The Mystical Supper — K.P. Yohannan

Acknowledging the Lord in Everyday Life

The Bible says, in all your ways acknowledge the Lord. This is very good. You young people learn this now. Think about the practical side of it. You are sitting down to eat a meal, normally we all eat, but we should stop and thank God for it.

Think about it. More people die in India of starvation than any other country in the world. And how good and gracious God is providing our needs. And we need to say, oh Lord, thank you. When you get back home, in your family prayer meeting, before your meal, if they don't do that, you will help them to do it.

Tell your mummy and daddy, we will thank God for the food before we eat. And you are driving somewhere, say a word of prayer before you go. This is what I do. I've got a small electric car that belongs to the church.

And I sit in the car, but I pause. Then I say, Lord, thank you, watch over me, be with me. This next seat is for you. And then I pray, and I make the sign of the cross. Then I drive. In all our ways, we must acknowledge the Lord.

And this is how we learn to live a sacramental life. What is sacramental life? It is our life completely set apart for God. Whatever it is, all God's. And this is the biblical theology. And that's what we want.

That's the reason our church name is Believers Eastern Church. And you will hear more about it later, I hope. And today was a good day. I watched the musicians today. And Paul, Matthew, and a few others, they were brilliant, the music that was here.

And it was wonderful. And God is raising up good people. And tonight, we're going to have a small session, talk about something very important. But before I do, I want you to stand for a second. And the person in front of you, behind you, left, right, you give them a hug.

Smile, smile, smile, and say something nice. Okay, please be seated. I thank God for all these wonderful friends helping us with the video and the streaming and the sound system and the light. It's all so wonderful.

And I always used to wear a rubber band on my hair. But some of my people say, don't wear it. So I take it. See, now you see. If I put it, it's different. See, now. And they say, if Metropolitan do it, everybody will do it.

And they say, if Metropolitan do it, everybody will do it. What can we do? It's up to us. So tonight, I want you to use your mind very much. That is very important. Only as you use your mind and think carefully, you will understand some of these things I'm talking about.

The Holy Communion as a Mystery Meal

We saw a small video. And it's so inspirational. You can see the holiness, the sense, the beauty of Eucharist. How different it is from the thousands of so-called independent churches. I personally don't think they are churches at all.

But the real church will understand what that priest was talking about. And I will try to give you a brief explanation about the mystery meal or the holy communion. Let's think about us. We all come from different tribes, different cultures.

I'm from Kerala. I think they know that. I think you know about it. If I knew, I would have spoken in Hindi. When I went to North India in 1967, something terrible happened. I went to Rajasthan. And I began to eat the food.

And for 2 -3 weeks, I had non-stop diarrhea. So every few minutes, I was running. Where? There was no toilet. There was no toilet. Some bush. So you ask the question. Metropolitan, why do you have diarrhea?

And all those Rajasthani, Marwadi nice people, they get no diarrhea. The reason is simple. All my life, I grew up eating certain different kind of food. I was never used to the daal and all the northern sabjis and everything.

And I eat those chapatis and the daal fry. And then I hear somebody talking from my stomach. We don't like it. I say, you better keep it. He says, no, we don't want it. Then you run. Why? In my culture, we have a way of life.

We wear certain clothes. We wish people in a different way. In India, when we wish people, we fold our hands and we do like this. When I went to Myanmar and Japan, it's a different story. They shake hands differently.

So I gave my hand and they gave me his hand. And the person, he was holding his hand like this. And I asked, why are you doing like this? They said, oh, you are so important. You have so much weight. You need two hands to hold your respect.

I never heard them say that. In America, you go. They have their culture. Every tribe has their cultures. The symbols, the visible things you see, what they eat, what they do, how they wear clothes, everything tells about their culture.

And here in Kerala, you see the ladies wearing sari. How do they wear sari? Do you know? They wear sari. We don't. I think in Kerala, they wear sari like this. And in Kerala, they put the sari from one side to the other.

