The Way to Remember Jesus and Our Salvation

[0:01] If you would take your Bibles, please, and turn to the Gospel according to Luke, go to chapter 21, 21-37, 21, starting in verse 37.

[0:15] If you're visiting with us, if you look in the chair in front of you, you'll find a black Bible there. You can pull out that black Bible, go towards the back of that, find page 66 in that black Bible.

[0:30] 66. And that's where you'll find Luke chapter 21. We're going to start in verse 37. And then we'll jump into chapter 22 and read through verse 20.

[0:48] So the last two verses of chapter 21, 37 and 38, and then those 20 verses of chapter 22 this morning. And we're going to do something a little bit different this morning because we're going into the verses that have to do with the Lord's Supper.

[1:09] So what we're going to do is we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper within the message. So I'm going to preach through parts of it. I'm going to stop and then we're going to partake of the bread and then we'll come.

[1:22] And then I'm going to continue on my message and we'll do the cup together. So it'll be the juice together. So it's going to be a little bit different and odd. So you might say, I'm not a member of this church.

[1:32] And if you know, love the Lord Jesus Christ, have been baptized by immersion, and you come from a church of like faith and practice, you're welcome to join us with this.

[1:43] You don't have to. It's not required. But if you want to, you can. It's not, you're not obligated to do that. So it's going to be a little bit different this morning. But I think you will find it encouraging and fulfilling to your soul.

[1:58] At least I pray that you do. So I'm going to read these verses and then we'll begin our study. Verse 37.

[2:09] Now, during the day he was teaching in the temple. But at evening he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet. And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to him in the temple, to listen to him.

[2:23] Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put him to death, for they were afraid of the people. And Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.

[2:40] And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. And he consented and began seeking a good opportunity to betray him to them apart from the multitude.

[2:55] Verse 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover had to be sacrificed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.

[3:09] And they said, Where do you want us to prepare it? And he said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house that he enters.

[3:20] And he 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? He will show you a large furnace upper room. Prepare it there.

[3:32] And he departed and found, just as he had told them, And they prepared the Passover. And when the hour had come, he reclined and the apostles with him. Verse 15.

[3:44] 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.

[3:54] And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, 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.

[4:08] 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.

[4:20] In the same way, he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. We just celebrated Thanksgiving.

[4:36] It's commonly traced to the documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth Feast and Thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest.

[4:48] Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s, carried the tradition of days of fasting and days of thanksgiving with them to New England.

[5:00] It was a time for them to remember. So even today, what, 500 years later or something like that, we're still remembering this 400 years later. We're still remembering Thanksgiving.

[5:11] Something else to remember. If you Google the word remember, one of the websites, one of the hits you'll see, it's called remember.org.

[5:27] If you click on that, it's a website about a people's history of the Holocaust and genocide. Holocaust history and stories from those who survived from the Holocaust.

[5:42] Holocaust photos and survivors. It's so that people won't forget. By the way, since 2012, there's about 500,000 survivors from the Holocaust still alive today.

[5:56] In the world. 500,000. It's so that we won't forget. It's easy for us to forget. We're so prone to forget, aren't we?

[6:10] On a lighter note, for some of us, we can't remember where our keys are. Where did I put my cell phone? We forget our cell phone.

[6:20] It's so naked. We don't have your cell phone, too. Isn't that weird? I mean, it's good that my wife picks up my clothes for Sunday. Because I'll wear the same thing every Sunday.

[6:31] Because I don't remember what I wore last Sunday. I'll come and say, look, I'll wear this. Chris will be, see what he wore last week? Oh, right. Okay. It's easy for us to forget.

[6:45] God knows that. Which is why he established something for us, so that we would not forget. Follow Jesus, you'll find forgiveness of your sins.

[6:58] He is the Messiah, the Son of Man, and he is the Lord. And what we'll see in the passage for us this morning, is we'll see the way we remember Jesus, and the benefits of our salvation.

[7:11] The way that we remember Jesus, and the benefits of our salvation. This is the drama. You don't need drama in a church service. You don't. You already have one. The drama, the skits.

[7:23] The drama skits, have become a big thing in the 1980s and 90s in churches. You don't need that. It's right in front of you. And actually, you don't even need to see. You actually get to hold it and touch it, and actually taste it and drink it, and assimilate it into your body.

