These are notes on the sermon, Eat The Communion Fresh, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, 22 September 2019, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Pastor Prince shares from Psalm 78:24–25:
“Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels’ food;
He sent them food to the full.”
— Psalm 78:24–25 NKJV
“Men ate angels’ food” — “angels’ food” is not an accurate translation from the original Hebrew. A better translation is in the Young’s Literal Translation: “Food of the mighty hath each eaten…” — Psalm 78:25 YLT
This “food of the mighty” is manna from heaven.
“And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.”
— Numbers 11:9 NKJV
God provided daily fresh manna for His people when they woke up every day.
Just like how He fed the children of Israel with the “food of the mighty,” He wants to feed us with food of the mighty. Food that will make us strong.
Today, our manna is the holy Communion.
Jesus talks about the holy Communion in John 6:51–53:
“‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’ … Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.’”
— John 6:51–53 NKJV
Some people use this passage as an expression of believing in Jesus. But Jesus was very specific in these verses—He talks about eating his body and drinking his blood. He is referring to the holy Communion, not being born again (you are born-again by putting your trust in Jesus’ finished work, not by partaking of the Communion. The Communion is for those who believe already.)
When we partake of the Communion, we are partaking of Jesus as the “bread of life.” The holy Communion is our “manna” today. The holy Communion is food of the mighty.
Every time you partake of the Communion, you receive Jesus’ life because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Levi. 17:11). Every time you partake of the holy Communion, you receive Jesus’ overcoming life, His royal life, His disease-free life.
The holy Communion is God’s ordained way of reversing the curse brought about in the fall of man.
The whole fall of man came about because of Adam’s one act of eating.
If Adam had not eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, man would still be in paradise and be free from lack, disease, and aging.
If disease and death came into the world through Adam’s one act of eating, then by another act of eating (the holy Communion), we can eat our way back to health and wholeness.
The consequences of the fall (disease, weakness, depression, etc.) can be reversed by eating the Lord’s Supper.
The more you partake of the holy Communion, the stronger, younger, and healthier you will be!
The early church believed in the power of the holy Communion so much that they went about partaking of the Lord’s Supper from house to house (see Acts 2:46). In one day, they broke bread together many times.
Many of us understand the importance of loving our spouses in their own love language. For example, if your wife does not like flowers, you will not buy her flowers. If she likes an evening of romance, you will take her out for a nice romantic dinner because that is how she feels loved. That is her love language.
Like our loved ones, God has a love language. He feels loved when we come to His table and receive the Communion.
“And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”
— 1 Corinthians 11:24–25 NKJV
God’s love language is the holy Communion because whenever we eat the bread and drink from the cup, we are remembering Him.
The holy Communion is not a commandment, a law, or something we must do. It is an intimate time of remembering the Lord and receiving His love afresh.
Another way God feels loved is when we tithe, because that’s how we acknowledge that our blessings come from Him. Our tithes are a response to His love and goodness.
In Exodus 16:15, when God first gave the children of Israel manna, they saw the manna and said, “Manna. What is this?” They did not know that this was food of the mighty.
After 40 years in the desert, the children of Israel got used to the manna:
“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"
— Numbers 11:5-6 NKJV
“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt” — they never ate the fish freely in Egypt because they were slaves. They forgot how God delivered them from their hardships as slaves and only remembered the “good times.”
Sometimes, we can look back at difficult seasons in our lives and still see them through rose-tinted glasses (e.g. after getting out of a bad relationship, you can still look back wistfully).
This is because we are accustomed to what is familiar. Prisoners who have been held captive for a long time, after being released, run back into their dark prisons because their eyes are accustomed to the dark. They are not used to light.
Similarly, you can get so used to the darkness, e.g. your addiction, depression, sickness, or difficult season. God has something far better for you.
“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"
— Numbers 11:5–6 NKJV
“the fish…the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” — There are altogether 6 different types of food listed here. 6 is the number of man.
These foods represent what the world has to offer, e.g. negative news, doom, and gloom.
Feeding on these foods can pull your mind into a downward spiral of depression.
As children of God, we should feed on the living bread, Jesus, by seeing Him in the Word of God and listening to messages that unveil Him.
Pastor Prince shares 2 testimonies:
God is so good, yet the children of Israel forgot the goodness of God. Instead, they lamented:
“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"
—Numbers 11:5–6 NKJV
Cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic are foods that require back-breaking work to harvest because they are on/near the ground. Yet, the children of Israel yearned for those foods instead of the manna God gave them daily.
“...but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"
—Numbers 11:6 NKJV
Food from heaven, food for the mighty, has become “nothing” to them. They got familiar with the manna.
When we hear messages about Jesus, we cannot let the gospel become “nothing” for us. Let’s not get familiar with it.
When we see Jesus in the Scriptures, we are fed, we are delivered, we are healed, and our lives are transformed from glory to glory. Even your marriage can be transformed just by looking at Jesus!
The devil is trying to distract you from looking to Jesus—the author and finisher of our faith (see Heb. 12:2).
Thank God for preaching that exalts the name of Jesus!
The people who craved for something other than the manna all died and were buried in the wilderness. They didn’t make it to the promised land.
“So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.”
— Numbers 11:34 NKJV
There came a time when the children of Israel got bitten by poisonous snakes in the wilderness.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live."
—Numbers 21:8 NKJV
“fiery serpent” — This is a picture of Jesus on the cross bearing our sin and judgment (see John 3:14). Whoever looks unto Jesus, shall live (see John 6:40).
Look away from your symptoms, darkness, hopelessness, and look to His saving power.
