Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This message, real similar, I changed it a little bit, but essentially this message we had here preached March 2, 2014. So that's been some years ago, huh? Well, that's 10 years ago. Is that 10 years ago? I looked it up and thought, well, I can't preach that one again. It's just been a couple of years. Well, some of you weren't even alive 10 years ago. Some of you kids, man, we were a lot younger 10 years ago, weren't we? And on the notes, sometimes I write notes on the sermons, it says, cold and snow caused many to stay home, only 40 in attendance on March 2nd, 2014. So the title of this message is Proclaiming the Lord's Death and my intention is to, for the next couple of Lord's Days at least, to do what we're doing this morning. Move the message to before the Lord's Day service and communion service and do some teaching on communion and what the Lord's Supper is and hopefully take a closer look at chapter 11 here also. But I thought for a good starting point we would just get a broad overview of the Lord's Supper and its purpose. And so what we have here is, you know, it talks about proclaiming the Lord's death, but when we proclaim, excuse me, we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ when we share the Lord's supper. That's what's going on when we're doing this. There is a great, important, theological, eternal, heavenly meaning behind what we're doing. It's not just a ceremony. It's not just something you do here to check a box. We are proclaiming the gospel through this ceremony, through the Lord's Supper. And the gospel is the greatest message to mankind. It's God's saving message. The Lord's Supper becomes an object lesson for all who watch it. for all who participate in it, for the gospel. So, for our scripture reading, we'll read this morning, I'll read chapter 11, verses 23 through 26, and we'll really focus in on verse 26 to draw for our message. 1 Corinthians 11, 23. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Let's have a prayer to bless our message time before we begin. Father, we're so thankful for all of the parts of our worship service here this morning, and even the announcement of a birth of a new child. You are the giver of life, Lord. We thank you for that, and thank you that you give a new life, a heavenly, eternal life, spiritual life. And for those here who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, we're gathered here to be born-again believers, adopted and brought in, born again into the family of God. Lord, thank you for this supper, and may it be that we see that our life is sustained from Christ in His broken body and shed blood. For Jesus, you even said that unless a man eat your body and drink your blood, he has no life in him. And so that's a representation of our faith as we trust in all of what you have done for us on the cross. And may we receive you, Lord. Pray your blessing on this message time. Help us to understand more about what you've given to us in the Lord's Supper. In Jesus' name, amen. So we're gonna look at how is the gospel proclaimed at the Lord's Supper. When you look at this verse, it has three components to it, and I think it's important to always remember. We're looking at the past, we're here together in the present, There's some significance to the past and the present, and then it's the future. We proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. It's a future look. It encompasses all of time and all the totality of what we are. All of us are made up of what's happened in the past and who we are today and what the Lord intends for us to be in the future. We are locked into time as long as we're on this earth. And here the Lord has given us a ceremony that causes us to take a step back and almost do like he does, see all of time as a one unit, all of the past. It's not just his death and his blood and body, but it's the prophecies that come into that. It's what the Old Testament foundation of Christ's sacrifice is and all of the teaching that comes into that of what Christ did. And then what it means to us today by putting our faith in Christ and the significance of the gospel and saving work of Jesus Christ for those who have put their faith in Him. And then, of course, a future look when Jesus will return and there will be a kingdom. And those who have put their faith in Christ will enter into that kingdom. So that significance ought to grip us every time we sit down and observe the Lord's Supper, past, present, and future. Well, we'll get a little bit narrower now and see how the gospel is brought out in this proclamation of the Lord's Supper as we observe it here. First thing we're going to look at in the past is what we do is we're remembering the Lord's death. And the first thing we'll look at, real simple, I hope this has a lot of simple truths in this message that would encourage our hearts this morning. His body, His broken body, I think here's a good way of terming it. His broken body was given for us. It's probably a good way of putting it when we put together all the text of what the Bible teaches. Now we're going to look more closely at what it means that His body is broken for us in a future message. But right now we understand that His broken body was given to us in the sacrifice that He made for us. The gospel truth has the idea that Jesus offered himself. For God so loved the world that he gave an offering. It's sacrificial language. That offering is Christ himself. And Jesus' body becomes a sacrifice. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. His broken body was given for us. In Hebrews chapter 10, let me do this, let me just read the passage, let it just kind of wash over us, and then we'll come back and draw out a couple important points from this passage. Hebrews 10, verse 5, Therefore when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. Previously saying sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and, excuse me, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. That's one aspect. Then the next in verse nine, he said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh God. He takes away the first, that's the Old Testament sacrifices from verse eight, to establish the second, which is Christ's sacrifice you see in verse nine. Verse 10, by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We're looking into some of this theology behind the idea that Christ gave his broken body for us. You see the sacrifice and offering in verse 5, the Old Testament says in Psalm 40, you did not desire burnt offerings. In verse 6, you had no pleasure. And it's not that those things are illegitimate or that God saw no value in them. If offered with the right heart, they had great value. because it taught the Old Testament believer that there was a need for a greater sacrifice, that there must be a sacrifice for sin. And those sacrifices were offered in faith by Old Testament believers. And so if they were done in faith and done with a right heart of sincerity before God, they had great value. But the lesson through those animal sacrifices is that God never intended those to be permanent. That God never intended animal sacrifices to be the end, but a means to the end. And so the animal sacrifices pointed to a greater sacrifice. God's not interested in animal sacrifices, but he's interested in the sacrifice that a man or a human, a man or a woman can make. and that there would be this one who would come that would make the ultimate sacrifice. And so it's spoken of the Lord Jesus when he says, but a body you have prepared for me. And when you understand that the Lord Jesus entered into human flesh, he was given a body so that he might live as a man, that he might live as a human being and placed himself under the law and the righteousness of it so that he lived in his body the righteousness of God amongst humanity. His body, himself, all of his being, everything that he was in his mind and his heart, it was expressed through his actions. He lived and walked this earth just as we do. And the life that he lived in his body demonstrated what it says in verse 7. Behold, I have come in the volume of book it is written of me to do your will, O God. Jesus Christ in the body of his flesh, absolutely without flaw, without weakness, without any failure, fully fulfilled. I know some people say that's a double. Fulfilled the righteousness of God. as a man in a body. He did what God designed the human body to do. Brought that thing under complete subjection of the will of God. That through the body of the flesh of Jesus Christ, he brought humanity to a submissive, surrendered place of obedience that would glorify God. It's exactly what God created humanity for. Jesus lived that out. His body then became that vessel of righteousness. And it's that very body, that righteous body, that perfect body that could become then a sacrifice because Jesus being the Savior and didn't intend to establish His own righteousness and then go back to heaven and leave the rest of us. But because of His mercy and His grace and His love for us, the plan of God to bring in many sons to glory Jesus gave himself, the Father sent the Son to the cross to die for the sins of everybody else. And so in that body of Jesus, our sins were charged too. And it says in 1 Peter 2.24, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. The father, remember, he charged Jesus legally, and he placed spiritually, trying to grasp for words to understand this, the penalty of our sin, the consequences of our sin, sin itself to the account of Jesus. It says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he made him who knew no sin, in his righteousness and his pure body, he knew no sin, to be sin for us. He became the very sin that we are and have, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see, Jesus gave himself over to be treated just like the sinner deserves. The punishment for that sin, the suffering for that sin. What would you do? What would you do if the criminal came into your home and committed the crime against your family or against you? If you could think of a heinous sin. What does that person, what does that criminal deserve? And we talk about it all the time. Well, I'll string him up by, well, I'd skin him by, well, I would, yeah. It's true that there's a consequence for sin. And when Jesus was taken, you know, and what's interesting about in Corinthians, it says, on the night he was betrayed. See, Paul says, I delivered you what came me. On the night our Lord