The Wonder of the Lord's Supper — David Davis

You mean it? It means praise the Lord. We're here to praise the Lord, amen? That's why we come to his house, to praise him. I'd like you to bow your heads and pray with me. Lord, I ask you right now, Father, you will speak to your children, every one of us.

I ask for a fresh anointing of your Holy Spirit, Yeshua. I ask you, Holy Spirit, you will take the things of Yeshua and implant them in our hearts and transform us. In the name of Yeshua. There's something that's been on my heart for some time that's getting deeper and deeper and deeper and I felt it was time to share it with you.

The Lord’s Supper as a Transformative Mystery

I don't suggest I know everything about this topic, but I believe there are some deep truths the Lord wants to reveal to us. Years ago, when I lived in New York City, at one point in my life, I went out to try to find God.

And I was really looking for him. I wanted to know him. And I was part of a group for a time. There were some friends of mine there and I went to this meeting every Sunday morning. And one morning, once a month, we would have what we called agape love feasts.

And so people would bring bread and wine and fruit and food and we'd just have a party. And I liked it, but I wasn't meeting God. But one morning, the leader said, on the night that he was betrayed, he took bread and broke it and said, this is my body broken for you.

And then he said, and after supper, he took the cup and blessed it and said, this is my blood of the new covenant shed for you. When he said those words, all of a sudden it was like something entered my heart and stabbed me in the heart.

I bent over and I started sobbing and weeping. I didn't know what was happening to me. I just knew that something had really dramatically happened inside myself. And so a few days later I met the Lord and gave my heart to the Lord.

But there's something about the Lord's Supper. Many writers for centuries have written about it and called it a mystery. But there's something wonderful about it that we need to celebrate it and we need to obey him because it's something that he did for us that will do something powerful in our lives if we really embrace it.

The Hidden Preparation for Passover

As I've been studying this, there's some real mysteries about how the Lord put this together. For instance, we know that Judas went to the high priest and told him that he would betray Yeshua. And it was shortly before Passover.

I call it a covenant with the devil. They made an agreement that he would betray the Lord. And they exulted and they rejoiced and they said, we'll give you money. And all this was done secretly at night.

And shortly after that, the Lord said to his disciples, he said to two of them, go into Jerusalem. It was on the eve of Passover. And when you get there, you'll see a man carrying a pitcher of water on his shoulder.

Men didn't carry pitchers of water. Women carried them. Like Rebecca. Men did not do it. So these two disciples at night were told to go into Jerusalem and you will see a man carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him. And follow him and he will take you to a place, a house, and say to the Baal HaBayit, the owner of the house, the rabbi, the teacher, is ready for the upper room that's been prepared. Either Yeshua had secret disciples in Jerusalem.

I happen to think he did. Or this was all totally miraculous. Whatever you think about it, it's mysterious. Why did he do it this way? I believe he didn't want anybody to know, but he was being very, very careful that no one realized what was going on.

Jesus Leads a New Passover Family

So let's pick up the story of what happened in Luke chapter 22. He's with the twelve. He's in the upper room. Another mystery. Passover, Pesach, is a family meal. The father of each family leads the seder, leads the celebration of Passover.

These fathers, like Peter, they weren't home. Where was the father? This was a peculiar Passover. Some of those disciples may have said, well, we should be with our family leading the seder. The Abba is supposed to lead the seder.

Maybe some of the disciples said, we should be with our families leading the seder. So think about this. Here's Yeshua sitting with his twelve disciples. And he is leading it. He's the father. Something radically new is happening here.

He wasn't with his family. They were back in Nazareth probably. So look what happens. Chapter 22, Luke 22, verse 14. When the hour had come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. Now think of it.

He's sitting with his twelve disciples. Apostles in training. And he says this. With fervent desire, with burning, heartfelt burning desire, I have desired over and over, he says it, to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

There was this burning desire in the Son of God saying to his men, I'm longing, I'm desiring to eat this Passover with you. He's looking at the men who will go out and change the world. And something awesome and mysterious and beautiful and wonderful is about to happen.

Even as the lambs are about to be slaughtered in the temple nearby. The Passover lamb, of course, is Yeshua. And so he says this. Verse 16. I said to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks. Take this and divide it among yourselves. The Son of God who is about to go and suffer for the sins of the world took the cup, the Passover cup, and gave thanks. What humility is this?

He gave thanks to the Father that now I can go and die for these men and the whole world. This Lord's Supper, the Last Supper, Holy Communion, whatever you want to call it, is so profound it is one of the turning pivot moments of the whole world.

