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Congregation, please rise.
The opening hymn is 676.
676.
In
the
name
of
Father
and
Son
Holy Spirit,.
I will go to the altar of God.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
You may be seated.
During this Lenten season, we have heard our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin,
death, and the devil, all that perverts us from trusting in God and loving each other.
Since it is our intention to receive the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ on this night,
when he instituted this blessed meal for our salvation, it is proper that we complete our Lenten
discipline by diligently examining ourselves as Saint Paul urges us to do.
This holy sacrament has been instituted for the special comfort of those who are troubled because of their
sin and who humbly confess their sins, fear God's wrath and hunger and
thirst for righteousness.
But when we examine our hearts and our consciences, we find nothing in us but
sin and death from which we are incapable of delivering ourselves.
Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ has had mercy on us.
For our benefit, he became man so that he might fulfill for us the whole will and the law of God
and to deliver us, took upon himself our sin and the punishment that we deserve.
So that we may more confidently believe this and be strengthened in the faith and in the holy living, our Lord
Jesus Christ took bread, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat, this is my body which
is given for you.
It is as if he said, I became man and all that I do and suffer is for your good.
As a pledge of this, I give you my body to eat.
In the same way also, he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink of
it, all of you.
This cup is new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
Again, it is as if he said, I have had mercy on you by taking into myself
all of your iniquities.
I give myself into death, shedding my blood to obtain grace and forgiveness of
sins and to comfort and establish the new testament which gives forgiveness and everlasting salvation.
As a pledge of this, I give you my blood to drink.
Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup confidently, believing this word and
promise of Christ, dwells in Christ and Christ in him and has eternal life.
We should also do this in remembrance of him showing his death, that he was delivered for our offenses and raised for
our justification.
Giving him our most heartfelt thanks, we take up our cross and follow him and according to his
commandment, love one another as he has loved us.
As our Lord on this night exemplified this love by washing his disciples feet, so we by our
words and actions serve one another in love.
For we are all one bread and one body even as we are all partakers of this one bread and drink from
the one cup.
For just as the one cup is filled with wine of many grapes and one bread made from countless grains,
so also we being many are one body in Christ.
Because of him we love one another not only in word but also indeed and in truth.
May the almighty and merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and by his Holy Spirit accomplish this in us.
Amen.
Having heard the word of God, let us confess our sins imploring God our Father for the sake of his son Jesus Christ to grant us
forgiveness.
Please stand.
Almighty God, merciful Father, I a poor miserable sinner.
Confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you
and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them and I pray you of your
boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy innocent bitter sufferings and death of
your beloved son Jesus Christ to be gracious and merciful to me a poor
sinful being.
God be merciful to you and strengthen your faith.
Do you believe the forgiveness I speak is not my forgiveness but God's?
Let it be done for you as you believe in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
O Lord, in this wondrous sacrament you have left us a remembrance of your passion.
Grant that we may so receive the sacred mystery of your body and your blood that the fruits of your redemption may
continue to manifest in us for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God now and.
Forever. Amen.
You all may be seated.
The Old.
Testament reading from Monday Thursday is taken from the book of Exodus chapter 12.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year for you.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their
father's houses for a household.
And if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take
according to the number of persons according to what each can eat.
You shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take of it from the sheep or the goats.
And you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill their lambs at twilight.
Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts in the lintel of the houses in which they eat of it.
And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs
they shall eat it.
Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted its head with its legs and its
inner parts.
And you shall let none of it remain until the morning.
Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn in this manner.
You shall eat of it with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet your staff
in your hand.
You shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night.
And I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and on all the gods
of Egypt I will execute judgments.
I am Yahweh.
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood I will pass over you.
No plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
This day shall be for you a memorial day.
You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute
forever.
You shall keep it as a feast.
This is the word of the Lord.
Our epistle is taken from first Corinthians 11.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night that he was
betrayed took bread.
And when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Whoever therefore eats or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body
and blood of the Lord.
Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died.
But if we judge ourselves truly we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
This is the word of the Lord
the holy gospel according to Saint John the 13th chapter
now before the feast of the Passover when.
Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father.
Having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end during supper when the devil had
already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him.
Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God was going
back to God rose from the supper and he laid aside his outer garments and taking a
towel tied it around his waist.
And then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was
wrapped around him he came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord do you wash my feet.
Jesus answered him what I am doing.
You do not understand now but afterward you will understand.
Peter said to him you shall never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him if I do not wash you you have no share with me.
Simon Peter said to him Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head.
And Jesus said to him the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean.
And you are clean but not every one of you.
For he knew who was to betray him.
That is why he said not all of you are clean.
