On Eagles' Wings Pt 506 — Don Courville

The Lord’s Supper and Self-Examination

Starting in verse 23. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death, till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, life, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for the word. And as we focus in this morning on the communion that we have together around the bread and the juice, symbolizing your body that was broken for us, that was crucified us, and your blood that was shed for us, we ask that the Spirit of God would give us a special time in focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we pray for any that do not know Jesus as their Savior, have not yet been born again by the Spirit of God, that your word and your spirit would draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would be saved, that they would repent of their sins, and that also at this time we would search our hearts.

We do not want to be those that would be sick or those that you'd have to chasten, but that we'd be continually sensitive to what you're teaching us. We ask you to bless now, in Jesus' name, Amen. I thought we'd start off with this passage this morning, a familiar communion passage, and then I wanted to do something a little different before we have communion.

Partaking in the Lord’s Life

I've been meditating, you know, I've been meditating on John, chapter six, and I jotted down some things and I thought maybe I might share a few of the things with you about this passage in relation to the bread.

Because John, chapter six, the focus of it is on eating, and in 1 Corinthians 11, the Lord told them to take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do remember to me. And then he told them to drink.

There is a partaking of the Lord that we get out of this in a special way that the Lord wants us to have. He doesn't want us to miss it, and so he said for us to do this. There's something that God can give to you special through a communion service, and we don't want to neglect this.

And as we go on, I think we can do it more often as we're getting more organized in our services. But there is something that the Lord gives us from this communion service that will be for you personally, something that you will get in a personal blessing from the Lord.

And then as you get and you receive it for yourself, then you share. And this is the life cycle. Whatever we receive, we give. And we know the thing that stops off the life cycle is when we receive and we stop giving.

Giving and Receiving God’s Provision

It reminds me of a story I was going to read it, but maybe I'll just share it with you briefly. I've read it and hadn't even thought about it until this morning. And we got it in the mail and it was put it in my Bible here, but it take a little time to read it.

But I'll just share it with you briefly about a little boy who wanted to get his mother something for Christmas, and he had absolutely nothing to get her anything with. And his his his old tennis shoes were all wore out and they were very poor.

The father died and they just had nothing. And he had left the house and went walking downtown and was looking around and he'd stopped at this flower shop. And as he was looking in there, the owner saw him and told him to come on in.

I may have to change the story because I don't know if I remember it all. I was going to do it again. But I just thought about this giving and receiving. And so he came in and he was looking around. The man was talking to him and he shared with the man how he'd like to.

Oh, he did have something. I forgot he had a dime. He had a dime. And so he'd gone off looking for something for a dime for his mother for Christmas, and you can't get much for a dime for your mother.

But he'd he'd. So he told this man he wanted to get something for his mother for Christmas, for a dime. And the store owner said, you wait here, don't leave. And so he took care of some customers. It was about time to close.

It was Christmas Eve. It was coming in there and the time was ready to close. But he said, don't leave. He said, I might have something for you for a dime. And and so he took care of his customers and then the little boys there and waiting.

And and the man went back in the back and he came back out and he gave the little boy this box of his best and most precious roses, a dozen red roses. And he says, I have these for you and they are only a dime.

And the little boy's eyes got big as saucers. A dime. Yes, they're for you. And so he he took him home and gave him to his mother and everything. Of course, she wanted to know about about that. But that's the way it goes.

But like Paul Harvey, there was another part of this story. What would move that man to do that? What would move that man to do that? That morning. When he had got up, there is a voice that just sort of spoke to him.

You ever hear a voice that said, I want you to set aside a dozen of your best roses. He didn't know what that meant, but he did. He just set aside a dozen of his best roses. He didn't know what it meant.

And and when that little boy came in. He was reminded about that message and another message that had happened to him. When he was a little boy, about 10 years old also, and when he had that little boy in front of him, he remembered the two messages.

One, the voice that morning set aside and then he heard again, this is for that little boy. These roses were for this little boy. Ah, but this first message that he had received reminded him of why he was to do this.

And that was when he was a little boy, about 10 years old. He was going down the street one day and he needed something for his mother, too. And he didn't have anything. Oh, this is where I got it. He didn't have anything to get his mother with.

And an older man with a beard, the story says, came up to him and handed him a ten dollar bill and went off. And he went and got his mother something. And the Lord must have reminded him about that thing.

And this is the cycle as the Lord feeds us. And as we have a loaf of bread here for our word picture this morning, before we go into communion, this bread, you know, bread goes through a process. And I'm not just talking about processed bread that when we're done with it, it's just dead bread.

