GENERAL SUBJECT

EXPERIENCING, ENJOYING, AND EXPRESSING CHRIST (2)

Message Four
Our Spiritual Food, Our Spiritual Rock, and the Contents of the Lord's Table

|Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 10:3-4, 16-17, 21; 11:23-26

I.　The deep truth in Exodus 16 is that God wants to change our diet to a diet of Christ as our spiritual food, the real manna sent by God the Father for God's chosen people to live by Christ—1 Cor. 10:3; John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58:

A.　Whatever we eat of Christ to be our reconstituting element and our supply to make us God's dwelling place in this universe will be an eternal memorial—Exo. 16:16, 32.

B.　Just as the manna in the golden pot was the focal point of God's dwelling place, so Christ as the manna eaten by us is the focal point of God's building today—Heb. 9:3-4; Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19.

C.　The unique food that we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ, and the one unique ministry in the New Testament conveys Christ as the unique food for God's people—Num. 11:5-6; cf. Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 3:6.

D.　The characteristics of Christ as our unique food, our daily manna, become our characteristics for His magnification through our metabolic transformation as we continually enjoy Him—John 6:57; Phil. 1:20-21; cf. Gal. 6:17:

1.　Manna is a mystery—Exo. 16:15; Col. 2:2; Isa. 9:6; Eph. 3:4; John 3:8.

2.　Manna is a long-term miracle—Exo. 16:4; cf. Matt. 6:34.

3.　Manna is from heaven—Exo. 16:4; John 6:41.

4.　Manna comes with the dew—Exo. 16:13-14; Num. 11:9; Psa. 133:3; Lam. 3:22-23; Heb. 4:16; Psa. 110:3.

5.　Manna comes in the morning—Exo. 16:21; cf. S. S. 1:6b; 7:12; John 5:39-40; Rom. 6:4; 7:6.

6.　Manna is small—Exo. 16:14; Luke 2:12; John 6:35; cf. Judg. 9:9, 11, 13; Matt. 13:31-32.

7.　Manna is fine—Exo. 16:14; John 6:12.

8.　Manna is round—Exo. 16:14; John 8:58.

9.　Manna is white—Exo. 16:31; Psa. 12:6; 119:140; 2 Cor. 11:3b.

10.　Manna is like frost—Exo. 16:14; Prov. 17:27.

11.　Manna is like coriander seed—Exo. 16:31; Num. 11:7; Luke 8:11.

12.　Manna is solid—Num. 11:8; 2 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 6:18.

13.　Manna's appearance is like that of bdellium—Num. 11:7; Rev. 4:6, 8; Ezek. 1:18.

14.　Manna's taste is like that of fresh oil—Num. 11:8; Psa. 92:10.

15.　Manna's taste is like that of wafers made with honey—Exo. 16:31; Psa. 119:103.

16.　Manna is good for making cakes—Num. 11:8; 1 Tim. 4:6.

II.　Christ has been crucified to become a spiritual rock that follows His people; this following rock is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, who is always with the church to supply His believers with the water of life—1 Cor. 10:4; Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:8; John 19:34:

A.　Trouble among God's people can be caused by the shortage of water, which typifies the Spirit of life; whenever God's people are short of the Spirit of life, they will have problems; when God's people have an abundance of the Spirit, their problems among themselves and with God are solved—Num. 20:2-13; John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:2.

B.　Since Christ has been crucified and the Spirit has been given, there is no need for Christ to be crucified again; that is, there is no need to strike the rock again so that the living water may flow; in God's economy Christ should be crucified only once—Heb. 7:27; 9:26-28a.

C.　To receive the living water from the crucified Christ, we need only to "take the rod" and "speak to the rock"—Num. 20:8:

1.　To take the rod is to identify with Christ in His death and apply the death of Christ to ourselves and our situation.

2.　To speak to the rock is to speak a direct word to Christ as the smitten rock, asking Him to give us the Spirit of life based on the fact that the Spirit has already been given—cf. John 4:10; Luke 11:13.

3.　If we apply the death of Christ to ourselves and ask Christ in faith to give us the Spirit, we will receive the living Spirit as the bountiful supply of life.

