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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/phil-coulson/remember-me/
I'd like to read with you, please, a familiar passage in Luke's Gospel and chapter 22.
Luke's Gospel and chapter 22, Luke 22, we'll read from verse 14.
And when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him, and he said unto them with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not eat any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you.
This do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. We do trust that the Lord will graciously bless this familiar passage to us as we think of it for a few moments this morning.
You will be fully familiar, of course, with the idea that as the Lord Jesus met with his disciples, or we must read carefully, as Luke says, with the apostles, there's significance in that, which we'll speak of later.
But as the Lord Jesus met with the apostles in the upper room, it was primarily to keep the Passover. And the Passover was a memorial. It looked back. The Lord Jesus was gathered with his own to look back to those great events recorded for us in Exodus chapter 12, when God there in that chapter delivered his people out from under divine judgment.
We have in previous meetings sought to make a distinction between the teaching of the death of Christ for us and our death with Christ. This is typified again. In these particular things we're thinking of today, in Exodus chapter 12, the night of Passover, God's people were delivered out from under divine wrath and judgment.
Death visited every house in the land that night. In the homes of the Egyptians, it was the firstborn that died. In the home of the Israelites, it was the lamb that died. But death visited every house.
And because of the blood shed, God had grounds upon which he could move in mercy toward his people. They by faith applied the blood that was shed and sheltered by the blood. They were delivered from the avenger.
But when the light of a new day dawned, when the noise of wailing and howling went up from the Egyptian homes, when there was such great relief in the homes of the Israelites, when the light of that new day dawned, where were they?
They were still in Egypt. Pharaoh was still their master. They were still in bondage. The work of God in deliverance was not yet complete. Yes, they had been delivered from under divine judgment, but now they need to be delivered also from Egypt and from its thralldom and from Pharaoh as their master.
That was done not in Exodus 12, but in Exodus 14. And it was by taking them out through the Red Sea, typifying not so much the death of Christ for us, but our death with Christ. As they went through the Red Sea and left Egypt forever, so then the waters of the Red Sea closed in on the pursuing armies of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh, their former master, was utterly swallowed up and destroyed.
What great pictures these are for us, aren't they, of the great work of Christ at Calvary. And so as the Lord met with his own in the upper room, it was to look back. Israel had been charged with this solemn responsibility of an annual national memorial to the redeeming power of their God.
It was never to be forgotten. Now, of course, as the Lord Jesus met with his own in the upper room, the typical teaching of the Lamb of Exodus chapter 12 was about to be fulfilled. And to use Paul's words to the Corinthians, Christ, our Passover was sacrificed, was slain for us.
And yet, wonderfully, as the Lord Jesus with the apostles was looking back in the keeping of the Passover, at the same time he was looking forward. And we know that from the words that we read in verse number 16.
The Lord says, I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. So the Passover, which was for them a memorial that looked back, and which was going to find its fulfillment in the death of Christ as far as the Lamb was concerned, yet the total fulfillment of the Passover in all its significance is still future.
The reason for it is clear, that the Passover was the beginning of the Exodus. It was the beginning of the bringing out of the people of God from under divine wrath and from Egypt's bondage. But that wasn't the end of the matter, it was only the beginning of it.
God's purpose in bringing his people out was that he could bring them in to something far more superior. That is ever the case. If God will bring his people out of something, it is so that he might bring them in to something better.
But we know that because of their disobedience, instead of being in the wilderness, but eleven days or so according to Deuteronomy 1, they were now going to be in the wilderness for forty years. The man who was used of God to lead them out was not going to be used to lead them in.
So although Moses was identified with the Exodus of the people, he wasn't identified with the Esodos, the entrance of the people into Canaan. God had brought his people out of hard labor in order that they might enjoy rest.
And that rest was typified in the Sabbath. But their sin, their rebellion, their disobedience meant they could never enjoy that. When you read in Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews 5, this subject of rest, Sabbath rest, is spoken of to the Hebrews.
And it's pointed out to them that there was a rest associated with creation. On the seventh day, God rested. But man never entered into and enjoyed that rest because by one man, sin entered into the world.
There was a rest that was associated with Canaan. But the people could never enter into that rest either because of their murmuring, because of their rebellion, because of their disobedience. They never dealt with and evicted all those people in the land that God told them to.
So they never enjoyed the rest of Canaan. There was a rest associated with the covenant. And they never enjoyed that. All that thou has said we will do, but they didn't. So sin and rebellion has constantly deprived the people of God from rest.
But says the writer to the Hebrews, there remaineth yet a rest to the people of God. And the rest of creation and the rest of Canaan and the rest of the covenant that they could never enjoy, thank God, there is a rest associated with Calvary.
