Backstory of the Lord’s Supper: The Passover Meal (Exodus 12)
Main idea: The Lord’s Supper is a meal that the church takes together to remember Christ, to renew our commitment to Him and each other, and to proclaim His death until He comes again!
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Many of us, most of us, probably all of us celebrated a meal last week. That is our national meal, right? In the United States, we have this fourth Thursday of every November where we celebrate Thanksgiving, we give thanks for how God provided for those first refugees who came from England, and were welcomed by people who are welcoming the stranger here and in the northern New England, I guess is where they were right. But we're also celebrating God's bounty to us in 2023, right, we're very blessed with a lot of physical bounty provision from God, we live in a very prosperous place where we have such an abundance of everything right. Lots of reason to give thanks. But we're gonna talk about today is not the Thanksgiving meal, but rather a different meal. So God instituted a meal. Jesus instituted a meal 2000 years ago for us to eat together. And this one that we eat every week called the Lord's Supper. And so we're going to read about that right now in First Corinthians 11. So take your Bible. If you have that with you and stand with me, we're going to read together first Corinthians 1117 to 34. This week, I'm going to talk about the rebuke from verses 17 to 22. And then the reminder from 23 and 2026. The next week, Dan will talk about the expectations from 27 to 34. So let's look together that we're gonna read the whole passage right now. First Corinthians 1117, through 34, and we'll learn about the Lord's Supper. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you. Because when you can't come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place. When you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe that in part, for there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat, for an eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, one goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. 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, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant, in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged. When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another, if anyone is hungry, let them eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment, about the other things I will give directions when I come. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for this beautiful meal that you've given us. Thank you Christ for taking the Passover meal and replacing it with the Lord's Supper that we celebrate together to remind us God, we need to be reminded of who you are Christ of what you've done, or the sacrifice that you made to make us your people. And I pray that today, every single one of your children here will be strengthened in their faith. Their hearts will be renewed their commitments, you will be renewed and strengthened and we would together be able to proclaim your death until you come Christ. Help us today to know you. To be hold you to worship you. Pray for those here who maybe don't know you that you would give them faith and clarity on who you are and what you've done. That their faith would be in you Christ in you alone. Or pray for churches around the city around the world, that they would be strengthened as well to be knowing you and to be remembering you and being renewed in their faith and their strength. Pray for John Gardner as he preaches that New Hope Bible Church in the valley just this week, pray that you would use him and their gathering to strengthen that church to renew their faith and to help them to remember you pray for our brothers and sisters in England who already met today at Grace life London with Michael and Vanessa de and that you would strengthen them. Help that church to be remembering you and to be renewed in their commitment to you pray for the church in Claude. No for Marcus and me Danny and for the church in Spain where Joe and Hannah grew er and we're Natalie Whitman is and the churches in Tenerife with LC days and Debbie Crespo pray that you would strengthen each of those churches that those brothers and sisters would remember you and their faith would be renewed their strength would be in you pray for our brothers and sisters internet say you would help obviously gonna and all those as they gather to do Hearing your word and knowing you and help us now as we hear Your word to be strengthened in our love for you and our trust in you. You're putting your name Christ, Amen. May be seated. We're talking today about remembering and thinking about the theme of remembering. How do you know that God is remembering you? When you're in the middle of some difficult thing? Let's say you're being tempted, and the pull of sin is pulling on you and you're feeling your own weakness to resist the temptation, whether it be temptation to get sinfully, angry, or temptation to do whatever sin. How do you know that God remembers you? That he's going to be faithful when you're going through some trial, and the pain is feeling really intense, and it's hard. How do you know that God remembers you that he still loves you, even though it doesn't feel like it? Maybe in that moment. God has given us a meal that we take together. And this meal helps us to remember that God remembers. What is the origin that the backstory as it were of that meal, the Lord's Supper, we're seeing an exodus, this Passover meal, that really is the backstory for the Lord's Supper. It started in Exodus with the people of God languishing in Egypt, God had made them into a great nation, over a million people. But there they are in Egypt, living as slaves, oppressed, downtrodden. The Pharaoh had said that every single one of the baby boys that was going to be born was going to be killed, needed to be killed. They were they were living in a terrible situation. The God remember them. Listen to what God says in Exodus, or what Moses writes in Exodus 223, to 25. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew God heard, God remembered his covenant. When you remember a covenant, it's not just mental recall. It's a commitment to keep that covenant. It's not that God had ever forgotten. But the people of Israel living in Egypt might have wondered for a time Has God forgotten us? You might be wondering, Has God forgotten me? God has given us this meal. That's like the Passover meal, but different the Lord's Supper to remember. So we can remember that God remembers God keeps His promises. He's faithful. Well, what did God do for the Israelites in Egypt? God appeared to Moses and his burning bush, and says that he has your way that I am, I am who I am. And God promised to take them out of Egypt by force, and to make them his own people in their own in the Promised Land. And how did God do that? He showed himself through nine devastating clicks, blood, water turning into blood, frogs everywhere. gnats everywhere, flies everywhere, all the livestock dropping dead, boils all over their bodies, hail. And keep in mind, this is all happening to the Egyptians, not to Israelites, even though they're living in the same land, hail, dropping and killing whatever was out in the fields, locust eating whatever was left after all the other things. And finally, darkness, so dark, palpable darkness for three days where you just can't see anything in front of you.