D.　Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses was angry with the people, condemned them as rebels, and struck the rock with his rod twice—Num. 20:9-11:

1.　Moses condemned the people as rebels, but Moses was the one who rebelled against God's word—v. 24; 27:14.

2.　Moses did not believe in Jehovah to sanctify Him in the sight of the children of Israel—20:12:

a.　To sanctify God is to make Him holy, that is, to separate Him from all the false gods; to fail to sanctify God is to make Him common.

b.　In being angry with the people when God was not angry, Moses did not represent God rightly in His holy nature, and in striking the rock twice, he did not keep God's word in His economy; thus, Moses offended both God's holy nature and His divine economy.

c.　Because of this, even though he was intimate with God and may be considered a companion of God (Exo. 33:11), Moses lost the right to enter the good land.

3.　In all that we say and do concerning God's people, our attitude must be according to God's holy nature, and our actions must be according to His divine economy; this is to sanctify Him; otherwise, in our words and deeds we will rebel against Him and offend Him.

III.　Christ as the contents of the Lord's table is the reality of the New Testament economy of God—1 Cor. 10:16-17, 21; 11:23-26:

A.　The emphasis of the Lord's table is the fellowship of His blood and body, the participation in the Lord, the enjoyment of the Lord in mutuality, in fellowship—10:16-17, 21:

1.　The Lord has given Himself to us so that we may partake of Him as our feast and enjoy Him by eating and drinking Him; in order to become our feast, the reality of the produce of the good land, Christ had to be processed—cf. Deut. 8:7-10:

a.　If Christ had not been incarnated, He could not have blood and a body; through incarnation Christ put on a human body with blood and flesh—Heb. 2:14.

b.　If Christ had not been crucified, His blood could not be separated from His body; through crucifixion His blood was separated from His body—John 6:53-55.

c.　If Christ had not been resurrected, He could not be on the table as our food; in resurrection He is served to us on the.table as a feast for our nourishment and enjoyment; the One who presents His body and His blood to us is the resurrected Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit— 1.Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.

2.　The Lord Jesus "took bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My body"— Matt. 26:26:

a.　The bread denotes life, the life of God, the eternal life; the bread signifies the Lord's physical body, which He gave for us on the cross in order to impart life into us—John 6:35, 57, 63; Luke 22:19.

b.　The bread also signifies the Lord's mystical Body, the means for Christ to carry out His heavenly ministry for the accomplishment of the divine administration—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; Rev. 5:6.

c.　By participating in the Lord's divine life, eating and enjoying Him as the bread of life, we become His mystical Body, His enlargement—1 Cor. 10:17; 12:27.

3.　The Lord Jesus took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins"—Matt. 26:27-28:

a.　The cup denotes blessing, which is God Himself as our portion—Psa. 16:5.

b.　The Lord's salvation has become our portion, the cup of salvation that runs over, the content of which is God as our all-inclusive blessing—116:13; 23:5.

c.　The blood of Christ as the blood of the new covenant ushers us into the new covenant, in which God gives us a new heart, a new spirit, His Spirit, the inner law of life, and the ability of life to know God, possess God, be possessed by God, and receive the blessing of the forgiveness and forget ting of all our iniquities—Ezek. 36:26-27; Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:10-12; Psa. 103:1-3, 12.

d.　The blood of the covenant ushers us into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, where we behold His beauty, into the infusion and transfusion of God, and into the eternal enjoyment of God; enjoying God in this way is what produces a man of God—27:4; Exo. 24:8; cf. Lev. 16:11-16.

e.　Ultimately, the blood of the covenant, the eternal covenant, leads God's people into the full enjoyment of God as the tree of life and the water of life both now and for eternity—Heb. 13:20; Rev. 7:14, 17; 22:1-2, 14, 17.

B.　"As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord's death until He comes"—1 Cor. 11:26; cf. Rom. 5:10:

1.　To declare the Lord's death is to proclaim and display the Lord's death; to declare His life-releasing death is to declare His first coming for His judicial redemption to produce the church— John 12:24; 19:34.

2.　Until implies that the church bridges the gap between His first coming and second coming by the eating and drinking of Christ in the process of His organic salvation.

3.　He comes is His second coming to establish the kingdom of God on earth, as the Lord said in Matthew 26:29: "I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father."

4.　Thus, to declare the Lord's death until He comes is to declare the existence of the church for the bringing in of the kingdom; our eating of the Lord's supper must result in the remembrance of the Lord in His two comings.