was betrayed. And the memory should come pouring back in as we've studied in the gospels. You've read those things. The night he was betrayed. You remember what they did to him when he was betrayed and he went to the cross? They treated him like a criminal, like a sinner. It says in the prophecy in Isaiah 52, 14, I don't think there is a movie, and I don't think imagination could even begin to describe what Christ looked like in his brutality of his suffering. I don't think it's wise to do that. I'm not really for these movies like Passion of Christ and so forth. I think it has a flawed premise. Like I said before, if you watch a movie like that and you don't feel moved or emotionally, you know, hurt or something, you're a pretty callous person. But it's not just about what he went through physically when it's talking about he's marred more than any man. It's also the spiritual suffering that comes out physically. He was taken in his physical body, but he gave himself over spiritually. His heart was surrendered to the will of God. Remember, he didn't open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was silent. See, we even know that in our own life now. When a person is taken and the toll of sin, the toll of a hard life of suffering on a person. Now, you young parents are realizing some of this. Let's just move back just a little bit. I don't know how much toil it is, but doesn't raising kids give you gray hairs? Doesn't it? Do you see it in your body? A few wrinkles? What do you think, Luke? Ready for number three? Tyler and Lindsey will tell you, hey, no problem. And you know, Jacob and Candy, four might be coming, but no, no. I always say that after three, Jacob, Candy, might as well have four, five, eight, ten. Tyler, your time's coming. You and Leah are going to have gray hair. Late nights. Get more serious now, I think about, and you men will see, you saw this in your, you have seen this in your wives before. Those late nights, those worry-filled nights, the toll it takes on a body, the toll it takes on a soul to bear a child, to raise a young child. the toll that never really goes away. Some of us that have older kids realize there's still a burden you carry, no matter how old your kids get, that you pray for them and you're concerned about them, and it just takes a bit of a toll, and I'm trying to relate it back to something physically in a good way. But you see, when the Lord Jesus suffered for sin and gave himself over, we're talking about his body being broken, talking about him giving himself, He offered himself up and he went through that suffering, and the reason that his body was given over is that in his body he might bear our sin. And you and I know all too well the depths of the wickedness and the deserving of the consequence and punishment that our sin deserves. And look, this is why the gospel is the answer. in our life because there's been times where people have carried so much guilt in their life for what they have done that they don't know what to do. They've gone mad. They can't cope with it and they try worldly means of doing it and it becomes even more destructive in their life. But the way to cope with it is to come in humility and look to Christ and see in the scriptures that He bore our sin in His own body. Those nails were driven in His hands and His feet because of my sin. That crown was placed upon His head because I think I'm the king of my own life. His blood was shed from the stripes of the whip on his back because that's what a criminal against God deserves. And when you can associate and you can be humble and say, Jesus, you took my sin, some men stand up and say, he can't do that. But you've got to humble yourself. And you've got to, we say, let him, but he did, but you've got to realize he did. And you can't cling to that because you can't pay your own penalty for sin, but Jesus paid the penalty for our sin in his own body. He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. See, that's why it expresses the gospel because that bread represents his broken body. And if you're here today, you realize he took my sin on his own self in his own body. And he died for me. Now we talk about the blood being shed. Look at Hebrews 9. Well, now I'm going to back up. I want to look, first of all, I've got it in your notes here, Mark 14. When Jesus is giving the Lord's Last Supper, and He's instituting the Lord's Supper there, He says in Mark 14, 24 about the cup and His blood, He says, And He said to them, This is My blood of the new covenant. Now, I intend to talk more about the new covenant in another message. We'll just hit on it this morning. This is my blood, he says, of the new covenant which is shed for many. Shed gives the idea of poured out. Poured out and poured over. Shed for many. And Christ's blood fulfills all of the necessary fulfillments of the atonement for sin that the shedding of blood is pictured in the Old Testament for. Now, beginning with, let's look at Hebrews 9.12. This is the day of atonement. This is when the blood of the sacrifice was brought unto the Holy of Holies. And in 9.12, speaking about the shed blood of Jesus, it says, Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood. With his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He