A COMMUNION SERMON This is my Body. (This Sermon was delivered by W. H. Offiler and printed in Pentecostal Power in September/October Issue, 1953. I have reproduced and formatted here for the benefit of the reader. It gives some idea of the revelation and insight into the Table of the Lord that is possible for believers in our generation). Without any doubt, the most cherished ordinance of the Church is the observance of the Lord s Supper. In no other ordinance do we draw so near to the Savior, or discern His holy Presence more than when we, in the power of the Spirit, eat His flesh and drink His blood. Neither can our hearts conceive of any holier Communion than that which brings so vividly before us the sufferings, death, resurrection and the sure hope of His second advent upon the earth. Like every other gift of the Spirit to the saints, this also has passed through various stages of interpretations. Many and fearful have been the storms of persecutions that have raged around the choicest gift of God, for Satan knows that the moment the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ is discerned, and the purpose of that breaking and blood-letting is fully apprehended by the children of God, his power will be wonderfully limited and his time short. With the past we have little to do. It is of small moment to us. But with the future we are deeply concerned. Any phase of Scripture truth that is necessary to the spiritual development and physical wellbeing must be explored by the waiting saints, to its profoundest depths, for in the future days, it will take all the Divine provision to sustain and keep that which the Lord has sealed upon us. For several years we have been convinced that the observance of this most holy ordinance has been altogether too superficial and shallow; not in the attitude, for all are convinced of the solemnity of this Communion, but in the fact that even the saints have lacked discernment of its physical and spiritual virtue. All the Scripture on this hallowed subject shows clearly that it s quickening was for both. We believe that the priceless treasures of life, hidden in the heart of this wonderful truth, have largely remained untouched. The veil of formality and lack of discernment has obscured the vision of the partaker, and as a consequence, many of the children of God continue: weak and sickly among us, and many sleep (1 Corinthians 11:30). 1. Melchisedec- Genesis 14. The first mention of the bread and wine is found in the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis and verse 18: And Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the Most High God. This first breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine was in honor of the great victory that God had given Abraham over his enemies. Who this Melchisedec was is made plain in the seventh chapter of Hebrews, To whom Abraham gave a tenth part of all; He being first by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that, King of Salem (Jerusalem), which is King of Peace, (Titles which are applied to none in heaven or earth but to Jesus Christ), without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor ending of life; but made like unto the Son of God, abides a priest continually. The inference is plain. There is only one Son of God. This Communion was given to Abraham immediately before the Lord God confirmed the Everlasting Covenant to him and his seed for ever, even as Jesus gave His disciples the Communion of His body and blood on the very eve of that moment in which He would re-seal the Covenant in His own precious blood. 2. Passover Feast - Exodus 12. At the Exodus of Egypt of the Israel of God, Jehovah commanded a Passover Feast. The Lamb must be without blemish. It must be tested and proved four days. It was then to be slain and its blood sprinkled about the door. All this typified Christ the Redeemer in His sacrificial death. They were to roast the flesh in the fire and to eat it in haste, fully dressed, with their staff in hand ready for that most wonderful journey into the Wilderness for the space of forty years. No bone of the lamb was to be broken. It was the 1
LORD S PASSOVER (Exodus 12:1-4). This Feast typified Christ as the Bread of Life, and answered to the Communion of His own body and blood in the after-generations. The Passover was the Lord s Supper, in type, for that whole nation, as they left the land of Egypt and the house of bondage. 3. Healing Covenant - Exodus 15:23-27. In the same Book of Exodus, we read of the marvelous provision Jehovah made for His people. How He opened a way through the mighty waters of the Red Sea, and covered them with the Cloud of His Presence, and how He brought them to Elam where there were twelve wells of water, and the seventy palm trees. Here the Lord made the Covenant of Healing with all His saints. 4. Manna & Water - Exodus 16-17. Then came the manna from heaven, and water out of the flinty rock which sustained life and prevented disease for the space of forty long, weary years. Thus we see Israel living by the typical Sacrament of the Lord s Supper, ministered once a day, six days every week, and receiving a double portion on the sixth day by the space of forty years. The Manna was the type of the Body of Jesus Christ, and the Water was typical of the Blood for it flowed from the Rock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-6). Paul speaks of the Manna as that spiritual meat, and the water from the Rock as the same spiritual drink. What a marvelous thing is this that God should support a whole nation physically as well as spiritually by Himself for so long a time! Not a drop of natural water or a particle of natural food, yet their feet never swelled, and there was not one feeble member among their tribes (Psalm 105:37b). The only graves found in all the waste, howling Wilderness were those of unbelievers, or those who gave themselves up to lust! 5. The Shewbread - Exodus 25:23-30. In the Tabernacle God commanded that the Shewbread (Bread of His Presence) should always be eaten by the priests alone. None other were to touch it. It was holy unto the Lord. It was Jehovah revealed as the Bread of Life. His very Presence and His very life were in it. It was the living bread indeed! 