And he earnestly desired, heartfelt, to do this. And then he thanks the Father. Thank you that this is the hour I'm going to go and die for the sins of the world. We need to be very careful here in Israel.

We do a Messianic we're going to do it today, Lord's Supper or Passover Seder. And we'll usually bless the cup and say, Baruch Haba B'Shem Baruch Haba and pray the blessing of it. Baruch Atah, Eloheinu Meshienu and whatever the blessing might be.

We need to be careful that it's not just a ritual. Baruch Atah, Elohenu Melech Ha 'olam Borei Priya Gefen. We say this we say it every Friday night, we bless the cup and we're the fruit of the vine and he's the vine.

So, we don't know what he blessed, what he said, but he gave thanks to die for us. So look what happens. Verse 17 He took the cup, he gave thanks, he gave it to them and said, divide this among yourselves.

Then verse 19 He took the bread. He took the bread he blessed it. Baruch Atah Eloheinu Melech Ha 'olam Borei Priya Gefen. Maybe he said that. But we don't know what he said, but we do know that he blessed it.

And we assume he was using matzah not a challah like this. Because matzah is unleavened bread and there was the feast of unleavened bread and they were celebrating Passover. So he took the bread and I like this challah because it's all knit together and the Lord's Supper is also a celebration of his body.

Here on earth look at the person next to you if you're believers, you're braided together in one loaf of bread. We're one loaf. Amen. Hallelujah. So everything that he was doing had this tremendous significance that has echoed down 2 ,000 years in order to change our lives and come closer to him.

Verse 20. This cup is the new covenant of my blood which is shed for you. When I heard that years ago it was like his truth pierced my heart that the Son of God would come down and die that he even would take awareness of me but would die for me.

The Lord’s Supper Creates a New Family

Now I want to point out to you something that I think is important for us. This is a picture You've seen the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Lord's Last Supper I mean, we all know what artists think of it.

They were not with their families. The fathers were not at home with their families when the families, wherever they were, were having seders. This is a new family. He was instituting a new family. The family of God.

When I met him when I was able to somehow after weeping and sobbing on the floor and got up and sat down I looked around at the people in that meeting they were black people they were white people they were Jews they were Gentiles they were Asian people and I knew they were my family.

I had come into a new family. The Lord's Supper, when we get a real understanding of it it's an emblem where he's trying to say to us I have given you a new DNA. We have a DNA which is the heredity, the genes that we receive from our biological father and mother.

This is a spiritual DNA. When they said, what about your family? He said, who is my family? When they asked Jesus what about your family? He said, my family are my brothers and sisters that do the will of my father in heaven.

That's who my family is. You know as many as received them he gave the right to be called children of God. Everyone who received it he gave them the right to be children of God. Who were born not of blood nor of the will of man but of God.

Over the years you meet people and they will say you don't know the DNA I carry you don't know what my father was like. You don't know the DNA I carry you don't know what my father was like. Or I never knew my father.

I've seen people use it as excuses. One time this person said to me, I was trying to help this person. I said, well you're just rude. And the person said, that's who I am. That's my DNA, I'm rude. I said, my bible says love is not rude.

You need a new DNA in the spirit. One time this lady I was trying to help I said to her, you never stop talking. She said, that's who I am. I said, I thought you were a person of the spirit. You listen and not speak all the time.

New Birth and Spiritual DNA

The Lord wants to say something to us this morning that I think is profound and deep. Those that are born of the flesh are the flesh. Those that are born of the spirit are the spirit. Nicodemus didn't understand it.

Turn to John chapter one. Yohanan Aleph. John chapter one. Verse twelve. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who are called by his name. Verse thirteen.

Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. We are people of the spirit. When we meet the Lord and receive him into our life, into our heart, the Holy Spirit comes down and takes up residence in our natural spirit, our human spirit.

And the Holy Spirit will have authority over the flesh and over the soul realm. In that sense, we have a new spiritual DNA. I once was dead, but now I'm alive. Hallelujah. Anyone who is in Messiah is a new creation.

The old that passed away, behold, all things are new. That word for new, it means pure, fresh, virginal, never before touched, holy. You're a new creation. A creation is your whole being. And so the Lord is celebrating the new covenant in his blood so that we can be new creations.

Look at verse 16. And of his fullness, we have all received grace for grace. Of his fullness, we have the fullness of God in us. The Holy Spirit takes the thing of Yeshua and imparts him into our heart and we become more and more like him.

I don't have to be like my father. I had a good father. Praise God. But I also saw him once, he was coaching a basketball team. The kids were about this big on the team and one of the kids wasn't listening to him.