[7:37] You remember, you think of, you ponder, the work of Jesus on the cross, his body, and his blood, and the bread and the juice. That's the drama. That's the skit of the gospel.

[7:51] This is the way we remember Jesus, and the benefits of our salvation. I'll put in a statement for you. A sentence, I should say.

[8:03] The Lord's Supper is celebrated, so that, only through Jesus' substitutionary death, we remember him and four benefits of our salvation. Life, fellowship, promise, or hope, and forgiveness.

[8:21] Life, fellowship, promise, and forgiveness. Now, there's more benefits to our salvation, obviously, but in our text, we'll see these four.

[8:33] All who ally themselves to Jesus will receive all the benefits of salvation because he gave his life for those who believe in him. for those who trust in him, you will have these benefits.

[8:47] You will have Christ and the benefits of salvation. That's what we will see in our passage today. you're going to see all four benefits specifically in verses 14 through 20, but we're going to look at these first few verses at the end of chapter 21 and the first 13 verses of chapter 22.

[9:09] You're going to see, actually, those first two benefits, life and fellowship, you're going to see them in irony. Luke in his gospel, he's filled with irony, isn't he?

[9:22] He loves to put things in such ironic places and to get his readers thinking and seeing the ironic difference of what's happening versus what's actually taking place.

[9:33] He loves to do that. And he does it again here. These last two verses of 21 and the 13 verses of chapter 22. So, we begin here. The first benefit we will see is life.

[9:47] The last two verses of 21 and then those first two verses? Yeah, the first two verses of chapter 22. And again, I'll put up there where we'll also see it in verses 14 through 20.

[9:58] 22, verse 20. Life. You see the benefit of life in irony in these verses. Notice how it begins in 37, the end of chapter 21.

[10:12] Now, during the day he was teaching the temple, at the evening he would go out to spend the night on the mount. It's called Olivet. And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to him in the temple to listen to him. People love to listen to Jesus.

[10:24] It's going to be contrasted with a few verses. We'll look at it in just a moment. Judas' betrayal. So this, these two verses, it transitions us into Jesus' passion.

[10:38] That's the word that's given to designate his time of suffering on behalf of sinners. But yet, despite all these controversies, despite all these, the conflicts and the headbunting with the religious leaders, what's Jesus doing?

[10:52] He's still teaching in the temple. And continue to have the ear of the people. This is the term used by Luke to describe the crowd that was more receptive to him.

[11:03] And as Jesus continued to teach the people, they just wanted to hear him. They wanted to get up early so they could listen to him. The people were making huge efforts to see and to hear Jesus, which the religious leaders both despised and feared.

[11:23] Despised because they didn't like his popularity. Feared because they wanted him dead but couldn't do a thing about it. They feared the people, a riot on their hands.

[11:34] We'll see that in a moment. Yet, though these people were now sitting at Jesus' feet, that would change real fast.

[11:48] Soon they would demand that he, the righteous, innocent martyr, he would suffer and be crucified. There is the irony in this. Jesus, Jesus who gives life, and yet they're sitting there, and they say, oh, we'd love to hear Jesus, and yet that's going to flip so fast in just a couple days.

[12:07] They're going to want him dead. Jesus, or excuse me, Luke likes to paint these things in irony. It's like the end of Jesus' ministry was hovering over us, like during monsoon season when you see those black clouds coming in from Flagstaff.

[12:23] That's what's happening. It's slowly coming in. And the end of Jesus' ministry was slowly coming in. And yet, Jesus is totally under control. Notice more contrast, more irony in chapter 22.

[12:38] Look at the first two verses. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put him to death when they were afraid of the people. The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.

[12:53] Those are two feasts, but they actually celebrate them together. The Unleavened Bread was a week-long celebration that came after Passover. So at Passover, they may have a week-long celebration.

[13:06] Now you have pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire that are all flocking in to the city to celebrate. Kind of like Black Friday at the mall type thing. Everyone coming in at that time.

[13:17] Oh yeah, that's what Jerusalem was like. Jam-packed with people. Jam-packed was Jerusalem. And oh, how badly the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead.

[13:32] Notice it says they're seeking, they're constantly seeking how they could get rid of this guy. But they're afraid of the people. Why? The pilgrims were the ones who were so excited to hear Jesus. And they would potentially react in a negative way if they did anything in the public eye.