6. Meal & Oil - 1 Kings 17. In the 17th Chapter of First Kings we read of a widow woman and her son who were reduced to starvation because of the famine in the land. The meal in the barrel had been used until but a handful remained. The oil in the cruse had diminished until there was but a small portion left, and yet God commanded this woman to sustain the Prophet Elijah (verse 9). As the Prophet came to the gate of the city, he saw the woman gathering sticks to make the fire that she might bake one more cake and then die. The Prophet asked her for a morsel of bread. She said, As the Lord God lives I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat and die. But Elijah said, Make me a cake first, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not WASTE, and the cruse of oil shall not FAIL, until the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And the barrel of meal wasted not, and the cruse failed not, according to the Word of the Lord, which He spoke by the Prophet Elijah. We record this incident to bring before our readers the wonderful power of God. The famine prevailed three and one-half years during which the Prophet, the widow and her son did eat continually from the meal in the barrel and from the oil in the cruse. Now the Lord did not say He would fill the barrel to overflowing, and continue to fill it, but He did say that the meal should not waste, and the oil should not fail. However often she dipped into the meal, and however much she used, there was no diminishing of the amount. It is always the same. God had touched it, yea, imparted into it His very Self, His exhaustless Spirit and life. 7. Jesus Feeds Five Thousand - John 6. It was like the small loaf in the hand of Jesus Christ at the feeding of the five thousand. It became living meal, even as that became living bread, and it lived as long as there was any need. There is a shadowing in all this of another three and one-half years, which lies immediately before us, the time of the Great Tribulation in which it will be impossible for any who bear the Name of Jesus Christ to buy bread, for 2
none may buy or sell save those that have the Mark of the Beast; or the Number of his Name. It will be a period of time in which the saints of God will be sheltered in the prepared place and nourished as Israel of old upon the body and blood of the Lord. 8. Bread & Water 1Kings 19:4-8. In connection with this greatest Prophet of the Lord, we might call attention to the fact that after Elijah had destroyed the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel sought his life, he fled to a cave in the wilderness and requested that he might die. Covering his face with his mantle, he slept, faint and hungry. Suddenly the Angel of the Lord who had brought him bread and water awakened him and commanded him to rise and eat. This Elijah did and laid him down to sleep. Then the Angel of the Lord again awakened him out of sleep, and commanded him to rise and eat, as the journey was too great for him. A second time the Prophet ate the bread and drank the water and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights, at the end of which he was translated to Glory in the Chariots of Fire. What mighty power there was in the bread and water God provided. If this is true of the type, how much more power and glory is in the antitype; namely, the body and blood of our Lord! 9. The Bread of Life - John 6. We have thought that the discourse of the Savior in John 6 was the most wonderful teaching in all the New Testament, and possibly the whole Bible. So deep and profound was this doctrine that the people of His day found it impossible to follow a Man that could make such statements. He prefaced His teachings on this occasion with a demonstration of what He was about to teach. The multitude had followed Him for 3 days without food and had become faint with hunger. The disciples saw the condition and asked Jesus to send them away. But He said to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? This He said to prove him, for He knew what He would do (Verse 6). You are well acquainted with Philip s answer. One of the disciples told the Lord that there was a lad there who had five small loaves and a few small fishes. These were brought to Jesus. He took them in His hand. He blessed the bread and proceeded to break and give them to the disciples, who in turn fed the multitude! Well might we ask what happened to that bread? A few small pieces under the touch of His hands became Living Bread. Like the meal in the barrel, it wasted not until all had been given an abundant repast. As the people beheld this great miracle, they said of a truth this is that Prophet that should come into the world (Verse 14). Because He had done this, they determined to make Him King, but He withdrew and He left them for a while. After He had crossed the sea, the multitude came again. Then the Savior said to them, I AM the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Verily, I say unto you, that Moses gave you not that Bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the True Bread, for the Bread of God is He which came down from heaven and gives His life to the world. I AM that Bread of Life. I am the Living Bread. He that eats of this Bread shall live forever. Whoso eats My flesh and drinks My blood hath eternal life and I will raise Him up at the last day. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eats ME, even he shall live by Me. What wonderful words these are. No wonder these sayings were too strong for them and many followed no more with Him. And yet the Word of the Lord is true. It is possible today, as then, to eat His flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, and live and move and have our being in Him. Blessed be His Name! And He took the bread and gave thanks, and brake it, and said, This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise He took the cup saying, This is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. Drink ye all of it. Beloved, this ordinance is given unto us of God, that even today, after all these centuries have passed away, we may still eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lamb of God. Such is the character of the observance that we are commanded to eat the bread, and to discern the body of the Lord, and to drink the wine, and discern the precious blood of Jesus which was shed for us. 10. Virtue & Life. What does this ordinance mean to us today? That there is virtue in the body and blood of the Lord goes without saying. The power of this virtue is variously shown in the Word of God. As the Lord Jesus ministered to the helpless multitude, He constantly reached out His hand and touched the lame, the halt, 3
