The Greatest of All Meals Matthew 26:17-29

Eureka Baptist Church iconEureka Baptist Church

2 views

0 comments

00:08
Every month, the first Sunday of the month, we have a meal. This meal is the most important meal we eat every month.
00:19
But what is interesting is that this meal is the smallest meal that you eat. The meal
00:25
I am referring to, of course, is the Lord's Supper. When we eat this meal, we eat a small piece of bread and a very small cup of grape juice.
00:34
That's the meal. Yet this meal is the most important meal that you eat every month.
00:42
It is more important than your Fourth of July barbecue, Thanksgiving dinner, and Christmas dinner.
00:50
It's even more important than the meal that is eaten at a wedding. This meal, where you eat a small piece of bread and a very small glass of juice, is more important than the biggest meals that you take part in during the year.
01:06
It's more important than them combined. The Lord's Supper is the last meal that Jesus ate before His death, and it was a meal that He shared with His disciples.
01:20
This meal would communicate the most profound truth there is.
01:26
The bread and the drink symbolize that which holds eternal significance.
01:32
On the other hand, the turkey and the ham and the beef that you eat on other holidays and special occasions does not hold this significance.
01:45
Those other big meals mark important occasions, yes, but these meals do not carry eternal symbolism in them.
01:53
But the Lord's Supper does. And it's the only meal that does. We are commanded in Scripture to take part in this meal regularly because of what this meal represents.
02:08
This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we're going to see Jesus participate in this meal with His disciples.
02:16
What we are going to see is that the disciples thought they were having a meal they had eaten their whole lives.
02:24
But something happens that changes this meal from an ancient one to one that they had for the very first time.
02:33
So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 26. We will be looking at verses 17 -29, and if you don't have a
02:42
Bible with you, you can use one of those red Bibles that's in the pews. This sermon is titled,
02:49
The Greatest of All Meals. And here's our big idea.
02:58
Understand that Jesus retired the
03:03
Passover to create a new meal where not all are welcome.
03:10
Understand that Jesus retired the Passover to create a new meal where not all are welcome.
03:16
And we're going to see two reasons why in this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one
03:22
Sunday ago. We looked at verses 6 -16 of Matthew 26.
03:29
In these verses, Jesus was in the house of Simon the leper, in the village of Bethany. Bethany was located just outside of Jerusalem.
03:38
And this episode took place six days before the Passover. What happened in these verses was controversial.
03:46
A woman, Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, poured an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment on Jesus, on his head and on his feet.
04:00
What we learned is that this was not just any container of perfume. It was expensive.
04:05
This flask was worth a year's wage of a typical laborer.
04:14
And this woman, in a moment, breaks the flask and pours this ointment on Jesus. The disciples were outraged that she did this, thinking it was a waste.
04:23
And Judas, the one who would betray Jesus, presented himself as righteous, saying this flask of ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor.
04:35
But this was not Jesus' response. Jesus approved of what she did. He said she did a beautiful thing to him.
04:44
And she unknowingly was preparing him for his burial. As he said.
04:51
Jesus even said that people would remember this act of affection as the gospel went forth all over the world.
05:00
It is a reminder to you and I to show our affection to Christ. As we show this affection,
05:06
He will receive our worship. And as we show our affection to Him, it will lead us also to show our affection to others, especially to fellow believers, the friendships we treasure the most.
05:20
Now this leads us to our text this morning. And I'm going to begin by reading verses 17 and 18.
05:26
So Matthew 26, verses 17 and 18. Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the
05:38
Passover? He said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says my time is at hand.
05:47
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. It will stop right there.
05:54
What we read here is that Jesus and his disciples take part in the Jewish tradition known as the
06:02
Passover that I explained two weeks ago. The Passover would take place during the week of unleavened bread.
06:10
So these two feasts were combined together. And let's talk about these. Let me start with the
06:16
Passover. We talked about the Passover two weeks ago, but once again, the Passover was a celebration put forth to remember the day when
06:26
God passed over the Israelites because the blood of the sacrificed lamb was put on their doorposts.
06:34
Exodus 12 explains this. During the night, the Egyptians did not have blood on their doorposts.
06:41
So the firstborn child of all the Egyptians, even their animal firstborns, perished as God brought judgment on the land that night.
