IS THERE ANOTHER DIMENSION OF THE LORD’S TABLE?

December 16,2000

In this past year, as we have prayed and sought God, we have experienced something in our spirit which we loosely call “communion”. While words are inadequate to define what we have experienced we know that something “new” has taken place. About midnight, in the first part of December, we were discussing what this “communion” means. In Spanish they use the word communion in the very common sense of having fellowship with other believers. This is not wrong because this is really what the word means. The King James Bible has used the word “communion” to translate the Greek word “Koinonia” in 1 COR 10:16. However, the same verses call the action of taking the cup and the bread as “the table of the Lord”. From that we get the term “the Lord’s Table”. We should not confuse “communion” with the “Lord’s Table”. It should be “communion” that we are experiencing while we are taking the Lord’s Table.

Koinonia is translated as “sharing in”, or participation, or partnership, or holding in common, or to communicate, or to distribute. Because of a very limited translation many refer to the Lord’s Table as “taking communion” as if the bread and the wine were called “communion”.

The meaning of communion is that which we all “hold in common” with all other believers. It refers to the portion that each of us hold and share of Christ’s blood and of His body. Those who live isolated lives of separation from other believers cannot participate in the “Lord’s Table” accurately or sincerely. This is why the Bible says that many are weak, are sick and died prematurely because they didn’t discern the body correctly. From this we understand that it is possible to take the “elements” but not participate in the Lord’s Table. It is also possible to participate in the Lord’s Table but not be in fellowship with others.

All this is irrelevant if we are not in true fellowship with the Lord and living in the expectation of His coming again.

This paper is exploring the possibility of there being a participation with the Lord, a sharing with Him, a communication with Him while in prayer that is something spiritual as compared with the physical elements. In other words can there be “Koinonia” in a realm other than in “The Lord”s Table”? Or put another way can there be a truly spiritual “Koinonia” in the “Lord’s Table” that we all desire but don’t experience? We are not suggesting that we don’t need the bread and the cup but asking if there is another dimension of the Lord’s Table that we are not experiencing.

Some have suggested that they have participated in the bread and the cup with great expectations of experiencing a new intimacy with Christ but they were disappointed and felt empty. The question then arises if the Lord’s Table is really for an intimacy with Jesus or an intimacy with other believers?

LUKE 22:15] And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; [16] for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” [17] And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; [18] for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”

My thesis is this: The Lord’s Table and the bread and the cup are directly related to the Kingdom of God. What we do here in taking the bread and the cup relates to the fulfillment when the Kingdom is manifest. Now the fact that Jesus said He wouldn’t eat or drink of this bread or this cup until that day does not mean that we should not eat or drink. It means that what we do here is really relating to what happens there. This is temporary while that is permanent.

Since the Lords’s Table directly relates to the Jewish feast of Passover and is what they were keeping when He gave the bread and the cup, we probably can’t understand the rest of the Lord’s Table without understanding the complete feast. That feast will also have a future fulfillment in the Kingdom of God. We could logically ask when will Jesus eat and drink in His Kingdom?

LUKE 22:[28] “And you are those who have stood by Me in My trials; [29] and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you [30] that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

There will obviously be eating and drinking at the great marriage feast of the Lamb. While there may be many tables in His Kingdom, He told the Apostles that they would sit “at My table in My Kingdom”. The bride also should sit at the head table.

Those who are “in His Presence” won’t have to go some place to worship. Not in that mountain or in that city but the true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. Our question is this; Is true fellowship, sharing in, participation and communion also in spirit and in truth? The answer might be Yes! This may explain some of the emptiness we feel in the Lord’s Table! We try to do a mechanical thing which was meant to be a spiritual experience.

As we take the Lord’s Table we are remembering ( proclaiming) the Lord’s death until He comes. This is surly not just a mechanical remembering but involves some revelation that includes His second coming. Even His coming for His bride.

Since it is easier for me to relate these things to the Tabernacle of Moses we should see where real communion, fellowship, sharing in and participation is experienced. In the Tabernacle this intimacy is now found at the Altar of Incense. Since the veil between the Holy and Most Holy Place was torn when Jesus was crucified, the Altar of Incense is now in the very Presence of God. This means that there is no veil that separates the worshiper from God, from fellowship, from communion, from His voice, from participation and sharing.

The point I am making is this: In intimate prayer there should logically be a spiritual communication take place, a communion, fellowship and a sharing. Even an exchange of life as seen in 2 COR 3:18] But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. There is a transformation that takes place in His Presence that changes us from glory to glory into His own image.

I believe that what we are experiencing is real even if we fail to put it into words or explain it. Something spiritual is transferred as we wait in His Presence. At the time we may think we are only sleeping or really failing in prayer or wasting our time but most of us are confident that something has taken place in this year. It may not be “The Lord”s Table” but a communion has taken place in some dimension. Our goal should be to experience a new dimension of communion as we participate in the Lord’s Table also!