I just want to talk to you tonight. Nothing new, but I'd like to get our focus back on, we sang the songs, but I'd like for us to mentally recharge our thinking about Christ on the cross and what that work means to us. I was at this Christian museum and it started off looking at some of the great missionaries of the past and evangelists and sad to say there were several there that I did not know who they were. And they're from around the world. And I was just kind of challenged by that, that, wow, look, look how God has used people just everywhere. And then went through the museum and came out on the back part of it. And there was this, I'll say it's a room. And you're up, you're up in this balcony, like in this room, and you look down and you see Jerusalem. And then you look a little bit, and there's the cross, and Christ is on the cross, and you can see the crowd, and you see some of these details, that's in the scripture, but you see them all just kind of painted out. I remember the first time I saw that, I went, oh my, it's like you're there. At least my mind, you know, I've got a crazy imagination, so I was there, you know, in my mind, And I'd just like to say, as we look at some of these things, I'd like for us to say, wow, I got it. Let me start with the fact that there's two church ordinances. The first is believer's baptism. That's in contrast to infant baptism. And historically, there's so much to write about how that soldiers would come into a village, and if you had not baptized your infant, they would kill you as parents. And so often, some of these villages that were Christian, they would have guards up the road, and when the soldiers came, they would warn the whole village, and the village would flee up into the mountains. Lord's Supper is the other ordinance and that's in contrast to a religious mass. Both of these have been terribly abused historically by so-called Christians, which makes you wonder. These ordinances in their pure form was practiced by the New Testament Church, and they were taught in the Bible by the apostles, and they were taught for us to do them and pass them on. Both ordinances symbolize submission and commitment to our life, to the crucified, buried, and resurrected Jesus Christ. Both ordinances are just loaded with word pictures. For example, baptism. Sad to say, it has been very abused. Baptism as a word is a transliteration. What does that mean? That means they took the original word and rather than translate it, they just coined a new word that sounded something like it. So the Greek word, for example, is baptizo, and they made it an English word, baptism or baptize. Baptism is really a good word in Greek and it references both an immersion and a change of purpose. So it is a public identity, but it is also a commitment saying, hey, you know, my life's different now. I just wanted you to know it, you know. And I mentioned last week or a week before that pickles, for example, when they were boiled in the brine, they referenced those pickles being baptized in the brine. They just weren't laid on top, you know, they were immersed. A ship was baptized when it was a sunken boat that could no longer sail. And many places had no means of getting that boat out of a certain part of the harbor or along the coast. And so it would obviously be used as a fish habitat. And they would reference, oh, so and so, yes, they're on the shore. That's where such and such a boat is baptized. The material that was dyed, again, it was referenced as, especially when it was being sold, as material that had been dyed, immersed, right? Walked around on with somebody's feet and taken to the market and for whatever purposes. But a transliteration, we know what the word means. It is used historically. It has a lot of helps biblically as we look at that word meaning. So a transliteration is not helpful. It doesn't really tell you nothing. Let me quote you here from a guy named Luke Wayne. He said, when confronted with the Greek word baptizo, the translators in England, now what translating, what version would that be? The King James Version, had a problem. What was their problem? Let me keep going. The only legitimate English equivalent for this word is either dip or immerse. There are no other options. This therefore would expose the Anglican practice of sprinkling. The Church of England would be upset. Okay. In order to satisfy their boss, they used a transliteration instead of a translation. This simply means that instead of defining the word, they changed the Greek word and the Latin word into an English word that sounded nearly the same. Their disobedience to the Anglican king was hidden. Now that's historical. We all know what has happened. And guess what? It's even gotten worse now in England. So there are these even translation issues. And in most Bibles, they still use the word baptize rather than dip or immerse. Okay, that's baptism. The word Lord's Supper, as we've already had another word used here tonight that means the same