06:52
What the Lord explained to the Israelites in Exodus 12 is that they were to mark this act of grace that God showed them by having an annual meal known as the
07:01
Passover. At this Passover meal, the people would slaughter a lamb without blemish and then eat the meal that night.
07:10
But God not only wanted them to have a meal, but also to have a week of remembrance. This week of remembrance was known as the week of unleavened bread.
07:21
What is unleavened bread? It's bread that does not contain leaven and therefore does not rise.
07:29
This bread was symbolic for what happened to the people of Israel in their departure from Egypt.
07:34
The people of Israel did not make long -range plans to leave
07:39
Egypt and pack up slowly. No, they left Egypt in haste.
07:47
What the bread symbolized is that the women who made the bread did not have time to leaven the bread because they left
07:53
Egypt immediately. They left Pharaoh to be free immediately.
08:00
So this week that came around every year during the Jewish month of Nisan, which was the first month of their year, the people of Israel were to have the week of unleavened bread and to kick off this week they would have this giant feast known as the
08:16
Passover. Now two weeks ago we saw Jesus tell his disciples that he would die in two days on the
08:23
Passover, which was on Friday. But Jesus is telling his disciples here that they are going to eat the
08:30
Passover on Thursday. The disciples are asking Jesus in verse 17 where they are going to eat the
08:37
Passover and Jesus tells them in verse 18 where they are to go. Jesus told them,
08:43
Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand.
08:50
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So Jesus planned out where they were to eat the meal by picking the house of a certain man and they would eat this meal in the upper room of this man's house.
09:05
Once again, why are they eating this meal on Thursday? Jesus said he would be crucified during the meal on Friday.
09:17
The answer to this is that Jesus and the disciples lived in a different region than the people of Jerusalem.
09:26
The people of Jerusalem lived in a region known as Judea. Jesus and his disciples lived in a region known as Galilee.
09:35
Galilee was about 90 miles north of Jerusalem. What Bible interpreters believe is that the
09:41
Jews in Galilee ate their meal one day earlier than the
09:47
Jews in Jerusalem. So while they ate the Passover meal on Thursday, the Jews in Jerusalem were preparing their meal on Friday.
09:56
This was customary. So the plan was to eat the Passover meal at this unnamed man's house that lived in Jerusalem and as the
10:05
Galileans ate the Feast of Unleavened Bread one day earlier, the people in Jerusalem ate that feast one day later on Friday.
10:17
So verse 19 tells us that the disciples listened to what Jesus said. So they're having the Passover meal on Thursday.
10:24
Verse 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the
10:30
Passover. So the disciples are getting ready for the Passover, which would have included sacrificing a lamb without blemish and preparing unleavened bread.
10:41
So the disciples prepared the meal, and this is what verses 20 and 21 say. When it was evening, he reclined a table with the twelve, and as they were eating, he said,
10:51
Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. The meal would be eaten in the evening, and the time came for them to eat, and as they are eating,
11:03
Jesus says something to them that is very disturbing. In verse 21, as I already read, he says,
11:14
Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. Jesus reveals to his disciples that one of them is going to do the unthinkable.
11:29
As readers of Matthew, we know this already because Matthew recorded in verses 14 -16 that Judas had already gone to the chief priests and told them that he would give
11:42
Jesus up to them. Remember, the Jewish leadership did not want to arrest
11:48
Jesus in public. They wanted it to be done in private, as verses 4 and 5 of this chapter tell us.
11:55
If they arrested Jesus in public, it would stir up the crowds. They didn't want that.
12:02
The Jewish leaders were cowards who wanted Jesus' arrest and trial to be in private.
12:11
So when Judas came to them and said, I will give him up to you, they were thrilled. This was their opportunity.
12:19
Remember, they didn't want to arrest him during the feast, but now that he says, well, this can be done in private, right now, they say, okay, game on.
12:31
Judas had spent three and a half years with Jesus. He knew the places they hung out in private, and he was going to give
12:39
Jesus to them in one of these places. What we learned last week is that Judas was a lover of money.
12:46
He criticized Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, for pouring very expensive ointments on Jesus' head and feet.
12:55
Judas portrayed himself as noble by saying that the flask of ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor.
13:03
But the Apostle John reveals in John 12 that Judas cared nothing for the poor. He was the disciple who was in charge of the money bag.
13:12
And as one who was in charge of the money bag, he frequently helped himself to that money bag.
