It won't happen anything before we continue. Sometimes I'll confess I preach out of duty. Ever done something because you have to? A couple smiles over here. Kind of felt like that the last two weeks. But not so much this week. I knew we had communion coming up. And I thought, you know, can't probably talk too much about that. So I got to studying it. And about the same thing happened to me when I started studying the attributes of God. I didn't find an ending. So we're not gonna do a series on it, per se. But I realized how little I actually know about it. And how for most of my life, it's just been something that we did a couple times a year. I don't know how serious I took it, even as a pastor. So let's try and get a little deeper in it today. You know, it goes by several names. This is something I realized a few years ago that I would typically call it the Lord's Supper, but I've also heard it called communion. I'm sorry, I would reverse those. I usually call it communion, but I've heard it called the Lord's Supper. And I kind of thought for sure one of those was wrong. But then I got to looking and realized there's like six different ways in the Scripture that this same activity is described. So very briefly I just want to review a couple of those for you just so you know that no matter what you call it you're not wrong. But each one of them has a different purpose and a different concept that we should emphasize. So some may have called it the Lord's Table. That is an entirely appropriate thing to call it. 1 Corinthians 10.21 calls it this. You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. The idea is that whatever is on the table before you is the one who provides it. And Jesus Christ is the one who provided what's on the table. It's His table, it's not mine, it's His. Of course, commonly we hear it referred to as the Lord's Supper. 1 Corinthians 11.20 says, when you come together, is it not the Lord's Supper that you eat? Same thing we're going to do here. Sometimes it's referred to as the breaking of bread. We see this all through Scripture. In particular, We see that two men on the road to Emmaus were walking after Christ was resurrected and Christ joined them, they didn't know who it was. And as He ministered to them, Scripture says their hearts burned within them because they knew something was different. And their eyes were opened when He broke bread. We call it communion and that's appropriate as well. 1 Corinthians 10.16 says, a cup of blessing that we are to bless. Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ or in a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread that we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ? This idea, this is something we as believers do together with our Lord and Savior. Some more traditionally outside of the Baptist faith would call it the Eucharist. comes from the Greek word which means to give thanks. And it comes from the time in Luke 22 and 19 it says, and He took the bread, He gave thanks and He broke it. Some, although maybe an awkward phrase, will call it a, I don't hear this very often, a love feast. Let me get that at Jude 1.12. It says, there are hidden reefs at your love feasts. as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead and uprooted." And that goes to the idea that not only should we love each other and there should be a celebration of our love for each other and our love for Christ, we must be very careful that those who do not share the love of Christ should not be involved. I'll just go ahead and say it now because I don't plan on giving a lot of instructions at the end. If you do not know that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior then you should not take this because you have no communion with us. You have no communion with the Lord. That's very important. So each of these names for what we're going to do today indicate different ways and things that we should remember. When we call it the Lord's table, we need to remember that we must submit to whose table it is, and that's Jesus Christ. We must submit to him. We must be obedient to him. When we call the Lord's supper, it talks about coming together when we eat it, we must remember, build a memorial to what God did for us. When we talk about the breaking of bread, we must celebrate that he has arisen and that he is among us today. as they saw on the road to Emmaus. When we call it communion we must remember to confess our sins and reconcile with each other and be of one mind and one heart. When we call it the Eucharist we should, as it says, give thanks for what Christ has done for us. When we talk about a love feast we must remember we must deeply love Christ and the brothers and sisters. But since recently we've talked about memorials, I want to talk about the part that says, do this in remembrance of me, the Lord's Supper. What are we remembering? Scripture says, and I frequently will quote, we want to put you in remembrance. need to be reminded repeatedly of what God has done for us, what God is doing for us, and the blessings that we have. We must remind each other of these things because being as we are we very, very quickly forget. So, what are we remembering? Well, the Lord's Supper if we take that phrase is a foreshadowing, I'm sorry, goes back to the Passover. The Passover is the Passover Supper that occurred for the first time when the Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt was a foreshadowing of what we're doing today. You'll recall that Pharaoh had enslaved all of the Hebrews and was keeping them under tight bondage. God