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And despite all that, Pharaoh continued to say no, to God. So then God pours out the final play, and it was different. Israel was commanded to take a lamb or a goat on the 10th day of the month into their home. Imagine Kids, your mom and dad tell you, you can have a goat or a lamb. For little pet, we're going to bring him into the house, we give him a name. And for four days, you play with that lamb sleeps with you, eats from your hand. And then on the 14th day of the month, that night, they had to kill that lamb, had to slaughter the lamb, and had to take the blood from that lamb and put it on their doorposts. And on the beam above the door, marking a science showing that they had faith in Yahweh that they were always people, God's people. And then they had to eat all of the Lamb. And everyone who was part of Israel had to do that. Every house with the blood on the doorposts, that death angel that the Lord passed over that house and didn't kill the firstborn son, and all the firstborn animals, but anybody who didn't have that blood on the doorpost, anyone who didn't have faith in the God of Israel, their firstborn sons were killed, their firstborn animals were killed. And doing this, God delivered Israel out of Egypt. Pharaoh said, Go, Go get out of here and they gave them stuff to give them gold and silver and sent them out. God poured out His wrath on Egypt in their so called Gods and delivered his people from Israel, people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He brought them out and took them to himself so they could be with him. And then God given this meal, the Passover meal, he said every year on the 14th day of the first month, that night, you eat this Passover meal, as a memorial to remember that God remembers that God keeps His promises. God keeps his covenant. So every year they had to eat it. Everybody had to eat. It didn't matter if they were unclean for some reason. It didn't matter what was going on. They all had to eat it. If anyone didn't eat it, they got cut off. No one who wasn't part of Israel could eat it. They had to be if there were servants in there House are foreigners that they had to have been circumcised and become part of the people of Israel, they're gonna eat this meal. And so through this meal that they ate every single year, they remembered. God delivered us from His wrath through a Passover lamb that died in our place that we eat now to remember, we put the blood on the door, and they remember, they're doing all that how God had rescued them, and who God was and who they were as His people. God likes feasts. He likes meals, he made us with physical bodies that can taste things. Aren't you glad you can tastes, gravy, and pumpkin pie? And sweet potato casserole and biscuits with butter? Aren't you glad you can taste those things? Maybe you've eaten all the Thanksgiving leftovers? Maybe you're going home to some right now I know, aren't you glad God made you with the ability to enjoy a meal. But God has given us these meals, not just for physical enjoyment, but to remember something greater to remember him. So Jesus takes this Passover meal with his disciples, and the night before he was crucified, and he replaces it with a new meal, he created a new meal, He instituted a new meal called his supper, the Lord's Supper. And in that meal, he takes bread and breaks it and says this is my body, which is given for you do this in remembrance of me. And does the same with a cup. He fills this new meal with new meaning through what he says and then through what he does the next day by dying on the cross. So Jesus gave his disciples and then all future disciples this meal to remember him. We're gonna talk today about what are we remembering? When we remember Christ in the Lord's Supper? What is it that we're remembering, remembering his blood, his body that was broken for us, His blood that was said to make a new covenant between us and God, remembering him and our faith is strengthened. He wants to help us to remember and be encouraged to renew our commitment to each other to him to remember that you've delivered us and made us as people through what he did in Christ. So let's talk about this, this supper this meal. When I grew up in Tennessee, the Supper was at nighttime, and we always have church in the morning, and we eat the Lord's Supper, but I guess it's okay. Right? It works out because that's what we call it. So the Lord's Supper. It's a meal that the Church takes together to remember Christ, to renew our commitment to him and to each other, and to proclaim His death until it comes. We remember, our faith is strengthened, we renew our commitment to God and to each other, and we proclaim His death until He comes back. We've looked at the backdrop of the Lord's Supper, which is the Passover meal. Now let's examine our passage and see how Paul exhorts them to repent of corrupt portrayals of Christ throughout the Lord's Supper, and then to remember Christ rightly so first repent of corrupt portrayals of Christ, through wrongly taking the Lord's Supper. We see in First Corinthians 1117, to 22, this corrupt, perverted, messed up way that they were taking the Lord's Supper, you all have seen mirrors before, right? What's the mirror supposed to do? Supposed to reflect? What is looking in the mirror, God created us, to be mirrors to reflect Him are gathering together how we're seeing what we've seen about is meant to to reflect God's glory, like the moon reflects the sun. It's not the moon's light. It's the sun's light shining on the moon that you get to see right. That's what we're supposed to be when we gather together the unity we have the truth we proclaim from God's Word, the way we take the Lord's Supper, the way people get baptized, the way we give, how we love each other, all that is meant to put on display Jesus. And they're doing something here that's breaking that display, they're taking the mirror of their life has a word, smashing it through their actions, liquidity says in verse 17, it says, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you. And then he says in the end of verse 22, shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. He is expressing extreme displeasure. If Paul were talking to them, he might have been yelling, kind of shaking them as they were like, What are you doing? How could you do this? How would you take this thing that was meant to portray Christ to portray the gospel and corrupt it in such a selfish, ugly, disgusting way? They're not pleasing God. And Paul is letting them know that he is not happy about what they're doing. We should all want to please God, more than we want to breathe, right? That's what our biblical counselors tell us. You should want to please God, more than even want to breathe. Because God is God. He's so good. He's our father, he's wise. And so we should want to please Him and they were not pleasing Him. So what were they doing that wasn't pleasing to God? We're seeing the next part of her 17. When they came together, it was not for the better but for the worse. They were causing more harm by coming together than good. It was like they should have not come together would have been better if they hadn't even met. Because their selfishness their gross indulgence, their pride, their division, was making it worse that they even gathered. Things is better that you wouldn't even come together to what were they doing? That was so gross. That was so corrupt. Look at verse 18. In the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part, they were they were dividing themselves out. They were forming divisions. And chapters one through four, they were dividing themselves by which preacher they thought was better. One of them was saying, I'm with Paul. The other one said, I'm gonna have apologists I'm with Peter. They're trying to make themselves look great. By aligning themselves with this with the speaker that they thought was better than the other one, they were missing the point. None of those speakers or preachers were great on their own. Anything that was good about them was because of Christ because of Christ's word. And so Paul rebuked them before for being divided, based on their affinity for one preacher or a different preacher. They don't need they need to be together, because there's only one Lord, one savior, one Christ, and that's why they should to be one. But here he's talking about a different kind of division. We're going to see in a minute and verse 20, and 21, they're dividing themselves by socioeconomic class, the wealthier people who had more stuff, more food, more riches, were enjoying the Lord's Supper meal separate from whether we're calling it the Lord's Supper, separately from the other people who didn't have as much stuff. And Paul's rebuking them, he's saying, This can't be, we can't be dividing ourselves based on ethnicity, based on socioeconomic class based on gender. All these things we're not going to divide. Christ makes us one new person in him. No factions. Look what he says in verse 19. He says, he says something interesting here, he says, There must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. He's not saying that it's okay to divide based on preacher. He's not saying they should divide based on socioeconomic class, he's saying that the division is necessary to show who really is genuine, who's a genuine believer, the genuine believers in Christ are going to hear God's word, they're going to respond.
