We’re in a wonderful series called The Ministry of Jesus, where we are examining events in the life of Jesus, teachings in the life of Jesus. And today, we have come to a very important chapter, and that is the Lord’s Supper. And so if you are ready, we’re going to dive into this, and we’re going to do something a little bit different today. So last week, I preached 45 minutes. Today, I’m going to go 30, Lord willing. And then what we’re going to do is, after the lesson, in the congregation here, you guys are going to have small discussion groups. Now, we don’t need to physically move our chairs. But if you want to move a chair to help out, you can do that. But what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a discussion question that will be up on the screen regarding the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. So we’re going to take the bread together, have a four-minute discussion, and then we’re going to pray again and take the wine, the fruit of the vine, and we’re going to have another discussion for four more minutes. So this is a little bit different.
I hope you benefit from meditating upon the Lord’s Supper with some people around you here in the church. Before we go to God’s word, let’s pray together. Holy Father, Thank you so much for what was accomplished on the cross. I pray, Father, that as we look at this event and what Jesus initiates bringing us the Lord’s Supper, that we will learn and be pleasing to you in what we learn and how we conduct ourselves during the Lord’s Supper. Bless this reading of your scriptures and meditation on it. We pray in your son’s name. Amen. Then came the day of the unloved bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John saying, ‘Go make preparations for us to eat the Passover. Where do you want us to prepare it? ‘ They asked. On the next slide, we’re going to see a a quiet miracle. You ready? Jesus replied, As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters. And say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks, ‘Where’s the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
‘ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there. They left and found things just as Jesus Jesus had told them, so they prepared the Passover. Isn’t that a quiet miracle that Jesus would know exactly the events, who they would meet, the upper room would be ready? And I think this is a reflection of how God is often working in our life in quiet little miracles. Maybe we don’t notice them unless we have eyes to see, but God is working in our lives all the time in ways we may or may not notice. When the When the hour came, Jesus and his Apostles reclined at the table, and he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you, for I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit the vine until the Kingdom comes. Before we move on to the next slide, I just want to point out that Jesus is indicating to his disciples that he’s about to suffer.
You guys saw that, that he’s saying, I’m about to suffer. And then the two times in this short time, he mentions the Kingdom of God. Now, I believe my doctrine position on the Kingdom of God is it doesn’t necessarily mean when we get to heaven. I believe the Kingdom of God is the part that we can be a part of, is the church right here, right now. And I believe what Jesus is excited about is not only saving you and me individually, but saving us as a large family, as a community of believers. That’s why he’s going to go to the cross, is to create the church an oasis in this difficult, sinful world, where his people can come together and be an extended community, an extended family. Let’s read on. And he took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. ‘ In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Now, once again, before we move on from this frame, I want to point out a couple of things.
He says, Do this. Do what? So he’s starting something new. He says, When you do this, in other words, when you have this meal together, this brand new memorial service, when you do this in the future, do it. Why do we do the Lord’s Supper? We do it in remembrance of me, to remember Jesus Christ. And then he says something, that when I was growing up and I read this scripture, did not mean anything to me. He said, This covenant is the new ‘New Covenant’ in my blood, which is poured out for you. Now, I just thought when he said ‘New Covenant’, maybe he meant a new ceremony, who’s starting off something. So when we finish reading this passage, We’re going to circle back and talk about the significance briefly of what a New Covenant meant, because for 12 Jewish guys sitting around him, that was an electric term. When he said New Covenant, it had great deep meaning for them, even if for us, Gentile people in the Western 21st century, it may not mean as much. It was very important to them. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine at the table.
The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him. ‘ They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. And by the way, we know from the account of Matthew and from the account of Mark, that it was Judas Iscariot who was going to betray him. Then it says, Disappointingly, a dispute also arose those among them as to which would be the greatest. So he’s telling them, I’m bringing you a new covenant. He’s telling them, I’m going to suffer. So they decide to have an argument about who would be the greatest. That’s what they decided that they would do at what we now revere as one of the most important spiritual events in all history, the creation of the Lord’s Supper. They’re having it. I think I should be the general and you should be the colonel, and he could be the captain. I think I would run it better than you guys. Oh, no, you be the colonel. So looking back with hindsight, we know how ridiculous this is. But I want to challenge you. How often have you taken the Lord’s Supper and your mind’s not where it’s supposed to be?
