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Scripture Reading: Matt. 22:2-4; 1 Cor. 10:17-21; 11:23; 5:7-8; Rev. 3:20-21; 19:7-9
In the New Testament we see that in His salvation the Lord pays attention to the matter of eating. The verses above show us that the gospel is a great feast. To be invited to a feast is to be asked to come and enjoy. I truly wish that you would read and pray over these verses again and again; then you will see that if this matter of eating were not so important, it would not be repeated over and over again in the New Testament. It is mentioned in Matthew, then in 1 Corinthians, and finally in Revelation. In God’s view, His gospel is not focused on asking people to repent or to believe; even more it is not focused on asking them to join a religion. Rather, it is focused on inviting people to the feast. To come to the feast means to come and enjoy the Lord Jesus.
However, our natural concepts are too far off from this fact. If it were not for the fact that this matter is recorded in the Bible, we would never have this concept in our natural thinking. We would think that to receive the gospel is to repent, to believe, and to receive the truth. Actually, these things are still not the receiving of the gospel. To receive the gospel is to receive the Lord into us so that we may eat, drink, and enjoy Him.
In the New Testament the word feast is carried over from the Old Testament in 1 Corinthians 5: “Let us keep the feast” (v. 8). In the Old Testament time God wanted His people to keep the feasts. That was only a type which has now been fulfilled in the New Testament. The fulfillment is that we enjoy the Lord Jesus. Our whole Christian life is a life of keeping the feast. Every day we are keeping the feast. Whenever we come to meet, we are keeping the feast. Every time we come together, whether we sing, pray-read, fellowship, exhort one another, supply one another, speak to one another, or listen to one another, the basic principle is that we are keeping the feast.
In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord said that the kingdom of the heavens is likened to a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son and who sent his slaves to ask the invited ones to come to the feast (22:2-4). Then at the end of Revelation, it says, “The marriage of the Lamb has come...Blessed are they who are called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb” (19:7, 9). We see from this that the New Testament begins with a feast, and it also ends with a feast. What are you doing here today? If you say that you came to attend the conference, that is not so good. If you say that you came to attend a worship service, that is even worse. What did you come here for? To attend a feast! Whose feast is it? It is the marriage feast of the Lamb! We come not only to a feast but even to a wedding feast. This feast of great joy is the marriage feast of Christ. Do you know when this feast began? It began on the day of Pentecost, a short time after the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens. This marriage feast lasts not only for two hours or two days. It began with Pentecost, and it is still going on today.
The messages we previously heard when we were in Christianity were mostly under the influence of natural concepts. Consider what the first thing in your mind was after you were saved. Immediately after we were saved, some of us had the notion that from now on we must go to more meetings, learn and understand more truths, pay more attention to the Bible, and other things of this nature. Is there one who, after he was saved, joyfully said that he was invited to a feast and that he is attending the marriage feast of the Lamb? I do not believe that we can find such a Christian. However, the Lord’s Word tells us clearly that to be saved is to be invited to a feast. In the universe God has prepared a great wedding feast for His Son. God said, “Come! All things are ready.”
We have to realize that the heavens and the earth are a great wedding chamber. The whole universe is the story of a marriage feast. No matter how much trouble the devil is creating, how vile sins are on the earth, how corrupt the human race is, and how evil the human heart is, these are only the dark side. Every item has two sides — a white side and a black side, a bright side and a dark side, a happy side and a sad side. People on the earth see the dark side and the sad side of things, but God in the heavens sees the bright side and the happy side. The more we look at the situation on earth, the sadder we feel, because the world is becoming worse and worse. However, God is happy as He watches in heaven. God says, “My Son has a wedding chamber, and I am preparing a marriage feast for My Son. I do not care that the people on earth are making trouble. I want to invite them to the feast. Come! All things are ready!”
We are delivered from the world not by gnashing our teeth nor by listening to sermons nor by being exhorted nor by being regulated; we are delivered from the world by being fed with Christ. When we have tasted Christ and have eaten Him to the full, we no longer want the world even if others offer it to us. Let the others be busy with the world; that is not our business. Our business is to attend the feast every day, to eat Christ and enjoy Christ day by day. Therefore, Paul said that we are keeping the feast.
How do we keep the feast? We keep the feast by eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In this unleavened bread there are all kinds of elements, such as love, truth, enlightenment, holiness, power, and patience. This unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is Christ. We keep the feast not by learning the truths and listening to messages but altogether by eating Christ. The more we eat Christ, the more we have His elements.
God does not have any intention for us to labor or to struggle or to strive. It is true that the Bible says, “The kingdom of the heavens is taken by violence” (Matt. 11:12), but this word implies that we need to enjoy Christ in our spirit. The entire New Testament age is not an age of labor but a great feast. Remember that in the Old Testament type one was not allowed to labor during the feasts. In the regular days everyone had to labor. However, during the feasts, no one was allowed to labor; rather, everyone simply ate, drank, and enjoyed. Moreover, during the feasts, they did not eat poorly; rather, they ate the good things, and they feasted.
Why do we have the bread-breaking meeting frequently? What does it mean to break the bread? Notice the phrase in 1 Corinthians 10:21, the Lord’s table. The bread-breaking meeting is our coming to the Lord’s table, the Lord’s feast. At this table, in this feast, we eat the Lord’s body and drink the Lord’s blood. In other words, we eat and drink the Lord. At the same time, when we break the bread, we also declare and testify to the whole universe that we are a group of Christians who live a life of daily feasting on Christ, daily eating Christ, and daily enjoying Christ. Whenever we break the bread, it is an exhibition of our daily life. In our normal living we eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and enjoy the Lord. Then on the Lord’s Day we come together to have an exhibition for everyone, for all creation to see, declaring to them that our life is a life of enjoying the Lord.
