The Lord's Supper
Brandon Langley
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 58:59
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Good morning,
If you have your bibles with you let me invite you to open with me to the book of Mark chapter 14.
We will read verses 22-25 and then pray for understanding here in just a moment.
If you have been around Christianity for very long, you will recognize this morning’s text as an important text.
This is where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper.… one of the most important moments of Christian worship in the church.
So we are going to read the text and then we are going to work through some background information which will help us understand the importance of this moment.
then we are going to look at..
Two things the Supper is not.
Three things God does through the Supper
and Three ways we respond to God through the supper.
So lets read, pray, and dive in.
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Lets Pray
In last week’s text.., we saw that preparations were being made by Jesus.
He sent two of his disciples to secure a location for Jesus and his disciples to celebrate the passover meal.
The tension at this point in the narrative is high.
In Mark chapter 14, we have just been told that the religious leaders are actively scheming to murder Jesus.
And we have now been told that Judas, is aiming to betray Jesus and deliver Jesus into their hands.
Jesus’ death is now imminent…
It is coming to pass, just as Jesus had predicted time and time again…
but before his arrest,
before his betrayal,
before his crucifixion,
Jesus desires to share this meal with his disciples.
I say THIS meal, because it is not just any meal…
It is the passover meal.. in fact Luke tells us of Jesus’ desire explicitly.
15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
This meal is what Jesus had earnestly desired to eat with his disciples.
We know this from Mark simply by the care that Jesus took to arrange the meal.…
If you remember, last week, Jesus flexed his divine knowledge a bit and told the disciples exactly who to meet and what to say so that they had a place to enjoy this meal and all things happened exactly as Jesus Directed.
And it is no accident that THIS meal is the passover.
We cannot understand this Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper, without understanding its connection to the annual supper of the passover.
Passover was integral to what it meant to be a Jew.
It was the annual reminder of God’s greatest act of salvation in the history of the world until that point.
Even our English word Pass-Over reminds us of what the feast was designed to teach.
The feast was designed to remind the people of God of the day that God’s wrath passed over them in Egypt.
If your unfamiliar with the story, let me give you the cliff notes.
The book of Exodus begins with a dismal portrayal of God’s people.
They are imprisoned, forced into difficult labor, and their children are being thrown into the Nile River by an evil Egyptian empire.
They are portrayed as helpless, hopeless, and crying out to God to deliver them.
And in Exodus 6, God answers.
5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
God calls Moses to himself, and sends Moses on a mission to confront the evil empire of Egypt.
God pummels the Egyptians with supernatural plagues from heaven and Pharoah continuously refuses to free God’s people…
after 9 truly awful plagues…, God warns of a tenth and final plague.
He will unleash his wrath upon every household in Egypt so that the first born Son of each household will die.
The only way of escape would be to follow Gods instructions very carefully.
Kill a spotless lamb…
spread its blood upon the doorposts of your house…
eat the lamb together
and prepare to leave because your leaving Egypt the next day.
All those who ignored God and did not hide beneath the blood of the lamb… experienced the wrath of God.
All those who trusted God and the blood of the lamb… were passed over that night…
They did not experience the wrath of God… the lamb’s blood atoned for or covered the house so that no one in the house had to die…. and the next day they were set free to follow the Lord toward the promised land.…
They would walk out of Egypt …
they would walk through the Red Sea on dry ground only to turn around and watch the most powerful army in the world be crushed by the full force of the Red Sea collapsing over top of them.
They would follow God manifested in a pillar of smoke by day and fire by night.
They would eat miracle bread from heaven, and drink miracle water from a rock.
The Exodus story in its totality is a display of God’s power, God’s wrath, God’s grace, God’s mercy.., and God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises.
Such a salvation deserved to be remembered.
The people of Israel would not always see God acting in such miraculous ways.
Things would not always be as clear and joyful as that day that they marched out of Egypt toward freedom…
but they would need to remember that day.
They would need to remember that God is more powerful then any empire in the world.
They would need to remember that God is merciful, gracious, and kind to them and that he had gone great lengths to save them.
They would need to remember to be thankful, joyful, and at peace under the loving leadership of their God.
even in God’s instructions to the Israelites when the event was about to happen…
God said that this would be an event that they would need to actively and intentionally remember.…
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
In order to help Israel remember such a mighty salvation… God gave them the gift of the passover feast.
Every year Israelites were to gather together to retell the story and to feast just as they had feasted the night before their great salvation.
