Properly Preparing For The Passover

With the Passover and the Days of 11 Bread only about over a month, five weeks or so away, I want to remind all of us of what God directs all Christians who are going to be taking the Passover to do in order to properly be prepared. Here in 1 Corinthians 11, you read Paul's instructions about the Passover service. Now, the Passover itself was, of course, connected with the Exodus out of Egypt. You can read that back in Exodus 12. And the people of Israel have maintained that information. You read about it throughout the Old Testament. You read about it in the New Testament. And yet, you often see people not really understand the value, the importance, or the significance of the Passover itself. And as we have several weeks, I'll be going through several things prior to the time we get to the end of next month, the Passover service itself. But the Passover was observed by the Israelites and actually by Jesus Christ throughout the 30-some years of his life. He observed the Passover every year. Every year, whenever it came around, talks about in Luke, that his parents took him to the Passover when he was 12. It was an annual observance, even as what we're going to read Paul's instructions show that the taking of the new symbols in the New Testament Passover, the bread and the wine that Jesus said, have different meaning as he was offering himself as the Lamb of God. He says, you're going to do that as a memorial to me and to my death. That's what we're going to read. And so that's why, obviously, we do that on an annual basis.

But here in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul describes what it was that had been handed on to him. He says, I received from the Lord. But I've handed on to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it. He said, this is my body that is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the memorial of the Lord's death until he comes.

See, that's the instruction that Paul explained to this, in a sense, new church. A new church in that it was not in Israel, it was not in Turkey, it was actually in Greece. It was in the area of Corinth.

But we go on in verse 27 because the people there in Corinth were having some problems. They were not really cooperating with one another, they were not showing love for one another, they were not considerate about how it is, they cared for one another, and they were improperly even observing the Passover. But he says in verse 27, whoever therefore eats the bread of the Lord, or the bread, or drinks the cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner, will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

He says this is not an inconsequential thing to do. You need to be fully aware that if you take the Passover service, that you are doing that properly. Now, this, of course, in verse 27 is describing how to approach the Passover, how to do that in a proper manner, a worthy manner, a reverent manner. That would be the right approach to doing that. And in verse 28, he gives an incredible key, an incredible key about how to properly prepare for the Passover. That's what we have got to be aware of, and that's what we've got several weeks to be able to actually do.

He says in verse 28, examine yourself, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason, many of you are weak and ill, and some have died, but if you judge yourself, if you examine yourself, if you judge yourself, we would not be judged. For when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Now, this is Paul's guidance to the people in Corinth, as to how they could properly, as they were to do on the annual basis, the memorial of the death of Jesus Christ, even as Jesus himself did.

When we read the pages of John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and then 18 and 19, you read those sections. You see that that evening, Jesus instituted the New Testament Passover service. He designated the wine and the bread to represent his sacrifice, his body, and his blood.

But then later that night, as he talked to his disciples about, I'm going to leave, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you, throughout the rest of that night, he was betrayed. He was, in many ways, beaten. He was tried. He was eventually flogged and crucified in the mid-afternoon of that same day. And so, Jesus certainly not only clearly represented the Passover and the Passover Lamb, but he told his disciples, I want you to accept these signs or these symbols to do this in a reverent way. And I just hope that by going over this, we will all think about what this says.

It tells us real clearly what to do. But what I want to focus on, I've got three different points that I want to cover this afternoon, I want to focus on just properly preparing for the Passover. That would be this title, I guess, properly preparing for the Passover. And as we've already read, that involves what? What does it involve? Examination. Examination? Who else? Anybody want to give another opinion? I think everybody probably realizes that's what it is. But see, what it is, is not Kathleen examining Paul, or not me examining my wife, or not any of you examining somebody else.

It's a self-examination. And it tells us to examine yourself. Over in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, it says the same thing, because he was also directing them there as to how they could properly prepare. It says there, 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, examine yourself, whether you be in the faith. That was what he was telling them to do in this case. And the case in Corinthians is talking about a self-examination that is allowing you to properly have the reverent, somewhat serious, but clearly understanding approach to observing the Passover.

