Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to our first sabbath meeting of the new year. Frustratingly we are still in the depths of winter here with snow, cold, sleet, and rain - with alternating freezing and thawing leading to more flooding and damage to our home. All of this has served as a vivid picture for me of what it is I feel led to share with you this morning, and over the next two weeks, as we find ourselves caught in the middle, as it were, of the old and the new, in this challenging time of transition that I have been warning people about for years - a transition from evil to much greater evil, but at the same time a transition from communion with Elohim (God) to even deeper communion with Him.

So, yes, I do envy those who have genuine springtime weather right now, at this time is, in one important respect, the beginning of a new work of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the Body of Messiah; but on the other hand I have been reminded that such transitions are rarely smooth and often take a long time because of the hesitation of people to change. I've certainly sensed that in my ongoing studies of Paul who, in some areas, seemed to rush at the speed of light into incredibly exciting new areas of revelation beyond what any of the other apostles had come to understand, whilst in others remained stuck in the past because the 'other' areas were neither his gifting nor his calling. If that sounds a little mysterious to you, all will be revealed soon in the big project I am currently working on that I hope to have published before this year's Jericho March and Late Pesach (Passover) begins next month.

So that's one of the exciting things about the way Yahweh works - He doesn't give one person the whole basket of revelations and emet (truth) but distributes them amongst the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) even if there may be some, like myself, one of whose tasks is to collate and integrate all of this work. I'd like to suggest that Yahweh works in this way, in part, to encourage us to get together and become more mutually dependent. Like it or not, we are going to have to learn to get along with one another even if our flesh would incline us to gravitate into denominational cliques of like-minded people. How Yahweh sorts out all of that human-generated and demonic-aided 'choas', the result of clashing personalities and partial revelations of His emet (truth), is surely one of the greater heavenly miracles and marvels. Yahweh takes the impossible, makes it unlikely, then makes it possible, and then makes it happen!

Moreover, He does this throughout the whole of Creation, but especially with people. That's what He did with Count Zinzendorf in the 18th century when Christians (primarily Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Hussites) were at each other's doctrinal throats, giving them an anointing to do the 'impossible', as the flesh would see it, by bringing believers from different traditions together in prayer and starting a revival in the heart of Europe. English Methodism was one of the many revivals born out of this anointing. That's what He wants us to do too. And even if we don't like that idea - even if our flesh balks at the whole prospect of having to deal with people we don't much 'like', let alone their 'objectional' ideas - that's what we're going to be forced to do anyway as circumstances throw us together to survive what's coming. It happened during the Communist era in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe when believers of all denominations were persecuted, and it will happen again. And like Zinzendorf and the Moravians, we are going to have to arrive at some sort of a 'Brotherly Agreement' [1] with other believers, and they with us, in spite of all our theological disagreements. Then Yahweh will do His work, and I guarantee it will be incredible, as it was amongst the Moravians!

Core or foundational Christian/Messianic spirituality consists essentially of six central aspects. If believers are going to survive and prosper during the times of great persecution that is beyond any reasonable doubt now rising up its ugly head in the world, the latest being in the post-Soviet Russian Confederation, then these six are not only essential to that survival and spiritual prosperity, but they must also be seen in a new and vital light that will fire up the tiqveh (hope) of believers:

• 1. New Birth and Baptism;
• 2. The Master's Supper (Lord's Supper, Communion, Eucharist);
• 3. Prayer;
• 4. Scripture;
• 5. Holiness; and
• 6. Love (Ahavah/Chesed, Agapé).

Believers will never come together if all they do is quarrel over creeds and doctrinal beliefs. That is not, in any case, the basis of our emunah (faith), and those who make it so, have fundamentally missed the mark, even though doctrine is by no means unimportant. But it's not where we start. Rather, the basis of our religion is best summed up by the apostle Peter who declared:

"Praise be to the Elohim (God) and Father of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ) who in His great mercy gave us a new birth into a living hope by the resurrection of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) from the dead! The inheritance to which we are born is one that nothing can destroy or spoil or wither. It is kept for you in heaven, and you, because you put your emunah (faith) in Elohim (God), are under the protection of His power until salvation (deliverance) comes - the salvation (deliverance) which is even now in readiness and will be revealed at the end of [the set] time (kairos).