I am thinking like this. But some place in North India, some tribal communities, they wear the sari this other way. And in Gujarat, they do that. And they look nice. And that is the way they wear their clothes.

And within their culture, that is fine. And when you travel all over the world, without anyone telling you, you will know your people just by looking at them. Think about Bharat, my beloved country. We have a symbol, the flag.

The flag here, and Kashmir, in Assam, in Manipur, everywhere, the same flag. You don't change it. And the national anthem, Jain song, it's the same song. In childhood, we were singing it. So we have our distinctives that tell what we are, who we are, by the things we do that people can see.

That's a human reality. We must understand that. Now here is one thing you need to think. God is a spirit. God is invisible. And we are visible. And says God made us in His image. What does that mean?

There are qualities, the energies of God that He wanted humans to have in their life. And God made man and woman all people for Himself. But man failed. And God, because of love, He is finding a way to restore us to Himself.

And as humans, there are things we do as followers of Christ. That help us to get in touch with the invisible God. For example, we make the sign of the cross. What is this? Anybody can do this. It has no meaning.

But when you do this, there are three fingers like that. That represent the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And two fingers represent the two nature of Christ, God, the nature and the man. He was 100 God, 100 man when He lived on earth.

He had two natures as He lived on earth. But He did not use His God powers as He lived here. Why? He came as a second Adam to live on earth as God will want the man to live. That is the reason when He was tempted all the time, He never sinned.

So when I hold my hand like this and I do this, what I am saying, Jesus from heaven came down to earth and the one I was on the left side of God and He took me to be on His right side. And that is how we make the sign of the cross.

If you are looking at me, you can see here. Here I do like this. But when I do that, what am I saying? Oh Jesus, my body, my soul, my spirit all belong to You. The mark of the cross is a seal and devil has nothing to do with me.

The Passover, the Cross, and the Presence of God

In the book of Exodus, God told Moses take the blood of the innocent lamb and put it on the door post outside. That night, the whole land the death angel will come but when they see the blood they will pass over.

The blood of the lamb and Jesus' blood is the holy blood and this act we do is a holy act. The other day I saw a little baby girl, only one year old. Her mother said, pray. She is not talking. She is doing this and that.

And then when she finishes, she does this. She is very hurried to pray but this she will not forget. Every one of you from now on eating meal here going anywhere there you always practice this. We have a custom when you go to church to worship suppose this is a church this I do this I do I come into the door and I stand outside and I stop for a second and I bow my head and make the sign of the cross.

Why? I say, Father, this is where I am worshipping you. The angels and archangels are here and your presence is here. This is not a cinema theater. This is a holy place. You find that in the Old Testament.

The Ark of the Covenant God's presence is there. The temple that was built the presence of God there when we gather for worship who is the audience? Not the preacher. Not the music people. The audience is only God.

And the Holy Trinity all the angels and archangels and all the saints in heaven. I know about one priest. It's a true story. Just like you saw on the video this priest was conducting a holy communion and he was facing the altar.

It's okay if I move here? As he was moving here to pray for the bread and the wine to sanctify it. And there is a prayer to the Holy Spirit May the Holy Spirit sanctify this bread that it may become for us the body of Christ.

Then the priest bowed his head and then in the chalice May the Holy Spirit sanctify the wine in this chalice that it may become for us the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was doing that. This man I know is not a fake.

His brain is real. And all of a sudden he said something happened. It was one billionth of a second. It is like the curtain was pulled all of a sudden he was looking the face of angels archangels and throne of God and the believers that went to heaven the saints of heaven.

They were all part of it.

And for a second he got scared. He was looking at two things and first time he realized this is a mystery. It is not the protestant western people talk about this is a memory, no this is a mystery. Let me remind you of something.

What is the greatest event in history of mankind? It is the coming of Christ and his life on earth and his death on the cross and his resurrection the greatest event in history. And the whole bible is about that one subject.

When we worship who is the audience? Who is the audience? God is the audience. Why? We are there to worship God. We go to church not to get something for us. We go to church all for our worship. In the early church you read in the book of Acts 2 all these thousands of people became followers of Christ.

