WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.199 Well, good morning, beloved. 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:02.799 Morning. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000 I just have to say I really appreciated and enjoyed all your singing. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:14.800 It just wafted over me and Royal and I looked at each other and just said, wow, wow, it's wonderful. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.920 Let's take our Bibles and go to the Gospel of Matthew. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:23.440 If you would join me there in chapter 26 of Matthew. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.960 We're reaching the end of this book. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:35.439 We've been in it for quite some time. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:43.920 We're slowing down as Matthew slows down here to give us an insight into the last days of Jesus Christ. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.439 Let's take a look at the passage that we're going to be examining this morning. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.439 Look at verse 26 of chapter 26. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:05.599 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed, and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take and eat it. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:07.200 This is my body. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:13.519 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink from it, all of you. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:21.599 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:29.359 But I tell you, and I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:33.519 And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:56.560 As we stated last week, this passage that we're looking at is built on it within the context of the Passover, the Jewish annual celebration of their deliverance from Egypt and the slavery that they were in there 1,500 years before. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:15.840 So we stated last week the Passover was a meal that was based on that night when God himself came down and moved through the land of Egypt and slew the firstborn in that last of ten awful plagues against the country because of Pharaoh's hardness of heart. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:29.520 As God came in judgment upon each household, he would pass over the homes that had the blood of a lamb displayed on the outside of the doorposts. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:36.719 Every year from that point forward, the Jewish people would celebrate that wonderful deliverance. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:50.960 God told them that when they did celebrate it, such as he says in Exodus 13, you should tell your sons, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:03:14.560 The Passover was to be instituted as a symbol of what God was doing or about to do by bringing his mighty intervention on their behalf to rescue them from slavery, from the grip of Pharaoh, take them out of Egypt, to deliver them into a land of promise. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:16.639 A symbol. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:33.919 They renewed their vows. 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:42.400 And in part of that little ceremony that we had, I asked them to join hands, particularly the hands that had their rings on them. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:50.879 And I laid my hand with my wedding ring band over their hands and prayed that God would bless them. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:04:08.719 And every time that they felt or saw or sensed the presence of that ring, they would recognize their vows, that they would go back to that time when they had made those solemn commitments to one another. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:15.120 Ten years ago, they gave those rings, quite a bit shinier, to one another. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:19.839 And as they did so, they followed in the words that I led them through. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:27.759 This ring I give you in token and pledge of our my constant trust and abiding love. 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:36.720 The rings, they're a seal, a token, a pledge of love and of commitment. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.199 We have a number of those kinds of things. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:46.160 Handshakes are a symbol or a token of our friendship and of our openness. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:57.360 What was once literally a, I don't have a knife in my hand, now becomes a symbol of friendship, a symbol of openness and peace. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:03.279 And a handshake becomes a symbol of commitment. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:05.680 We make promises to each other. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.959 And there was a day in our society when we would say, let's shake on that. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:18.560 And the shaking of a hand would be the symbol of a commitment to a promise made to one another. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:27.199 And if you had any doubt about it or anybody fulfilling that, you could say to that person, man, we shook hands on this. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:32.480 Our shaking of our hands was a symbol of our commitment. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:47.519 In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus takes the Jewish symbol and transforms it into the symbol of the Christian faith, communion, or the Lord's Supper, we call it. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:49.839 And it's a powerful symbol. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:55.279 And this morning I want us to see how Jesus creates this symbol and what it means. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:57.920 And as we go through this, I only have two points. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.160 They each have some subpoints, and hopefully I can lead you through those without confusing you. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:11.759 But the first thing I want us to notice about this passage of Scripture are the surprising elements that are found within the institution of the Lord's Supper. 