Talk of JESUS .com

Category: Easter

Easter or Resurrection Sunday is the day the tomb of Jesus is found empty and when the risen Messiah appears risen after His crucifixion on a Corss
HE IS RISEN!

Easter or Resurrection Sunday

  • The Last Supper + Communion + a Family Meal

    The Last Supper + Communion + a Family Meal

    Maundy Thursday – The Last Supper

    The following is an UPDATED post from Maundy Thursday of Holy Week in the year of our Lord 2015 about the Last Supper of Jesus and the Twelve and communion of the saints of the Church. - RH

    Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
    who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. 

    Psalm 41:9
    The Last Supper scene staged by Rembrandt. Actually the Twelve Apostles in customary 1st century Jewish custom were 'reclined at table.'

    Institution of the Lord’s Supper

    As a Christian you may have your own name and picture of Maundy Thursday.

    It is a celebration of the Church commemorating the LAST SUPPER of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Twelve Apostles, His friends and followers for previous three years.

    Many Christians and Messianic Jews will also recognize that these Jewish men were also celebrating the Passover meal.

    Yet this meal both commemorates a covenant of old and establishes a new covenant by the BODY & BLOOD of the Savior who serves it.

    In Paul’s letter to the CHURCH at Corinth the ‘apostle to the gentiles’ describes our commemoration of the NEW COVENENT of Communion:

    1 Corinthians 11: NKJV

    23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you:

    that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,

    “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

    25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying,

    “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.

    This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

    26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

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    Commemoration of the First Covenant

    Deuteronomy 12:

    7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

    8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— 9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.

    Joshua 5:11-12

    And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

    Communion: OUR Family Meal

    • How important is your ‘christian’ and biological family to you?
    • Is Jesus head of your family?
    • Do we not need the intimacy of the love and time together in relationship and meals?

    As WE COMMEMORATE the LAST SUPPER OF JESUS let the saints called into His CUURCH remember that Communion is NOT an Old Covenant, but a New Covenant renewed in the ever-lasting family of Christ Jesus.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com + Thursday April 6, in the year of our Lord 2023

    We have forgotten the communion of relationship and intimacy of sharing our joy, our sorrows and our meals. We have forgotten to leave a place for the Lord at the head of our table and a time for all to partake in His righteousness and love.

    LORD, we have not even invited you and each of our loved ones to enjoy your peace, your love, your compassion, your teaching… LORD we have lost the family in our home… LORD we have lost the family in your church. Lord help us.

    Prayer of the original A.D. 2015 post. – RH

    Communion

    Holy Communion and the Passover Seder which Jesus commemorated on the night in which He was betrayed are much more than just a ritual.

    Do you realize that Jesus, our Lord and Savior said:

    “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

    In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” – 1 Corinthians 11:25

    It was after supper. It was a toast, as we would properly identify the proclamation over the wine this close family of Jesus was about to share.

    Yes, the Twelve were Jesus’ close family.

    They shared meals — almost all meals together. They broke bread together. They prayed together. They discussed Jesus’ teaching of the day and the day’s events.

    These were regular times of communion — intimate familial community — fellowship still familiar to members of the first century church and most familiar to families.

    Yet it is a communion, a fellowship of love, even an eventful love feast; which Christians in this century and  our Christian families have sacrificed to the leaven of this world.

    • Communion is fellowship with God
    • Communion is between Christ and the church by the Spirit
    • Communion is the fellowship of believers with one another

    Ephesians 4:

    Once again, encouragement from Paul to the CHURCH in Ephesis where the apostle had by example spent much time.

    Unity in the Body of Christ

    I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

    4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

    The communion and fellowship of believers in your family, of your church and in the body of all faithful believers is even more than this.

    We remember by Christ’s blood that He IS and we are joined to one another in Him.

    Unbelievers have no part in this. Those separate from Christ Jesus have no LIFE of His saving Blood.

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    The New Life

    17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

    18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.20 But that is not the way you learned Christ! +

    Do you not find this true?

    Are beloved family members even callous to your love for them and our love for Christ Jesus?

    And if like Christ we are hated by the world and even those of our own household, how much more important is communion and fellowship of His body the church.

    • How important is daily communion and fellowship in your Christian home?
    • Where is the place of Christ at your table, with husband and wife as one with Him?
    • Do our children come to commune with the Lord in our ‘christian home?’
    and here I confess that 'I am the chief of sinners.'

    At the table of the last supper sat Judas, as ALSO sits the one (maybe, if you insist) who hates Jesus and will betray you.

    At the table of the last supper sat Peter, as ALSO sit ones you may have to forgive three times (or seventy times seven) when they deny your love and Christ’s way to take up the cross and follow Him.

    Lord help us. Help us to commune with you and to love one another as You have loved us. Bring our beloved ones to your table of communion and fellowship and eternal love.

    Amen.

    To READ MORE about COMMUNION click HERE.
  • An Acceptable Sacrifice

    An Acceptable Sacrifice

    Psalm 50

    The Acceptable Sacrifice

    A Psalm of Asaph.

    1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
        speaks and summons the earth
        from the rising of the sun to its setting.
    2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
        God shines forth.

    3 Our God comes and does not keep silence,
        before him is a devouring fire,
        and a mighty tempest all around him.
    4 He calls to the heavens above
        and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
    5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
        who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
    6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
        for God himself is judge. Selah

    7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
        O Israel, I will testify against you.
        I am God, your God.
    8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
        your burnt offerings are continually before me.

    John 10: 17-18 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 

    No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

    I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

    Though Israel understood the power of the Lord to deliver them from Egypt and potentially from Rome, they did not understand the power of the King of the Jews to deliver them from sin.

    “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

    triumphal-entryMark 11:

    8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting,“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

    11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

    +

    The LORD does not establish His Kingdom on earth (as it is in heaven) in the same sinful ways as man!

    Psalm 50: 

    16 But to the wicked God says:
        “What right have you to recite my statutes
        or take my covenant on your lips?
    17 For you hate discipline,
        and you cast my words behind you.
    18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
        and you keep company with adulterers.

    19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
        and your tongue frames deceit.
    20 You sit and speak against your brother;
        you slander your own mother’s son.
    21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
        you thought that I was one like yourself.
    But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

    +

     Mark 11:

    Jesus Cleanses the Temple

    15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them,

    “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

    18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

    +

    Psalm 51: 

    13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
        and sinners will return to you.
    14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
        O God of my salvation,
        and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness…

    17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
        a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

    Psalm 68:

    19 Blessed be the Lord,
        who daily bears us up;
        God is our salvation. Selah
    20 Our God is a God of salvation,
        and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death…

    24 Your procession is seen, O God,
        the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—

    Psalm 69:

    9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
        and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

    19 You know my reproach,
        and my shame and my dishonor;
        my foes are all known to you.
    20 Reproaches have broken my heart,
        so that I am in despair.
    I looked for pity, but there was none,
        and for comforters, but I found none.
    21 They gave me poison for food,
        and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

    +

    To be continued…

  • Is Your Faith Futile?

    Is Your Faith Futile?

     

    John 11.25

    If in Christ we have hoped in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

    1 Corinthians 15:19

     

    Walk up to an unbeliever and tell them, ‘Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.’

    What will they think? What will they say?

    Will an unbeliever have hope in the resurrection? It is an issue that Paul addresses in writing to the church at Corinth.

    We have just celebrated ‘Resurrection Sunday,’ which the world knows as Easter from ‘traditions;’ however Paul addressed the same questions one might ask you: questions like, ‘Is your faith futile?’

    Isn’t your faith in the resurrection of a man from the dead (Jesus OR you or me…) rather useless and impractical?

    In a word, NO.  Paul’s missing question (for unbelievers) would be:

    Do you believe in God?

    (Remember that Paul is writing to the church. We believe in God. Right?

    IF yes; then all things are possible with God. [Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23, Mark 10:27]

    The Resurrection of the Dead

    1 Corinthians 15 (English Standard Version)

    12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

    So IF you believe in God, AND IF you believe the Bible is God’s word; do you believe that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead?

    13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

    14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

    STOP here for a moment. Do you believe in God? YES. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? NO.

    (This is what some believe who claim God, but refuse to believe that God would send his only Son to the Cross as a living, human sacrifice for your sins and for mine.) Here is what unbelievers (and some with false claims as christians believe:

    NO, God created man to live and die. Live for this day as God would wish.

    NO judgment, NO hell, no accountability for sin beyond the grave… WE believe in a God of history, but not a God of the present (or of our future).  We may believe in a Jesus of history, too. But our soul dies with our body. No resurrection.

    Paul goes on about the gospel (Good News), as if it too were a lie.

    15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

    17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

    It always comes back to that issue of SIN, doesn’t it?

    Does GOD require a sacrifice for sin? Shall a mere man suffer consequence for sin at the hand of God?

    Is God just? OR is God merciful to all (with justice for none)?

    IF there is NO resurrection and NO eternal life; THEN life has no more meaning than a measurement of a man’s time and death no more meaning than the end of a meaningless life.

    18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

    19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

    Is there no difference in the soul of a Christian and the soul of one who will not believe God?

    Do the dead lie in the ground with lifeless souls rotting with bones and flesh?

    OR

    Does the soul find rest? Does the soul find sleep? (While the seed of flesh and blood waits in the ground for the germination of new Life of the resurrection?

    20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

    And now Paul refers to our sin, for which Christ paid the ransom of His Life on the Cross.

    21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

    Yes, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus is Good News! He IS the Lord over life, as He IS the Lord over death. The Cross would not be necessary without sin; as the resurrection would not be possible without Christ.

    Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

    HE IS RISEN! Our faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord stands on the proof and evidence of Scripture. Our faith in the resurrection is not in vain; for we are not our flesh and bones, but living souls: born again in Christ Jesus our risen Lord!

    53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    55 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

    56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

    58 Therefore, my beloved brothers (and beloved sisters in the Lord), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.