Just like these men, you’re not catching the spiritual significance of what we’re doing. Your mind is someplace yourselves, maybe on your job, maybe on responsibilities, wherever, maybe on anxieties or concerns, or hobbies. But we can laugh at these guys, but then we have to consider ourselves as well. So let’s briefly go back over the text and talk about a couple of things. I want to talk briefly about the New Covenant. I want to talk about what Jesus is starting. And then I want to talk about what does Jesus expect of us with this event that he has started. So on the New Covenant, we’re going to read one section of scripture out of the Book of Hebrews. It says, But in fact, the Ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs. The writer of Hebrews is talking about Moses and the Israelites. The Ministry Jesus has received, is as superior to theirs, as the covenant of which he a mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant, this is a wonderful phrase, is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
But God found fault with… He didn’t find fault with the covenant. God found fault with the people and said, The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ‘ So I just want to explain this right here. The old covenant that he’s talking about is the Moses Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant. Here’s the promise in the Mosaic Covenant. If you obey God, you’ll be blessed. If you disobey God, you’ll be cursed. How do you feel about that promise? So What I see is there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s fair. That’s just fair. If you’re good, you’re blessed. If you’re bad, you’re cursed. What’s the problem? Our human frailty, right? We’re not going to be able to pull this off successfully. This is literally a works salvation position. If you do good, you get blessed. If you do bad, you get cursed. We need to be rescued from this. We need to be rescued from it, even though it’s fair. And so the Christ covenant, the new covenant that he’s brought is this. If you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, God will forgive our human weakness and sin through the cross and the resurrection.
These are better promises. Now, some of the first covenant is folded into the second covenant, and that is, there’s still a little bit of you reap what you sow. That’s It’s still in effect. God often blesses people who do good, and confronts people, and punishes people who do bad. But we’re not under this covenant fully anymore. God has brought us grace and mercy. Amen. That’s the better covenant that Jesus is bringing right there at that last supper. So we talk briefly about the new covenant, and I want to answer these two questions. What is Jesus starting, and what does he expect? I want to answer them both at the same time by reading one more somewhat long text of scripture. Are you able to go there with me? All right, so what we’re talking about, before we read this, we’re going to use these terms interchangeably. The Lord’s Supper is also called communion. In some churches, it’s also called the Eucharist. Although the term Eucharist often is not meant to describe the event. It’s meant to describe the actual bread and wine, primarily the bread in a lot of churches, But this is what we’re talking about, the Lord’s Supper.
It’s also called those other two names. And you will see the apostle Paul actually use the phrase, the Lord’s Supper. He is going to talk to the church in Corinthians about how they take the Lord’s Supper, and he’s going to correct them pretty strongly. In the following directives, I have no praise for you for your meetings. That would be the Sunday services, most likely. For your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent, I believe it. No doubt, there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? Certainly not. It looks like that the Lord’s Supper was folded into, was joined into a meal that has often been called a love feast.
The early church often had dinners, apparently from what Paul is writing here, perhaps they did it every single week where they had a meal, and then they would do the Lord’s Supper after the meal. But it’s not going well because members in the church are inconsiderate and insensitive to other members in the church. For 2000 years in church history, we’ve We’ve been trying to figure out how to have a church service and have a meal and have the Lord’s Supper. And across the denominations, no one’s done a great job of figuring that out. I would love it if we had a meal every time we had the Lord’s Supper. But I will tell you that we’ve done that in the past, outdoors. Do you guys remember that? Sometimes we would break up by community groups, and I found it not a successful experience because you have kids running around, people coming up to you while you’re trying to have the Lord’s Supper. Maybe someday we’ll figure that out. But I find a little bit of comfort in the line that says, Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? If you can’t pull off a full meal, eat at home.
And so lots of churches have come down to only taking the bread and wine in order to focus on the Lord’s Supper. I’m fine with that. I would prefer a meal. I don’t know how to logistically get there. So that’s what’s going on There we go. Paul continues, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. ‘ In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Why do we do the Lord’s Supper? So I believe, doctrinally, I believe this is the answer right here. Jesus has said it. He says it twice. I want you to do this to remember me. Now, there are other ideas that I’m not going to go in length to talk about, but just briefly, there are other groups that believe, or some people believe, that you get your sins forgiven all over again when you take the Lord’s Supper.