thing. What's that word? communion. So we have the word communion that's in first Corinthians 10 as well as there's another word in first Corinthians 10 called the Lord's table. So we could call it the Lord's supper. We could call it communion. We could call it the Lord's table. And there's still another word mentioned a couple of times in Acts 2 and some other places, a couple other gospels, I think reference it this way. It's called the breaking of bread. Now, when we reference bread for the Lord's supper, this little white Cracker, it's not, anyway. What is it? It's unleavened bread. We would call it, if we were to buy bigger quantities of it, we would call it matzo. Now, that is in contrast to some churches that call it Eucharist. Eucharist comes from a Greek word that means to give thanks. And they reference a couple places where Jesus gave thanks and then broke the bread. Obviously, Jesus, when he gave thanks, he was grateful for his coming to be the sacrifice. There's more to that whole thing, but I think to me, that's very like, Wow. He was grateful to be the second. He didn't go to the cross kicking and screaming. He didn't go to the cross saying, oh, I don't want to be here. You know, it wasn't that. So this word, Eucharist, although related to Christ, prayer is not the best use for the best term to use for the Lord's Supper. There's another one that's used, maybe more commonly by the Catholics, and they call it a mass. The word mass comes from a word that means dismissal, which they say, this is the Catholic Church, which they say is the church's mission to go therefore and make Catholic disciples of all nations. So that has nothing to do with the Lord's Supper. So it's connected to a church outreach, but it's not a good term to use for the Lord's Supper. Okay, now everybody knew that. There's several references we could turn. We just read Matthew. We could turn, really the Matthew passage and the first Corinthians passage are the most used passages. Let me work through that message, the Matthew. It's catchy. Kelly, you started it. How many of you have ever heard of Phil Schuller? Okay, three or four of you, okay. We used to have Phil Schuller come to our church every four or five years. Phil Schuller fell when he was a child from a hay mow and broke up a bunch of stuff, including his ability to speak without stuttering. But he always had, even though God restored him mostly, By the way, he learned that he could sing and not stutter. So he would sing, please pass the potatoes. Otherwise he would, you know, and so his brothers gave him a hard time about it. So instead of stuttering through a meal or whatever, he would sing. And so we'd have Phil come to our church and he would sing and his wife, wonderful pianist and great couple, but he had a little bit of stutter. I couldn't preach for weeks after he was here without stuttering. So it's just, it's contagious. Kelly, stop it. Okay, so let's go back to that Matthew. I don't know why I got off on that. Matthew 26, 26, as they were what? Eating, what eating what? Be specific. What meal? Passover meal. Okay, so they're eating the Passover meal. How many have ever been to a Seder? Okay, I suggested if you ever have such an opportunity, it's usually pretty good eatings. But it is a great illustration of what the Passover meal look like. And so here they're eating the Passover meal and there's all there's the bitter vegetable, bitter herbs, they call it and there's the unleavened bread and all this stuff is there, including the big lamb, right? So as they were eating, so they're, I'll say, winding down this Passover meal, Jesus took bread, what kind of bread? Matzah type bread, and he blessed it, again, thanking God for all his work and the usefulness of it in redemption. And especially as it's now gonna be illustrated with the Lord's Supper, and he what? Break it. Now, just kind of imagine this, these guys around the table, and he break it, and he, can't you see his hand going out? Right? And so that's what he's doing, you know, take, eat, this is my body. So he's giving them an illustration. And then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying the same thing, drinking all of it. So here's a cup and they're drinking out of the same cup going around the table. Then he says, for this is my blood. What's always connected with blood? Sacrifice, always. And said, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sin, et cetera, et cetera. Mark has a abbreviated account of it. Again, Jesus took the bread, he blessed it, and he break it. Luke also, just a couple of verses, again, pretty much summarizing the same thing. Now, there's something else going on. After this Passover meal and Jesus instituting this, the next time it was done was when? What book of the Bible? Acts 2. Okay, so. In Acts 2, after the Pentecost event, the church had this regular Lord's Supper. It was almost always after a meal. Isn't that awesome? I mentioned this months and months ago. Wouldn't it be awesome to have something