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As we start out, realize that "Communion, the Lord's Supper, and the Eucharist" all are different terms for the same thing. I want to teach to you for a short time and then preach to you for a short time tonight. This message will have three parts and then a fourth on foot washing We will pause and apply each part as we go so it will be slightly different than normal messages that I preach. I want to teach you on the proper method and meaning of the Lord's Supper and I want to challenge you in what I think the Holy Ghost wants us to focus upon in this year's service.

To understand the meaning of the Lord's Supper and the scriptural teaching upon it, you must begin with the Passover. This is one of the first thing that we teach you in this church and the majority of you here have been through Exodus 12 many times with someone explaining it. For those who may be not as familiar and for the memory of those who are, let me briefly remind you of the Passover feast.

The Passover was the commandment of God during the tenth plague brought upon Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go free in the time of Moses. Nine plagues had come and gone without softening Pharaoh's hard heart, but the last plague, the death angel passing through the land of Egypt and killing the first born of every family and herd would finally get to him. God provided a way of escape for His people, namely they were to put up a spotless and blemishless, male lamb on the tenth day of the month and keep it until the fourteenth. The evening of the fourteenth, they were to kill the lamb by kosher means, reserving the blood. They were to roast the lamb whole without gutting him or breaking any bones and eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread (bread without yeast). In fact, they were to remove every bit of yeast from their house while they partook of the supper. They were to eat the meal with bitter herbs and were to eat standing, fully dressed with their bags packed up and shoes and walking stick handy, because after the passover, God was taking them out of Egypt to a brand new "promised land." The most important feature, of course, was that they were to first take of the blood of the Lamb and apply it to the outer door posts of their house and it would be this blood that would cause God to "pass over" the house and spare it from judgment. We teach this to you to show you the importance of correctly applying the blood of the Lamb to your life through water baptism and teach you the significance of Calvary. Simply put, in every way, Jesus Christ was our sacrificial lamb.

There are three points of the Passover that I want to focus on in tonight's message.

1. The Passover was to be forever.

2. All leaven had to be removed from the house.

3. They had to eat the meal ready to go to the promised land.

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The first was that along with all of the stipulations of this feast, God commanded that it be an "ordinance forever" and that it would be celebrated forever by His people. Because of this the children of Israel performed this feast according to the rules of Exodus 12 every year thereafter. During some of the years of idolatry in the Old Testament, the people stopped performing it, but eventually some prophet would rise up such as Ezra and teach the people and perform it again. During this time and later during the prophet Jeremiah's time, the feast of Passover was combined with the "feast of the unleavened bread" which was basically a spring version of our "thanksgiving feast." The Passover went from a simple meal to a large Jerusalem/temple event with relatives getting together with distant family and what would be to us a "Christmas style atmosphere." When the Greeks and then the Romans conquered the Jewish lands between the Old and New Testament, their culture influenced the festival and by the time of Jesus Christ, the Passover was more like a New Year's celebration than the solemn ceremony outlined by Moses. If Moses had been alive during New Testament times, he would have been shocked at the way the people celebrated.

Sure the more devout Jews and Pharisees still removed all of the yeast from their home and took spotless lambs to the temple to be killed, but most Jews and pretty much all Gentiles that were living in Israel just took the time as a time to party and feast. Jewish history shows that what began as a bitter tasting meal eaten standing up in Moses' time had become a two and three day glutton fest eaten on couches or in the best accommodations that one could afford. The Passover had become much more carnal than God had ever intended. Those who celebrated it correctly were so far removed from the time of Moses that they did it basically out of ritual and indeed the Pharisees had added a bunch of other rites to the meal. Those who were not religious were getting drunk and partying. God had intended the meal to be forever but to not be a sin fest of a religious ritual with meanings other than what He intended.