And when he had washed their feet and put out put on his outer garments and resumed his place he said to them
do you understand what I have done to you.
You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am.
If then your Lord and your teacher have washed your feet you ought to wash one another's feet for I
have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.
This is the gospel of the Lord
the hymn is 617 you may be seated
in
Jesus.
Oh if
only
you
would
show
me
a
sign.
God then I would believe.
Have you ever thought that way.
You know I remember before I was a Christian I remember thinking things like that.
You know.
God how do I know that you're there.
Give me a sign.
Cause the moon to wink at me while I look at it tonight.
Oh you know.
Well through the clouds do something great.
Do something spectacular.
Give me some sign to know that you're there.
And you'll know that Christ basically says that it's a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks for
signs.
But it's not as if signs do not exist.
They do.
I think back to one of the big challenges that Rome made to Martin Luther at the time of the
reformation.
And the challenge went something like this.
What miraculous signs do you perform to justify this gospel that you are
preaching.
Right.
It was a clever scheme on their part.
Clever indeed because Lutherans are not known for signs and wonders.
By the way have you noticed that about us.
We're kind of a dull boring group of people.
And I'm surprised that none of you are sitting in the back pew.
I'm kind of I thought wow who is that reserved for tonight.
But you get the idea here.
But that being the case what was Luther's response to said challenge.
Luther's response was actually quite simple.
His response went something like this.
The signs that I provide to you are the resurrection of Christ and the miracles performed by the apostles.
They are the signs that validate this gospel because this is the gospel that they preached.
It's a good answer if you think about it it's a fantastic answer.
But you'll note that still in our day people want to see signs.
And I would note that we have signs aplenty.
But let's work through our old testament text and then we'll consider how it informs what we're doing
tonight.
It says in exodus 12 Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of
Egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months.
What month is this.
Nisan.
That is the Hebrew month that we are in.
So you're going to note something here.
Have you ever noticed how our well our our calendar seems to be
off a little bit I mean and I mean like off the the the numbered ones don't make any sense
is uh you know is October.
October is that.
That's the 10th month.
Doesn't that seem a little odd to you.
October.
You know do you know what an octagon is.
And note I'm adding the phlegm for for effect here.
How many sides does an octagon have eight.
Okay.
Something's happened some screwy's happened in history to our calendars now.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with it.
I mean that God hasn't actually instituted for in the new covenant a calendar for us to follow.
But you're going to note here if you know your Hebrew calendar um what month in the year do the
Jews today celebrate Yom Kippur the head and
then Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.
Rosh Hashanah is the one in particular Rosh Hashanah the head of the year the head of the new year.
What.
What month is that in September.
It's in September.
And by the way note September.
Sept is seven.
Something's weird going on here and that is a lot of people have changed some things around and I'm kind of looking forward in
the restoration of all things to getting to a calendar that makes sense.
Okay just saying.
But you'll note here then that anybody who says that the head of the new year for the Jews is going to be
in September.
They're contradicting the scripture here and the Jewish new year starts now.
That's the season Nisan the month that we were in.
So he says tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a
lamb according to their father's houses a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of the
persons according to what each can eat.
The lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you can take it from the sheep or the
goats.
And you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill
their lambs at twilight.
Now we just had the joy of having a seder meal a christianized seder meal.
Thank god on that part because there's certain bits of the newish the newer Jewish liturgies we couldn't participate in because those are
innovations that have nothing to do with Christ.
But you'll note going back to the more historic seder liturgy we then put all of this into
context.
And one of the things we heard as we were preparing and having the seder meal is that on the day
that Jesus entered into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday what did they do.
They brought the Passover lamb and they tied it up for everybody to see and to
inspect and to make sure it was a spotless lamb without blemish
important to do.
And you'll note that that runs parallel we just heard to Christ's time in
Jerusalem where he was interrogated questioned tried to be tricked by the chief priests the
scribes the Herodians and the Sadducees all trying to trip him up.
And yet they weren't able to trip him up at all proving himself to be what the spotless lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world.
And you'll note behold Christ our Passover lamb truly has been slain.
And so we can see the parallel tracks here in the types and shadows finding its
fulfillment in Christ.
I do think it's fascinating that God thought in terms of not merely individual salvations here
but salvations that include the saving of entire families.
What a gracious God we have.
And that God cares for all of our children no matter how small do I need to quote Horton
here's a who here you get the idea.
So even the smallest of infants in Israel was also saved during the exodus.
So the entire family would have a lamb for them.
Your lamb shall be without blemish.
A year old we got that part.
They're going to then kill their Passover lambs at twilight.
What time is that.
Three in the afternoon.
Coincidence.
Hardly you can see the connection.