didn't just do what they do down here. God gave earthly ordinances where an earthly priest came and brought an earthly animal with earthly blood and brought it into an earthly temple or tabernacle, an earthly holy place, and symbolically offered blood that people put their faith in and said, someday the Lord will give the ultimate sacrifice. The righteous one would shed his blood And Jesus is that one, when it says he offered his sinless blood from his life in the most holy place, Jesus' sacrifice went up to the very throne of God, the very presence of God of which that tabernacle, most holy place in the temple represented the very presence of God, where the ark was. Once a year they went into that. Jesus took his blood into the very presence of God, the very Father in heaven. accepted the sacrifice of Jesus and his shed blood. The Father in heaven said, this shed blood is the only blood I will accept to cover sins. He'll accept nothing else. And that's the idea of him coming and entered the most holy place, the very presence of God. Once for all, it's not repetitive. Jesus died once, his blood was shed once and obtained eternal redemption. And when you put your faith in Christ, you enter into this new covenant, this new relationship with the Lord based upon His shed blood that eternally washes away sin and provides eternal redemption for those who have trusted Christ. And that's expressed in Hebrews 16 and 17, this covenant. Hebrews 10, 16 says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. And then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. What a covenant, what a promise relationship to enter the Lord. He promises to say your sins I will remember no more. Because you put your faith in the shed blood of Christ which washes away sin, which His blood shows the payment for sin, God the Father promises that He will remember your sins no more. If you're today and you carry a great weight of guilt, when we come to the Lord's table and we come and we say, oh, I didn't know it was the Lord's Supper this Sunday. I just don't feel worthy for this. You're not supposed to feel worthy. You're supposed to sit back and realize and remember and put your faith in and rest your life upon. That blood was shed so that he wouldn't remember the sins that I did this week, since last month, and even this morning. And I'm here because I've entered a covenant relationship with Lord where my sins are washed away permanently. And that even more so, He places the law and the truth and the righteousness into my own heart. What a relationship with the Lord. So we come to remember that in His broken body. in His shed blood. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says, Do you remember what they did with the Passover lamb? The Lord said that the firstborn, all the firstborn in Egypt would die, and so they were to take a lamb, and its blood was to be shed when they sacrificed it. And what were they to do with the blood? But on the doorposts of the home and over, it's the lentils and the, what's it say on the top? Does it use a different word I'm trying to remember? Well, it's a doorpost and it's the top. I think there's, yeah, okay. So put it over the door. And when the angel of death would come, the destroyer, it says, not really the angel of death, but the destroyer to take the, to take out its toll of what God said, because the firstborn belonged to Him, and the Lord was gonna come and collect on that, it's owed to Him because of sin, came to destroy the firstborn. The only way to be saved from that destroyer, from that death, that we all deserve, that the Lord could come at any moment and say, your time is up. Because of your sin, the Lord can come and He has a right to come and say, it's over for you. The only way to be saved from that destroyer and that destruction is to have that blood over the doorposts. And Christ becomes the Passover lamb. And so the question that's always good to ask, maybe ask the kids. If I was teaching Sunday school, I'd ask the kids this. So how do you get the blood of Jesus over your doorposts? We don't shed the blood of lambs today and actually put it on the doorposts of our house, do we? And if Christ is our Passover lamb, how do we get his blood over our doorposts? What do we do? Do any of the kids know how to answer that? Emily? You get saved, that's right. What happens when you get saved? If Christ is our Passover Lamb, how is His blood being used that way, really? on our hearts, is that what you said? That we need that blood over the doorpost of our hearts so that the blood covers our hearts. And we do that by faith, by getting saved, by trusting in the Lord Jesus, that blood of the Passover is put upon our hearts, over our hearts so that the Lord might pass over and we might be saved. We're talking about the blood that was shed for us. So many wonderful things to remember. to think about in the gospel truths of the death, burial, and resurrection, looking at now the death, remembering the past, his broken body, and his shed blood for us. Now let's go on and look, now let's see, turn back here to 1 Corinthians. Remembering the Lord's death in the past, considering the Lord's resurrection in the present, We're here today, if you're saved, you're only saved because Jesus died