Maundy Thursday 04/06/2023

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Well, good evening, folks.

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Welcome to First Baptist Church. I'm Pastor Lars Larson, as most of all of you know.

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Welcome. Well, this evening's Maundy service, Maundy Thursday service, of course, commemorates the original institution of the

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Lord's Supper, the inauguration of the new covenant. Our Lord Jesus, the night he was betrayed and arrested, instituted this supper.

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It's one of two ordinances, of course, that the Lord has appointed to his people, the other being baptism.

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And so we're here principally to observe the Lord's Supper and remember that event.

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I'm going to do something a little unusual. We're going to open with the reading of scripture, reading from this passage of Matthew 26, verse 20 through 30, which speaks of Matthew's account of this institution of the

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Lord's Supper. Matthew 26, 20 through 30. When evening had come,

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Jesus sat down with the 12. Now, as they were eating, he said, assuredly,

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I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful.

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And each of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I? He answered and said, he who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me.

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The Son of Man indeed goes, just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the

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Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

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Then Judas, who is betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? And he said to him, you have said it.

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And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

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And then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

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But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when

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I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the

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Mount of Olives. Let us invoke our God's presence with us.

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Our Father, we meet here this evening to observe one of two ordinances that you have given to the church of your dear

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Son. We observed one recently, that being baptism, and we will observe the other shortly, our

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Lord's Supper. We're dining together before you, confessing and celebrating in faith what you wrought for us through giving your

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Son to live and to die on our behalf. And this Lord's Supper is set forth before us in simplicity, just as it's baptism.

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Here we have bread broken before us and the cup, they lie before us on this table, and so here we have a beautiful and wonderful display of fellowship.

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Our fellowship with you and our fellowship with one another as disciples of Jesus Christ.

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What better emblem of fellowship could we have? We as disciples of Jesus Christ about this table, eating and drinking together.

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Our Father, we ask that you would bless us this evening with a renewed sense of our eternal and secure relationship with you, even with our triune

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God. And may we also experience a renewal of joy and acknowledgement with what we enjoy together through your

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Son. And so as we sing and read Scripture, consider your words that you've given us regarding this institution of this meal.

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May you affirm and confirm to our souls that we belong to you, and that we are individual members of Christ's corporate body, his church.

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For we pray these things our Father in Jesus' name, amen. Well, Alan will lead us in several hymns this evening.

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We'll be singing from both the red hymnal and the blue, and the first will be hymn number 252. 252 in the red hymnal, please.

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Please stand. Amen, amen.

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Can we remain standing? And turn one page over to 251.

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This is Jesus.

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Please be seated. We'll be reading two Psalms this evening.

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Pastor Jason will be, and the first one is Psalm 113, and a little later on he'll be singing

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Psalm 1, or reading. We won't have you sing. Read Psalm 114.

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We selected these because these two Psalms were commonly sung by those observing the

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Passover, and so these Psalms probably would have been sung by our Lord and his disciples the night he was betrayed.

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Psalm 113. Praise the

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Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.

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Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the

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Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.

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Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

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He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the

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Lord. Please turn in your red hymnal to hymn 264, 264 red hymnal.

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It's coming our way, folks. Be ready for it. Hymn 176.

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Isn't this wonderful, having a time to just sing together? I love it, and you guys are just singing wonderfully tonight.

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176. Amen. Thanks for keeping me on track, folks.

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Be seated, please, and Pastor Jason will come now and read Psalm 114 for us.

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When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange language,

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Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled,

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Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

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What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back. O mountains, that you skip like rams,

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O hills like lambs. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the

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God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

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And we have a duet prepared for this evening. Why don't you come on up, ladies? See him in the garden, on his knee, praying to the

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Father as he bleeds. See her such strain bear, see her in agony he cries, for he knows tomorrow he must die.

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See the heartache he bears, see him there, see him in the garden, praying to the

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Father that all will be done. He will give his life, the perfect sacrifice.

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See him there, see him there, see him there.

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Please stand. Be seated.

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Well, if you have your Bibles, you might open to Matthew 26 that we read from earlier.

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We don't have a great deal of time, but we do want to reflect on some of the matters set forth here.