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Sometimes it takes us a while, but we're going to get there, we're going to respond to God's word. And so anyone who was genuine was going to repent of forming factions or forming divisions, and they were going to be united again. So he's saying that the true believers, those who are going to finish the race, well, who are we not the tears, they're going to show themselves to be genuine by repenting, and then there'll be a division of those who are listening to those who are not listening. He's really urging them all of you repent, don't be divided by whatever situation, be one in Christ. Look at the heart of the in verse 2021. This is what they were doing that was so displeasing to God, when you come together is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For an eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, one goes hungry and other gets drunk. So they've got him together and calling something the Lord's Supper. But Paul is saying, This is not even the Lord's Supper, what you're doing cannot be called the Lord's Supper. Don't call it that. It's not that because of the way you're doing it, they were not taking it all together. Lord's Supper is meant to be taken with everyone together. If we serve the Lord's Supper, just to the people who hadn't given a certain amount of money last year, not that the elders know who's given a set amount of money, we don't connect all that together, we don't know we just want to shepherd and care for all of you. But if we were doing that, that would be like what they're doing. The people who were wealthier, were gathering in the maybe the dining area of someone's nicer house, because the church gathered, and then the house houses back then usually in Corinth. So they were probably in someone's house, a wealthier person, because the poor people wouldn't have had space in their house. And somehow, I don't know if they told everybody who was wealthier, let's have our own little thing first before anyone else gets there, but they were getting together and eating and stuffing themselves, and even getting drunk. And there wasn't any food left. When the other people got there, they were going hungry. So maybe the other people were showing up and singing the outer atrium because it was a room in the dining area. But they weren't getting into the food. And so they were calling it the Lord's Supper, but because they weren't taking it together, because they were being selfish, and greedy, and indulging themselves without thinking of others. First, Paul said, You can't call this the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is what we remember that Christ gave himself for us. So if you're not getting yourself for others, if you're seeking to take and show yourself off, then don't even call it the Lord's Supper. You can't you can't call it that when it's someone going ahead and getting drunk and stuffing themselves or someone else goes hungry. So this is probably not a situation that you and I are going to face Exactly. We never have withheld the play from someone because of some situation about them as far as their how they looked, or how much money they had, or whatever. Like we're, it's for anyone who knows Jesus, like the only qualification is that you're in Christ, that you've trusted the Lord. But when I think about my life, and hope when you think about your life, there are ways that we might not be reflected in Christ's very well through how we gather, like, do I come to this gathering, thinking, God, how can I serve other people? Or am I thinking how can I get served? When I meet with my growth group, when I spend time with my friends, when I circle up and talk to people after? Am I thinking about how to include other people how to welcome people? Am I looking to encourage people and to get to know people who are different than me? Are we in the body of Christ reflecting the unity that God has given us as his body? We should, and I commend you because I think that we as a church are doing well with this, but we need to keep doing well with it. We need to keep excelling and loving and including welcoming new people, right? The gospel is free, right? God doesn't charge money for the Gospel Jesus paid for the gospel he paid on the cross was we're about to see in this passage. He paid everything. So we should never tell a lie with how we offer the gospel and say that it's based on your merit. Based on your ethnicity based on your money you based on your socioeconomic class based on your caste, based on your gender. It's open to everyone Christ's free He gives His grace. And so we as a church should always freely give, when we're talking about the Lord's Supper, and our gatherings should reflect that free grace that the gospel is, yes, Christ is Lord. Yes, submitting to him in the gospels we're gonna talk about involves a commitment to him. But it's not based on our own merit. It's based on Christ merit. So your life is meant to be a mirror, think about how you come together, how we come together in the gathering, are we Reflecting Christ. And if you're here, and you don't know, Christ, I'm gonna encourage you, we're not going to be perfect at it. But our goal is to love each other. And to love you in a way that you see that Jesus love is real. We want you to see Christ in what we're doing together. And of all the things we do together, taking the Lord's Supper, that piece of bread, and that cup is meant to show you, Christ. We all need to see Jesus. So we're gonna talk about that right now. Who is Jesus? What is it that we want to see about him? Look with me at the second point, remember Christ as we take the Lord's supper together, we're remembering Christ. Look at verse 23. For I received from the Lord, why also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed to bread, so we see that the Lord's Supper, this meal, that Jesus Institute's that he replaces the Passover meal with is his idea. It wasn't Paul's idea, or Peter, or James, or John, or the church tradition. We didn't make this up. Jesus created this, it's his idea, because he wants you to remember that he remembers, he wants you to remember what he did. Every time you take this, he wants you to remember to physically see with your eyes, to hold in your hands to taste in your mouth. And through those symbols to remember Christ. Then talks about several years ago in a sermon were like leaky buckets, right? Our heads or hearts are like leaky buckets. When you pour something in a leaky bucket, it just goes right back out. A lot of times, that's the way our hearts and heads are. We need to remember, we need to keep pouring in who Christ is what Christ did,
