If you'll please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26. Susanne Adam was a faithful member of Southwest for many years until, well, she had a stroke and death took her. She was a pretty good age. She was up in her eighties. That's pretty good. I preached this one time when she was here. She said, you need to preach this at least once a year. So I don't know where that sermon is, but I preached several years ago. So this is the same text, not the same sermon. Hopefully I didn't ruin it. Matthew chapter 26. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word this morning? Let's start reading in verse 17. Let's hear the word of the Lord. Now, on the first day of the unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover? He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. The disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were sorrowful and began to say to him after one another, Is it I, Lord? He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes, and it is written of him, But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for him if that man had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered him, it is that I, rabbi. Jesus said to him, you have said so. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat, this is my body. And he took a cup when he had given thanks and gave it to them saying, 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. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I'm drinking anew with you in my Father's kingdom. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God abides forever. Please be seated. Let's go to prayer. Please pray for me as I would preach this text. Pray for yourselves as you sit under the proclamation of God's Word this morning. Let's pray. Our God and Heavenly Father, we are your children. By your working, you have brought us into your family through the work of Christ, that great act of adoption, and we are your children. And we pray, O God, that you would bless this day, not simply the word preached, but the word that has just been read and the word preached as well, and be with me as I proclaim it. And, O God, give me unction of your Spirit. be with the congregation, but there would not be dullness of heart and mind. There would not be a lack of interest in these great truths. But grant your spirit to your congregation. We pray again, if any are here outside of faith, that you would grant salvation to them, we pray, as we reflect upon this great sacrament that's been given to the church. We pray in Christ's name, amen. We have the sacrament two times a month here at Southwest, the first Sunday of every month and the fourth Sunday evening of every month when Ken does the sacrament. And why do we do this? You understand what we are doing when we come to the Lord's table. There is a variance of thoughts concerning coming to the Lord's table and what it is. Julek Zwingli, who was the head of the Reformation in Switzerland, thought that it was simply a memorial. The Roman Church believes that is a re-sacrificing of Christ every time the mass is observed, that Christ is sacrificed again. The blood becomes literal blood of Christ, the bread becomes literal body of Christ, and it is a heresy. Jesus said in John 19, 30, he's on the cross, he's about to die, he said, it is finished. 1 Peter 3.18, Christ also suffered for sins once for all. And then again Hebrews 9.28, so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time. So the death of Christ was a once for all death. It's not to be repeated. It has been done. It is finished. It's a done deal. The Lutheran Church, because of Martin Luther's insistence, believed that there was a presence of Christ's body. in, with, and under the elements, which I don't quite understand that. But then the Reformed view is there is a presence of Christ here in the sacrament, not physically, but spiritually. The Bible gives very specific warnings for coming to the table and not being prepared to come to the table. How are we not prepared to come to the table? Well, for one thing, not being a believer, not holding to the truths of the gospel. And that's one thing of not coming to the table in a proper fashion. Another thing is not repenting, refusing to let go of some type of sin, or just hardening your heart against the Lord, or having to harden your heart against the Lord because of some type of difficult providence that you may be dealing with. It's no small thing that's coming to the table of the Lord. And Scripture makes that very, very clear to us. So we believe, as Reformed Christians, that Christ is present spiritually as we come to the table. This is a means of grace. This means that we should be preparing to come to the table throughout the week. Some churches have the sacrament every single Sunday. We decided to do it once a month here. Twice, if you come in the evening sometime, you'll be able to observe it. And again, I would encourage you all to come to evening worship. So, what is the sacrament? The definition, according to the Catechism, is this, a sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ whereby sensible signs Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. So what are the sensible signs? Well, it's the bread and it's the wine. These are things that we can see. These are things that we can taste. They're sensible signs whereby they present to us the reality of the sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a reminder of his sacrifice for us. Three things this morning as we go through this. For one thing, the faithful observance of the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. The faithful observance of the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. What else are means of grace? Well, attending worship, sitting on the proclamation of the Word of God, reading scriptures, spending time in prayer. fellowshipping with one another. But this also is a great means of grace that Christ is given to the church. So three things, the directive for the supper, the doctrine taught, and the duration taught as well. The first thing then, the directive Christ regarding, the directive for the Lord's Supper. Christ is observing the Passover with his disciples. The last night of his life, on this earth that he had created. You read earlier, they go and prepare a room for Jesus, and they go and they're having the sacrament, and he's soon to be abandoned by his friends. One of them is going to betray him for money. They're all going to run away and hide, and Peter, his best friend, says he doesn't know him. Not once, not twice, but three times. The third time he takes it all. I don't know it. I don't know this man. I haven't hung out with him. I don't know him. And you remember what happened? The rooster crows and Christ looks at Peter and it breaks Peter's heart and he starts crying, rightly so. He should have been crying after doing that. He knew and loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus understands his relationship with the disciples is going to change dramatically. You remember those bracelets people had? WWJD? What would Jesus do? Remember those bracelets? Well, all the disciples had to do was say, Jesus, what do we do here in this case? And they get an answer. I never liked those bracelets. I never had one. But imagine the change in the disciples when Christ leaves. He knows he's getting ready to leave. Listen to what is written in John 14, 28 through 29. You heard me say to you, I am going away and I will come to you. if you love me you'll rejoice because I'm going to the father for the father is greater than I and now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place you may believe. He doesn't want them to lose heart and run away and hide and the gospel simply die. These eleven men will be left and left to put one more be twelve but right now after Judas is gone there's eleven men. These eleven men have the burden of carrying forth the gospel. And after Jesus has died, these eleven men are locked away in a room. Their fear of the Jews, we read in the scriptures. There's no bravery. There's no determination to go out and to spread the gospel and to preach the gospel as far as these men are concerned, it's over with. What happens? Christ comes and appears to them. They find courage then, you see. And they're ready to go out now and do what Christ told them to do, all except for one. It was Thomas. He wasn't with them. Even the testimony of these men that Thomas knew, and Thomas had been with Jesus for those three years, I don't believe it. I don't believe Christ appeared in this room to you men. I don't believe it. And I won't believe it unless I put my hand into his side and my fingers into his hands. I won't believe it. You know what happened the very next week, which is a Sunday, Christ appears again to the disciples. And so what happens is Thomas is brought on a conviction and he falls down in the appointment. He says, my Lord and my God. What did Christ do? Here, Thomas, put your hand to my side, if that's what it takes for you to believe, put your hand on my side, put your fingers in my palms, if that's what it takes for you to believe, see the humility of Christ, the tender heartedness and kindness of Christ. And when Thomas says, my Lord and my God, what does what does Jesus say? Blessed are you. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet they believe. So the lesson there for us in that Christ is going away. The disciples are not brave men by nature. So Jesus here this evening establishing the Lord's Supper. It was something that was observed in the Old Testament called the Passover meal. We can read about that, and I'm not going to read it, but in the book of Exodus we can read about it. There were several feasts in the Old Testament. Each one represented some act of God on the part of His people, some historical act. Oh, this was a great act that took place in the liberation of Israel from their captivity in Egypt. It's in Exodus 12, the first 13 verses. is tied to the tenth and final plague in Egypt. Pharaoh continued to harden his heart against Moses' request, let my people go. And you know, it was the Lord who was letting his heart, and the Lord was allowing him to continue on. As a matter of fact, it says the Lord hardened his heart. Why? Well, there's a challenge, you see. There was a duel that was taking place between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt. And God said to Moses, in order that they may know my glory, they're going to see the difference between their gods and your God. So what happens? Well, they take this lamb or a goat and they keep it a certain number of days and they slay it and they took the blood and they put it on the post of the door and above the top of the door. And so when the angel of death came through with his sword unsheathed, then the angel would pass over that particular house. They had to be inside. And we read that not even a dog would bark, as far as the people of Israel. That a dog had to be inside, too, I would think. And we read in the Scriptures that there was not one house in the whole land that did not lose somebody. A child, a parent, somebody died and it was wailing, we read. in all the land of Egypt because of the death that took place. And what happens, well that night Moses and Aaron are called before Pharaoh, take your people and leave. Take your people and go. Which God liberated his people from Egypt. Well it was a celebration, a commemoration of redemption, but the big difference here is this. The occasion of the Passover in the Old Testament was salvatic in nature, and it represented redemption. It was a redemption that was connected to it. But it wasn't a redemption from sin. It was a redemption from captivity. It was a redemption from being enslaved. And so they were free. They went on, and they went on to establish, you know, the heart of man. They got back, they had, God had done this great work for them. They got back and what do they do? They start divorcing their wives to marry younger women. They're offering polluted animals on the altar. The priests are letting them do that. There is chaos and ungodliness being paraded all around in the nation of Israel after this work that God had done. All these things that happened in Egypt, they knew these things. They knew that they had been brought out of Babylon by the grace of God, and yet they ignore. You see what happens when we ignore the word of God? We ignore what he's done in the past. We think back. There's a song we don't sing in the Reformed Church. It's called Count Your Blessings. It does us good to look back on the things that God has done for us. One morning, this was years ago, I was sitting up here. And I had a grumbling in my heart against God's providence. And I was not fit to preach because of what was going on to me. And then I stood up and saw my four sons and my wife sitting in the congregation. I thought what an absolute fool I was to be disturbed by what was bothering me, which was nothing really. And then to see that out there and recognize, see how great God's blessings really are. and how wonderful and kind he is to me. It does us somewhat good to think back on the things that God has done for us. This was something that Israel was to do yearly. Every year they were to celebrate this Passover, to celebrate and commemorate their escape from Egypt. But communion replaces Passover. It's not by chance that Jesus does this during the Passover meal. because it's being replaced by something new, being replaced by something that is much, much better. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices that were observed had no power to take away one sin. And understand this, this right here, this at the table, Jesus' idea. Not the invention of man, not the invention of some church council. Christ had this idea. that he would leave this to his church that has been celebrated for thousands of years since the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the idea of our Savior, which means that it is a good idea. It's something that we should have to take seriously. It is something that we should participate in when we have the opportunity to do so. Passover was typical. It was a picture. of what was going to take place down the road, and matter of fact, quite a few years down the road at this point in the life of the people of Israel. It was typical, it was a picture. No sin was ever paid for by the animals slain in the Old Testament, not one. We read that in the Scriptures. We read that in the book of Hebrews. Of all the animals that were killed, all the blood that was shed, not one drop of that blood had the power to take away sin. It was all typical. No power in it whatsoever. Therefore, it had to be repeated year after year after year because it just pictured something that was going to come to the church in the future. Well, this is the directive for it. It comes to us in the church by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The doctrine that is taught, two elements used here in the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine. The bread represents the broken body of Christ. The wine represents the shed blood of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11, 24, which I'll read in a moment, he says, this is my body broken for you. But yet there were no bones broken in the life, in the body of Jesus. We read that in the scriptures. This points to, or looks at, the sufferings of the Savior. The language Christ uses speaks of extreme sufferings. Listen to this. He came into this world for you, if you're a Christian. He came into this world to save you from your sin, and you've got a bunch of it in your life. So do I. As He walked the earth, He came for a specific purpose, to redeem us from God's wrath and condemnation. This is something that should thrill the church, because the alternative to redemption is condemnation, is God's judgment. There will be people in hell, and I can't remember who I was talking to, annihilation of the soul. We don't believe in that. I think Philip Hughes did, he wrote a great commentary on the book of Hebrews, and John Stott believed that, another writer of books, that you suffer a certain period of time and you're annihilated, you don't suffer anymore. I can't find that anywhere in the scriptures. There is a hell and people will be in that hell. who reject Christ. Christ was brutalized. He didn't simply have a bit of trouble. He was brutalized. To call his treatment harsh is a gross understatement. He was brutalized. Think about it. The soldiers beat him with sticks. They blindfolded him and spat on him and said, who would prophesy who's doing this to you? He was taken and tied up and beaten. And the whip that was used had bits of metal or bone in it that would tear the flesh off of the body. They did this to Jesus. They did this to Christ. I don't know if many of you have ever seen Ben-Hur, the old Charlton Heston movie. I like it. But there's a scene in it where Charlton Heston gets a little cup of water and tries to run and give it to Jesus and the soldiers knock him out of the way. That's not in the Bible anywhere, by the way. There was nothing that could be done. But all the while, all the time this was happening, Christ was in charge and Christ was willing to put himself through this. He chose to, to do this. He was pleased to do this in order to please the Father, in order to redeem his people. His sufferings, his friends left him. He was beaten. He was finally nailed to a cross and the greatest of his sufferings took place by the wrath of God being poured out upon him on the cross of Calvary. I cannot imagine that. Here was sinless Jesus who had fellowship with God in the eternity past. He took flesh upon himself, had a relationship with the Father that was perfect. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, he said to Christ again and again. This is my beloved Son. Listen to him. The Mount of Transfiguration, there's Moses and Elijah, and this cloud that overshadows them, and here's the presence of God there, the Father, and the Spirit, and the Son there, present in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Him. But then on the cross of Calvary, Jesus cried out, as you know the term, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What did I do? Why have you forsaken me? I love the hymn, it's all for sinners gain. That's why he suffered. That's why he went to the cross. That's why he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was brutalized. Tortured. As they pushed him toward the crucifixion. As they pushed him toward Golgotha. As they moved him in that direction, this was the man who had created the world, or the one who had created the world, Jesus Christ. And they were abusing him. And you know what he could have done? We know this from the rest of Scripture. He could have called out legions of angels to protect him. But you know what he said? Then how would Scripture be fulfilled? if I did that? And the answer is, it would not be fulfilled if the Lord Jesus Christ did that. And what are the benefits then? This old versus the new, this old covenant versus the new covenant. The new covenant is not simply an improvement, it's perfect. As I said a moment ago, all of these sacrifices in the Old Testament cannot take away one sin, but the blood of Jesus takes away our sin. You have faith in Him. He looks at us and does not see our sin, but sees the righteousness of Christ in us through faith in His Son. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. And so that which was pictured came to reality, and now we have this great freedom in redemption accomplished by Christ. And what is the freedom that we have? Well, the freedom of trying to make ourselves right with God. We cannot manipulate God. It can't be done. I'll do this if you do that. Well, you should be said, I'll do this no matter what. I'll do this because you want me to. I'll do this because you command me to. Not some kind of tit for tat, whatever it is. No. It is a freedom from the fear of condemnation. Because now we know that we are children of God. He loves us and nothing's going to change that. A freedom from the fear of condemnation. A freedom from the fear of being alone in our death. You know, one of the things that COVID that really bothered me, and several things did, but one particularly is people had to die by themselves. No family. That's horrible. That was horrible. Yet for the believer, you see, as we're in our deathbed, as we're on our deathbed, as death is approaching, Christ is with us. The Redeemer of God's elect is with us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit. And He loves us, and He calls us at the perfect time, and He takes us with Him to glory. We do well to remember that, that when we leave this world we don't go to limbo, we don't go some strange place, we go to glory, and we go to be with the company of the Redeemed. Well, how often do we do this? How long do we do it? Well, we read in scripture that we are to do it until the end of the age. When's the end of the age going to happen? Well, it's when Christ comes back again. That's the end of the age. So the church, if Christ does not come back in 2,000 years, as I pray he does way before that, the church will be still observing the sacrament. It is a means of grace for us as God's people. So as you look at the table this morning, You have the comfort in, your sins have indeed been paid for. We have the assurance of that. Christ gave this to us. The New Covenant in my blood. We have the assurance that we have a good standing with God, seen in this table. We have the assurance that Christ is coming back again because that's promises in the Scriptures. In Acts, where they say, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking at the sky? The same Jesus who was taken is going to be coming back in similar fashion. And Paul says, we do this until Christ returns. So this is a shouting out, if you will, be at peace. Be at peace. I am with you. Your sins have been paid for. So I would ask you before I quit this morning, do you know, do you have a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you a Christian? Are you truly trusting Christ for your salvation? Christ and Christ alone, nothing else. Or you mess up people, I've got to do these things to get myself back in good standing with God. It doesn't work that way. Your standing with God is based upon Christ and His work on your behalf, nothing that you can do. Now, is He pleased when we break His laws? No, He's not pleased with us. But we don't lose our salvation. Is He pleased when we obey? Sure, He delights in our obedience. But our salvation is not more secure at all. It is resting upon the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who did all this for our sakes, all for sinners' gain. What a great Savior we have, who condescended to become one of us, and to live for us, and to die for us. and to redeem us by His life, death, and resurrection. Let's pray.