens when we partake in the Lord's table, right? He announced the Lord Jesus announced a new covenant, right? I'm sure the disciples who are taught, you know, what is this new thing? We know about the covenant God made with Abraham and Moses and what is this new covenant? But he said he's going to establish this new covenant with his blood the Lord's table is the proclamation of the power of Christ's death and resurrection Right Christ's death and resurrection Is true? It is real and when we you and I partake in the Lord's table. We're proclaiming that We're proclaiming that I believe in Jesus's death. I Believe that he died. He took my sins and I believe that he shed his blood on the cross and He died for my sins and I also believe that he resurrected from the dead This is a token or a sign of the blood covenant God established with us now, let's read this entire passage from 1st Corinthians chapter 11 17 to 34 so quite a long passage, but it's very important to read this so that we understand You know the gravity of the situation Understand the importance and the reverence that we need to give While we celebrate the Lord's table, that's one of us. Please go ahead and read 1st Corinthians chapter 11 was 17 to 34 Yes, any one of us Was Corinthians 11 17 to 34 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verses 17 to 34 in the following directors I have no price for you for your meeting you do more harm than good in the first place I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you and to some extent I believe it no doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval So then when you come together, it is not lots of for you eat for when you are eating some of you Go ahead with your own private surplus as a result one person remains hungry and another gets drunk Don't you have homes to drink and to eat and drink in or do you despise the church of God by humiliating? Those who have nothing what shall I say to you? Shall I praise you certainly not in this matter But I have received from the Lord what I also passed unto you the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed to bread 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 in the same way after suffering He took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in Remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner Will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord Everyone out to excamine themselves before they eat of the bread and think and drink from the cup For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on them So that is why many among you are big and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally Conjure with the words so then my dear brothers and sisters when you gather to eat you should all eat together Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home so that when you meet together It may not result in judgment and when I come I will give further directions. Amen. Thank you Thank you so much. Yes, you know if you know now The church in Corinth is a church Where They're already we don't flowing in the gifts of the spirit. They're wonderful believers But here's the problem Their moral standards are very low and we must understand that a Place like Corinth with there was a goddess named Aphrodite which had thousands of prostitutes It was a gentile nation and the Asia Minor a gentile place And we also look briefly at Corinth and how Paul was able to minister in Greece But here Paul is writing something very important. He's telling them now one Problem is there's division among you One is saying I follow Paul one is saying Apollos one is saying Peter and all of these things So there's division. There are different groups of people in the same church to When you come together to partake in the Lord's table what we notice is that there are some people Who are going ahead with the Lord supper immediately some of them are sitting around drinking the wine and eating the bread So it's turned into a feast Right, it's turned into a party Ah Instead of doing this whole the Lord's putting in the Lord's table in reverence and honorable in a holy Manor recognizing the death of Christ and what he achieved for us It's the spiritual meaning is lost and it's become a time of you know fellowship and gatherings There's something like what we have after church We have a cup of tea and maybe some biscuits or snacks and then you know, they're outside the church We're all talking and discussing it's become something like that during the church service Now Paul is saying I Cannot you know accept this Don't you have houses where you can eat and drink and have fellowship and all those kind of things Say Paul is he's getting very upset here. He's firstly he's saying There is division among you which should not be there and above that With all this, you know, you'll have all the gifts of the spirit all of that is wonderful there's division and now you're partying in the Lord's table in a dishonorable manner and Because you're doing that he goes on to say that instead of enjoying the benefits or the blessings of the cross and what Jesus did And through the Lord's table instead of enjoying the blessings What is happening? Many of you are falling sick many of you are going through you know diseases and Becoming weak in your body in your mind and spirit. It's not in favor of you Why because you're partaking in the Lord's table in dishonorable manner So Paul was very strict He is exhorting correcting. He's rebuking them and he's saying listen you all as believers It's wonderful. You are flowing the gifts of the spirit Right, you know the gifts of the spirit. You're prophesying a word of knowledge all of that. It's good But when it comes to this matter You know, you have failed one division among you to the partaking in the Lord's table in a dishonorable manner It's become more like a you know a feast or a celebration of you know Just enjoying together rather than doing it in reverence and because as a result of that you're falling sick you're Going through difficulties and challenges so What what do we learn from this first thing we learn is that God has called us to do this in an honorable manner the Lord's table is