And it's Calvary rest into which we have been brought. That's where God has rested. God fully satisfied in all the work of his beloved son. And it's into that rest that you and I have been brought. So the Exodus and the Passover marked the beginning of it.
The Exodus was not an end in itself. It was looking forward to a time when the people of God having been brought out would later be brought in. And that has not happened yet for the nation of Israel. You might recall that when the Lord Jesus was in the Mount of Transfiguration, that was the occasion when Moses first set foot in the land.
And Moses and Elijah appeared with the Lord Jesus. And the scriptures tell us that the subject of their conversation was the Exodus. I'm giving the literal sense now. Their conversation was about the Exodus that would be fulfilled in him.
Not so much his own personal Exodus. He had come into the world. He was later going to leave the world to go unto his father. It was not so much his personal Exodus that was the subject of their conversation.
It was the Exodus that was going to be fulfilled in him. It was never fulfilled in Moses. And it was never fulfilled in Elijah, typical of all those prophets that sought to bring the people back to the ways of God.
No there was an Exodus that was going to be fulfilled in Christ. He was not only going to be the anti-type of the Passover lamb, but he was ultimately going to be the one who would bring them in to the rest of God.
Now that is still future. And that's why the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 22, as he keeps the Passover, which for the apostles was simply a ritual that looked back to something which was in their nation's history.
Yes, they bore testimony to the great redeeming power of their God. But what God had brought them out for had still not been realized. So yes, they did look back. But the Lord Jesus looked forward. And he said, I'm not going to any more eat of the bread, and I'm not going to any more drink of the vine until these things are fulfilled in the kingdom.
What tremendous grace that the Lord Jesus is hours away now from being delivered into the hands of the Romans and crucified. The very nation that was about to finally reject him and see him nailed to a tree was the nation with whom the Lord Jesus was looking forward to one day sitting down in fellowship.
One day he said, the Passover in all its fullness will be fulfilled in the kingdom. And in that day, I will again eat bread. And I will again drink of the fruit of the vine. And I will do so in fellowship with the nation that is about to crucify me.
But then that nation will be repentant. That nation will have been restored. That nation will have a new heart. These things are wonderfully typified in Genesis chapter 14, when you recall Abraham was returning from the slaughter of the kings.
And as he returned, so Melchizedek went out to meet him. Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God. He met Abraham and he was bearing with him bread and wine. That incidentally, especially for you young brethren, beginning to study your Bibles in earnest now I hope, look at that verse number 18 of Genesis 14.
You will probably have heard of what the brethren like to call the law of first mention in scripture. That when a subject which is widely spoken of in the word of God, where it is first used, normally gives significance to how that subject will be developed in the scriptures.
It's not a law really, it's just one of those things that's observed as we read our Bibles, the first mentions of things. Well that verse, Genesis 14, 18, gives not just one first mention in scripture, but in that one verse, no less than five important subjects in scripture are named for the first time.
And the fact that they're all named for the first time in that one verse, and they're all named together, means that there's a great bond between them and a significance in them. It's the first mention of Melchizedek.
And although we don't read of him often, we do know from Hebrews 7, that the Spirit of God has chosen that particular man to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in all the eternality of his being, and in all the glory of his eternal priesthood.
So Melchizedek is an important character. We know from Hebrews 7, his name means king of righteousness. But Genesis 14, verse 18, says Melchizedek, king of Salem. Now that's the first mention of Salem, and Salem would later become Jerusalem, the city of our God.
So the first time Jerusalem is mentioned, it's in association with Melchizedek. He's the king of righteousness, but he's the king of Salem, which means peace. So he's a king of righteousness and peace, the very features and the character of the millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Melchizedek is a king priest, and that's how the Lord Jesus will be manifested in a day to come. King of righteousness, king of peace. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. First time in your Bible you read of bread and wine.
And the bright ones among you will be thinking and saying, hang on brother, I think you're wrong there. Bread is mentioned in chapter 3, isn't it, of Genesis? Spot on, you're right, it is. And you recall that in chapter 3, bread is associated with a curse.
Then you'd be saying, well, wine is mentioned already, isn't it, in chapter 9? After the flood, when Noah became drunk? Yes, you're right, wine is mentioned in chapter 9, and it's associated with a curse.
But in chapter 14, verse 18, bread and wine are mentioned together, and they're associated with blessing. So it's the first mention of bread and wine. So that now ties in with what we're looking at in Luke 22, doesn't it?
That in a millennial day, when the Lord Jesus is revealed in his Melchizedek priesthood character, he is a king, and he is a priest. Jerusalem in that day will be known as Zion. Psalm 48, the city of the great king.
