Copyright ©2017 by Ayodele Ajileye
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Unless otherwise stated, all scriptural references are taken from the New Living Translation of the bible. Italics in scriptures are for emphasis only.
Everything that a child needs for a great life is being taught around the dinner tables by a great father. This is according to what is penned down in rich dad and poor dad by Robert T. Kiyosak, and in fact it is true. Everything that will be useful in life is not taught on a too serious note but in a light atmosphere because it is something that is learnt in such an atmosphere that a child can easily remember. A child is able to remember with ease whatever he can connect with pleasant occurrences such as dinner. This brings us to the concept of a dinner with God. A dinner God has prepared from time and always wants every of his children to be a partaker.
Now I’m talking about the Holy Communion or let me put it in a better way, a feast at the Lord’s feet. We call it Holy Communion yet reduce its scope of strength. A communion in its real sense is a close relationship. And everything that preserves a close relationship such as dinner is important.
The feast at the Lord’s feet was initiated at Exodus, when the children of Israel were to leave Egypt. Although it existed way back since creation but people became conscious of it at Exodus. Normally, it is referred to as the Passover feast, later on, the name was change into the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. Well, we need to understand that the Holy Communion is only a symbolic event of the real communion that God was trying to picture for us. It is something that is deeper than just the physical food that we eat or physical drinks that we take - those are just symbols. What are they symbolizing? It is essential for us to know what communion stands so as to effectively put it to use and continuously come into the atmosphere that God actually wants us to reach through it.
I want to note that Jesus said that we should take the communion in remembrance of him. That means we should do it to commemorate His presence on earth. The remembrance of Him is more like a birthday celebration thing. Something we will do to celebrate that our savior was here and serve as reminder for His purpose on earth? Why should it be a dinner with bread and wine? And more importantly, why must Jesus initiate the Holy Communion on the day of Passover. All these are things we need to consider so that we will get the full grip of what Jesus was trying to pass down to us.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14
This book is the third on an exposition on 2 Corinthians 13:14. The first in the series titled Grace which reveals Jesus Christ as grace personified and the second titled Love, the Lover and the Loved which shows the Father as love. Now this book which is the third shows what true communion is and how come it is linked with the Holy Spirit.
As you go through this book, I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your heart so that you can see the full flesh of what God is trying to pass to us through the Holy Communion, so that we can live according to his will.
So far in my relationship with God I have never encountered coincidence – nothing happens by chance or luck – everything is orchestrated by Him for specific purposes. He does not gamble with anything; everything is for eternal purpose. Even as He planted eternity in our hearts we still see only in parts what He is up to.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Every time I come across the above passage, a character in the movie Pirate of the Caribbean comes to my mind and that is Captain Jack Sparrow. Everything is his doing in that movie. He always has an agenda that he ensures its fulfillment. He so coordinates everybody including his haters that they all work for one common good. He engages everybody in fulfilling integral parts of his agenda yet thinking that they are just doing their own thing until when Sparrow brings all together.
Jack Sparrow’s mode of operation typifies how God orchestrate things. Who would have thought that God had the Holy Communion in mind when He instituted the Passover feast? I sure won’t have considered it, would you? However, He had the Communion of the Holy Spirit in mind when He instituted the feast long before Christ came to the earth.
Now, let’s reason together - Why must Jesus kick off the Holy Communion on the day of Passover?
Let us go back to what we know to be Passover feast and how was it celebrated? If it is still in operation, let’s see why it is celebrated.
While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron:2 “From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you.3 Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household.4 If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat.5 The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects.
6 “Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight.7 They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal.8 That same night they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast.9 Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal—including the head, legs, and internal organs—must be roasted over a fire.10 Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.
Exodus 12:1-10
The Passover feast is celebrated so that it will remind the children of Israel of the great wonders that God did to bring them out of Egypt – out of slavery, out of penury, out of bondage. It is to show and remind them of the Lord’s doing that was marvelous in their sight and is still marvelous in their sight.
How is it celebrated then? The Israelites are supposed to kill a ram or a goat or a lamb and they are to eat the meat and paint their door post with the blood of the lamb after. The whole meat must be eaten and nothing must be left till the next day – there must be no remnant.
26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”
27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it,28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant[a] between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
Matthew 26:26-28
Jesus said this is my body, take and eat and He said take and drink, this is my blood of the new covenant. The blood of a lamb was used as mark on door post for the salvation of the people. Now the blood of the Lamb of God is given to us to drink. A wine is given to us to take as a symbol of the blood of Jesus.
Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise and shine. For your light has come.” Matthew 13 says, “You are the light of the world.” That means instead of us arising to shine, we are actually shining as the light of the world, carrying the glory of the Lord in us and we are actually shining forth to our world. It has to happen on the day of Passover because it was going to be a shift from the old system of standing as moon to God’s sun in order to reflect the light into a better system of having God in you and radiating the light to the world from within.
The fact that the meat must not stay a day longer is very essential in this study. This means that what you had yesterday cannot take you through today and what you have today cannot take you through tomorrow. This is why Jesus taught us to ask for our “daily bread”. The communion that God has in mind is that of “Manna” which means “What is this?” The meat is the same but what it can be used for is vast. Manna was given to the people to depict God’s intention for the people when they commune with Him. This is why a word of God can minister in different ways to different people at the same time and to the same person, different understanding at different time.
The communion is more often in order to make us conscious of the new covenant.
The meat is for consumption while the blood is for a mark, the meat is for us to feed on and digest while the blood is to stand us out. The blood is to take us into another atmosphere, a new state of righteousness. The bible says we are in the world but not of the world. The blood makes the difference.
The children of Israel had their own atmosphere – the cloud covered them from the harsh weather condition of the wilderness. That is only a few of what we mean by the Lord’s dinner.
It is important for us to note that both the Passover and the Holy Communion are for the remembrance of the salvation of God.
Why linked with the Holy Spirit
Man’s spirit is the first connector that connects with everyone it comes across. Let me explain. Whenever a man comes across another, the spirit is the first link; it is not the physical but the spiritual first. The spirit of one goes to seek permission from the spirit of the other, and once granted the attention of the physical is caught after the soul must have done its work (of probing). If their souls agree, then their spirits continue to connect every time they come together and at times when they are apart (though this is aided by another spirit – the Holy Spirit or demons). But if the souls disagree with each other, their spirits disconnects and the physical is not regarded no matter how attractive.
This is also established in the human-God relationship. The spirit of a man initiates a relationship with the Holy Spirit by allowing the conviction of the Holy Spirit to reach the soul. The spirit is born again first, then the soul is being transformed through continuous communion (intimate friendship) with God through His Spirit and the body conforms to the products of the relationship for “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
The communion is that of the Holy Spirit because He is all about relationship just like the spirit of man is all about relationship.