Joseph Prince - The Secret to Receiving Through the Holy Communion
Let’s dive right into the Word, I’ve got lots to share with you and I believe it’s going to bless you. It’s one of those messages that I feel that the Lord has for us that he wants us to listen to again and again, especially when you’re going through some specific trial which I’ll be mentioning afterwards, but let’s do it. First Corinthians 10, right up here, and this well-known verse, one of the first things that we learn, you know, we get saved in the navigator’s memory verse pack, one of the first things they do is that they give you this verse to memorize, all right? «There has no temptation overtaken you,» see, I’m quoting from the Old King James, this is the New King James.
You remember this verse. But actually, the word for temptation is peirasmos, all right? Peirasmos, temptation, it’s not just temptation to sin, it’s also trial. I said it’s also trial. Peirasmos is also trial. When the doctors give you a bad diagnosis, that’s a trial in your life, amen. When you hear that your business, all right, is not doing so well, you just receive news, report, all right, that’s a trial of your faith, amen. You hear bad news, that one of your children has been found doing this and doing that or whatever, that’s a trial of your faith, amen. So, all that is under that one Greek word, «peirasmos,» okay? It can be a temptation or a solicitation to sin, to evil, or it’s just a trial, same word. I kind of wish there were more than one word but it’s the same word. So, you have to see from the context is it talking about temptation to sin or is it talking about trial, the vicissitudes of life that one goes through?
So, let’s look at this and you decide, No temptation, I’m going to use the interchangeably, «No trial has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful,» hallelujah. Those three words is more than enough, man. I tell you, you can rest. You see, church, it’s not so much the faith of a believer, your faith is important. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. It’s not so much the faith of the believer, it’s the faithfulness of the promiser. By faith, Sarah received strength to conceive seed, for she judged him faithful. She didn’t judge herself full of faith, she judged him faithful. «But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested or tempted».
Now remember, I’m using words interchangeably. «Tempted or tested beyond what you are able, but with the testing will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it». Now, there seems to be a contradiction. Number one, with the testing there is a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Now, usually the idea of bearing something with endurance, with long-suffering, perseverance, or whatever, means you stay in that problem, you don’t escape. If you escape, the testing is no more testing, you found your way out. So, it’s like a contradiction. How can you bear something if there’s a way out, right?
So, I’m going to submit to you something we’re going to learn here, it’s going to bless you. It says here with the temptation, how many are glad that with the testing that comes, every testing God promises that with the testing that comes God will provide a way out? And the way out, notice that the way out, the way of escape, it’s not the way of escape, it’s actually one Greek word, «ekbasis,» «ekbasis». I know it sounds Japanese but it’s Greek, ekbasis, okay? Ekbasis, ek means out of, basis is walk. It’s you literally walk out, exit, all right? One Greek word to put it in English as exit, the way out, the escape, the exit. You walk out, ekbasis, amen. So, it’s one word, the way of escape is one word, okay? And if you look at the Old King James, which many of us read from and I memorized from navigators is Old King James, it says, «Make a way to escape». With the temptation or testing, God makes a way to escape.
So, the idea that I always have in my mind is this, that with every trial that comes, whatever the trial is, God’s faithfulness is that he will always make a way to escape, all right, make a way to escape. But in the Greek, I found out that it is not a way to escape, because this idea of a way, we do not know what that way is, but first and foremost, let me just tell you this, it’s not a way to escape, in the Greek it is a definite article. The escape, the exit, the way out, the way out, the way out, the ekbasis, the way out, and I challenge any scholar to look it up, all right? That’s why Old King James is not very accurate, the New King James says the way of escape, it’s accurate.
Now, when you say a… that means with every testing you have to find a way. A way can be a new way. I said a way can be a new way, all right, you understand? There’s always a way. There’s always a way of escape. There’s always a door there for you. That means it’s general, you do not know what it is, but when you say the, you are pointing to something very definite. So, the way of escape, there must be something that the writer has in mind and it’s found in the context, okay? It’s all found in the context. Before that, we look at, «That you may be able to bear it».
