SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do something that's dangerous for a preacher to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you're planning to eat for lunch today, I want you to imagine it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some home-cooked meal.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's some Silverados, I've seen you all there.
SPEAKER_01: It's not Chick-fil-A, I'm sure of that.
SPEAKER_01: And imagine that that food is beneath those lids right there.
SPEAKER_01: And imagine that instead of sitting in these wonderful, comfortable pews, you're sitting in a movie theater style seat, and it's one of those like leather recliner guys with the table that comes out.
SPEAKER_01: And imagine that in a few moments, when we take communion, as the men come forward and they pass the plate, there's your lunch, right before you.
SPEAKER_01: And then imagine that with that steaming plate of food sitting before you, you looked at it and you said, no thanks.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just have the gum under the seat.
SPEAKER_01: And you refused the meal.
SPEAKER_01: So then why is it that so many of us, when we come to the Lord's table, starve our souls when we are presented with a feast?
SPEAKER_01: This practice is called many things.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's table, communion, the Lord's Supper is what Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 11.
SPEAKER_01: The Eucharist, the body and the blood, the bread and the cup, the wafer and the wine.
SPEAKER_01: This sacred meal has been many things to many people.
SPEAKER_01: In church history, it has been the cause of more debate and battle and even bloodshed than almost any other part of the church.
SPEAKER_01: John Hooper, a faithful Protestant believer, was burned at the stake for what he believed about communion.
SPEAKER_01: The Marian Martyrs, the very same, because they rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_01: There was a young boy, 12 years old in the fourth century, Tarsisius, who was asked to bring the communion bread across town to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And while he was on his way, he was jumped by a band of marauders wanting to steal his food.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than give them the food, he clutched it to his chests as they beat him to death because he so loved the body.
SPEAKER_01: We have those little cups with the like, I mean, it's just styrofoam little wafers on top.
SPEAKER_01: And a while back we had some that we kept a little too long, they got fermented, like it actually was wine by the end of it.
SPEAKER_01: I think for a lot of people, communion is just some kind of weird churchy Christian thing that you do.
SPEAKER_01: They don't really understand, but I I guess Jesus said it, so you're supposed to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Honestly, for a lot of people, communion isn't even a church thing anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I've been to plenty of weddings where people do communion, been to retirement homes where folks do communion.
SPEAKER_01: There's even a new phenomena in the last couple years called virtual communion.
SPEAKER_01: Uh one of them is named Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Marcia McPhee's Comfort Food Feast of Love Liturgy.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, you can, in the comfort of your home, eat cornbread and drink sweet tea and call it communion.
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, that's not communion, just to be clear.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't count.
SPEAKER_01: So what what on earth is this table that we do every so often?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just want to, as a way of introduction, answer three kind of nuts and bolts questions about the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_01: So the first question I want to answer is what is it?
SPEAKER_01: What is the Lord's Supper?
SPEAKER_01: Well, very simply, it is an ordinance of the church.
SPEAKER_01: It's a regular ritual.
SPEAKER_01: There are two ordinances that Jesus left for his church, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the second of those.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus instituted it on the night when he was betrayed by saying, Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: And you might think, well, maybe that was just like a one-time thing, until you get to 1 Corinthians 11 and you realize that Paul didn't understand it that way.
SPEAKER_01: The passage we read, Paul understood this to be an ongoing ordinance that Jesus established this regular patterned ritual.
SPEAKER_01: He received it from the Lord, and so he's delivered it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And I think ancient rituals feel weird to us in kind of Bible church land.
SPEAKER_01: There's other churches that have a lot more rituals.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have very many, we just kind of have the two.
SPEAKER_01: And so it feels strange to us.
SPEAKER_01: You know what a ritual is, though.
SPEAKER_01: You've practiced this.
SPEAKER_01: You remember in school when you stood and you recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
SPEAKER_01: Or you're at a football game in D.C.
SPEAKER_01: Washington saying the national anthem.
SPEAKER_01: You know what it is to do something in kind of a regular way that's for the purpose of remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: I think some people, though, when they come to the Lord's table, it feels a little cultish to them.
SPEAKER_01: Like all of us are going to drink the same Kool-Aid at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: This is a little weird.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they have a negative association with the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's supposed to feel a little bit strange.