He threw a basketball at him as hard as he could, knocked the kid down, and he started crying. I don't have to treat the men at House of Victory that way. I don't have to be like that. The Lord wants us to be like Yeshua.

Praise the Lord. Look, this is a message of victory. They didn't understand what these emblems mean when he was doing this, but we do. Hallelujah. It's really what I call a new spiritual DNA. Now, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

He made him who knew no sin, Yeshua, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5 .21. What does this all mean? We're supposed to do this in memory of him, in remembrance of him, to remember his death until he comes.

Hallelujah, he's coming. The Lord's Supper can represent the past, the present, and the future. All the past sins, all the hurts we put on people, all the wounds that we have received in the past, we can go to the Lord and say, I'm a new creation because you did what this represents for me.

I can be free from my past. Hallelujah. Because of his shed blood for us and because of his broken body for us. The present. We are forgiven. We look at this and we're supposed to examine ourselves before we take the elements.

What I like to do is I just remember what he has done for me. I've been forgiven. That's enough to make everybody jump and shout and run around the room. The guilt that I carried for so many years, boom, it was gone.

Not only am I forgiven, I'm redeemed. He paid the price to buy me back from the enemy and bring me into his kingdom. He chose you before the foundation of the world that you would be holy and without blame.

No blame. No guilt. No shame. It's all wiped away because of what this represents for us. He chose us before the foundation of the world He chose him long before anybody knew anything about him. Hallelujah.

We're accepted. Has anyone in here ever had a problem with rejection? If you don't put up your hand there's something wrong with you. Listen, in the kingdom of God you are accepted. He's made a way. You're adopted.

You're part of the family. He's the Holy Father. And when we go to the Lord's table in a couple of minutes, we should be thinking about these things. What has he done? What he's done for me? Where he took me from?

And how he's still working on me? But this represents the past, the present, and the future. We're going to a messianic seder. Hallelujah. We're going to a wedding feast, the feast of the Lamb. This all represents the Lamb.

Hallelujah. So when we come to the Lord's table, you know, I want to say this. In a way, I'm glad there aren't some big groups here today. We thank the visitors that are here for coming. We thank you for it.

This is family. And for Keilada Carmel, for our congregation, we don't want to take the Lord's Supper just like it's a ritual. Look, it's profound. You can study it the rest of your life. Who was that man with the water pitcher?

Was he an angel? What did the rest of the people in the town think when this guy came? Men don't do that. Why is that guy doing that? How did the owner of that building know that this room was supposed to be set apart and prepared for the Seder for the Rabbi Yeshua?

The Lord set these people apart in such secrecy it was so profound that nobody should poke their nose in there even though the man who owned the place wasn't in the Seder. The Lord set these people apart in such secrecy that nobody should know about it.

Obedience, Self-Examination, and the Lord’s Table

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians. Chapter 10. You know, psychology will deal with the soul realm. Try to help people. In psychiatry and Freudian psychology they'll say it's all because of your parents. It's all because of your grandparents.

I remember one time a woman said to me and she was a middle-aged woman a believer for many years and she said the reason I am the way that I am is because of my grandfather. And she said, will you pray for me that the curse of my grandfather will be broken off of me?

I said, did you know him? She said, no, I didn't really know him. She said, he's been dead for years. And she was stumbling around in her walk with the Lord in weakness, blaming it on her grandfather.

So I said, I'll meet you tomorrow at such and such a place. I'm going to pray about this and I'll come and meet you. She thought she had a demon and she wanted me to deliver her from a demon in Jerusalem.

So I prayed and went back and met with her. And I met with her and she said, do you have a word for me? Are you going to pray for me? I said, I do have a word for you. If you love me, obey my word. You are truly my disciple and the truth will set you free.

You know what happened? She started weeping. She said, that's what's wrong with me. I haven't been in the word. I haven't been discipling myself in the word of God. If you love him, keep his commandments.

He commands us to do this and remember him. If you love me, keep my commandments. You talk with somebody else, I'll say, well, how's your prayer life? Well, I really haven't had time. You're disobeying the Lord.

When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and your father will meet with you. If you want to live in the spirit realm, if you want to have this new spiritual DNA which he's made available for us, our part is to follow the master and do what he says.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Verse 17. For we, though many, are one bread, one loaf, and one body, for we all partake of one loaf, that one loaf. For we, though many, are one body, that we all partake of one loaf.

He's the bread of life come down from heaven. He's the loaf. He's the bread. We break it and we eat part of it. We pass it around. And we become one body. We are one body. There's people from I don't know how many nations here there's Jews, Arabs, Russians Americans, I don't know who all, British, even somebody from London.

