Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the third of this series of teachings entitled, Ancient Connections in which we shall be developping last week's theme of Sacred Meals in the early Messianic Community (Church).

Last time we saw how the Greco-Roman evening meal called the deípnon became transformed and sacramentalised into the agapé or love feast though we have not yet answered the questions, How did this happen? or Why did this happen? We saw how Jude had to upbraid the congregations for their laxity in allowing apostates and heretics, specifically licentious gnostics (probably the same characters mentioned by John in the Book of Revelation) both to participate in these meals (and so defile them) as well as remain members of the local koinonia or fellowship (and so pollute the entire Body). You will remember how strong Jude's language was, telling us:

• 1. That this was a qadosh, sacred, holy or set-apart meal; and
• 2. How repugnant and unacceptable gnosticism and sexual immorality are in the Messianic Community (Church).

And I left you in suspense last week with questions rather than answers as to the origin of the Agapé Meal and its relationship with the Master's (Lord's) Supper pointing out that there is a tremendous disagreement between the denominations as to what they were, and are. Will we, after 2,000 years of theological haggling, succeed in coming to a satisfactory resolution? Yesw, I believe we will. Since this is one of the central ordinances of the Besorah (Gospel), I believe it is important that we get on with the task and do it well. But we're going to have to do some hard work which I think you will agree, by the time we have finished, will have been worth all the effort. And to be successful in that we have to do some investigative historical work so that we can see how this Meal evolved.

First of all, whatever the Agapé Meal was, and however it came into existence, it effectively ceased to be celebrated many centuries ago, at least as a public observance. The general scholarly consensus is that the first believers assembled in houses to share the main meal of the day - the deípnon - in honour of the risen Messiah, Yah'shua (Jesus). Apart from Jude, whose writing on this subject we studied last week, only Paul in writing to the Corinthians, addresses this subject so we're going to take a look at that right away. Paul raises this subject for the same reason as Jude, namely, because the Agapé Feast was being abused and therefore polluted and devalued.

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 - I'm going to be reading from the New International Version (NIV) this week:

"In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a kehilah (church, assembly, congregation, fellowship, koinonia), there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have Elohim's (God's) approval. When you come together, it is not the Master's (Lord's) Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Assembly of Elohim (Church of God) and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!

"For I received from the Master what I also passed on to you: The Master Yah'shua (Jesus), on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the B'rit Chadashah (New Covenant) in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Master's death until He comes.

"Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Master. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Master eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Master, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

"So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

"And when I come I will give further directions" (1 Cor.11:17-34, NIV).

So let's unpack this. Like other societies and guilds in Greek cities, the early Christians/Messianics used to have a common meal, to which all contributed according to their ability, the rich helping the poorer brethren. I suppose the nearest equivalent would be a 'pot luck' meal. In one church I attended in Oxford for a few years, the members travelled from far and wide (as we were scattered in many towns and cities) and each brought food and drink, which everyone then shared after the main Service. Because in Paul's day this sharing was a token of brotherly love and Christian fellowship, it was called a 'Love Feast' or, in Greek, an Agapé Feast. As far as we know from the evidence, from the very earliest times, the Master's (Lord's) Supper was closely connected with this Agapé Feast. But because of the kinds of disorder which Paul describes, the two became separated, the Master's Supper being held in the morning and the Agapé or 'Love' Feast being held in the evening. In time, the Agapé Feast died out, perhaps because of the inconvenience or difficulty of members meeting so often. At this earliest time, in the 50's, the two are distinct yet occur on the same occasion and take place in the evening.

Now there are multiple issues here. First, as we saw last week, the first believers were meeting every day, presumably after work, in order to have fellowship. The men, at any rate, would not have been able to attend meetings during the daytime as they would have been at work, and the women would have been busy with their children, shopping in the market, and other domestic duties, so either they would have had to meet early or late. Perhaps in some places they did both, perhaps in others they only met once. The evidence suggests that the main time for assembling was in the evenings for the Greco-Roman supper or deípnon. Only later, historically, particularly when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, would assemblies have become more standardised in buildings ('churches') and on set-days.

Remember also that early on there were at least two complex calendar changes which believers had to contend with and adjust to. Republican Rome had an 8-day week, known as the Nundial Cycle. Saturday was the first day of the week (not the 7th) and the eighth day of the week was known as the Nundina or 'Market Day'. What you need to remember is that this Nundial system did not completely fall out of use until AD 321 when the Emperor Constantine officially adopted the Julian Calendar originally proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and which came into effect on 1 January 46 BC. Today the world uses the Gregorian Calendar which was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory. All three calendars have Rome as their city of origin.

