Did Jesus Mean the Bread Is Literally His Body? 🥖🍷 | The Table: Part 2 | Pastor Alex Himaya

Well, good morning, church. It is so good to be with you. I want us to pray together if we could before we jump in to the Bible content. Would you just lay your hands open on your lap? And in your own words, would you just ask the Holy Spirit to make known to you the very presence of God today? And that it would be in you and on you and all around you. Would you ask Him today to take the written word of God and let it jump off the pages into your spirit and into your soul? And that you would have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to comprehend the very presence of God in your life today. In Jesus' name we pray and together we all say, Amen. Now I want you to, as we begin, to imagine with me. If you have a hard time imagining, close your eyes. But I want you to imagine a big table right here on the stage in front of me. All of our campuses, I want you to imagine this ornate table. And it is gold and it has all kinds of ornate details. Something that would fit in the Oval Office today. Don't get that out of your head. But I want you to see this ornate golden table. And I want you to envision or imagine a priest walking up to this table. And on this table is a pitcher of wine and a cup. And the priest takes the pitcher and fills the cup with wine. And then he takes that cup and sets it next to some bread. Now do you have that image in your mind? If you have that image in your mind, I want to ask you, just show of hands. How many of you in your mind envisioned a priest that looked something like that? Okay, a lot of you. But I actually had in mind a priest that looked more like that. A Jewish priest. If you got your Bible, turn to Exodus 25. And I want to show you something today. That God in this chapter is giving Moses some instructions for building the tabernacle.

The tabernacle was where Moses went into this tent every day to meet with God. It is also the place where Israel made their sacrifices to God in the promised land before Solomon got around to building the temple. And as God is laying out the details for how he wants this tabernacle to be constructed, which by the way, all of these details would translate and be repeated in the temple. Look at what he says to Moses. Here's what he says. Then make a table of acacia wood. Overlay it with pure gold and run gold molding all around the edges. So it's a table that is golden all around with intricate details. And he explains what the table will be used for. Let's keep reading. He says, make special containers of pure gold for the table. Bowls, ladles, pitchers, and jars to be used in pouring out liquid offerings. Place the bread, circle these words, place the bread of the presence on the table to remain before me at all times. In other words, this table is specifically designed for the bread of the presence. And I want to get into that today and talk about that today. But first, let me explain a little bit of the whole layout of the whole tabernacle. We've done this before, but let me just remind you. There are three sections to the tabernacle. You've got the outer court, the inner court, or the holy place, and the holy of holies. And in the outer court, you have the basin and the altar for sacrifice. In the holy place, you have the lamp stand, the altar of incense, and this table of the presence. And then you have in the holy of holies, the Ark of the Covenant. And only the high priest could go past this curtain and only once a year on behalf of the people. The priest in general, not the high priest, but the priest in general could go as far as the holy place, but they could not go into the holy of holies. It was in this place, if you remember, where John the Baptist's dad, his name was Zachariah, who was a priest, got the vision from the Lord.

He was lighting the candles at the lamp stand, and the angel visited him, and he got the vision that John the Baptist was going to be born. Now, the average Jewish person could go as far as the outer court, but they could not go into the holy place. Now, this is all laid out for us in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. And the most important part, clearly, in this whole diagram is this, the Ark of the Covenant. It was central and the most important part of the tabernacle. It's where God comes down by His Spirit to visit the people through the high priest. We've talked about this before, but we really just skimmed over it. skipped over this, the table of the presence. Do you know it's always listed in all of the listings in the Bible second? In other words, it's most important only after the Ark of the Covenant. And some of you who were raised in church and some certain brands of churches, you heard this bread referred to as show bread. How many of you heard that before? Okay, it's a very King James version or TBN version of this word, right? But it's actually should be translated the bread of the presence, the table of the bread of the presence. So what is show bread or what is the bread of the presence? Some people, some of you are into sourdough and all of this. I sent Meredith to a 13-hour class and one loaf is all she ever made. And I'm like, they teach the 13-hour version of it so you give up and just buy it from them. It's a great business model.