They were all Jewish people not people like us. And the Jewish people had the fear of God. But they became believers in Christ. They understood what they were doing. When Jesus said this is my body, this is my blood they understood the mystery of the holy communion.

And so many churches don't understand it. In science there is a thing called cause and effect. If a storm comes lot of coconuts will fall down. Mangoes will fall down. If you take a stone and throw it in the lake not in our lake.

What happens? That stone you threw in the lake or the pond will create ripples. My two hands I can do all I want. Nothing happens. But this hand sounds. So the cause and the effect holy communion has an effect.

It has a mystical effect. And that's what we need to take into account. There is a mystery in the holy communion. What is that? Jesus said I am no more with you. We read that from the holy scripture. But I am leaving this with you.

In my place, my body and my blood. And you read about it. God is invisible. And now he tells us here is the blood and here is the body the two elements that represent me. They are normal bread and wine.

But when the consecration is done we approach the throne of God and the prayers are offered. The invisible get in touch with me. It gets in touch with the visible. And there is an effect. And when we partake of the holy communion it has an effect in our life.

The Eucharist is the most important sacrament in the Bible. The heart of the worship is the holy communion. Most people do not know how to conduct the holy communion. Most people do not know the meaning of it.

But when you read the scripture when you meditate on the scripture you will find thousands of Jewish people who became Christians. They gave themselves for the study of the doctrines of apostles. And partaking of the Eucharist and prayer.

How did they understand that? They know from the story of Exodus. For 400 years they were in slavery. It was the picture of sin. And God said Moses, the way of deliverance is the blood of the lamb. That's what they did.

The blood of the lamb. The holy blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the way of redemption. No other way. And that's what Jesus did. And even today Jewish people all over the world celebrate the Passover every year.

In remembrance of the deliverance they had. But the deliverance was from Egypt. Our deliverance from sin and death. Think about that. And Jesus, the last meal with his disciples He had supper with his people.

And then among all the bread as I mentioned before he took one piece of bread. And he consecrated. That means set apart. This for God to possess. This is for Christ. And then he broke it. And he said now this is my body.

The same thing he did with the chalice and the wine. And he said this is my blood. And the Christians followed that for two thousand years. One great theologian said this statement. Recognize what is before your eyes.

What is hidden will be revealed to you. Sometimes we think just with our mind. And we celebrate it just like any other celebration Onam, Holi, whatever. But this is called Holy Communion. It is a holy sacrament.

Why? It is not created by us. It is given by Christ himself. Here is a beautiful thing. I am a sinful man. A little man. I have so many problems. But God values my life sacramental. He says I made you.

I want you to be mine. So he did something that allowed me to partake from the Holy Communion. Part of his desire now coming into my life. The early orthodox fathers They struggled to understand it. How do you explain it?

Because God said you shall not worship any other thing other than God himself. And the Romans said these Christians are cannibals. They are killing human beings and eating their flesh and blood. But they understood something.

It is beyond our logic. It is a mystery. You read in 1 Timothy 3 .16 The mystery of godliness is great. God became flesh. And he lived among us. Do you understand?

God loves us.

The Incarnation, Redemption, and the Blood of Christ

And he wants us to know him. He wants us to know him. Think about all the bulbs. They are all lit up. And the fans are rolling. And it is so nice. But if there is no electricity what happens? Did you do that?

Angel must have done it. So you see we don't see the electricity. But we see the effect of it. God we cannot see. But he became flesh. Why? So that he can sacrifice his life on the cross for us. I heard the story about a famous doctor from Vellore Medical College.

It is a real story. This happened many many years ago. There was a big epidemic. I am not a doctor. I cannot explain everything correctly. But hundreds of people are dying. There is no antidote. In order to save these people they need to have this antidote.

If you get bitten by a snake we will take you to the hospital. They will give you an antidote. You will recover. But there thousands are dying. But finally the daughter of this big doctor got the same sickness.

His own daughter. What shall he do? They knew the only answer to find someone who had the illness and built up the antibodies in his body. And take that blood and process it and make the serum and inject it into the girl.