Brothers, in our Lord’s table meetings in the past, we still held some traditional concepts in paying attention to how to praise the Lord and how to worship the Father. We learned these things from the Brethren. Although these things are not wrong, they are merely traditional. Actually, the important thing at the Lord’s table is not whether to praise or not to praise. Rather, it is to open up our spirit and exhibit once again for the angels and Satan to see how we receive Christ into us. At that time we may praise or not praise.
I believe that the Brethren truly saw some light, yet the light they saw was still limited by natural human concepts. Therefore, we cannot take that way any longer. If we continue following the old way of the Brethren, our spirit will become lame. Therefore, the emphasis of the Lord’s table is once again on opening ourselves to receive and enjoy the Lord!
For example, two brothers may come to the Lord’s table. One of them is a well-behaved, good brother. Before he comes to the meeting, he examines himself to see if he has offended anyone or if he has committed any sin. After he sits down in the meeting hall, he behaves properly and strictly. When others sing, he sings along; when others pray, he says Amen; when the bread is passed to him, he takes a piece; when the cup is passed to him, he drinks a little. He also praises the Lord and worships the Father. However, there is not a bit of change in him. When he leaves, he is the same as when he came in. However, it may not be so with the other brother. This second brother may be one who is usually quite naughty and mischievous, and he may have had a big quarrel with somebody the previous day. However, when he comes to break the bread, he touches the Spirit, and he opens himself completely. He does not care for praising or not praising, but he once again simply receives the Lord at the Lord’s table. When he receives the Lord, his whole being turns, and he shouts, “Hallelujah!” At that moment he is soaring to the clouds. There is no need for you to talk to him about sins or about the things on earth. There is no dust in the clouds. If you tell him not to lose his temper with others, you bring him down from the cloud. Once he opens up from within and receives the Lord, he soars to the skies. On the other hand, the well-behaved brother is like a crawling insect on earth; he is still climbing the mountain. This is the difference between one who enjoys Christ and one who does not.
Forgive me for saying this. Some among you may have been coming to the Lord’s table meeting every Lord’s Day for eighteen years already, and you are still a well-behaved “crawling insect.” You have been a Christian for eighteen years and have always behaved properly. Your wife says that you are very good, and your friends say that you are good-natured. No one criticizes you, yet you remain a crawling insect on earth. Everyone falls, but you never fall. You just keep crawling, slowly and steadily.
Someone may have been naughty before, yet in one of the meetings he touches the Lord. After he has touched the Lord, he comes again the next Lord’s Day to touch the Lord. He does not come to receive the so-called holy communion or to behave himself or to worship the Father. He comes simply to touch the Lord. He is like a 747 jumbo jet stopping to refuel when the fuel runs low. The Lord’s table is his refueling station. After being fueled up, this brother can run for another week, and then he returns the next week to refuel.
Therefore, to come to the Lord’s table is to come to a feast, and it is also to come to refuel. It is not a matter of receiving outward teachings, outward corrections, or outward exhortations; instead, it is a matter of meeting the Lord inwardly. Thus, our meeting does not need any regulation. What is the use of regulations? What is their value? It is good enough to touch the Lord within. As long as we are fueled up within, it is not a matter of whether we behave or we do not behave; whether we shout, roll on the floor, or jump, everything will be all right.
However, I do not encourage you to invent some gimmicks; that would be meaningless. To be clever is one thing, but to touch the Lord is another. We do not want regulations, because we do not want them to limit people from touching the Lord. However, if we turn this liberty into engaging in gimmicks, that is meaningless. The important thing is that you are not bound, but rather your whole being is open, free, and released so that you have easy access to the Lord.
Since the Lord’s table is a declaration, this declaration must have the life as its backing. If your private life is not the same as what you declare, then what you do at the meeting is not a declaration but a performance, a show. If your private life is not a life of enjoying Christ and you come just to perform at the meeting, that is false. Our Lord’s table is not a performance or a show; it is a testimony, a declaration, telling the whole universe that this is the way we live. We daily eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and enjoy the Lord; therefore, we now come together to testify to the whole universe that we are a group of people who eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord.
Now I believe that when you come again to the Lord’s table, your concept will be changed. You will not come to keep any regulation. In fact, there is no need to keep any regulation. Your spirit is open, and you contact the Lord and touch the Lord in your spirit. There is no regulation or restriction upon you. This is the way you live every day — without rituals or regulations but opening to the Lord in your spirit to eat and drink Him continually. Then when the Lord’s Day comes, we all come together to make a declaration once again that this is the way we spend our days. We keep the feast every day. How long should we keep the feast? The Lord Jesus told us that we should do this “until that day when I drink it new with you” (Matt. 26:29). One day we will feast with Him face to face. Today we start feasting until the day when we will dine at the new feast.
Look at the degradation of the churches in Ephesus and in Laodicea. They became degraded because they fell away from the enjoyment of the Lord. They merely worked and labored and paid attention to doctrines and teachings. They degraded to such an extent that even though they knew and understood all the doctrines, the Lord seemed to say, “Since you are neither hot nor cold, you have been removed from My feast. I am outside your door knocking. You need to open up yourself to Me so that I may come in to you and dine with you and you with Me. You were at the feast when you were first saved, but you abandoned the feast and fell into degraded Christianity. I am calling you to be an overcomer and to be delivered from the condition of not feasting. Open yourself and let Me come into you so that you and I may feast together.” This feast will continue until the marriage feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19. At that time, blessed will be those who are invited to the feast. Hallelujah!