[13:49] If they tried to do something to Jesus in public, the people could respond viciously because of this growing popularity. And yet, this is the irony again, you see.

[14:01] It's ironic as the Passover feast which celebrated life was about to take place, the religious leaders were scheming death to kill the one who had come to give life the Passover was pointing to.

[14:20] Isn't that amazing? Passover was a way for them to celebrate the fact that God saved them from the angel passing over them and killing their firstborn, right?

[14:31] The very thing they're celebrating, the irony is they hear the religious leaders, they wanted Jesus dead when they're supposed to be celebrating life. You see the irony that Luke paints for us?

[14:44] This Passover, a meal that commemorated deliverance from slavery to Egypt, yet it would become a meal that points to a special death. The nation would celebrate its freedom when we celebrate life in Jesus.

[15:00] Jesus would put a whole different spin on this meal, on this supper. It's ironic that Luke does this for us and his gospel. So we saw life and I told you the first two we'll see in ironies.

[15:17] Life we saw in irony. Second you'll see in irony is fellowship. Fellowship. Verses 3-13 and again we'll see that fellowship in 14 and verse 19.

[15:31] Verse 3 and Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot belonging to the number of the twelve. He went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray them to him.

[15:45] A fellowship. A fellowship. Interesting. Notice how Satan entered Judas. In other words, he came under Satan's influence, under his control. That's the only gospel that has this.

[16:00] About Satan doing this to Judas. So the plot was Satan's work. Now, Judas was responsible but Satan was the thrust.

[16:11] It's a principle for us. Satan is the impetus but we do the sin. It's our decision. People like to say, the devil made me do it, right?

[16:26] No, you did it. He just put those ideas in your head. But why did Judas do this?

[16:38] We don't know. Maybe he was disappointed in what Jesus was going to do and Jesus didn't do what he wanted him to do so he was mad. Maybe he was covetous. They offered to pay him money.

[16:51] We're going to see that in a moment. Maybe because he was greedy. He wanted money. Some believe he was trying to force Jesus to act in a kingly messianic way. I'm going to force him to do something. Yeah, nice try.

[17:02] I don't think so. Whatever the reason is, which again, we just don't know. What we do know is that his betrayal showed his true nature, his true character.

[17:16] It's daunting to see one so close in fellowship with Jesus betraying him. You see the irony once again? Notice how it says he was one of the number of the twelve.

[17:29] that's on purpose. Luke puts it on purpose so that you would see here you would think someone has so much fellowship and connection and love and communion with Jesus that he turns on them.

[17:44] Look, just because one stands close to Jesus, close to Jesus, it doesn't guarantee any kind of spiritual success. God wants our hearts, God wants our lives.

[17:58] Is Jesus most important to you this morning? It doesn't matter how you serve. It doesn't matter how you minister because Jesus, excuse me, Judas was known to minister.

[18:10] He ministered in unbelief. God wants the heart. God wants you. You see the irony in this?

[18:26] The religious leaders, they want to get rid of Jesus. They're like, the solution came to us. Verse 4, 5, 4, they discussed with him, the chief priests and the officers, most likely the ones who arrested Jesus, how they might betray him.

[18:41] They were glad. Oh, I bet they were. Agreed to give him money. Sad denial of one of his own disciples. He'd be paid for his services, which made his betrayal look even worse.

[18:56] The leadership was very happy to accommodate this. Why? Betrayal from an insider? It meant that Jesus could be arrested privately, avoiding a reaction from the crowd.

[19:09] And if trouble arose, who could they point to? Judas. It's his fraud. I mean, we don't know. Judas could be the scapegoat. They could deflect blame from them to him.

[19:23] Oh, they're really happy about this. Verse 6, he consented, began seeking a good opportunity to betray him to them apart from the multitude. The plan was perfect.

[19:36] Judas would look for an opportune time for Jesus to be seized without the crowd being around. Else there'd be a riot. All could be done privately, behind closed doors.

[19:50] His passion was now set. Satan's major move to try and get rid of Jesus, we see here, and yet interesting, it will be the evil one who want Jesus to come down from the cross and not die for the sins of the world.

[20:08] Stop this salvation. I want to just make a little note to you in this short section about Judas betrayal. It stands in an exhortation for us all.