So I want to discuss self-examination, and it is properly preparing ourselves for the Passover. First of all, I'm going to ask us as we examine ourselves, as we think about it. Now, you could go through, and I'm sure we have many, probably even lists of stuff that people might want to think about or might want to look at, and certainly we've preached about over many, many years, because this is something we do every year. And yet, when you break it down into just three points, I want to be able to do this and have us think about how it is that God expects us to examine ourselves.

First of all, I'm going to say that in order to properly examine myself, I'm going to need not just to think about it, not just to spend a little bit of time, not just to read my Bible, which of course would also be a good thing to do, to be reading the Bible and examining how am I matching up with what the Bible says.

But see, should we not also ask God to correct us, to see ourselves from His point of view? See, now seeing myself from my point of view might be a little skewed. But if I'm asking God to show me from His Word how He views me, well then that's a different thing. And actually, in some ways, asking God to correct us, that could be a little bit intimidating, because He might. He surely would. He will show us our sins, our failings, our lack of love or faith or hope. He might very well show us that. Over in Hebrews 12, that's why you see what we read in Corinthians, how the Paul tied that together with examining yourself and judging yourself, and he tied it together with the chastening or the discipline of the Lord. And so we want to involve God in our self-examination. You're in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 says in verse 5, My child, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Don't lose heart when you are punished by Him, for the Lord disciplines those...

Who does He discipline? What is the value in the importance of the discipline or direction or chastising from God? Well, He does that out of love. That's what verse 6 says. The Lord disciplines those whom He loves. He chastens every child whom He accepts.

And so it goes on here in verse 7, it says, Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children. For what child is there whom a parent doesn't discipline? If you don't have the discipline from that parent, then are you illegitimate and not really children? Moreover, in verse 9, we had parents who disciplined us.

And now in verse 11, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, and yet later it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by the Word of God. See, those who are guided by God are going to be receiving a blessing. And so, if we're to examine ourselves, I think the first thing we want to do is include God to please correct us. Now, I could read two or three verses out of the Old Testament where David said, Search my heart, or correct me, O God, and yet not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. There are many different verses that talk about that. But see, if we involve God, if we involve the Word of God in our examination, well then we're going to expect to see ourselves perhaps unlike anything we have ever seen. Now, I say that because of what it says here in Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 begins talking about the Sabbath's psalm. It later talks in verse 15 about Jesus being our high priest, and how we can come to the throne of God because he is there. But what I want to focus on is in verse 12. Hebrews 4, verse 12. He says, Indeed, the Word of God is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joint from marrow it is able to judge the thoughts and the intents, thoughts and intentions of our heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom they must render an account.

See, now that's an extremely important verse in that it points out, as God directs us to self-examine and to include him to guide and to correct and to direct us through his Word, that can be very, very revealing. See, why is it? How important is it to understand the whole idea of self-examination?