Daily Bread and Spiritual Nourishment

And then they throw in a few vitamins and say it's enriched and you could literally starve to death on it. That's all you had to do. A lot of stuff in the store. But this bread goes through a process.

And I thought I might share with you a little bit of the process of bread becoming life. And as you partake of this bread daily, the Lord said, give us this day our daily bread, didn't he? He intended it to be fresh ground daily to partake of because bread after about 72 hours, I'm told, loses the vitamin potential that it has.

And so it daily gives us strength. And we in turn, as we partake, we give out of our life that which we partake. We receive strength to walk and strength to to serve and give to others. Give us this day our daily bread.

The Lord is our daily bread. And I thought I'd take you through John chapter six. And I want you to notice bread in John chapter six. Let's turn over to John chapter six before we partake in John chapter six, starting off in verse twenty four.

Jesus as the Bread from Heaven

I want to just slip you down through some of these passages and we might make a comment here and there. But the Lord had fed the multitudes. You remember that? And he went across the sea and the multitudes came over there seeking him.

And the Lord said in verse twenty four, well, twenty four, it says they came to Capernaum seeking him the last thing. And twenty five, when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, whence cameest thou hither?

And Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not, there was the first mention of bread, the loaves, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you.

For him hath God the Father sealed. And they said unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent.

They said, therefore, unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What doest thou? What does thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven.

Their bread is mentioned. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. But my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. You have the feeling that they were maybe trying to manipulate the Lord to meet their selfish needs.

You never tried to do that, have you? Lord, if you'll do this for me, I'll do this for you. We'll make a deal. I'll get what I want and put a little pressure on you. You ever done that? I'm sure you probably haven't done that.

But, you know, if we're not careful, we can be like these crowds and try to manipulate God. I was thinking of this. Are we friends? Am I your friend? Do you trust me? Let's have a raising of the hand of the men that trust me.

Okay? You trust me. Would one of you like to give me a blank check with your name signed on it and turn me loose? Would I have a donation right now? Well, you're thinking through. I don't know. You're a little bit ornery sometimes.

But for a word picture, we won't go any farther than that. Can God do that with you? Can you lay your life out daily as a blank check and say, Okay, Lord, here's my life today. You fill in the amount.

The Lord reminded me yesterday how sometimes I pray this, but when it comes down to it, I'm not always willing. Boy, Lord, that's quite a bit you're writing in there today. Can we afford this? And the Lord will sometimes give us some gentle chastisement to remind us that we, in order to be life for others, must trust Him with our life daily.

Let's go on down through the passage a little bit more. 33, said, For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Do you know what the Jews murmured about?

Verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Out of all the stuff that he said so far, this is the thing they murmured about. For they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph?

Now why would they say that? Because they are already picking up that he is saying that he is deity, that he is God. That's why they said that. They're looking at him. No. And they didn't even understand his background enough to know that he wasn't the son of Joseph.

He was the son of Mary. Joseph had nothing to do with his birth into this world. Because he was virgin born by the Spirit of God. And they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

As it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.

Can you imagine? Jesus is given a picture of bread coming down from heaven. And the word picture in the Old Testament was the manna came down from heaven. And he gave them life. It was their life. That's what they ate for 40 years.

Came down from bread from heaven. Jesus says that he is bread from heaven. He is life for this world. And then he said, 49, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Spiritual Communion with Christ

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now many have taken this passage and they haven't understood it all.

And many turned back because they didn't understand that he wasn't talking about eating his physical body at all. He was talking about living of him, getting their life from Christ. You see, there was a parallel.

There was the carnal and the spiritual. Because they were carnal, they stayed on the carnal. They got stuck there. You know, we're not cannibals. He wasn't talking about that at all. But they couldn't grasp the spiritual, that he would be their life.

Remember what the Lord said? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Out of every word. And what was it that Peter said? When the Lord had finished up in 68th, and Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Thou hast the words of eternal life. Jesus is the living word. As he was living bread, his word is life. In going through this, I thought about this. How did we get in trouble on this earth? It was by eating.

Aid of the forbidden fruit. How did we find life to stay out of trouble? It's by eating Christ. Partaking of him. Coming back and we receive him. The living bread. As our Savior. In 53, he said, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man.

What that is, that's an aorist tense in the Greek. That's really exciting. I know. But that means it's a single act. At one point, you must receive Christ as your Savior. Then the next thing he says in 54, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood.