called Moses in an unusual fashion to go back and to demand, let my people go. We always forget the last half of that phrase, that they may serve me in the desert. Doesn't sound as comforting, does it? Pharaoh refused. God demonstrated his authority in a series of plagues. And sometimes Pharaoh would relent, but he would harden his heart and he would change his mind until the very last plague. This is where we get the concept of the Passover that we have that leads into the Lord's Supper. Exodus 12 beginning with verse 21, Exodus 12, the 10th plague if you remember was that all of the first born, Hebrew and Egyptian alike, even the animals was going to die or going to be killed. Moses instructs the Hebrews what they should do according to the Lord. Exodus 12.21 reads as follows, "'Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, "'Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover.'" And he shall take a branch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil of the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his household until the morning." And so they were told to go and to take a lamb, to sacrifice it unto God, to take the blood and to place it on the outside doorframe of their house. And then they had to stay within the confines of that blood in order to be safe from the Lord. And then 23 it says, "'For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood upon the lintel and upon the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.'" It was the blood of the Lamb and their faith in doing this ritual that was in fact what God saw as a sign that they believed in Him and caused Him to pass over. Now we've talked recently about some really controversial, unusual things in the Scripture, right? Does this make any sense? I'm going to take some blood and paint it on the outside of my door and somehow the Spirit of God will not kill me. It seems a little odd. It makes you wonder how many of the Hebrews themselves thought, yeah, this is nuts, I'm not going to do this. much less are the wise confounded when the Scripture tells us that we must have faith in Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to be saved. So, they were given also instructions to have a meal, to have unleavened bread, to have bitter herbs, and a variety of other things. And they were told in verse 24 of the same chapter, "'You shall observe this thing for an ordinance, and and thy sons forever." We're supposed to do this forever. What? To remember how God saved them. So come down a couple thousand years and we have Christ. And it's the time of the year when they observe Passover. Christ of course is going to do this because He is perfect, He obeyed every aspect of the law, and the law and the command in verse 24 was, you will observe this. So, He gets ready to do the same. And at the same time is going to institute what we know today as the Lord's Supper. Turn with me to Matthew 26. Matthew 26. turning there don't lose sight to understand what the Passover is and how it foreshadows what Christ is about to do. And how He is going to fulfill the law by observing the Passover, but He is going to explain it, and illustrate it, and complete it in a way as never before. Matthew 26 I'll begin reading with verse 17. Now, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the Passover, came to Jesus saying unto him, where will we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say to him, The Master says, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now when the evening had come he sat down with the Twelve, and And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful and began every one of them to say to him, Lord, is it I? And he answered them and said, He that dips his hand with me in this dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto the man whom the Son of Man has betrayed. It had been good for him if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered Him and said, Master, is it I? And He said unto him, Thou hast said it. And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body. took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it." This is key verses here. "'For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remissions of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.'" it makes sense for what we're going to do in a little bit it says, and they sang a hymn and they went out to the Mount of Olives. Christ Himself is telling us that His blood is a New Testament in which the shedding of it will be the remission of sins. The only way to pass from death unto life, the only way to be forgiven from the things that we've done wrong is through the shedding of blood. And there is only one person who can do that for all times, once and for all, and it is Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, who is by nature God Himself, and was perfect, and was the perfect sacrifice for us. Of course most of us know what happened. Went out to the garden, He knew what was coming. His disciples didn't quite understand. He was arrested falsely, illegally tried. That's a fun study sometime. And ultimately, because he was arrested falsely and illegally tried, he was murdered on a cross. It wasn't just killed, he was murdered, unjustly killed, murdered. He'd done nothing wrong whatsoever. Now go back to the beginning, we talked about the Passover, we talked about the importance of there being a lamb that was a sacrifice. And what we see most clearly in scriptures is that that lamb is who? Is Jesus Christ. We see it from the very beginning when John the Baptist is baptizing