"This is cause for great swimcha (joy), even though you smart for a little while, if need be, under trials of many kinds. Even gold passes through the assayer's (refiner's) fire, and more precious than perishable gold is emunah (faith) whyich has stood the test. These trials come so that your emunah (faith) may prove itself worthy of all praise, glory, and honour when Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is revealed" (1 Pet.1:3-7, NEB).

The key words that I want to draw your attention to in this text are Yahweh's "great mercy" in giving us a "new birth" to a "living hope" by the "resurrection" of our Master (Lord) from the dead. In other words, do you believe in the Deity, Death and Resurrection of Messiah - what I call the 'DDR of Christ' - because if have a thirst to know Elohim (God), and if you genuinely do believe these three truths, you will be born again and you will have a living hope within.

That is the new reality that has burst onto the scene of our planet and it cannot be obtained in any other way or through anyone else than the resurrected Messiah. When you have that living hope supernaturally birthed inside you by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), you get a new kind of chayim or life unlike anything you ever had before, because through it you will sense a new reality which the world can never understand. Your life will start gravitating toward holiness or set-apartness - that is, you will see yourself as belonging to Messiah rather than yourself or to the world system - and you will possess a hope in your own future resurrection. You will no longer fear death as being the permanent end of existence that so many live in terror of. If you have thus been born again, whatever your theological complex may presently be, however jumbled up, however much truth and error may be mixed together in your head and heart, you're a true believer and a work in progress. Christians and Messianics have to accpt one another on that basis in order to fulfil the mitzvah (commandment) for unity because nobody has it all figured out.

Now I have deliberately linked the 'new birth' to 'baptism' because baptism is closely allied to the resurrection. I am not getting into that today, nor the debate between infant and adult baptism, or sprinkling versus immersion, or the minefield which is 'spirit baptism' that Pentecostals and charismatics stress so strongly. Rather I would invite you to afterwards read through Romans 6 and Colossians 2 which are the two key baptism passages that link the ordinance to resurrection. For those of you from different Christian or Messianic traditions listening in this morning, or reading afterwards, about baptism, all I am asking you to do today is find common ground, particularly by affirming those two chapters by Paul. And the best way we can find common ground, I believe, is by viewing baptism as primarily the overlapping of heaven and earth - the spiritual and the material - and as the link in the chain between the original Creation of the Cosmos by Yahweh and the New Creation in Messiah (Christ) made possible through the resurrection.

What happened at the New Creation? First, the resurrection of Yah'shua (Jesus) brought about an entirely new state of affairs throughout the Cosmos, not just here on planet earth. Though I know this may be a little difficult for everyone to grasp at first, I'll do my best to keep this simple and contemporary, but essentially what happened was Yahweh's future burst into the present.

I think most of you have seen science fiction movies about Stargates joining one part of the universe to another, a kind of shortcut so you don't have to travel vast distances across space. The spiritual essence of baptism - the spiritual reality that lies behind the physical ordinance or sacrament - is a bit like the effect of a 'stargate' that brings the future spiritually into the present. In other words, the action of going down into, and then coming up out of, the water, isn't just a signpost or symbol of the new birth or new creation that has already taken place in you because of your believing in Yah'shua (Jesus), it is the gateway to a whole spiritual reality - a new presence, a contact, a communion with the living Elohim (God). By being baptised you are not just becoming a 'member' of the Kingdom of Elohim (God) on earth, you're actually making an invisible connection to the Creator and dipping your toes, as it were, into the fullness of the blessings that will be yours in the future resurrection world. You're getting, as it were, a sample of what is to come when Yah'shua (Jesus) returns, a foretaste of heaven on earth!

Now, of course, we know only too well that millions of people get 'baptised' who were never born again and for whom baptism is little more than membership card to a social club called a church. In 1 Corinthians 10 there were many who had been baptised who were refusing to live in the appropriate way - the New Covenant Torah lifestyle. In this case they may have been genuinely born-again originally but did not take their discipleship seriously, and for such as these there is always a very real risk of falling away, and if this gambling with salvation goes on long enough, there is the real danger of exhausting Yahweh's grace and ending up the way they were before they were saved [2]. Indeed, we are told, that Yahweh will judge those who presume upon His kindness by abusing their privilege as members of the Kingdom. Read the Parable of the Sower to see the various ways people can go (Mt.13:1-23; Mk.4:1-20; Lk.8:4-15). Out of the four different ways respondants to the message of salvation can go, three are fatal spiritually-speaking (wayside, rocky ground, and weed-infested ground).