13:21
He wanted that flask of ointment to be sold for money so that it would not go to the poor, it would go to him.
13:29
Knowing that Judas was a lover of money should not surprise us that when he went to the chief priests, his greed motivated him to give
13:38
Jesus up. Judas wanted one thing. Money.
13:44
Jesus said in a different place, you cannot have two masters. You either love one and you hate the other.
13:54
You cannot serve both God and money. And Judas shows us through this whole episode where his true allegiance is.
14:04
It's not to Christ, it's to money. That's his God. At the end of the day, that's what wins in his heart.
14:11
That's a good reminder for us. What wins in our heart? It must be Christ. So Judas asked the
14:23
Jewish leaders how much they would pay him and they said thirty pieces of silver. Thirty pieces of silver was the price a master would pay for a slave according to Exodus 21 -32.
14:38
So as Jesus is eating this Passover meal with his disciples, he reveals to his disciples that one of you will betray me.
14:45
This is how the disciples respond in verse 22. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him, one after another, is it
14:56
I, Lord? So the disciples, they're very sorrowful to hear
15:03
Jesus say this. They were sorrowful for two reasons. First, that one of the twelve would be willing to betray their teacher and friend and the one whom they proclaimed as the
15:17
Christ. Remember, Peter said you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said that on behalf of the disciples.
15:28
But they are also sorrowful because of what the second half of verse 22 says. Each of the disciples wonders, am
15:34
I the one who's going to betray him? Is it I, Lord? Sometimes we can have those doubts.
15:42
Am I going to hear the words one day, I never knew you? Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.
15:49
Is that a frightful thought? They're thinking, is it I, Lord? Am I the one who's going to do this to you? But then
15:57
Jesus reveals who is the one because the one who is going to betray him is going to do something specific as they sit around this table.
16:07
Verses 23 -25, He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with Me will betray
16:14
Me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him. But woe to that man by whom the
16:20
Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray
16:27
Him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi? He said to Him, You have said so. The one who would betray
16:34
Him would be the one who dips his hand in the dish along with Jesus.
16:41
John 13, which also describes this account, stated that the Apostle John is the one whom
16:47
Jesus told. He who has dipped his hand in the dish with Me will betray Me. The John account says in verse 26,
16:54
It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.
17:01
As Judas sits at the table, he of course knows that he is the one. He had already gone to the chief priests.
17:08
It was already lined up that they were going to pay him 30 pieces of silver. Judas is at this meal because he does not want it to be obvious to Jesus and the other 11 disciples that he's up to something.
17:24
You've got to keep your cover. Everything is to be as normal. So he's with them.
17:34
In verse 25, Judas point -blank asks Jesus, Am I the one who is going to betray You? And Jesus says, Yes. You have said so.
17:44
Now John knew who it was because Jesus told him, but the other disciples did not according to the end of John 13.
17:53
John 13 .29 says, Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling them,
17:59
Buy what we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor. The disciples were still fooled thinking that he actually cared about the poor.
18:11
They are clueless that Judas was the one who was going to betray Him. And it's worth us pondering this.
18:19
Think of how frightening this is. Judas spent three and a half years with Jesus. And during that time, there were no major red flags that showed that Judas was a fraud.
18:31
He had a secret life. And now this secret life was being revealed. Now that Judas has revealed that he has a betrayer, and he told
18:40
John who this betrayer is, this Judas, I want to zero in on what verse 24 says.
18:48
In verse 24, Jesus says, Woe to that man by whom the
18:55
Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
19:04
What a sobering statement that is. I remember a number of years ago driving in a car with my father and meditating on this verse with him.
19:15
Jesus actually says it would have been better if Judas had not been born.
19:22
Of all the people that have lived during world history, the name
19:27
Judas probably sends chills down people's backs more than any other.
19:35
This man who walked with Jesus for three and a half years and then betrayed Jesus might be the biggest tragedy in world history since this man betrayed the
19:47
Son of God into the hands of evil men. It's the ultimate betrayal. Think about American history.
19:53
Benedict Arnold. That's the name that comes to mind. What Benedict Arnold did pales in comparison to what
20:01
Judas did here. He gives up the Son of God into the hands of evil men.
20:09
In this whole time, Judas pretended to be one thing when in reality, he was something completely different.