the blind, the paralytic, and the deaf and dumb. In every case, the touch of His hand was followed by the instant healing of the one He had touched. He laid His hands on them in accordance with a command of Scripture that was as old as the Law! On the other hand, there were those who had faith in His being the Son of God, like the woman with the issue of blood. She pressed her away through the crowd, saying within herself, that if I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made whole. She reached her way through the pressing multitude and touched Him and instantly she was made every whit whole. Jesus turned and said; Who touched Me for He had felt virtue go out from Him in answer to her faith. If this may be said of that body of His flesh, what must be the power and virtue of the body of His resurrection? 11. The Cup & The Bread Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13-16: I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say. The CUP of BLESSING which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The BREAD WHICH WE BREAK, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? These are wonderful words, weighty with rich blessing to all that will apprehend them. The word communion means to communicate something. The thing communicated to all the believing partakers, according to this Scripture, is the virtue of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the necessity of discerning when we take the sanctified emblems, the body and blood of the Lord, and the discerning of which must mean a mighty quickening of the body, the soul and the spirit of the saints. 12. Divine Healing. There is healing in the body and blood (of Christ). Under the Law the priesthood was allowed to eat the Shewbread, but the blood was forbidden altogether. The reason for this was that the Shewbread was the Presence of God in the midst of them as Bread. The reason the blood was forbidden was because the blood was the life of the flesh (Genesis 9:4). Under Grace we are commanded to eat and drink BOTH! For, if the Shewbread was declared to be the Bread of His PRESENCE, how much more shall the body of the Lord Jesus Christ be to us the Bread of His Presence? Then how, when we partake of these holy emblems in faith, can we fail to eat His flesh and live? If the life was in the blood as Jehovah declared, how could we escape drinking in the life of God as it was revealed in the blood of the Lord Jesus? If then we drink in the life of the Savior, shall we not be made every whit whole? Healing for the body, as we discern the body and blood is very definitely taught in the Scriptures. 13. Bread & Water. Exodus 23:25 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and HE shall bless thy Bread and thy Water, and I will take away ALL sickness from the midst of thee. He fed them on manna and during all the wilderness wanderings sickness was unknown in Israel. There wasn t one feeble person among their tribes. (Psalm 105:37). 14. Children s Bread. In the Fifteenth Chapter of Matthew we read of the woman of Canaan whose daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. This woman came to Jesus crying with a loud voice that He should heal her. The disciples requested Him to send her away, for she cries after us. So persistent was this mother that Jesus was constrained to turn and speak to her saying, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. But she refused to be denied, and Jesus said, It is not meet to take the children s BREAD and cast it to dogs. She replied, Truth, Lord, but even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the rich man s Table. Then Jesus answered her and said, 0 woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. In this incident, the Lord Jesus likened the virtue of healing unto Bread, and so great was the faith of that woman that she knew that, if she could have only one crumb, or morsel of that Bread, her daughter would be healed. And so it was! 15. Three Measures of Meal. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto Three Measures of Fine Meal (Matthew 13:33). The foundation of this saying is laid in the visit of the three angels to Abraham and Sarah, the complete record of which is found in Genesis Chapter 18. This ordinance is still observed in the eating of the AFIRKOMEN at the Paschal Feast of the Jews. It is said of the Jewish man, who lives to a great age, he ate much Afirkomen. In another Parable a man goes to his friend at midnight and requests three 4
loaves. These three loaves being the symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Godhead bodily (Colossians 1:19: 2:9). 16. Breaking of Bread. The Breaking of Bread was one of the first apostolic customs, and was partaken of by the whole Body (Acts 2:1-4). It was to be expected that a doctrine like this, which was and still is the very sustenance and life of the Body, would be made an object of attack by all the powers of Satan. He has done all in his power to cover and hide from the eyes of the saints, the true significance of this foundational ordinance. Such has been the condition that, for long centuries, the bread and the wine have meant nothing more than a memorial; a form of ritualistic service; its life-giving virtues utterly obscured by the myth and traditions of men. The veil has not even yet been completely rent away, but here and there, in the past, the vision has come to some, and they have faithfully tried to present it to the saints. However, for some cause, it did not receive its proper place in the heart of the Church, but was passed by with casual mention. It will be remembered that after the resurrection, Jesus was made known to the disciples in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30). We feel that this still is the desire of the Lord Jesus today to make Himself known to His saints in the House of God when assembled with one accord, about to break bread and partake of the wine. As they taste it in their mouths, and drink the fruit of the vine, they shall discern faithfully the broken body and shed blood of the Lord. We have had a great deal of experience in the ministry in pointing out these vital truths. We have seen the wonderful power of God, especially in the healing of the body at such times, when prayer and anointing with oil had utterly failed. This is the Lord s Table, and none but life-giving foods are ever set there, a faithful eating of which is bound to result in the quickening of the body and spirit of the participant. It is a common thing for the power to fall, visions of God and of His Christ, healing for the sick, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost to be experienced, for this ordinance is solely for the Body of Christ. Conclusion This, then, is the inevitable conclusion, that God has placed in the Church an ordinance that is vital, living, and charged with Divine energy. It is an ordinance that reveals in its truest sense, the very Presence of Jesus, and brings into view at one and the same time, the vicarious death, the resurrection, the glorious second coming of the Lord Jesus, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the earth. His own words are For I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of God. May the Lord open our eyes to the need of a closer walk with Him, and of a more faithful discerning of His body and His blood. http://www.kingdomline.com 5