The ordinance of baptism is a drama about the necessity of dying to self. Spiritual infant mortality is just as potentially dangerous to the new believer as physical infant mortality. Cot deaths occur in the spiritual too. The whole idea is to die to the old (fallen) creation and to embrace the new supernatural one in Messiah. And 'embrace' is the operative word - it has to be something you want to do because you have already tasted the delightfulness of the new reality. I like the way N.T.Wright describes this new life as full of "dangerous privileges and responsibilities" [3] as it finds its way in the unredeemed and hostile old, fallen world of creation with its sometimes less-than-friendly inhabitants.

What's in many ways worse, in my opinion, is encountering other believers who claim to have received the same new birth but who are hostile to you because there isn't unity in every doctrine. What Yahweh most cares about is that you want to know Him, and if you truly want to know Him and make the sacrifice of self to do so, you will. It is clear to me that the 'new birth' is the main thing. So long as someone is living out the spiritual meaning of physical baptism, as symbolised in the drama of being immersed in a watery grave and then raised up again out of the water, which is a declaration of voluntarily dying to sin and coming alive in Christ, that ought to be enough for fellowship and to end all hostilities. For if someone has truly been born again, then that can only have happened if they have wholeheartedly embraced the deity, death and resurrection of the Messiah and been rebirthed in His love. That's where Zinzendorf started and that's where we ought to begin too in our relations with other believers from different groups.

The problem is, not everyone who has been through an ordinance of baptism, in whatever form, has actually been renewed. They have simply gone through the motions and are the same miserable lost souls they were before they were dunked, sprinkled, or started speaking gibberish. These are, in my opinion, the most dangerous people of all, more dangerous than even unbelievers, because they are still unbelievers but don't know it. Worse, they are out to condemn you if you aren't a theological carbon copy of themselves or if you don't go through the same religious motions as they do. At least an honest atheist is what he claims to be.

We will conclude our study this week the Master's Supper, better known amongst Evangelicals as the Lord's Supper and the older Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox denominations as Communion or the Eucharist. There are a number of views as to what this ordinance or sacrament actually 'is'. At one extreme there is a view which virtually amounts to sympathetic magic. A shaman-like figure mumbles magic words and does a magic deed, a conjuring trick in which ordinary bread and wine are turned into the actual body and blood of Yah'shua (Jesus) even though outwardly it looks like neither of these. By eating and drinking it, evil is warded off, atonement is made, Elohim (God) is appeased, prayers are offered which have a special power available only in this way, while social power and control are re-enforced, and everyone is 'happy'. I am, of course, describing the Roman Catholic magical process called by them 'transsubstantiation'. It's totally pagan and is a mockery of the original sacrament given by the Saviour. That is one extreme.

The Protestant Reformation challenged the whole bogus scheme. At the other extreme (Calvinism or Reformed theology) singly challenged anything and everything to do with Catholicism that smacked of magic, paganism, or priestcraft. These radical Reformers viewed the eucharist as a bare sign, a simple reminder, an historal fact that Messiah died for our sins. However, as we know from the Pesach or Passover meal, when we partake of the seder we, like our ancestors, are doing what they did, and actually joining in with them as if we were there at the original event. We view ourselves as exactly the same Israelites, albeit it under a New Covenant. Time and space telescope together because within the world of sacraments - and this is a vitally important point - past and present become echad or one. We supernaturally transcend space and time but more than that we, with our ancestors, partake in something that still points to a future liberation because in so many ways we are still in 'Egypt' and long to be free. This we do once a year at around this time of the year.

The Master's (Lord's) Supper is the New Covenant 'outgrowth' of this sacred meal, taking it to another level, and when we partake of it, this self-same future dimension is brought suddenly into sharp spiritual focus through the death and resurrection of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). We break the bread the share in the body of Messiah and we do so in remembrance of Him. We become, for a moment, the talmidim (disciples) sitting around that Pesach (Passover) Table at the Last Supper. We connect with that event backwards in time. But it is a lot more than that, because in partaking of the emblems of that sacred meal we are not only linking arms with those first believers but we are also connecting with with the arrival of Yahweh's future in the present. We aren't just remembering a long-dead Yah'shua (Jesus), we're celebrating the presence of the living Master in our very midst! He lives, through the resurrection, precisely as the One who has gone ahead into the New Creation itself, the transformed New World, and as the one who is Himself the Prototype. The Yah'shua (Jesus) who gives Himself to us as food and drink is Himself the beginning of Elohim's (God's) new world. Both during the Pesach (Passover) meal, and then in the Master's Supper (but on a spiritually higher plane) we are like the children of Israel in the wilderness, taking fruit plucked from the Promised Land (the Millennial Israel) ahead of our arrival there. It is the future coming to meet us in the present.

