Sunday Sermon
Restoring The Well Of Life In The Celebration Of Communion
Date: June 29, 2008
Guest Speaker: Ptr. Joe Terrazzino, Pastor of Victory Christian Fellowship in Linden, NJ
Scriptural Reference: Gen 26:15-18
Listen to Audio Sermon

INTRODUCTION:
Gen 26:15-18
15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. KJV

Sometimes the job of a teacher is to be a restorer of wells.
Just as Abraham dug many life sustaining wells in Canaan God has placed many wells of life in the Bible. These wells reveal things about God’s will for our lives or about God Himself. As we read through the Bible with understanding, we drink of the spiritual life giving water of these wells. Now the Philistines meant to deny the life sustaining water of Abraham’s wells to his descendents so they filled the wells with soil. It became Isaac’s responsibility to restore these wells. Unfortunately, many of the wells of life that the Bible contains are likewise obscured and the water is inaccessible to modern Christians. These wells are obscured by our inability to read the original languages of Scripture or by our lack of familiarity with the culture of the people of the Bible. This study is all about restoring the spiritual well contained in the celebration of communion so that we modern Christians can drink from it. We will do this by getting a better understanding of the culture of the people of the Bible.

THE PARTIALLY OBSCURED WELL:
Luke 22:14-20
14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. KJV

Why do we celebrate communion?
Jesus commanded that we participate in this ritual of communion. But why?
Our Lord is not a God of meaningless rituals. Was this last supper simply another celebration of the Passover? Was it simply another Jewish Seder commemorating the Exodus from Egypt or was there something else on Jesus’ agenda for this last night before His crucifixion? To understand communion we must restore an obscured well. We must begin digging.

LET’S BEGIN DIGGING:
A. First shovelful of soil. Circa 1883 BC.
Gen 15:1-12
15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
2 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8 And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. KJV

Gen 15:17-18
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram,……….. KJV

What happened here? What do we find in our first shovelful of soil?
God promised Abram that in his old age that he will indeed have a son. Furthermore, Abram’s descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Abram questions God and essentially asks how he can be sure that God will keep these promises. God responds and tells Abram to slaughter a number of animals, split them in half (all but the birds) and lay them on the ground. Abram complies without question. It’s as if this somehow makes sense to Abram. God then puts Abram in a trance and shows him a symbolic vision of God walking between the bloody pieces of animals. Abram is satisfied by this gesture from God and scripture acknowledges that God made a covenant with Abram on that day. God did what seems a strange thing to us but it didn’t seem strange to Abram. Abram drank from a spiritual well that is obscured and inaccessible to us. Once we understand better then we can drink from it and we will better understand communion.

B. Second shovelful of soil. Circa 588 BC
Jer 34:16-19
16 But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,
19 The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; KJV

What happened here? What do we find in our second shovelful of soil?
God was angry with His people because they had broken their covenant with Him by not adhering to Jubilee by freeing all servants and forgiving all debts. In the expression of His anger God says that they, “have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,”. We can see the parallel with our previous story. The well is still obscured and we still don’t fully understand communion.

C. Third shovelful of soil.
Our third shovelful consists of the definition of the Hebrew word ‘beriyth’ which is translated ‘covenant’ in the Old Testament. The following is taken from the Dictionary Of The Hebrew Bible by noted Christian scholar James Strong.

beriyth (ber-eeth'); (in the sense of cutting); a compact made by passing between pieces of flesh): -confederacy, , covenant, league.

What is this? What do we find in this shovelful?
James Strong tells us that the Hebrew word translated covenant means an agreement made by passing between pieces of flesh. This is what we saw in Genesis 15 and in Jeremiah 34. Still the well is obscured. Still we cannot drink. We still don’t fully understand communion.

D. Fourth shovelful of soil.
Gen 17:10-11
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. KJV

What is this? What do we find in our fourth shovelful of soil?
Circumcision seems strange indeed to we modern Christians. It didn’t seem so strange to ancients Jews though. To them the spiritual well was open but to us it is obscured and consequently, so is communion. Both walking between pieces of slaughtered animals and circumcision have something to do with communion.

NOW, LET’S DIG DEEPER:
When 2 people from the ancient mid-Eastern cultures of the Bible chose to make a covenant they usually followed what to them was a solemn ritual of honor. This ‘Blood Covenant Ritual’ often consisted of the nine steps listed below.

Step 1, The Exchange of Robes This was an exchange of identities for a man was often recognized by his robe.

Step 2, The Exchange of Weapon Belts This was a pledge that there could be no animosity between the covenant partners. Furthermore, they were now allies.

