“THE HOLY COMMUNION”

April 26, 2009 – Sunday Morning Service

Pastor Loyd K. Watanabe
Faith, Hope & Love Christian Center

Note: Next to being Saved and having Eternal Life through the Love and Grace of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, “Health” is the Greatest Blessings that We can Have.

➢ A Person can have Lots of Money, but They Can’t Enjoy It If They Don’t have Health. Most
likely, a Rich Man on his Deathbed wouldn’t be thinking, “I Wonder How I can Make Another
Million Dollars!” No, He’d probably be thinking, “I’d Give Anything to Get My Health Back.”

Note: You can have a Wonderful Family, but If You’re Always Tired and Sick, Then You Won’t be Able
to Enjoy Life with your Spouse and Children.

➢ We can have Lots of Knowledge concerning the Scriptures and the Gospel of Grace, but If We
Don’t Have our Health, Then We won’t have the Energy and Strength to Go Out and Share the
Good News of Jesus Christ.

Note: Hence, God wants us to be Healed, Healthy and Whole so that We can Enjoy our Families and
Go Out and Share the Amazing Gospel of Grace to Others.

Note: While Jesus was Here on Earth, You will find that Most of His Miracles were in the Area of
Healings.

➢ Jesus Did Not Walk on Water All the Time, Neither Did He Turn Water into Wine All the Time,
but You will Always See Him Healing People Everywhere He Went.

Note: The Reason is Because It is His Nature to Heal.

Acts 10:38 – How God Anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with Power, who went about
Doing Good and Healing “All” who were Oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him.

Note: Have you ever Wondered…If It is God’s Nature to Heal Us through Jesus Christ, Why are So
Many Christians Sick?

➢ If the People of the World are Sick, We are Not Surprised because They Don’t have Christ as their
Savior and Healer Dwelling in Them. But When Believers are Sick, We should Seek to Know
Why.

Note: Now, If We are Dieting Right and Exercising Right and yet We are Still Sick, Then There must be
a Reason.

I Corinthians 11:30 – For this Reason Many are Weak and Sick among you, and Many Sleep (or Die
Prematurely).

➢ In this Scripture, Paul Gives us a “Reason” as to Why Believers are Sick.

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Question: So What is the Reason?
Answer: Paul Gives us the Answer in v. 29 which says, “For He who Eats and Drinks in an Unworthy
Manner Eats and Drinks Judgment to Himself, Not Discerning the Lord’s Body.”

I Corinthians 11:23-26 – 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord
Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took Bread; 24 and when He had given thanks,
He broke it and said, “Take, Eat; this is My Body which is Broken for you; do this in
Remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the Cup after supper, saying, “This
Cup is the New Covenant in My Blood. This do, as often as you Drink it, in Remembrance of
Me.” 26 For as often as you Eat this Bread and Drink this Cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till
He comes.

➢ So There are Two Elements mentioned here – “The Bread” and “The Cup.”

Note: “The Bread” Represents the “Broken Body of Jesus.”

“The Cup” Represents the “Shed Blood of Jesus.”

➢ The Broken Body of Jesus is for our Total Healing.

The Shed Blood of Jesus is for our Total Forgiveness.

Note: If We are “Totally Forgiven” of our Sins, Then We are Free from All Guilt and Condemnation,
and as a Result, We are “Righteous Enough” in Christ to Receive Our Healing Physically,
Mentally, Emotionally and Even Financially.

➢ So in v. 23-26, Paul is telling us that God – Through Christ, has Given Us Absolute
Provisions for Forgiveness and Healing. This is the “Double-Cure Provision” from God
through Christ. (Psalm 103:2-3, Mark 2:1-12)

Note: But Paul Recognizes that there is a Problem and He says to the Corinthian Church, “Why is that as
Believers There are People who are Weak, Sick and Dying Prematurely Among You when in v.
23-26, the ‘Double-Cure Provision’ has been made Available to Every One of You?”

➢ Therefore, According to v.23-26, No One is Supposed to be Sick.

Note: Therefore, in I Corinthians 11:27-30, Paul Addresses the Problem and Explains the Reason as to
Why Believers are Sick.

v. 27-30 – 27 Therefore whoever Eats this Bread or Drinks this Cup of the Lord in an Unworthy Manner
will be Guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 28 But let a Man Examine Himself, and so
let him Eat of the Bread and Drink of the Cup. 29 For he who Eats and Drinks in an Unworthy
Manner Eats and Drinks Judgment to himself, Not Discerning the Lord’s Body. 30 For this
Reason Many are Weak and Sick among you, and Many Sleep.