like, not try to reproduce a Seder, but have something like a Seder and then have the Lord's Supper after it? Just to help our minds. Wow. Yeah. And, and so some of the, you can, you can look it up and you can see some of this little sayings that are given about the bitter herbs and, and even the little hide and seek game that they would play during, during this. So anyway, here's the church and they continued steadfastly it says in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread. And it's mentioned again, it says a couple of verses later, and they continue daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread. Now, there's a couple of words for breaking bread. One of them is used almost exclusively. I mean, in the sense it's used in other contexts of scripture. But when it talks about the Lord's Supper, it's almost always the same word, breaking of the bread. So some of you have been to other cultures, you've been to other opportunities where people, instead of using utensils, they use either bread or crackers or sort of like a dip potato chip dip okay and so they would instead of using a spoon everybody would use a pretzel or potato chip or something to you just hope after they bite it they don't stick it back in right and so so here is so here is this Jewish culture they do not use forks and knives and spoons Not even wooden spoons or plastic spoons. And so here they are. How did they get the herbs? How did they get some of this good stuff? Well, with the matzo. And again, that's not something we do every day. But that was what they did. And so we have, this is not an unusual event of the breaking of bread, because it was broken even before the Lord's Supper was instituted. In fact, even Judas had a part in taking of the matzah and scooping up some of the foods that were there. And sometimes, if you really get good enough, it's kind of like chopsticks, you know, if you can manipulate them correctly, you can really have a second pair of fingers, you know, to pick that stuff up. And so they would use this. And some of you've seen other people, and it's just amazing how they're able to take something like this and use it in the place of a fork or whatever. So this meal that the church had was, again, a very common event. There was another name that sometimes was used for this meal that had the Lord's Supper attached. It was called a Feast, what kind of feast? Love feast. Okay, so what does that tell you how the atmosphere should be? Oh, yeah. Everybody loved each other. Why? Because their focus wasn't on themselves, their focus was on God, right? Yeah, and you know, and when we're kind of pouty and grumpy and whatnot, we're not thinking of God. So that was the culture here of the early church. And this was carried on for a long, well, hundreds of years. Okay, now the main passage that we use typically is the instructions that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 11. So let me just say a few things before we get to 1 Corinthians 11. So this Lord's Supper, Again, referenced or was in the context of the Passover feast. It took place after most, if not all of the food or the, what do you call them? He's got a brain lock. What do you call it? Different courses. Courses, thank you. So after these different courses were brought out and they were eaten, it's probably at the end of it. And so you have the leftovers all on the table. And so there's this extra stuff. And it says here in scripture, the same night when Jesus was betrayed, betrayed by? Judas, and it says in Matthew 26, that Judas was one of them that was there for the Passover meal, but he was not there for the Lord's supper. It says in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. So what does that tell you? Now, again, that's 1 Corinthians. You know, they came from all pagan, they were first generation Christians. So what's Paul saying here? Hey, he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not a pagan feast. This is one that's remembering our true Passover lamb that was sacrificed for us. So this was for Gentiles, as well as Jews within the church. Now there's a chronology and I'm not going to get into all the chronology tonight, but we can place all the disciples, including Judas at the meal and at the foot washing and eating the leftovers. These guys had no problem eating leftovers. Some of you don't either. And so there was some good stuff there. And so they were again, dipping, they called it the dipping of the, of the SOP, dipping of the SOP. Now, we we kind of go, right. So anyway, and we know that because Jesus even said that it would be Judas because he was dipping the sop as he was identifying who the traitor would be. So then Jesus said to Judas that thou doest do quickly. Obviously Judas was a little antsy. He was acting like he was going to go. And Jesus said, what are you doing? Go. Well, Jesus knew what he was doing. He was going to betray him. And Judas was going to go get the soldiers and bring the soldiers back to the upper