Like, if I was sinful this week, if I was bad this week, I’ll go to church on Sunday, take the Lord’s Supper, and I get cleansed all over again. I don’t believe that’s actually happening. I believe our sins were forgiven once for all at the cross. I believe the primary purpose of communion is to remember Jesus Christ. That’s the primary reason. Now, this opens up the idea that you could actually remember anything that you want to about Jesus Christ. That could be an occasion for it. But we do see down at this last sentence, it says, You proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So I do believe it’s appropriate that your remembering of Jesus has a primary focus of what was a accomplished, and his sacrifice when he died on the cross. So then whenever you eat the bread, So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgment on themselves.
That is why many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. And so now we see that there’s the possibility that you and I could take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy rather than worthy manner. He’s saying we can do this. Now, I think what he’s talking about here when he says, If you drink without discerning the body of Christ, he’s already explained a problem, and that is in the church, some people were having these private suppers and going on and taking people who were poor or had no food and ignoring them and humiliating them. So I actually think when he says discerning the body of Christ, he may probably be talking the church rather than his physical body. But of course, both are valuable. And so I think during the Lord’s Supper, we ought to be sensitive to each other, and we should also reflect on what Jesus sacrificed in his own flesh and with his own blood. Now, a lot of that problem of people eating the Lord’s Supper in an insensitive way has been dealt with since Paul wrote a letter about it. And so now that’s not a common thing in any churches I’ve ever heard of or visited, where some people go ahead and start the Lord’s Supper without other people.
So I think that problem in particular has been dealt with. I think the bigger problem of taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, is something we could bring to a 21st century context. How can we do it right? And how can we do it wrong today? Let’s finish reading this text, and then I have some final thoughts before we go to the Lord’s Supper. But if we are more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. So here’s a concluding thought I have on how to take the Lord’s Supper in a right way and in a wrong way. Number one, show sensitivity to your brothers. So to state the obvious, don’t make a cell phone call while people are taking the Lord’s Supper together. Don’t have a conversation while people are taking the Lord’s Supper together. If you have children in the congregation and they become active during the taking the Lord’s Supper, perhaps you would take them outside during the Lord’s Supper.
Be sensitive to one another during the taking of the Lord’s Supper. Amen. So the reason I put a checkmark here is I think the first century letter really helped us not have a major problem with that. Here’s the second thing. Remember Jesus with a focus on his death on the cross. Number three, examine yourself. So here’s a question for you. What role do your thoughts play in taking the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner? How What important is your thinking during the Lord’s Supper? Here’s another way to put it. Where is your mind during the Lord’s Supper? What are you thinking about during the Lord’s Supper? And I want to state this as a conviction. The Lord’s Supper is remembering and responding to the greatest act of sacrificial love in history. Will we forget Jesus? I say we will not forget what he did. And he’s created the Lord’s Supper so that we will not forget the greatest act of love in history. The Lord’s Supper is not a thoughtless ritual. It’s not a thoughtless ritual. So the question is, what are we thinking about during the Lord’s Supper? So I have some suggestions. Here’s some things you can think about during the Lord’s Supper, and this is not an exhaustive list.
There are a lot of ways that you can respond to what Jesus did on the cross, a lot of different things that you can think about and meditate on that would be appropriate. And the first is to reflect on the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Sometimes I even try to imagine visually, what it would look like for Jesus to be crucified. And that’s a gruesome memory, but I think it’s good for me to remember what an incredible sacrifice he made on the cross. Another Another thing you could possibly think about is why he did it. Why did he suffer on the cross? How great was his love, and how great was his submission to the Father? Do you remember in the garden of Gethsemani the night before? He said, Father, not my will, but yours be done. So there’s this combination of his love and his submission to the loving will of the Father and his faith. Did you ever think about Jesus having faith? You’re like, No, it’s Jesus. He doesn’t need faith. Here’s what Jesus, as a human, was facing. Father, will you really raise me from the dead? Like, I’m going to die on a cross.
I’m going all the way to the edge with this. Do I actually believe my Father will raise me from the dead. And of course, he demonstrated extraordinary faith as an example for us. So here’s another thing, examining yourself. Now, here’s some different ways that you could possibly examine yourself. How am I responding to the love of Jesus? Are you responding to the love of Jesus? How am I treating my brothers and sisters? And how is my walk with God? Am I living like Christ and imitating Christ? I think it might be appropriate, maybe not every communion, but it might be appropriate periodically to just think about your sins, your shortcomings, and to be grateful for Jesus’s death on the cross, and to recommit to a repentent lifestyle where you want to be obedient to Christ. And maybe a last thing that I could suggest and thought of is to have love and gratitude to think about that for being saved by the cross. And I put the word more because I don’t pretend to know everything that we can know about reflecting on the cross. But I hope we will not go into the Lord’s Supper thoughtlessly as a ritual, but that we will eat and drink the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner by using our thoughts and minds to be responsive to his great love on the cross.
So I took a picture of this little cup. It doesn’t look like much, does it? It’s a humble thing. What gives this cup significance? And I believe it’s your remembrance and your meditation that gives this cup significance. So here’s This is what we’re going to do. I would like you to form a group of three to six people where you are seated and discuss the following question. And we’re actually going to have a Timer put up here so you can prepare to be able to wrap up your discussion. We’re going to do this twice. We’re going to have a four-minute discussion about the bread. And so what that would mean is you would take this humble little cup and you would take the bread out. I’ll pray before we do this. Take the bread out, and then we’re going to have a time of discussion on this question, what moves you? What moves you about Jesus giving his body and shedding his blood on the cross? What moves you emotionally? What moves you intellectually? What moves you in your lifestyle of what Jesus accomplished on the cross? And then the other question we’re going to ask after that is, what are some important memories that you have of Jesus?
But first, what we’re going to do, I’ll say a prayer, and that is those around you who you can easily get in a discussion with. If you need to move a chair, it’s okay. Let’s have a discussion for four minutes on what moves you about Jesus, giving me his body and shedding his blood on the cross. Let us pray. Father, it is so amazing the degree of love that you showed in sending your son. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were willing to give the ultimate sacrifice of giving your body unto death for us. Help us to be responsive to you. We pray in your son’s name. Amen. Amen.
I’m going to take this.
Okay. Isn’t it great to reflect on what was done on the cross? All right, let’s pray again. I’m going to pray, and then after I pray, we can continue our discussion. This This time, I’m going to ask you to go ahead and drink the fruit of the vine. I have an additional question with another aspect of reflection on the cross, but let’s pray and we’ll look at that second question. And then after we have a second time of reflection, I have a closing scripture for us, and then we’ll do some singing. Let’s pray together. Father, I don’t know what it’s like to shed blood for somebody else. I’ve never done that. It would never cross my mind. But I know, Father, in the scriptures, it says without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness. And so we just want to say, Father, that we know we were trapped in sin and that we were helpless and we had no way to rescue ourselves. And you came and gave your body and you gave your blood to rescue us, Father. And I just pray that we would have a sober, deep-hearted response to that by being people who want to please you.
We that we are not perfect, Father. We know you’ve brought a solution even for that. And we thank you so much. Be with us and help our remembrance of the shedding of your blood to be pleasing to you. We pray in your son’s name. Amen. Amen.
Okay. Let us try to conclude our conversations. I want to tell you a story. I was able to reflect with some of the singers up here with these questions, and Betty Spark shared that what she remembered about Jesus was this personal thing. After she became a Christian, she wanted to be a hard fighting soldier for Jesus. And she got up on a bus in Jamaica and started preaching to the bus. And she said she felt Jesus with her. I just thought I’d share that with you. It’s such an interesting question because if you ask, what do you remember about Jesus? Well, first of all, you’re like, I never met Jesus. I’ve never been around him. But if you stop and think about it, we do have a relationship with Christ, don’t we? And he has been with us and working in our lives. So I hope these things have been helpful to you. I want to close with a scripture. Janai, I don’t know if you can put on 2 Corinthians 5 up on the board. Very good. I believe this scripture captures how we should respond to Jesus in the Lord’s Supper in such a powerful and wonderful way.
It says, For Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. That means we die to our old way of life because of Christ and the new life he’s offering. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. Do you see that what we think about in communion is the primary motive of our entire Christian life, that he died for us, and we are changed people, no longer selfish, but trying to love like he loved. Let’s pray together, and then we’ll do some singing. Thank you again, Father. Thank you so much. Father, give us hearts of gratitude. Give us hearts where our gratitude for you and our love in response to your sacrifice compels us, Father. Help us to be compelled by your great love. Thank you so much for saving us and being our savior. We pray in your son’s name. Amen.