not a place of You know, it's not it's not like we're feasting and enjoying. It's a reverent thing Yes, there are times of enjoyment. Yeah, you know as a church as ministries. Yes, now if you have youth meetings You know, you have, you know youth camps you enjoy, right? You you you have times of games and fellowship It's a different time Then you have even church me church camps. It's a good time, but every time We partake in the Lord's table. We must not forget its reverence Especially in time and age that we are coming to We must be very certain and we must make sure that when we are partaking in the Lord's table That we are not doing it out of you know, just pride or we're not, you know Doing it in a in a dishonorable way Because if we do so it's going to affect our lives All is telling the church Don't do it. If there will be a time you can go home and do your parties and your enjoyments, right? But when you're partaking in the Lord's table do it in reverence Right What is the purpose and the power of the Lord's table? The purpose with which the Lord's table was given for is for us to proclaim the Lord's death and This sacred celebration and experience the full blessings of the cross of Jesus Christ Imagine When we are holding that bread we're holding that grape juice or the wine that we have We're saying God this is your body and this is your blood It's as if You know The Lord Jesus is present there and we are among the 12. They're sitting on the on the Lord's table It's as if so and all the blessings of the cross everything that we've studied They're forgiven. We are healed. We are saved. We're delivered redeemed righteous justified Holy sanctified all of these things are bestowed upon us right and That is why That's what the purpose of the Lord's table is the full blessings of the cross of Jesus Christ will be We will be bestowed upon us. This is God's plan. This is God's desire Right. This is God's will and it and we know that it's not God's intent or desire for us to be become sick And so we must Very honorably partake in the Lord's table each time we partake in the Lord's table We are making a proclamation Whether it's two or three of you in your small group or even in your family or whether there are thousands of people Our attitude towards the Lord's table should not change you know many at times we visit Families elderly families who are you know who unable to come to church what we do is we take the Lord's table there and It just be about three of us. We have four of us but we take it With so much of reverence because we know that we're proclaiming the death the burial the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ And we know that the power of Christ the blessings of Christ will fall upon us What is Paul right there and he says as often as you do it Do it in remembrance of me the Lord Jesus himself also says that as often as you do it do it in remembrance of me don't partake in the Lord's table, you know thinking of Things that happened two years back thinking of your friend thinking what will I have for lunch or who will I meet? Two days later. What about my exams all these thoughts? right if we partake of it and Our mind is not in line with God The power or the effect of that is going to be is is not going to be there Right now picture this as a believer. I'm in church. I have the Lord's table Right. I have the elements in my hand the pastor or the leader is praying And I'm thinking oh man after church. I wish I can you know meet this person Or I wish I could after church. Where can I go and have lunch? You know, I got to service my car. I got to make sure that I you know tomorrow's Monday There are some projects that I have to do. So what if I'm thinking of all of that and then the pastor saying Let's partake in the elements and we partake of it. Is it going to have any effect on us? not really because We are not doing it in remembrance of him We're doing it in remembrance of all the other things Right now the reason I'm saying this is because it has happened to me When I was a young boy You know just became a believer. I didn't understand the whole thing of the Lord supper took time. I used to know hold out I should be okay And I sometimes you know the mind goes everywhere and and you want to realize oh I've already finished you partaking and I realized that I'm not experiencing any of the blessings. I've not experiencing the The fullness of God the power of God in my life The work of the Holy Spirit even after taking the Lord's table and I thought to myself Am I taking it the wrong way and I realized yes Because the Bible teaches us Paul is saying as often as you do it Do it in remembrance of me So when we partake We as leaders we say okay, this is the body first thing should be is Lord you bruised your body for me You took the scourges you took the Lashes on your body because of me the body that was the nails that were pierced in your hands the crown of thorns The the side that was pierced your body which was just So weak and battered all of that was done for me the body that died The body that resurrected back to life is for me Then when we partake the power of the cross Will pour out upon our lives. I think of the grape juice of the wine. Whatever we are partaking in We think about when we say Lord, this is your blood and Without the blood there is no forgiveness of sins and Every drop of blood from your body was gone Where the soldier pierced the side and water came out blood and water and this blood and Through this blood I have forgiveness of sins When we partake of it It becomes powerful The devil has no access Because we are proclaiming the death the burial the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ Right We are proclaiming that on the cross all our sins are paid for me So we have a right standing with God imagine the devil saying, you know what you you Watched this or you said this last week and now you're standing here ready to take the Lord's ready to partake in this communion How many of us have felt that I've got that so many times You know the he accuses us Are you sure you want to take this because you remember what you did last week? but you and I can say All our