But some people make bread that tastes good and it's not really for show, right? Other people make bread and it's for show but it doesn't always taste good. It's hard to put the two together. But when you study other religions, particularly in that day, one of the things that you'll find, it was very, very, very common for people to give to their deity food in those days. It was very common. Actually today, you can still see this in Tulsa. In our city, if you ever visit a shop or a restaurant that is owned by a Buddhist, sometimes if you're paying attention over in the corner of the room, you'll see a little Buddha doll with a plate in front of it with food on it, usually oranges, right? And it's laid before them and that is them providing food as an offering to their God. That's what they're doing. And I would never say this in there but I do think it and this is my confession to you. Buddha didn't get that belly by eating oranges, right? And he wants carbs and the bread is what Buddha wants. But if you study religion, you might be tempted to think and when you read Exodus 25,

oh, this is the Israelites, the people of God copying the very customs of their day. They're doing the very same thing that they saw other people do and they decided to do it too. Isn't it neat that they're giving their God, Yahweh, some bread? But that is not at all what's going on here because this bread, the bread of the presence was not for God to eat, it was for the people, the priests specifically to eat, meaning that God is providing his people with a meal. And you can mark it down, your God, the real God needs nothing from you, right? Not like little G gods, he doesn't take from us, he gives to us. Everything we have comes from God and we understand that. We steward what the Lord puts in our hands. And anytime we give, we're giving back to our God. And anytime he asks us for something in our hands, it's simply so that he can get our hands open so that he can put something better in it so that we can bless others with it. It's always about what he wants for us and not what he wants from us. But this bread, the bread of the presence, and by the way, they were doing this in Jesus' day as well, is sort of a copy of the manna from heaven that rained down each morning in the nation

before the nation of Israel while they were in the wilderness. It was always a reminder that God met their needs. Day by day was meeting their needs. And God said of this bread in the tabernacle, it will remain before me at all times, meaning he will continually meet all of our needs. And here's the application for you today. God already made provision to meet your needs. He has all of the riches and glory, all of the resources that are needed, and he is ready and willing to meet your needs. Now, I said earlier, this is all laid out in the book of Exodus, but it's also laid out in the book of Leviticus. Now, let me show you that, okay? If you got your Bible, turn over Leviticus 24, and it says, you must make 12 flat loaves of bread, I love this scripture, right, from choice flour using four quarts of flour for each loaf, meaning these loaves were huge. Four quarts is what the English translation says here. The Hebrew actually says two tenths of an ephah. Now, what's an ephah? Because I've never seen an ephah. Is it metric? More importantly, is it gluten-free? Right, we hope not. But I look this up because I'm curious and I like bread. I wanted to know how big these loaves are.

And if you follow this recipe of four quarts per loaf of bread, this is what we came up with what it would look like, okay? And this guy's six foot, right? Five, 11. And there are 12 loaves, okay? Each of these loaves is about five times the size of a loaf. Of a loaf of wonder bread you would buy at the store and there are 12 Of them look at the scripture in verse 6 place the bread before the Lord on the pure gold Table and arrange the loaves in two stacks Six loaves on each stack 12 loaves total now. Why 12? Why were there 12 to represent the 12 tribes of Israel 12 is a very important number in the Bible It means completion in the organization and authority. It's God's authority, right? Jacob had 12 sons Israel had 12 tribes. There were 12 disciples in the book of Revelation There are 12 gates into heaven and around God's throne There are 12 thrones in the New Testament and Mark chapter 6 It says that Jesus took a little boy's lunch and fed thousands of people He took some loaves and some fish and he fed Thousands of people and when they had all eaten all that they wanted he had the disciples gather them up and guess how many Mark says Was were left over 12 basketfuls Again, God is reminding us through his word His authority is complete and his provision is great and his provision is tied to his promise now go back to Leviticus 24, let's read the next verse Every Sabbath day this bread must be laid out before the Lord as a gift from the Israelites It's an ongoing expression. Look at this phrase and underline this in your Bible of the eternal Covenant now these words are incredibly important and I've talked about what a covenant is many times but the Hebrew words here are Berit Olam, let's say that together