SPEAKER_01: It's supposed to feel ancient, transcendent.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's why Jesus instituted it the way that he did.
SPEAKER_01: It's supposed to transport us in a way outside of the age of the iPhone into another world.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Lord's Supper is.
SPEAKER_01: It's an ordinance of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, I want to ask the question: how is the Lord's Supper supposed to work?
SPEAKER_01: I'll start by answering it in the negative.
SPEAKER_01: It's not supposed to work like a magic meal.
SPEAKER_01: I would reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which is to say that the wafer and the juice actually turn into, really turn into the body and blood of Jesus and are sacrificed again every mass.
SPEAKER_01: I totally reject that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not at all what the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a horrific blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not sacrificed again.
SPEAKER_01: He died once for all.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not a magic meal.
SPEAKER_01: It's also not a saving ritual.
SPEAKER_01: This is not something you come to, and if you like eat a lot or you eat it really well, then somehow you get into heaven or you get a bigger apartment in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's not how that works.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't a meritorious act.
SPEAKER_01: So what is it?
SPEAKER_01: Well, very simply, it's a memorial feast.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: Or you could translate it as a memorial about me.
SPEAKER_01: This is very much an echo of the Old Testament feasts.
SPEAKER_01: The idea of them was that God gave his people these occasions where they would eat and in eating together remember something about the saving acts of God, what he's done for them.
SPEAKER_01: And then they would explain that to their children so the next generation would continue to learn and continue to feast.
SPEAKER_01: It was for his people for their spiritual benefit.
SPEAKER_01: And what that means is that this ritual that we do as a church is not beneficial to you externally.
SPEAKER_01: It's beneficial to you internally, spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say it this way?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's Supper is a food sermon.
SPEAKER_01: It's an exposition that you eat.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the most meaningful way, soul food.
SPEAKER_01: Or, as Thomas Watson called it, it is a soul festival.
SPEAKER_01: This meal preaches to our hearts the sign, the life, the death of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is a feast for the heart, not for the stomach.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it works.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, I want to ask the question: who is the Lord's table for?
SPEAKER_01: We know what it is, it's an ordinance, we know how it works, it's a memorial feast, but who is it for?
SPEAKER_01: It's for the Lord's people.
SPEAKER_01: This is a family meal.
SPEAKER_01: That's why whenever we take communion here, we remind everyone this is a meal just for believers.
SPEAKER_01: This is something just for believers to do.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not a believer, we ask, would you let the cup and the bread pass from you?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: If it's only good for you internally, spiritually, then you need spiritual taste buds for this to be helpful for you.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be given, so to speak, a spiritual stomach to spiritually digest the gospel truths that are rehearsed in the supper.
SPEAKER_01: This is how J.C.
SPEAKER_01: Ryle said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, quote, to enjoy a spiritual feast, we must have a spiritual heart and taste and appetite.
SPEAKER_01: To suppose that the Lord's table can do any good to an unspiritual man is as foolish as to put bread and wine in the mouth of a dead person.
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
SPEAKER_01: So it's just for believers.
SPEAKER_01: That's who it's for.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's what I want to talk about the rest of our time.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a believer, and when you come to the Lord's table, you kind of struggle with what am I supposed to be doing?
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm sitting here, I have this little cup with the plastic lid I gotta rip off, and gotta make sure not to spill it on myself.
SPEAKER_01: Do you struggle ever to kind of know what am I what am I supposed to be doing in this moment?
SPEAKER_01: I think I'm supposed to be praying.
SPEAKER_01: But is there something else that's supposed to happen here?
SPEAKER_01: That's who I want to talk to this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to see from the text of Scripture what we're supposed to do with communion.
SPEAKER_01: What is it for our souls?
SPEAKER_01: And here's how I want to say it.
SPEAKER_01: Communion is an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: An invitation to come and to feast on Jesus at his table.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's table is an opportunity to feast on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to look at that in two parts today, not surprisingly, one being the bread, one being the cup.
SPEAKER_01: If you would feast on Jesus at his table, then first you must eat the bread of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_01: Eat the bread of Jesus life.
SPEAKER_01: And in order to understand this, I think we need to be transported back to the moment that it was instituted first.