sins are paid for and we partake of it His forgiveness of sins flows through us. So we have a right standing between God What you can do is you tell the enemy this has nothing to do with you Yes, I may have sinned. I try right now. I'm making it right before God Now I will have a right standing before God like The power of sin is broken. So we are free from the dominion of sin Now just because I partake in the Lord's table, it's not like a medicine. I Get fever. I take 5 ml and I'm better No, it's not a medicine right The Lord's table on Sunday is not medicine It's not like okay. I'll sin Through the week and then anyway this coming Sunday is the first Sunday. So it's the law We are celebrating the Lord's table. I'll take it and my sins are forgiven And then I have the entire month again I can just go back to what I was doing then the next Sunday first Sunday I'll just take the Lord's table and No, no, it's not a medicine. It's not a dosage that you know, the doctors prescribe The power of sin is broken So the power of the enemy sin that the enemy has You know made us fall into that power is broken After we partake we say God this area of my life whether it is You know, whatever it is whatever sinful nature that we will be struggling with we can say God that power is broken Because of partaking in what the blessings of the cross Jesus removed our sickness the Bible says by his stripes we are healed. He paid the punishment Now we have Shalom. We have restoration Jesus removed the curse of the law So that the blessings of Abraham are made open to us. He removed the curse of the law What was the curse of the law the law? None of us could keep the law Now because of that death and sin was still there and Sin is a curse that is a curse But Jesus removed that on the cross He made the blessings of Abraham Come upon us The power of Satan was destroyed very important When we are partaking in the Lord's table, remember the power of Satan is destroyed Right, so we have complete mastery or complete authority over Satan and his demons so we put it in the Lord's table and The enemy comes maybe on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. He begins to come and bring temptations Into our hearts into our minds What must we do? First thing we must say is Satan Your power over me is destroyed Because I am a partaker of What God has done for me on the cross so the power of sin is destroyed your your power is over If we don't say that We will fall into temptation and eventually fall into sin So we that is our battle God has made a way But God is also asking us to fight the battle We must fight it on our own All writes it wonderfully to Timothy and he says Timothy Timothy You've got a church in Ephesus now. You've got ready. I've stayed there for three years. I've seen the leaders I've seen it's a very difficult place But here's what I'm going to tell you Timothy fight the good fight of faith fight it Everywhere Paul uses this imagery of fighting To the Corinthians. He says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty Then to the Ephesians again in the last chapter he ends it by saying put on the armor of God Right, so it's a fight Yes, the enemy is defeated, but he's still you know around he's still lingering He's trying to see who he can devour Peter writes and he says the enemy is like a roaring lion trying to see who he can devour But he's defeated Right, he looks like a roaring lion, but he's not a roaring lion Right Michael says the enemy is like a roaring lion He can show himself as something he's not really that The the in another words it says that I forget the chapter and worse But it says that the devil think it's Peter The devil masquerades like an angel of light. Is he an angel of light? No But he masquerades like that So the devil can show himself powerful you can say look how powerful I am But he's defeated He he can show himself as great and mighty Right why is it that there's so much sin in the world why are people Turning away from God because he showed himself as mighty and people are believing and He's happy with it, but you and I as believers can say Lord I know the power of the enemy the power of Satan is destroyed He closions one he made a public spectacle Defeating the enemy once and for all and here's the best part There'll come a time and revelry in the book of revelations just before after the thousand-year millennium Satan is released once again And what does Jesus do? He He takes Satan and he puts him into eternal hell Eternal damnation No more will he be able to torment the people of God But right now we have to fight There'll come a time God will do his work right now. We have to fight Right. So if there are there's a season that we may be going through a difficult season or a season where Challenges are there a season where we feel weak and tired We all go through them. I remember You know after getting married I was 27 years old and I had a small baby I was like, oh God Just a year back. I was you know, just You know serving God and just being so free Everything was, you know, wonderful in it and now I'm 27. I have a small child and I have no clue what to do with a child firstly Just 27 years old and I was confused and You know, I became really tired. I don't know what to do It was a season I thank God for his grace upon our lives and I'm sure all of us going are going to some kind of a season in our life So it's all right, it's all right. Remember God takes us through the seasons, but he strengthens us Right power, you know, sometimes what we planned may not really work out But that does not mean that Jesus is not in control The Satan may come and say, hey, this is what you thought see what I have done I've changed the plan and I've made it difficult for you now And further on I'm going to make it impossible for you. That's what the enemy will say He's the accuser of the brethren, but what you and I should do is we must say The power of Satan over my life is destroyed And we have complete mastery a complete dominion was Satan and his demons We have to fight that fight And that's a joy, right? It's joy. It's it's it's not something that we should Think, okay, God, can you just take me