Without getting into the complexities of all the calendar changes that have taken place historically, all I wanted to point out is this: multiple calendars have typically operated in Europe and elsewhere over the centuries at the same time. Thus in the first century in the Roman Empire, when the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) were written, though officially the Julian Calendar was in operation, in many parts of the Empire the old 8-day week Nundial Calendar would still have been operation, because of local traditions and preferences.

I can remember when Britain went metric - for example, dropping pounds and ounces for grams and kilograms; inches, feet, yards and miles for centimeters, meters and kilometers - yet for a long time after official metrification of the country, a lot of people continued to use the old Imperial System side-by-side. A lot of people were none too happy about the change and were defiant. I can still remember vividly, years after the UK went metric, going into a greengrocer's for my mother and asking for a several pounds of potatoes without any difficulty!

Well, the ancients didn't like all the calendar changes either as it meant a huge disruption of their lives (a reason, by the way, so many Christians resist the Creation Calendar even though they know it's true), plus people prefer the old familiar ways. This happened in Europe: though the Gregorian Calendar officially began to be used in 1582, most countries stuck to the old Julian system until decades or even centuries later! The British waited nearly 200 years - until 1752, and the Swedes the year after, before changing over. China didn't quit until 1912, Russia until 1918, and Turkey - thanks to the secularisation of Kemal Attatürk following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire - until 1926!

Add to this the problem that in the Holy Land more than one religious calendar was in operation. The Sadducees, who were responsible for priestly affairs (like maintaining a standard for the annual festivals), operated the original, correct Creation Calendar, which is luni-solar, that is, based entirely on observing the moon and the sun. The Pharisees, on the other hand, operated the Rabbinical Calendar (which was a compromise between the Creation Calendar and the Roman Julian Calendar plus other influences brought back from the Babylon exile such as the names of the months - the Babylonian Nissan instead of the Hebrew Aviv, the first month of the biblical year, for example). Finally, various sects in opposition to both the Sadducees and Pharisees, like the Essenes, operated yet another calendar called the 'Enochian', which is another solar calendar like the Roman one. So imagine yourself in parts of the Roman Empire, like Corinth, where either the 8-day Nundial Calendar (with Saturday as the first day of the week) or the 7-day Julian calendar (with Sunday as the first day of the week) would have been in operation, and there you are trying to live out the 7th-day Sabbath. Which day do you observe the Sabbath on? Do you follow one of the Roman days (Nundial, Julian or its Rabbinical variant) or the luni-solar sabbath given by Yahweh to Israel?

Try to imagine yourself living at that time with multiple systems to choose between, trying to figure out the practical benefits and costs to living in a pagan society. The Jewish synagogues in places like Corinth would almost certainly have observed the incorrect Rabbinical system of the Pharisees and so, at least initially, there would have been a tendency on the part of gentiles to follow the Roman 7th day, or Saturday, more out of convenience than anything else, for, I suspect, the same reason we do when we let the flesh lead us. If there was ever a calendar controversy in the first century it isn't mentioned in the epistles like, for example, the circumcision controversy was. Over time people tend to adopt the course of least resistance and follow the traditions of the dominant party so as not to cause waves and to blend in inconspicuously, especially if you're unpopular and being persecuted. Diligent believers would have followed the Creation Calendar, those Jews converting to the Besorah (Gospel) would likely have pressed for a continuation of the compromised Rabbininal 'Roman Saturday' system, and further down the historical timeline, we know that, under the influence of paganism and the heavy hand of imperial power, but also to avoid the persecution being experienced by the Jews in Rome, this was switched yet again, but this time to the Roman Sunday. As you can see, Satan was busy causing great confusion regarding the Calendar.

Now here's another interesting piece to add to the historical puzzle. Because Yah'shua (Jesus) was raised on the first day of the week, there is evidence that some of the earliest believers tried to honour that by having the Master's Supper on that day too. But using which calendar? The Rabbinical version of the Julian or the Luni-Solar? We know that in some places confused Christians observed two sabbaths, one on the Roman Saturday and one on the Roman Sunday, presumably to incorporate veneration of the first day of the week into the sacred observances. Things became 'simplified' when the Roman Sunday was officially made the 'Lord's Day' which then supplanted the compromised rabbinical 'Saturday Sabbath' day so the Master's Supper, which had then evolved into something called the 'Eucharist' (not a word found in the Bible, incidentally), was observed on the organised church's official day of worship. What a mess! But in the days of our ignorance Yahweh is merciful and overlooks such things but there are always negative consquences - because once you add one piece of confusion into the broth of Israel's mandated Kingdom lifestyle, more confusion tends to result. And so we have the pot pourri of denominations today.

