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[0:00] Trust that you will often remind yourself of how the body works together.

[0:10] ! Other than the fact that it will be informed by the Scriptures.

[0:35] I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and I'm going to focus just for our time before we come to the Lord's table on one particular verse, and more specifically, on one part of that verse.

[0:53] One of the things that characterizes…now listen to me carefully, if you would, please. One of the things that characterizes the believer in his worship is that it is informed by the Scriptures, and it is guided and governed by our attention to this particular book.

[1:17] And that's one of the reasons that a characteristic of people who are genuine believers in the Lord Jesus, they've got a Bible with them. Do you know why we have a Bible?

[1:28] Because God has spoken to us through this book, and He has given us all that we need for life and godliness in this book.

[1:39] And we hold on to it because we prize it, and we value it, and we want to know what God has to say to us regarding Himself. You know, our hearts and our minds are profoundly deceitful.

[1:56] Would you agree with that? I remember hearing Paul Tripp say it, and it was like, huh, boy, is that true. I remember hearing Paul Tripp say that the biggest problem I have is me.

[2:10] And he was referring in general terms because he was not speaking about Tim Knoyer. He was just talking about the heart of man.

[2:20] And I remember thinking, duh, I have a problem. Thankfully, I also have a Savior. And I also have the Spirit.

[2:33] And I also have the Scriptures. And I may rely upon the Scriptures and the Spirit of God to inform my thinking and to lift my thinking away from the natural tendency of my heart to pervert all things towards idolatry and draw me to see the supremacy and the glory of Christ.

[2:59] And that's what I want us to do this morning. As you look at this passage, we're going to be there in verse 24, and it says, And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

[3:16] This do in remembrance of me. Before we actually get into the text itself, I want you to stop just for a moment and think with me about some of the things that have to be pushed aside lest they end up influencing our thinking and they take us where we shouldn't go.

[3:35] I want you to understand for one thing, when we take this bread and this cup, when we come to the Lord's table, we are not engaging in anything that adds spiritual merit to us.

[3:47] If you look in the Bible and you look right there in the passage in 1 Corinthians, it said, Do this in remembrance of me. Why are we doing this?

[3:59] Well, the Bible informs us that the reason we're doing it is to remember something. We're not doing it to get extra credit. How many of you remember in school when you got a bad grade, if the teacher was exceptionally merciful, what would the teacher do?

[4:13] You have an opportunity to take a little extra credit on the side and bring your grade up. Am I right? I want to dispel the false theology that would suggest that when we take the bread and we take the cup, that we actually add some merit to the finished work of Christ.

[4:33] That is a lie from hell. Because the Scripture is explicit that Christ Jesus died for sin once for all. I am not here to do anything to make bread anything different than bread, or the cup any different than what it is.

[4:51] It is merely here as a reminder to you of what Jesus has already done. Now, do we need to be reminded? What's the fact?

[5:03] In fact, we need reminders all the time. We need reminders every day. One of the things that I have to confess in my own life, I have been marked by or affected by lately.

[5:15] I found myself several months ago as I was in my devotional life, I found my reading, and I generally take an hour and a half in Bible reading and prayer, and I remember I was kind of cranking through it, and it just kind of dawned on me, Hey, Tim, you're just doing this out of routine.

[5:31] How many of you understand routine? We're pretty good at routine. And there I was just banging through the book, and you know, you get on yourself, you get a schedule, I'm going to read through the Bible in X number of months or whatever, and what are you doing?

[5:44] Anybody else know the frailty that comes with that? You are all about the agenda and not so much about the book. Am I right? Can you do that with me? That's not what we ought to be doing.

[5:56] And I found myself thinking, Tim, where's your love for Jesus? I had to stop and just say, this is not what it's all about. At the heart of the Bible that I read is the glory of a personal relationship with the God of this universe and a love for the Lord Jesus Christ who is the lover of my soul.

[6:19] And so when I come to this table, this table serves to remind me of Jesus Christ and the sweetness of my personal relationship with Him and the supreme satisfaction I have in that relationship and the confidence that someday I am going to see Him face to face.

[6:43] And so when we walk away from here, we ought to walk away, truthfully, if we are dependent upon the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God dwells in us.

[6:57] Now what do I mean by that? There wouldn't be anything wrong with you who know Christ this morning saying, Hey, listen, I know that my heart is inclined towards being a little cold and indifferent towards spiritual things and the glory of the Lord Jesus.

[7:10] I need your help this morning to help me connect with the sweetness of Scripture that my affection for Christ is increased. Is that a fair prayer? Can you say that with your eyes open?