He said that's a continual thing. That's a perfect tense in the Greek, which means continuous. And so the lesson is, we must once be born again and receive Christ as our Savior. Then we must continually feed on Christ as our Savior.

So when we partake of communion, as we're fixing to do in a few moments. We're saying that we have received Christ as our Savior. When we take the bread and the juice, we're saying that we have received him as our Savior.

And that we continually feed on him. And that we're remembering him together. In going through some things, I listed out these things about eating bread. Eating is necessary, one, for life. You don't eat, you die.

The Personal Act of Receiving Christ

It's just necessary for life. You could have not eaten for a week. Or say four weeks. And you walk into this room and you haven't eaten. And you would have this bread presented to you. And you'd say, oh, that's a nice looking loaf of bread.

That smells good. Oh, it's soft. Oh, it just feels just great. You could admire it all your life. Or whatever you've got left of your life. And you're going to die. Unless you take and you eat. Many admire Christ.

They get emotional about the stories and everything. But they have never yet personally partook of Christ as their life. So it's necessary that you eat. You can know the truth that it just doesn't do you any good.

Until you receive it. Something else I noticed. Eating is responding to a felt need of hunger. Many do not receive Christ because they really never, they have not responded to their true need of Christ.

Junk food. We have junk food Christians. Read Christian books and all this. Christian books are fine. They're a good Christian book. But it won't substitute for the living word of God. Eating is responding to a felt need.

Eating implies an act of appropriation. Which is what I'm saying. You have to eat it. A table set full of food just doesn't do you any good. And then eating is a personal act. And so when we come to the table, it's between you and the Lord when we partake of the elements.

It's personal. So bread is a symbol of life. Jesus said, I am that bread. Bread is suited for all. Bread is a necessary food. Bread is a daily food. Bread is a satisfying food. Bread is a processed food.

The Process of Becoming Bread for Others

Here's the process. If you've ever done any farming, and I have done the farming on the wheat, all the way from A to Z. In the beginning you work your ground up with a different process of doing it. But first the blade comes up.

And around the country, around here, you'll see the green wheat blade. You know what's happening to that? It's supposed to die off right now, but they're going to have to harvest it about February if things keep going the way they're going this winter.

But first the blade. Then you have the ear. Then you have the full corn. Then you cut it. And then you winnow it. Then you ground it up. Then you take the flour and you beat it up. And so it goes through this process.

And then it's baked. And then you partake of it. And so it goes through a process. And for us to be a bread of life to others, the Lord takes us through a process too, so that we will be bread. But it satisfies.

It satisfies. Jesus satisfies us. And in thinking about this, I wrote this down last night. Jesus precisely fulfilled the feast that were celebrated more than 1200 years ago. He died on Passover as God's Lamb.

The Feasts Fulfilled in Christ

He was buried on the feast of unleavened bread as the bread of life. He arose on the feast of firstfruits as the firstfruits of those who will be raised to life. Then He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to begin the harvest of those who would believe.

And that's continued to this day. So when we partake of communion, there's many lessons. First of all, it's a symbol of knowing the Lord. It's a symbol of loving the Lord. And then it's a symbol of rejoicing in the Lord.

Remembering Christ Through Daily Nourishment

And the nourishment, the nourishing power of bread is in eating it. Not just admiring it. And so the Lord said, Take, eat. Well, suppose the disciples had said, Oh, this is really nice. Nice looking bread.

Nice looking wine. As they pass it around. Ah, smell it. Smells good. But they would have dishonored the Lord if they had never partook of Him. You know what it is when we daily fail to draw on Him moment by moment?

It's a dishonoring of Him because He is to be our life moment by moment as we partake of Him and draw off of Him. I was thinking about this as an illustration. You know, they say what you eat is what you are.

We've put into our minds, we've partake of nourishment of this world. Some of us are very skilled. We've partaken of the nourishment of this world. If you study computers, read the books, do all the research and everything, you have eaten computer logo and knowledge.

And so you begin to think that in that area, in the medical field, you have eaten in that area and you partake in that area. So what that is in you is that what comes out of you. I was thinking of one area.

I studied 240 hours in a certain engineering field. They gave me a little piece of paper when I was in the military and told me I was a specialist in that area. And then I haven't used it since I got out of the Air Force.

But they pumped me for months. They just pumped me in that area. It's all I did every day. And so I knew that area. And you know your area. If you do that in sports, if you put that into your life. So what comes in is what goes out.

The way Christ comes out of our life is because He comes into our life like we would partake of anything else. And so He told us to do this, to remember Him. I believe not just for emotional, but also for practical reminder that we would remember Him.