This passover meal was God’s design not only for the individuals who experienced it to remember…
but it was God’s design for instructing and sustaining the faith of the next generation and the next generation.
Imagine eating the passover meal together, where the head of the household retells the story and the children ask questions, and you all eat unleavened bread because thats what the Israelites ate on that night long ago when they had to hurry out the next day.
And you eat lamb and you discuss the significance of the blood of the lamb being placed on the door so that the wrath of God would passover the home.
Every year, every generation, the people of God were to remember this very particular very unique act of salvation…
now fast forward a thousand years or so and here sits Jesus… celebrating with his disciples a remembrance of God’s most mighty act of salvation in human history ‘thus far’
and sitting at passover meal… Jesus now goes off script…
He does what only Jesus could do.
He sits at a meal commanded to be observed by God himself… and Jesus assigns seemingly new meaning to it About a new covenant between God and man.
But its not really new meaning as much as it is an illumination of the Passover meal’s fulfilled meaning.
The Israelites had not been remembering the passover story for 1,000 years only for their own spiritual nourishment…
They had been remembering the passover story for 1,000 years so that they might recognize what the events of the Exodus foreshadowed.
When God ordained the sacrifice of the spotless lamb in Exodus 12:5,
God ordained the death of that Lamb so that it would point forward to the accomplishment of another spotless lamb to come.
When God saved his people from slavery in Egypt and destroyed Pharoah… he was preparing the world for a much grander salvation of A much larger people from a much more powerful slave master.
John the Baptist new exactly who Jesus was and what he had come to do On the day Jesus began his public ministry.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
and here on this night before Jesus’ blood would be splattered on the wooden posts of the cross.…
Jesus takes the elements of the passover feast…
and he essentially says these things are actually about me. There is a new covenant, a new salvation to remember now.
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Jesus instituted this new way of remembrance that you and I call the Lord’s Supper, or perhaps you call it the Eucharist (which means thanksgiving), or perhaps you call it communion.
Jesus gave a command to his disciples which is not recorded here but that the disciples obviously heeded according to Luke.
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Jesus was establishing a new meal of remembrance that should be observed by all Christians in every generation…
All four of the gospel writers highlight the importance of this moment..
And we actually have a window into first century churches observing this through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.
23 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, 24 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.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians was written to a church over two decades after this passover evening with Jesus’ disciples.…
and Paul says… I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you…
In other words… this practice of observing a meal in remembrance of God’s great salvation through Jesus was passed down from one Christian generation to the next in obedience to Jesus’ command on this night.
So thats a bit of the background.
That’s a bit of the foundational material we need to start piecing together the significance of the supper.
But there is still more work to be done before we move positively into what God does through the supper… because over the centuries, different church traditions assigned new and foreign meanings to what was happening here.
so we need to talk about what Jesus is NOT saying before we nail down what he is saying about the Lord’s Supper
Two Things God is Not Doing in the Lord’s Supper:
#1 God is Not Re-Crucifying the Physical Jesus in the Lord’s Supper
#1 God is Not Re-Crucifying the Physical Jesus in the Lord’s Supper
This is one of the points where our church’s doctrine is different from Roman Catholic doctrine.
Roman Catholicism teaches that when Jesus says “this is my body” and “this is my blood”… Jesus is saying that when you take the Lord’s Supper It literally and physically changes into the physical body and blood of Jesus.
The bread of the Lord’s supper is the real physical body of Jesus and that the cup is the real physical blood of Jesus once its blessed by the priest.
This is what Catholics call the doctrine of tran-substantiation.
And that is not the position of our church.
Jesus says many things in the gospels that are meant to serve us as powerful metaphors.
And he does this consistently.
Jesu says
- I am the door,
- I am the bread of life,
- I am the gate,
- I am vine, you are the branches,
- I am the light of the world.
Jesus is not a physical door, nor is he physical bread, nor is he a physical gate, nor is he a physical vine, nor is he physically and literally light… but rather Jesus utilizes metaphors to make spiritual and theological points Understandable.
Jesus is no more the physical bread and wine of the Lord’s supper then he is truly a physical door, or gate, or vine.
When Jesus, “this is my body” and “this is my blood”, he is assigning new symbolism to the passover meal so that we can remember a new act of salvation.
Jesus intends for Christians to deeply reflect on the events of the cross when they physically break the bread, pour out the cup, and then partake in the blessings that flow from that sacrifice.
#1 God is Not Re-Crucifying the Physical Jesus over and over again in the Lord’s Supper so that we physically and literally eat Jesus’ flesh.
#2 God is Not Giving Saving Grace Through the Lord’s Supper
#2 God is Not Giving Saving Grace Through the Lord’s Supper
Because Roman Catholic doctrine has taught that the Lord’s Supper is the literal And real physical receiving of Jesus… they have assigned salvific power to the supper.
By that I mean… in the supper you actually receive physical tangible grace which contributes to your salvation.
So whereas, we would say, the Supper helps us to remember a salvation we have already received through our faith in the cross.
Catholic doctrine would be more comfortable saying the Supper contributes to our salvation because in it we actually receive saving grace.
This is the largest divide between Catholics and Protestants.…
Protestants teach that salvation is a miracle of God in which God grants eternal life to someone who trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is a miracle and it happens in a moment in time, and is forever solidified in eternity.
We are not saved by what we do… only by who we trust… by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone.
But most Catholics will understand salvation to be a process in which you partake in certain sacraments and try not to sin to much, and along the way you hopefully get more and more security for a future salvation.
The difference becomes clear in this scenario. If God were to ask a Catholic and a Protestant why he should allow them into heaven.
Most Catholic people would respond with a list of reasons why they should be allowed into the Kingdom of God. They would list attendance to mass, baptism as a baby, their frequency of confession to a priest, their avoidance of the big sins, and perhaps even their partaking in the Eucharist throughout their life.
The protestant, however, would respond to that question very simply… Only through faith in the blood of Jesus.
Nothing contributes to our salvation, nothing but saving faith and trust in what Jesus did for us…
#2 God is not giving saving grace through the Lord’s Supper… its already been given in Jesus.
So what is Jesus doing by instituting this new way of worshipping and remembering him?
What is God’s plan for the Lord’s Supper according to Mark along with the rest of New Testament Teaching:
Three Things God is Doing in the Lord’s Supper:
#1 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is Turning Our Eyes to What Jesus Did on the Cross
#1 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is Turning Our Eyes to What Jesus Did on the Cross
or put another way… the Lord’s supper keeps the real physical substitutionary atonement central to our every day faith.
This is the essence of the good news of Christianity that we must remind ourselves of… Jesus’ blood was poured out “for” you.
Look back at Mark now…
at a meal where they are remembering the slaughter of a spotless lamb, whose blood, would cover them and protect them from the wrath of God…
Jesus takes the bread… breaks it… and says this is my body..
He takes the cup.. pours it… and says “this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out “for many”.
Jesus wants them to remember that he was going to the cross “for” them..
That word “for” is important.
He is going to the cross on their behalf.
He is going in their place.
He is taking upon himself what they should take.
Jesus has already taught similarly.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This is the essence of Christianity.
We are sinners and we deserve the fullness of the wrath of God...
But God loves us....
And thus he made a way the judgment we deserve to pass over us.
he made that way of forgiveness by pouring out his judgment on a sinless, spotless, sacrifice, namely Jesus the eternal Son of God who was born into this world to die for this world.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
If you are a Christian this morning, I am sure that you are in need of many things…
But I can guarantee you this… you need to rehearse the central message of Christianity and all of the implications of this fact…
….Jesus died for you.…
And Jesus believed that you would need to rehearse this reality regularly.
the Lord’s Supper forces this rehearsal and makes it physically tangible to us.
The Lord’s Supper emphasizes to all of our physical senses… that this gospel is true.
When we feel the bread in our hands… and we consider this fact that Jesus’ body was beaten, broken, and buried for us…
We see the dark crimson color of the wine in the cup and we remember that it was his blood that he intentionally, and willingly poured out as a sacrifice for our sin.
We eat and we drink… and we realize a fresh that we are benefactors of this sacrifice… we are one with him and he is one with us.
What he took.. he took for us and for our sins…
Drew let me borrow this fantastic little book called “a Gospel Primer for Christians” and in it is one’s man’s reflections and commitment to remembering the message of the cross every day.
Let me read a few exerpts,
“God did not give us His gospel message just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, he offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness. The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting available benefits from the gospel each day. We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.
The more I exult in the reality of my justification in Christ, the more I position myself to experience the full governing forces of its sanctifying power in my life.”
There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.