And the girl is dying. Not much time left. It is a panic. They are searching all over the place. Is there anyone anywhere? Hundreds of miles. Finally they found one tribal boy. He overcame. He built antibodies.

And quickly they brought him to the hospital and took his blood and then they processed it and took the serum and injected it. And the girl was saved. Think about it. What is man's problem? We all are infected by satanic deception and we all have sinned.

We are sick. That's the reason we have all the problems. But to get well. What do you mean get well? It is to our relationship with the father. It is to come back to the father. And we must be healed.

Healed of sin. And then Jesus died on the cross. He poured out his blood. The sinless holy blood. But here is a question. How can Jesus' blood be so holy? Yes, he was born of God. What about Mary? What about the mother of God, Mary?

She was not born of God. She was a daughter of Adam and Eve. Just like any one of us. So how can he be born in the womb of a sinful woman or a daughter of human race and then Jesus be sinless and pure blood?

I used to wonder about it. I used to agonize over it. I began to read the ancient fathers of the church. The first two, three, four, five hundred years of the readings. And they explained it. Why? God must have talked to them.

And now the scientists discovered the blood of the mother when the child is in the womb. Her blood never mingles with his blood. The mother's blood never mingles with the baby's blood. And here is the pure blood of God.

And he poured it out. The pure antidote. The blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. If you take the Bible, go from page one all the way to the end you will see the line, a chain a marker that goes throughout every page the blood of Christ.

The crimson red line. But here is a problem. Big problem. Here is the bread. Here is the wine. How can this be the body and the blood of Christ? He lived 2000 years ago. How can this be? Do we have the power to do anything with it?

We don't. We have no powers. There are a lot of people who say they have got healing power. I don't have any healing power. But I believe God answers prayer. Some years ago. It's a real story. Maybe you heard it, I'll tell it again.

Way up in North Kerala there was a tribal woman living in a hut and she had no children. But one big problem. She had so much problem with her body and she went to the hospital and they took the uterus out.

Without uterus you cannot have a baby. And one day she heard me on the radio Jesus is there in your house. Jesus is near you. He died for you. You believe him. He will forgive your sins. He will make you his child.

And if you are sick you cry out to him. He will heal you also. This poor woman. I imagine a half naked tribal woman sitting in her hut. And she didn't know what to do. And the radio is there. And she prayed to Jesus.

And I said if you believe put your hand where you are sick. It's an act of faith. And she put her hand on her stomach. Jesus, I don't have a baby. Please give me a baby. I tell you something. If she had come to me a week before and said to me my uterus is taken out.

Please pray for me. So I will get a child. You know what I will tell her? Let me think about it. Maybe I will pray for you later. It's hard for me to think this could be possible. But she simply believed it.

God can recreate something that is not there. A year later she had a baby. How do you explain it? Hallelujah. That is our God. Tonight when you go out look into the sky. You only see one or two galaxies.

Maybe not even one. But there are crores of galaxies. And man cannot see it. Who made all of it? God made it. Just saying words and everything came out of nothing. That is our God. That is our God. And this God now lived with us.

And then he told I am leaving you. But here is something you need to do until I come back. Partake of the Holy Communion. What happens to the bread and the wine when the priest consecrated? God can do anything.

Water can be made into wine. Wine can be made into water. God can do anything. He can raise the dead. It is beyond our understanding. But we know how they consecrate the elements. Because Saint James told us when you say those words the mystery takes place.

The Holy Spirit comes upon the elements and all of a sudden the blending of the transient takes place with the eminent. That is the invisible and visible blending takes place. But we must believe it. We must understand it.

And this is a mystery. There are a lot of churches say that bread and wine it is like Coca-Cola and tapioca. We just do this in remembrance. I got a photograph of my father and mother. They are hanging on the wall.

But they died long ago. Their photographs are there. If you go to a library you will find a 50 feet long panoramic history of the world and the church and everything. And it is very long. And it is very big.