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:18.319 The surprising elements here in the establishment of the Lord's Supper. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:29.199 Within this supper, full of symbolic importance, Jesus arrests our attention with some really shocking details. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.600 And the first is this a surprising audience. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:49.040 The Last Supper, as I said a moment ago, or the Passover, as I said ago, was a special meal, a special meal of households, a special meal when families would come together. 00:06:51.519 --> 00:07:14.399 Here, Jesus is portraying a special version of that meal, not by having the meal with his biological family, but by having the meal with his disciples, indicating to them that he is now viewing them as family, as family. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:24.720 In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus teaching, speaking to the crowd, and his mother and his brothers standing outside and were wanting to talk with them. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:31.920 And someone told him, Matthew 12, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they want to speak with you. 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:39.199 But to the one who told him this, Jesus replied, Well, who is my mother and who are my brothers? 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:46.079 And pointing to his disciples, he said, Hearer my mother and my brothers. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:52.160 For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:08:15.920 So Jesus here counterculturally is calling his disciples into a meal as his new family, as sort of not a surplanting or a doing away of his biological family, but as an extension of his family beyond blood relationships. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:33.120 And so the disciples, had they thought about it, and I'm not sure they did yet think about it, they would have understood the significance of this surprising gathering because of the audience that was there. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.639 That Jesus was inviting them into this celebration as family members. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:44.639 And he was also going to teach them how, as family, they should act with each other. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:09:01.679 Because it was during the context of this meal that Jesus steps away from the center of it all and grabs a basin and a towel and begins to wash the dust-crusted feet of these men in that room. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:08.559 While they were all looking at each other and arguing about who was the greatest in the room. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.120 And that is to be a part of a new family. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:04.639 That he called all of us into a new identity, that he's called us into a new way of life within his kingdom. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:12.799 And the things that we might have counted as markers of our identity are now subsumed by this greater identity. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:31.759 We are now no longer chiefly this ethnicity or that ethnicity or this social class or that social class or to gather predominantly with people of this shade of skin or of that shade of skin. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:37.279 We are here because of Jesus Christ, and we are here as his family. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.200 We're not here simply as guests of Jesus. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.279 We're here as fellow members of his family. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:50.000 We call God our Father and we call Christ our brother. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:11:00.799 Now, some people might think that participating in worship in a church service might be irrelevant or a waste of time, but it's not for us because we are here as Christ people. 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:03.600 We are here as family together. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:17.039 And like the disciples that evening, we too very often need to learn exactly what that means for us by way of our identity and how we are to act it out in loving, humble service to each other. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:38.159 And so as we sit in this room, or as you sit and I stand here, we look at each other not simply as a single solitary person among others, or perhaps myself with my biological family, or perhaps myself with my friends. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:47.200 No, we're here as spiritual brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and cousins. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:48.480 We're family here. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:49.840 We're family. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:58.559 Everyone who is in Christ, gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus, are worshiping together as family. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:03.360 In the first century, that concept was extremely important. 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:10.080 And they looked at that passage where Jesus said, Who is my mother and who are who are my brothers? 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:15.360 As one of the most quoted things that they talked about in first century Christianity. 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:16.480 Why? 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:23.600 Because in those days, when the gospel spread, it divided biological families. 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:27.600 It separated people from their own kin. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:31.120 It cut them off from blood relatives. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:41.759 And they found immense comfort in the knowledge that they had a family still, a spiritual family that bound them together as one. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:47.039 And I think that's part of the reason why our fellowship is so sweet here. 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:55.440 Because there's not many of us who have been raised in an evangelical family context. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.600 Many of us, we're the only Christians in our family. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.480 We don't even know Christians at work. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:07.519 The only place that we know believers in Christ is when we come here. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.159 And we're like, I'm home. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:11.440 I'm home. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.120 I'm with God's people. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:15.279 I'm with my family here. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:25.679 So one of the first surprising notes of this is the fact of the audience that is gathered. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:36.080 The second surprising part of the establishment of the Lord's Supper is the surprising authority that's found in what Jesus does. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:50.960 Israel had lived for nearly 1,500 years under the charter of their national identity and existence, which, when we read the Old Testament, was given to them on Sinai amid thunderings and lightning. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:14:04.879 If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me among above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom, a priest, and a holy nation. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:20.799 That covenant, that agreement, that treaty, if you will, on the part of God was ratified by a solemn act in which an animal's blood was shed and divided into two portions. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:26.960 One portion was sprinkled on the altar. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:46.639 Another portion of that blood, after the conditions of the covenant were read out, and the obligations of the covenant were stated, and the people pledged themselves to that covenant, Moses sprinkled the people with the blood. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:15:16.159 And now here is a Galilean peasant in a borrowed upper room within hours of his humiliating death, who is now stepping forward in the middle of a major meal of the life of the people of Israel. 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:24.000 And he is saying here, I am putting away the ancient covenant which has knit this nation to God. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:25.759 It is gone. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:31.679 And he is saying, in essence, I am the true offering, I am the true sacrifice. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:37.360 It is by my blood that a new covenant is being enacted. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.120 And it is built on better promises. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:54.480 If you think of this simply as that, that is one of the largest ex demonstrations of audacity this world has ever seen. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:55.600 Right? 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:03.519 Unless the one who spoke is indeed the word of God. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:18.559 That he is the one who is actually establishing a new covenant, and he who is the one who established the old covenant and has the right to say the new has superseded it. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:29.440 It's no wonder then when we read the Gospels, there's this booming voice from the heavens who said, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:30.480 Hear him. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:32.000 Hear him. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:41.679 You see, Jesus isn't here just to give us a little extra push in our understanding of how to live a fulfilled life. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:49.840 He isn't here just to give us a little extra wisdom to carry out our days with a little more peace than we might ordinarily have. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:58.799 No, he's here to reveal a wholly different relationship that all of us can have with the living God. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:07.440 A relationship that moves past this life into eternity, into the new heavens and the new earth. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:14.960 There's another surprising element here before we get to the significance of all of this. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:17.519 The surprising aim. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:19.759 The surprising aim. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:25.440 Jesus and his disciples were celebrating a Passover meal. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:28.559 But Jesus changes it all. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:33.519 He starts doing things with it that are unique. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:41.440 Now, certainly, following the normal course of the celebration, he takes bread, he blesses it, he breaks it. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:43.839 Nothing new there. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:49.200 But then he gives it to them and says, This is my body. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:58.880 Those words never have been told around a Passover meal before. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:11.200 Do you think those disciples who had been raised in that year after year after year after year would not have perked their ears up when Jesus made those comments? 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.119 Of course they would have. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:14.640 Hang on a second. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:16.160 What are you saying now? 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:30.640 And again, as the meal continues, he takes a cup and he says, drink from it, all of you. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:36.640 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:45.920 Again, people very familiar with the Passover, people very familiar with how it all went. 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:53.039 They didn't drink from one cup, they would drink their own cups. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:58.960 But now Jesus has them drink from a single cup. 