Well, because as we're guided by God's Word and we examine ourselves, it's essential, because we know ourselves better than anyone else. We know our thoughts, we know our heart, we know our motivations. We see our own motivations. Sometimes they may be quite good. Sometimes they may be very loving and altruistic. Sometimes they're not. And inappropriate, wrong motivation. We see our own selfishness. That's something that others might not see. We don't like to reveal that very much. You know, that's... we try to hide that. But if self-examination involves seeing those things that God sees, what about any false pretenses? Or even any white lies, or even full lies? What about our public posturing to appear more right before others? See, all of these things that I've just mentioned, all of those just kind of wither away, whenever you involve yourself in self-examination, you can see it. See, I know more about my sins than you do. I know more about them because many of them are of the heart or of the mind. Some of them are of action that's wrong. But, you know, each one of us, if we examine ourselves and do that in light of the word of God that we just read, is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, cutting to the very core of our being. See, that's the first thing that God actually tells us to do. He says, examine yourself. See, with my help, asking me to correct you. And again, like I said, that can be a serious thing. It shouldn't be a thoughtless thing that we do, but to really ask God to show us, you know, where we could change, where we could do better. Secondly, I think all of us realize that this is a fact, that it doesn't do any good to see ourselves, but then not do anything about it. See, and so what does God tell us to do? See ourselves, loathe ourselves, feel terrible, stay in the house, don't go see anybody. No, He doesn't tell us to do that at all. He says, see ourselves, and then as we see our sins, as we see our self as God sees us, then what do we want to do? Well, following that revelation, we want to have heartfelt repentance. See, not only seeing what it is is wrong, but changing, turning. See, that's what repentance is. It is seeing ourselves, it's changing the things that we see that we're doing that's wrong. It's actually maybe even determining, you know, if there are habits, patterns, usually. You know, the things that we get into that we know are wrong are things that we do kind of habitually and we need to get out of the pattern. We need to break out of the pattern. We need to figure out a different thing to do. And we need to be repentant. You know, this is what Peter told the people who had just killed Jesus. There were numerous, numerous Jews there on the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit came. Obviously, this was 50 days or so after the time when Jesus had been put to death. But then, whenever these people realized, you know, we really were wrong. We were wrong. And it says they were pricked in their heart. Well, they said, what should we do? And Peter said, well, you should repent, and you should be baptized and be a recipient of the Holy Spirit. That's what he initially said. And over in chapter 3, verse 19, maybe we should read that. Acts 3, verse 17, we'll back up to this.

Acts 3, verse 17, as he continued to talk with others, as he had been used by God in healing others.

Chapter 3, verse 17, he said, now, friends, this is still Peter speaking. I know that you acted in ignorance. You didn't really comprehend who Jesus was. You didn't comprehend He was the Son of God. You actually fulfilled what had been predicted and prophesied in the Old Testament.

But he says, I know that you acted in ignorance, as also did your rulers. And yet, in this way, verse 18, God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, and that is Messiah would suffer. And so this actually fulfilled the predictions that the Old Testament is filled with about the death of Jesus.

But he says in verse 19, what you should do then is repent, repent, and be converted. Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, and that clearly is the case. See, does God forgive us just when we recognize we sin, or does He forgive us as we turn from that, as we repent of that?

As we see the depth of our sin and then desire to change it. Well, I think He wants us to react in truly a proper way of repentance. In James 2.

James 2.

Well, it's not in James 2. It's in James 1. So I'm on the wrong page. Actually, I just about didn't bring James, or Hebrews, or Titus, or Philippians. I had this much fall out of my Bible the other day. And I thought, oh, that's a bad sign. It's a cheap Bible sign. And I glued it back in very carefully. And I've done that before. Not very successfully sometimes. I did glue it back in, and then I see where it looks like it kind of bled over on the page, and now the two of them stick together, and I've had to pull them apart. And then I have to guess at what the words are at the end of the column. But James 1, I had this written down wrong, but anyway, we'll find it. James 1 says, starting in verse 22, what good does it do to just hear or to see our sins?

If we don't react, if we don't repent, if we don't change... Well, here in verse 22 it says, be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who are deceiving themselves. See, if we just ask God to correct us or to show us our sins, and then we may learn something, God may show us something, but if we don't do anything about it, well then we're deceiving ourselves, is what it says. For hearers of the Word and not doers were like those who look at themselves in a mirror, for they look at themselves and ongoing away they immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty and persevere, being not hearers who forget, but doers who act, they will be blessed in their doing. To hear it tells us, well, seeing or hearing, knowing, an error, a failing that we have, that's not good enough. We've got to act on it. We've got to repent, and we've got to change. And certainly, if we look into the Word of God, and it's described here as a mirror, the perfect law of liberty, looking into the Word of God and seeing, well, I need to change this. If I just hear, then I go away and forget, and it does no good. But if I am a doer, I respond to that. I change. I repent. And that's what God is expecting us to do. So, in connection with this second point, we could ask, what do you see as your most needed improvement? Your most needed failing. You know, I'm asking you to do this, but certainly I need to do this more than you do. I understand this as far as the necessity, how important it is that we have a plan of attack, that we ask God to help us see, we desire to repent, we want to turn, but that we even focus on, well, what's the key thing? What's the primary thing that I need to work on? And I ask, what one thing do you want God to help you overcome this year? You might identify half a dozen things that I need to work on this and need to work on that. No, I think we'd all be better off if we focused on the primary thing that gets in our way as far as drawing close to God. Figure out. Now, we have 30 or so here today. We've got 30 different answers to that question.