Note: So “Although” in v. 23-26, the Benefits of Healing and Forgiveness and No Condemnation were
Provided for, The Reason Why Believers were Sick, Weak and Dying Prematurely is because

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 They were Eating the Bread and Drinking the Cup in an Unworthy Manner and were Not
Discerning the Lord’s Body.

➢ Therefore, Paul says that We should Examine Ourselves to See “How” We are Eating and
Drinking of the Communion.

Big Note: It is Important to Note that Paul is Not Saying that We should First Examine Ourselves If We
have “Sin” in our Lives, and if We do, We should Forsake It and Then Partake of the Bread
and the Cup.

➢ Formerly, We were Taught that If We had Harbored Sin or Unforgiveness in Our Lives that We
should Confess it, Forsake it and If Necessary, Make Restitution by Asking that Person to Forgive
Us Before We Partake of the Communion. If Not, We would be Bringing Condemnation and
Judgment upon Ourselves. So There were a Few Times in my Christian Life that I Refrained from
Partaking of the Communion because I Didn’t Want to Get Sick and Prematurely Die.

Note: However, the Scripture is Not Telling Us to Examine “Ourselves” If We are Unworthy (Because
We are All Unworthy in Ourselves), But to Examine Whether the “Manner” in which We are
Partaking is Unworthy or Not.

➢ This is Where We have been Mistaken – in Examining “Ourselves” Rather Than Examining the
“Manner” of How We have been Partaking.

Note: And because of this Misunderstanding and Misinterpretation of Scripture, Our Faith and
Confidence to Receive God’s Blessings have been Greatly Hindered.

v. 27 (KJV) – Wherefore whosoever shall Eat this Bread, and Drink this Cup of the Lord, “Unworthily”
shall be Guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Question: When it says, “Guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord,” What is it that We are Guilty of?
Answer: I think it means that If We Eat and Drink Unworthily, We will be Guilty of Improperly
Defining What the Body and Blood of the Lord has Done for Us.

➢ So When We Don’t Have the Proper Revelational Knowledge of What the Broken Body and Shed
Blood of the Lord has Done for us because We Didn’t Look at it with the Eyes of Grace, Then We
bring Judgment to Ourselves. (Hosea 6:4)

Note: Now, Judgment is Not Always What You Get, but It can also mean What You Don’t Get. And in
this case, the Corinthians Didn’t Get What They Wanted which was their Healing.

➢ It is Easy to Mistakenly Read the Scriptures in v. 27-29 and Examine “Ourselves” Instead of
Examining the “Manner” in which We are Partaking of the Bread and Cup – Because We Tend to
Look at Things from the “Religious Way” than from the “Grace Way.”

Note: When We Look at the Scriptures in a “Religious Way,” We Become More “Sin Conscious” than
“Son Conscious.”
“Sin Conscious”
“Son Conscious

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“Self
“Righteousness
Conscious” Conscious”
 “Sickness”
“Health”

Note: Now, the word “Unworthily” is an “Adverb,” which is something that Describes a “verb.”

Question: What is the Grammatical Word that Describes a Person, Place or Thing?
Answer: It’s an “Adjective.”

➢ So If “Unworthily” is an Adverb, then It Cannot Be Referring to a Person, Right?

Note: Hence, the word “Unworthily” is Not Referring to “Us” as Believers, But It’s Referring to the
Actions or Verbs of Eating and Drinking. Therefore, It’s Not Referring to “Us,” But to the
“Manner” of our Partaking of the Communion.

I Corinthians 11:29 – For He who Eats and Drinks in a Unworthy Manner Eats and Drinks Judgment to
Himself, Not Discerning the Lord’s Body.

Note: Paul Did Not Say, “Not Discerning the Lord’s Body and Blood,” but He only said, “Not
Discerning the Lord’s Body.” I would like to think that He meant to also say the “Lord’s Blood,”
But Why He Didn’t, I Don’t Know.

➢ But since He Didn’t, Let’s Assume that He wanted us to Focus More Heavily on the “Lord’s
Body” since It More Directly Refers to Our Healing.

Remember: “The Bread” in the Communion Refers to “Jesus’ Body.”

