3-Breaking Ourselves as a Bread (The Idolatry of the Lord's Supper)
Transcription
1 Corinthians 10. 1-For I do not want, brethren, that you ignore that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed the sea;2-and all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea, 3-and all ate the same spiritual food 4-and all drank the same drink... 5-But of the most of them God did not please; so, they were prostrate in the desert.
Transcription
The sacrament and idolatry within the churches.
Dangers of falling into apostasy and demon worship.
The apostle Paul makes a vehement appeal to the new Gentile church not to place its trust in symbolic rites belonging to the Mosaic cult.
The symbols fulfilled their purpose of sustaining and pointing the way to the Christ, who was to come, so to partake of them under the new covenant is considered by the apostle as a sin of fornication and idolatry in the eyes of the Lord.
Throughout chapter 10, the apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians not to put their trust in the symbols that correspond to water baptism and the Jewish Passover or sacrament.
1 Corinthians 10:1. Because I don't want brothers and sisters to ignore that our parents, all in Moses, were baptized in the cloud and in the sea.
Yes? here the apostle speaks of the first ceremonial symbol of the Jews and also of the believers at that time. Precisely as I said before: "The apostle Paul tries to prevent the Corinthians from falling into idolatry, fornication and spiritual adultery."
For this he explains and tells them: I do not want brothers, that you ignore that our parents, all our parents, were baptized in the cloud and in the sea.
Yes? maybe you and I were baptized in a pile, in a river, or in a pool. But they, the Jews, had been directly baptized by God into "a cloud and into the sea."
Yes? What more baptism, than that baptism of power? But I say again: the apostle Paul wanted to prevent the Corinthians from falling into idolatry and fornication.
He wanted to prevent them from falling into a worship of demons by putting their trust in the symbolic and by not knowing or understanding "the transition and transformation of everything that was happening at that time, through the fulfillment and consummation of the New Covenant.
1 Corinthians 10. 3-and everyone ate... 4-and everyone drank the same spiritual drink.
Notice how the apostle Paul talks about baptism in verse one and two, then in verse three he talks about food and then he talks about drinking.
The apostle Paul as great love, but with great firmness at the same time, says to the leading church of Corinth: I do not want you to ignore that our fathers all of them participated in this, under the cloud in the sea (Vs1), and they all ate and all drank Vs.3,4) ... but of the most of them God did not please, so they were prostrate in the wilderness (Vs.5).
What he tells them is: it was of no use to him! They knew of power, they had a demonstration, they participated in the cloud, in the water of the sea, they were freed from Pharaoh when the sea closes. However, and despite all this: they were left in the desert prostrate!
Numbers chapter 14 verse 29 says: in this wilderness your bodies will fall, you will not enter the earth to the truth except Caleb and Joshua.
All of them remained there, only Joshua and Caleb could enter and what the apostle Paul says, the reasoning he presents to them is: what good was it?
They did not take the benefit, what was behind that manifestation, which was Christ, the spiritual rock that followed them (1 Cts. 10:4) they did not know it! All of them participated in the symbolic and despite this they remained in the desert.
The Exegetical and Explanatory Commentary of the Bible on page 381 reads as follows: Just as the Israelites had the water of the Rock that corresponds to Baptism. They also had the manna that corresponds to the other of the 2 ceremonies of Christianity, the Lord's Supper.
So, they participated in what? they participated in the baptism in the cloud, in the sea, in the water of the Peña. "The water had saved them temporarily, but not eternally, in the sense that they did not know the one behind that demonstration."
And this is precisely what the apostle Paul is about to warn the Corinthians so that they would not fall into this idolatry, by putting their trust in the symbols; and for this reason, they did not know the Almighty who was behind that manifestation and those symbols.
1 Corinthians 10:6—plus these things happened as an example to us.
This is where we come to take an example and say: why did this happen like this? now I want to understand why? because I must take an example so that it does not happen to me.
Now, if someone comes and burns, and then that person tells me not to burn; like when it's tiny, right? who say to one: "do not touch that Candela, do not touch the fire" and one goes and touches it.