You have to bear all of these complicated historical realities in mind when looking at the history and evolution of Christian doctrine and practice. Satan has never ceased changing Yahweh's "times and seasons" and so today we have sectarian camps passionately defending Sunday worship verses those who passionately defend Saturday worship, both of whom are wrong! It's a classical 'bad cop/good cop' scenario and it's really hard for most people to see that there's a third factor involved - the true one. This is how the devil has sown confusion over the centuries. And then, when the Protestant Reformation got underway, it was inevitable that confusion would be unleashed again. And though the Reformers did not question the Roman Calendar, or challenge the political order very much, they did question the Roman Catholic Church's interpretation of several doctrines, including that Church's understanding and practice of 'Master's (Lord's) Supper', 'Eucharist' or 'Holy Communion'. And so they fought amongst themselves. The three principle movers of the Reformation - Luther, Zwingli and Calvin - went in three different directions, and I'll tell you more about that next week in the last part of this series if there's time. The only thing these three agreed on with respect to the Lord's Supper was that the Catholics did it wrong! And I'll admit, faced with this disagreement, I have tended - until now - to juggle between the Zwinglian 'symbolic' interpretation and the Lutheran doctrine of constubstantiation. But more on that when we have more time. (See Pesach (Passover) 2008 and the Eucharist of Messiah).

As far as I know, there are only two major Christian denominations which don't celebrate or commemorate a Lord's Supper, Communion or Eucharist, and that is the Salvation Army and the Quakers. I must say I find their reasons rather feeble but basically the Salvation Army don't observe this (or baptism for that matter) because, they claim:

• 1. It has been a source of division in the Body of Christ (which is true) - but that's no excuse for not having a reasonable position; and
• 2. It isn't, they claim, necessary for salvation (which is arguably only a half-truth).

Then there are those who only believe in taking the Lord's Supper once a year, which they call the 'Annual Memorial'. These are the Jehovah's Witnesses. Until 31 May 1935 all their members participated but thereafter a new doctrine and rule was instituted restricting the elements to only a tiny élite which they called the '144,000 rulers in heaven' while all the rest had to simply 'look on'. So whilst hundreds or thousand of pieces of bread and cups of wine were passed around an assembly, only a small handful ever took anything. This still goes on today. I attended one of these in England and was incredulous.

Many messianics likewise only partake of the elements once a year at Pesach (Passover), though other Messianic groups take it regularly like the Protestants do, though they usually do so on Friday evening or Saturday morning, and not on Sunday like Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. In many Protestant churches the Lord's Supper is celebrated less frequently than weekly, some doing so only once a month (as one church I attended used to do), some quarterly, and yet others (in addition to the Salvation Army and Quakers) seem to have discontinued it altogether. I seem to remember coming across another denomination who only take it annually, like the Jehovah's Witnesses and many Messianics, though it's not restricted to an élite but open to all their members, like the early Witnesses.

So back to the chaos in Corinth. Paul's initial council - and let's remember, Corinth was literally the 'Wild West' of the Messianic Community in those days - was pastoral. Stop being selfish and individualistic, he said essentially, and learn to act corporately or as a community, because we are one Body - one allegorical Bride. In Corinth, each individual or a small clique couldn't be bothered to wait for everyone to get there to the meeting when they ate the sacralised deípnon and so they simply rushed ahead and consumed the food and drink brought to them. Equally obnoxiously, they wouldn't let the poorer brethren, who brought less because that's all they had, share their food! What ought to have been an evidence of brotherly love had become an exhibition of selfish greed instead. And under these circumstances - and I think this is what Paul is getting at - in this situation such a carnal, ungodly, self-centered and obnoxious spirit prevailed that it became impossible to have an orderly and reverent administration of the Master's (Lord's) Supper. Everything just degenerated into a wild party with some of the members even drinking alcoholic beverages and getting drunk! Just think of some of the worst lawless churches you have come across today and this was arguably a lot worse! Poor Paul having to deal with such anarchy! On the outside it must have resembled, to some extent, a pagan orgy in its opening stages. And this, by the way, was where all the false, uncontrolled and meaningless gibberish or counterfeit tongue-speaking started, no doubt influenced by the practices of the Delphic Oracle which was literally 'just down the street'. Are we surprised by the mess, then?!