SPEAKER_01: So if you would, turn with me to Luke chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 22 shows up in all of the synoptic gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
SPEAKER_01: But Luke's account, I think, is the most helpful, it's the fullest in describing for us this scene.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to have a sense for what Jesus was thinking as he was instituting this meal.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has already sent out his disciples to prepare the meal in this upper room.
SPEAKER_01: And it says in verse 14, in chapter 22, When the hour came, he that is Jesus reclined at table and the apostles with him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: The scene is, it's Thursday night of Passion Week, the night before Jesus is going to go to the cross to die.
SPEAKER_01: They're observing Passover, the Jewish meal instituted in Exodus chapter 12, before the actual Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember the Passover meal, it had to do with God rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what Jesus is about to do here, he's not just slightly tweaking Passover like communion is Passover 2.0.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: But he is going to draw on some of the significance of this Old Testament meal to help them understand this new one.
SPEAKER_01: And so it says in verse 17, he took a cup.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now the way that the Jews practiced Passover in Jesus' day, first of all, the Galileans would have done it on the Thursday night, and the Judeans would have done it on the Friday.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they're doing it then, even though the Passover lambs are going to be slain on the following day.
SPEAKER_01: The way that the meal would have worked is that there have actually been four cups.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first cup that we read about in verse 17, that's not the communion cup, is the cup of blessing that would begin the meal.
SPEAKER_01: And then they would go and they would ritually wash themselves.
SPEAKER_01: This is probably the point where Jesus washes the disciples' feet.
SPEAKER_01: And then they would come together, they would drink a second cup, and then the meal itself would begin.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember the meal would have the bread, and it would have the bitter herbs, and it would have the paschal lamb, the whole lamb that was sacrificed, whose bones weren't broken, and they had to eat all of it that night.
SPEAKER_01: And then they would take a third cup and a fourth cup, and then they would sing and leave.
SPEAKER_01: And so in verse 19, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, and this is where he gives this meal a new significance: this is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: And then likewise the cup after they had eaten, that's the third cup, he said, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: And in so doing, Jesus establishes for his church a perennial ritual that we would observe to remember him.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of that he says, This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: So what is the significance of this bread?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it significant that we would eat the bread?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me give you kind of two subheadings underneath this.
SPEAKER_01: As we eat the bread of Jesus' life, we feast on his sustaining life.
SPEAKER_01: We feast on his sustaining life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This, meaning the bread, it probably looked kind of like a pedo's unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_01: This is my body.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying this is a metaphor.
SPEAKER_01: This is a whole grain homily, preaching to his people something about himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, This bread that I'm breaking right now, this is like my flesh, my physical frame that I have come to give for you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're if you're thinking about this for a moment, you should be asking the question, why the bread?
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't Jesus a Passover lamb?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5?
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't he just do that with the lamb?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do it with the bread?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think because he's getting at something different here than his life as a sacrifice specifically.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what he's going to say with the cup, but I think here with the bread he's doing something different.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is what he said in John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the crowds, he fed them, followed him across the sea, feed us more, they don't understand, so what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: And they still don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: And in Jesus' customary way, when people don't understand things, he just ups the ante.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Okay, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you got no life.
SPEAKER_01: And then he finishes by saying this, John chapter 6, verse 58, this is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread that the fathers ate and died.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus means when he offers up the bread and says, This bread is my body, is that when we feed on him, which in the context he means believe, when we believe in him, we get his life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a visceral image, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it curious that the Lord left us an institution where we eat?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because there's something about taking the food in that sustains and nourishes you, that is a picture of what Jesus does for you in believing.
SPEAKER_01: That as you believe in him, he sustains and nourishes and strengthens you with his life.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, as continually eating bread sustains your body for physical life, continually eating, believing in Jesus sustains your soul for eternal life, beginning now.
SPEAKER_01: In a sense, you are what you eat.
SPEAKER_01: You eat life, you get life.
SPEAKER_01: Faith, then, is the Christian spiritual food supply line.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a dasher bringing five guys to your house.
SPEAKER_01: And what faith brings you, believer, is your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: All of his goodness, all of his love, all of his life for you to enjoy and be strengthened by.
SPEAKER_01: Every ounce of spiritual good.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way Robert Murray McChain said it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, The Lord's table is a solemn declaration in the sight of the whole world that you have been put into the clefts of the smitten rock, and that you are feeding on the honeyed treasure there.