It will be the center of world administration. It will require a king. It will be the center of world worship. It will require a high priest. And those offices are combined in Melchizedek, and only in Melchizedek, because he is a picture of Christ.
God jealously guarded those two anointed offices. He wouldn't allow any other man to combine priesthood and kingship. When Uzziah tried it, God judged him. When Saul tried it, God judged him. Apart from Melchizedek, the picture, God only intends kingship and priesthood to be combined in Christ in a day to come.
So the first mention of Melchizedek, the first mention of Salem, Jerusalem, the first mention of bread and wine, and it goes on to say, and he was the priest, first mention in your Bible of priesthood, and he was the priest of the most high God.
First time that divine title is used, and when you follow it through in your concordance, you will see it is a title associated with God's relationship with his people, both in tribulation and in millennial days.
Days still to come. Tremendous verse, isn't it? Tremendous verse to study. The apostles were largely ignorant of the way the Lord's mind was working on this. They were observing the ritual that looked back.
But as the Lord Jesus with them looked back, he was also looking forward. So when the kingdom has come, after we've gone home to heaven, after the tribulation period has run its course, when the Lord Jesus returns from an open heaven to establish his kingdom, then the nation will be repentant, the nation will be restored, and one of the things that will be done in that great regeneration that Matthew speaks about in chapter 19, is that the temple city of Zion will be wonderfully and immediately brought into being.
As a temple city, it will have within its courts the re-institution of all the Old Testament sacrifices. It's a puzzle to many, isn't it? Quite understandably. When you read from, say, Ezekiel chapter 40 onwards to the end of that great prophetic book, and you're reading through those chapters that deal with the millennial reign of Christ, and how that under the leadership of David, who along with all those other Old Testament saints who died in faith and in covenant relationship with God, who will be raised from the dead when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth to establish his kingdom, David and those other saints raised from the dead at the beginning of the millennium, David will be the prince.
He will be upon the throne of Israel, and as one of his responsibilities, he will lead the worship of that restored nation. Interesting then that when you read through those chapters in Ezekiel, we find that the Old Testament sacrifices, those we have thought briefly about in Leviticus 1 -7, they will all be re-instituted.
And we might scratch our heads at this and say, well, we could kind of understand why the sweet savor offerings might be re-instituted. But Ezekiel tells us there will be offerings for sin as well. Doesn't the writer to the Hebrews point out that Christ has appeared once in the end of the age to put away the sin question once and for all by the sacrifice of himself?
Yes, that's right. Haven't we been taught that Calvary saw an end to all those Old Testament sacrifices that were in themselves futile and only pictures? Yes, absolutely right. Don't be shaken in that.
You say, well, why will all these sacrifices be re-instated then? Well, one thing we can say for certain is this, that those sacrifices and especially the offerings for sin will in no way be for the expiation of the sins of the people.
That's all been dealt with in the work of Christ at Calvary. The whole purpose of the re-institution of those sacrifices is that it will be a living, constant memorial to the work of Christ at Calvary.
For the first time in their national existence, Israel will be intelligent as to what those sacrifices signified. They never knew in Old Testament days. The godliest of priests had no idea, as he officiated at the altar, the spiritual significance of what he was doing.
He knew the ritual was different. He knew the procedure was different. But he had no idea, no concept. He couldn't have as to how those sacrifices were speaking of a one perfect sacrifice still to come.
But in that future day, Israel will understand fully as those sacrifices are offered in their course. They will understand how that they speak so eloquently of the finished work of the one who when he first came, they rejected and who now they have received and acknowledged as their Messiah.
And as a nation of priests, they will intelligently observe the memorial. That's what it will be, a memorial, a constant reminder of the work of Christ at Calvary. And it will be there in glorious 3D.
For not only the nation, but for the Gentiles who according to Zechariah 14 will come up to the temple with their worship. They will see these things. And there will be a constant reenactment to people who are now intelligent as to the meaning of it all of the work of Christ.
If they had a memorial in the Passover and they did, what a wonderful memorial they will have in a day to come. You see, as the Lord Jesus gathered with his apostles in the upper room, they didn't know that this was to be the last time the Passover was kept.
The national rejection of the Lord Jesus, their Messiah, meant that the memorial responsibility to the redeeming power of God entrusted to that nation for centuries, it was going to be taken away from them.
With the work of Christ at Calvary, the favored status of the Jew was going to be taken away. The old covenant was going to be brought to an end. That covenant that was drawn up at Sinai, that covenant that they signed up to, that covenant that had swiftly become like a millstone around their neck, they couldn't keep it.