and Christ approaches and he exclaims, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. See John the Baptist was there to make the way ready for his approach. And when it was time, when God revealed in John the Baptist's spirit to proclaim who it is that that's going to be, he proclaimed for all the world to hear, behold the Lamb that takes away. sins of the world. You would have loved to have been there that day. Can you imagine the confusion and pandemonium that went on? Hundreds of people around being baptized and all of a sudden John stops and points at somebody and says, that's the guy right there. That's him. That's who we've been waiting for. That's who we've been sacrificing lambs for thousands of years to try and cover our sins and it's ineffective. But here's the one who once and for all can do it for all of us. Would you have believed? I don't know that I would have. Probably wouldn't have fit with what I thought I knew at the time. Apostle Paul records in 1 Corinthians 5-7, "'Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.'" Apostle Peter claims as much, 1 Peter 1 and 19, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. This goes all the way back to the Christmas story, my counterintuitive Christmas sermon. where we realize how much symbolism is wrapped up in this. That He was probably born in the sacrificial place where all the lambs were raised. And He was wrapped the same way. And that those who guarded over the lambs would have known exactly what it was. Why was it a sign? Because they were waiting for the lamb that was sinless to take away the sins of the world. And that's how He came. Hebrews 4.15, "'For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet was without sin.'" See it took a perfect lamb. It took a God who was willing to become like us. To be tempted in every single way that we were. yet to overcome all of that so that He could be sacrificed for us. Turn with me to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9.11. Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls, and goats, and the ashes of heifers, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth to purify the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, though through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transfigured that we are under the First Testament, that which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." He died for us. It was impossible for repeated sacrifices to fully pay the penalty, it had to be Him. And how do we know it had to be Him? jot this down if you're taking notes, but don't turn there, let me just read it to you. Revelation 4, 6-14. Revelation 4, 6-14. I'm sorry, 5, 6-14. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth to all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sits upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. is the throne room of God. And there is a Lamb as though it was slain, who was there before God, who is seated on His throne. And there are elders and those around who will worship, who have bowls full of our prayers. Your prayers today are there now, and your prayers tomorrow will be there, and your prayers yesterday are there. And they are there at the very throne of God. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. Because of the Lamb that was slain. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou wert worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof. For Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us our God, kings, and priests. And we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels around about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, them was 10,000 times 10,000. Thousands upon thousands saying with a loud voice, "'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessings. And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under that are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that attaineth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.' And the four beasts said, Amen, and the four twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever." when we practice this command that Christ gave us we are remembering exactly this, that everything no matter whether you want to or not at some point will come falling to your knees to give Him praise because He is the Lamb that is worthy of it. Because He is the Lamb that sacrificed Himself voluntarily because He loved us so that we could know Him. What more can we say? going to memorialize and remember in the Lord's Supper today. Here are some things we're going to remember. We remember that God is the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Everything in it belongs to Him. There is nothing that doesn't belong to Him. He is the originator of everything. We remember that sin came into a perfect world through our disobedience. remember that sin has passed you all, and that the penalty of said sin is death and eternal separation from God. We remember that the Law was given to us to teach us just how utterly hopeless we really are. And we remember that the Scriptures tell us that we, before we are converted, are God's enemy. We remember that God loved the world so much that He made a way out. We remember that God prepared this way before the foundations of the world, before we had a chance to mess it all up. God knew that we'd need a Savior. He knew that we'd need a perfect Lamb and He prepared one and had a method ready for me and for you. We remember that this way is God's only Son, Jesus Christ. We remember that He was born of a virgin. We remember that He