[0:00] I want to turn this morning to the Gospel of Luke and chapter 22 and the words of verse 19, familiar words, do this in remembrance of me, do this in remembrance of me.
[0:20] Today is remembrance Sunday and recall as we have done already those who gave their lives and the two world wars and all the wars that followed from Korea down to the latest in Afghanistan.
[0:42] And apart from those who lost their lives, many others were maimed and traumatised and many families scarred reparably by the events and the pain of those global calamities.
[1:01] We remember to those who cared for them in various ways and show so much patience in doing so in the midst of frustration and often disappointment.
[1:16] It's a price we pay for freedom. No democracy, I've been told, can survive unless its members are prepared to defend it.
[1:31] That was calling of those generations that will remember today. But we gather for a special remembrance service today as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:48] We join the church the world over in remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is quite a thought that as we gather so to thousands and millions of others around the same simple service of the Lord's Supper.
[2:07] And every Lord's Day since Christ rose, every single Lord's Day, every Sunday, the church has made to remember the Lord Jesus.
[2:21] And we are in that succession this morning as we remember. The Lord's Supper is more than remembrance. It's also Thanksgiving. It's also a feast.
[2:34] It's also a communion. It's also a proclamation. But it is certainly an act, a moment of remembrance.
[2:45] Remember how it fits into the Passover service. It began as the Passover meal. And there's a very smooth transition from there into the Lord's Supper.
[3:00] And the Passover was very much a feast, a festival of remembrance. The moment when it's filled, it called the Exodus of Egypt, the moment of its deliverance.
[3:16] And the Passover lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the doorposts of their buildings or their houses. And they owe the Exodus deliverance to that blood sprinkled upon them.
[3:29] And every year remembered that event, the night itself, the Lord leading them out, the wilderness, the promised land.
[3:41] All these are unified redemptive act by God, the Lord of Israel. Today, we, as Abraham's spiritual children, we remember our own moment of redemption.
[4:01] When Christ, by his death, redeemed us and redeemed the world. And that's what I want to focus on this morning. This act of remembrance.
[4:13] And notice, too, how focused that remembrance is in remembrance of me. It is very, very specific.
[4:25] He is the focus of all we do here this morning. I want to focus, first of all, on this. Who he was.
[4:37] Who is, who was, who is, who will be, this me. And the answer to that fundamentally is this.
[4:49] That he is the eternal son of God. That night in the upper room, he looked nothing out of the ordinary.
[5:02] He was obviously human. Obviously poor. The voice that spoke was a human voice. The hands that passed the bread and the wine.
[5:16] They were human hands. And they'd been with him for years. And they had seen him exhausted. And weary.
[5:27] And sad. They had seen him all was broken in Gethsemane. They had seen him wash their feet. They had seen all those exhibitions of the real humanity of the Lord.
[5:43] And so they knew that he was fully and perfectly human. A man like themselves.
[5:54] But they also knew that he was no mere man. They had confessed him in these terms. He had asked them, who do you think I am?
[6:06] And they had said, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And if you ever ask, who was Jesus?
[6:19] That is always the answer. The son of the living God. The eternal son of God. When he speaks, God speaks.
[6:34] When he acts, God acts. When he suffers, the son of God suffers. When he takes death, the son of God takes death.
[6:48] In this Jesus, this man standing before them, He says, we see one who was in full the nature of his own father.
[7:01] As any earthly child has the nature of her own parents. So he had in full his father's nature.
[7:12] And he had shared with him in the great acts of his father. In the creation of the world. In his preservation.
[7:23] He had been a partner and a sharer. In all these tremendous moments. In not only earthly, but cosmic history. The world universe.
[7:34] About which we are so concerned today. That world was made by him. And because being in him. It contained in itself nothing malicious.
[7:46] It's the product of intelligence. But also the product of love. God is love.
[7:57] God is wisdom. God is power. And all come together in that mighty moment of creation.
[8:08] Part of the wonder is that God didn't make the universe in a day. Six days we are told. Not as literal days.
[8:20] But it was not instantaneous. God took time over it. To prepare it for the placing of man and woman on this planet.
[8:34] But in that mighty moment. God the son was with God the father. And as I said. At every single moment in Jesus life.
[8:46] That really was. The answer to the who question. Is always he. The son.
[8:57] Of the living God. And when we come to the cross of Calvary. And we ask who is suffering there. And when we hear of the blood.