Romans 8, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. But with that contract they had signed at Sinai, there was a penalty clause.
God said, if you keep it, I'll bless you. If you break it, there'll be a curse. You'll find it in the last chapter of Leviticus. A curse upon a people who broke God's law. They were a people under a curse and that was the penalty clause.
The old covenant could not be legally terminated until and unless that penalty clause was satisfied. That's why Paul says to the Galatians that Christ was made a curse. He wasn't made a curse for you.
If you're a sinner of the Gentiles, saved by the grace of God. The Gentiles weren't under the curse of God, but the nation of Israel was. They had serially broken the law. There were people under the curse, but the Lord Jesus in wonderful grace was made a curse.
He fulfilled all the terms of the penalty clause and so God could righteously terminate the old covenant in the death of Christ at Calvary. The people were delivered from under the law at that point, but in these days in which we're living, there's no difference between Jew and Gentile.
All concluded under sin. All have the same opportunity to be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet wonderfully, as the Lord Jesus looked forward to Calvary, as he took that cup, he said, now this is the new covenant in my blood.
You'll appreciate dear saints of God, the covenant is not with you and me. We're not a covenant people. The covenant is with the house of Judah and with the house of Israel. Jeremiah chapter 31. It's not with you and me.
The Lord Jesus was in his death, not only going to terminate legally the old covenant, but his blood was going to set the grounds and set the seal upon the new one. But the new one isn't in operation yet.
And it can't be until Israel is repentant and Israel is restored. The covenant is ready for them, but they're not ready for it. But the day will come when they are. And in that day, then their sins will be forgiven and they'll be washed and the spirit will be poured out upon them and there'll be wonderfully restored.
And that will be the nation in a day to come. But why does Luke tell us they were the apostles? Why not his disciples with them? Well, what the apostles didn't know as they gathered to keep Passover and look back, what they didn't know was, if you will permit me to use the expression, they didn't know that that night they were wearing two hats.
The one hat they were wearing identified them as a faithful remnant from the nation of Israel. The other hat they were wearing was that they were going to be foundational members of the church, which was still in mystery at this point and which was going to be brought into being in Acts chapter 2.
Remember Ephesians 2? The apostles and the prophets, foundational members of the church. These men are here in Luke 22 as apostles. They don't know it yet, but the church age is going to come in and they're going to be foundational members of it.
And they would then learn that in the upper room in Luke 22, the national testimony to the redeeming greatness of God, which had belonged to Israel, was going to be taken away from them. It was going to be taken away from them until the day would come when they were restored and when they were fit morally to bear that same testimony to God's redeeming power again.
So the testimony was taken away from them with a view to it being given back to them as a nation in the millennial reign of Christ. But in the meantime, said the Lord Jesus, as he took the cup after supper, as he instituted this remembrance that we have kept this morning, he said to these men who were apostles, during the time of my absence, during the time that Israel is set aside, during the time when memorial testimony has been taken away from them, it's now given to you.
And Paul, guided by the Spirit, would take up that truth in 1 Corinthians 11. And he would say to believers in the Lord Jesus, to that New Testament company in Corinth, as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the death of him who is Lord until he come.
We haven't come, my brother, my sister, this morning to remember lest we forget. That's not the thought at all. Never once has it contemplated in scripture that we would forget Calvary. We haven't come just to remember that.
The thought is, as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do proclaim the death of him who is Lord until he comes. That proclamation is the erection week by week of a fresh memorial to Christ.
We're making a proclamation of his Lordship. Who to? Who's the audience? If we've made a proclamation this morning, and we have, to whom have we made it? Well, the Lord Jesus deliberately instituted this in an upper room, above street level, away from the eyes of the world.
No, we're not making this proclamation to the world. And we're not making this proclamation to ourselves. We're the ones doing the proclaiming. Is it not the truth of Ephesians 3 and verse 10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers might be made known by means of the church the manifold wisdom of God?
Brethren, sisters, angels, the principalities and powers have taken an enormous interest in what we have done this morning. They are learning as to the multivarious wisdom of God in ever sending his son into the world to be the savior of sinners.
And they have seen this morning, here and there, wherever the saints have gathered in obedience to the Lord's command. They have seen in this rebellious world, companies of sinners saved by the grace of God, who in what they have done to be observed, so that angels can see it.
They have seen us make a fresh proclamation, here in the devil's territory, that Jesus Christ is Lord. God won't be without his memorial testimony. It was taken from Israel. It'll be given back to them in a day to come.
But in the meantime, it's given to us. It's a high dignity. It's a wonderful truth. May the Lord bless it to us. Shall we pray?