Christ our Passover lamb truly was slain.
And you'll note then that Jesus was crucified
on the Passover and he died at exactly the same time that they would have been killing
their Passover lambs for their meals.
Not at all.
It's all on purpose.
Then you shall take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses
in which they eat.
They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they
shall eat of it.
We heard how Christ not only did he take unleavened bread he also dipped it in bitter
herbs.
And it was during that Passover meal that he celebrated with his disciples that when he was
dipping his bread into the bitter herbs that he revealed who his betrayer was.
Who happened to dip into the bitter herbs with him.
That little piece of context adds a whole lot of layers of meaning and understanding then
to what it is that took place here.
Christ then says.
Do not eat of it any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted its head with its legs
and its inner parts.
The roasting of the Passover lamb then is an allusion to Christ's death on the
cross where he suffers the full fury of the wrath of God in our place.
And he is roasted in God's wrath and dies for our
sins.
That's the point you'll note that this plague the 10th plague is the
only one of the 10 where everybody who wanted to not have their firstborn die
needed to have a substitute.
And it's interesting if the Egyptians had done this same thing what would the
destroyer had done to the Egyptian houses.
He would have passed over.
Why.
Well because they would have believed God's words and acted accordingly.
And so you'll note then our Passover lamb Jesus Christ is our sacrifice.
Not only that our firstborn do not die that would mean by the way I'm a firstborn I would die.
My son would die.
You know how many of you would die if you're firstborn.
All of that being said it's not merely for to save the the firstborn it's to save all of us
to save every single one of us.
So in this manner then you shall eat it with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet your staff in your hand.
And you shall eat it in haste.
It is Yahweh's Passover.
Eating it in haste.
I would note this here.
This imagery of the exodus absolutely fits perfectly with what we do.
Do we not eat our Passover meal every Sunday in haste.
Indeed we do.
It's a quite quick pause a quick here's a little bit of Christ's body and blood given and shed for
the forgiveness of your sins.
A morsel to help you on the way.
If you would because we are still in the middle of our exodus having been set free from slavery to
sin death and the devil and having the Satan's legions drowned in the baptismal waters of the
Red Sea each and every one of us now is heading towards the real promised land.
And we eat our meal in haste.
Christ says this.
Then I will pass to the land of Egypt that night I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt
both man and beast.
And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.
You'll note then that it is absolutely perfect good exegesis to walk
back through all 10 plagues of Egypt and figure out which of the Egyptian gods was getting knocked on
the head or having his head lopped off or him proven to be incompetent
and or worse non -existent incapable of standing up to
Yahweh.
And by the way this is unthinkable.
There's in the way the ancient world thought deities had territories they had places
by in which they resided.
Yahweh resided up in the Canaanite area.
And the Egyptian gods they resided in Egypt.
And then the other gods they resided in different places and stuff like that.
But Yahweh he executes judgments on the gods of Egypt on their own
turf.
Now a few years ago had I used this analogy it would have actually worked.
I don't think it works anymore.
But this would be like the law.
It would be like the rams beating the patriots in the super bowl
in patriot stadium.
But now that now that they got rid of that guy it doesn't really matter anymore.
But this this analogy just kind of falls apart.
But you get the idea this is the unthinkable thing happening here.
That's the point.
God is executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt and showing them to be impotent
incompetent non -existent.
He's the true god king of kings and lord of lords.
And then he says these words.
The blood shall be a sign for you.
And the you there is not us.
It's them.
But is it think it through.
That's the type and shadow the reality is in Christ.
If only there was a sign I would believe
I know a sign.
I open up my eyes.
I saw the sign right there.
And you'll note God has given us signs.
He's given us tokens.
He's given us miracles.
I would note here is that we Lutherans aren't exactly known for
talking about the miraculous things that God is doing.
And the reason why is because we're not wingnut wackerdoodles.
Because we don't have to make up stories about the things that God is doing.
So I don't have to sit there and say so there I was.
I was just minding my own business.
I was out in my backyard shoveling snow and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit wished me away to Saskatchewan and
I converted a whole family to Jesus.
And then whoosh he teleported me to Australia.
I had had some Aussie beer with some friends and then whoosh brought me right over back here.
I don't have to say stuff like that right.
You know why.
Because the whole all those tall tales are just nonsensical lies.
But we do believe in miracles.
We do not believe the supernatural has stopped.
I would note that with every person brought to penitent faith in Christ they have been
raised from the dead.
They have been regenerated.
This is a miracle performed by God the Holy Spirit through the preached word.
Every single time we have a baptism here it is not mere Minnesota tap
water doing doing work.
It is not a mere sign or symbol.