SPEAKER_01: It is declaring that you have sat down under Christ's shadow, and that you are comforted and nourished by the fruit of that tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: It is saying, I have come to trust under the shadow of his wings, and now I drink of the river of his pleasures.
SPEAKER_01: It is a sweet declaration of your own helplessness and weakness, and that Christ is all your strength and all your life.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the glory of that bread to say, I am nothing, and Christ is everything.
SPEAKER_01: His self-giving life is now my life.
SPEAKER_01: There is no richer meal than that.
SPEAKER_01: And also, we feast on his uniting life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not only a sustaining life, but it's a uniting life.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to mention briefly Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10, he says this of the Lord's Supper, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
SPEAKER_01: That word in that passage, participation, it's the word for fellowship, Koinonia.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that when we partake of this food, we're participating in the life of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But I think Paul has a more horizontal mindset in this passage because he says, There's one bread, so we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one meal.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, when Jesus says, This is my body, he means it singularly.
SPEAKER_01: You don't eat lots of different bodies of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You all eat one body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You're all at the one table.
SPEAKER_01: Having the one meal.
SPEAKER_01: As you are united to Christ, so then you are united to all other believers who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It erases any kind of distinction.
SPEAKER_01: We're all the same, sharing the same meal.
SPEAKER_01: You know this because you sing it.
SPEAKER_01: Elect from every nation, yet one or all the earth, her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth, one holy name she blesses, partakes, one holy food, and two one hope she presses with every grace indeed.
SPEAKER_01: This is the unity of the body of Christ in a meal.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater unity, friends, than the unity that we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The world will try to staple you together in a flimsy fraternity of ideas and causes.
SPEAKER_01: But those are not true unity.
SPEAKER_01: True unity is feasting on the same Lord, drinking from the same blood, having this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: One.
SPEAKER_01: You have Jesus in common.
SPEAKER_01: And that changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: So as we take communion today, and you look at this little wafer, I want you to spiritually, in your heart, in your mind, feast on the goodness of Jesus, on his righteousness, on his meekness, on his love, and on his unity.
SPEAKER_01: Let the bread preach to you the glories of Jesus Christ and sate your soul on him.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the danger here is not that you won't eat, it's that you'll eat the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: We're always eating, spiritually speaking.
SPEAKER_01: We're always stuffing our faces.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is it's usually fast food.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is TV shows, it's vain conversations, it's useless trivia.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: The question at the table is whether your diet gives you strength for obedience or whether it fattens you with pride.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, we drink the cup of Jesus' death, we eat the bread of Jesus' life, and we drink the cup of Jesus' death.
SPEAKER_01: If it's possible, this feast gets even better.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus not only gives us one sign, but two.
SPEAKER_01: The second being an emblem of his death.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he means in 1 Corinthians 11 when he says, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Blood signifies death.
SPEAKER_01: And if you weren't sure, Paul makes it clear for you in verse 26, he says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_01: But what kind of death is it?
SPEAKER_01: Also, two subheadings here.
SPEAKER_01: The first being that we feast on his atoning death.
SPEAKER_01: His atoning death.
SPEAKER_01: You should consider that when we're remembering the death of Jesus, we're remembering a horrific thing.
SPEAKER_01: The hour of darkness, a gruesome and a bloody death.
SPEAKER_01: So how is that good?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I want to remember something like that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because of what Jesus says, which is Matthew alone records, Matthew 26, 27 to 28, same scene.
SPEAKER_01: Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, brothers and sisters, there is so much glory in those five words.
SPEAKER_01: For the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Though you should be condemned.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 75, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.
SPEAKER_01: You and I are the wicked of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's our cup.
SPEAKER_01: And yet Jesus prays in Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_01: Father, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_01: Christ drank God's wrath on sin, then cried, 'tis done.
SPEAKER_01: Sin's wage is paid, propitiation won.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever notice that your name isn't on the communion cup?
SPEAKER_01: That's because your cup is sitting empty in a heap of cups at the foot of a bloody cross.
SPEAKER_01: Christ drank God's wrath for you so that you could stand forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Chrysostom calls the Lord's table the feast of the cross and a death meal.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' forgiving heart is a feast for the believer, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: But also we feast on his redeeming death.