Let's be agreed that the apostles and early leaders recognised the validity of these Agapé Feasts (or 'Feasts of Charity' as the KJV calls them) even though we're not told how they started - Paul certainly did, Jude did, and in some manuscript (MS) variations of Peter's second epistle suggests Peter did (2 Pet.2:13). Where did the idea of an Agapé Feast even come from? We can't be 100 per cent sure but most scholars believe it was modelled on the annual Pesach (Passover) Meal at which Yah'shua (Jesus) added new meaning to the traditional bread and wine, identifying them with His body and blood. I don't agree with them anymore, not since Yahweh revealed it a few days ago as I was sifting through the Scriptures and all the historical data I could find. Before I share that with you, let's try and understand how others have tried to think this through.

Most theologians and scriptorians will tell you that the Passover Meal is the only other sacred banquet that remotely connects to the Agapé Feast. They are certainly right in linking it to the Master's Supper - that's undeniable. Catholics, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox argue that what became their Mass, Eucharist or Holy Communion essentially replaced the Pesach (Passover) Meal and (somewhow, for unknown reasons) the Agapé or Love Feast. One group of Messianics argue that the original format of this 'special Pesach' meal that was eaten in the 'upper room' is the one that should be adhered to and should only be eaten once a year. But there's a probløm with this thinking, and it's this. It ignores the factual existence and apostolic endorsement of the frequent Agapé meals that were served together with the Master's Supper. Accordingly, as the only means of reconciling themselves with the whole counsel of Scripture, many Messianics observe both the modified Annual Pesach (Passover) Meal and more frequent Master's (Lord's) Suppers. That's what we have done over the years and, at least since we became messianic in 1999, that has always been our position, because that is the only way you can harmonise the Scriptures and explain what Paul meant when he said:

"Messiah (Christ), our Pesach (Passover) Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Moed (Appointment, Festival [of Pesach]), not with the old chametz (yeast), the chametz (yeast) of malice and wickedness, but with bread without chametz (yeast), the bread of sincerity and emet (truth)" (1 Cor.5:7-8, NIV)

In other words, we are to continue to celebrate the annual Passover Meal, which orthodox Christians refuse to do, but in a new way - with New Creation chayim (life), not the Old one. Instead they have replaced it with something else - along with all the Divine Moedim or Appointments - with a whole cluster of pagan-inspired feasts and observances, including Christmas, Easter, Lent, and so on.

So, since the apostles and first century leadership in general endorsed the Agapé Feast and were at pains to correct its abuse rather than abolish it, we are forced to conclude that it was the apostles themselves, which some kind of mandate from either Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself through some unrecorded teaching (perhaps after the resurrection) and/or through the witness of the Ruach (Spirit) wsubsequently, who introduced and promoted it with the Master's Supper appended. This was clearly not, as far as the meal was concerned, anything like the original Passover Seder, but rather consisted of a regular Greco-Roman deípnon supper to which the Master's Supper was attached, in the same way Yah'shua (Jesus) attached it to the annual Passover Meal. So we have two meals, each with the Master's Supper attached - the one copying the 'Last Supper' and the other not mentioned in the four Gospels at all.

What did this 'Love Feast' actually look like in practice? Well, I think we can piece it together fairly accurately from what we're told in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) and what we know of first century Judahite practices. It was for all spiritually regenerated, born-again believers. All classes ate together without distinction of wealth or social rank. Prayers and benedictions, probably similar to those given by Israelites - like the prayer of sanctification or kiddûsh spoken over wine - were said over each dish or course - or maybe just the whole meal - with a "kiss of love" (1 Peter 5:14, NIV) probably concluding the meal...in our day, a hand shake, hug or both. When the Agapé Feast was over, hands were washed, prayer followed and psalms were sung under the leadership of a navi (prophet) or other minister. Overall, the 'design' of this fellowship meal may have resembled in some way the religious association called a habûrâh similar to the groups in which the Pharisees met, but that's admittedly just speculation.