20:17
He was undercover for the devil. He's such a tragedy that Jesus, the
20:25
God -man, the author of life says it would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
20:34
Imagine Judas' mother and father holding baby Judas in their hands, celebrating this little life, not knowing the dark man he would become.
20:46
His parents did not know the future that the author of life would one day say it would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
20:58
Life is a gift. Every life is a celebration when a child comes into this world.
21:06
Everyone here has seen a baby born in some capacity. Even if you're not a parent, you've seen family members who've had children.
21:15
What a big day that is when a baby comes into the world. Everything in life stops when that happens to celebrate this new life coming.
21:25
But not every life is a celebration once the story of that life has been written.
21:33
It has been said of Adolf Hitler that he was very close to his mother during his growing up years.
21:40
When he was young, his mother probably was proud of him. But look what he became.
21:47
After being the author of World War II and the Holocaust, being the chief cause of the deaths of millions and millions, his life ended with him taking his own life in a bunker as the
21:57
Allies were about to arrest him. And there are so many other tragedies like this in world history.
22:04
Another one is Lee Harvey Oswald who shot and killed John Kennedy. We know the story of what happened.
22:12
Oswald killed Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and then two days later on November 24,
22:19
Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby. What a tragedy Oswald's life was.
22:25
At his funeral, no one came. The only ones who came were the ones who had to be there and the reporters were the pallbearers because they're covering the story.
22:38
In each of these cases, it would have been better if these men had not been born. But let's take this one step further.
22:48
What about the one who rejects Christ and spends eternity in hell? It can also be said it would have been better for that man or woman if he or she had not been born.
23:01
For the one who is not in heaven, it doesn't matter what you did in this life.
23:08
It doesn't matter what one accomplished. It doesn't matter how highly the world thought of that person.
23:14
For the one who spends eternity in hell, that person's existence will forever be a tragedy.
23:22
Judas is a tragedy and so is everyone who dies in their sins and forever lives under God's judgment.
23:31
It's just a sobering thought to think about. It's true. In the world, there's two types of people.
23:38
There's tragedies, and then we're going to see the other in our second point. But understand this, that Jesus retired the
23:48
Passover to create a new meal where not all are welcome. And in this text, we've seen the first reason why, and that is that some choose their own way that ends in tragedy.
24:02
Some choose their own way that ends in tragedy. Not everyone is invited to this meal that we're about to see
24:09
Jesus unfold before His disciples. Here's the second reason why you would understand that Jesus retired the
24:18
Passover to create a new meal, and that is others humbly surrender that ends in triumph.
24:29
Others humbly surrender that ends in triumph. Now we get to the part where Jesus takes part in this most important of all meals with His disciples.
24:40
I'm going to read verses 26 -28. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread.
24:46
And after blessing it, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is My body.
24:52
And He took a cup. And when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is
24:59
My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
25:06
Judas misses out on this part. What this meal would be about.
25:14
But the other eleven disciples do not miss out on this. Notice this. John 13 -30 says concerning Judas, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out, and it was not.
25:31
In fact, the text says it was dark. He's not just talking about the fact that there's no sun.
25:37
This is a spiritual pun. There's two meanings to this word. It was dark. Spiritually dark.
25:46
Now that his betrayer, the unbeliever Judas, is gone, Jesus does something significant with this meal.
25:54
Judas is not invited to the meal, but these eleven are. This is not their ordinary
26:00
Passover meal. These disciples would have eaten this meal their whole lives. This meal that remembered the time when the
26:07
Lord spared the people of Israel and took the firstborn of the Egyptians. But right here,
26:14
Jesus introduces a new meaning to this meal. But before I show you that, let me remind you what
26:21
I explained two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, Jesus told His disciples that He was going to be crucified on the
26:26
Passover. What I explained then was that the Passover pointed ahead to Christ all along.
26:33
The Lord told the people of Israel that He was coming upon Egypt in judgment. And in order for them to avoid judgment, they needed to sacrifice a lamb without blemish.
26:41
And they were to place the blood of the lamb without blemish on their doorposts.
26:47
The Lord would pass over the homes with the blood of the sacrificed lamb on their doors. And you can see how this pointed ahead to the crucifixion of Christ.
26:57
When John the Baptist saw Jesus in John 1 .29, he said, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
27:05
In 1 Corinthians 5 .7, the Apostle Paul called Jesus our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed.