SPEAKER_01: His life forgives us, his death forgives us in the courts of heaven, but it enacts a new reality in your life right now.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 22, he calls it the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: You remember how covenants work?
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus chapter 24, they inaugurate the old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Okay, you guys gonna obey?
SPEAKER_01: They say, Yep.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, Okay, here's a bunch of blood.
SPEAKER_01: Whoosh.
SPEAKER_01: Covers them in blood.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jeremiah chapter 31, when it becomes obvious that they aren't going to obey, God says through his prophet, I'm gonna institute a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna put my spirit in them, and my law will be on their heart, so they'll obey me.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is that in this new covenant, I will fully and finally break the back of sin in the life of the believer.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says in Hebrews chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, he is a mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' death not only pays for your sin, but it destroys the power of sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're ushered into a new covenant, a new relationship with the Lord whereby you can obey joyfully.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to keep obeying sin.
SPEAKER_01: You're not a slave to sin anymore.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's so important when you come to the Lord's table to confess sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is a holy meal for God's sanctifying people.
SPEAKER_01: You realize sin wants you to starve.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't want you to be well fed.
SPEAKER_01: It promises to feed you, but it never does.
SPEAKER_01: Only Christ can make you full.
SPEAKER_01: That makes no sense.
SPEAKER_01: That'd be like pouring gasoline and water on a fire at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: That'd be like getting pulled over by the cops for speeding, and he says, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let you off with a warning, and you say, Thanks, officer, and then you speed away.
SPEAKER_01: Makes no sense.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the author of Hebrews says in chapter 10, verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: This would be like trampling underfoot the Son of God, profaning the blood of the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is serious.
SPEAKER_01: And we take it seriously at the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_01: Part of the glory of the feast of the Lord's table is to remember that as Christ has died to inaugurate a new covenant, he has brought you into it.
SPEAKER_01: You are free from sin.
SPEAKER_01: You are free to obey.
SPEAKER_01: What a glorious truth it is.
SPEAKER_01: He is a liberating, merciful, gracious Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how often do we try to sate our souls at the devil's diner when we have been prepared a feast by the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing boring about this Savior.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing uninteresting or flavorless about him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here this morning, I wonder if you still feel hungry.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never had your soul satisfied by Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If that's you, I beg you this morning, receive Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Have his life for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Die with him on his cross and be resurrected in newness of life, so that you can taste how sweet and how good he is.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, then there's one more thing that you'll get to taste in the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice it when we read?
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 22, Jesus says it twice.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's table is also a foretaste.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus twice mentions that he's going to eat this meal in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he says, when this meal is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it's pointing to.
SPEAKER_01: That there is a coming banquet, there's a coming meal for all the chosen, for all his people, that is so much better than just a little bit of bread and a little bit of juice.
SPEAKER_01: It's the wedding supper of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: It's prophesied all over the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus himself talks about it in Matthew 8, Luke 12.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets talk about it in Isaiah chapter 34, Jeremiah 46, Zephaniah 1.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to see the most glorious, I think, passage describing this.
SPEAKER_01: Turn with me to Isaiah 25.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at this last passage, Isaiah 25, I just want you to feel the glory of this feast.
SPEAKER_01: That is to come.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 25, speaking of the end times, the prophet says in verse 6, on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
SPEAKER_01: And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all the peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations, he will swallow up death forever.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
SPEAKER_01: And it will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God.
SPEAKER_01: We have waited for him that he might save us.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We have waited for him.
SPEAKER_01: Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite hymns by Isaac Watts.
SPEAKER_01: How sweet and awful is the place with Christ behind the door speaking of this feast, where everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.
SPEAKER_01: And while all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room?
SPEAKER_01: When thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Friend, here today are you refusing to taste?
SPEAKER_01: Don't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: The feast is spread before you.
SPEAKER_01: On that day we will feast with him.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the one who is invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You know our need.
SPEAKER_01: And you have met our need perfectly in your Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask, Father, as we come before your table, may we feast on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: May He be all our life.
SPEAKER_01: May His death free us to glorious communion with you.
SPEAKER_01: In rich fellowship with each other.
SPEAKER_01: May this table that we take together be a glorious sermon to our souls of how Christ has become all for us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in his precious name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.