It talks about from the beginning of time Adam all the way to the end. These secular kingdoms Alexander the Great Alexander the Great the Roman Empire and the Greek Empire and all the things happening in Europe and what happened in the Bible.

It is a huge pictorial explanation. Sometime I went there and I stood there from the beginning and looked at it and reading it I go to the end of it. But one problem. Something that represents 4000 years I did it in 4 minutes.

One problem. I never entered into the events they talked about. I stood outside and watched it. You take a beautiful flower beautiful rose flower real flower and you smell it. You can put it behind your ear and put it on your head but you cannot enter into the most beautiful scent that is of the rose flower.

But in the Eucharist something amazing happens. God's invisible life and the sacrifice becomes mine right now. Some people say that is not correct Metapolitan. Because Jesus died 22 ,000 years ago and now 2000 years later.

How can that be? Let me tell you this. The Bible says about Jesus the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world before the world began he saw himself as a slain killed lamb of God. That is the reason when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son and the boy said Father there is a wood and there is fire but where is the animal for sacrifice?

And Abraham said in the Hebrew language my son God will provide himself the sacrifice. You should understand that. Some translation in the Bible is not correct but if you study that Greek or Hebrew it is Abraham saying God himself is going to become the sacrifice someday.

And so when we take the Holy Communion it is not like any food that we eat. I don't take Holy Communion from many other churches because they don't know what they are doing and they are eating tapioca and fish curry they eat that also.

But you saw on the video the Believers Eastern Church adheres to the faith of the original orthodox fathers who were taught by the apostles about these mysteries. So here is the important thing you must remember and you must help your parents understand it.

You must help your church members understand it and you must pray and test this and see the changes that take place in your life and Eucharist is the means of God pouring out His special grace upon His people.

But when about AD 500 came around there was a change in some of the people living in the West and they began to interpret some of these things differently and when the Reformation took place Martin Luther and Zingli and his friends they said bread and wine is a symbol but the problem they didn't understand symbol and reality becomes one in the Eucharist and there are churches that say the bread and the wine actually become the flesh and the blood of Christ.

Believers in the Eastern Church don't teach that. Why? Jesus didn't say that the disciples didn't say that all Jesus said this is my body when He said that the bread didn't change when He said this is my blood the wine didn't change but mystically the Holy Spirit converted the elements into the invisible and the visible body of Christ.

Our head cannot understand it fully and this is the most amazing mystery of the Holy Communion because of the pressure to explain this rational mind the church leaders at that time some church said this actually becomes flesh and blood.

But the earliest orthodox fathers but the earliest orthodox fathers this was not a symbol of Jesus' body and blood and Holy Communion for them was a mystical encounter with God Himself and this is the heart of worship.

Apostolic Tradition and the Life of the Church

And this is the heart of worship. When the church began the Christians they were still going to the temple the Jewish temple when they recognized they worship Jesus as the Messiah they rejected them and persecution started.

And Sunday the Lord's day they met. For what? The main thing meet Christ. Now you see our altar any of our churches you go you never find the preacher's pulpit in front. Why? Because no priest is a mediator between God's throne and His powers and the angels and archangels.

No man is God's representative. Also I told you for 400 years there was no such thing as Old Testament or New Testament. The Old Testament was canonized the same time or after the New Testament was canonized.

But how did they do all this? It was a tradition handed down. Jesus told them this is how you do it. And the disciples told them this is how you do it. Saint John one time said I have so many things to write but I don't have the time.

But when I come I will tell you the rest of the things. But that is not in the Bible. But how do you know what He said? Because the church did it and it's handed down. This is how we have our cultures handed down.

Seven Purposes of the Eucharist

And my brothers and sisters I just want to quickly wrap up some practical aspects of this. Why we partake of the Eucharist. Why we partake of the Eucharist. One, obviously it's a way of blessing the gift of Jesus giving Himself to His children.

In John's Gospel chapter 6 Saint John said Jesus speaking unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part in me. Some six times he said that and that mystical union of our Lord and our weak life that needs to be healed.