27:12
So the Passover was not only a reminder of how the Lord spared Israel in Egypt in the past, it also pointed ahead to the once -for -all sacrifice of the
27:24
Lamb of God. But what Jesus does in these verses is to explain that His people are to take part in a new meal from this point forth.
27:34
I've lived 36 years, and I have never once eaten a Passover meal. That will change on March 24th because Trevor Rubenstein, a
27:45
Jewish missionary that we support, he's going to come. He's going to present on how the Passover points ahead to the
27:51
Messiah. And then we're going to eat a Passover meal after the presentation downstairs.
27:58
But to this point, I have never eaten a Passover meal. And my guess is just about everybody in this room has never eaten a
28:06
Passover meal. But you do eat another meal all the time.
28:12
And it's called the Lord's Supper or the Lord's Table. This meal, known as the
28:18
Lord's Supper, was born at the Passover that we are seeing
28:23
Jesus eat with His disciples here as they sit in the upper room.
28:30
So verse 26 says that they are eating the Passover meal, and as they are eating the Passover meal, one of the items on the table is bread.
28:41
And it's not just any bread. It's unleavened bread. Since the
28:46
Passover coincides with the feast of unleavened bread. If we want to be really correct in what we eat the first Sunday of the month, we should have unleavened bread and we should have wine.
28:57
Strongly diluted wine though. Because the wine that we have today has a lot more alcohol in it than it did back then. But that's what they did.
29:05
They ate unleavened bread and they had diluted wine. So this bread is present at this
29:14
Passover meal and what Jesus does is He takes the bread and He breaks it. He breaks this bread in pieces and He gives it to His disciples.
29:22
What He tells them at the end of verse 26 is take, eat, this is My body.
29:28
The parallel account in Mark says in verse 22 that they did not eat it until He blessed it.
29:35
That is, He blessed the bread by praying and then He ate. They ate, that is.
29:42
Then in our text in Matthew, we see that Jesus did the same thing with the drink. As verse 27 says, He took the cup and when
29:48
He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, drink it, all of you. In the
29:53
Gospel of Luke, in Luke 22, we learn that Jesus took two cups. The Passover meal actually involved the sharing of four cups in Jewish tradition and they didn't have separate cups.
30:08
They actually drank from the same cup. Can you imagine us doing that? We're not going to make any changes here anytime soon. But I'm pretty sure, especially with COVID, not a good time to do that.
30:19
But the first cup that Jesus took, recorded in Luke 22, was the cup of thanksgiving.
30:26
The meaning that Jesus applied to this cup was one of gratitude toward the Father for the
30:31
Passover. All these Passover meals that had been eaten down through history by the
30:37
Israelites. He's giving thanks. Lord, thank You for this. Thank You for what You did at the Passover meal.
30:43
Thank You for all these meals that have been shared. Thank You for these meals that I've shared with my disciples these last couple years.
30:50
So He's transitioning away from that to something new. But He's saying thank
30:55
You as He looks back. The other of the four cups that is highlighted by Jesus is the third cup.
31:08
The third cup was the cup known as the cup of blessing in Jewish tradition. Like the first cup, this one takes on a new meaning as well.
31:17
As one author said, he set the third cup apart as a token of salvation blessing before passing it to the twelve.
31:27
So in this text, Jesus explains the meaning of the bread and the cup. And at the end of verse 26,
31:36
Jesus says that this is His body. The Apostle Paul explains what
31:41
Jesus said to the disciples very clearly. In 1 Corinthians 11 -24, He wrote, when
31:47
He had given thanks, He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
31:56
Jesus is of course pointing the head to His crucifixion. At the cross, Jesus would break His body for His people.
32:02
Then going back to Matthew 26, Jesus says in verse 28 what the meaning of the drink is.
32:08
He says, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
32:16
So the drink represents the blood that Jesus shed for His people.
32:22
What we also see is Jesus described the new covenant that would be ratified through His death at the cross.
32:30
For something to be ratified, there needs to be an agreement and the moment something is ratified, that agreement becomes official.
32:38
We often hear this with the Constitution. The Constitution was ratified in 1789.
32:45
The U .S. Constitution. That's when it begins. This agreement begins at that point.
32:51
The big covenants in the Bible show that an agreement has been reached through a sacrifice.
33:00
This is shown in the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 8. The Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15.
33:08
The Mosaic Covenant in Exodus 24. And now we see it here with the new covenant.