Berit Olam Berit means covenant or it means to cut right because you always cut a Covenant because a covenant required you giving up something of value Olam means forever. So we are cutting forever or covenant forever or an eternal covenant meaning that God's provision is Forever and ever and always and always and as a part of his covenant with his people There is an expression or a provision to that covenant that he will take care of our needs And when you get into the New Testament To the Last Supper, which is where the Lord's Supper, which is what we're studying began Listen to what Jesus said. This is a new covenant a New covenant and in this new covenant is an expression of the old covenant Meaning what God will has and is meeting all of our needs and the old covenant was looking forward to the new covenant and the New covenant quite honestly gives ode and looks back to the old covenant and last week We spent the whole message talking about covenant meals. Why? Because every time someone in the Old Testament or in that culture made a covenant They would sit down and eat a meal together in Exodus 24, which is where we were last week, right? That's what God did if you weren't here last week go back in online and watch last week's message because it's important to understand Actually what I'm talking about today, but but that's Exodus 24 where we spent our whole time last week the very next chapter Exodus 25 is the chapter with the table of the bread that I just read to you from that's what we're talking about today Now this is not in the Bible, but this is me filling in the blanks. Okay, so don't write this down This is the sayeth Alex not the Lord, but in my mind what happened is God had this meal with his buddies and He was like, I love this guys. This is so been so great. Let's do this again In fact, let's do this forever And so he told Moses make a tabernacle to meet with me in and make us a special Table so that we can eat together and every Sabbath the priests would eat this meal as a way to celebrate the Covenant meal with God and today we as the royal priesthood get to take that very same Meal, but it was always meant by the way to be about all the people of God

In fact in the Jewish calendar, there were three special Holidays, they're called pilgrimage holidays and I'm praying about thinking about this being the content for our Christmas series that this December but the three pilgrimage holidays were where every Jewish person was asked to come to Jerusalem all of them so that they Could all celebrate all together and at each of these three holidays They are for inquiring minds the Passover Pentecost and tabernacles on Those three Sabbath days the priests would go into that holy place and would bring the table out and Set it before the people where everyone could see the bread and the table and then the priest would pick up the bread which this Is made by the way with four quarts. I wish you could feel how heavy The this thing is and the priest would then pick up the bread And they would wave the bread in front of the whole crowd and all of Jerusalem Could see the bread and by the way ancient legend says that that bread would glow and The priest would then take the bread hold it above its head his head and say to the people listen what the priest would say behold God's love for you Behold God's love For you and that Hebrew word that the priest would use for love is the Hebrew word hesed And it's not love like I love my dog It means covenant Faithfulness, it's a marriage bond. In fact, I use the word covenant Throughout the whole ceremony anytime I perform a wedding ceremony and here's the point the bread is a sign that God keeps his Covenant and that his love for us is so strong that it actually creates an eternal Covenant meaning it goes on forever Now if the legend is true that the bread would glow. Why would it glow? Some sort of radioactive or glow-in-the-dark flower, no Remember what else was in the holy place across from the table the lampstand and

The lampstand also represented the presence of God John 1 4 says the word which is who? Jesus The word who is Jesus brought light to all people But first John 1 5 says God is light and in him there is no Darkness God resides in the light meaning what if you want to be with God you have to be in the light so the bread of his presence is Sitting in the light of his presence and it represents the purity of his light and who he is Right. Everybody say amen In fact the word for presence in the Hebrew is the word panin It sounds a lot like Panera Which is not the same root word at all. But let me show you something in the Hebrew language. It's always significant The first letter of the word panin is the Hebrew letter called pay which is basically our P And in their minds the pay looks like the face of a person. Let me show you Right you see it And The whole concept in the Hebrew mindset is the reason this word who begins with pay the face it represents Presence means presence is face to face to see someone's face Requires you are present with them So the bread of the presence watch this is the visible sign of the invisible face of God Jesus said in John 14 9 if you have seen me you have seen the Father and he told his disciples when you are in my Presence, it's the same as being face to face with Father God but it also means this that the Lord's Supper is a visible sign of the Invisible presence of God and when we take the Lord's Supper, it's not some snack It's an invitation Into the very presence of God into the presence of God the face of God, which is powerful Imagery for us to ponder in fact this whole idea of the presence of the Lord's Presence of Jesus in the Lord's Supper has led to this huge century-long debate in Christianity now It's only in Christianity. No one outside the church even knows we fight about this