We receive the grace through the Holy Communion. Secondly this has the promise of eternal life. That's what Jesus said. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood they are partaking of eternal life. That is the promise He made.

Number three this is the way we abide with the Lord. This morning I showed you the mannequin. How do we continually constantly stay with the Lord and say Jesus you died for me. I remember you. You rose again and thank you His life is in us.

Number four this is the way God's grace is poured into our life. God's grace is sufficient for all our needs. The next point the partaking of the Holy Communion it is restoration of relationship with the Father because we acknowledge why Jesus died.

Also with others love one another as I have loved you all the commandments of God in this love God, love others. How can I do it. I don't have the strength. I need electricity for the bulb to light up.

So Eucharist is a means the changes take place without me knowing relationship restored with the Father and humanity. Another thing Isaiah 53 it says when Jesus died on the cross He shed His blood His body was broken.

He took our infirmities He took our pain He took our sickness and by His stripes we are healed. It's a way of experiencing new beginnings in our life. And number seven it is the ultimate act of worship.

When we go to church we go there not to meet the priest not to meet all the singing people not to meet the great prophet. We go there to meet the Lord Jesus. He is the one worthy of all worship. So when we have the liturgical worship it is not man saying anything he wants.

All the prayers go from eternity past to eternity future. It is a journey we make. In this journey the cross of our Lord is the most important thing. It is through the cross we are forgiven. We are healed.

We overcome death. That is the mystery of the Eucharist the symbol and the reality becomes one. I pray you understand it. But how do you practically do some of those things. I want to show some of this to you.

Practically we have just a few minutes. Would you all stand for a second and stretch your hand. So no one will be sleeping and say something nice to someone. Ok please be seated. Now you all need to be quiet.

Consecrated Elements and Apostolic Succession

Now you need to understand there is a bread here and chalice but none of these are consecrated. This is only to show you how we believers of Eastern Church based on the first century we conduct our worship service.

And one other thing is this. This is like a plate called paten that holds the bread. This is the chalice that holds the wine. But something else you need to see in the first century thousands of people from everywhere were coming to Christ and lot of people start teaching false doctrines and they understood the power mystery of the Holy Communion for us.

We don't understand the mystery fully for the people. Then it was like the Ark of the Covenant that God actually comes here. And all kind of people wanted to do this thing. So the apostles and the church fathers it is called the orthodox fathers.

They decided it is written in the historical document. They devised a thing called tablita. Now this is made of wood. Now on this you will read this glory be to the father the son and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit consecrate this tablita through the hands of Metropolitan, that's my name of the Believers Church and this is given to St. Thomas Believers Church Cathedral, August 15, 2015. When you turn it over you will find the cross English writing also there and also writing in Syriac that is the Aramaic, the original language Jesus spoke and it says here for the peace and building of the Holy Church of God.

Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the year of our Lord, 2015 for St. Thomas Believers Church Cathedral this tablita has been consecrated by the Holy Spirit and Metropolitan's signature and it is consecrated with the Holy Muron.

That Muron comes from the first century. It is not something that we cook up and you know why it is when the Bishop gave this to someone this was the proof that he was a good man that he was authorized to conduct Holy Communion.

Sometimes it was a piece of cloth sometimes it was a piece of stone. This way the apostolic teachings was maintained without false teaching. We call it apostolic tradition. So this cloth that goes over the table there is a pouch here, it is sitting in there and the bread and the wine sits on that.

Why? This tablita starts from the first century and when this is blessed this is as good as it was done by the apostles. And when the priest says blessings for the people he is supposed to take the part of his clothes and make sure it touches the tablita and say peace be with you all.

Why? I am not having the authority to do whatever I want. I am doing it in the authority of the apostles. This is called apostolic succession. And then there are times before we handle these things. The priest prays prayer silently Oh God I am unworthy servant please cleanse me to serve you and serve your people.

And then one of the assisting priest comes and take the water as a symbol and pour it on my hand and I wipe it and prayer is going on. Then you see the clothes we wear all the clothes have different meaning.