[9:09] And the body. It's the blood. Of the son of God. And it's the body. Of the son of God. It is God. Acting in Christ.
[9:20] And you know. And there is this in it as well. He was there with them. And he's here today. With us.
[9:31] In different ways. They could see him. We cannot. They could hear him. We cannot.
[9:42] They could touch him. We cannot. They could lie in his bosom. We cannot. But he's nonetheless really.
[9:54] Present here. Not only with us. At the Lord's table. Not in the bread. Not in the wine.
[10:07] They are reminders and symbols of us being here. And how close is he. The wonder of it of course is as they look out.
[10:19] On a congregation. Of equals. Equals. Equals of infinite variety. You are wanting in common.
[10:33] Every believer. Brings the Lord with them. Or her. Into this building. Because. I live.
[10:45] Said the apostle Paul. Yet not I but Christ. Lives in me. You brought him. Not the bread. Not the wine.
[10:56] Nearer. Than hands and feet. So close. Always within shouting distance. Always. Within whispering distance. Within groaning distance. Always. Within. Growning distance. Always.
[11:07] Within reach. Of a word of gratitude. From our lips. We can turn to him. In the torments of the night. Turn our face to him. And he stayed with us. Because he said you know. I will never leave you. He didn't say well. But.
[11:18] He said. Well. Most of the time. As there were some. In between times. When he wasn't there. And. In the time. And. In the time. In the time.
[11:29] In the time. In the time. And he stayed with us. And he said. I will never leave you. You know. I will never leave you. Because. He said. You know.
[11:40] I will never leave you. I will never leave you. He didn't say well. Most of the time. As there were some. In between times. When he wasn't there.
[11:52] There are no. In between times. I shall never leave you. And so. That's who he is. This almighty.
[12:04] God. Our savior. Our savior. We remember. In that identity. As a preexistent. And eternal. Son. Of God.
[12:15] Remember. This as well. What he did. He gave. His body. This is my body. Which is given. Which is being given.
[12:27] For you. He gave us a gift. For you. He gave us a gift. For you. He gave us a gift. And he put it again.
[12:38] This way. This is my blood. Of the new covenant. He gave us body. And he gave us blood. And he gave us soul.
[12:49] And he gave us soul. Says Isaiah. He poured out his soul. Unto death. There is what I must almost call.
[13:02] A holisticalness. In the language. In the language. His body. His body. His blood. His soul. His soul. No reservation.
[13:13] No sparing. He gave us. In Paul says. He gave himself. And what more could he give. And you ask. As I've asked. Try to ask. What was involved in the giving.
[13:24] What did it mean. But to answer that. I must know something else. Beside having a relationship with God. He has another relationship. He is God's son. He is God's son. He is God's son. And what can you do when he gives.
[13:37] In God's life. In the material. He has another relationship. He is God's son. He has another relationship. He is God's son. And he has a life in life.
[13:57] He is God's son and he is a sinner's friend. He is the world's saviour, the world's redeemer, the one who took responsibility for sorting things out between the world and his father.
[14:23] And what a responsibility that was for putting things right between me and God, between you and God, because things weren't right.
[14:43] Not in my case, because we had rebelled and defied and sinned and broken promises and broken vows.
[14:57] But he came to put things right between you and me on the one hand and God on the other. And the giving is defined, is bounded by the requirements of that new relationship.
[15:20] He did what had to be done to where it seems right to finish his work as the world's saviour.
[15:30] That meant at one level that he took our nature, our humanity in all its breadth and compass, physical and psychological, but also in its experiential, in its living, in its life aspect, lived a human life, in all its variations, its moments of serenity and joy and pleasure, its moments of difficulty, hostility, rejection, mockery, and temptation and pain, a truly human life.
[16:28] Nothing that was human was alien to him except human sin. How important that is.
[16:41] And how wonderful it is, you know. this climate thing has cast such a shadow, benign or otherwise, over the whole of the last two weeks.
[16:53] But you know, the most wonderful thing about the universe, this material world, is how closely God has identified with it.
[17:07] Because in Christ, God unites himself to the dust of the earth, to Adamic dust, the same biochemistry as we have.
[17:26] God took to himself, he took flesh, took blood, the dust of the earth, he became man, became flesh.
[17:41] But the giving involved more than that. He took our sin, the Lamb of God who bears, takes away the sin of the world.
[17:55] He made that sin his own sin. It's almost like Christ saying to God, Father, that's mine.