All right, what is this word «bear it»? It down there, we left it untranslated because we want you to see that it’s in the italics which means it’s not in the original Greek, all right, so we look at the word «bear». The word bear is «hupophero». Are you all doing fine so far? You can follow, right? Okay, hupophero, what is hupophero? What is hupophero? Hupo, hupo means under. When something comes under, it’s hupo. Phero is to be borne along, like on a river, like a sheep being borne along. Now, I have many, many word studies in my library, one of the word studies says it like this, this is not from me, these words, okay? Hupophero means like this, an undercurrent of a river carrying someone away. Carried safely away from danger. It’s not this idea of bearing it, sit down there and bear it, it’s the idea of the way out is actually God released more of his Spirit to carry you out, amen?
Undercurrent of a river, because the word hupo is under, all right? Carrying is the word «phero,» all right? Carried safely away from danger, praise the Lord. Now we come to the revelation. Go back to 1 Corinthians 10:13. All right, God makes the way of escape that you may be borne, carried safely away from danger, so what is the context? Look at this. Now I’m going to show you my Bible and I’m going to show you my finger and thumb. Okay, now you see the context. Verse 13 to 16, can you see this?
Now, this is from the Old King James. I use the Old King James a lot. Now look at the context. Just two verses after that it talks about the cup of blessing, verse 16, which we bless, «is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ»? I’m like, huh? All of a sudden, we’re talking about trial, the way out, God will give you the way out, all right, you’ll be borne safely away from danger, and then two verses after that, it tells you, and it tells you like I can only speak this verse 15 to wise men, judge you what I say. In other words, it’s going to take a revelation here. I’m going to tell you something, it will take a revelation, you understand? It will take the wisdom of God. It will take spiritual intelligence. Are you ready for that?
So, and then it says here, this is Communion, verse 16 is Communion. What about the cup of blessing? What have they got to do? And the bread, what does that got to do with the way of escape, the way out, the ekbasis, to walk out from your trial, what does that got to do with it? But before that, it says, «Wherefore,» verse 14, «My dearly beloved, flee from idolatry».
Now, the verses before verse 13 talks about idolatry. You know how he talks about idolatry? Same chapter, let’s go to verse 7: «Do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.'» He’s quoting from the incident after they built a golden calf. You know what they did after they built a golden calf, the children of Israel? After they built a golden calf, they sat down, ate and drank offerings to the golden calf. That is idolatry. And they rose up, the word «play» there is the idea of orgies. They had wild parties, that’s the word we will use today, all right? Not just party, wild parties. They sat down, they ate, so the idea of eating and drinking before a foreign god, which is no god, it’s an idol, can you see the context? I’m showing you the context. It’s talking about Communion, can you see that?
In fact, you go behind in the same chapter, it says, and all the people of Israel, they ate the same spiritual food and they drank the same spiritual drink and they drank from the rock that followed them, who was Christ. So, eating and drinking again. Church, do you know that everything that happened to man is because man ate his way into all this mess? I want to show you the background of the same chapter to show you this about eating and drinking. And by the way, if you look at the rest of the remaining chapter of chapter 10, it talks about eating, whatever you eat, do all to the glory of God, about eating and drinking, and that’s why the very next chapter, okay, it talks about the Apostle Paul saying, now it’s 1 Corinthians 11, guys, I received from the Lord Jesus what I delivered to you.
That the same night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. The apostle Paul in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 11, said, «I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you». The same night he was betrayed, he took bread, he broke it and said, «This is my body broken for you». In the same manner he took the cup, he gave thanks, and he says, «This is my blood shed for the remission of sins». Now church, let me ask you a question, why was it that in chapter 11 Paul had to say, «I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you»?
He could have gone to Peter, he could have gone to Matthew, Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded in the Synoptic Gospels that Jesus instituted the Communion, the Lord’s Supper, yet the Lord Jesus, the present-day glorified, ascended Christ thought that Communion is so important that he would give a personal revelation to the Apostle Paul, and Paul himself said, «I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you the same night he was betrayed». In other words, he didn’t get it from Matthew, he didn’t get it from Mark, Luke, or John, he got it from the Lord. So, let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 10, the context, all right, verse 13. Okay, now, «The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ»?
