The Upper Room

The upper room is where it all starts. The New Testament begins here. Either you believe Jesus' simple, straightforward words this is my body, this is my blood of the covenant, or you believe the thousands of Gnostic voices spoken through the mouths of preachers and theologians saying, did God really say? If we are going to be faithful to Jesus' words, let us be faithful starting here in this most fundamental thing and from that faithfulness to the rest of His word. Denying Jesus' words, that earthly reality leads to a Gnostic spiritualization that runs rampant.

You believe Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine; why not His last miracle of turning wine into His blood? You believe Jesus' miracle of taking five loaves of bread and feeding five thousand; why not the miracle of Jesus feeding millions at the communion tables the bread that's His flesh?

They are simple words, take and eat; this is my body; take and drink from it all of you; this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. A real present tense forgiveness of sins that you taste with your mouth. A bite of bread and a sip of wine never tasted better because you are tasting the forgiveness of God.

These words you're either going to have to ignore these or explain them away, or you're going to have to believe them. My hope is you will believe them and discover the gift of this meal which is an objective assurance of the forgiveness of sins.

-Pr Jeremy Rhode

Worship

One thing God makes clear in His Holy Word, He will not tolerate people dreaming up how they think He should be worshiped and served and simply tossing that in His direction and expecting Him to receive it gratefully. We learn this already with the worship of Cain in Genesis 4. Much of the Torah, the first five books of Moses, are concerned with precise details of worship He prescribes and also include stark warnings against innovation. Think what befell the sons of Aaron who offered unauthorized fire before the Lord (see Leviticus 10). Or the rebellion of Korah recorded in Numbers 16. Or even of poor Uzzah for merely reaching out a hand to steady the Ark in 2 Samuel 6, and how he was immediately struck dead for his error.

If you put the whole thing together, I can think of no better way to express this than dealing with God is not safe for sinful human beings except in the very precise manner of worship which He Himself prescribes. That worship allows sinful mankind to actually have access to Him in such a way that His presence is wrapped in grace. But anything human beings dream up on their own, by very definition, falls under His condemnation, exactly as we hear Him say in the prophet Isaiah 29:13. "Their fear (worship) is merely a human construct," not His divine gift. You must remember the very foundation of the Northern Kingdom; that is actually what happened. You can read the description from 1 Kings 12. This is what the Lord abominates through Amos in this passage; this cult that still called on the name of Yahweh but was devised from his (Jeroboam's) own heart, not from the heart of the Lord Himself.

-Pr. Will Weedon

Lent

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return. A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Martin Luther warned against our self-chosen crosses. He says, "the Lord devices perfectly made crosses for us and lay them on our life. You will have things you'll be giving up without any choice of your own. If you can receive them with grace, that's a good thing.".

The Lutheran Confessions totally rejects this distinction of meat thing, where you look at and say, I won't eat meat during the days of Lent while at the same time feasting on seafood, no that's not the path to go. The word for Lent in the German language is "fastenzeit," meaning fasting time. So the key is to remember is fasting literally means going hungry. So if you want to give up something, give up a meal; the traditional Western fast during Lent was to limit yourself to about 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 meals per day.

-Pr. Will Weedon

Fruit Of The Vine

 Matthew 26:29

Fruit of the vine is Jewish for wine. No, folks, not for grape juice. This is Passover; the last grapes would have been harvested back in September or October, and they simply knew of no way of process to keep the fruit of the vine from fermenting, so yes, real wine. And Jesus speaks of the wine as something He would not drink with them again until that moment when they share it with Him new in my Father's kingdom.

When Chrysostom asks what that "new" entails, he points his congregation to a great wonder, "He will drink it new has of having an immortal and incorruptible body - a spiritual body. He will not drink out of a need for a drink, for it is not a body that suffers or has bodily needs. It was not because He needed to eat and drink after the resurrection that He spoke in this way that which was new, but to give them full assurance of His resurrection." Excellent point!

He has given them the bread that is His body. He has offered thanks over the cup that holds His blood that will win forgiveness for all. And so His death is staring them in the face. And yet He promises on the other side there's going to be feasting, and joy in the Father's kingdom for He will indeed live again, and they will share in the table of His kingdom in a hidden manner in this age, openly in the age to come. You too, and me - joy abounding.

Pr. Will Weedon