The evidence suggests that the "breaking of bread" (in this instance used to denote not just participating in a regular meal but additionally the breaking of the sacramental bread) took place after the Agapé Meal was over (1 Cor.11:21,25), and the two 'meals' were regarded as forming one Service called the 'Master's Supper' (1 Cor.11:20). Only later in the apostolic period, or possibly shortly after that, because of the abuses described by Paul and Jude, did the two become gradually separated into two separate rites. We know that by the time of Pliny (115 AD), that's about 80 years after the resurrected Christ departed from this world, the 'Holy Communion' part was celebrated in the morning and the Agapé Feast in the evening. By the time of Justin Martyr (150 AD, a mere 35 years later), the Agapé Feast seems to have disappeared altogether, perhaps for reasons of convenience that I suggested earlier, but maybe for others. The nevi'im (prophets) may simply have stopped administering it because of apostacy. We may never know why. At any rate, the practice did not last for more than a century.

Now we as a fellowship, initially caught up in the denominational confusion of all this, have followed a number of practices over time. One thing we didn't do was rush ahead but waited on Yahweh for revelation. From the earliest days in England (1986) we were aware of the Agapé Meal as something distinct from the Master's Supper itself (OB 6:12-13) but our earliest (and most important) revelation - a vision - spoke nothing of this but focussed entirely on the the Master's Supper part - a closed, private and intimate communion not to be done in public but was for the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones alone) (OB 6:14-33). Finally, we were told that the regularity with which the Master's Supper was to be shared was at the discretion of the Pastorate of each congregation and would be a function of the purity or spiritual state of the congregants. The sacredness of this ordinance is stressed again and again (163:25-29). We had lots of special experiences in our early days in Norway.

In 1988 a false custom that had arisen was stopped (OB 47:18-20) and in the same year, as well as in 1989, several extensive revelations giving further details on how to administer the emblems were received that have been a permanent part of our practice ever since (OB 73; 81; 83; 113:30-35; 238:16-18; 275; 275B). We regard these as extremely important.

When we were Sunday worshippers, we would have the Master's (Lord's) Supper in the morning before the main service, then admit the public and have the main service, following it with a communal lunch which, because it was always soup, resulted (in Oslo, at least) our being known as the 'Soup Christians'!. Then, when we later converted to Torah-observance and initially followed Messianic Jewish traditions, we would have the Sabbath Meal on Friday evenings after sunset (the nearest we ever came to an Agapé Meal), and then after that confirmed/chrismated, fully Torah-observant members in good standing would celebrate the Master's (Lord's) Supper in a separate room. The main worship and preaching service was held the following morning on Saturday.

Finally, when we converted to the Creation Calendar and sunrise-to-runrise sabbath observance, we more or less slipped into the habbit of only celebrating the Master's Supper once a year at Pesach (Passover) and only occasionally having additional Master's Suppers as we felt moved by the Ruach (Spirit). These commonly were held in the evening of the Sabbath Day after the main evening meal, itself after the morning service, though occasionally we celebrated at other times, the intention being to maintain the early first century practice of having the Master's Supper right after the deípnon or main evening meal to maintain the integrity of the two.

That's a potted history of New Covenant Christian or Messianic Evangelical observance of the Master's Supper for those of you not familiar with our story. The history of the liturgy we use, and why (we use a modified version of the Didache from 150 AD) I will save for another occasion as we need to look at the history of that too.

So how did the Agapé Meal come to be lost and how important is it to us now? To answer the first question, my own view is that the Messianic Community (Church) simply got swept along by turbulent and confusing events, historical and political. This was not a time of mass communications and especially when persecution began and the assemblies lost contact with each other and often had to go underground, as they did at Rome in the catacombs, public worship became impossible and compromises were made, by peoples' own assessments (right or wrong), in order to simply survive.

What, for instance, do you do when there's no water readily available (because you live in a desert area) and you need to baptise someone by immersion? Water is scarce and precious. You sprinkle. Or rather, that's what the ancients did - they compromised, and sprinkled instead of immersed. Then sprinkling became routine because it was so much easier to do. However, we can't, and won't, change the gospel for 'convenience'! We simply wait for the opportunity to immerse properly! Change the ordinances and you change the meaning of the Divine Story. By so doing the Enemy can introduce more and more error because compromise is always an attractive alternative to the flesh seeking the path of least resistance. We must stick to the original or pay for the consequences. And the consequence of thousands of such tinkerings and changings over 2,000 years has been 35,000+ denominations, which is another way of saying 35,000+ separations and divorces in the Body of Christ.

In addition to well-meaning but mistaken compromisers, false teachers abounded in the early Messianic Community (Church) too, introducing heresies of various kinds - we know from John's epistles that by the end of the first century apostacy was already rampant, but we also know from the sub-apostolic fathers like Clement, there were also spiritual recoveries and revivals (as in Corinth) followed by stagnation, rebellion and apostacy again, much like the ancient pattern of Israel apostacising and then repenting under the Judges, to then apostacise again. Humans don't seem to change much, do they? Nothing is ever static making tracing all the historical changes sometimes very hard. But I believe we now know enough, thanks to all the painstaking research that's been done, to fairly accurately reconstruct what happened like good detectives.