Well, the apostle Paul wanted to prevent the Corinthians from go through the same experience that the Israelites who did not know the Almighty God had gone through.
The Corinthians put their trust in the symbols and the shadows, and the apostle Paul tells them: this is fornication, this is idolatry, this is worship of demons, this is greed; you have to know and understand, because it did not help them (their parents) to have participated in this, in anything. In the same way, if you do, it won't serve you, it won't work for you!
What was behind all this teaching then? That's what we're looking at here.
Romans, chapter 14 verse 23, says: and everything that does not come from faith is hamartia or sin.
Sin means to miss the target, not to reach the goal, to fail in a purpose; the Israelites failed the purpose, they erred, they did not reach the goal, because they did not know the faith, they only knew the symbols.
So, within the list of sins, of hamartia or to miss the target that the Jews committed. The apostle Paul begins to point out several points to them, and in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 10, he says, "that we may not covet evil things as they coveted."
That is, when we set our gaze on the carnal, on the earthly, on the temporal, on the material, it is comparable to a greed of the flesh.
The Israelites had coveted, they had let themselves be carried away by their eyes, by the temporal, and they had not known the true faith.
Then one of the first sins or mistakes to the target they committed from the greed that came from false trust in the symbols and shadows that come from them.
And in this specific case, we're talking about putting trust in what? 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1, 2 and 3. Water baptism and holy communion. To eat and drink, to partake of manna, to partake of those foods that were so sacred to them.
So that the Jews in general were not concerned with experiencing any kind of inner change, since it has their eyes: "they had already been consecrated by the sacrament and by Baptism in the waters of the sea."
They had already partaken of the bread, the wine, the lamb, the rock, and the sea. They already had it all! What else could they need?
Well, this is what the apostle Paul wanted to prevent, and he wanted to correct this situation that was occurring within the Gentile church in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 10:7-Nor are you idolaters, like some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink.
One of the sins, one of the failures then was greed, another of them, was idolatry. Because you fell into idolatry, when you put an excess of trust in what is symbolic, in what was temporary. In that which came to have a fulfillment under the new covenant.
1 Corinthians 10:8-nor let's fornicate like some of them and fell in one day 23,000, that's Numbers, Chapter 25 verses 1 through 9.
Then there was a sin of greed, there was a sin of idolatry, there was a sin of putting trust in eating and drinking, and because of this it was considered a fornication and they fell on that day, says 23,000.
The people of Israel were driven by sight and symbols and did not know their God. For them Jehovah, or God, or Adonai, or Baal, everything was similar, because they let themselves be carried away by the natural, by the temporal, by sight and not by revelation, not by faith.
The connoisseur to be able to see. They didn't have it! they did not have the understanding that we have today to judge, to discern and to decide.
This is the reason why the apostle Paul clarifies this situation before the Corinthians, so that we Gentiles would not fall into that same weakness, weakness, hamartia, error, failing to target or not completing the goal.
1 Corinthians 11:29 says, for he who eats and drinks without discerning the body of the Lord judgment, eats and drinks for himself.
What had happened to the Jews? 23,000 had eaten, drank, and fallen. And why? what was the problem? This happened because they did not know God. Because everything that does not come from faith is a mistake, it is a failure; divine faith is creativity, faith is light, faith is truth, faith is Christ, faith is positioning, faith is knowing ourselves in God.
They walked blindly trusting in the temporal, in the symbolic. Trusting what had once happened in the wilderness and this, then the apostle Paul wants to prevent them, so that they would not fall into this kind of fornication, adultery, greed and idolatry.
To participate in something without discernment, of its fulfillment and purpose is the same then? To idolatry, to fornication, to tempting the Lord and to murmuring.
1 Corinthians 10:9 says, let us not tempt the Lord, as some of them tempted him and perished by the serpents, nor murmur.
Look the list is big then! it has to do with greed, it has to do with idolatry, it has to do with fornication, it has to do with tempting the Lord, it has to do with murmuring.