[20:23] Continue in the faith. Stand firm in the truth. Disappointment, suffering, pain hits you, sinful desires.

[20:34] Don't let anything get in the way of your love for Jesus Christ. Don't let anything get in the way. Is he most important to you? And yet, in spite of all that's going on, look at verse 7.

[20:50] Then came the day of unlanded bread of which the Passover had to be sacrificed, and Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. Jesus continued to show piety and commitment to God's word by celebrating the Passover with his disciples.

[21:05] He observed the meal as his death was approaching. He's totally cool. all pious dedicated Jews would celebrate this important meal.

[21:19] So as it goes on, they ask him, verse 9, where should we do, where should we prepare it? We've entered the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water, follow him to the house. Now that's odd, because men didn't normally carry water pitchers, women did.

[21:33] This is very weird. Now Passover animals, they were slain between 2.30 and 5.30, so everything had to be set up, they had to prepare it, they had to go get the lambs, sometimes they would get a goat as well, sometimes they would slay a goat or a lamb, pick a bit of herbs, obtain the bread, the wine, get everything prepared, follow the guy.

[21:53] Now either Jesus knew beforehand what was going on, or he prepared, kind of put some things in place. Whatever is taking place, whatever happens, it's done secretly and privately.

[22:05] Why? Because Jesus did know what Judas was doing. He knew what Judas was about to do so. Only Peter and John knew where the meal was going to be eaten.

[22:15] Why? So Judas could not betray Jesus at a time that was not going to be the right time. So Peter and John, verse 11, say the owner and the teacher, where's the guest room?

[22:28] He will show you a large upper room, there will be furnished with couches, things for them that lay their elbows down. The owner was a generous host to them. And in all of this, Jesus was totally in control.

[22:41] And everything looked just nice and smooth, but at the meal will come the betrayal. At a time when Jesus wanted to have deep fellowship and communion with his disciples, notice again the irony, when you would think there would be fellowship and connection, there's betrayal right in the thick of it.

[23:00] here's the irony. Judas is planning to betray his master. So we saw life, we saw fellowship, we saw those benefits of salvation and irony.

[23:13] Now let's continue on verses 14 through 20. We're going to see all four benefits of salvation. We'll see first promise and we'll also see fellowship in verses 14 through 18 of chapter 22.

[23:28] Promise and fellowship or we can also put the word hope, if you want to hope and fellowship. The hour had come, he reclined and the apostles with him and he said to them, I earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

[23:45] Now what did the Passover, what did it all include? I kind of skimmed through that a moment ago. What did they partake of during the meal? What did they have with them?

[23:56] First they had bitter herbs. Why? It recalled their bitter slavery in Egypt. Bitter herbs recalled their bitter slavery in Egypt.

[24:07] Unleavened bread. Why unleavened bread? Because it recalled them eating in haste. You put leaven in bread so you wait for it, you know, wait a couple hours or so for it to rise, right? To permeate throughout.

[24:19] They didn't have time to eat fast, so unleavened bread. Plus, leaven meant something that was permeating something, so when you take the leaven out means you're purging it.

[24:31] They also had stewed fruit. Just by the very look of it, it recalled the misery of making the bricks for Pharaoh. They would roast the kid, the goat, or the lamb, either one.

[24:48] It recalled the blood of the animal applied to the doorpost and the angel passing by the firstborn. So those are all the things that consisted of it, as well as the wine and the cup that they had together.

[25:00] In a moment we're going to talk about the order of service, so to speak, when they had this celebration meal. So as the Passover animal was about to be killed, a new covenant would be inaugurated by the blood of a person of the Messiah.

[25:20] You see parallel pictures. We mentioned that earlier. The exodus, the people were taken out of Egypt, delivery from slavery, the blood that was there, the saving of the firstborn, the same way Jesus, slavery of sin were taken out of, and His sacrifice on behalf of sinners.

[25:39] The body given for all who believe, the wine, His blood shed from the new covenant. So it says Jesus came together with His disciples, or His apostles.

[25:51] This was going to be the last meal before His death. Now here's a little bit of a problem here. When exactly did this take place? It seems that this happened on Thursday night.

[26:05] On the Jewish calendar, it's Nisan 15. You say, what's the problem? Well, the problem is if they had the Passover meal on Thursday night, Nisan 15, Nisan 16 was Friday.