It was Jesus, who died during the time of the Passover as the perfect Lamb of God, who showed us the Christian way to celebrate the Passover. Now we understand that we don't have to kill a physical lamb anymore because Jesus Christ was the perfect Lamb and we have our personal passover when we are born again of the water and the Spirit and the blood of Jesus washed our sins away. When you are baptized in Jesus' name, you are properly applying the blood to the temple of your body, and when you are filled with the Spirit, you receive "the Lamb" inside of you as a spiritual meal. You celebrate the lamb and blood part of the Passover when you are born again.

The night before Christ's death, He celebrated Passover one day early and instituted a slightly different way for Christians to celebrate the feast every year. During their supper, Jesus took bread, blessed it and then handed it to His disciples to eat. "This," He said, "represents my body which is broken for you." He then took of the "fruit of the vine" which was some form of grape juice, and passed the cup to the disciples and said "this is my blood of the New Testament (or new agreement between God and man, or new dispensation) which is shed for many." He then commanded them to do this in remembrance of Calvary and that He would not drink any more of the fruit of the vine until he drank it "new in the kingdom of God."

There are two ways to understand that phrase. First of all, the next time the disciples did celebrate the Lord's Supper as we now call it was after the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost wine had been poured out and they were certainly "new in the kingdom of God." The other way to understand what Jesus was saying is that no one has partook of the Lord's Supper with a physical, flesh and bones, manifestation of Jesus Christ since that night. We will one day, though, at the marriage supper of the Lamb after the Rapture of the church. Jesus was saying "celebrate the Passover from now on this way for two reasons: to look back and remember the sacrifice that I made for you, and to look forward to the time when I shall eat it again with you in heaven!" We celebrate the Passover then, to remember His tremendous sacrifice and to remember that the goal of that sacrifice was to one day have a bride of the church in heaven with Him! The past and future aspects of the Lord's Supper is to thank God for Calvary and to eagerly anticipate His return!

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Let's talk about the present purpose of the Lord's Supper. What the Lord's Supper is to do right now, tonight. The present aspect of Communion was revealed to us by the Apostle Paul and brings us to our second point of the Passover: all leaven had to be removed from the house and could not be consumed in the meal.

When we read Paul's teaching on Communion in 1 Corinthians chapters 10 and 11, we quickly realize that many of the churches did not understand the correct way to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Especially in the church in Corinth, which was made up of mainly Greeks, many Christians were still treating it as a party. We find from these chapters that the rich refused to invite the poor to their tables and that they were feasting on much more than just "bread and fruit of the vine." We also find that many of them were using the scriptures on communion as an excuse to drink alcoholic beverages and get drunk, even at church. That form of logic, interestingly enough, is still used by some people today to justify their alcoholic consumption. Paul came against such people strongly saying that they had missed the entire point of the scriptures.

Tonight we will use bread that has been baked without leaven or yeast. We will use simple, non-alcoholic grape juice. It is impossible to prove one way or another from the scripture whether or not Jesus used alcoholic wine for the Lord's Supper. All of the Gospels refer to it as "fruit of the vine." When you realize that alcoholic wine is made by allowing yeast to feed on the sugar of the juice thus producing alcohol as a byproduct, and that there was to be no yeast even in the house at the time of the celebration of the Passover, it is very doubtful that Jesus intended for us to use real wine. In any case, the state of the juice is not the point, but to remember His sacrifice, look forward to His coming, and as we will see, allow Him to search our hearts.

The church in Corinth messed up the Lord's Supper by two ways: by turning into an irreverent party, and by not taking of it "worthily." To understand this, let's go back to our text in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul writes:

It is here that Paul reveals to us the present purpose of the Lord's Supper: we are to do it to "show the Lord's death till he come." How can we show the Lord's death? Because as the church we are the body of Christ and so when we die out to our flesh, we are "showing" the Lord's death. Therefore Communion is to be a time where we search ourselves and spiritually die in repentance before God. Not only do we look forward to His return, and look back with thankfulness on His sacrifice, but we are to take time to offer our bodies as a "living sacrifice" by dying out to old ways and sinful habits.