We now come to that very important question: where did the Agapé Meal come from? and, After what was it patterned? As a common meal it cannot have been patterned after the Pesach or Passover seder which was not a 'love feast'. Taken together with Chag haMatzah or Feast of Unleavened Bread and Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits, which stands for the Resurrection which with Pesach (Passover) form up to constitute the 'Passover Season', these are not a symbolic match-up with the Agapé Feast. The Passover Season is about atonement, repenting from sin, and firstfruits of the New Creation Life through resurrection power.

What, then, does the Agapé or Love Feast match up with in the annual moedim (appointments)? There's only one possibility and it's staring us right in the face. Who can tell me what it is? ... Sukkot - the Feast of Tabernacles, the Marriage or Wedding Feast of the Lamb! Yes! This is the Agapé or Love Feast of Christ for His Bride. It takes place in the 'Evening' of this Dispensation (because the Groom collects His Bride at night, after sunset) and at its seven-day conclusion, not only opens up the New Millennial one at Shemini Atseret - the Last Great Day - but points us to the next and last great cycle to the Glorified Earth, to the final Taw or Omega.

Do you see the divine tavnith, the sacred pattern, that joins everything together, including the festivals - the Master's Supper is what joins the first annual festival to the seventh and last one, remembering that the autumnal feasts have not been fulfilled yet. It joins past, present and future, transferring us finally from the pre-Christ Old Creation existence on a fallen world, to intersectionality as Old and New Creations meet in Messiah (today), and finally to the resurrection world of the New Creation when Yah'shua (Jesus) comes back for His Bride for the Sukkot (Tabernacles) banquet! The Agapé Meal completes the picture, it points to the final celebration, the consummation of everything we have looked forward to, hoped for, yearned for. And we are to observe it as a foretaste of what is to come, enjoying the Ruach (Spirit) that accompanies it.

So why aren't all believers celebrating the Agapé Feast? Well, to be fair, some believers do celebrate what they call a 'lovefeast'. Something like it started reappearing in the 18th century with the Schwarzenau Brethren and the Moravian Church, and then later with the American 'House Church' movement. The early Methodists, to their credit, placed great importance on it, and the modern Methodists still practice it quarterly. It has even been revived amongst some Anglicans. You'll find some Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Adventist groups participating in agapé-styled meals too. Some of these gatherings include a footwashing ceremony. To date I have not come across any Messianics who do this, though maybe some do - some I am sure will when they make the 'Sukkot connection'. More about this next week.

What about the rest of Christendom? Maybe some have stopped believing the Wedding Feast of the Lamb is actually going to happen any time soon and don't feel motivated to observe an Agapé Meal. Christians/Messianics have been waiting for 2,000 years, Israelites for even longer, for the fulfilment of Sukkot. It's been a long, long, wait, so we need regularly reminding both in a symbolic way - in story format, in ordinance format - but also as an existential influx of New Creation Life, of Ruach (Spirit), of Immediate Presence. Are we first and foremost Shavu'ot ('Pentecost') believers or Sukkot (Tabernacles) ones? What are we waiting for?

It starts with that sacred Pesach (Passover) meal, once a year, the Alef or Alpha Meal, and it ends with the Taw or Omega meal at Sukkot but...and this is a big 'but' - we are supposed to be enjoying a foretaste of Sukkot as often as we want it, as often as we are prepared, as often as we have repented and purified ourselves in Messiah to be worthy vessels for the Ruach haShibi'i. We can enjoy His presence today, any day, every day, as often as we want, if just we will come to Him according to the revealed tavnith (pattern) and understanding why. Those first believers in Acts knew how important that was, and that's why they gathered every day and ate Agapé Meals together because they were hungry and thirsty for the Master's Presence - the Real Presence. They never wanted to be apart from Him! And the key - the point of release - was the consecrated bread and wine which Yah'shua (Jesus) called His "body" and His "blood". Profound is this mystery!

I hope this has given you much to think and pray about. Next week we must go even deeper and round off this series with the vision Yahweh is giving me for the Remnant, the Agapé Feast and the Master's Supper and what it means for the Final Gathering. Until then, may Yahweh bless you and guide you, in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.