Step 3, The Exchange of Names Each covenant partner would appropriate a part of the other’s name. This would serve to reveal to all others that the two were in covenant.

Step 4, The Exchange of Blood The covenant partners would become ‘blood-brothers’. Symbolically each man would have his partner’s blood coursing through his veins. They now shared the same essence and nature because they were now organically related.

Step 5, Making Scars The wounds that were used in Step 4 were rubbed so that visible obvious scars would form. These scars would serve as evidence of their covenant.

Step 6, Making Covenant Terms The specifics of their covenant or testament were agreed on.

Step 7, Cutting the Covenant and Walking Between the Pieces The partners would slay an animal in order to solemnize their agreement. The animal would be split in half and the two halves laid on the ground. Together, the partners would walk between the pieces acknowledging that they were no longer their former selves but new persons in covenant with one-another. The dead animal represented the deaths of their old selves.

Step 8, Eating the Memorial Meal The partners would ratify their covenant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the animal which was the ‘cut covenant’. With the Old Testament prohibition against drinking blood, Jews would substitute the “blood of the grape” (wine) for the blood of the animal. This was the only part of the ritual which was periodically repeated.

Step 9, Planting the Memorial Tree A young tree was planted and sprinkled with the blood of the slain animal. Because trees are substantial organisms with long lives, the memorial tree would stand as a reminder of their covenant for many generations to come.

WE HAVE RESTORED THIS OBSCURED WELL AND COME FULL CIRCLE:
The thoughtful Christian can now study the New Testament (New Covenant) and
see that it is replete with references to the 9 steps of the Blood Covenant Ritual. Only a few scriptural examples are given below.

Step 1, The Exchange of Robes (1 Cor. 5:21) On the cross, Jesus took our soiled robes and gave us His robe of righteous.

Step 2, The Exchange of Weapon Belts (Rom. 8:1) We no longer bare God’s condemnation.

Step 3, The Exchange of Names (Acts 11:26) We are called Christians.

Step 4, The Exchange of Blood (2 Peter 1:4) We are the recipients of His divine nature.

Step 5, Making Scars (Rom. 2:28-29) For us, it is not the circumcision of the foreskin but rather of the heart.

Step 6, Making Covenant Terms The New Testament contains all of the terms of our covenant.

Step 7, Cutting the Covenant and Walking Between the Pieces (John 1:29) Jesus is the Lamb of God Who took away our sins. We have passed through His blood, symbolically died with Jesus, and emerged as new persons in covenant with God Himself.

Step 9, Planting the Memorial Tree (Acts 5:30) The crosses on our churches, hanging from chains around our necks and even on our literature are the memorial tree. The cross was sprinkled with His blood.

I’ve changed the order of steps and left the Memorial Meal for last.

Step 8, Eating the Memorial Meal

What about communion? Can we drink from its well now?

The evening of the Last Supper began as a very standard Passover Seder
celebration of God’s deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage. It was a ritual that the apostles had followed every year of their lives beginning with their earliest childhood recollections. Everything seemed normal. There was the Paschal lamb, the unleavened bread, the wine and the traditional Torah readings and prayers. But then the evening turned mysterious when Jesus took the bread and said, “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” We can imagine the quiet questioning among the Apostles. “John what does Jesus mean?” “Peter, why did Jesus say that the bread was His body?” “James. why did he say that we should eat His body?” The mystery continued when Jesus told the Apostles, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Jesus then commanded that they drink it. The quiet questioning continued. “Peter, Jesus said that the blood of the grape was His blood of a new covenant. How can that be? The blood of the grape can only represent the blood of the ‘cut covenant’ animal slain to solemnize the agreement. Oh James,……… now I understand!” It was probably only then that the apostles fully understood the significance that Jesus assigned to that evening. They would have missed it if not for the fact that they were men of that ancient mid-Eastern culture and therefore, familiar with the Blood Covenant Ritual. The well of life in the celebration of communion was accessible to them and now it is also accessible to you and I.

We can now fully drink from the well of life of communion.
Communion is the memorial meal of the New Covenant (New Testament) between God and all men and women who would agree to its terms. In it God is answering Abram’s question for us, “Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” In it God is saying that He swears to be honor-bound to keep each and every promise contained within the agreement that we call the New Testament. Yes, we will inherit eternal life. Yes, it is a free gift. Yes, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The sharing of the Memorial Meal was the only part of the ritual that was repeated. So we repeat it each time we celebrate communion. When we do we affirm our willingness to abide by the terms of the New Covenant of grace.