If anyone eats and drinks of the Lord's Supper "unworthily" then they are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The key word there is "unworthily" which does not mean that you must be "worthy" of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for none of us will ever be worthy of the price that was paid. "Worthily" means in a worthwhile manner, or in a proper way, or in a reverent manner. In other words, Paul is saying to take Communion in the proper way and if we do not we have sinned against Jesus Christ. The New International Version puts this verse this way:

It is then very important to take of the Lord's Supper in the proper manner. The next verse tells us what that proper manner is:

Before you partake of Communion, then you must "examine yourself." To not do so is to take of the Lord's Supper unworthily and to drink damnation to yourself. In scripture, leaven or yeast was always a sign of sin because sin puffs a man up and makes him think that he's okay and bigger than he is. Jesus constantly warned against the false teaching of the Pharisees by calling it "leaven." The reason that the Jews had to take out all of the leaven from their house when they partook of the Passover was to teach us that when we take the Lord's Supper, we must search ourselves and examine ourselves and repent of our sins. We must get things right with other people and forgive others. We must repent and make sure that everything is right between us and God. To not do so and to take of the Lord's Supper with unrepented sin in our hearts, is to "drink damnation" to ourselves. And notice the next verse:

There were many in the church that were weak and sick and even dead both physically and spiritually because they had taken communion without first repenting and searching their hearts and removing the "leaven!" I wonder how many people's troubles and illnesses today in our society are from religions that take the Lord's Supper as a common thing and simply perform it as a ritual without teaching the people that to take it with ought against their brother or unrepented sin in their life is harmful!? That is why I told you Sunday night that if you had ought against someone, to get it right with them before tonight. We must judge ourselves and open ourselves before the Lord. God wants us to all be able to walk out of here knowing that there is not one offence between anybody here and without an unrepented sin being within the church. We are to get the leaven out tonight.

Invariably, every year, I have somebody say to me "well if taking communion with unrepented sin or unforgiveness is that serious an offence, I would rather not take it at all." Realize the faultiness and the discrepancy in that reasoning. If there is sin in your life that you are holding on to and do not want to give up for communion or if you have unforgiveness or bitterness in your heart towards somebody that would make you afraid to take communion, then you are not ready to meet God. If the rapture was to take place right now or you were to breathe your final breath, then the very unrepented things that kept you from taking communion will also keep you from going to heaven.

In other words, before we partake of the communion, we should search ourselves and repent. If there is anything in your heart toward a brother or sister and they are here, you need to go ask them to forgive you. As we start this year, we need to know that any possible bad situation has been forgiven and made right. And that goes between you and God as well. Let's take the Lord's Supper "worthily" let's first examine ourselves and ask God to forgive us and to remove all the "leaven."

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The third and final aspect of the Passover that I want to point out to you is that they had to eat the meal dressed, and ready for a journey, because immediately after they ate the meal, God was taking them to the "promised land." As it was in Moses' day so it was in Jesus' time. Those disciples did not realize that Jesus was about to take them to a "promised place." After Calvary, then the disciples found themselves on the Day of Pentecost, full of the Holy Ghost, and with more spiritual power than they had ever dreamed!

I doubt very seriously that they had any idea how far they were about to grow in the Spirit when they ate the Lord's Supper. It is interesting that eleven ate the Lord's Supper with everything right between them and Jesus and one ate it with sin in his heart. The eleven were all on the Day of Pentecost, but Judas Iscariot didn't live to see it. His hidden sin destroyed him before he ever got to the promised place. Within 2 months, the eleven were seeing miracles and outpourings of the Holy Ghost while Judas was eternally lost.

If you have been willing to get everything out of your life that smells of sin and to get everything right, then know that when you eat of the Lord's Supper, you need to have your spiritual shoes on and be ready to go forward in the Spirit. Because God is going to take you to a higher place spiritually this year than you have ever been. He has a promised place that He intends to take this church after this night. And you determine whether or not you will be a part by whether or not you eat it with your heart and motives right.