and rose again. We have a new life because He's been raised from the dead. that because he lives, we'll live also. We only live not only because of his death. If Jesus would have died for sin and stayed dead, it wouldn't have been effective. But because he rose from the dead and conquered death and put away sin and death forever, now his righteousness can be given to us. Now we can come to him because he's alive and he can say, yes, I've forgiven you. Yes, I'll enter into a covenant relationship with you. Yes, you can have a new life. And he gives himself. His own life to us, and we become alive. Because Jesus lives, we will live also. It says that in John 14, 19. For a little while, the world will see me no more. Jesus died, and there's some people in this world that they've heard of him, but he's dead. He's a prophet of some religion. It's irrelevant to him, but there are some. There are some who come to this realization of this truth. He says, but you will see me. He's speaking specifically to those disciples. They saw him, they told us of him. Have you seen him? By faith, believing what has been told us by those disciples that saw him. We talked about that last week. They handled him with their own hands. He's alive. He said, but you will see me and because I live, you will live also. Galatians 2.20, I know that this has always been a life verse for Debbie. Can you quote it? I'll put it on the spot. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Do you know, he gives the spirit to dwell within us to cause us to be born again, but the Bible makes it clear that Christ himself comes to live within us, takes up residence in us. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It's His life that's being lived. He's alive in me. The life which I now live in the flesh here on this earth, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. We all stand here as a testimony to say, because Jesus lives, we live. Did you know that the Lord's given us this supper as a testimony of this eternal life? I don't know about you, but did you know dead people don't eat? They don't. If we were all dead, there would be nothing to eat. But we come alive and we're eating something. You know, little verses like this, remember when Jesus was at the woman of the well in John chapter four and the disciples went to go get food and they came back and said, well, he's not eating anything. He says, I have food to eat you don't know of. Now, I think we know about that now, but he was talking about doing the will of God. He said, this is my food doing the will of God. Talking about John 6 when he's talking about eating my flesh and drinking my blood, which means putting your faith and realizing Jesus is your life. You need to take Him in or you don't have a life. You're dead without food in your physical body. You're dead without Christ in your spiritual life. You have no real life in you. And that's why when we come to Lord's Supper, it's a little piece of bread and a small cup because it's not about earthly food. You know, if we were just having a real ceremony to celebrate life on earth, if we were going to do this in, I think, a better way, if you're going to just look at it from an earthly perspective, why have such a small piece of bread and a small cup? If we're alive here on this earth, wouldn't we want to eat it up? Right? Live it up? I said dead people don't eat, but they eat all the time in this world. Why? They eat, and they drink, and they be merry, and they do all kinds of things. In fact, the Apostle Paul says that if there is no resurrection, he said, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. You should be indulging yourself of all of the pleasures and all of the food and drink that this world has to offer, because you're alive here. That's why they tell you, live your life now. It's the exact opposite when we come here as Christians. We're not so concerned about how we live in the world. In fact, we set those things aside when we come into here, right? The idea is I'm having a focus on heavenly things. I'm being warned. We studied this in the Wednesday nights that you can't serve God in mammon. You can't serve the wealth of this world. Whatever it is you think makes you rich, you're to forsake all. And you come in here and the idea is I brought nothing in this world. I can carry nothing out. And here I sit. I got nothing. I'm recognizing this. And in this world all I need is a little piece of bread and a small cup because what I'm really eating... What I'm really drinking keeps me alive. And you can't see it, world. It's just symbolized in a small piece of bread and a cup, but it's actually the life of Christ, the body of Christ, the blood of Christ, and everything that that represents, it's eternal life. Dead people don't eat, but we're not dead, we're alive in Christ, and we're eating. The Lord's Supper is a testimony of this eternal life. Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. And he's knocking at the very doors of the church and wondering, will his people let him in? Would we let Jesus in if he's knocking at the door to come in? It's an admonition. It's an exhortation. Behold, I stand at the door to knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. This morning we observed the Lord's Supper. It's like sitting down and dining, having the real meal with the Lord Jesus Christ, people who are alive, banqueting with the Lord Jesus. All right, and the next thing we're gonna look at is anticipating the Lord's return in the future. So we look at the past of what he's done for us. We're seeing it in the present. We've gathered together here. We are the Lord's church. alive in Him and sharing this meal because of Him and now we're looking forward to the future. Now let's turn to Luke 22. In this study that we go through communion we'll be looking at the various accounts in Matthew, Mark and Luke and of course what's in 1 Corinthians. It's thought that Paul's description, account of the Lord's Supper when He says, I deliver to you first of that which I also receive, receive that from the Lord. But remember, He spent a lot of time with Luke. And His account probably more closely aligns with Luke's. Luke 22, 14, Jesus says, when the hour had come, He sat with the 12 apostles. He sat down and the 12 apostles with him, and he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. Stop. See, Luke has something peculiar here, and let's just take a little time to do some learning about. He has a cup and then a bread, you see, in 19, and then the other cup. So you say, well I thought it was the bread and then the cup. Isn't that how we do that? Yes, because based in Matthew and Mark, when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, and even here in Luke, He did the bread first and then He gave the cup. But in Luke we have this first cup. This first cup is not the cup of the Lord's Supper. It's the cup of the Passover. It's the cup of Thanksgiving. There are four cups in Passover. This is the very first cup Jesus said to preside over a Passover meal with his disciples. And he handed out the first cup and he says in verse 16, I will no longer drink, no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he's speaking about the Passover meal. Jesus anticipated a future time of sharing the Passover meal with Israel in the millennial kingdom. You can read about that in Ezekiel 45, 21. In Ezekiel 40 through 48 is a new temple built in the Millennial Kingdom doing the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover in Israel in the future. The Bible says in Revelation 20 verse six, blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection, over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years, a millennium. And Jesus anticipated a future time when he would share the Passover meal with Israel in Jerusalem. That's what he's referring to in verse 16. But then he goes on to say, Here he says, For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread and gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Matthew and Mark put the statement about the fruit of the vine, verse 18, after the supper. After he says, this is my body and this cup is my blood. It appears Luke just moved that statement up to the beginning. That's all. He has it more topically arranged. Well, when Jesus says, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom comes, he's referring then now to the church. And Jesus anticipated His return to receive His Bride, the Church. When does Jesus come back to receive His Bride, the Church? When does Jesus come back to receive the church? What do we call it? The rapture. The Lord can come back at any time of the rapture to receive the church. That's the Bride of Christ. It's different than Israel. We're the Bride of Christ. We're a people of God called out to Christ's name. Now, Chrissy's been passing around this DVD, and she's given me permission to offer it. You can come ask her, and she would be glad to let you borrow this. But it's called Before the Wrath. And what it is is it appears that there's good evidence that When Jesus describes the coming of the rapture to receive the church, it's a description of coming to receive as a bridegroom receives his bride. And so Jesus promised in John 14, one through three, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And in those days, the bridegroom would go to his father's house. They would become betrothed like Joseph and Mary, but they weren't married right away. It had the binding legality of a marriage, but the bridegroom would go away. And for some extended period of time, up to a year, He would be preparing a home, building on and adding on to his father's house, another room so that he might come back at any time to snatch away his bride and bring the bride to his father's house. Now, that's a quick summary of what this describes in more detail. That's what John 14 says. He says, if I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And so what Jesus says when he said, I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until the kingdom of God comes, he's promising to come back for us, the church, his bride. And it says there in Revelation 19, nine, then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are true sayings of God. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we do this until he comes, and he will come back at any moment, and he will take away his bride, the church, the people of God, unto himself for all eternity. That's what we're doing, we're anticipating the Lord's return when we do the Lord's Supper. Now, turn back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. I want to tie this into the messages that we do as we really now begin to prepare our hearts to observe the Lord's Supper. It says in verse 27, there's teaching here about observing the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. Look at verse 27. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. It's as if what Jesus suffered for, instead of being to save you from your sins, then that guilt will come back upon you, that it won't absolve you from your sins. You'd be guilty as if you were the one that unrepentantly put Christ on the cross. He'd be charged against you if you eat the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. But let a man, in verse 20, examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Remember, the world are the ones who are guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. They're the ones that put Christ on the cross, and they unrepentantly reject Him, and so their sins are charged against them. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, and we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another, but if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the rest I will set in order when I come. We eat our ordinary meals at home, but we eat the Lord's Supper in a gathering of the church in a very special and unique way. This is not like any other meal that exists on this planet Earth. This is unlike any other meal you will ever eat. You're a human and you're alive, doesn't matter if you know the Lord or not, you can go eat whatever you want, anywhere you want. That's why he said, go eat at home, go do anything you want. But if you come into this church, if you come into the gathering of the saints, along with the people of God, in a communion service, then this is a special meal. And you don't wanna be caught eating it unworthy. The first thing you must do to eat in a worthy manner is you must understand the meaning of the Lord's Supper. We've just spent some time talking about the meaning, that the bread represents his broken body, and the cup represents his shed blood. Do you understand that fully? Do you understand what it means to give His broken body and that His blood was shed? If you have any question about that, maybe you should step back and not take that Lord's Supper. Because you don't quite maybe understand. Be honest. I just don't think I fully grasp it. I don't know what it means for me. You must understand the meaning of the Lord's Supper. Number two, you must believe the Lord Jesus Christ. This supper is only for believers, only for those who have put their faith in Christ. See, if you're here today and you want to be honest, say, I don't think that I'm saved. It's not been a time in my life when I've been born again. I don't even quite understand what that means. I've never made a profession of faith. Maybe you're here today, you've never received Christ. You don't know if you truly believe in Jesus. Maybe you've not been baptized. So baptism is an expression of faith. See, it all has to connect with this initial receiving of Christ, being saved, born again, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have any doubts about that, if you see these warnings here, maybe you ought to just step back and say, I don't think I quite understand this. I'm not going to take this Lord's Supper. But we hope that you'd want to know more. We would be glad to share with you how you can become saved, that you can trust Christ, and that you can join us and participate in this meal. To be eaten in a worthy manner, you must understand what it means, you must be born again, you must be a believer in Christ, and you must be in right fellowship with Christ and His people. This is why we do the self-examination. Do you have any unrepentant sin in your life? You have a life of disobedience where you say, no, I've not been right with God. I know that. Can you be honest and say, no, I'm not living right for God. I'm not in a right relationship with Christ. Can you be honest and say, I'm not really in a right relationship with Christ and His church. I've not participated with the believers. Jesus says, if you love me, you love the brethren. But how in your life have you expressed a real love for the brethren? Have you been spending time amongst God's people? If you've not done that, and there's some question of whether or not you're in a right relationship with Jesus, whether your life's really orderly right now with Christ, following Him. or God's people, then maybe you ought to step back and say, I need to get that right before I partake of the Lord's Supper. I don't want to do this in an unworthy manner. And be honest and say, not now. And get your life right with Christ. You have to be. understand them meaningfully, put your faith in Christ to be born again, and you must be in a right fellowship with Christ and His people, then you're free to participate. And that's what we do here at Village Bible Church, is we proclaim the gospel through Jesus Christ, the Lord's Supper till He comes. Our intention is to observe this in a worthy manner, and we invite you to observe the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner along with us.