The deeper I go into the gospel, the more I comprehend and confess aloud the depth of my sinfulness. A gruesome death like the one that Christ endured for me would only be required for one who is exceedingly sinful and unable to appease a holy God. Consequently, whenever I consider the necessity and manner of His death, along with the love and selflessness behind it, I am laid bare and utterly exposed for the sinner I am… Such an awareness of my sinfulness does not drag me down, but actually serves to lift me up by magnifying my appreciation of God’s forgiving grace in my life. And the more I appreciate the magnitude of God’s forgiveness of my sins, the more I love Him and delight to show Him love through heart-felt expressions of worship.
If you are here this morning and you are suffocating under the weight of your mistakes and your failures...
- Jesus intends that through the Supper… you might turn your eyes to the cross....,
- You do not have to keep punishing yourself for your failures… Jesus took that punishment...
Look to the cross and be comforted.
Look to the cross and be thankful.
Look to the cross and see God’s love for you.
Look to the cross and be grounded in what really matters in this world.
If you are here this morning and you have drifted into arrogance, selfishness, and worldliness.
If your logic has become the logic of the world and you sound a lot like your non-Christian friends when you talk about your plans for your life.... look to the cross..
Look to the cross and be humbled.
Look to the cross for what really matters.
Look to the cross for the clearest example of love, godliness, and glory.
Look to the cross and see your arrogance, and your idolatry for what it is and what it deserves.
If your here this morning and you have just forgotten why you want to live the Christian life or why you are making such sacrifices to make disciples, or care for the hurting, or share the gospel.
Look to the cross and be reminded.
Look to the cross and see the punishment sinners will receive lest they turn to Christ.
Look to the cross and see the love that sinners are offered if they turn to Christ.
Look to the cross and consider your sacrifices as small in comparison To the sacrifice he made.
We desperately need to rehearse the good news of the gospel message all the time, every day, without ceasing.
We are a forgetful people in need of remembrance.
And God is so gracious that he has provided ways to turn our eyes again and again to what is the main thing.
Truth #1 Through the Lord’s Supper, God turns our eyes to what Jesus did on the cross
But thats not all.
#2 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is Turning Our Eyes to what Jesus is Doing in His Church
#2 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is Turning Our Eyes to what Jesus is Doing in His Church
God chose for us to remember his great salvation through a meal around a table for a reason.
Remember Jesus’ words as he says this cup that is poured out is the “new covenant” in my blood.
The word covenant carries with it this meaning of “relational commitment” or “relational agreement”
It is the cup of a new relationship…. It is a new relationship with God that is living and active now.
When we partake in the Lord’s Supper, it is as if we have accepted an invitation to enjoy table fellowship with Christ Jesus and with one another.
I am fearful that we have lost much of this through the way we partake in the Lord’s Supper in very sort of liturgical and solemn way.
We do not gather around an altar when we partake in the Lord’s Supper;
the final sacrifice has already been made….
We gather around a table of fellowship because there is now only fellowship to be had With a risen Jesus and his followers.
Listen to Paul’s words as he speaks of the Lord’s Supper to the church in Corinth as a participation.
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
That word “participation” is translated as “fellowship” in other places.
In fact its the word that Luke uses to describe the very first Christian church.
Acts 2:42 tells us that the church devoted themselves to the fellowship… the united community of faith.
There is a sense that when we partake of the Lord’s Supper we all sit around the table with Jesus as if he were reclined beside us.
There is a relational union that we have with Christ that is real and present in this moment of worship…
WE are drawn nearer to Jesus and at the same time we are drawn nearer to one another.
Jesus is creating a new people for himself through the cross and that people is found in the church and it is reflected in the Supper.
Edmund Clooney writes this in his chapter on the Lord’s Supper:
“The Lord’s Supper is not a self-served, frozen TV dinner, enjoyed alone before the television Screen. Baptism is not to be celebrated in the privacy of one’s bath shower… sacramental blessing is to be found in the company of God’s People. -Edmund Clowney
We are a people who find our sweetest companionship and fellowship around our common faith in Jesus.
This is one of the hundreds of reasons that you are living in a state of unrepentant sin if you do not join yourself to a church where you can regularly partake in the Lord’s Supper.
It is impossible to obey Jesus’ command. Do this in remembrance of me… if you do not join a fellowship of Christians who gather to remember Jesus through the Lord’s Supper.
The fact that Jesus died for us, changes everything about us and how we relate to one another in the community of the church God has built for himself.
