In our study of the book of Mark we have seen Jesus presenting himself to Israel as the Savior, Messiah, and King. Jesus Christ entered the human race so that He could fulfill the Father's plan as savior of the world through spiritual victory.
Our celebration of the Lord's table recalls that spiritual victory, God's strategic victory that Jesus Christ accomplished while he was on the earth in unglorified humanity.
Under the principle of pivot power, Jesus Christ is the pattern for humility and obedience to the Father's plan. Luke 22:42;
Our celebration of the Lord's Table is an expression of our reciprocal love for our Lord who is the strategic victor of time and eternity. We concentrate on him through the elements of the only ritual for the post-canon period of the Church Age Luke 22:19-20;
Jesus Christ was obedient to the Father's unique plan for His life by enduring the suffering and death on the cross Phil 2:8; that resulted in his humanity being exalted above every created being, such that, every created being will ultimately bow down to him. Phil 2:9-10;
He completely and perfectly fulfilled the directive will of the Father by unilaterally providing a way of salvation for all men. Rom 5:8; as the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Rev 13:8; KJV John 1:29;
While we were enemies of God, God demonstrated his love for us by giving his uniquely born Son "monogenes" who entered the world through the virgin birth. John 3:16
As a result, God is free to reconcile mankind from their fallen state of depravity without compromising his perfect righteousness and justice because TLJC willingly laid down his life for us as our substitute. John 15:13; 1John 3:16
This is why believing in TLJC is the only way to a relationship with God John 14:6, salvation Acts 4:12 and eternal life John 3:16;
Anyone can appropriate this Grace gift of salvation which is secured by the Power of God John 10:26-29; simply by believing in TLJC 1Cor 15:3-4 in the same way that Paul and Silas instructed the Philippian Jailer who asked "what Must I do to be saved?"
Their response recorded In Acts 16:31
Anyone, any time, anywhere can become saved in a moment in time simply by believing in TLJC privately in their thoughts only.
TLJC left his friends, the members of The Royal Family of God, this one and only ritual in the church age The Lord's table which we are mandated to observe in remembrance of Him.
The mandate is found in 1Cor 11:24; in the second person plural present active imperative of the Greek word " poieo" that where Paul references TLJC's own instruction found in Luke 22:19-20; that he spoke 1984 years ago tonight.
An expanded translation of 1Cor 11:24 taking into consideration the tense mood and voice of "poieo" would be " Keep on doing this in remembrance of me"
Because these verbs are only imperatives regarding ritual in the New Testament the Lord's Table is one and only ritual of the Church Age and it is a test of our capacity to concentrate on our Lord Jesus Christ through the Bible Doctrine that is resident in our soul as we partake of the elements that represent his work on our behalf.
We have these instructions for partaking of the Lord's table from the Apostle Paul starting in verse 26 of 1Cor 11.
1Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
We understand from this that we are to evaluate ourselves in the light of the word, privately in our thinking, in the privacy of our priesthood, and when we find we are outside of the word, we apply the first problem solving device, and simply acknowledge the sin as described in 1 John 1:9;
If we acknowledge our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Having examined ourselves, and taken appropriate action, we are then instructed to partake of the elements, the bread and the cup.
The bread which represents his body in which he bore the sins and the judgment for our sins and the sins of the whole world, past present and future.
1Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1Cor 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
eat the bread
The cup which represents his substitutionary spiritual death on the cross which purchased the freedom from spiritual death and eternal condemnation of everyone who believes in him.
1Cor 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper saying This cup is the new covenant in my Blood do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
drink cup
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In our study of Mark we are in Mark 6:52; where we see that the disciples did not understand because of their hardness of heart. With this in view we have taken up a short study on the doctrine of hardness of heart.
Last time we saw that when hardness of heart occurs the flow of divine viewpoint thinking stops circulating between the lobes of the soul resulting in the creation of a vacuum in the soul that sucks in satanic viewpoint.
When we stopped last time we were looking at the example of the Pharaoh of Egypt during the Exodus generation who is the poster child for hardness of heart.
We saw that because of his chronic hardness of heart God eventually removed all restraint from his negative volition by giving him opportunities to say no to God repeatedly in order to carry it further than anyone had ever done in his day Exodus 9:12,16; Exod 10:1-2; Exod 10:27; This resulted in locked in negative volition.
This brings up what is meant by the phrase in verse 27that "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart". God only hardened Pharaoh's heart in the sense of giving him more opportunities to say no than anyone in his generation or at any time in that period of history.
While most people say no once or twice Pharaoh said no to God's directive will under the most stringent conditions over a long period of time so that his scar tissue reached a maximum so that the hardness of his heart resulted in the complete blackout of his soul and ended in the sin unto death.
The purpose of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was that it gave him the opportunity for a maximum expression of negative volition that resulted in the evangelization of the entire civilized world in his generation. Psa 76:10; NASB Pharaoh was the maximum bad example and God used his bad example to promote His word.
We see from this that God's word is advanced with both positive and negative volition. Those who have positive volition are beneficiaries of the advance those with negative volition are destroyed by the advance because in the end the truth overcomes everything. 2Cor 13:8;
That generation of the civilized world was evangelized by Pharaoh's negative volition and his hardened implacable heart ultimately resulted in the destruction of Egypt as the greatest nation on the earth at that time . Rom 9:16-17;
Maybe this is the destiny that the citizens of the USA will choose as well. Maybe the whole world will be evangelized by the magnitude of the fall of our nation that is the result of our chronic negative volition and hardness of heart. Only God knows.