[26:19] Friday, the idea was that the animals were supposed to be slain from 2.30 to 5.30. Jesus was supposed to be crucified when they were killing the Passover lambs, according to the Gospel of John.

[26:34] So how are they celebrating the Passover when Passover lambs are being killed? There's a problem there. How do you make sense of this? There's different views.

[26:46] I think I read like 10 or 12. This is where I've landed. It seems like there's different calendars.

[26:59] The calendar according to the Pharisees and the calendar according to the Sadducees. The Synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they followed the calendar of the Pharisees.

[27:11] John, in his Gospel, he followed the calendar of the Sadducees. So, in other words, the Pharisees, they had it, the Passover meal on Nisan 14.

[27:23] The Sadducees, they had it on Nisan 15. They made that as the day of the Passover. So, that's why Jesus actually was able to celebrate the Passover with his disciples, but also be killed when the Passover lambs were being killed.

[27:36] Does that make sense? That's why I think that's the best way to handle that. All that to say, to deal with those logistics, all that to say, he longed to eat this meal with them.

[27:49] Why? It pictured fellowship with him. Faithfulness of their teacher to his disciples. This is an important time of connection with their master.

[28:02] Imagine the emotions that Jesus is dealing with here. His love for them. They're thinking about the Passover lamb, or the Passover, the angel passing over the firstborn in Egypt.

[28:15] They're remembering that. And then he's thinking about his life. He's going to give his life on behalf of others. He's thinking about all this stuff. Imagine the emotions and the thoughts running through Jesus' mind. And here in this text now, at this point, we're moving from Jesus living his perfect life on behalf of sinners to him being the substitute who would be judged and face God's curse for sinners.

[28:40] He would bring new significance to this meal. change things. Now notice verse 16. This is the reason why he wanted to have this meal with them.

[28:53] For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Part of the reason why he desired to have this meal is that there's a promise. A promise to them to partake of another meal later on in the kingdom.

[29:10] He will not eat this meal again. until it is fulfilled in God's kingdom. Not until the reason for the celebration is done. In other words, I'm not going to eat it until I return.

[29:26] And celebrate the messianic banquet with his disciples. He is actually giving them a promise. I will come back. I will return. I'm going to suffer, but I'm going to come back in a return.

[29:39] This is hope that we have. Jesus will not eat the Passover meal again until the time of the consummation. That will be a time when the meal will be celebrated as a fulfillment of what Jesus has accomplished.

[29:54] We will have this meal and we'll be thinking back of what Jesus has done and we'll be eating it with our Savior. We'll be eating it with him. Something for us to look forward to. It's pointing us to the fact that Jesus will return.

[30:06] That's the promise given to us. That's part of our salvation. The benefit of salvation is Jesus promised that he will return. He will come back for us. So notice what happens now.

[30:20] Verse 17. When he's taken a cup, given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. Okay, wait a second. And then verse 19 says he takes bread. And then verse 20 says he takes another cup.

[30:34] Well, that's kind of weird, isn't it? A cup? A bread? A cup? Well, then maybe we should do a cup and then we should do bread and then we should do another cup. Is that what we're supposed to be doing? This is kind of weird, isn't it?

[30:45] Do you notice this? Luke is the only one who has this. Yes. That's the order. Cup, bread, cup. Actually, did you know in the Passover meal, there actually was four cups.

[31:01] So which cup is this? Seems like this is the first cup. in Luke as the first cup of the Passover meal. Now let me explain to you a little bit more about the Passover meal.

[31:14] What did they do in the Passover meal? We look at what they used. What did they do? What did it consist of? First, he had an opening prayer. Then the first cup of wine.

[31:27] And then a dish of herbs with sauce. Then they would recant or recite the story of the institution of the Passover. it was recited at that time.

[31:39] Psalm 113 was sung and then there was a second cup that was drunk. Another prayer. Then they would eat the main course of the roasted lamb or goat with unleavened bread and herbs.

[31:55] And then another prayer. And then a third cup was drunk. And then they would sing Psalm 114 to Psalm 118. And then a fourth cup.

[32:06] It was a long process. It wasn't just, you know, we spend, what, like 15 minutes doing the Lord's Supper type thing. It was like a couple hours type thing. They were doing an hour or so. It was a major meal.