away? No Let him take us through those seasons and know and trust God, you know And and proclaim what Jesus did on the cross for us. And finally we are redeemed. That is we are purchased As God's possessions right now you and I are God's possessions God will take care of us The more, you know, I heard this saying I read this in a book I read this in a book The safest place to be Is to be in the will of God right Sometimes you think this place is not safe or that place is not safe this city or this country is not safe Naturally, yes, it could be true But the safest place to be for us as believers is to be in the will of God Knowing that God Has purchased us We are God's children. We are his possession Jesus says this wonderfully. He says look at the birds of the air. They don't store up in barns But yet my heavenly father provides for them How much more will he not provide and look after for his own children? He will We are his possession One drop of the blood of Jesus destroys everything satan can do Satan can bring all kinds of arrows. He can tip those arrows with fire and he may Shoot those arrows at us Or one drop of the blood of Jesus Can destroy every work of the devil The cup we drink is a cup that brings blessings into our life The bread that we eat is our sharing on the finished work of the cross which is made available for us That is so wonderful to see how Jesus orchestrated everything Before he died he said you do this because when I die The work will be finished and the work will of destroying the enemy will be done And after it is finished after the cross is done after destroyed the enemy when you partake in this What i'm showing you now It will bring life and meaning It will bring restoration hope into your life Each time we drink the bread and sorry eat the bread and drink the cup We can expect the holy spirit To administer the full blessings The finished work of cross Of the cross of christ Dishonouring the lord's table Will be of what is made sacred Will only bring sickness and diseases upon our lives Right the Corinthian church were completely out of order. They dis disobeyed the lord's table by making it a feast However When things became right We see later on that The church was restored As believers we do not have to fear for weakness sickness Because when we partake in the lord's table and we have been taught how to do it the right way When we do it the right way, we do not have to fear About things that are happening in our lives now. I'm sure the question may come up Why is it that there are so many people who are sick? Yet they're taking they're partaking in the lord's table week after week after week yet that sickness is still there Or why is it that there are so many who are True good believers who are In hospitals Going through, you know, so much of sickness or diseases What happened? We must understand that Every time we partake We're defeating the enemy's work And we partaking in faith. We know it's the lord jesus who will bring healing to us Now even if it our first approach must be god heal me If the healing has not happened continue to trust and have faith in god right, but be assured of this that We are part of his kingdom. We are part. We are his children. We are his possessions Right, you know somebody asked me this question. What about people who are good believers who are terminal? They terminal they they have cancer or they're they you know going to lose their life. What about them? It's a hard. It's a very very hard season It's very hard to answer these questions, but we are assured of one thing the lord Holds us in our hands We are his possessions And he knows what is best for us And we just completely trust in him, right? Each time we celebrate the lord's table We bring joy to his heart and fear in the enemy's camp The cup in bread the cup of blessings What we bless we speak we announce during the time of communion And we say drink we receive it in faith When we say eat and drink of it we receive it in faith We receive the blessings of the cross in faith and one more thing is that We must stay away from idols and sacrifices Now, I know that we all don't You know partake in any of idol worship or anything But anything that takes the place of God becomes an idol All is writing in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 19 to 24 He says what am I saying then That an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything Rather that the things which Gentiles Sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons You cannot drink the cup of the lord and the cup of demons You cannot partake of the lord's table and the table of demons Or do we provoke the lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify Let no one seek his own, but each one the others well-being Now once again the place in Corinth is a place where Scott is Aphrodite and so what is happening is that the believers in Corinth are Eating food sacrifice to idols and they're partaking in the lord's table Now they know that that is food sacrifice to idols Paul recognizes this and he says these are sacrifices made to demons And how can we fellowship with what is sacrificed to demons and then fellowship in the lord's table? We cannot mix through worship and idol worship This is unacceptable In god's eyes and it must not happen right this provokes the lord's jealousy and and Sorry, this provokes the lord's jealous love and care for his people And and what happens is we are blocking the blessings of the cross to come into our life now When in our life when we look around if we know that there is food sacrifice to idols Uh that has been offered to us avoid it I avoid it because paul is saying here how can we partake in both food sacrifice to uh, you know idols and food sac and and and the lord's table We cannot mix both worship So turn away from it. There are many instances where I have Turned away and I've said no, it's all right. Thank you gently humbly in love Now the wrong thing to do Is to say hey, what you know what you're doing is wrong, you know, you should This is all idol the idol cannot speak. It'll you know, what does it do? It's just sitting then one Those are wrong ways to speak right All you