But but one group on one side of the equation says that the bread and the wine the elements literally turn into the blood and the flesh of Jesus Christ and the big theological word there is Transubstantiation and if you've never heard that word, don't worry about it because there's consubstantiation There's a whole bunch of words in this debate and on one side of the equation is no it doesn't mean anything It's just a picture and on the other side is no it literally turns into the blood and flesh of Jesus And there's a group in the middle that says no no No, it doesn't actually turn into the flesh in the blood of Jesus But when you do this the presence of Jesus actually falls and they're trying to have it both ways in this argument But you need to know this the Bible never says That the elements turn into the literal body and blood of Jesus that idea actually comes from a misunderstanding of what Jesus said But what every scholar knows that Jesus said was when you do this Do this in remembrance of me. In fact, he said it more than once. And when Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me, look what he was saying is, this is a sign that points to me. And logic would say the sign can never be the real thing. Right? Makes sense? Nod your head this way. Makes sense, right? This is good teaching. Come on now, this is good teaching. Back in Exodus 33, verse 11, it says that Moses would meet with God. Do you remember what it said? He would meet with God in a very particular way. Face to face. And do you remember when Moses had met with God

and he would come out of the tabernacle or he would come down the mountain, his face would glow. Just being in the presence of God made his face glow. And the Israelites were like, you gotta put a veil over that, Moses. That's too much for us. Meaning what? They were not ready for that level of God's presence yet. And you say, well, that's Old Testament. I know, but it's explained in the New Testament. Let me show you what Paul has to say over in 2 Corinthians. He says, even today, say today. Even today, when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil and they do not understand. Meaning what? If you do not have a real, intimate, personal relationship with the living Jesus, you cannot possibly understand what I'm talking about today. You can't understand this. It's like a veil has been put over your face or put over your heart. It's too much. And there are people that you do life with that when you talk to them God stuff, they don't get it, right? Because there's a veil over their hearts. And you know this to be true. Those of you who came to Christ at an older age,

you know it to be true in your own life. In the same way that people would talk to you about God stuff, it didn't connect with you in that day like it does today. Listen, that veil can be and is removed when someone comes to know Jesus personally. Look at what Paul goes on to say, verse 16. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, look at what it says, read it with me. The veil is taken away. Amen? For the Lord is the spirit, and wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is, say it. Freedom. Freedom. And hear me, when you go from here today and you leave this place, you are taking with you the very presence of God. If you are in Christ, wherever you are, the presence of God is also. That means when you invest in other people's lives by talking to them, by including them, by loving them, you're actually sharing the presence of God with them. And when they come into this place, they can experience that for themselves. And next week is one of the best opportunities in the church calendar for us to do that. Next week is what we call a Gospel Sunday, where you and I invest in people's lives

and invite them to come with us next Sunday and watch with our own eyes as God saves some of these men and women and boys and girls. But look what happens when we experience this freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can, say it, see, and, say it, reflect. See and reflect what? The glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. Your presence in the presence of those who are not yet saved actually reflects the very presence of God so that they can see it too. This is why we sing and proclaim and declare, his presence changes everything. And look, this has everything in the world to do with the presence of God. And in the Old Testament, the presence of God was reserved to the temple or the tabernacle, but now the presence is with us through Jesus. And when we take the Lord's Supper, it is looking back to the Last Supper, which was looking back to the Passover, which was looking back to the Exodus. But I have to tell you, it goes back even further than that, to where Jesus shows up in the Old Testament. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Same chapter, Exodus 25, make special claims make special containers of pure gold for the table.