[32:19] So why does Luke have this first cup in here? Why does he do this? Because he had Jesus assume the position of a Jewish father. He's the leader.

[32:31] second. So when he received the cup, it says he gave thanks. He said, take this and share it among yourselves. He gave thanks for God's provision and God's salvation.

[32:43] So when he took this cup, taking the cup together, it denoted fellowship and communion with his disciples. Which is a benefit of our salvation, right? fellowship with each other.

[32:55] Fellowship with God first. Fellowship with each other. So it was a time of deep fellowship and communion with his disciples. So it's a time of deep fellowship and communion that we have with each other.

[33:09] When we think about, when we've taken the Lord's Supper together, we're thinking about the fact that we have communion with God through Jesus, and then we're taking it together, we have communion with each other, and connection with each other, fellowship with each other.

[33:23] That's why you just don't go in the bathroom by yourself with the bread and the juice and just take it by yourself whenever you want to. Or that's why you just don't, you know what, once you just take the bread and the cup, go home, and when you feel, you know, good and ready, just take the cup and the bread and the juice on your own, right?

[33:40] Just do that. Why don't we do that? Because it doesn't symbolize what it's supposed to symbolize. This is a connection together, fellowship together. That's the whole point.

[33:53] And notice the even greater tragedy if Judas was actually there, taking it with them. That'd be weird. And then notice what Jesus says, verse 18.

[34:08] For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the consummation. did he not take the other three cups in the Passover meal?

[34:19] Did he take all four cups and nothing afterwards? We don't know. But what he's saying here is this. It tells us his suffering is not the end. Victory was certain.

[34:34] There's a promise of his return. So as we partake of the Lord's Supper together in just a few moments, we're not only remembering what the Lord did, we also remember what he will do, the promise he will fulfill, and the fellowship that we have with each other because the fellowship that we have with God.

[34:56] You see? That's why we're doing this together. So when you think about the Lord's Supper, it's not just an individual type thing, necessarily. It's us doing this together.

[35:07] Fellowship. Life. The promise of his return. And then, of course, forgiveness. Right? Which, you'll see fellowship in life in verses 19 through 20 as well.

[35:20] Because that's why we take the cup together. And the cup gives us life because remember the blood of Jesus which gives us life. And we have forgiveness of sins.

[35:31] Daniel, the timing of that teaching this morning in the adult class was perfect going through the book of Hebrews chapter 10. It's just perfect. I might steal some of your stuff.

[35:45] So notice, now he goes into the bread. He's taken some bread, gave him thanks. He broke it, gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now Jesus reinterprets the Passover.

[35:57] Giving new meanings. He takes the bread, he breaks it, and notice he says, this is offered body represented figuratively his death.

[36:11] Something magical does not happen to the bread or the juice when you take it. It does not become the body and blood of Jesus. It does not do that. We are not Roman Catholics or Baptists.

[36:24] Baptists have historically believed that when you partake, when you take the bread, you are remembering. That's why Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.

[36:34] his body given on behalf of you. His sacrificial substitutionary body. He gives it.

[36:45] That's the language here. Substitution. Sacrificial. Jesus giving his body was a vicarious gift. Vicarious means in the place of another.

[37:00] Thus, the giving of his body was a vicarious substitutionary gift for all who believe in him. That's what we do. That's what we take the bread and it represents his body and we remember that.

[37:14] It doesn't change us. We'll get to that in a moment. So he dies for his people. He gives himself on their behalf.

[37:26] We see such great love Jesus had for his own, his disciples, for us. And giving his body. Do this to remember.

[37:40] It's a memorial. Remember what Jesus did. And we proclaim our identification with this great act that Jesus is giving himself for us.

[37:51] And we're sharing that together. We all have this in common together. What do we all have in common together? That's why we take it. That's why the idea of breaking the bread and giving it to others. It's already broken for you.

[38:02] Right? So we take the little pieces. But the idea when they were taking it then was you have a piece you would break it and hand it off. Break it and hand it off. Why? Because we're all taking it together. It's all for us.

[38:13] We all identify with Christ. And that's why you just don't go in the closet and do it. That's why you just don't go home and take the little supper. We're doing it together.

[38:28] And this is what I was going to mention. Or started to mention just a moment ago. the bread doesn't change. But it's meant to bring a lot change in us.

