Our sermon this morning is from Luke chapter 22. It's a bit of a blessing as I preach through the books of the Bible that we came to chapter 22, the place where the Lord's Supper is instituted, around the same time as we had planned to have the Lord's Supper. So here we have the account, Luke chapter 22. We'll start the reading at verse seven. Luke 22, starting with verse seven. Then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. And Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us so that we may eat it. They said to him, where do you want us to prepare it? And he said to them, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large, furnished upper room. Prepare it there. And they left and found everything just as he told them. And they prepared the Passover. When the hour had come, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take. Take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with me on the table. For indeed, the son of man is going as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who is going to do this thing. Pray with me. Father, help us now. Show us as much as we can bear the full picture of your vast love for us. Please shine into our hearts this morning. and burn away every fear, burn away every doubt. Please use your rod and your staff to protect us, to direct us, and to comfort us, that you will be most glorified as we think correctly about your relationship with us and our place in this beautiful, eternal relationship. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. We look here and the picture is given. It was time for the Passover lamb to be sacrificed. We move back to the ugly, bloody picture, the ugly, bloody scene that everyone in Jerusalem knew all too well. Prayerfully and hopefully their hearts hadn't become callous to it. Prayerfully and hopefully as they were expected to have raised their own lamb and taken the most perfect one and have brought it and that lamb was to be killed and they saw that blood spilled, hopefully as something came that was a part of their lives and a part of their own house, they would be able to look and see, hmm, that's what the consequences of sin is. The wages of sin is death. Jesus says he longed to have this supper with them. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to take this picture together with them for them to see it, for them to know it. And he had been waiting to say, this is the new covenant in my blood. this I do for you." He said, take this and make this the new picture of your faith. Take this and know this as the sign of my great love for you. That I was broken. that I was poured out. This is why the scripture comes and it brings this to us. And we all want that champion. We all want that hero. Some of us want to be that champion ourselves. Some of us want to be the hero ourselves. Some of us are waiting and longing and looking for a champion or a hero to come and to be brought to us. Give us one good man to follow, we say. Someone to rescue us. Someone to champion us. Someone, dare we say it, to save us. A great rescuer has come. He has given us this picture. So the call for you this morning is to look intently at Christ's great love for you. As we look at the concept of the leaven in verse seven, then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Leaven was a picture or a representation of sin in their mind. In the older covenant, as the first day was coming, they had to remove all leaven from their house. The Jewish tradition, as it's been told to me, they would go through and they would have a candle and they would have a spoon and a feather and they would look in each corner of their cupboard and work to get every little bit of leaven representing sin in their lives out and take it and throw it out. So when Jesus says to the disciples in Luke 21, Luke 12, one, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. It unfolded it all for the disciples. Our first step is beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. We could say beware of the sin of the Pharisees. The most direct way would be to say, beware of your own hypocrisy. Now I could start banging my head off of this pulpit as I say that to you. Because any time any of us has any standard whatsoever in accordance with righteousness, I hate to say we're all hypocrites. Because anyone who breaks one of the commandments, James 2.10 says, is guilty of all. Now in one sense, this is a terrible curse for each of us. It puts us in that sad place where we say, I'm guilty. On the other hand, it brings us to that other place, that humble place, where we see that we are small in our own sight. And Christ is near to the humble. Christ is near to the brokenhearted. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise, it says in Psalm 51, where we see that we are all guilty of breaking the whole law. We don't make ourselves comfortable in a place of sin. Saying, everybody sins. I knew a deacon in another church that we served in. Whenever some sin was talked about, he would shrug and apparently shrug it off and kind of chuckle and say, but it's only natural. As if that made it acceptable. Well, we understand, prayerfully we understand from scripture, none of us are striving for the natural anymore. But we're striving for the supernatural. We're striving to gain real ground, to advance from strength to strength. We're striving for that place where we're pressing towards the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Where in real and actual ways, we're putting off our sin. With accountability in our lives, confessing our sins to one another, that we can pray for one another. that real ground will be being taken. Romans 12, 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Let's take that statement and apply it to our personal relationships. That we would hate what's evil in the midst of our relationships. and yet cling to what is good in the midst of our relationships. That we'll truly be committed to each other's eternal good. That we will truly be forgiving one another from our hearts. That we'll have patterns in our lives of confessing sin, seeking forgiveness, and forgiving each other. that that will be the reality of our relationships, not a fake politeness that we address each other with, but real hearts that are truly connected, real hearts that are seeking one another's eternal good, where we're putting off the hypocrisy, but being transparent and honest and having our hearts knit together. Now, as we do this, We're transitioning into the second step, but please see these as chain links that are together. Set your heart on the good news. In verse eight, Jesus says to the disciples, go prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. There was an intimacy in the fellowship and the sharing of the meal. We look back, and if we looked at Exodus chapter 24, and we spent some time on that, we would say, what? They went and they ate and drank together with God? What? Moses walked into the mountain. He walked into the consuming fire. What? Moses met with God face to face as a man meets with his friend? What? And we see the reality of our relationship in the Gospel. That Christ, even as it says, He says, I earnestly desired