Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: communion

Christian Communion – a continuing covenant with Christ until the return of JESUS on the clouds.

The Idolatry of Baptism – the Idolatry of Communion
What is Idolatry?

In this section of his first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul has been addressing idolatry.

I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

1 Corinthians 10:15 NIV
```
For the context of what Paul is about to say about baptism, communion and communion and other feasts take a look beginning at 1 Corinthians 8.
```
Idols – Stumbling in Christian Liberty – 1 Corinthians 8
- INSTRUCTION CONCERNING FREEDOM IN CHRIST
Am I not free? Religion 1 Corinthians 9
- ILLUSTRATION CONCERNING OUR FREEDOM IN CHRIST
And now in 1 Corinthians 10 the Apostles warns Christians to avoid the IDOLATRY that CORRUPTS or compromises OUR FREEDOM in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
1 Corinthians 10:14 NIV

So just what is IDOLATRY?

Let’s start with: WHAT IS AN IDOL? (Seems simple enough.)

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. – Exodus 20:4 and Deuteronomy 5:8 LSB

But what about this explanation of idolatry given by Samuel to Israel’s first King Saul?

Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king.”

1 Samuel 15:23 NLT

Although Saul plead for mercy, the LORD had already judged Saul.

Idolatry of your past

WE remember the golden calf, right?

And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” – Exodus 32:4b ESV

The Apostle Paul is about to issue a warning of yet another type of idolatry from the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt.

1 Corinthians 10:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized [baptizō] into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

1 Corinthians 10:1-2 NIV

Baptism

What is baptism?

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Gospel of Mark 1:4 LSB
- of John’s baptism, that purification rite by which men on confessing their sins were bound to spiritual reformation, obtained the pardon of their past sins and became qualified for the benefits of the Messiah’s kingdom soon to be set up.
- of Christian baptism; a rite of immersion in water as commanded by Christ, by which one after confessing his sins and professing his faith in Christ, having been born again by the Holy Spirit unto a new life, identifies publicly with the fellowship of Christ and the church.
  - Source: Lexicon :: Strong’s G908 – baptisma
So what is Paul saying here about the Hebrews’ crossing through the sea?

It was a baptism of sorts of those Hebrews who continued to follow Moses.

And how was that also a type of communion?
- They all ate the same spiritual food.
- and drank the same spiritual drink
for they drank from the , and that rock was Christ.

The Apostle’s warning

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written:

“The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

Exodus 32:6 [quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:7 NIV]

We must not indulge in sexual immorality [porneuō] as some of them did,
and twenty-three thousand [23,000] fell in a single day.
1 Corinthians 10:8 NIV
```
Remember that Paul has just compared 'the spiritual rock that accompanied them' with Christ.
```
Let us not test Christ as some of them did
- and were killed by snakes.
And do not grumble as some of them did
- —and were killed by the destroying angel.
These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB

‘flee from idolatry’
```
Paul presents religious implications and consequences of our own tendency towards idolatry rooted in self rather than our sacrifice of obedience to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. 
```
So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying.

1 Corinthians 10:14-15 CSB

flee from idolatry [εἰδωλολατρία] eidōlolatria –

Pronunciation – i-do-lol-at-ri’-ah
```
Sounds similar to adultery, doesn't it? 

In practice idolatry is adultery against the Lord God and our Saviour Christ Jesus! 
```
Idolatry – N.T. definition
- worship of false gods
a 21st c. C.E. question:

Are Hindu gods false? Buddha? Moroni? Smith? Mohammed? Mary? Dead Saints of the Church? A Pope, Earth or Heaven? A philosophy or practice of the past?
- idolatry – formal sacrificial feats held in honour of false gods
- of avarice, as a worship of Mammon
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Gospel of Matthew 6:24 KJV a caution of our Lord Jesus Christ
- in the plural, the vices springing from idolatry and peculiar to it
  - Source: Blue Letter Bible
NEXT:

a CONTEMPORY look at Communion
```
Some 21st c. CE Christian saints will balk at this, but communion has become a stumbling block between the Orthodox, Roman and Protestant divisions (denominations) of Christ. 
```
Talk of JESUS .com

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
January 24, 2025
Blood on the night in which He was betrayed
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread,
first Letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 11:23 New English Translation Click here for other translations

Hear, O Isra-el

And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃
```
We suppose here (though possibly not specifically in celebrating this Last Seder) that JESUS at various times during His three-year leading of the Apostles routinely recited Scripture from their Jewish Bible to these Jewish disciples of the Messiah.

Excerpts to Bible Translations linked below from: NASB; Somali Bible; Orthodox Jewish Bible;The Westminster Leningrad Codex 
```
Exodus 12:

Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt.. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male.. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month,

then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight.

Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

They shall eat the flesh that same night.. and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is the Lord’s Passover.

For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn…

The Lord’s Supper (Blood of a New Covenant)

and after he had given thanks he broke it and said,
“This is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
first Letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 11:24 NLT + Click here for other translations

The Gospel of Matthew

“How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Matthew 16:11-12 NKJV

The New Covenant of Matthew 26: KJV

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

“This cup

is the new covenant

in my blood.

Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” – 1 Corinthians 11:25 NET

διαθήκη + a covenant

the last disposition which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will

“This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.”

And both the tabernacle and all the utensils of worship he likewise sprinkled with blood. Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and

וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת־הַדָּם וַיִּזְרֹק עַל־הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה דַֽם־הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת יְהוָה עִמָּכֶם עַל כָּל־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵֽלֶּה׃

Shmot (Exodus) 24:8

בְּרִית

covenant, alliance, pledge
- between men
- between God and man
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant H1285 which I have made with them.
Deuteronomy 31:16 KJV

Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, that is, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Letter to the Hebrews of the Church, redeemed saints of the Messiah, 13:20-21 NASB20
April 14, 2022
Unless the Father draws you – Bread from Heaven
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life…
John 6:35a

A group of hopeful Jews has begun following this Son of Man from place to place looking for signs that He IS the Messiah of the One God. Now we turn to a sign Jesus shows to five thousand followers in a remote place where He provides bread and fish from the lunch packed for one young man.

Miracles & Signs by Jesus
- The Lord once again makes clear His purpose in Jerusalem.
John 5:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. – John 5:39-40

What Scriptures? The Jewish Scriptures, of course. And the proofs religious leaders demand will undermine their own earthly authority if Jesus produces such convincing miracles.

Yet like the Prophets the Jews recognized, including John the Baptist, Jesus also points to our natural disobedience of God from these same scriptures.

45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.

Once again Jesus offers us a choice between obedience and turning away from God, not between signs or disbelief.

46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Exodus 16:

2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה הִנְנִ֨י מַמְטִ֥יר לָכֶ֛ם לֶ֖חֶם מִן־הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וְיָצָ֨א הָעָ֤ם וְלָֽקְטוּ֙ דְּבַר־יֹ֣ום בְּיֹומֹ֔ו לְמַ֧עַן אֲנַסֶּ֛נּוּ הֲיֵלֵ֥ךְ בְּתֹורָתִ֖י אִם־לֹֽא׃
Exodus 16:4 WLC

4 Then said the LORD unto Moses,

Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Note the significance of the sign of the bread:

Genesis

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. – Genesis 3:19 KJV on consequence of man’s sin of disobedience to the Lord God

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. – Genesis 14:18 KJV

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Matthew 26:24-26 NKJV

Communion – Bread from Heaven

The Apostles will later understand a communion with Jesus witnessed after they depart from Jerusalem with Jesus a second time.

A mountainside overlooking the Sea of Tiberias, Galilee
- John 6: 2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
The men numbered about five thousand. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated.

14 When the people saw the sign [the feeding of 5000 with five loaves of barley bread and two fish] he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
John 6:14 CSB

How would we follow the Messiah?

15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king…

These disciples of the big crowd of ‘believers’ were no different from us. We prefer to lead the Lord, to have Him follow us our way. Jesus perceives how some would make Him an earthly King of the Jews. (Even the Apostle Judas had hoped for this.)

The Lord walks away from the crowds and the next day miraculously reappears on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Capernaum, Galilee on an opposite shore of the Sea
- John 6: 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
26 Jesus answered [those who crossed the sea and found Him in Capernaum],

“Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled…

“This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

We have already rejected the signs

Then Jesus said to them,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven,
but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
John 6:32-33 NKJV

It’s nearly the Gospel of John 3:16 restated, but here Jesus clearly states that some of the Jews have rejected the Messiah just as most of the world will reject eternal life.

And Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life.
He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 6:35 NKJV

“… 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day…

57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”

Bread from Heaven – מָן

When we encounter the miracles of God, when our eyes open to see the Son of God come down from heaven we still ask, “What is it?“

58 “This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.

He who eats this bread will live forever.”

59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

60 Therefore many of His disciples… [followers, that is, in addition to some of the Apostles] questioned Jesus and many later turned away.]

More signs to the Apostles

Some of the Apostles witnessed signs privately away from the crowds. One of these had already taken place between His sign of the bread to the five thousand and preaching about it in the synagogue at Capernaum.

On the Sea of Galilee

Lake Tiberias – Rome’s name for Kinneret [Sea of Galilee]
- … Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. 19 After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.
Do you fear the Living God?

Do you honor the Son?

20 But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

What next?

Jesus concludes this current teaching about the Father sending the One Son by asking the Apostles about the Spirit of God.

What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:62-63 NKJV

They will see the ascension of the Son of Man, risen from Sacrifice of crucifixion and death!

The Apostles, some who had witnessed the Voice of the Father and the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus, will receive the Spirit. They witness Jesus’ words of life.

Will you with ears to hear and a heart open to receiving the life of the Spirit receive the Word – the truth and the life of Jesus?

For He IS the bread which came down from heaven to satisfy forgiveness of our sins and fill us with the Good News of eternal life.
January 7, 2020