ray choi

Christian husband, father of 3 and bi-vocational pastor

Lord’s Supper: Feb 2014

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Before we observe the Lord’s Supper, let me quickly share from 2 passages. The first passage is Exodus 12:33-34.

Exodus 12
33 Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

The context here is when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. And so God calls Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of his people from slavery. Moses goes and asks for their release and Pharaoh refuses. And this goes back and forth 10 times. Each time Pharaoh refuses, God sends a plague. So this passage that I just read is right after the 10th plague when the Lord killed the firstborn in every household in Egypt. And so Pharaoh finally relents and the Egyptians beg the Israelites to leave. Because obviously they didn’t want anymore damage to be done to them. The Egyptians felt such urgency to get rid of the Israelites that it says that they were “pressured” to leave quickly.

This departure from Egypt was not something carefully planned over several weeks or several days. It’s like, you got to leave now. So their departure from Egypt was done in haste. It was so hasty that they didn’t even have the time to finish baking the bread. They took the dough before it was leavened. Leaven is the yeast that is added to make the dough rise while it is baking. So this dough without leaven was taken because everyone was in such a rush to get out of Egypt.

Listen to what Paul says in 1 Cor 5:6-8 when remembering back to this hasty departure.

1 Cor 5
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough? 7 • Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our • Passover has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul says, the whole reason why we eat unleavened bread, or matzo, during the Lord’s Supper is to relive the first Exodus experience when the Israelites left their bondage in Egypt in such a hasty manner. In the same way that the Israelites left at a moment’s notice, in such a rush, when we first were saved by Jesus, didn’t we have the same haste to leave our old life? We wanted no part of our old life with our idols and sinful habits and darkness. We wanted to be in the light. We wanted to follow Jesus and we were saved in an instant. We left our old lives in haste. In a moment, everything was changed.

Every time we partake in the Lord’s Supper, we are participating in the first Exodus when the Israelites left Egypt, the place of slavery, in haste and they carried with them bread without leaven. Likewise, we, as the new creation are like a new batch of dough without yeast. We are pure. There is no leaven or no sin in us. How did we get this way? Because of Jesus, who died on our sin, all the leaven–the malice, the evil–has been removed and now we walk in sincerity and truth.

Lord’s Supper: Hearts Ablaze

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Luke 24
13 Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. 15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus Himself came near and began to walk along with them. 16 But they were prevented from recognizing Him.

Scripture promises that when 2 or 3 are gathered, Jesus is in our midst. This means Jesus is literally here in this room. He walks among us. How true this is when we are remembering Jesus’s death and resurrection during the Lord’s Supper. I believe that whenever we partake in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is with us in a special way. This means, if there ever was a time when our hearts should be burning, it should be burning right now as we prepare ourselves to encounter the risen Christ through partaking in Communion as fellow believers in the body of Christ.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus was physically with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, but spiritually, they could not recognize him? And because their spiritual eyes were closed, their hearts were not burning and in fact their hearts were cold. Their hearts were cold because Jesus was hidden. If I just described you this afternoon and your heart is cold even as you think about His death for you, then spend the next few moments asking the Lord to open your spiritual eyes. So that you can recognize Jesus and your hearts can be set ablaze again.

Lord’s Supper

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The Lord’s Supper is based on the Last Supper, the final meal between Jesus and his closest disciples before Jesus was arrested, beaten and crucified.

We mustn’t forget that this meal happened during Passover. It was a Passover meal when every year, Jews from every family would gather together and share a meal remembering the miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land.

I think we forget sometimes the events leading up to the very first Passover. The first Passover was preceded by Moses asking the Pharaoh of Egypt to let God’s people go, but he refused. Then, there was the first plague and Pharaoh refused again. Then the second plague and again Pharaoh refused and so on until the 10th plague. This plague was the worst of all. God’s wrath culminated in the death of every firstborn in all of Egypt. The angel of death went from home to home and killed every firstborn child. You were spared only if you followed the Lord’s instructions and killed a lamb without blemish and marked the entrance of your door with blood from the lamb. The wrath of God literally passed over the homes of unbelievers so that their firstborn could be spared.

Jesus became the Lamb of God slain for our sins and His blood was marked over the door of our lives so that the wrath of God can pass over your life and mine. We mustn’t forget that sin always needs to be punished. God is a Holy God and He cannot leave sin unpunished. Thanks be to God that through Christ, we are saved BY God and we are saved FROM God. We deserve wrath because we are all sinners. But God provided a way through the death and resurrection of Jesus so that the wrath of God could pass over us and we could be forgiven.

This is what we are remembering whenever we participate in the Lord’s Supper.

Lord’s Supper: Demolishing Strongholds

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We are about to partake in the Lord’s Supper. In light of the message and the reality of Satan and spiritual warfare, there is one thing I am sure of. Satan hates it when we observe the Lord’s Supper and we remember what Christ did on the cross to defeat him. The devil and his forces hate the cross. They hate us. They hate our faith. They hate our worship. They hate our marriages. They hate our children. They hate our ministry.

Sin was defeated at the cross; yet sin remains to be fought. Satan was defeated at the cross; yet Satan remains to be fought.

We must never forget that life is a battle for your soul, but, in the name of Jesus, and by the authority of his word and his blood and his resurrected life, we will win this battle. For the glory of our risen king.

Before we partake in the Lord’s Supper, Paul advises us to examine our hearts in 1 Cor 11:28.

28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

We can’t partake without first examining our hearts. If there is unconfessed sin in your heart, or an unrepentant spirit, I ask you to refrain from partaking.

To help you through with your prayer of self-examination, I want to focus today on strongholds. Let me read from 2 Cor 10:3-4.

2 Cor 10
3 For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds.

Search your heart for areas of anger, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. Notice if there are recurring thoughts of anger or bitterness about the same person or persons. This will lead you to your strongholds. Identify the strongholds in your heart. Ask God today to begin demolishing the strongholds in your life so that you can begin to experience God again. He is powerful. He can demolish those strongholds if you persist in prayer.