was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin, or spotless as a spotless Lamb. We remember that Christ was betrayed, falsely accused, and tortured. We remember that Christ bled, died, and was buried. And we remember that Christ rose on the third day, conquering the curse of death with victory in His right hand. remember that Christ ascended to Heaven to sit at God's right hand. And we remember that Christ is returning someday, as the hymn says, to judge the quick and the dead. remember most preciously that all of these acts of the Godhead were voluntary. He chose to love us. He could have run the world without any of us ever being created, or He could have not redeemed us and been just as just as He is now. But He voluntarily committed His Son to take on my sin, to be separated, to die for me so that I could be reunited with the One who made me and loves me. And I remember July 1999 when in faith I applied His blood to my heart. Not because of anything that I've done, but because of His sacrifice I'll be passed over. are the things that we remember today. That is what I want you to remember, and I pray that you do. I pray that you can join me in confidently saying, I know the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world because I have met this Lamb, because I know who He is, and I know He's real, and I know that everything that you've said is true, and I love Him, and believe in Him, and He knows who I am, and I know who He is. 1 Corinthians 15, it says, "'I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and that dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Because of what He has done for us, opportunity to know Him, and to be saved, and to have that blood as I mentioned applied metaphorically to our hearts. Which means we have put our faith in Him, that we have come before Him, being convicted of our sins, confessing to Him, and receiving this forgiveness. And knowing that we have passed from death unto life, but thanks to God who gives us the victory through who? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore," and I'll read it again, "'My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.'" Have you experienced the spiritual victory? Do you know what these verses are talking about? Have you experienced this change in your lives? If you have, then I encourage you to join me here in a few minutes. as we remember what Christ has done for us, as we celebrate that He is alive and living among us, as we confess and reconcile with one another, as we come together as one group of believers, as we give thanks for Christ's victory, as we deeply love each other, and as we submit to His table. all these things come into play. Everything that God has done, is doing, and will do is all for this purpose. It's all the Gospel, the Good News that we have in Jesus Christ. There is a way of escape and it is Jesus Christ. There is no other name. There is no other way. It is only His blood that was shed, and His body that was broken. And we do this in remembrance of Him. Bible even tells us we shouldn't do it, I'll use my word, flippantly. We shouldn't just randomly be doing this, we should really stop and consider where we're at. And brothers and sisters, I don't know where you're at. Are you steadfast, immovable, always abounding to the words of the Lord? I hope so. I want to be. I desire to be. So as we have communion, or the Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist, or break the bread, as we contemplate, let us remember and proclaim publicly what Christ has done for us. And as we leave, may we leave with this knowledge that our Savior has paid the price and I am free indeed because of Him. Let me pray. And as I do so, if we'll have those who will serve, please come down as I begin to pray. Lord, I thank you. Lord, I thank you for your wisdom and a plan that doesn't make any sense. Lord, I'm thankful that you confound those of us who think we're wise and somehow we would have done it better or differently. I'M THANKFUL THAT YOU HAD A PLAN BEFORE YOU MADE ANYONE KNOWING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. THAT YOU WANTED TO REDEEM US. THAT YOU WANTED TO SAVE US SO THAT WE COULD KNOW YOU AND YOU COULD KNOW US. AND I'M THANKFUL THAT YOU SENT YOUR OWN SON TO COME TO THIS WORLD TO LIVE A PERFECT LIFE AS AN EXAMPLE. AND THEN AT THE END TO TAKE UPON MY PUNISHMENT FOR WHAT I'VE DONE WRONG. to take upon the punishment of the entire world. The guilt of everyone, past, present, and future, was poured out on your son to such a degree that you had to turn away from him and leave him dying naked, bleeding to death on a cross, separated from you just so that I could live. I'M THANKFUL THAT YOU DIDN'T END THERE, BUT BY HIS POWER WAS RAISED TO LIFE ON THE THIRD DAY, CONQUERING DEATH, CONQUERING SIN, AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF YOU, SO THAT WE CAN KNOW HIM. LORD, I PRAY THAT AS WE TAKE THIS LORD'S SUPPER THAT WE WOULD REMEMBER WHY WE'RE DOING IT. LORD, THAT WE WOULD CELEBRATE AND that you would help us to love you, help us to commune with you and with each other, help us to know and understand our place before you. And Lord, we thank you so much for the gift that you gave us, the blood and the broken body of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. As I've already read, 1 Corinthians 11, 26 says, And so we have received this as something that we are to do as well. We are proclaiming what Jesus Christ has proclaimed, and we've been doing it for thousands of years. And until He comes back, we'll continue to do it, to join together in this way.