We read this earlier. Bowls, ladles, pitchers, and jars to be used in pouring out, watch this, liquid offerings. And when you study that, the liquid offerings were always wine. In other words, on this table of the bread of the presence were both bread and wine. Just like in the Last Supper, just like in the Lord's Supper. But where does this come from? Why is it that when Moses heard these instructions, he didn't have any questions for God. No follow-ups for God. God, what do you mean? What goes in the cup? What kind of bread, God? Because he knew. Moses knew it was bread and wine. How did he know? Because Abraham, 600 years earlier, right? All the way back in Genesis 14, Abraham shows up and meets a priest of Salem. And every archaeologist will tell you Salem is Jerusalem. And the priest of Salem is a guy named Melchizedek. And what happened when Abraham came to Salem? Melchizedek came out to meet Abraham and he brought two things with him. Anyone want to guess? Bread and wine. And in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 12, the Pharisees are arguing with Jesus, which was their pastime and their hobby. They would have loved Twitter, right? Or X, right? So these Pharisees get mad at Jesus. For what? For the disciples walking through the wheat fields and picking the wheat and eating it on the Sabbath day. Now what's important is Jesus' argument. Because Jesus makes the argument with them that David, King David, did something very similar. And he takes them back to a story found in 1st Samuel chapter 12, where David is running from Saul and he's hungry. And he goes into the tabernacle and he says to the priest, do you have any food? And the priest says, all we have is the bread of the presence. And David says, give it to me. And the priest says, sure. Here it is. But the problem is this. Only priests could eat the bread of the presence. So what does Jesus say in the New Testament? He says David was allowed to do that. Why? Well, one argument is in Psalm 110, God said of David, I made you a priest forever,

like a Berit Olam, according to the order of Melchizedek. Meaning that David was not a priest according to the line of Levi or Aaron. He was not a priest according to the covenant of Moses. He was a priest according to Melchizedek, the eternal priest who arrived with both bread and wine. Who according to most scholars, many scholars, Melchizedek was Jesus in the flesh in the Old Testament. According to all scholars, was at minimum a prototype, a precursor of Jesus. So why could David eat the bread of the presence? Because of the eternal priest called Melchizedek. And it's also why you and I can eat the bread of the Lord's supper, because we are united with Christ, the forever Melchizedek. And today you and I take the bread and the wine of the Lord's supper. We're invited into the presence, into the very presence of God. And I want you to envision every time you take the Lord's supper, your heavenly father pulling a chair out for you and saying, here, here, sit. Let's sit together. Come into my presence. And today we're going to take the Lord's supper. Would you go ahead and grab the elements that were on the chair when you came in this last week? A good friend of mine told me that he couldn't figure out how to get the bread out of the top. He's an attorney. You pull the cellophane off the top and slide the bread right off the top of the aluminum foil. And I want you to hold it in your hand and maybe, maybe shut your eyes. And I want you to ponder the presence of Jesus on the bread. And the presence of Jesus in and on your life right now. And the metaphor that the bread represents. And as you get ready to take the bread, would you ask for the Lord's supper? Ask the Lord to help you carry his presence to those who are veiled and need a relationship with Jesus this week. And Jesus said, this is my body. Take it in remembrance of me. You can take the bread. If you would open the cup and hold it in your hand. And again, I want you to ponder and envision Jesus

taking that cup after supper and saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread, listen, and take this cup, listen to what Jesus says. You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And so as you get ready to take the cup, would you pray that God would help you this week proclaim him to those who need him this week? Go ahead and take the cup if you would. Amen. Could I pray over you? Lord, I thank you today that you've called us to be salt and light to a world that is perishing. And this week as we walk out of this place with your presence and your power, may you go before us to every interaction we'll have over the next six days. And would you make our feet beautiful carrying the good news of Jesus. Would you give us the courage to invest in people's lives and invite them back to this place next weekend that they may experience the whole gospel? And we pray, Father, you would go before us and we declare on this end of this equation a week out. We can't save anybody. But Jesus, not only can you, it's your desire. And so I pray you would use this body today and all week long to invest in lives and invite people to this place next week

that we may see with our own eyes people respond to the gospel, men and women and boys and girls. And that the veil would actually be removed from their hearts and they would know you intimately and in a personal way. Father, go before us, in us, on us, all around us, underneath us and behind us with the very presence of God. In Jesus' name we pray and together we all say, amen and amen. Would you thank the Lord for meeting with us today.