So, the context is very, very clear, people, all right? Because all of a sudden, it talks about communion, it doesn’t make sense, and knowing the Apostle Paul, he is a very systematic teacher, okay? He’s very intelligent, but when it comes to the Bible, God orchestrates everything. No verse is taken out of context. I’ve shown you the verses before, they sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play, now let’s go to verse 16 on the screen. «The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ»? This word «communion» is the word «koinonia,» which is the word for fellowship, all right, association. It’s not just fellowship, you can have fellowship with me, but I just met you yesterday, all right?
In other words, it’s a fellowship, but it’s a fellowship over tea, all right, kind of association, but the word down there is actually intimate. It’s intimate participation, intimate participation. Are you listening? This word would be used also in the idea of a husband and a wife being intimate. They say things to each other, all right? There are things that they say and do that no one else is privy to. They are intimately participating. The thoughts, spirit, soul, and body, okay? That’s the idea of communion. Are you with me so far? Are you blessed? Amen, now, keep that in mind, okay? What is that? Communion, then, «The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread».
Now, it’s not saying that we are all partaking of each other. There are those who teach when you take the bread, remember, this is the body of Christ. No, no, no, no, Jesus never said this is the mystical body of Christ. We are the body of Christ. But I mean, when he took the bread, when the bread is with the cup of wine, it’s always his physical body. This is my body. He’s not referring to the mystical body that was to come. Are you listening? And he is very precise. «We, though many, are one bread, one body, for we all partake of that one bread».
In other words, we are one bread, one body now, because we all partake of Jesus’s body. You got it? Now, how do we partake? The million-dollar question that the Church of Jesus Christ has is that I know he bore my diseases, not just my sins, but how do I partake that? How do I have access to it? How do I become a koinonia, an intimate participator, a sharer of what happened? Observe Israel, «Are not those who eat partakers». In other words, when you eat the bread and drink the cup, you become a partaker of what Jesus did at the cross.
Now, go to 1 Corinthians 11. «For this reason,» singular reason, only one reason in the church, «Many are weak and sick among you and many sleep». Sleep, death, die, behold, I speak plainly. In those days, they sleep. For a believer, death holds no more terror. There’s no more sting. Jesus conquered death. So, for a believer, they say they fall asleep. A sinner dies, a believer sleeps until Jesus raises his body from the dead, all right? But look at this, one reason, for one reason, not reasons. I check it out in the Greek. The word reason is singular. Many, kind of wish he said few, «Many are weak, sick among you, and many sleep». What’s the reason? What’s the reason?
Look at the verse before that, «He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner,» the key is unworthy manner, «Eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body». So, if I tell you and you are suffering from malaria, and I say I got quinine tablets, take this quinine tablet, you say, I refuse to, I’ll put it in the water, all right? Okay, now drink it, drink it, and you say, I don’t need that quinine business, you are drinking damnation to yourself by not drinking the solution. The world as it is is dying. It’s not as if, oh, you have sinned, you take the Lord’s Supper, then you die. No, no, no, the world is dying. That’s why the same chapter says that God doesn’t want us to be condemned with the world.
There’s a condemnation in this world that was released, a divine sentence that was released ever since Adam sinned, and that divine sentence includes sickness. Communion is the way out, it’s the ekbasis. Are you listening, people, amen? So, not discerning the Lord’s body, so the problem is that they knew the cup. The majority of denominations that practice, church denomination, and I speak this with a heavy heart, they have communion, but many a times they lump the bread and the cup as one. Thank you Lord for forgiving us of our sins, you died for our sins, it hardly mentions disease. They are not discerning the Lord’s body. The word discerning, diakrino, to make a separation between the bread and the cup, okay? All right, so Isaiah says, «'Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.'»