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:02.079 All of you drink from this one. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.240 What is he doing? 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:13.759 He's breaking the pattern to introduce something new, and he's putting himself front and center of it all. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:30.640 He is putting his life and his death into the very place of that Passover lamb that was given as a sacrifice so that people might be passed over from the destructing judgment of God. 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.279 He's putting himself right there. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:48.480 And the details of the story of the Passover, the bitterness of the bondage, the sacrifice of the lamb, the deliverance from Egypt is all but a backdrop to Jesus showing how he himself is the new Passover lamb. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:55.440 And that his blood would be the new wine of the new Exodus. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:02.000 This is going to bring them beyond the Red Sea and separation from Pharaoh. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:11.200 This is going to bring them past the gulf of separation of a holy God into a new creation. 00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:24.160 Jesus uses this Passover to speak of his death and his resurrection, the forgiveness of sins, the new covenant, the kingdom of his Father. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:26.160 This is the Lord's Supper. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.400 This is what we celebrate together each month here. 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:48.480 Those surprising elements kind of fold themselves into this moment when Jesus, and here's my second point, talks about not only surprising elements in the institution of the Lord's Supper, but the significance found in the elements of the Lord's Supper. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:54.480 And the first thing we see is the significance of service. 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:56.799 The significance of service. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:32.079 When you read this account and you see the context around it, Jesus gives all of this that we've just been talking about within the context of Jesus speaking about his betrayal, Jesus speaking about his abandonment, Jesus speaking about being struck down, Jesus being isolated, and yet his willingness to continue to go forward on the behalf of those whose loyalties are about to fail miserably. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:52.400 In his words at the supper, there, he speaks of his determination to continue forward to go to the cross, to take up that supreme example of the servant role to which he had been calling his disciples to live. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:59.680 And he said in Matthew 20, verse 28 the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.079 A ransom for many. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:17.279 He is still determined to do this no matter if he gets betrayed, no matter if he is denied, no matter if he is left alone, even if their loyalties dissolve away, his will not. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:19.039 His will not. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:30.559 And so Jesus saw his impending death as that ultimate display of his servant mentality, which had marked the whole of his ministry up until this moment. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:39.279 Jesus set before his disciples a vision of greatness as measured by the scale of service. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:44.079 He puts himself forward as the supreme example. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:59.839 And in this chapter and in the next chapter, we see Jesus in his relentless love going unflinchingly to the cross, loving his enemies to the end. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:06.160 You see, to Jesus, death was not the tragic end of his ministry. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:10.079 His death was the high point of his ministry. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:21.920 This was the high point of his life and the stamp of the invillable, indelible image of servanthood that he had taken on the behalf of people who are his enemies. 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:24.960 Consider this for a moment. 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:48.079 Jesus takes bread, gives thanks over it, and breaks it and says, My body, takes a cup and said, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:58.960 He's pronouncing a blessing and a thanksgiving over elements that display the shredding of his life. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:07.599 And the disciples are called to drink the cup to participate in the benefits of the Lord's death. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:15.839 But Jesus drinks the cup in committal of himself to be the means of their life. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:23.279 Jesus' resolve in that respect will be sorely tried in Gethsemane, and we'll look at that soon. 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:26.720 If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:30.160 But he gains a fresh confidence in the Lord's will. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:34.559 Nevertheless, if this cannot pass, I will drink it. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:36.480 Your will be done. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:56.720 In verse 26, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave us to his disciples, and said, Take, eat it, this is my body. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:25:10.640 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and he said, Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:15.599 Well, the contents of that cup weren't poured out that night. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:18.000 They were drunk. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:23.920 He is making an allusion to what's about to happen. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:31.119 And even on the cross, it wasn't as if the cross was sort of a bloody death. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:40.640 I mean, it had blood as part of it, but it wasn't sort of the draining of all of his blood, shows the violence of his death. 