[7:23] Yeah, okay, it's all right. And so we're praying, Lord, I want to grow in my love for you and I want the bread and the cup to be something that helps me with that.

[7:35] Well, it doesn't happen automatically. It happens as we, through the power of the Spirit of God, think carefully about what the Bible teaches. And so we're looking at a passage here and Jesus makes a very interesting statement.

[7:49] He says, This bread, He says, This is my body. Now, in some of your translations, you have, which is broken for you, okay?

[8:02] And I want to tell you in the, and I don't want to get caught up in all the details of the Greek and manuscripts, etc. But for two reasons, I don't believe the accurate translation is broken for you because, number one, it's not in the earliest manuscripts, but secondly, more importantly, it tells us in the Scriptures prophetically that not a, what?

[8:22] Bone of Jesus would be broken. This is my body, which is for you.

[8:34] And so I want us to, I want us to think about what Jesus meant. Number one, Jesus was speaking about His incarnation. Jesus was speaking about His incarnation.

[8:47] And I want you to think with me just for a moment about His pre-incarnate glory and the joy and the delight that He enjoyed in the presence of His Father in the glory of eternity where He was worshipped and adored.

[9:07] I appreciate the passage that was read from Philippians, and so I want you to turn there, if you would at this time, from Philippians chapter 2 as the apostle is reminding us of both the humiliation but also of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[9:28] And as we think about this text, we understand that in His birth and incarnation, what Jesus did was take on human flesh. Look at Philippians chapter 2.

[9:41] It says, Have this mind in yourselves, among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

[9:53] What's that saying? It's saying, in essence, that Jesus had and has the right to see Himself entirely as equal with the Father.

[10:06] He is the second person of the triune Godhead. And it wasn't a stretch or a grasping to possess something that was not rightfully His for Him to say, I recognize my deity and the glory of who I am.

[10:24] Just an objective fact. And He says here, He wasn't just trying to hold on to something that wasn't His. It was His by fact. But being willing, as it says there, He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man.

[10:50] I don't know whether you have thought about just how unbelievable that truth is. I found myself last week as I was meditating upon this passage to track, my mind was going off in a little parallel track of the many different both ands in the Bible.

[11:14] You know what I mean by both ands? Where the Bible forces us to think about more than one thought at the same time. And is that a little confusing? What's the answer to us? Yeah, it is. How can God, the Son, be absolutely 100% divine and also 100% human?

[11:35] We deal better with what? Either ors. Isn't that right? Except when we're doing rolling stops. I got you, didn't I? Okay. We're in the either or camp.

[11:46] It's light or dark. When is it really dark? No. No. In the Bible, there are lots of both ands. And that's what we're dealing with here. It says that he took upon himself the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man.

[12:02] And I want you to understand that in the incarnation, what Jesus did was take upon himself human flesh, not because it was to his advantage, but he did it because of us.

[12:14] Remember it says, this is my body for you. I, Jesus is saying, became human flesh for your sake.

[12:29] And so this morning as you take that bread, one of the things that I would appeal to you to think about is that the Lord Jesus Christ has for all eternity taken upon himself the flesh of mankind and he did it for you.

[12:49] I wonder whether or not on occasion you feel that your flesh is not very wonderful, valuable, significant.

[13:01] Let me tell you something. Hello. As we get older we begin becoming more and more painfully aware of the fact that the flesh we have is not all that we wish it were.

[13:14] How many of you understand what I just said? I was pondering the fact that I think the prime of life physiologically is probably between about 20 and 28 or 30.

[13:29] After that it just begins to metastasize or I shouldn't say metastasize but it begins to kind of go downhill and I don't care how hard you work at it it is all marked by more increased difficulty and pain and suffering etc.

[13:44] And if you're really wondering how it plays out all you have to do is read Ecclesiastes chapter what? 12. And yet Jesus took upon himself flesh for our sake.

[14:03] I want you to recognize secondly that when Jesus said this is my body he was also speaking about his crucifixion.

[14:14] Not only did Jesus take upon himself human flesh and that human flesh remains to this day when we see him in heaven we are going to see him with our eyes and we will know that he is who he is by virtue of his human form not just an apparition or a vague shape but the reality of his form.

[14:37] Remember after the resurrection Jesus said to Thomas what? Behold my hands and my feet. Go ahead put your hand in that place.

[14:50] Remember he took something to eat and he says hey I'm flesh and blood because you're seeing me eat. can you imagine just a little piece of chewed fish going down no he ate flesh and I want you to understand when we think about Jesus and we think about the reality of his body we're thinking not only of the incarnation but also of his crucifixion.