Now, this is very unfortunate, very unfortunate. Griefs and sorrows are the Hebrew word, «kholee» and makov, all right? Kholee is diseases, makov is pains. I remember sharing with one of the Messianic Jewish men who is a pastor in Jerusalem, a very dignified man today, he’s with the Lord. Many years ago, I sat down with him and I shared with him, and you know, he’s from the persuasion, he doesn’t believe that healing is for today, and I shared with him Isaiah 53. And I said is this kholee and makov? He read it, yeah, very dignified elderly man, and I said, is kholee diseases or is it spiritual diseases like some scholars tried to tell us? He said, no, it’s always physical diseases, and what about pains, physical pains? Then he read the whole thing, hmmm, he said, hmmm, he was very interested, all right?
Look at Young’s, who is Young’s translation of the Bible? Young is an amazing scholar. Young’s Concordance, Strong and Young’s, you must have three concordance in your life, Strong Concordance, Young’s Concordance, and Cruden’s, so you become young, strong, and crude, all right? So, look at Young’s translation, «Surely our sicknesses he has borne and our pains, he has carried them». Is there another quotation of this? Yes, thank God for Jesus’s ministry. Matthew 8, Matthew 8, «That it might be fulfilled». This is New Testament, «That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, 'He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.'»
And here refers to physical infirmities and weaknesses and infirmities and diseases and pains. Very, very clear. Pastor Prince, are you sure? Okay, since you’re not convinced now, you little voice of unbelief, let me show you verse 16, the context. Don’t take the verse out of context. The context, verse 16, «When evening had come, they brought to Jesus many who were demon-possessed and He cast out the spirits with a word». So, there’s deliverance from demons, «And He healed all». I’m so glad he healed all. I wonder if people read their Bibles. I say, I wonder if people read their Bibles. He didn’t heal everybody in Israel, he healed all who came to him, keep that in mind. «He healed all who were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, 'Himself took our infirmarism.'»
So, it’s very clear the context refers to physical diseases, physical healing. Bible interprets Bible, amen? Wow, do you know why I’m preaching this? I’m preaching this so that when your loved one or someone has been given a bad diagnosis, don’t just run and take Communion with an empty heart, an empty revelation, empty mind. Wait, listen to the sermon. At the end, partake something. Something will happen because everything about God’s things must work with faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. Are you listening, people?
Amen, you know, everything happened because of man’s sin. I’m bringing this to a close. Everything happened because of man’s sin. Man ate from the tree he shouldn’t, guess what? God says eat your way back into the blessings. Eat your way back into the blessings. Are you listening? But it’s the body of Jesus. It might be the body of Jesus. The disciples in Luke 24, I told you, right? Did I give you Luke 24, I didn’t? I didn’t give you Luke 24? Real fast, okay, Luke 24, when Jesus rose from the dead, same day, real fast, okay? I cannot afford to give you this and then give another service, all right? Y’all will come back. Look at Luke 24 real quick. «Now it came to pass as Jesus sat at a table with them, He took bread».
Now, this is after he rose from the dead. The same evening, the same evening after he rose from the dead, he’s at the place called Emmaus with the two disciples, I believe husband and wife, all right? And he took the place of the divine hosts. He played host. He took the bread, he blessed, broke it, gave it to them, their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. When did their eyes open? When did they know him? When he broke the bread. Can I submit to you Communion is the tree of life. He is your righteousness. He is your righteousness. He is your holiness. Are you blessed? Are you blessed?
You know, this is the restoration part, and then you know what happened? He disappeared, by the way, he disappeared doesn’t mean he left them, he vanished out of their sight. He was still there, he will never leave them. They walked back seven miles. They just walked seven miles, but as of Communion, they can walk seven miles again. They went back to find the other disciples and say, hey, hey, we saw the Lord, we saw the Lord. Let’s follow the story there. «And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them,» «How He was known to them in the breaking of bread». He told the rest.
Now, watch this, «Now as they said these things,» about the breaking of bread, «Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them,» shalom. When they were talking about the breaking of bread, the Lord loves it, that’s why he’s showing up even now, amen. As they spoke about the breaking of bread, Jesus appeared. Do you think he just came from heaven at that time? No, he was there all the time, he never left them. In other words, from bread to bread, he disappeared, he reappeared. Take this to proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes. Primarily, till he comes means when he comes in the clouds to get all of us in the Rapture, but till he comes, keep on taking till he comes can also mean till he comes to manifest himself to you.