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:51.519 But he uses this term poured out to bring us from the Old Testament into the moment of the pouring out of the sacrifices. 00:25:52.720 --> 00:26:00.720 And he's saying that his blood, his death, is a sacrificial one, a sacrificial death. 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:05.119 He's pulling up the imagery of sacrifice here. 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:15.039 So Jesus tells us what he thought about his death, and he's telling us what we ought to think about his death. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:24.079 And he points out this moment here so that we might be able to focus in on what is the most important thing about Jesus. 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:38.880 He doesn't call his disciples or us back to the tenderness of his love, or of the greatness of his wisdom, or of the might of his miracles, as amazing and gracious as they were. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:48.400 He doesn't call us back to the flawless beauty of his character, how noble and right it was in the face of a sullen society. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:55.680 No, he calls us here to put the imprint of his death in our minds. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:57.599 Why? 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:02.240 Because it was a sacrifice. 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:04.799 Because it was poured out. 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:08.240 It was given for a reason. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:12.400 And so he tells us that that death ought to be remembered. 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:17.519 Not remembered it like we might remember the tragic end of a noble hero. 00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:19.359 Oh, he died in the middle of battle. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.119 What an honorable soul he was. 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:23.920 What perseverance to the end he had. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:25.440 No, it's not that. 00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:29.599 Not as the crowning proof of love, even. 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:31.920 Look how much God loves us. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:33.519 He died. 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:50.640 Not as a supreme act, even of patient forgiveness, but rather a death for us, by which the blood of the sacrifice secures the remission, the forgiveness of our sins. 00:27:52.400 --> 00:28:09.119 At the cross, we discover the full version of the world's implacable hatred of God and of Christ, abusingly mocking him as he lay on those beams, dying and agonizing death. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:15.119 As they cry out with abusive words to the Lord. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:18.880 He saved others, but he cannot save himself. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:20.480 He's the king of Israel. 00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:23.200 Let him bring himself down if he is. 00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:25.359 He trusted in God. 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.720 Let God rescue him. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:28.480 Oh, God didn't rescue him. 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:30.480 He must be cursed of God. 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:35.680 He said, I am the Son of God. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.079 Let God do the delivering. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:49.759 Savior, King of Israel, Son of God, everything that he spoke of about himself is taken, trampled on, and thrown back into his face with insult. 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:56.240 And they thought by killing him they were ridding the world of him. 00:28:57.279 --> 00:29:08.960 But little did they understand that in the destruction that Jesus was facing there in his death, he was fulfilling God's plan to achieve salvation. 00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:17.920 They thought they were inflicting the ultimate humiliation and defeat on Jesus. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:29.119 But God was taking what they thought was a triumph of theirs and turning it into a triumph of his as he put death to death. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:33.359 He said, I've come to save others. 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:38.640 And because he came to save others, he was not going to save himself. 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:40.720 It was a sacrifice. 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:42.960 W. 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:46.480 Gandhi wrote this, and I'll read more of it later. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:51.279 He hell, in hell, laid low. 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:59.920 Made sin, he sin overthrew, bowed to the grave, destroyed it so. 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:04.160 And death by death slew. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:07.279 What wonderful words those are. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:25.119 Not only was this significant emblem, symbol, pointing to a savior who was giving himself in service, giving himself in sacrifice, but also giving himself as a substitute. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:27.119 As a substitute. 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:45.119 In fulfillment of that prophecy that all of the New Testament writers indicate pointed to Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:47.920 His life was an offering for sin. 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:52.160 He poured out himself to death. 00:30:53.039 --> 00:31:01.039 See, Jesus died in our place as a substitute, taking our guilt and bearing it upon himself and bearing the punishment of our sins. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:18.880 And so that is the meaning of this meal as he takes the bread and breaks it and said, My body for you, as he takes the cup and gives that and tells them, This is the blood of the covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:42.559 But he also speaks of the satisfaction that that sacrifice is going to bring. 