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Of course, our Lord Jesus was observing the last Passover meal with his disciples, and the

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Lord's Supper replaced the Passover meal for Christians. And so we could say that this was the final

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Passover that was observed from the Old Testament economy, and thereafter the reality had arrived to which the

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Passover pointed. The Passover was his shadow pointing to the death of Christ, and of course

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Christ died upon that cross the next day, Friday. At some point during the meal, probably toward the end of the meal, the

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Lord instituted this ordinance which has come down to us called the

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Lord's Supper, sometimes communion. Other groups within Christendom have called this ordinance or sacrament using other terms.

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Of course, one common term is that of the Eucharist. Eucharist is a taken from the

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Greek word for thanksgiving. It's a perfectly good biblical word. And then, of course, you have more formal liturgical churches,

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Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, High Church Anglicans, and Episcopalians, High Church Episcopalians in America.

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They call their observance of this sacrament the Mass, and of course we would say that it that no longer reflects biblical truth, but rather it has been modified over the centuries through tradition upon tradition.

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And if we have time, we might speak to that a little bit. The details of Matthew's Gospel recorded for us are quite brief in number, not complex in meaning.

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There's simplicity here, set forth. First we have the bread, of course,

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Matthew 26, 26. Now as they were eating, that is, as they were eating the

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Passover meal, probably coming to a conclusion of it, Jesus took bread, after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

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This supper that the Lord instituted was for his disciples. They were there present with him, and only disciples of Jesus Christ are invited by the

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Lord to partake of this Lord's supper. And so they'd been eating the

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Passover meal when our Lord took this loaf of bread and broke it. He, of course, infused spiritual meaning to the bread, associating the bread with his own body.

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He declared, of course, this is my body. In other words, this bread represented his body, and just a clear reading of the passage would indicate that.

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One cannot help but recall our Lord's identification of himself as a true spiritual bread that God has sent down from heaven to give life to the world.

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That's found in John chapter 6. It was the day after our Lord had multiplied the bread and fed 5 ,000 men, plus many women and children, of course.

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And the day after, when the people gathered, many of them who wanted to make him king, because they saw him as Moses who could feed them, and Jesus took the occasion to say, most assuredly,

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I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. In other words, the manna that appeared every morning during the wilderness march of Israel.

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But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, referring to himself, speaks of his pre -incarnate state.

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He's the eternal, eternally begotten Son of God who came down from the Father into the world in order to give spiritual life to the world.

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And then of the people hearing Jesus make this statement, said, Lord, give us this bread always.

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And then he declared that famous I am statement, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger.

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He who believes in me shall never thirst. And so the bread in the

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Lord's supper is an emblem of Christ as the source of spiritual life, and not just the source, but the sustainer of spiritual life.

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We feed on him continually in faith. Eating the bread is emblematic of believing on Jesus fully.

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Feeding on him is believing on him. And we shouldn't paganize it by literalizing it as though it were literally his flesh.

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That is a twisting, reading into scripture that which is not there.

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And sadly many people do that. For Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the

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Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And he was giving forth those words to the people to show how he alone must be viewed as the source and sustainer of spiritual life, even eternal life.

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Of course in John 6 he wasn't speaking directly of the Lord's Supper, he was speaking about himself as the giver of life to his people, but it clearly is illustrated in the

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Lord's Supper that he later instituted. And then along with the bread, of course, we read of the cup.

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In Matthew 26, 27 through 29, he took a cup. When he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom.

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There were four cups of wine at the Passover meal, and by the way, it was fermented wine, diluted three parts water to one part wine, but there would have been no unleavened grape juice there.

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It would have all, the leaven would have been removed from the fermentation, of course, it was fermented wine.

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And so there would be no leaven present at that meal. It was during the week, the feast of unleavened bread.

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But there were four cups, each one had meaning, and the order of the Passover meal in the first century

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Palestine was observed in this way. First, there was a preliminary course of food, and so a blessing to sanctify the feast day.

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Cup number one of wine was drunk. It was along with that cup, there was a preliminary dish of herbs, green herbs, bitter herbs, and a kind of a fruit puree with spices and vinegar.