Listen to me. We're all one. These young ladies from Sudan and Eritrea and their children, we're one. We're all one loaf. We're one family. We're the family of God. We're the family of God. Develop your family relationships.

Get to know your sisters and brothers. You might say, well I don't like this one person. That's the person you ought to go hang out with and get to love the person. Why are people looking at one another here?

Listen. When we celebrate this, we're celebrating his death and resurrection that he's made us one with him and one with each other. Johnny, I'm one with you. I was one with you when your name was Jihad before you changed it.

Hallelujah. Frank, I'm one with you and you're one with Carol and we're all one. This is what we celebrate that he made the way that all these different races could be one, still one. You can't change your natural DNA.

If you're a Jew, you're a Jew. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't change your natural DNA. If you're a Jew, you're a Jew. But you can receive a spiritual DNA that you become a spiritual Jew that is on fire for the Messiah reaching people.

Hallelujah. Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 23. Verse 23. I received, this is the Shaul, this is the Apostle Paul, the Rabbi Paul writing to a congregation he planted in Corinth, which is in Greece.

And the reason they wrote it, he wrote it, they had lost their reverence for the Lord's Supper. They were actually pushing people out of the line getting some of the bread themselves. They were coming there as sinners.

They hadn't examined themselves. They were just participating in this little meal. So the father of the congregation writes back to them to try to correct what they were doing. He says, I received from the Lord this is from the Lord about the Lord's Supper.

He says, I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Yeshua, on the same night that he took bread, he was betrayed, he took bread. And when he'd given thanks, think about it again, the Lord told Paul this.

On that night, he held the bread, the matzah, whatever it was, and he gave thanks to die, thanking his father to take my place and take all my sins upon him. We should think about these things when we take the Lord's Supper.

That's what this is all about. Look, it's life-giving. When you start thanking the Lord for everything he did for me, you'll walk out of here transformed. Hallelujah. He says, take this and eat. This is my body, broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Do it in remembrance of him. Fall in love with him. I love some of those songs we were singing this morning, the beauty and the graciousness and the wonder of Yeshua. This Lord's Supper is most holy.

It is profoundly holy. It is celebrating, remembering the cross, remembering Gethsemane, remembering his being raised from the dead, and knowing that he's coming. Hallelujah. He says, let's go on. Verse 25.

In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper. This cup is the new covenant. It's the new covenant. Keno is pure, never before touched. New covenant in my blood. This, do as often as you drink in remembrance of me.

He says, do not take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. And then he says, examine yourself. Verse 28. Don't take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. The word he uses here, unworthy, means indifferent.

I've been to places in different parts of the world nothing had happened in the meeting. The Lord wasn't present. The candlestick had been removed at Menorah. And yet the minister would stand up there his sins are forgiven, go in peace.

Nobody's sins had been forgiven. The word hadn't been convicting whatsoever. And yet they went through the ritual. They took the Lord's Supper. And those poor people did not go out of there in peace. Peace with God and peace with your brothers and sisters.

We're to examine ourselves. Lord, show me. Now, I don't ask him to show me everything I did in the past, because they're all already under the blood and it would take all day for me to remember it all.

We should have a desire to depart from sin. If you have an anger problem you know, I went down I had a tremendous miracle Friday morning. I went to take my car to be inspected and I did it, hallelujah.

These guys are screaming in Hebrew and I'm trying to figure out what's the handbrake and what's the lights and all anyway, I did it. And I went there at seven in the morning hardly anybody was there and I zipped right through.

So I have my sticker on my car for another whole year, hallelujah. You don't know some of the nightmares I've had at that place. So I called Karen and I said, we did it, she's going, hallelujah, hallelujah.

So I go back through the Carmel Tunnel I pull into the Carmel Tunnel I pay my little money the woman is taking making some change and the car behind me starts honking the horn at me and I thought, oh, it's at me there's nobody there but me in this car.

It's too early. It keeps honking and honking and I see the guy going like this in my mirror finally I drive through he comes up behind me and drives around in front of me and slams the brakes on me and tries to make me run into him in the tunnel.

Now my old biological DNA would have done something but I thank God I have a new spiritual DNA and part of it is the fruit of the spirit one of which is savlanut, which means patience but it's just like the enemy after the great victory of getting my car tested and getting through it the enemy attacks and tries to make me lose my peace.

Listen, men some men have an anger problem not me, I'm never angry but the Lord says I would give you a new spiritual DNA where you have control over all of that. I wish I could have met that man and preached the gospel to him.