[15:14] He died for us. It was his body that suffered the terrible abuse of the Roman soldiers. It was his body that suffered the torture of crucifixion.

[15:28] I want you to look at a couple different passages in relationship to this to clearly fix in your mind what happened to his body and its significance. Turn in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 and incidentally as you're going to Hebrews I want you to understand that the book of Hebrews is listen to me carefully it is predominantly a Christocentric book.

[15:52] It's all about Jesus and what it does. Hebrews I think is kind of a summarized Old Testament. Now what do I mean by summarized? It's cliff notes on the Old Testament.

[16:05] Now some of you here know cliff notes better than you should. What I mean by that is that the book of Hebrews just gives us this grand overview of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:19] And I want you to look at several different passages where the issue of Christ's sacrifice for us comes to light. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5 through 7 Consequently when Christ came into the world he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body have you prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

[16:44] Now was God overly impressed when the Old Testament saint brought a goat or a sheep or a bull or something like that and offered it for a sin sacrifice no that sacrifice was accepted on the basis of Christ someday coming and being the perfect sacrifice and Hebrews reminds us of that it says there in verse 7 then I said behold I have come to do your will O God for it as it is written of me in the scroll of the book when he said above you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings these are offered according to the law then if you will move ahead there to verse 10 through 14 and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all now how many of you value actual words in the Bible they mean something to you what does once for all mean help me here what does once for all mean twice again again what you might do is actually underline the words once for all in your

[17:59] Bible so you understand that the sacrifice of Christ only happened once you read what it says there and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifice which can never take away sins the Old Testament priest every day he would offer a sacrifice and that sacrifice essentially really did not have any salvific basis or benefit in other words it didn't actually in itself accomplish anything what it did was it reflected to the day that someday God would provide the perfect sacrifice namely his own son the Lord Jesus Christ who would die for our sins and how many times would he die for our sins what's the answer once for all but when Christ had offered for all times a single sacrifice by the way why do you think it's repeated like this over and over again any idea when

[19:02] God repeats something close together he's probably trying to get our attention would you agree! that how many of you have ever dealt with your children you really wanted to make a point don't play in the street really I'm telling you do not play in the street in fact if you you could go off and you will make this point very clear and we find there first of all once for all in verse 10 and then we find there again it reminds us in verse 12 offered for all times a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God waiting for that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet for by a what's the next word look at it a single offering he has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified everybody smile at me so you follow this hey are you actually going to get better as you get older in

[20:03] Jesus what's the answer from that passage I'm as good as it gets now that's a little frustrating when I know me privately right but what does it say let's read the passage so we don't miss it okay for by a single offering he has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified when we come to faith we receive the righteousness of God placed on our account and that righteousness is all that we ever will need am I right are we as good as we will get once we are in Christ Jesus the answer from that text is yes he has done his work and we have been blessed by that I want you to look now at another passage in relationship to this matter of his crucifixion and you're in the book of

[21:04] Hebrews turn back just a little bit to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 through 16 Hebrews chapter 2 now by the way don't you like being able to turn in your Bible and actually see where it is for yourself do you follow that it's not up here you know I'm going to tell you something that I read today on the newspaper it's in the Bible right or there were men 500 years ago that thought no it's in the Bible and so you look here it says!

[21:41] who's the children who are the children you me we're flesh and blood are we not since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same things what's that a reference to his incarnation right partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery for surely it is not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham I want you to recognize this morning as you think about what Jesus has done for you I want you to understand that when he made that statement there that was passed on to Paul and Paul gave to the church at Corinth and we take my body you're thinking about the fact that

[22:42] Jesus Christ became flesh for you you're also thinking about the fact that Jesus Christ died for you his body sacrificed for your sins and in your place and so when we take the bread we're thinking about the fact that not only was Jesus incarnate in the flesh but also that Jesus died in my place one of the things that I have often said when I am at a funeral for a person who is a believer and here is this person who is their spirit has gone to be with the Lord Jesus and what remains is just this body that is going to be resurrected at the resurrection of the dead great fact the body will actually come out and be restored isn't that going to be great I think I that

[24:06] Jesus was willing to become flesh and to die in my place and his death means that my death is not like it could have been at the funeral I will say for those who are believers Jesus died his or her death do you know what that means the eternal consequence and terror that comes to the unbeliever with death has been cared for on the cross and Jesus died in my place and in that other person's place who's now with Christ I want you to think of a third thing that Jesus meant when he said this is my body he was referring also to his resurrection he was speaking of his resurrection when Jesus took on human flesh and remains human flesh and when