to have this meal with you. He wants to meet with you. He wants your presence. He loves you. And he knows you. And he would still hold you. He would still hold you fast. He still keeps saying to you, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He loves you. wants you and will eternally hold you. And as we live out our lives, as we have called on Him, we can go back to that verse 13 and it says, and they found everything just as He told them. He's not surprised by anything. When He chose you before the foundation of the world, He already knew how messed up and sinful you would be. He already knew. And He had already chosen the end as well. That you would appear before Him. They would burn away every shadow in your heart. And we would take our crowns and the elders would throw the crowns before him and we would worship with every tribe and every tongue and every nation. You remember that you're going to be a part of that assembly. This is just a foreshadowing. This is just a taste of what we get to enjoy. our first international conference. It was such a sweet moment as we're walking through the crowd and you could hear the accents of people from Scotland and Ireland and Japan and we're looking around at all the people and New Song is singing the Psalms. There's this lilt waving over our heads and they had distributed ice cream and Nate's walking along as he goes, six years old, and he stops and says, this is what heaven will be like. We have our ice cream, we have our Psalms, and we have Scottish people. No, but we had everybody there. We had everybody there. Different tribes and different tongues. All of those who call upon the name of the Lord. And it's beautiful. This morning we have just Just a taste. Our fourth step is stand in the good news of the kingdom. Verse 16, for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. I always want that capitalized, the K in the kingdom of God. I want this demonstrated as a reality. an official title. The truth that is more true than the United States of America. That's more true than Japan. That's more true than Cyprus. That's more true than Scotland. The kingdom of God. An assembly, a real people that are forever and ever as they are in Christ Jesus. We read in Ephesians 2.14, he himself is our peace who has removed the dividing wall. That we are in him and we are brought together as one people. I was once speaking at a youth conference and when I walked in, they had a giant American flag up across the back with the image of a bald eagle flying across it. And it had the scripture on it, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And it inferred that the United States of America was that nation that was God's chosen people. And I actually had to say, I can't preach in front of that. You're gonna have to take that down. We did used to have an American flag and a Christian flag up on the stage in here. We are so much more than an American assembly. We are so much more than an assembly of the United States of America. We are a kingdom assembly, kingdom of God, and I'm going to force it with a capital K. an eternal reality that people from every nation, tribe, and tongue are a part of. An eternal kingdom under Christ Jesus. This is the reality of the kingdom. We will read later in scripture where when Christ was crucified, he leans back and he shouts, it is finished. It is finished. The kingdom of God has come. It is present. You and me, we can say in our dealing with sin, it is finished. The kingdom of God has come. You and I stand as royal subjects, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people after God's own calling to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is where we live. This is our reality. This is our true citizenship. And this is the picture of being a part of that. This is a sign, a seal of that reality. It is finished. The veil has been torn. He has brought us together. And in verse 17, he says, as a sign for that, share this among yourselves. that together we take this sign and we show forth the Lord's death until he comes. So our fifth step is to remember proven love or stand in the midst of that proven love. Verse 17, and when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And verse 20, in the same way he took the cup and after they had eaten saying, this cup is poured out for you. This is the new covenant in my blood. Proven love. Proven love. How often has someone challenged someone to prove their love? If you love me, you will do this. At one point, my mother took a very firm stand and stopped me from doing something that I wanted to do. And then she said, I'm sorry. I said, if you were truly sorry, you would change your mind and let me do this. She said, no, I disagree. Now, a demonstration of affection in accordance with reality is what we're talking about. A true love. Is there something else that Christ needs to do to prove his love for you? Is there something more that the Father could do to prove His love for you? Or has the perfect demonstration already occurred? Oh, you are so loved. You are so loved. Everything that you have imagined that you lack has already been given to you. The eternal reality is already there. John 15, 13. Greater love has no one than this, that a person lay down his life for his friends. Drink that in. Drink that in. Drink that cup this morning. The greatest love. So our sixth step is to love the greatest love. Verse 20, this cup is poured out for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Christ says, here's our relationship. This is our relationship. He defines the terms for us. Leslie and I, we didn't come from a culture where a man learned to define the terms of the relationship. I had been listening to different sermons and I had been brought to a different place than our culture was in. And we had been dating and I called her up and I said, all right, here's how I see things. And this is what my expectation is. I am going to continue to pursue you. I am going to continue to seek the Lord. And if this keeps going the way that it is, I intend to marry you." And that blew her away. We came from a culture where a guy was more like, do you like me? Because if you like me, I might like you. The covenant relationship is God shows up and says, I have laid my life down for you, I have given you the gift of faith, and I have saved you based on this gift. You're mine. The deal is done. It is signed, and we call this a sign and a seal. It is the demonstration of His love. It is His demonstration of the New Covenant. It displays. He says, you're mine. And we take it and we say, I sure am. I sure am. You have loved me. And because you have loved me, I love you. Look at this full love. straight in the face this morning. Be moved by Christ's love. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for accomplishing salvation. Thank you for your great love and your compassion that you have shown us as your people. Please bless us now as we look at this sign, as we receive this sign, and as we proclaim your great love, as we proclaim Christ's death. And be glorified as we are nourished in our hearts to know you and to love you and serve you. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen.