31 Days to Discover Israel | The Upper Room

1 The Upper Room

Happy Monday! Can you believe we are in the Upper Room? This experience was a highlight of my trip, an amazing time of worship. Pastor Wendell Vinson led our team of twelve in a powerful time of prayer. The Upper Room was the place Jesus gathered the disciples for the Last Supper and later again when the Holy Spirit was poured out over them on the Day of Pentecost.

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In the same way, we remembered the sacrifice our Lord Jesus gave for us, asked for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit’s presence to lead and guide our stepsto fulfill the call God has placed on our lives.

For more details, I checked into this website.

The Cenacle

3 the upper room rebuilt by the crusaders in the 12th century cenacle8
The Upper Room rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century

Since at least the early 4th century AD, a site on Mount Zion, known as The Cenacle, which means “dining room”, was a popular place of pilgrimage for the early Christians. It is believed to be the site where Jesus celebrated the last supper with his disciples. The New Testament records that after Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles gathered in the “Upper Room” to pray together (Acts 1:13). The culmination of their 9-day vigil was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

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The original building which housed the upper room became a center for the first-century Jewish Christians, and was described as a Judeo-Christian synagogue. It was spared during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It became known as the Church of the Apostles. In 382 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius I built an octagonal church, called the Hagia Zion, on the site. The church was destroyed in 614 AD when Persia invaded Jerusalem. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the Muslim occupation of Jerusalem which began in 637. The structure which stands today was rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century.

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Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples

In Jesus’ time, every male Jew, who was of age and lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem, was bound to celebrate Passover every year in Jerusalem. This annual feast commemorated the deliverance of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt (see Exodus 12). On that night, the angel of death slew the first-born of the Egyptians; but he “passed over” the homes of the Israelites, because the lintel of their doors was smeared with the blood of an unblemished lamb sacrificed for the occasion.

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Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum – giving his disciples his body and his blood (John 6:51-58). This is the most significant meal of Jesus and the most important occasion of his breaking of bread. In this meal Jesus identifies the bread as his body and the cup as his blood. Christians have understood Jesus’ passing over to his Heavenly Father by his death and resurrection as the new Passover, which is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the church in the glory of God’s kingdom.

Don’t miss tomorrow when we stop by Samaria and Shiloh! See you then.

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