[25:09] Jesus offered his body for our sins there is something that happened following that in that he rose again from the dead we celebrate resurrection Sunday when we just absolutely have a blast recognizing the fact that Christ Jesus is not in the grave he is risen from the dead and his resurrection means a lot to us death and corruption are a horrible fact that remind us that sin has come into the world isn't that true all you have to do is you have to go and see what has happened as individuals are dying and you can remind yourself this is happening because of sin and yet we take comfort in the fact that after death for the believer there is a resurrection to life he rose again and his resurrection has wonderful implications for us who know the

[26:14] Lord Jesus turn in your Bible you are there in Hebrews but I want you to go back now if you will the first Corinthians chapter 15 first Corinthians chapter 15 if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 picking up there in verse 20 it says but in fact Jesus has raised from the dead the first fruits of those who fallen asleep for as by a man came death by a man also come has come also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die are we going to die if Christ Jesus does not return first in the rapture then I guess the fact of the matter is is that every one of us here are eventually going to die and here's what it says look at the passage it says for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order

[27:14] Christ the first fruits then at his coming those who belong to Christ is that a comfort and encouragement absolutely here's what it is telling us that because Jesus Christ took upon himself flesh remember this is my what body this is my body we know that we also can look forward to the resurrection from the dead and that resurrection will be to glory and to perfection and to holiness and to the presence of God the Father and the Son we're going to enjoy eternity forever in the flesh not as some kind of little spirits drifting around bumping oh well you're Tim Power I remember you from the past no!

[28:05] we're going to be in the flesh that's going to be good right I'm looking forward to that by the way that's no I won't say that I will now that I said it I wouldn't say it that's the reason I went fishing when you gave me 25 years I said you know in the glory of eternity I don't think we're going to be eating meat so better do it now and we're not going to be eating fish so better do it now so I went to Alaska and fished people said don't you want to go to Jerusalem I said no I'll be there later you got that it's alright I want you to understand that he is the first fruits Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection and he's the guarantee of our own resurrection I look forward to I gotta tell you I look at what it says in first Corinthians chapter 15 I'm going to just summarize the end of it you can't get there from here without going through death or the rapture and the fact that we can go from here to there means that our anxiety and our uncertainty in death and the grave is not an impediment or a terror to us isn't that right how do believers die for one thing they die like everybody else their heart stops beating they stop breathing and life ceases but there's a different way that believers die believers die with confidence in what comes after why because they know that death is not the end in fact death is introduction to a better place

[30:13] I like living but I am ready to die do you know why because Jesus came to this earth and took on human flesh died in my place and has risen from the dead and this morning as I take the bread with you and as I take the cup I will remind myself he made this statement this is my body which is for you and I want you to do it the same going to ask the deacons to come as we come to the Lord's table and as our deacons come I want to encourage you just for a moment this morning to quietly where you sit think about what the scripture says when it says that we are not to take the

[31:19] Lord's table in an unworthy manner that statement is a reflection on several things that I want you to ponder number one if you are here this morning and do not know Jesus Christ as your savior when you have the bread and the cup passed it would be a proper thing to say you know what I really don't believe that Jesus died for me and so going through the motions would be disrespectful of his sacrifice let the cup pass if you're here as a believer and the spirit of God is convicting you that there is unconfessed sin in your heart then I would plead with you according to the scriptures that you confess and forsake that that you with humility may take this reminder of what Jesus has done for you third if you are here and you have never come to faith and this morning the spirit of God is convicting you this morning is the hour the time the moment to cry out and say

[32:33] Jesus I confess that I'm a sinner justly condemned before a holy God but Jesus died for me and I believe that you are the only hope I have and I trust in what you've done then what I would do is take the bread and I take the cup and I for the first time this morning say Jesus is the one I trust in let's take a moment and pray and ask God to give us a humble and an honorable spirit before him as we take these elements Father God we are thankful for the instruction of scripture that remind us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and this morning as we take this bread and we take this cup we remind ourselves by this action by this memorial of what Jesus has already done we're not adding anything we're just remembering what he's done and our prayer is this is that we who are believers would would take this bread and take this cup with a profound sense of thanksgiving for the finished work of

[33:45] Christ with a deep and growing affection for the one that someday we are going to see and our hearts and souls will be satisfied beyond our imagination Lord if there's a believer here this morning that is being convicted by the spirit of God I would plead with you that you would also draw them to confess and forsake that sin that they may take this cup this bread in a manner that really reflects their faith in your finished work and we ask this in Jesus name amen amen to you to to you to you!

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