Matthew 15:21-28 – The Woman of Canaan

1. Jesus Ignores her – v. 22-23
2. Jesus Rejects her – v. 24
3. Jesus seemingly Insults her – v. 26
4. Jesus Commends her – v. 28

Note: In this incident with the Canaanite Woman, Jesus Refers to “Bread” as “Healing.” When she
asked Jesus to Heal and Deliver her Daughter, Jesus answered her and said, “It is Not Good to
Take the Children’s (Jews’) ‘Bread’ and Throw It to Little Dogs (Gentiles).”

➢ The Children’s Bread is “Jesus.”

Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Jesus’ Body is Our Healing.

Note: So when we Partake of the Crumb of Bread which We, Gentiles can Partake of, We are
Partaking
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 of the Body of Christ which Entitles us to Our Healing.

Luke 6:17-19 – 17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples
and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of
Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be Healed of their Diseases, 18 as well as
those who were Tormented with Unclean Spirits. And they were Healed. 19 And the
Whole Multitude sought to Touch Him, for Power went out from Him and Healed them
All.

➢ Touching Jesus’ Body brought Healing to the Multitudes.

Note: Hence, We see that His Body Imparts Healing. Therefore, When We Partake of the Bread, We
are Partaking of the Healing Power of His Body so that We can be Made Whole.

Example: In Cecil B. DeMille’s Production of the Movie “The Ten Commandments,” You will see a
Blind Man walking out with a stick, Making the Exodus Out of Egypt with the Multitudes.
But that is only How Hollywood Dramatizes the Scriptures.

Note: In Psalm 105:37, however, it says, “He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was
None Feeble among His Tribes.”

Imagine: Approximately 2-3 Million People Left Egypt and None were Sick.

Note: Before they Left Egypt, All the Households of Israel Partook of the Passover Supper. The
Roasted
Lamb Spoke of Christ who would be the Coming Lamb of God. The Unleavened Bread that they
Ate also Spoke about Jesus who was Our Sinless Savior.

➢ It seems that After they Partook of the Passover Supper, There were None Sick or Feeble among
the Israelites when the Lord Brought Them Out of Egypt.

Big Note: If They Partook of the Roasted Lamb which is the “Shadow Lamb” and got Healed in the
Old
Testament Age, How Much More in the New Testament Age should We All Get Healed and
None Among Us be Feeble when We Partake of the Bread of the Communion which
Represents the “Substance Lamb” of Jesus Christ Himself?

Thought: In Genesis 3, It was by the Act of Eating that Man Fell into Sin, Sickness and Death.

Note: Just as Our Problem was Caused by Man Partaking of the Wrong Thing, the Solution to our
Problem will be by Us Partaking of the Right Thing – The Holy Communion in the Right
Manner of Properly Discerning the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.

➢ Therefore, If Our Problems were Caused by Partaking, Our Problems will also be Solved by
Partaking.
Note: God has given us “The Holy Communion” as One of the Great Solutions to Our Problems. God
has Given us “The Holy Communion” as His Solution to Offset Sickness and Disease.

Note: Joseph Prince Preaches Strongly on Partaking of The Holy Communion for Healing. People
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 with the Physical Conditions of:
1.
2. Low Blood Sugar
3. Low Calcium Levels
4. Insomnia
5. Rheumatoid Arthritis
6. Cancer of the Rectum
7. Bad Skin Condition
8. A Need for a Liver Transplant
9. Severe Menstrual Cramps
10. Deep Vein Thrombosis
(A clot that makes its way to can result in Death.)
the lung which causes 11. Chronic Knee and Foot Pains
Respiratory Failure which 12. Tumors
These People have All been Healed as They “Properly” Partook of The Holy Communion.

➢ Joseph Prince Encourages People with Chronic, Severe and Ongoing Physical Problems to
Partake of The Holy Communion “Daily” and Bring into Remembrance the “Benefits” of Jesus’
Broken Body and Shed Blood for Us. I also Bear Witness to this Encouragement.

Note: Most of These Healings Did Not Come Instantly, But Gradually. Some of the Healings took place
without them even Knowing when It Happened as They were Daily Partaking the Holy
Communion.

➢ The Majority of the People that Got Healed said that Nothing Happened when they Partook, But
they kept Believing and Partaking and One Day, They Realized that They were Healed.

CONCLUSION:

God’s Double-Cure Provision has been Given to All of Us. Let’s Partake of The Holy Communion
“Worthily” and Not “Ritually” and Get Healed through Christ Jesus! And everyone said a “Healed”
Amen.