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how amazing he is how free is great says through the cross. We need to keep remembering and that's what this meal is all about. He gave it to us to remember who we see next to him. Verse 23. It was the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed. Jesus was betrayed. He was betrayed we know by Judas, but God wasn't tricked by Judas. Jesus wasn't tricked by Judas, he knew. We see in Acts 223, that Jesus being offered up was the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Yes, God ordained the means of Judas betraying Jesus, but God offered up Jesus, Jesus willingly gave himself remember what God had said to Moses, he said that he was going to kill the firstborn of Egypt to deliver his firstborn son, Israel. And now Jesus is not God has the plan of delivering his own firstborn son, the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus, to rescue us, to make us his sons and daughters. That was God's plan. And on that night, Jesus, knowing that's where this was going. He Institute's his meal so that they would always remember what he was going to do for them. So then Jesus takes bread. The Passover meal included bread, remember, they had to make unleavened bread. Then they had the Feast of Unleavened Bread for a whole week, to the 14th night, they had the Passover meal. And then starting that night, they had seven days from there, they had a Passover, are not passive at unleavened bread feast. And that whole time they were remembering what God had done in delivering them. They're being purified. They're seeking purity as they got the living out of their houses, which, like Paul talked about First Corinthians five, it kind of represented, like purifying their lives, right? But Jesus takes bread, he doesn't take a lamb and say, as you eat this lamb remember me? He says, as you eat this bread, remember me? Why does he say the bread is a symbol representing him? Well, if you look back at John six, we see some things that Jesus said about himself. John six, verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. skip down to verse 47. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your father's ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. You see what Jesus is saying here? He's the bread of life. He takes the bread from that Passover meal and he says, this represents me giving myself for you, says, I am the bread of life. Jesus said, he's the one who came down from heaven, like God sent Manna down from the earth for those 40 years to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus came down from heaven, the eternal Son of the Father, living forever with God, the Father, not created, took on flesh became a human, he came to earth to give us life, not physical life, although he does give us physical life, but spiritual life life with God, a relationship with God, Jesus who always had a relationship with God, the Father and the Spirit came to give us a relationship with God the Father and Goddess period with him. He takes bread, whilst as you say, eat the bread. What the lambs that were sacrificed had to be sacrificed over and over how many 1000s If not millions of lambs had to be killed during the during the time of Israel for those 1000s of years, over and over, come into the house on the 10th day, stay with the family for four days, sacrifice the lamb eat all of it over and over and over. But then when Jesus came to the earth, what did they say about him? The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he's the Passover lamb. He was sacrificed once for all, he's not getting sacrificed over and over and over, he got sacrificed one time for all of time. And so now we're not having to kill another animal to remember Jesus. We're not doing that, because that would be confusing. We're only eating bread, remembering Jesus, and you can still kill animals and eat them. Turkeys, pigs, whatever it is x 10. Right. It's okay, God made it all clean. But you're not doing that as a as a sacrifice. Before God is not. It's not something to help you remember what you need from God. We don't kill any more animals for that. No animals have to die in our place. Jesus died in one place. Now he bred to remember him. Remember that we get life with God from Jesus. And when they ate that lamb at the Passover meal, that it signified that they were trusting in God, delivering them through that lamb dying in their place. Now as we eat the bread, we're signifying that we are trusting in Jesus who already died in our place. The eating of it helps us remember that we're trusting in Him. He's the one who gives us life. Look, again at verse 23, verse 24, out there when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me. Jesus gave thanks to the Father, you give thanks for his own body, his own life that he lived. everything Jesus did, he was doing what the Father showed him, you always obey the father, you always did what the father told him, and he thinks the father, but not just for his life, he thinks the Father for what He's about to do for his body, which is about to be broken. He thinks the Father for the people that he's about to purchase his body, the body of Christ that will become part of him from every tongue, tribe and nation. He gives thanks. Jesus takes that bread and breaks it no one takes it from him and breaks it. He willingly lays down his life. Those those Jewish authorities couldn't have overpowered Jesus. If Jesus didn't let them, the Romans couldn't have crucified Jesus or whipped him if he had left them. Jesus could have called down millions legions of angels to deliver him he could have with his own words, you could have said, You're all dead. And they all fell over. He could have done anything you wanted to deliver himself from being taken by them, but he freely took and broke his own body for us. He gave himself up to be broken. He was broken, Jesus broke the bread. And in breaking the bread, he's picturing how his own body was gonna be physically broken. Jesus was whipped. He was he was scourged. That horrible, horrible whipping. He was taking a nail to the cross crucified nails through his arms if there's feet, so that he couldn't breathe unless he pulled himself up on his lip back. But that wasn't the worst of it. Right? It wasn't the physical brokenness. That was the worst. The worst was he was broken from fellowship with His Father, Jesus, who had been in fellowship with the Father for all of eternity, and with the Spirit. His fellowship was broken because he became our sin. Jesus took my sin and your sin on him. And the father poured out His wrath on Jesus, instead of on us. That was the borscht breaking, Jesus was broken. Because of our sin, fellowship with the Father was broken. He was separated from the Father, as the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus and our place, Jesus propitiated our wrath, the wrath of you deserved, he took it, just like a car and veering down the road on ice hit something and the impact the energy, the impact goes into that thing. It hits Jesus. Jesus took the wrath of God the Father, on our behalf. He took that full force of God's wrath, the full cup of His wrath, Jesus took as the Passover lamb was sacrificed and eaten so that those Israelite family wouldn't be killed Jesus, our Passover lamb was sacrifice on the cross. He became our sin, we you deserve sin. We didn't deserve death, he became our sin, so we can be forgiven and live. Jesus gave his body to be broken for us. That's what we remember. You remember, God does love me? How do I know? Maybe my circumstances don't make me feel like it. Maybe like Claire said, you don't always feel saved. But if you've trusted in Jesus, you can know that God loves you. Because that bread is reminding you that Jesus gave his own body to be broken for you. So you know God loves you, you know that God is committed to keeping his promises. He did this for you. So this is my body which is for you. He gives his life his body on our behalf for us for our sake, not for his benefit. But for ours. He became a substitute in our place. He died in our place for us fully covering our sins fully atoning,
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for our blessing for our good. He gave us his body so he can make us his own. He redeemed us to make us his own. He says Do this in remembrance of me. He just doesn't say that a piece of his actual body and blood is gonna enter into us and give us more grace. That's not what's happening. He's giving us this meal, this symbol to remember him. Remember, when Jesus was eating the Lord's supper with the disciples the first time, he said, This is my body broken through, but he's sitting right there, right? He's not giving them a piece of his body, he's giving them bread to remember, it's a symbol to remember Christ, and remembering were encouraged and strengthened. Remember, First Corinthians 1016. If you turn back a page, Jesus says, a couple of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ, the bread that we break is not a participation in the body of Christ. We're fellowshipping with him, just as he's present with you throughout every day, and he's present with you as we sing. And as we preach the Word, he's present in the Lord's Supper, encouraging you reminding you that He is real, and that he really did die in your place. So what do we do as we remember him, our faith is strengthened. We remember Christ by trusting in Him by worshiping, worshiping Him, we love Him, we say, Yes, he gave himself for me. So I want to give myself back to him. We remember Christ's body broken, and we can be confident that God has accepted Christ sacrifice on our behalf, and we are fully forgiven and accept that in him. So every time you take that bread and the Lord's Supper, you need to hear the Lord Jesus saying to you, this is my body, which is for you hear him saying, I made the ultimate sacrifice. So you could belong to me. Your sin was this bad. But My Mercy was more hear him saying, I've chosen to love you, and purchase you to be my bride forever. Hear the Father say, This is my son broken for you, so that you can be my people, and I can be your God. Jesus is saying, behold the glory of God that he would give his only begotten Son for the sins of the world. And then love Him, worship Him, believe in Him, trust in Him, be confident that all your sins are forgiven, and that you belong to Him and He belongs to you. If you've never trusted in Christ, as we take that bread, I want you to hear this. Here, God's saying this to you. You're an enemy of God, you're rebelling against God, you might be really nice person. But if you haven't trusted in Christ, you're rebelling against God and in what he has done and what he wants for you. But he's calling you you're saying come to Christ and repent, you want you to see in that bread, a symbol that that shows you that Jesus died on the cross. And if you will come to Him and trust in Him, He will forgive your sins. If you'll submit to Him as your Lord, He will make you his see in that symbol, and hearing that symbol, the message come to Christ, there's room at the table, this room at the table for anyone who had trust in Christ and confess Christ as their Lord, there's room, you can come to him, and be part of his family and sit in this meal, and sit forever with Him as His people. So the table is open, come to Christ, receive the gift that only He can give a forgiveness in life with him. And so as we take the bread together, we're all identifying with Jesus, and we're identifying with each other. Baptism is that one time ordinance that God's given us where we identify with him initially, saying, I'm part of God's people I trusted in Christ and with him and with His people. And then the Lord's Supper is ongoing, we continually now as we take it every time are identifying with Jesus saying we are with Christ, we belong to him because of his body broken for us. The third point, we renew our covenant commitment to Christ and to his people. When we take the Lord's supper together, we're renewing our covenant commitment. Renewing our commitment, listen to what it says in verse 25. In the same way, he also he took the cup after supper saying, this is the cup, This cup is the new covenant, my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me, again, that that cup of wine did not become the new covenant, the wine doesn't become his blood. It's a symbol. He's saying that this cup of wine symbolizes the new covenant in his blood. And so as we take it, we are remembering Christ's blood that was shed for us to establish a new covenant. When you think about covenant, you should think about a commitment, a very serious, solemn commitment. And Christ's blood is what it was necessary for us to have that relationship with God in this covenant. So in the covenant, we're renewing our commitment to God, but first, we can remember his commitment to us. So remember, when people made a covenant back in ancient eastern world, they would, they would sacrifice animals, so they put animals on the ground, they'd cut them in half, they'd walk through them. So if you and I were making a covenant together back in 3000 BC, or whenever we would have killed some animals, we walked between them. And we'd be saying, If I don't keep my promise, I'm making you this covenant we're making then made this thing that happen to these animals who are dead and split in half. It happened to me also. And you too, if you don't keep your covenant. That's what's gonna happen to you. That was how serious covenant commitments were. Listen to Jeremiah 3418. And God is saying to Israel, and the men who transgressed my covenant, they broke his covenant, and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut into impasse between his parts. Serious. God has been serious about covenant. He doesn't break his promises, and he wants us to keep our commitment to him and the covenant. Remember Genesis 15, when God made a covenant with Abraham, if you go back and read it, there's some animals that Abraham had to kill I had to split him in half. And then God and Abraham should have walked through there, right. But instead what happened, God puts Abraham to sleep in and who will go through it, a flaming torch, or flaming pot with like, seemingly flaming torch, which were both symbols that the Israelites would recognize as God, because God was leading them through those symbols through the desert. God goes through between the animals, God is saying, I'm guaranteeing this covenant I'm making with you, Abraham. If you don't keep it, I'm the one that's gonna pay. And if I don't keep it, I'm the one that's going to pay with with my own death. Listen to this quote from Ray Vanderlin, about the thing that God did with Abraham, and the covenant. When God made a covenant with His people, He did something no human being would have even considered doing the usual blood covenant, each party was responsible for keeping only his side of the promise. When God made covenant with Abraham, however, he promised to keep both sides of that agreement. And this covenant is broken Abraham, for whatever reason for my unfaithfulness or yours, I will pay the price said, God, if you or your descendants for whom you are making this covenant fail to keep it, I will pay the price in blood. And at that moment, Almighty God pronounced the death sentence on your son Jesus. The Israelites deserve death, for breaking the covenant. And who paid that death, it was Christ, Christ's bloodshed, paid for their sin, because they had broken the covenant with God, all of us who are Gentiles in the covenant God knew with Adam, and with Noah, we've broken that we've rebelled against God against being his creatures. We all deserve death. So Jesus blood, the blood of the covenant was necessary to be shed for our forgiveness, somebody had to die, because of that covenant being broken. Because we haven't loved God. We haven't loved our neighbor. And that offends a holy God. And so death is required. But God is saying, I'm keeping my side and I'm going to take care of your side two, God is faithful to keep his promises. You can trust that what God has said he's going to do, if God has said, I'm going to complete what I started in you, you can trust he's going to do that. He promises with the blood of Christ, to keep all of his covenant that God has said, I'm going to be your God forever, and you're gonna be my people. And we're going to live forever on the new heavens and the new earth, with Christ running on the throne, you can trust that's going to happen. You can look around and wonder, how's that going to work out, but you can be confident God is going to keep his promises. Every single promise of God is yes and amen. In Christ. You can trust God, he's committed. And every time we picked up a cup of juice, we're remembering. God has said, the blood of Christ Christ said his blood,
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promise to ensure to guarantee that God will always keep his eternal covenant, he will not break his promise, this relationship between us and God as His people, it's unbreakable because God has established it by the blood of Christ. Listen to Hebrews nine, verses 14 through 18, we hear more about Christ's blood, which is better than the blood of goats and cows and lambs. How much more with the blood of Christ, Hebrews 914, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore, he Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. So those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance since a death has occurred, that redeems us from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For 17, for a Will it takes effect only a death since there's it is not enforced, as long as the one who has made it as alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. You see Christ's bloodshed, not only gives us forgiveness, but inaugurate the guarantees the covenant that God has made with us. And so we can be confident that God is not forgetting, he remembers, he will always keep his promise to you, you can trust him. No matter how difficult the temptation is that you're facing, no matter how hard the trial is that you're in, no matter how crazy the waves are around us in the world, you can trust that God is faithful. The blood of Christ that we remember, when we take that cup, reminds us that God has guaranteed with a life of his own son, this promises made us this covenant relationship we have as as people in the church. And so this should move us to be committed ourselves. In the covenant, we are also committed to God, we're renewing our commitment as we take this meal together. Look back at Exodus 24. We see another meal where they were renewing, and and making a covenant with God, and expressing their commitment to God. Exodus 24. Moses has just gotten the 10 commandments from from God. And then it says, Exodus 24, verse three, Moses came and told the people, all the words of the Lord and all the rules, all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do here their commitment, they're saying, we're committed. Verse four, and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. Whatever six, Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the bloody threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said all would have spoken we will do, we will be obedient. Moses took the blood and threw it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you, in accordance with all these words. Then Moses, Aaron, data has been about who in the 70 elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet, as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief of men, chief men of the people of Israel, they beheld God and ate and drank. He see there twice the people of Israel are saying, with this covenant meal, and Exodus 24, we are committed, we're going to obey you. And as you take the Lord's supper together, we're renewing our commitment or saying to God, because of what you did, Christ's body being broken and shedding blood, because of the covenant we have. I'm saying, Yes, Lord, I want to obey you. I want to live out this heart of obedience that you've given me, I want to submit to you, I want to follow you. And you see what Moses did with that blood, right? Can you imagine if we did that now, if every sermon on Sunday, Daniels taking blood and throwing it out there to you on the front row, you probably all sit a little bit further back, he was throwing blood, this would be so read out here from blood he got thrown every week. But that blood of the covenant was signifying this, these animals died, and you're making a commitment, a serious commitment to obey the Lord. And that commitment, the seriousness of it is shown