Listen again to this excerpt from “A Gospel Primer for Christians”
“The Cross exposes me before the eyes of other people, informing them of the depth of my depravity. If I wanted others to think highly of me, I would conceal the fact that a shameful slaughter of the perfect Son of God was required that I might be saved. But when I stand at the foot of the cross and am seen by others under the light of that Cross, I am left uncomfortably exposed before their eyes. Indeed the most humiliating gossip that could ever be whispered about me is blared from Golgotha’s hill; and my self-righteous reputation is left in ruins in the wake of its revelations. With the worst facts about me thus exposed to the view of others, I find myself feeling that I truly have nothing left to hide. Thankfully, the more exposed I see that I am by the Cross, the more I find myself opening up to others about ongoing issues of sin in my life. (Why would anyone be shocked to hear of my struggles with past and present sin when the Cross already told them I am a desperately sinful person?”) And the more open I am confessing my sins to fellow Christians, the more I enjoy the healing of the Lord in response to their grace-filled counsel and prayers. Experiencing richer levels of Christ’s love in companionship with the saints. I give thanks for the gospel’s role in forcing my hand toward self-disclosure and the freedom that follows.” - Milton Vincent
#1 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is turning our eyes to what Jesus Did at the cross
#2 Through the Lord’s Supper, God is turning our eyes to what Jesus is doing in His Church
and lastly,
#3 Through the Lord’s Supper, God Turns Our Eyes to what Jesus will Do in the End
#3 Through the Lord’s Supper, God Turns Our Eyes to what Jesus will Do in the End
Notice what Jesus promises in verse 25.
Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus emphasizes not that he will never take of this meal with his followers again… but that he will partake it new with them one day in the Kingdom of God!
Jesus, time and time again spoke of the coming Kingdom of God as if it were a great banquet.
One day our eternity with God will include table fellowship with God and with one another.
The perfect family, with a heavenly father around the dinner table.
Listen to John’s vision of this coming day in Revelation where every person who has ever come to faith in this Jesus will sit around the table And enjoy a great supper.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
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, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
Church when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, Paul says we proclaim the Lord’s death Until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26)
And when he comes there will be a great banquet that all peoples of all languages and nations will gather together in celebration of the salvation they have received.
We are about to partake of the Lord’s Supper this morning and proclaim what Christ has done, is doing, and will do.
So how should you respond to this act of worship:
Three responses to the Lord’s Supper:
#1 Reflect -
This act of worship is for people who have been saved through their faith in Jesus.
It is not for unbelievers. In fact, it serves as a line in the sand.
You are either a participant in the saving benefits of the blood of Jesus or you are not.
You either follower Jesus as Lord and savior and believe in him or you don’t.
If you are not a Christian here this morning… please abstain from partaking this morning. Reflect on your standing before God and whether you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again on the third day.
If you are a Christian, the supper is an opportunity for us to examine ourselves.
In Corinth, the people were partaking the supper flippantly while sinning against brothers and sisters within the church.… They were not considering the meaning of the supper because they were actively living their lives contrary to the gospel.
Paul warns them with these words.
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
The supper is a time to reflect on your life and ask a simple question…
Does my life align with what I believe about the cross…
Upon reflection.. you then repent.
#2 Repent
As we consider the cross and the sin that put Jesus on the cross.
As we consider our lives and the ways we fall short.
It should lead us to repentance.
It should lead us to actively seek the Lord’s mercy, and the Lord’s help to turn away from the things that put Jesus on the cross.
The Lord’s Supper is a built in reminder to keep on repenting from sin that leads to death.
…we all sin… we all fail.. Sinlessness is not the evidence of a true Christian
Rather it is repentance is the evidence of a true Christian.
We sin… and then we repent… we turn from it… we hate it.. we want to overcome it… we turn to God for help to fight it.
In the Lord’s Supper we turn to Christ for the strength he provides to fight the sin he died for.
#3 Rejoice
The Lord’s Supper is called the Eucharist which means thanksgiving.
When we reflect, and repent, we are very quickly ushered into thankfulness, and joy,
because all of our sins have been paid for.
We are partakers of all the divine blessings Jesus accomplished for us simply by virtue of believing in this Jesus.
Conclusion:
We are going to conclude by responding in this way.
As the ushers distribute the bread and the cup… we are going to spend a few quiet moments
reflecting
repenting
rejoicing
and then we will partake together and respond in worship.
Lets Pray
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
take the bread
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
Take the cup
Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”