[38:40] As we remember what Jesus has done for us in his death. So we need to ponder this. Constantly reminding ourselves of the vicarious gift of Jesus on the cross.

[38:55] We are so prone to forget, aren't we? We're prone to forget that we're embraced by the Father only through Jesus Messiah alone. So when you come here and when you partake of the Lord's Supper, the first thing that probably comes to your mind is, you did this, you did this, you don't deserve to take that, you don't deserve to take it because you did this and this and this and this, right?

[39:21] Does that come to your mind? when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and I see him there, the one who made an end of all my sin.

[39:38] You must go back to the cross. You must remind yourself, we are so bent on performing for God to gain his acceptance, you can't gain his acceptance.

[39:49] And that's why you say, absolutely, I did those things, I don't deserve this, but Jesus was the one who made me worthy. Jesus is the one who died in my place.

[40:02] Right. That's what we say to ourselves. So this is what I'm going to do. I'll let you take a few moments, think and ponder. Don't put your notes away because we're still going to continue on the sermon.

[40:13] You know what I'm saying? I ain't done with this message. But I'm going to let you think and ponder and remind yourself, I'm going to keep this up on the screen, ponder this, reminding yourself of vicarious gift of Jesus on the cross.

[40:26] Remind yourself of Jesus' body broken. And then after a few moments, I'll have the men come, they'll pass out the bread, and then we'll take the bread together. Okay? So let's do that. Take a few moments.

[40:49] Father, we remember the gospel, the good news. We deserve your just wrath and anger. We should face your righteous wrath.

[41:07] And yet we remind ourselves our response, a response of repentance and our trust alone in Jesus. we have such great hope.

[41:20] And we confess this hope of your Son returning, this confidence that we have to come into your presence any time, only through Jesus, by His blood, His body that was given on our behalf.

[41:42] Let's take the bread together. Lord, if you're here, you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ.

[42:05] You're not a follower of His. Come to Him and you'll find life. You'll find the promise.

[42:18] And you'll find the hope of forgiveness of your sins. Which moves us into the next part of our passage. In verse 20, He brought up the body, which is given.

[42:34] And in verse 20, He says, in the same way, He took the cup after they had eaten. They ate a main course. He gave thanks.

[42:47] And He says, this cup which is poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. The same word when He says for you is the same word He uses here for you in verse 20.

[43:00] On your behalf who pair in the place of another. which through that comes forgiveness of sins.

[43:13] In other words, the new covenant was inaugurated by Him shedding His blood, that is by His death, for our salvation. Again, we partake of the wine, or for us it's the juice, to remember His shed blood.

[43:33] He was the Lamb who launched a new era. We're in a new time now, a new covenant, giving us His Holy Spirit.

[43:50] Now, what would come to their minds as He would make this statement, poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. What would come to their minds? What would come to their minds was Exodus chapter 24 verse 8?

[44:06] When the old covenant was inaugurated by blood, Moses did this to show the seriousness of sin and to teach that payment for sin was death.

[44:18] So he did this on purpose. That's what Moses did. He said, this is the blood of the covenants, and he sprinkled it on the people, he sprinkled it on them, and sprinkled it here and there, and said, this is the blood of the covenants.

[44:30] And then the people said, what the Lord says we will do. The difference is, Jesus says, this is the blood of the new covenant, and Jesus is the one who says, what the Father has done as his son, I will do.

[44:48] What the Father says, as his son, I will do. Jesus accomplishes everything for us. He's the one who does it. Moses' sins were not completely forgiven.

[45:03] They were awaiting a greater sacrifice. So, as Moses was the one who inaugurated the covenant with the blood of goats and bulls, so Jesus now inaugurated the new covenant with his own blood, giving himself for those who believe.

[45:23] So, we're completely dependent upon Jesus for this. And this new covenant was prophesied by Jeremiah chapter 31, which I will actually read from Hebrews, where he says that the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.

[45:36] I'll put my laws upon their heart and upon their mind. I will write them and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. And the writer of Hebrews says that where there's forgiveness of these things, there's no longer any offering for sin.

[45:50] You don't need any more offering for sin. Jesus has accomplished it once and for all. It's done. So the event with Moses, it looked forward to a greater sacrifice and a greater covenant that would truly take away the sin of the people as well as be a substitute on behalf of his people for the forgiveness of their sins.