The Passover in Moses' time became the first month of the year and became the New Year's celebration. They celebrated it once a year at the beginning of each new year. That is why we do it on New Year's Eve. We believe that this represents a new beginning for our church and a new chapter of the Holy Ghost working in our community. I believe that tonight is the beginning of a new level of the Revival that God wants to give us.

There were some here last year that are not here this year. I know some of them moved because of job situations and retirements and things like that -- what I am about to say is no reflection on them. But there were some who were here last year that aren't here this year because they fell by the wayside and went back to a life of sin. If we could look through the eyes of the Spirit, we would probably find that they partook of the communion last year with unrepented sin or desires in their life. Hopefully everyone has gotten everything right with God and each other tonight, and for those of you who have, tonight marks the celebration of a new level of anointing that God is going to give us! We will partake of His Supper worthily: looking back to His sacrifice, looking forward to His return, and looking inwardly to make sure everything between us and our maker is right!

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We take this bread to thankfully remember Jesus' death upon the cross and to thank Him for His awesome love. We eat it ready to move forward to a new anointing, to a fresh start, to a promised place in the Spirit.

We take this "fruit of the vine" to look back to the day that His blood washed our sins away and to thank Him for it. We also take it to remind ourselves that He is coming soon, and most of all we want to be ready to go when He comes so that we can one day fellowship with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We also take it to thank Him for forgiving us of our shortcomings of this past year and for His awesome mercy.

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The last part of our service is much neglected by most Christians but was also commanded of Jesus Christ the same night that He instituted the Lord's Supper. Let's turn to John chapter 13 to see what Jesus did immediately after the Last Supper:

After He instituted the communion service, Jesus then did the most extraordinary act! He rose from the table grabbed a towel like a common servant and began to wash the disciples' feet. In those days, almost everyone had servants and they were not even citizens but were more like slaves. The God of the universe, robed in flesh, was washing the feet of His creation!

Peter was the one to speak up and realize how crazy it was that Jesus was washing his feet. But when told that if Jesus did not wash him, he had no part with Jesus, Peter responded wash me all over! This is a beautiful type of water baptism, but there is more here. Look at verse 11:

Judas Iscariot was probably still there! Even though He knew that Judas had already arranged for His betrayal, Jesus Christ got down and washed Judas' feet! He was instilling a principle that whoever would be great in the kingdom of God must have the attitude of a servant!

If Jesus Christ was willing to have the attitude of a servant, then so should we! If He was willing to serve others, then so should we! If He was willing to wash His disciples feet, then we ought to be willing to do likewise: both in the spiritual sense and in the physical!

I want you to realize that Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life and washed His disciples' feet not knowing whether or not if anyone would follow Him and love Him. He had no promise that you and I would receive His commandments and serve Him, and yet He willingly gave His life. He was the great shepherd and He said:

He did not wait until it was clear whether or not the sheep would give their lives but gave His life without any promise that anyone would follow! In verse 15 of our text, Jesus said that He was playing the role of a servant and washing their feet "as an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." We cannot have the attitude that "I will serve and help someone if I see that they are going to help me." We cannot have the attitude that "I will not love that brother because I know they will reject me." What they do has nothing to do with it. God did not wait until He knew who would reject Him or accept His work, before He died. He lovingly went to the cross, and became a servant without thought of reprisal. That is true love, when we are willing to become a servant to each other without thought of what we will gain in return.

When you wash someone else's feet, pray for them, submit yourself to the role of a servant concerned about their welfare. Allow the Holy Ghost to use you to bless the person in the Spirit. And do not lose the attitude of the servant after this night, but resolve this year that you will love people regardless of whether or not you will benefit from it.

If you will not participate and wash someone else's feet, then you are -- to put it bluntly -- saying that you are greater than Jesus Christ. If the Master became a servant even humbling Himself to wash Judas Iscariot's feet, then we should as well! It is humbling but is a tremendous reminder of our role in the kingdom of God. We are first and foremost commanded to be a servant to each other!