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:50.960 A satisfaction of God's holy demands, a satisfaction to the sinner saved by grace. 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:57.759 Four cups of wine, the usual offering in the Passover meal. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:05.759 The cup that Jesus took up, many think was the third of those four, called the cup of blessing. 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:25.200 Jesus here is taking that cup and in the blessing handing it over to others and saying, drink, drink of this cup, drink of this cup of the blessing. 00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:33.279 Participate in the blessing that this cup represents as it comes from me to you. 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:49.440 As they were eating, as they were drinking, they were not only showing the way Christ would bring about the forgiveness of sins, but also about the way that we receive the forgiveness of our sins. 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:56.559 The bread and the wine represent his body and his shed blood, proclaiming his death. 00:32:57.119 --> 00:33:05.839 But the way in which we receive our salvation, our forgiveness is also wrapped up in the demonstration of this meal. 00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:11.200 The way we receive this bread and wine is by eating and drinking. 00:33:11.359 --> 00:33:19.839 And the way we receive the merit and virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice is by taking and receiving. 00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:32.319 You see, we have forgiveness based upon the merit and the virtue of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:40.079 What is called upon for us is to receive and take and eat. 00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:44.720 By faith, we have a faith that's like eating. 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.079 By trust, we have a trust that's like drinking. 00:33:48.400 --> 00:34:00.319 By reception of Christ spiritually into our hearts, it stands every month to us as an emblem as we take those elements and we eat them and take them into our bodies. 00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:04.720 We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we are saved. 00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:10.719 It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy that he saves us. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:12.559 How is that mercy received? 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:16.800 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:18.000 That's how. 00:34:20.800 --> 00:35:12.480 And at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll get to this later in chapter 27 and verse 51, the curtain in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom, shred into two, and opened up that barrier between people and God that existed from the day of Adam's sin, that barrier that existed of the people of Israel as they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and heard and felt and feared the presence of God as he spoke in the midst of smoke and fire, that separation that the thick curtain represented in which no one could enter but one and only after a sacrifice, repeated time and again. 00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.159 Now we have that curtain ripped in two. 00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:27.360 As if God is saying not only to the Jewish people but to all the world, you can come in now. 00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:30.000 You can come in now. 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:33.199 The way is open for you now. 00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:35.760 Come in. 00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:53.920 Jesus here is speaking about a service, a sacrifice of himself, a substitutionary death, a satisfying death, in which the holy demands of God are answered. 00:35:54.159 --> 00:36:00.000 And all you need to do is walk in to his presence through Jesus Christ. 00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:05.679 And the last point is saving, saving. 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:08.639 There's surprising elements here. 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:10.000 We've talked about those. 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:13.360 There are significant elements here, and we want to end with this one. 00:36:14.239 --> 00:36:27.920 In verse 27 and 28, he took that cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:31.920 It's a remarkable statement right there. 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:39.920 The blood, my blood of the covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:37:01.039 There's not a lot of discussion about blood and covenant in the Old Testament, but there is one significant place where it is mentioned in Exodus chapter 24 and verse 8, which I mentioned a moment ago, where Moses sprinkles the people with the blood, half of the blood of the sacrifice. 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:09.119 The other half had already been put on the altar, but the other half had been kept back. 00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:35.519 And as the book of the covenant is read out, and the promises of obedience and its stipulations are provided, it and after the affirmation of accepting those conditions, then the blood is sprayed on the people with these words, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words. 00:37:38.880 --> 00:38:01.679 The blood shared between the altar and the people is a binding marker of promises of God and the peoples, of God to fulfill his promises to act in a way of liberation, but also for the people to align themselves with the holiness of God and a solemn commitment of obedience. 00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:08.239 But here, there's something else. 00:38:08.639 --> 00:38:10.400 There's something else here. 00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:18.719 This is my blood of the covenant, just like the blood of the covenant in Exodus 24. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:37.679 And as he passes it around to these disciples who are doing something completely awkward and unfamiliar and probably not yet understood by them, he's telling them these words that his blood establishes a covenant. 