[18:12] Sin's mine. The sin and the sins and the sinfulness of the world, I take full responsibility for it.
[18:24] He said, and he says it to you and to me too. I take, he says, full responsibility for your sin.
[18:42] I carry the guilt. I will take what that sin deserves. and that's what's meant in a giving.
[18:58] We're told of God the Father that he didn't spare his own son. God, his son not sparing, gave him to die.
[19:11] I scarce can take it in the wrong cross, my burden gladly bearing. He bled and died to take away my sin.
[19:22] He, my sin. He said, I'll take it. And because he took it and bore responsibility and had to answer for it, he did a gall that that sin deserved.
[19:47] And I've, I know I am close to the frontiers of my own thinking and perhaps even of yours.
[19:58] What is God doing bearing my sin in his own body shedding his own blood.
[20:11] He gave his back to the smiter. He laid down his life. The apostles sometimes used extraordinarily bold language.
[20:25] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Be made a curse for us for that marvelous world for in my place my substitute as your substitute in my place condemned he stood.
[20:53] It's an amazing thing you know the Lord's Supper is about all the fundamentals of the Christian faith. the things you know already.
[21:07] You've heard nothing today you haven't heard a thousand times. And yet by saying to us this do remembrance of me Jesus was saying keep on repeating them these things keep on telling them what I was what I became what I did what I suffered how I atoned for the sins of the world.
[21:37] It's not the world's wisdom. The world would never have dreamed of such a plan of redemption but this is God's way of saving the world.
[21:50] If an angel said to God how Lord could you ever redeem that world from sin?
[22:02] and the Lord replies there is he says one way and only one way I'll take it on myself and I'll answer for it myself I'll take the debt on myself.
[22:26] God is saying today people quibble that redemption ought not to have come but a cost or a price it should have been free no need for a ransom or a sacrifice just sovereign clemency but you know what matters is this forgiveness redemption is free at the point of need grace so rich and free of course it had a cost but God himself bore the cost and for you there is nothing more to pay Christ has paid the full price of our redemption
[23:27] I often wonder at the joylessness of our discipleship and I explore it my own joylessness forgiveness in comparison to the early church for example and you know one great piece of earth is this it is so hard to believe in the forgiveness of sins it does take some believing and yet if you think of what Christ did for you it will be utterly and totally and shall I say unforgivably wrong for God not to forgive you he must because
[24:30] Christ gave his body and his blood and his soul for you and yet of course you know it and of course you've always known it but why are we jumping for joy to know we've been forgiven so basic and so fundamental and so all embracing not some limited pardon or conditional pardon as if God was saying I forgive you but don't do it again or else there's no else there is no condemnation we are so utterly and totally forgiven let us believe it let's apply it in every area of our own lives and then well we see who he was and we see what he did and then you look at it these words my blood of the covenant what does it mean covenant covenant equals promises promise and he's saying to us that every single promise in God's word has been secured for you by the body of
[26:03] Christ and the blood of Christ and the life of Christ you see we speak of getting a promise every single promise is yours everyone it's Christ's last will and testament it's in his will and every single promise I bequeath to you all I have all I deserve all my father gave me every single promise you've turn up a promise in the bible today anywhere and say that's mine turn the page that's mine turn the page that's mine they're all every spiritual blessing in the heavenly saints Christ Jesus every every everyone it's there covenanted it's in the will it's in the print in the print every all the holy state is yours all that
[27:13] Jesus has all he deserves all is yours and then briefly as we bring this to a conclusion he says to you take take eat eat this bread of life but you know the great thing is this the gift is himself and when you take him you have it all absolutely all everything take me you I will be your savior redeemer shepherd friend your confidant your protector take me and he says my services are free as prophet priest and king i will shepherd you i will lead you i will take you safely home that's the promise he may take us sometimes through strange places the valley of the shadow of death he knows it well but whenever he says take me as prophet priest and king a savior redeemer friend remember newton's words amazing grace this grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home so many young people here today what promise that is for our future no man shall pluck them out of my father's hand or my hand
[29:56] I my father are one and suppose the lord tarries a new life is spared we meet again some of you in 40 years time may I hope that all the young folk present here today will still be sitting at the lord's table because they heard the lord say take me I heard the voice of jesus say come unto me and rest take him take me and I will lead you safely home may god bless to us these reflections on his word my to the moved
[31:00] The heart will go after v agreed of me to man limit to the l for if it I Megan could he could explain it together ago to that they better