But that's what God's expecting us to do. When he tells us to involve ourself in self-examination, he says, I want you to do that, to see yourself, to change, to turn, and to submit yourself to God, asking for His forgiveness and for His mercy, and surely He will help us. If we focus on one thing that we want God to help us overcome, then I think we'll find we'll make progress. We will improve. So that's the second thing that I wanted to mention here today. Now, the third thing I want to mention, the first two have been, you might say, well, there's somewhat on the negative side or self-loathing side, and yet, do we also see the positive aspects of self-examination? Do we actually see, and this is the third point, do we see and evaluate our progress, our growth? Do we see the blessings that God has provided to us? And He's the one who gets the credit. He's the one who gets the glory. We're told in 1 Corinthians, Paul said, you see your calling, brethren, I don't want you to boast, but you can certainly boast of God. God gets the credit. But see, this third point is, do we see and evaluate the progress that God has been helping us make in our Christian development? Do we see the fruit that God has been bearing in our lives? What blessings has God provided in your growth? Because if we actually see that, we see that, well, I'm making some progress in this area or in that area, then we have God to thank. He's the one who provides that, and actually, I want to show us here in John chapter 15. John 15 is, of course, all these chapters are incredible. Jesus is teaching His disciples. He even knows that they don't fully understand what He's explaining, but with the help of the Spirit of God and with going over these time after time after time, we actually grow in understanding. John 15 is about the Father being the husbandman, Jesus Christ being the vine, and all of us being the branches. And He says that the branches cannot bear any fruit unless we're connected to the vine, unless we're connected to Jesus Christ. This is all in the first part of this, John 15.

And He says, you need to abide in me, you need to abide in my words, you need to abide in my love, and if you're doing that, then you will be bearing fruit. Verse 12. He says, this is my commandment, and she loved one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this than to lay down one's life from one's friends.

And clearly Jesus was willing to do that. He was telling them, you know, that may be your fate. In some cases, as far as apostles, that was clearly going to be the case. And I would assume Jesus had some idea what they would run into. But He said in verse 14, you are my friends if you do what I command you. And I don't call you servants any longer, because the servant doesn't know what the master is doing. But I'm going to call you my friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from the Father. See, He was telling them, you know, I desire a closer relationship with you than just you're being the servant of the Lord. I want to be the friend of the Lord. I want to be your friend. I want you to understand what the Father is doing. See, it's amazing to see what it is that Jesus said that He came to reveal. We know the Father draws us to Jesus Christ, and yet we also see verses that show us that the Son reveals things about the Father. It says that He was here in order to do the work of the Father, the work the Father gave Him to do. He was here in order to do the will of the Father. He said, not my will, but your will be done. He was here to speak the words of the Father, to say what and when to say what the Father wanted Him to say. Now, if we could achieve that, we'd be very close to Jesus Christ.

But see, here He's telling us, I've told you everything that the Father has passed on. I've made known to you everything that I've heard from the Father. And He says in verse 16, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. That helps us comprehend that a relationship with God was...it begins with God, not us.

But of course, we follow up on that. And in verse 16, He goes on to say, I appointed you to go and...produce? Go and bear fruit. Fruit? That will last. And so He said, I want you to bear fruit that's just going to be there and then trickle away.

I want you to bear fruit. And He was talking about spiritual fruit. You know, you can read about the fruit of the Spirit of God. You can read about love and joy and peace and long suffering and...He said, those are fruit that last. Fruit that I expect to see in my children, in my family, in my brothers and sisters, as Jesus would look at it.

