One of the most prophetic things Our Lord did just hours before His crucifixion was to initiate what we refer to as The Lord's Supper, The Lord's Table, our New Covenant meal.  He knew that within a generation, Jerusalem and its Temple was to be destroyed (Dan 9:24-26), not a stone to be left upon a stone ( Mark 13:2).  The Old Covenant age with its shadow priesthood and sacrifices was soon to disappear forever (Hebrews 8:13) as more and more Jews were being won to Christ and transitioning to the New and Everlasting Covenant of Messiah. The age of Righteousness, the Kingdom of God (Daniel 2:44), the Church of the firstborn, a mighty new universe wide (heaven and earth) Spiritual Israel of God would be fully consummated at that same time (70 AD). God was now doing a new thing under a new Covenant upon the earth, which Paul described as a new creation.  A brand new Spiritually alive race of people to God, Who is Spirit, was coming forth, a Christ membered race with a new name, the Church of The Living God, for "you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow  (Isaiah 62:2; 65:15).  This forty year period was similar in time to when God took His people out of Egypt, as He prepared and disciplined them to take possession of their shadow promised land, which truly was but leased to them as fruitful tenants (Leviticus 25:23; Matthew 21:38), for all spoke of the greater promise which for us Christians is The New Covenant, Jesus Christ.  This was Paul's hope, ".. I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him (Philippians 3:8-10)."  Sprinkled numerous times throughout our New Testament, we find these words: "in Christ, of Christ, through Christ, by Christ, in Him etc., for to be found in Him is to be in the New and Everlasting Covenant.  Paul said that "for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21)."

All the Passover lambs that proceeded Jesus Christ were to be completely eaten but the Old Covenant people were forbidden to drink the blood.  Yet, when God brought forth His Perfect Lamb into the world, the Lamb spoken of by Abraham on Mount Moriah, Calvary, (God will provide Himself a sacrifice, Gen 22:8 ), and introduced to Israel by John the Baptist as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world",  the new Covenant people were not only to eat the whole Lamb but they were also to drink His blood.  For as "Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him (John 6:53-56). We are given a most wonderful explanation in Leviticus 17:11:"the life of the flesh is in the blood".  God did not want His Covenant people to drink the blood (life) of the animal into them, but when His Son is the Lamb, we are to drink the whole Life of Christ which would conform and transform us to the image and likeness of God which was and is His Everlasting Covenant regarding man (Gen 1:26). Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). 

The Apostle Paul had to warn the Church at Corinth "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons (1 Cor 10:21). "Psalm 106:37 said of God's Covenant people that "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons."  Ezekiel describes these same child sacrifices as food, food for the demons to grow in order to become bigger demons "And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols (Eze 16:20 see also 23:37)." Paul said "the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons (1 Cor 10:20)." Yet millions of confessing Christians are now behaving more like pagans as they ignore the plain facts regarding the abortifacient nature of all so-called birth control contraception and continue shedding innocent blood even though this was the very reason that Israel of old lost her land lease: "So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land (Eze 36:18)." When His pastors neglect to warn His flock the Lord roars out from Zion if only we have ears to hear: "El Nino -El Nino"  El Nino -The Child , El Nino - the Red Tide, the red tide innocent blood of forty nine million surgically aborted babies here in the USA and hundreds of millions of chemically murdered sons and daughters of God through abortaficient contraception birth control.  Surely God's people need to heed such warnings. (2 Chron 7:14) 

In Genesis 14:18 we read : "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High", an so it is that our high priest Jesus in the order of Melchizedek  "on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying,  This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)." No one under the Old Covenant could lawfully bring a sacrifice to God that he himself did not own or lawfully purchase, and so which of us wretched paupers could say that we owned Jesus.  No dear ones, this was God's own sacrifice, Grace upon Grace.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son "to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Eph 1:10).  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:19-20)."

Have you ever wondered why so many of the common people were ready to follow Jesus but others were not.  Luke 7:29 will help us here:"All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John.  But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John." The old Covenant requirement for anyone to partake of the Passover lamb was circumcision, the removal of their flesh (Exodus 12:48).  Similarly, for us to partake of The New Covenant - Jesus Christ,  we must be baptized, which means, we must know that we are dead, "For if one died for all,  therefore all died (2 Cor 5:14)." Only then will there be no more divisions among Christians when we come to His table to eat and drink of His life.  "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD (Isaiah 59:20). "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:4)." 

Once Israel of old entered into Covenant with God through blood sacrifice (Exodus 24:4-8), Moses then sprinkled the blood of the covenant on the altar and on the people. This was never again repeated, for it spoke of Christ's blood shed once for all time (Hebrews 9:28),  but the Rabbis did list 73 other animal sacrifices ("The Temple" page 81, by Alfred Edersheim) that were either because of communion with God or to restore communion with Him.  These 73 fellowship sacrifices were summed up by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."  The requirement for the altar was that it be made from stone that was not dressed, no tool was to be used to fashion it (Exodus 20:25).  Jesus Christ is not only our blessed sacrifice by Whose blood we and He are sprinkled, but He is also our altar, for He is the rock that was cut out but not by human hands (Daniel 2:34).  The Old Covenant had its laws which Moses gave to the children of Israel along with two tablets of stone on which were the Ten Commandments inscribed by the finger of God (Exodus 31:18; 34:4).  Jesus is the Law of God inscribed in our hearts by The Holy Spirit and so He is the stone the builders rejected (Matt 21:42).  He is also our true tithe, for though Moses gave them ten commandments, Jesus gave us just one commandment, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34; 15:12,17)". This commandment we are to receive by faith, knowing that He watches over His word to perform it,  and so we fulfill the whole Law and therby bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, the fruit being love for God and for all that God loves.  Love knows all the pressing needs in God's house and Love also knows the neighbor down the street who just lost his job.  Jesus Christ is everything in this dispensation and He is our glorious New Covenant : "I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8).

 Dear precious ones of God, let us always distinguish between Christ's cup and that counterfeit gold plated chalice of this world.  For whether it be world soccer, or football, basketball or golf etc., the finale or ultimate victory is that only the winner gets to drink from the cup.  By defeating all their opponents (enemies) the winners prove their worthiness to drink from the cup. Christ's cup is so entirely different.  He tells us to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:44-45)"  He freely gives His New Covenant cup, His blood poured out for you (Luke 22:20), to us un-worthy losers and when we drink His blood - His Life, He turns us into winners, a new creation -- sons and daughters of The Living God.  Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, let us celebrate the Festival (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).

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"As for me, this is my covenant with them,  says the LORD.  My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever, says the LORD." (Isaiah 59:21)  
May All The Glory be unto God through Jesus Christ.  Amen!
Brother John+

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