can say is gently humbly and love just reject it and say no no. Thank you Many times because of that humble Uh rejection or just saying no Many of them have come and asked me. Why is it that you don't and it gave me an opportunity to share the gospel Right now I didn't share the gospel saying, you know in the lord's table This is what happened. Jesus said this because they're not going to understand But of course you just share the simple gospel and then eventually let get them to understand bigger things We don't have to say, you know, this is all you know, uh Demonic and only what jesus did is uh, you know true because he's the true god. That would be the wrong way to deal with this uh Just just humbly kindly In a good manner just uh say no. Thank you and move on So the apostle paul has addressed four issues of eating things offered to idols here first one. He says Spiritual aspects involved. They are worshiping of demons and here you're worshiping god Uh, you cannot mix worship of god and the worship of demons three. It may be culturally acceptable But it may not be helpful and edifying Especially when you look at Corinth culturally, it's okay It's okay. You can I'm sure the believers in the church also would have said, okay. He's you know, just eating the food there Uh, and he's part of it's all right. It's culturally. Okay Right, but it was not edifying to the person and to the church For I also need to consider the others Uh well-being of others in the church and as believers now if I take it And The others in the church see it They say hey, he's partaking in that even I can do that. Nothing's wrong with him. It's all right So they will also partake and so what happens is Uh, I become a testimony or an example for wrong things Right. So I always need to consider the well-being of others as well Every need is met through the blood covenant Here finally just the last one and we'll close The ultimate purpose of the blood covenant is relationship And here the lord jesus In his blood covenant. He has made a relationship with us When jesus says, uh, I am the bread of life jesus interjects his teaching with a passage Informing the crowd that you have to eat his Flesh and drink his blood What was he trying to communicate remember? He was telling his disciples and the people Unless you eat my body and drink my blood I'm sure the first thought they would have gone through is this is not right This is cannibalism We can't eat your body and drink your blood. It's offensive Not only that in the old covenant god has told us that we are not to touch the blood It's it's it's offensive to god, you know, some of the offerings god says drip out all the drain out all the blood And some of the uh in the old covenant god said don't eat these animals The hooved animals and eat this eat don't eat this And now you're saying eat my body and drink my blood It was offensive To the people who are hearing it, but what was jesus trying to communicate? He was using blood as a covenant language Because we see him using the same language in the new covenant as well Later on at the lord's table. He says that Eat and drink He says eat. This is my body drink. This is my blood. He was building And a relationship. It was a symbolic Covenant a blood covenant that god the lord jesus was establishing with his people Jesus then points out That it is through the work of the holy spirit and through the word That the blood covenant will be established over and over again And so it's so wonderful to learn this. We'll stop here We have a little more But what we'll do is next week shall be our should be our last class and then After that, I'll just post the assignment Probably sometime After next wednesday And that will be your final assignment. So next wednesday should be your last class, right? Okay, before yes zealot holy. Yes. Go ahead Do you have a question? Yeah, sorry like I want to ask regarding the midterm assignment like There were some issues with my network. The network was fluctuating and I Submitted my assignment on time But when I checked after pastor dina informis my assignment was not yet submitted for The new testament assignment and Your assignment also. So I submitted late. So that's what I wanted Okay, I'll just check because see everything is now You know, it's all admin related. So there are some changes that we cannot make So with regards to that, I'll have to check with the admin team Probably email you and get back to you on that. Is that okay? Yes, sure. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure yes success Yes, your voice is very low success Good morning Yes, we can hear you. All right. I've not been I've not been around I went on a mission field To the village and so I've not done any of my assignment. I just came back there yesterday And I have to go back to so please is it possible for me to see do my assignments because I just came back yesterday Yeah success. So the thing is everything is Done by the admin team now. We have an it It team so they will have to you know, I we are not allowed to make any changes to due dates But we'll have to check with the administrator and we will probably email you on what we can what can be done. So Any any any any questions about the topic of study today other than No, I perfectly enjoyed it and I'm okay with it. All right. All right. Thank you. All right. God bless I'll be expecting the email Sure, sure success All right. Shall we just close in prayer, please? Yes, any one of us can please close the Vega Anita anyone, please close in prayer All right, let's pray. Yeah Father in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for the lecture we have this morning We thank you for the strength you give to our lecturers But thank you for every student that have participated in this program Father be that glorified in the name of Jesus Christ father We are going in your hands. So we commit all our activities today into your hand Please secure and refresh our lecturer in the name of Jesus Christ Thank you because you are wonderful god In Jesus name we pray Amen Thank you success. All right. Thank you everyone for joining have a wonderful week. I'll we'll catch up next week God bless