by the death of these animals that died in your place. And now the blood of them is on you, showing you are committed. And as we take the Lord's supper together enough to spill the juice on yourself, anything that's not necessary, but you're renewing your commitment. You're saying to the Lord, Yes, Lord, I trusted in you. I confess to you as my Lord in the beginning, when I was baptized, even before that, when I believed in my own heart, I confess to you as my Lord, and now again, today, I'm renewing my commitment. I'm saying, yes, Jesus, I want to obey you. And they ate and drank. He said, at the end of Exodus 24, they were eating and drinking a meal, celebrating the covenant they were making with God, the God was making with them. And it says, they'd be held God, and they ate and drank. And as we hold that little bread and cup, it's not a very glorious piece of bread. You'll notice if you haven't seen it before, it's just a little cracker. And it's not really glorious juice is just regular juice. But it's a symbol of something glorious. It's a symbol of the glory of Christ, who died in your place, who shed his blood, so that God, and you would belong to each other forever. That's what we're looking at. When we take that meal together. And that's glorious. We eat and drink and we behold Christ together. What is this covenant that he's giving us this everlasting covenant that we read about and in the passages that humans reading, it's the covenant where God promised not only to give them the land, and to have them live forever with Him, but to give them a new heart. Number, Deuteronomy 30, verse six, God promised to give them a heart that would love Him and obey Him. Listen to Jeremiah 31, you'll hear about the covenant God's giving us. And this is what you need to remember when you hold that cup. Remember this covenant, Jeremiah 31, verse 33, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, I'll write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and no longer so each one teach his neighbor, and each one his brother saying, know the Lord, for this, you all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. God is promising to give us new hearts, he's gonna write our hearts, his law. Some of you have Apple products, and you just updated the iOS 17. Right? That just happen. You get these operating systems that the program and your phone or your computer react a certain way, that they're programmed to do certain things, our hearts as sinners falling out of an eve, our hearts are rebelling against God, no, I want my glory, I want my will my kingdom. We're not, we're not submitting to God. But when we trust in Christ, and we see the new covenant, he gives us a new heart, we get a new operating system that loves him, and loves other people, and we want to obey Him. We don't do it perfectly, but we want to trust in Him and obey Him. So as you take the Lord's Supper, it's meant to be a time where you're remembering God has given me a heart, through Christ, that wants to love Him that does love him, wants to love others and obey Him and the can. You're not just trying harder. It's a renewal of your commitment to trust in Christ and live out the heart He's already given you. He's already given you, His Spirit in you, like Ezekiel 36 talks about he's given you his spirit. He's given you a new heart. And he causes us to walk in His statutes and obey Him. So as you take the Lord's Supper, we're remembering. God has given us new hearts, that love Him and love each other. And I want to live that out. And I want to put on, I want to put off anything that doesn't match up with that. And I want to put on a heart of love for Christ and love for others. We're saying again to the Lord, yes, I want to love you, I want to live for you. And what is it that causes us to say that we see, and we remember Christ's body broken for us, we remember his bloodshed for us. Remember that we're in a relationship with God forever, where he's our God and we're His people. We get to live with him. He's going to show us his kindness forever, for all of eternity. That's the God we want to serve. We want to say yes, I love you. I want to live for you. I want other people to see how great you are, through what you're doing in my life. We're renewing our commitment to each other to keep loving each other We're not gonna be perfect at it. But we keep saying yes, I want to love my brothers and sisters around me. I want to be their family and Christ, I'm going to show them what our Heavenly Father's like, what our older brother Jesus is like, I'm going to show them what the Spirit is doing in my life and in their life. That's what our commitment is, as we take the Lord's supper together. We're remembering and renewing. And that should lead us to have the heart that we see in Hebrews that we just read about Jesus blood in Hebrews, Hebrews 10, verse 19, the author of Hebrews says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and loving way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. Since we have a great high priest of the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast to confession of our hope without wavering for who promises faithful. Let us consider how to stir each other up to love and good works. not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another as elder mores, you see the day drawing near, you see what the other people just saying, because of what Christ did draw near to God, you can go to him as your father and receive grace and help in time of need. The way is open for you to go to God all the time. You're at the table with him, you're his child. He's right there. And you can say to him, I need you, Daddy, I need you to see what's happening here. I need you to see what's happening here. I need you. And he hears you. He knows you. He remembers his promises. He keeps his promises. And then in that same vein of drawing nearer to Christ and holding faster confession, because he doesn't change. Christ's death on the cross will always be enough to cover all of our sins and make us God's people forever. His bloodshed will always be enough, you can trust him, you can always trust him. Because he doesn't change. We keep on trusting Him. We keep on encouraging each other. Brother, Sister trust in Christ. He's enough. Look at what he did for us. Let's live in light of that. If you haven't trusted in Christ, He shed His blood. The way is open for you to draw nearer to God through Him. You can trust him in Christ, you can come to God and have all your sins forgiven. Now, because you did a good job, not because you gave money to somebody, not because you prayed a certain prayer. You can have all of your sins forgiven, you can receive God's Spirit in your life, just by trusting in Christ by confessing Him as your Lord. And then God enters into that covenant relationship with you forever.