He was going to have a nervous breakdown on the way to work or wherever he was going. We've been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 23 we have been born again the Lord's Supper and what it represents. He was saying to them I'm going to die for you. They're going to break my body. It's all for you. And you're going to be able to participate in my life because the Holy Spirit will take my life and put it in you.

The Family of God and the Coming Table

We don't like the word Christian because of what people call themselves. Christians did to the Jews for centuries. They were first called Christians in Antioch. You know what Christian means? Little Christ.

Little messiahs. They called them little messiahs. They called them the way these people were the way we should be growing in messiah likeness today. We're going to come to the table of the Lord and we're going to remember what he did for us.

Remember everything that he's done for us. I thank God that he put me in the family. My father and mother were dead when I met the Lord. The wonder of the family of God is awesome in Indonesia. It's the largest Muslim nation in the world and it's the biggest Islamic revival in the world outside of Iran which is another huge revival.

But we go there. They honor her. She's a Jew. One time we were doing this huge meeting in this place. The ushers have clubs. In case you know terrorists come in there and Karen says to me I'm the only Jew here.

They were all Muslims. They would have been born again. Hallelujah. And she gets to sing Kadosh and the glory of God hit the place and we were all one. It's the beauty of the body of Messiah that he died for that Jews can be one with Indonesians.

This is what we're celebrating. We are a family. If you don't know the Lord you should not partake of this covenant meal that we're about to celebrate. But if you want to give your heart to the Lord now you can give your heart to the Lord.

And you can join the table, hallelujah. Or you can come and talk with Danny and myself or Vladimir after the meeting. Or you can come and talk with Danny and myself or Vladimir after the meeting. This is all I was trying to say this morning.

We need to reverence give reverence to the Lord's Supper. It is profound. It is awesome. It is prophetic. It is holy. It is a time when we say Lord, thank you for everything. I remember what you did for me.

Do you know how many times I came that close to dying in my life? Probably five. I'm here. I'm going to thank him. You need to put a thank you list and say, Lord, I thank you for this. I thank you for this.

I remember what you did for me. And I remember what you did in Jerusalem. And I want more of your DNA spiritually that I can be more like you. Let's bow our heads. I'm going to ask the ushers to get the elements.

I'm going to ask the ushers to get the bread and wine. And let's just meditate for a couple of minutes on what we've been talking about. We'll distribute the elements. Now please keep the matzah and the cup and we'll all partake together.

If you're a visitor, you're welcome to partake of the Lord's Supper with us. If you're right with the Lord. I believe the Lord is going to do something wonderful. Hallelujah. Just talk to the Lord. Thank him.

Remember where you were in darkness totally lost an alien from God. But he came he sent his spirit to get you. And today we remember him. We remember his blood poured out for us. We remember the bread.

He's the bread of life he came to die that we might live. We love you Lord. We love you, thank you Lord. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places every spiritual blessing is for us because of the cross.

Lord, we will feed on your word. Lord, we will feed on your word. It's the bread of life. We feed on your life-giving new wine. Your character your character. Lord more of you and less of us. Hallelujah.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you for all my friends Lord. Thank you for our leadership team. Thank you for all the salvations over the years that we've been here. Thank you for Caramel. What you're doing there.

Thank you for Elijah's cloak. What you're doing there. Thank you for Beit Nitzachon. The hundreds of men that have met you there. Thank you Lord for Beit Nitzachon. The hundreds of men that you've set free.

Remembering the Cross Through the Communion Elements

Thank you for dying Lord. Thank you for your spirit. The life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But from this day forward will you help us have a holy reverence for your table.

We will celebrate the Lord's Supper till you come. Thank you for the new family of God. Let's take the matzah. We use matzah unleavened bread. We remember the Passover when they had to flee from the enemy didn't have time for the bread to rise.

And if you look at this matzah it's burned in places. It has holes in it for us. It's a picture of his body. The agony he went through the nails that were driven into his body. The thorns into his head.

He was covered in blood. And we can be covered in blood. His blood from head to toe. Our thoughts, our minds, our memories our eyes, everything covered in his robe of righteousness. He took the bread he blessed it.

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam Hamotzi Lechem. He broke it. He said this is my body broken for you. Do this in memory of me. Let's partake together. Thank you for your body Lord. Thank you for your broken body.

And thank you for the body of Messiah on this planet. We bless you. Lord. The miracle of the new covenant in your blood. He took the cup and gave thanks. He blessed it. Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam Borei Prii HaGefen.

Blessed are you Lord God of the universe. Who gives us fruit from the vine. Yeshua you are the vine, the true vine. And we are the branches. We want to be inserted more into you day by day that we might bear more of your fruit.

Hallelujah. Do this in memory of me. He said.