This is a very, very deep and profound subject. If you have ever had a supernatural experience of the future - and I know one or two of you here have - you will understand what I am trying to say. It must have been about 13 years ago now that two of us from this fellowship came into direct communion with the Council of Yah's elohim under very special circumstances. If any of you would like to read about this experience, you'll find a link to an account of it on our website. This was a direct encounter with what the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) call the Chavurat Bekorot, the "assembly (church) of the firstborn" (Heb.12:23, HRV), which is Yahweh's assembly on the sacred Mount of Assembly (we talked a little about these sacred mountains recently, you will remember, when we were studying Melchizedek). On this occasion Yah'shua (Jesus) appeared riding a horse and His countenance was that of a warrior. He asked her to follow Him, which she did. Seconds later a vast army of men dressed in white appeared before her, thousands and thousands of them, which she immediately knew were the Council of Yahweh's elohim. I remember the presence of the Ruach (Spirit) was so strong that I began to cry, for I instantly knew these as my spiritual fathers in the world beyond, and for the first time I sensed the great loneliness of living in this world. I - we both - experienced that corporate communion that the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) have with each other in Messiah.

It is moments like this that make your doctrine come alive - they incarnate! And as Dr.Bruce Allan once remarked, "the man with the experiences [of God] is never at the mercy of the man with the religious theology" because these are just things that you know so it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference whether others agree with you or not because this is the difference between actual communing (Tree of Life) and dead intellectualism (Tree of Knowledge). I know people who have had similar experiences in partaking of the Master's Supper, a reason we reject the Calvinist claim that it is only symbolic and accept more the Lutheran idea of 'consubstantiation' - the elements aren't transformed, as in the Catholic claim, but the 'presence' of Messiah is very real indeed. And what is actually happening is that in partaking of the elements, we are metaphorically 'dipping our feet' into the waters of the New Creation that has yet to come in its fullness. This is why Scripture warns us not to partake of this sacrament unworthily because of the connection we are invoking.

The Besorah (Gospel) is all about connection: connection between believers and their Messiah, and connection between one another in Messiah. This becomes possible only through the New Birth. I have met believers from all kinds of Christian and Messianic traditions and that connection simply has been 'there'; and I have met believers from my own or a related tradition and the connection hasn't! What are we to make of that? That being in agreement in doctrine and practice, important though that is, is not the 'main thing' at all! And that is why Yahweh has strongly impressed upon me, both in the past and more recently, the greater importance of linking together with believers who are authentically 'born again' over and against those who may be in broad doctrinal agreement with us who are not regenerated. Of course we know what the ideal is, and that is what the Remnant is all about.

I had an experience quite recently, which I have shared with one or two of you in this congregation. It was a dream, actually. I was with a group of Lutherans and they were extremely suspicious of me. The last two countries I have lived in (Norway and Sweden) are very Lutheran, and aside from one or two shared beliefs like consubstantiation, we are miles apart doctrinally, never mind that they have been fed a lot of lies about us through hostile persons [4]. In the dream I was in a Lutheran Church and the people in the congregation looked at my very uneasily, thinking I was going to preach something 'radical' to them as I was occupying the pulpit. Instead, I climbed down from the pulpit (which are very high up in Lutheran Churches) and walked over to the pianist and asked her to pick a hymn from their own hymnal and to play that, and told the congregation that I would talk about whatever interested them. The atmosphere relaxed and they began to open up. All along I was aware of the love of Elohim (God) in my heart seeking common ground and fellowship in the Ruach (Spirit) through those who were born again. It was a very beautiful, peaceful and satisfying experience.

This kind of approach is commonly very alien to messianics, for example, who are very keen to push the Torah and to condemn those who are out of doctrinal alignment with it (they love to accuse people of being 'pagan' or 'lawless'). But they have missed the point. Though Torah is important, the ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) of Yahweh are what is the most important because this is what flows out of the New Creation in Messiah that proceeds from communing in the Master's Supper. Yahweh wants those who are seeking Him, however imperfectly; and these He wishes to join together. Yahweh does not care a hoot about the Aristotelian distinction between substance and accident, and the supposed power of the Catholic priest to alter the 'substance' of a wafer while leaving its outward appearance untouched. He doesn't care about the Calvinist zeal that insists it is 100 per cent symbolic only. What He cares about is whether or not you are spiritually regenerated, whether you are immersed into His death and resurrection, and whether ahavah/agapé love is pouring out of your heart for Him and other people or not. Without this, your theological distinctions are all vain, empty pontification, your supposed 'Torah-righteousness' just a sham.

I recommend Romans 8 as a good place to start reading to get to the substance of what I am trying to say. The creation is groaning in travail as it awaits its redemption. Now, one part of the creation has already been transformed - it has already been liberated from bondage to decay, and that is the spiritually regenerated Body of Messiah, the body which died on the cross and is now alive with the chayim (life) that death cannot touch! Yah'shua (Jesus) has gone ahead into the Father's new creation, and as we look back to His death through the sacramental lens which He provided - the meal which He shared on the night of His betrayal - we discover that He comes to meet us in and through the symbols of creation, the bread and the wine, which are then taken-up into the Messiah Story, the event of new creation itself, and we become vessels - carriers - of Yahweh's new millennial world-to-come, and the saving events which enable us to share it.

To put this another way, the Master's Supper becomes the anticipation of the Bridegroom's Banquet, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev.19:9), when heaven and earth are renewed. When we are communing with Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus) and with each other, which the Master's Supper is an enabler of by means of connecting with this simultaneously present and future chayim (life), we are in a unque position to have communion with others of the Body of Messiah who are likewise renewed because of their rebirth. Then, together, we are able to connect through the past, in the present, and break into the future that is yet to come, and bring both into the present, just as happened with a couple of us when Yah'shua (Jesus) broke through into our space and time 13 years ago, appearing on horseback and bringing with Him the Council of Yah's elohim.

None of this is magic. It's not occultic for occultism is the attempt to manipulate unseen energies and beings through rituals and incantations. It's nothing like that because what I am talking about is entirely in Yahweh's sovereign will. We had no idea what was going to happen. The Ruach (Spirit) actually impressed my mind to ask one of the members of this congregation, who was going through deliverance, whether she would like to meet my spiritual fathers from the Council, and when she enthusiastically said 'yes', that was when Yah'shua (Jesus) and the thousands from the General Assembly of Heaven suddenly burst onto the scene, and I can tell you a miracle took place that day! She experienced a major deliverance.

No, magic seeks to gain by cunning, for personal power or pleasure, what Elohim (God) gives by grace - His undeserved loving kindness - to those who exercise emunah (faith) in order to promote holiness and ahavah (love). We'll talk more about that next week. The resurrection of Yah'shua (Jesus), and the promise of a world made new, provide the framework (ontological, epistemological, and eschatological) with which we can understand the Master's Supper afresh. We should not rob ourselves of the tiqveh (hope) that comes from Yahweh's - and our - future so that we can be sustained in the present. You see, Yahweh's new world has already begun and we can partake of it here and now - not in its fullness, but as a desposit or sample with which to be refreshed and encouraged while we labour here. The thing is, if we don't see it breaking into the present world, we are denying the energising foundation of the Christian life and are just playing with dead religion.

Take a look at the chapters of scripture I recommended to you earlier and think over these things prayerfully. Next week we shall take at Prayer and Scripture to see how they play their part. Meantime, have a truly blessed week and meditate on how you can reach out to other believers of different traditions, is my prayer in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See the appendix, Brotherly Agreement of the Brethren from Bohemia and Moravia
[2] See the Once Saved, Always Saved website and the Once Saved, Always Saved? page of the Calvinism Exposed website
[3] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (SPCK, London: 2007), p.285
[4] A friend of ours, who shares very similar beliefs to our own, had a prophetic dream about me recently in relation to local Lutherans - see A Prophetic Dream About Lev-Tsiyon

Further Reading

[1] Unity Amongst Believers: An Illustration of Divine Tavnith

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope, 'Reshaping the Church for Mission' (SPCK, London: 2007), pp.245-302