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:46.320 That his blood establishes that God will promise to act to loosen people from their sins by way of forgiveness. 00:38:48.079 --> 00:39:06.800 Jesus is linking the old covenant with this new covenant, that his death is brought to an end, to a fulfillment, the millions of blood sacrifices that have been used to seal and maintain the old covenant, and that there would be no more need of that for his once-for-all death. 00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:21.519 The time is coming, says the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. 00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:24.239 I will be their God and they will be my people. 00:39:25.039 --> 00:39:34.320 No longer will a man teach his neighbor or man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. 00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:39.679 For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. 00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:50.880 Those words had to be ringing in the ears of the disciples when they heard Jesus say, This is my blood of the covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:52.159 What covenant? 00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:53.280 What forgiveness? 00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:56.079 The new covenant with these promises. 00:39:56.800 --> 00:39:57.840 That's it. 00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:04.159 The old covenant was a gracious covenant, indeed, but the people did not keep it. 00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:10.960 In the new covenant, God's people would be empowered because the law wouldn't stand outside of them. 00:40:11.199 --> 00:40:13.920 The word of God would reside within them. 00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:23.119 It would also reside not on a stony heart that's unaffected, but on a new heart that's made soft and pliable to the will of God. 00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:35.760 This new covenant sealed in his blood is a charter, a better charter, under conditions of which not a nation but the whole world can enjoy eternal salvation. 00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:39.760 Wrap your mind around these things. 00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:52.800 How wonderful it is that between us and an infinite God, there is this established, immovable promise of him to act in a way of forgiving those who come to him. 00:40:53.920 --> 00:41:01.199 We're not left to grope in philosophical darkness about how to find fulfillment for life and eternity. 00:41:01.599 --> 00:41:09.599 We're not left at the mercy of our I wonders and my probys, and uh, I'm trying my bests. 00:41:09.920 --> 00:41:20.000 We're not left and reduced to consult the ambiguous notions of nature and of circumstance to try to find the will of the unknown God. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.800 No, we're not even left with the varying voices of our hearts. 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:28.800 What do we have? 00:41:29.199 --> 00:41:37.920 We have God coming into our world of darkness and shedding his light and saying, Here is something faithful and true. 00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:48.480 Here he comes with articulate, plain, faithful, binding words that says, I will act on your behalf to forgive your sins. 00:41:51.119 --> 00:41:55.119 He's limited himself to the utterance of these faithful words. 00:41:55.440 --> 00:42:02.480 He has made his promise, my covenant to forgive you. 00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:10.480 To make that even sweeter, think about it a little more deeply. 00:42:11.519 --> 00:42:27.119 The old agreement said, if you will obey my voice and do my commandments, then conditions, do and live, be righteous and blessed. 00:42:28.800 --> 00:42:40.880 The new one, take and have, believe, and live, receive, and be forgiven. 00:42:43.360 --> 00:42:45.039 The one was law. 00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:46.960 This one's a gift. 00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:51.119 One spoke of retribution, this one speaks of forgiveness. 00:42:51.440 --> 00:43:00.880 One carried a voice outward, hard, rigid, graven with a pin of iron on the rocks of stone. 00:43:02.719 --> 00:43:12.400 But now we have a law written as impulses, as powers of love to mold and shape the heart. 00:43:14.639 --> 00:43:18.000 Bestowing upon us a willingness to be obedient. 00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:35.599 And the sole condition is that we come with empty hands to receive, to receive, to humbly and believingly accept the gift of divine forgiveness in Jesus Christ. 00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:39.840 The word is near you, even in your mouth. 00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:47.840 If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. 00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:52.000 It's as simple, yet so profound as that. 00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:58.159 And here Jesus is saying. 00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:04.719 That his death is the token of God's forgiveness. 00:44:05.039 --> 00:44:11.119 It is the means by which God remedies our greatest problem. 00:44:12.239 --> 00:44:19.679 That his death is a pledge of unending and inexhaustible mercy of God to all who believe on him. 00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:25.599 He that spared not his own son, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? 00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:27.679 So here's the Lord's Supper. 00:44:28.079 --> 00:44:31.119 And let me conclude with just these words. 00:44:31.840 --> 00:44:36.159 When sins are forgiven, they go away. 00:44:37.679 --> 00:44:38.880 They're removed. 00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:43.360 Do you understand how fundamental that is? 00:44:45.039 --> 00:44:50.079 The basic problem of the human race is that God is holy, and we're not. 00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:54.079 We sin. 00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:57.840 We violate the rule of a holy God. 00:44:58.079 --> 00:45:04.880 We shake our fist by transgressions or we walk away from them in indifference. 00:45:05.039 --> 00:45:09.440 But no matter how you look at it, we are sinning against the Creator. 00:45:11.679 --> 00:45:13.840 What do we do with that guilt? 