room. Jesus would be trapped and he would betray him and done. But Jesus wasn't there because it says there was a little bit more teaching. They, they what? sang a hymn, and then they went to the Mount of Olives. So here comes Judas with his little group of soldiers, and nobody's there. And I'm sure there's some commotion, and so they leave. Judas said, oh, I know where they must have gone. Who follows them? John Mark. Follows the soldiers. He's kind of keeping an eye on things. You know, what are these soldiers here for and and so John Mark sees all this stuff happened the betrayal and everything else down in the garden and He's the one that the row the Roman soldiers grabbed his clothes and pulled his clothes off and he ran away naked And so that was that was John Mark Getting off the story a little bit Okay, so I just want to name one aspect. There's multiple aspects, but one aspect is when we see the phrase repeated over and over again, do this in remembrance. When it's not a funeral service at church, somebody has died, and sometime after that, there is a service, what do they call it? Memorial service. We call this a memorial service. It's about Jesus. We are to do it in remembrance of me. Paul repeats those words. Now, we're not going to reenact anything, a typical memorial service, you don't reenact anything, you talk about it. There's honor that's given, and here we don't reenact his death, pretend that it becomes an actual body, that's cannibalism, but we remember the sacrificial death of Christ for our salvation. We walk to the end of that museum and we look out and we go, wow. That's kind of what it looked like. We remember. And so we use two elements. We use the unleavened bread, and we use the unfermented grape juice. Anything else is not really an honest picture of the memorial service. I know people use Coke, and they use hot dog buns, Everything else, but that's not honorable in a memorial service. So, a memorial service, there should be respect. It should be honorable. But there should be one more thing on our part. What's that? Recommitment. Like, oh, I needed to remember this. We don't remember it enough. We don't sing, on a hill was no rugged cross, enough. We don't connect his redemption enough to him saving us. So this is a time to, again, rethink, reevaluate some things, and say, you know, my life should be stepped up. Let me leave you with a couple of questions before we actually have this. What do you think respect would look like in our lives? What would a quote unquote recommitment look like? What should our praise or worship, what should it look like? When we open this little container, what should our mind be thinking? He was broken, right? broken to death, not physically. And we can be broken and not physically broken. What should it look like for us? What would our worship look like? Not physically. What should we be thinking? Then let's think that. So. before we actually read the two verses, before we actually take the cover off of the Unleavened Bread, before we even do that, I'm gonna ask Andrew if he will play one stanza of one of these wonderful songs, maybe even Hallelujah, What a Savior, maybe sing, maybe let him play it through twice. We're familiar with the words, and we can even pray the words back to God as he's playing them. And just so that we come to this event, like the New Testament church, where after the meal, they just kind of paused, and they took a breath, and they remembered. So Hallelujah, What a Savior is 286. If you play that through twice, then we will finish with these two elements of Lord's Supper. you Okay, if you'll take the top off the bread part. I just want to make a comment before I read the scripture. We are what we think. We are what we think. What are we thinking right now? And when he had given thanks, he break it. Okay. And he said, right, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Would you at this moment bow your head and thank the Lord for Calvary and imagine it as you do? I want you to hear the mob, hear the little dialogues that were going on around the cross, hear the conversation between the men on the cross. He did that for us. Heavenly Father, thank you for wanting to be the redemptive sacrifice for us. In Jesus name, amen. Okay, the other side is the juice. And the scripture says, after the same manner, Also, he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup and again, just imagine him reaching out here is the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood. This do ye as off as you drink it in remembrance of me. I hope you've had precious thoughts of Calvary. Heavenly Father, please dismiss us with those good thoughts. I pray they'll come back several times tonight and tomorrow. When we see a cross or when we think about you, it will be one of appreciation and praise and a moment of worship Please help us as we work on changing our self-talk. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed. Oh, wait, no, no, no. We're going to sing a new song.