He wants all of us to bear fruit. But what does He say after that? He says, if we actually are doing that, if we are bearing fruit, if we are growing, if we are producing, if we are asking God to help us and He is helping us, and we thank Him for that growth, we thank Him if we see in our self-examination, evaluate our progress.

Then what does He say that the Father will do? He says, I appoint you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask Him in my name. Now, does that say, well, I can just ask God for anything and everything, and God will give it to me? No, what that's implying is He will hear and He will help.

He will listen to those who are bearing fruit, and He will provide additional blessings and encouragement. And He goes on to say, I'm giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Now, this is all positive information. This is all a growing description.

And so, whenever we read the words that God gives us to, in essence, correct us, we are learning to see ourselves as God does. We are turning from our sins and asking for forgiveness. But then we also want to examine the blessing, the help that God has provided for us.

I want us to look as well in this positive category to what we read in Ephesians 6.

I'm glad that Ephesians is still in my Bible. I glued it back in. I got concerned because I had this section about 30 pages, and then I read in the back, you know, don't add to and don't take away from this book.

And I said, I'd better put it back. I'd better put it back in there.

But here in Ephesians 6, you know, Mr. Kubik referred to this section as, in a sense, a section that shows us this stability and the encouragement that God gives us as we find the world in chaotic situation and in many ways very anxious about not knowing what's going to happen. See, all of us know what the outcome is going to be. We see what the end result is. We know what the future of humanity is. And we don't know who's going to live and die, but we know beyond the return of Christ, people are going to be resurrected. We know beyond that. Others will be resurrected. God will fully love everyone. But see, He wants us, as He tells us here, to put on the armor of God. And if we put on the armor of God, if we rely on what it says here, well, then we are able to be stable.

We are able to stand, and He says you will stand firm if you put on the armor of God. Finally, my brethren, be strong. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. What kind of power has He made available? Incredible strength.

Put on the whole armor of God, verse 11, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And so He said that armor is protected. That armor is stable. That armor is able to overrule the spiritual forces of wickedness that He's describing in verse 12.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against enemies who are rulers and authorities and cosmic powers in this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. He says that's a battle that you're fighting. You're not fighting other people. You're fighting Satan's desire.

His desire to keep us from being a part of the Kingdom of God, to keep us from being close to God, to keep us from growing in God's divine nature. That's what He would love to do. He would love to give us sidetracked. He would love to get us off track. He would love to get us divided.

He would love to get us in a state of agitation and anger and hostility, just like you see so many people suffer from today. That's the effect of what you have in the world today. So He says in verse 13, Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

See, that's a security, a stability, that there's no other way of having. Then He describes it. Of course, He tells us what the different armaments are. Stand therefore, verse 14, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist. Put on the breastplate of righteousness, and shoes for your feet. Put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. And we see the gospel referred to in numerous different places. Primarily, Jesus refers to it as the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

And yet, it also is a gospel of peace. You also see a few references to the gospel of grace, and sometimes you see the gospel of Jesus. But ultimately, it is about a kingdom. That's going to come to the earth, as Jesus says.

So He says, have your shoes on, and be ready to do your job of preaching the gospel. And with all of these, take the shield of faith, and verse 16, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Can we focus enough on the Word of God?

Well, I think many of us are doing that. We're focusing on the Word of God. We want that to be what we think about, what we talk about, what we discuss, what we learn about, what we grow in. And yet, as we've described today, well, we want to ask God to correct us. He's going to do that through His Word. He's going to help us and show us, then, to act, to repent, to receive His forgiveness, and to see the progress that He will provide in our lives. And so He says in verse 18, pray, in the Spirit at all times, in every prayer, supplication, to the end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication with all the saints.

See, this is, in a sense, a pattern or a blueprint or a formula to have spiritual stability in this unrighteous and unstable and hostile world. See, we want to be able, and actually we should, not only just read this, because this is pretty easy to read, it's a relatively short section, but we should be able to think about how it is, that if we are clothed with this armor, then we have the belt of truth.