33:15
The new covenant is called the new covenant because it's different from the old covenant.
33:21
Another name for the old covenant is the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was for all the people.
33:29
And it could be kept externally. So in other words, there were true and false believers in Israel who could abide by the rules.
33:38
Some would do it out of joy for the Lord. Others would do it because they just didn't want to get into trouble.
33:45
Alright, let's just try to be a good neighbor. Let's try to have things go well here. And in this way, the
33:53
Lord's blessing would be over the land as long as people kept the covenant. While the old covenant was ratified by sacrificing oxen, the new covenant was ratified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
34:11
While the Mosaic Covenant had believers and unbelievers, the new covenant has only believers.
34:19
A big difference here. One was made with a nation. The other is made with the people of God.
34:29
The new covenant was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31 verses 33 and 34 where he proclaimed through the
34:37
Lord, or I should say he proclaimed on behalf of the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the
34:47
Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their
34:52
God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the
34:59
Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the
35:05
Lord. So Christ ratifies the new covenant through his sacrifice and this covenant is made with those who receive
35:15
Christ as Lord, Savior, and Treasure. Once one believes in the
35:21
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to that person and one is able to follow him.
35:27
One is changed inwardly. Jesus went to the cross and broke his body and shed his blood and the new covenant is offered to everyone.
35:40
When Jesus went to the cross, he gave up his life for anyone who would believe in him where this eternal agreement is reached where your sins are forgiven and the promise is that in the age to come, you will never sin again.
35:54
So this meal that Jesus introduces to his disciples for the first time and this meal that we take part in every month on the first Sunday of every month is a picture of what
36:05
Jesus did at the cross. The bread shows that he broke his body for you while the blood shows that he shed his blood for you.
36:15
He gave his life that you may live forever. And the Bible is very clear how you are forgiven.
36:23
John 3 .36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. My prayer is that everyone in this room and everyone who can hear my voice would have this salvation in Christ.
36:36
Every month when we take part in the Lord's Supper, not just anyone can eat this meal.
36:43
The only ones who are invited, the only ones who are able to eat this meal are those who have believed in the
36:50
Lord Jesus Christ. So this is an exclusive meal. Sometimes you drive by those churches, and I put churches in quotations because they're not real churches, and they say all are welcome.
37:03
It sounds so nice, right? But we know what they mean. What they mean is you can come here.
37:09
You can stay in your sins. You can live how you want. And you know what?
37:15
Just because we've had this tradition for years and years, how about let's send around the bread and let's send around the drink.
37:22
That's not a church. Now we want people to come here. We want everyone to come here.
37:28
We want everyone to come here to hear the Gospel. But we don't want to leave people in their sins. That's the most unloving thing we can do.
37:37
We want people to come to hear the Gospel, and we want people to, with integrity, eat this meal with us every month.
37:47
That's the only way we can do it. And what we see here is how serious this meal is taken.
37:58
There's an old story of the reformer John Calvin, whom I don't endorse in every way, but this story is valuable as we think about the integrity of this meal.
38:08
His church was taking part in the Lord's Supper, and a man came up to grab the elements whom
38:13
Calvin knew was not saved. Calvin guarded the elements as the man came forward, not allowing him to eat the bread and drink the cup.
38:25
This is a helpful illustration to display that only believers are allowed. Because every time a believer eats the bread and drinks the cup, it is a reminder of what
38:35
Christ did on your behalf. Judas left the table before the meal started.
38:44
That's by design. He was not allowed, because this meal was not for him.
38:51
It was only for those who belonged to Jesus. The Lord's Supper does not save you as if there was something magical in it, but it is a reminder of what
39:02
Christ did for you. It's amazing how much this meal has been hijacked. Roman Catholics, it's called transubstantiation, they think that these elements actually become the body and blood of Christ, like magically, and that grace is infused on you through these elements.
39:23
But the Bible doesn't teach that. Jesus is very clear. Do this in remembrance of me.
39:30
This is a memorial meal that believers are to take to remind them of what
39:37
Christ did at Golgotha 2 ,000 years ago. That's what the meal is about. One of the most wonderful songs we sing as a church is
39:47
Behold the Lamb by Keith and Kristen Getty. Verse 1 of that song says, Behold the
39:52
Lamb who bears our sins away, slain for us, and we remember the promise made that all who come in faith find forgiveness at the cross.