Throughout the wilderness experience, the poisonous snakes were always in the desert. God protected the Israelites and the snakes never hurt them until now. Their protection was only removed when “the people spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’” (Num. 21:5–6).
The manna that they loathed was a picture of Jesus. Because they loathed the manna, their protection was removed. If they had continued to eat it and not complain about it, they would have been kept healthy.
Yet even then, God made a way out for them. He gave them the image of a fiery serpent on a pole (which is another picture of Jesus), so that any who looked at it would be healed.
All these things happened as an example for us to learn from.
In the world we live in, there are many “snakes,” i.e. many diseases out there. We cannot focus on every single one of them. There are too many.
Our answer is to look to Jesus alone and be healed.
“And the people spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’ So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.”
— Numbers 21:5–6 NKJV
“our soul loathes this worthless bread” — The word “worthless” in Hebrew is from the root word “qalal” which means “to make light.” The opposite of “qalal” is “kavot,” which means “to give weight” and “to give glory.”
The children of Israel did not give weight to the manna; they called it “light bread” (see Num. 21:5 KJV).
What this means for us: Let’s not make light of the holy Communion even though we take it every Sunday.
The holy Communion releases divine health. You cannot get from creation that has fallen what can only be provided by redemption.
The holy Communion is all about Jesus. The “food of the mighty” is Jesus.
Even when you study the Bible, for you to get nourishment out of it, you need to see Christ in it. When Jesus expounded on the Bible to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He expounded the Scriptures concerning Himself.
Pastor Prince shares how we can study the Old Testament to see Jesus, and how we can appreciate that grace results in greater morality than the law.
God wants you to eat the right thing. Physically and spiritually, you are what you eat.
The food of Egypt—the leeks, onions, and garlic—speak of the “food” we get from world today, i.e. the influx of information we get from the news and social media today. These foods are created to grab our attention, but they don’t benefit our souls.
When we wake up, we should feed on the Word of God, e.g. by reading the daily devotional and having quiet time.
Pastor Prince teaches us how to read the Bible:
Pastor Prince gives an example of how the Apostle Paul expounds on the Old Testament for the benefit of present-day men in 1 Corinthians 9:9–11.
Paul expounds on this verse:
“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.”
— Deuteronomy 25:4 NKJV
This verse seems to be simply a law given in the Old Testament, telling the owners of oxen to let them eat.
However, when Paul reads it, he says:
“For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.”
—1 Corinthians 9:9–11 NKJV
Paul is able to show God’s heart of love from this law—God gives this law to tell us to take care of people who preach the Word to us (see 1 Tim. 5:17–18).
This is how we interpret the Bible for our benefit and guidance.
—
Pastor Prince gives another example of how to draw out God’s love from the Old Testament:
The Peace Offering in Leviticus
“His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the Lord. The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.”
—Leviticus 7:30-31 NKJV
Leviticus 7 describes the peace offering the people practiced. In this offering:
Today, the food that makes us strong is His love for us. Feed on His love!
“but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons’” — You are what you eat. Aaron and his sons fed on the love of Jesus.
Aaron, the high priest, fed on the Lord’s love. Jesus as our High Priest also feeds on His love for us.
Jesus Himself feeds on His love for you. He takes His nourishment from loving you.
He feeds on the fact that He loves you. His food is to love you. He enjoys loving you so much so that He went to the cross for the joy of loving you set before Him.
We feed on His love for us through the Word of God but also through the Communion.
Don’t see the Holy Communion as a ritual. See it as a special time when you get to commune with Jesus. See Jesus Himself bringing the elements to you.
When you receive and partake, know that He loves you. His body was broken for you. His blood was shed for you.
By His stripes, your blood pressure is healed, your headaches are gone, your liver is made whole and your heart is strengthened.
When the children of Israel partook of the Lord’s Supper (the first Passover), there was not one feeble among them.
Revelation is so important. There must be a freshness in your revelation.
Pastor Prince begins a time of ministering and prays for people with:
While waiting for the full manifestation of healing, don’t focus on the negatives. Look to God’s promises.
“'The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning.”
— Leviticus 7:15 NKJV
Aaron and his sons were given a law: to eat the breast on the same day.
The peace offering is called the peace offering of the eucharist (thanksgiving). This is a picture of the Communion. When they partake of the meat, they needed to partake on the same day.
What does this mean for us today when we partake of the holy Communion?
Eat the Lord’s Supper as if Jesus just died. Don’t remember the finished work as something that just happened 2000 years ago. Keep the finished work fresh in your heart.
You are keeping the truths fresh. Faith comes by hearing and hearing. In the same way you cannot be sustained by the memory of good food, you can’t be sustained by the memory of truths about the Communion you heard a long time ago. You need to keep hearing these wonderful truths over and over again—this will help you eat the holy Communion fresh!
Feed on Christ alone.
“And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, nor shall it be imputed to him; it shall be an abomination to him who offers it, and the person who eats of it shall bear guilt.”
— Leviticus 7:18 NKJV
“nor shall it be imputed to him” — This passage shows that when you eat something, what you eat is imputed to you. When you partake of the holy Communion, health is imputed to you.
Keep the freshness of the revelation!
In closing, Pastor Prince encourages us not to fixate on the negativity that is around us. He encourages us instead to feed on God’s promises and His love for us!
“This coming week, the Lord bless you and your loved ones. The Lord keep you, preserve you, and protect you and your families from every danger and harm, from every sickness, from depression, from fear, from all the powers of darkness. In the name of the Lord Jesus, the Lord make His face to shine on you and be favorable to you throughout this week. And the Lord grant you shalom wholeness and well-being in your body. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2019
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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