That is undergirding everything. We have a breastplate of righteousness. We seek that righteousness from God. We have a helmet of salvation. We know what God is holding out before us. We are involved. You know, we've got army boots on. We're in God's army. Army boots to do the proclaiming of the gospel of the kingdom of God, a gospel of peace.

Peace is coming. It's just going to be enforced, and then people are going to yield to that peace that's coming. And he tells us, he gives us a shield. Again, all of these are pretty defensive. He also says, I'll give you the sword of the Spirit. What is it? What kind of offensive offering do we have here? Well, it's the sword. It's the Word of God.

It's what we can rely on. We had a great sermon ad up in Fulton this morning. I won't be able to play it because much of it was on the screen. But Tom Robinson went over and showed information about this latest discovery. Actually, it's not discovered right now. It's been known for several years. But he described, in biblical archaeology, is publishing now some of the findings that they have.

And they have some signant Ebola of Hezekiah that they were published some time ago. They also now have one of Isaiah. These were found in their excavations there at the Temple Mount. Actually, these two are found just very close together with each other. Whenever you go back and read many different sections about King Hezekiah of Judah and Isaiah the prophet, you see they're interacting quite a bit. It's just fascinating to see what he was presenting about how it is that the archaeologists are saying, you know, this proves the validity of the Bible, and certainly it does. It is wonderful to see some of those things. They have many, many things that prove the validity of the Bible.

But see, to us, we can take the Bible for granted, but we shouldn't. You know, it is the inspired word of God. It has been given to show us God's purpose and His plan. And there is. See, there may be people who discredit the Bible or even try to discredit God. That's not going to go very far when Jesus returns. That's going to be out the door. And recognizing God's Word, recognizing the significance of the pages that we read and like we read, the Word of God is active and lively and able to cut to the very core of human problems.

That's what we want to be able to keep in mind. But if we put on this armor, it just tells us, you know, if we read that, if we memorize it, if we keep it in our mind and in our heart, that causes us to have some protection. A protection from God that we can't do by ourselves. And so we want to seek that, brethren. But that I put under the category of evaluating our progress, you know, and think in many ways we're growing.

We're growing. I can say in looking at you, 30 or 40 people that we commonly see, I see progress. I see growth. I see development. Some of that comes through trials. Some of that comes through enduring a great deal with suffering. I think back over the last few years, and Pat and I have talked about this, you know, we can kind of highlight through the different years things that we went through, and we didn't necessarily plan or want to go through, but we went through anyway for our good. And we can see how God makes progress, how He causes us to draw closer to Him.

And I think that that's occurring in our congregation. We should be drawing closer to God. We're getting closer to the end of the age. And we don't know when that's going to happen. We know that there are a number of things that yet to occur before Christ says He will come. But see, in the meantime, we want to do what He says. Examine ourselves. A self-examination. And then as we do that, and as I'm saying, we've got four or five weeks before the time of the Passover, then we can complete what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 11.

He says, Brethren, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27, Whoever eats the bread, drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy or irreverent manner, is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. But he says in verse 28, you should examine yourself and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. He tells us, if we properly prepare, we should have every desire to take the Passover, to eat the bread, to drink the cup, to know, even as Jesus' words here in John 6.

Jesus said, of course, he gave a lot of specific information here in John 6. He was talking about himself being the bread of life. He said he was the bread of life. He was the living bread. He was the true bread. And he says in verse 53, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, then you have no life in you.

And those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. And those who do that, who eat my flesh and drink my blood, abide in me, and I abide in them. And just as the living Father sent me in verse 57, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. See, we have a hold on eternal life if we follow God's instructions.

He tells us what to do. He tells us how to live. He gives us His law to guide and direct us. He gives us His Spirit. He shows us His Word. He gives us the Word of God, the inspired Word of God. No one ever take that for granted. But I hope that as we properly, and each of us individually, have to properly prepare by examining ourselves, that we can then even drink the table of the Lord and receive the blessings and the benefits that God wants to give us.