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Finally, what are we doing? Let's take the Lord's Supper. We're proclaiming Christ's death until it comes. Look at verse 26. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Everything we've just been talking about. That's what we're proclaiming. We're proclaiming it to one another brother, sister Christ body was broken for you. Rejoice, Your sins are forgiven, all of your sins are on Christ. You don't have to live in that sin anymore. God has forgiven you. He gives you grace to change, he helps you. He cleans you up again and again. And again. We're reminding each other that we're proclaiming His death, we're proclaiming that his blood has been shed, and that we're in a recovering relationship with God now where we have everything we need for life and godliness. And we're doing this as often as we do it, right, as he says, and as often as you eat this bread. How often in our church, we do this every week. Some churches do it once a month, some churches do once a quarter or once a year. I'm thankful that we do it often I need to remember often, but doesn't say how often to do it right. It's kind of up to the church to figure out how often to do that. But the point is, as often as we do this, we're proclaiming Christ. You get to proclaim Christ to each other. It's not just the personnel from proclaiming something, all of us as we do this together. You're proclaiming Christ died, his body was broken, his blood was shed trust in Him. We're strengthening each other's faith. As we do that God is strengthening our faith where our commitment is being renewed. And the glorious gospel is being proclaimed. Look what he says he says, proclaim Christ until he comes we proclaim His death until He comes. He can't come unless if he's still dead, right? Christ died. He was dead for three days. And then he rose again. And hundreds of people saw him risen. Christ is no longer dead. He's raining on his throne in heaven is gonna come around his throne on the earth. He's coming back. And so we're proclaiming Christ died. He rose again. Now he's in heaven. He's coming back. Do you know him? Do you trust in Him? Do you love him? Because he's good. He's the only Savior. He doesn't ask you to save yourself by trying really hard. He says trusted me I did everything. That's what the symbols represent. His body broken. His bloodshed was everything. That's all we need. To be forgiven, to live now as God's people live forever as God's people. And look what we're gonna enjoy with him one day, right now we eat this meal together and he's with us spiritually by His Spirit. But revelation 19 Six, we see that there's gonna be a marriage feast of the Lamb, a different meal. But like this one, we're remembering him. Listen to Revelation 19 verses six through nine. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters like the sound of money, peals of thunder crying out. Hallelujah. For the Lord our God reigns the almighty rains. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen and bright and pure for the fine linen of the righteous deeds of the saints. It's, my angel said to me right, this blessing to those who were invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me these words, these are the true words of God. The marriage supper of the Lamb. Christ is our bridegroom, we the church or his bride. We get to live forever with Him, loving us, pouring out His grace and His goodness and His love on us. And that meal that we're gonna enjoy, then with him physically in person with him as the thing we're looking forward to. And right now, as we take the Lord's supper together, we're proclaiming Christ until He comes. And so we get to enjoy that meal together. We take this meal, the Lord's Supper, and we remember, we remember that God always remembers. God always keeps his promise you can trust His love. When the storms are raging and you're wondering, does God really remember me? Does he really love me? Remember that bread? No juice. Remember Christ body broken for you. Remember his bloodshed for you? Trust Christ, no matter what's happening, he doesn't change. He loves you. And if you're his child, he's with you. Sustaining you, helping you loving you. Who should take this step further? We're gonna talk together in a minute, anyone who's trusted in Christ, who's confessed Christ as the Lord, it's for all of us who are part of the body of Christ. It shouldn't be the normal thing to skip it. You're not thinking back on your weak Nick. And did I say last week? I probably should take the Lord's Supper because I've sinned. I think probably every week, you're gonna look back and think, oh, there's some ways I have sinned. Last week, even this morning, I sinned, but I'm trusting Christ. If your attitude coming into the Lord's Supper, which the men are gonna come forth to the minute and pass out, if your attitude is No, I don't want to obey your God, then you shouldn't let it pass. But if your heart is God, I want to obey you, I want to trust in you. I'm thankful and need you help me to have a heart that wants to obey you. I know you've given it to me helped me to have that I believe, help my unbelief. That's your heart, it's for you. The normal thing would be that you've been baptized, identifying with Christ as as people, that one time thing in the now we're doing the Lord's supper together as the ongoing thing. There's cases where there's kids who say, are saying I want to get baptized, but their parents are saying no, you do wait because of your whatever age. Those are nuanced situations that you need to work out with your with your kids, parents need wisdom and counsel from other godly people. But the point is, this is something that we all take together, identifying with Christ in identifying with each other, remembering Christ. So as the men come forward and pass these out, I want you to think about Christ. Remember his body broken for you. Remember, Christ's blood shed for you and the covenant we have with him renew that covenant. Think about what he's done in you and what you want to do for him because of what he's done in you. And then remember, we're proclaiming Christ to each other. So the men are going to come forward, they're going to pass out the bread and the cup, and I want you as you sit there and think about this. Remember, Christ body broken for you. Take that little piece of bread and hold it in your hands. Think about Christ's body being broken for you. To give you fellowship with the Father, think about his blood being a shed, as you look at that cup. Close your eyes and pray if you want but leave your eyes open if you want and look at the symbols and remember what Christ did for you remember what we just talked about, and then we'll come back together in a few minutes and take this together.
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As we take this, remember we're proclaiming Christ's death to each other. So look around we're proclaiming to each other. Christ died, his body was broken for you as blood was shed for you are proclaiming that to the world. To anyone who doesn't know Christ, we want them to see who Christ is when he's done. So take the bread. And let's think about the fact that Christ's body was broken for us. Remember what he said in verse here in verse 24, this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me. Let's take it together, I mean, Christ's body broken for us.
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And we take the cup, remember, Jesus blood was shed not only for our forgiveness, but to enact a new covenant between us and God to make us as people forever and we renew our commitment to him, to take it together. Let's pray together. God, we thank you so much for your grace you've given us in Christ. We're so thankful we don't deserve any of it. But you have been so gracious in giving us Christ his body was broken for us. Because blood was shed for us and help us now to remember him. Not just in this moment, but throughout this week to remember him to renew our commitment day by day to to you God to say yes, God, we love you. We want to love each other. Help us by your Spirit to do this. Help us to proclaim Christ through all that we do it through all the we are praying his name, amen.
Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!
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