All this that the people of Israel had done and all this that the Corinthians were practicing, was united, was linked to murmuring, to fornication, to greed, to idolatry.
From all these things the apostle Paul wanted to deliver them, why? Because it was greed, it was a trap, it was a deception, putting trust in the symbolic came to do something that in the end was against them, just as it had been against the people of Israel.
1 Corinthians 10, verse 11: And these things happened to them as an example and are written to admonish us, so let him who thinks he is firm see that he does not fall.
Here we have to examine, what is our steadfastness in God, because if this happened to them by putting trust in the symbolic, by putting the trust in that the waters had saved their parents and then all Israel was already baptized in a covenant of water that cleansed and covered them.
Despite the fact that all Israel had partaken of the Lamb and the bread. However: they stayed in the desert! This is the apostle Paul's warning to them.
1 Corinthians 10:14, therefore, my brethren, flee from idolatry. As sensible people, or as intelligent people, this is how the apostle tells them: "As sensible, as sane people, as people who can discern and think about what I am speaking to them."
Because the Corinthians were a Church where the gifts, grace, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, and science of God abounded. And that is why the apostle does not treat you as ignorant but says: "I treat you as sensible; judge, discern what I am telling you."
· The holy supper or Passover of the believer.
Because if we are talking about the symbols and we are talking about all this that happened to the people of Israel and how all this was considered a fornication, an adultery, a greed, an idolatry and they had been judged and punished. So, what is our sacrament now under the new covenant?
1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7. Because our Passover, which is Christ, has already been sacrificed for us. According to this passage, I "already have an Easter and that Passover has already been fulfilled or sacrificed"
This is why Paul says to the Corinthians: the Passover was already offered! Now it is not like in the ancient time that you had to do it for 7 days and that you had to look for a little lamb and that you had to participate in this and that, ... and the glass of wine and bread. The apostolic words are no, this has already been celebrated, it has already been sacrificed for us!
1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8. So, let's celebrate the feast with the old yeast, right? The apostle says: So, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven. That is, without the old yeast; for the old leaven was a fornication, an adultery, an idolatry, and a greed in the eyes of the Lord.
That is, to continue with the gaze and trust placed in the shadows, in the symbolic, in what was not the real thing, and that had not yet had a fulfillment was to err on target or sin.
That is why the apostle Paul tells them: our Passover was already consummated, so that now we have to celebrate the feast without that old leaven.
1 Corinthians 5:8-So let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread, of sincerity and truth.
True, we were taught, I was taught that it had to be used instead of wine, grape juice; and that a piece of bread or a cookie without yeast had to be used; then we had to be careful that the bread met the conditions of having no yeast.
However, beloved: the bread, which the apostle Paul presents here, is it a bread of what? is it a barley bread or a bread without...? No! The apostle speaks of a bread of sincerity and truth.
It turns out that now the loaves that I present before the Lord, and in which I participate, are called: "sincerity, they are called truth, they are called communion, they are called love, they are called unity, they are called justification, they are called forgiveness." I mean, now the fulfillment of the Christian Easter in my life has a different meaning.
Because now I have been redeemed, now I see the world in a different way, and I see my fellowmen also in a different way, in such a way that it celebrated a feast and a unity in Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:16—Isn't the cup of blessing we bless the fellowship of Christ's blood? Isn't the bread we break the communion of the body of Christ?
The apostle Paul wisely asks himself and says, "The Cup of blessing that we bless, isn't the communion of the blood of Christ?" And let's pay attention to this word "communion;" because this is the real Cup.
The true cup is communion in the blood of Christ. Communion comes from the Greek koinonia, which means: "companionship, participation, unity, friendship, love.
Then we return again to the text: The Cup of blessing that we bless is not communion, ... it's not companionship, ... it's not friendship, ... it's not participation, ... it is not unity, ... is it not love that comes as a product of the consummate work of Christ?
Again, we see, then, the above passage that says: (1 Cts. 5:8) So let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread, of sincerity and truth.
I remember that many times the believer would come and say, Pastor, "I cannot participate in the sacrament because I am not married" And then another would come and say: pastor, I can participate because I am married.