Instead we recognize what the scripture says that when somebody is baptized they are buried
with Christ.
They are raised with Christ their sins are washed away.
It is the washing of regeneration.
Baptism now saves you.
Peter says there have been miracles here that we've all seen with
our own eyes.
And there is another miracle that takes place every time we have the Lord's Supper.
And that is is that ordinary bread and wine.
Christ adds his verba to mine because you're going to note I don't make it the Lord's Supper.
My words do not.
It's his words his mind his will that makes it the Lord's.
And he performs a great miracle in our midst.
He adds to mere bread and wine his own body and blood given and shed for the
forgiveness of our sins.
And the blood is a sign to us.
But what is it a sign of.
Of God's mercy of God's grace of Christ's intent to save us rather than to
destroy us.
And his absolute tenacity at comforting us and assuring us that our sins are
forgiven that we are bled for that we are died for.
And so he gives us a sign Sunday after Sunday tonight a Thursday he gives
us a sign every single time we gather.
And that sign is nothing less than miraculous beyond all reason
that we sinners who deserve nothing more than God's wrath and
eternal punishment receive not from him his wrath but because Christ has crucified
he like I said was roasted in the wrath of God for us we receive from God mercy
forgiveness grace and a sure and certain sign Sunday after
Sunday after Sunday that we are forgiven that we are
reconciled that we have been set right with God by what
Christ has done for us.
It is a sign of signs if you would.
And you do not do well to despise it.
You do not do well to water it down or diminish it.
You do well instead to recognize that these words the blood shall be a sign for you
in a very real way points to all of us.
And so you'll note then tonight we feast on the body and blood of
Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
And just like ancient Israel they knew that when their that blood was on
their doors as Yahweh promised that when the destroyer passed through
he would see the blood and he would pass over them and no plague would befall you to
destroy you.
When I strike the land of Egypt.
And so now as the world is getting desperately old
and the creation itself is wearing out like a blanket our old clothes that need patches
but beyond repair as the world is diving headlong into
madness brought on by sin we can see the
gathering storm clouds of God's wrath on the day of judgment coming
we don't know how far off they are they're off in the distance still.
But they'll be here soon enough.
And you would be foolish to say I have no fear of such things.
All of us know that we deserve God's wrath.
But note this the blood is a sign for you that when Jesus returns in
glory to judge the living and the dead he being the destroyer on that day riding on his
white horse with that sword coming out of his mouth and him striking down the nations
with it that when he sees his own blood
in your mouth on your lips in your stomach in your body
he will pass over you.
And no no plague will befall you.
You will not be destroyed on the day of Christ's judgment.
Instead you will be gathered with all the saints to meet him in the air.
And we will then be ushered into the new heavens and the new earth.
And we will live forever in a world without end in a world without sin with
Jesus our visible king and God in our midst we will worship him face to face
having finally reached the real promised land the one that we are heading for.
Do you really need a sign.
You have them plenty in the name of.
Jesus amen
now for this service because the.
Service is is monday thursday service is so truncated.
We do not have we do not have a creed we do not have an offering
or an offertory.
We will go straight into the prayers of the church.
Please rise.
Let us pray for the whole church of God in Christ Jesus and for.
All people according to their needs.
Heavenly father you have built your church according to the humble image of your son.
Direct our faith to a self -offering on the cross.
Draw us by his redemption after his example to resist the allure of worldly power and pursue our
own sacrificial callings.
Lord in your mercy.
Heavenly father by your righteousness deliver our souls which are precious in your sight from death.
Embolden our hearts to pray confident that Christ prays with us.
Heavenly father as the institution of your new testament is celebrated on this day among all peoples.
Make your saving power known throughout the earth.
Grant that those who boast in the sacrificial gift of Christ would share with him in the world that he
came to bless.
Heavenly father.
Give healing to the sick according to your will.
Grant relief to the suffering by your grace.
Give comfort and grief to the grieving and peace to the dying.
We lift before you those who have requested our prayers and we lift them before you.
Now within our hearts
we ask that you would bring all things to their perfect healing and fulfillment in christ.
Oh god you desire not the death of the sinners but rather that we would turn from our evil way and live.
We come before you although we have sinned and deserve only your wrath.
Yet we flee to your mercy in christ jesus our lord who gave his body and his blood for our
redemption.
Lord grant that we may ever thus believe and never waver.
Grant that in such faith we may worthily come to your altar and eat the very body and drink the very
blood which your son has given for our redemption.
In thanksgiving we remember and proclaim the suffering and death of our lord jesus christ in whom
we place our trust until his return.
Graciously receive our prayers.
Deliver and preserve us.
For you alone we give all glory honor and worship.
Father son and holy spirit one god now and forever.