LIVING BY THE "FRUIT" OF THE CROSS
COMMUNION TO GO


November 18, 2012
MF Blume

  Scripture Text:


· The Eucharist or Communion Supper is the repetition of what Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. He told the disciples to repeat that supper in remembrance of Him.

· Paul explained that we are meant to do this until He comes again.
· Communion literally means fellowship or mutual participation.

1 Corinthians 10:16 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?

· We fellowship with the blood and body of Jesus. This means that we participated in His death as though our bodies were slain with Him and our own blood was shed when His was.


· It was our deaths! We are displaying the Gospel of our deaths, burials and resurrections with Christ when we partake of this Communion. It’s as though we are putting the emblems of His slain body and shed blood into our lives in order to indicate that His experience of death is inside our lives. It is our experience! We are what we eat! What happened to Him is indicated by putting it within us so that we can


show everyone that genuinely believe that His experience was our own.
· We are actually acknowledging that we died and were resurrected with Jesus when we engage in Communion (Fellowship) Supper.

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

· We often order food to go when we take-out a meal from a restaurant. While we physically eat bread and win in this Communion, spiritually speaking we are meant to take-out this meal and live it in our everday lives! We must live lives that reflect this truth! We need to lives though we actually believe we mutually participated in His death and resurrection.
· No bones of Jesus body were broken in fulfillment of the prophecy that stated this would occur in His crucifixion. However, the term broken in reference to His body referred to the brokenness of simply the experience of death. His Life was broken.
· The truths of the work of the cross actually feed us in a spiritual sense. Some feel that the bread literally is the body of Jesus by what they call the miracle of transubstantiation. But that is not the case. It symbolizes a spiritual reality.


· It’s like eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
· Fruit Trees were created on the third day of Genesis Chapter 1.

Genesis 1:11-12 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

· No other element of creation apart from man had so much detail in its description as the fruit tree.
· That was for good reason!
· It would be a fruit tree that would ruin man’s entire relationship with God!
· Man’s entire plight in sin was caused by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


· It was also another Fruit Tree of Life that was intended to be the focus of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
· The cross became a veritable Tree of Life for us.
· It was not a picture of cannibalism, as critics of the Christians accused them of in the first few centuries.
· The communion supper was a picture of drawing from the spiritual work of salvation accomplished by the death of Jesus.


· His body broke in death.
· His blood was shed in death.
· We receive eternal Life by believing the truths of the purpose of the cross and obeying the Gospel, as though we were eating the flesh and drinking His blood in order to obtain eternal life.
· Jesus hanged on the tree of the cross much like the fruit of Life clung to the branches of the Tree of Life.


· Jesus is the Son of God – the offspring, or fruit from God. That is what saved us.
· However, we must carry out our entire Christian lives by reliance on the Spiritual Life of Jesus.
· We face circumstances in life that simply require the Life of Jesus within us to empower us.
· We cannot handle all of life’s problems in our humanity alone.
· We need communion to go!


· Taking the truths of the cross and applying them to life’s situations as we have described in this series of books is kind of like taking communion to go.
· Feasting on bread and wine is actually what we are doing when we hear and believe the truths of the cross of Jesus.
· We are what we eat!
· We’re meant to utilize the truths of the cross that we hear preached in our daily lives.


· Live by these truths!
· Believe them so much that you actually do something about them when you are in a predicament.
· If you believe Christ’s blood was shed for our healing, then lay your hands on the sick and command healing, in the name of Jesus Christ!
· So many believers never do these things!
· They do not take communion to go.


· Throughout the Book of Acts the apostles baptized people in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
· “Through Jesus Christ” relates the concept of our union to Jesus’ power and authority.
· Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ displays that same truth.
· When we genuinely believe these truths, we can say that we are feasting on the bread and the wine!


· We’re making these truths a real part of our lives.
· We won’t be hearers only and not doers.
· If we hear them and never really do anything about them in our practical experience, then we simply have not actually feasted!
· Through Christ we can do all things (Phil. 4:13).
· In other words, by His empowerment obtained by our unions with Him in His death and resurrection, we have the power of resurrection to give us victory over any circumstance.
· It is what is also called identification with Jesus!
· Invoking the Name of Jesus Christ is not speaking a magical incantation that affords supernatural power.
· We need to understand the authority of Jesus Christ that is upon our lives due to our inclusion into His death when we invoke the Name.


· The faith in that authority upon our lives is what causes God to supernaturally intervene and work on our behalves.
· We boost our faith when we are in dire circumstances by reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ.
· As we identify with Jesus in His death and the power of His resurrection, we realize there is supernatural power on our lives to overcome life’s battles.

GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN
· I recall the Popeye cartoons I used to watch as a child.
· Popeye was a sailor who loved a woman named Olive Oil.
· His arch nemesis was Bluto, named Brutus in later episodes.
· Brutus wooed Olive Oil into his arms only to capture her.
· Popeye became enraged and sought to rescue her, but fought and was beaten up by Brutus every time, until…


· In the midst of sure doom, Popeye suddenly declared, “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands any more!”
· And I knew what was coming when he said that!
· By either walking to a vegetable stand, or pulling out a can form his pocket, he grabbed himself some spinach!
· Sometimes he squeezed a can of spinach until it streamed into the air sending a cascade of the vegetable leaves into his open mouth.


· He chewed it and then stretched out both arms.
· Power coursed through his body into his arms like basketballs moving through his tiny arms towards his fists!
· One fist turned into an anvil for a brief second, and the other into a huge hammer.
· He then chased Brutus and threw him around like a cat playing with a mouse!


· Finally, when he was ready, Popeye launched a punch into the man and send Brutus into orbit!
· (My mother never had a problem getting me to eat spinach as a child!)

But I always wondered why he simply didn't just always eat spinach to be ready any time he had to deal with his enemy.
· He waited until he was half-dead before he resorted to the spinach to defeat the enemy.


· That is a lot like Christians who face the devil and the hardships he throws upon us.
· We need COMMUNION TO GO.
· Feast on the bread and wine continually!
· Be “up on” the truths of the cross.
· Let’s not wait until we are half beaten by life until we remind ourselves who we are in Christ.


· What is worse is that some believers never rely upon their unions with Christ when they face battles.
· They have simply never learned these truths at all.
· Live by faith.
· Apply this to your everyday world.
· Have faith in your union to Christ’s resurrection.
· Have faith that His power is all over your life and inside your very being!
· Rely upon those facts in your trials.


· As Popeye sent Brutus in the sky with one final punch, when you are ready to get rid of your enemy tell him to get behind you in the name of Jesus Christ!
· Incorporating these truths into our daily lives is living by faith, and not simply thinking by faith.
· What do we have to bring with us on order to motivate God to strengthen us when we come before Him in the midst of our perils?
· We have our unions with Christ!


· Keep that in mind as much as you are able to, more and more.
· Meditate upon these truths until they are as familiar to you as the back of your hand.
· Be able to instantly recall them whenever you find yourself in a challenging situation.