[46:13] In Christ, there's life, there's fellowship, there's promise, there's forgiveness. All your sins are gone. Jesus looked forward to approaching suffering for sinners and to a sacrifice that will begin a new era, a new covenant, a new time.

[46:37] And yet, it wasn't the end. As a matter of fact, every time we celebrate the supper together, every time we celebrate together, we remember the promise of his return. So as we're celebrating, we remember backwards, but we also remember forward.

[46:53] He will come again. Until that happens, we gather together to remember this meal and what Jesus' death really means.

[47:04] What does it mean? There's oneness in sharing the bread and the cup, a new, united, believing community who are committed to Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins.

[47:16] We're totally different. We come from different ethnicities, different countries, different this and that. That's why Palestinians and Israelis and Arabs and Chinese and Japanese and Koreans, we can all be one.

[47:31] Why? Because in Christ we're one and there's forgiveness, there's life, there's fellowship together, there's the promise of his return. Our sins are gone.

[47:42] What a great benefit, what a great salvation we have. And this is what we remember in these very elements is what we remember. God's plan has reached an apex.

[48:00] All that the Old Testament looked forward to, all that the Old Testament was pointing to, had finally come. And what is central is Jesus' death and the inauguration of a new freedom.

[48:15] There's a new deliverance now. Remember the deliverance, they remember the Passover in Egypt. Now there's a new deliverance. It's a deliverance from sin, from Satan, and the judgment from hell.

[48:31] Inaugurated by redemption that was effected by his sacrificial death. And as we said before earlier, all those who ally themselves to Jesus will receive all the benefits of salvation salvation.

[48:45] Because he gave his body and his blood for all those who believe in him, so that you can have life, you can have a promise, you can have fellowship, and you can have forgiveness. So, we take this meal together, we're looking backward to Jesus, forward to the consummation.

[49:06] Backward to what Jesus has done, forward to what he will do. So as we're celebrating this, this is not just something that we're thinking back about, oh, this is what he's done, but also we're thinking about, there's a hope that he's given to us, that he will return, he will eat this with us later on, in the future.

[49:27] In just a moment, I'm going to have the men pass out the juice. So I want you to think about his shed blood, sealing the new covenants. Sacrifice is done, atonement is made, not based on your works, your works mean nothing to God.

[49:44] Remember in the old covenants, the blood was sprinkled, and the people said what the Lord said we will do. Now in the new covenant, the blood is sprinkled, and Jesus says to the Father, what you have said, I will do, and I have done.

[50:02] Right? So trust, trust, your hope is in Jesus alone. I'm going to read you, I'm going to read these words to you.

[50:14] Now I'm going to have the men pass out the juice first, and then I'll read the words to you. I'm going to do that first. So men, if you guys can pass out the juice to us, then I'm going to read these words to a song. These are words to the song that we just sang a few moments ago.

[50:33] There's no sin that I have done that has such height and breadth. It can't be washed in Jesus' blood or covered by His death. There's no spot that still remains.

[50:47] There's no cause to hide my face. For He has stooped to wash me clean and cover me with His grace. There's no wrath that I will know, no wormwood and no gall.

[51:00] for those wounds and grief I earned. My Savior bore them all. There's no work that I must add to stand before His throne.

[51:13] I only plead His life and death, sufficient on their own. Do you plead His life and death? It's sufficient.

[51:25] It's sufficient. So when you take the juice together, remind yourself of the benefits you have.

[51:37] Life, fellowship, promise, forgiveness. Let's take the juice together. Lord, we thank You.

[51:51] All our sins are gone. Thank You, Father. We look to Jesus alone, Christ alone, what He's done. Thank You for this great promise that we have that He will return.

[52:07] Thank You that we have fellowship with You and this fellowship with each other, that You give us life. Though there's death, we have life in Jesus. In His name we pray.

[52:21] Amen. If you would pass your cups this way to the middle aisles, Travis will collect them. We kind of did things differently, so what we're going to do is we're going to sing, get our hearts, our thoughts focused on Christ again in the gospel.

[52:42] after we collect the cups, we're going to sing not in me, and then after that we'll do our time of giving, and then we'll sing our last song, in Christ alone.

[52:54] Let's stand at this time, let's sing not in me, let's focus on the gospel, not in me. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[53:05] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.