00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:18.639 Well, what we normally do with that guilt is we try to deny it. 00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:20.800 Oh, there's no such thing as God. 00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:24.639 Yeah, keep telling yourself that. 00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:28.960 We try to rationalize it, we try to hide it. 00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:33.599 We might even admit a little bit of it, just so everybody thinks that we're kind of being honest. 00:45:33.679 --> 00:45:36.480 But the reality is there's a whole lot more we haven't talked about. 00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:42.159 But none of those things can get rid of guilt. 00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:50.559 Every single one of us are looking at red hands like Lady Macbeth and going, Out, out, out, damn spot. 00:45:50.719 --> 00:45:52.559 I can't get rid of this. 00:45:53.119 --> 00:45:54.800 It won't go away. 00:45:55.039 --> 00:45:57.440 Our hands are red with guilt. 00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:04.239 There's only one remedy: God's declaration of forgiveness. 00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:15.679 And there's only one place that that forgiveness comes when Jesus said, This is my blood of the covenant, which is given on the behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:31.679 So every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we celebrate the birth of God's new people, the institution of this new covenant, in which the Savior announces through the pouring out of his blood on the cross that he's about to do, that we have a new life. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:36.320 The Passover spoke the night before God's mighty act to deliver. 00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:42.800 The Lord's Supper is instituted the night before God's mighty act of deliverance. 00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:45.599 It's about to happen. 00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.159 Disciples, do you hear it? 00:46:48.639 --> 00:46:50.159 Do you receive it? 00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:52.639 Do we hear it? 00:46:53.119 --> 00:46:54.719 Do we receive it? 00:46:56.960 --> 00:46:57.840 Back to S.W. 00:46:58.079 --> 00:47:02.880 Gandhi in a song that he wrote. 00:47:03.519 --> 00:47:07.119 Listen to how he portrays the movement of salvation. 00:47:07.440 --> 00:47:11.119 I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. 00:47:11.679 --> 00:47:14.880 I know them well, and thousand more. 00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:18.159 Jehovah finds none. 00:47:19.920 --> 00:47:23.280 Sin, Satan, death press near to harass and to appall. 00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:29.679 But let my risen Savior appear, and backward they go and fall. 00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.840 Before, behind, around, they set their fierce array to fight and force me from my ground along Emmanuel's way. 00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:48.159 I meet them face to face through Jesus, conquest blessed, march in the triumph of his grace, right onward to my rest. 00:47:49.920 --> 00:48:03.199 There in his book I bear a more than conqueror's name, a soldier, son, and fellow heir who fought and overcome. 00:48:05.039 --> 00:48:12.320 His be the victor's name, who fought our fight alone, triumphant saints, no honor claim. 00:48:13.119 --> 00:48:15.519 The conquest was his own. 00:48:16.800 --> 00:48:25.440 By weakness and defeat he won the mead and crown, trod all our foes beneath his feet, by being trodden down. 00:48:27.280 --> 00:48:39.920 He hell in hell laid low, made sin he overthrew, bowed to the grave, destroyed it so, and death by dying slew. 00:48:41.039 --> 00:48:52.320 Bless, bless the conquering slain, the conqueror slain, slain in his victory, who lived, who died, who lives again for thee, my soul for thee. 00:48:54.239 --> 00:48:57.280 My friend, have you entered into that song? 00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:03.119 Are you able to exclaim the wonders of your conquering Savior? 00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:07.760 Who's brought to death all that would cause yours? 00:49:08.880 --> 00:49:15.599 Who has put to silence Satan and sin and your selfish impulses? 00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:28.639 Who's called you into the place of repose and rest based in the promise of God through the mighty act of God in Jesus Christ to deliver us? 00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:43.360 Have you accepted and are finding fulfilled in your life the wonderful pictures that the Lord's Supper speaks of, with your heart sprinkled with the blood so freely shed for you? 00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:46.159 I pray you do. 00:49:46.800 --> 00:50:01.119 Pray that you understand that you can be in a living relationship with a holy God who has pledged himself to you because he has given up his own son for your life. 00:50:01.440 --> 00:50:03.199 Let's pray together. 00:50:06.800 --> 00:50:10.559 Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our glorious Savior. 00:50:11.119 --> 00:50:41.760 We thank you that He has brought into this evening, into this world, a whole new and living way that he commemorates on the cusp of that grand act to commemorate a living symbol that speaks of that life, that talks about the centrality of his person, the completion found in his death, the forgiveness received through the shedding of his blood. 00:50:42.960 --> 00:51:17.280 And as we weren't able to fully look at, all tagged with the promise of a future day of joy and blessing and communion, when we will drink it new with him in the Father's kingdom, that death would not be the death of Christ, that the death of Christ would not be the death of his disciples, that life would happen, that the kingdom would be fulfilled, that the promises are going to be brought into fruition, that all things that have been written in the scriptures will be brought into completion in him. 00:51:18.320 --> 00:51:23.599 The day of wonder, the awakening of the new creation would happen. 00:51:23.920 --> 00:51:35.840 We thank you for a Savior who has granted us a participation in that, not by any works of righteousness which we have done, but according to the mercy of God, granted to all who call upon Christ. 00:51:36.320 --> 00:51:39.280 Thank you for Jesus. 00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:40.480 Amen.