But it turns out that this person, although she was married: "was also at odds and in resentment with many other people." However, although she presented herself "without the loaves of sincerity and truth", she complied with the regulations of the Church.
Thank God that God sees the heart today. God is not like us who is governed by the temporal, God sees beyond; And so, although many members are deprived of partake of certain things, the important thing is that God has already included each of them in His purpose and in His plan. And even if they do not participate in a ceremony, they
are already correctly participating in the work accomplished; bringing for this: "the loaves of sincerity and the loaves of truth."
They are participating in communion, in koinonia, in unity, in fellowship, in the love of Christ. In the love of the body of Christ, and they are celebrating that Passover has already been sacrificed. Celebrating that the Passover already had a fulfillment, in such a way that the benefits are now of a spiritual order.
Because if not, we could fall into what? we could fall into greed, deceit, idolatry, lies and the fornication of trusting and thinking that symbols do save.
The Study Bible, Plenitude on page 1491, reads: "Now to receive the Cup is to partake in the blood of Christ and to depart from the bread is to partake of his body.
To participate is koinonia, which means communion, unity." Now, the Cup is the New Covenant, the Cup is Christ. Bread is participation, it is unity, it is sincerity, it is truth, it is love, it is justice.
Luke chapter 22 verse 20. Similarly, after he had dined, he took the Cup saying: What is this Cup? "... it is the New Covenant in my blood that will be shed for you."
So, what is the Cup now? Under the consummation of Christ, the Cup is the New Covenant. The Cup is not the symbols! this is what the apostle Paul is saying to the Gentiles. Let's leave the symbols! Because symbols are not going to save us.
Putting our trust in the symbols as if we were the Jewish parents, in no way will help us. ... It's no use, it didn't work for them. Your parents were left in the wilderness, so that if you make the same mistake: the same will happen to you!
Because everything that does not come from creativity, from truth, from light, everything that does not come from faith is hamartia, it is sin, it is to miss the target.
The New Bible Commentary on page 789 goes like this: To partake correctly of the bread and wine is a communion. Worshippers are therefore bound in communion with the living Christ and thus with one another.
So, what is properly partake of bread and wine? Again, let's read the New Bible Commentary, page 789. "To participate correctly in the bread and wine is a communion." The worshipers are therefore linked in communion (in koinonia, in participation, in unity, in friendship, and in love), with each other and thus with the Christ.
Splitting like Pan.
The Reina Valera Bible in its 1865 version, translates 1 Corinthians 10:17 as follows: "For being many, we are one bread," what is the bread?... It's us, ... we are the bread!
That is why we break into love, and we celebrate that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed and we present ourselves with breads of sincerity and truth, because now we are a bread, because being many we are one bread, and one body, because we all partake of that same bread.
1 Cor 10: 17-The bread being one, we, being many, are one body, because we all participate in that same bread.
How wonderful is the understanding of that eternal and spiritual truth? To know that I am the bread, and to know that when I walk in unity, in sincerity, in truth, in friendship and in communion. So, we are participating in the new covenant. So, we are participating in the new covenant. We are participating in the Baptism of his Cup and the Fulfillment of his Work.
Because otherwise, if I don't do it that way and I don't know the spiritual value and meaning of what was symbolic, then I would be walking on what? he would be walking in greed, idolatry and fornication; we would be tempting the Lord.
This is why it is so important to know these truths.
To participate, comes from the Greek metejo, which means: "to participate, to acquire, to belong or to share".
We participate in the inheritance. Because despite being many, we are one bread, and one body. Because we all participate in departing, sharing and reuniting in the same body, or the same bread.
We participate, in unity and love, using for this "the loaves of sincerity and truth." To do this is to celebrate the Lord's sacrament correctly!
In the ancient system of the sacrament there was a little lamb that was sacrificed for family and when a family was very poor and did not have, it was invited, and it was brought and there was a participation, a compartment, a unity, a koinonia, a friendship, and to all this it brings us then the finished work of Christ.
1 Corinthians 5:8-So let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread, of sincerity and truth.
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