40:05
It's a memorial meal that remembers what Christ did on our behalf, and it's an exclusive meal.
40:12
Only those who belong to Christ are welcome. The Lord's Supper not only looks back to what
40:19
Christ has done on our behalf, it also looks ahead to the future. Verse 29, Jesus says,
40:25
I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when
40:31
I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. So the meal looks back to the
40:39
Passover. It looks presently to what Christ did at the cross.
40:45
And then it looks to the future. There's a future feast coming that's going to be the greatest feast there has ever been.
40:51
And what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, what I read in the call to worship today is that we eat the
40:56
Lord's Supper until when? Christ returns. We're not going to eat it forever.
41:03
We'll eat a different meal in heaven. But the Lord's Supper comes to an end when
41:08
Christ returns because we are reminded of what He did on our behalf.
41:13
And until He comes, we need to constantly remind ourselves what He did on our behalf.
41:22
And this future feast will actually take place during the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ where we eat and drink, as Jesus says, we drink of the fruit of the vine with Him in that kingdom.
41:33
And the feast doesn't just stop during the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ, but there's going to be feasts also in the eternal kingdom that follows.
41:42
And this feast will be greater than any earthly feast you have ever enjoyed. The food will be better. The drink will be better.
41:49
The fellowship will be better. And the best part will be that Christ will share this meal with you and I as He sits at the head of the table.
42:00
But the only ones who will be able to enjoy this are those who receive the covenant of His blood, the place where He broke
42:08
His body and shed His blood for you. So understand that Jesus retired the
42:16
Passover to create a new meal where not all are welcome. And in this text, we've seen two reasons why.
42:24
The first is that some choose their own way that ends in tragedy. The second is that others humbly surrender that ends in triumph.
42:36
No unbeliever may do something as grievous as Judas did. Betraying the
42:42
Son of God. But every unbeliever has this in common with Judas. They reject the
42:48
Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that, they are not welcome to share in the glories that this meal represents.
42:54
And therefore, their existence is correctly defined as a tragedy.
43:00
On the other hand, the believer's experience is the opposite. Every believer through faith in the finished work of Christ is triumphant.
43:09
Those two T's help me. Hopefully they help you too. Tragedy. Triumph.
43:16
You want your life to be a triumph. And it becomes a triumph, not because you're some great person and you do such great things.
43:23
It's because you're allied with Christ. That's what makes you a triumph. And if you're not allied with Christ, your life is a tragedy.
43:32
And that's the reality of it. And then in the age to come, there's going to be this division.
43:40
And everybody in hell... I should be on this side here. Everybody in hell...
43:45
Those are the people who think, I should be in heaven because I did so many good things in this life. In fact, last
43:51
Sunday, I had a conversation with a relative. A man I love. A good neighbor.
43:59
And he was telling me how good he was. He said, you know those Bible stories? They're not true. But if there is a
44:05
God, He's going to let me in because I'm a good guy. That's hell. Then there's people who know the
44:13
Bible's true. Who know that Jesus went to the cross. Who know that He was raised from the dead. Who know
44:18
He's coming again. Who know what great sinners they are. Who know that it's only because of Him that they are in heaven.
44:26
And the people in heaven are going to say, Lord, thank You for rescuing me from that lake of fire that I deserve to be at.
44:37
That's the difference. And my prayer is that everyone in this room would be triumphant with Christ as you live in forever sweet fellowship with Him in this world and in the world to come.
44:52
Now next Sunday, we're going to see another story here about another betrayal of Jesus.
45:00
And we're going to see more than that. But this time the betrayal comes from one of His followers. I look forward to looking at that with you next
45:08
Sunday. But this time let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, what a wonderful God You are.
45:17
And You're so gracious. You're so merciful that You sent
45:22
Your Son to die in our place. And we deserve to bear
45:28
Your holy wrath forever. In hell. That's what we deserve.
45:34
The wages of sin is eternal death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
45:42
Lord. So thank You for sending Your Son. Thank You for changing hearts.
45:49
Thank You Lord that we're not popular. And that's okay.
45:55
We're not cool. And that's okay. We just want the truth. That would be the cry of our hearts that we want the
46:03
Word and we want to live it and we want to be transformed and we want to see others transformed.
46:10
So help us to do that more and more and help us to constantly be reminded of what Christ did for us and be reminded every day that we need to turn from the sins in our lives.