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The meal was served but not yet eaten, and then cup two of wine was poured.

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And during this second cup, the Passover liturgy was rehearsed before the family.

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It was rehearsed in Aramaic, the language of the people of the day, in response to a question asked by the youngest boy in the family, why is this night different?

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And it was followed by the singing in Hebrew of the Hallel, in other words Psalm 113, which we read, which

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Pastor Jason read for us, and then Psalm 114 as well, and then they drank that second cup.

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The third cup, of course, was during the meal proper. A blessing was pronounced over the mesut, or the unleavened bread, the

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Passover lamb was eaten with the mesut, bitter herbs, the cup of the meal, as it's called, or the cup of blessing.

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And then fourthly, the fourth cup, the conclusion, the concluding part of the

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Hallel, Psalm 114, would have been sung at this time, according to the school of the

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Rabbi Hillel, and it's somewhat disputed whether a fourth cup of wine concluded the meal in first century

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Palenstine, but it probably was. Well, of these four cups, we might ask which cup was it that the

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Lord took in hand and instituted the Lord's Supper? And it was probably the third cup, the cup of blessing, because it's actually mentioned in 1

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Corinthians 10 verse 16, Paul wrote, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

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That refers to the third of the four cups. And the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

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Paul asked the rhetorical question, indeed it is. The Lord declared the cup represented his blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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Many would benefit from the blood of the covenant of Jesus Christ, they'd receive the forgiveness of sins.

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Many would benefit from this covenant. Here we see that the Lord was saying that death would be for the advantage or benefit of many, not everyone, but of many, in other words, his people.

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And so our Lord spoke with language consistent with the biblical teaching of definite atonement of his sacrifice.

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The shepherd laid down his life for his sheep. Christ died with the intention to redeem his people, and here he describes them as many.

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The blood is poured out as well, it is said, and this is an emblem of sacrifice.

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The blood of animals in the Old Testament sacrifices were often poured out upon the ground. Deuteronomy 12, 27, and 28 read, you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the

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Lord your God, and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your

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God, and you shall eat the meat. Observe and obey all these words which

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I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the

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Lord your God. Of course this covenant meal indicates that the only way we can have a relationship with God is if our sin problem is dealt with.

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A curse lay upon us, the Lord has said, the soul that sins it shall die.

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We all sin, we all die. There's not a man or woman that has ever lived before or hereafter that can escape death unless the death of another in their place occurs.

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Oh yeah, there's one or two exceptions in the Bible but it's a given, everyone is going to die unless the

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Lord returns. In order to live there must be a substitute to bear the penalty, he must be sinless or else he could not bear anybody's guilt but his own.

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He must be righteous himself so as to be a suitable substitute as well as to be able to come forth from death once he experienced it.

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Death could not hold Jesus because he was without sin himself, sin was reckoned to him.

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He did not become a sinner on the cross, sin was reckoned onto him and then he died.

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He was holy, harmless, undefiled and so God would have to provide for himself such a sacrifice.

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Only in the shedding of his blood, the pouring out of his life as an offering for sin could we have been forgiven of our sins and the

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Lord declared that his blood was the blood of the covenant. It's interesting that Matthew mentions covenant as well as Mark's gospel, simply the word the covenant.

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Luke alone mentions new covenant, of course it all of them referred to the new covenant but it's just singular the covenant in Matthew's gospel here.

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As we read in Luke 22 20, likewise the cup after they had eaten said this cup is poured out for you.

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There's the emblem of poured out, a poured out sacrifice, poured out his blood for you is the new covenant in my blood and so this signals the great turning point in the record of redemptive history that's recorded in God's word, the

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Bible. Our Lord would declare that he was instituting the everlasting covenant that God had determined would be the basis of relationship between himself and his people.

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The everlasting covenant that was made between the persons of the trinity and eternity, God the father electing a people from fallen humanity to save, the

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Lord Jesus committing himself to become one with them and die for them to redeem them and the

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Holy Spirit of course committing to apply the benefits of Christ's death to the people the father gave to the son and here we have this everlasting covenant being realized this night when our

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Lord was arrested, tried, crucified the next day and rose again on that first Easter Sunday.

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The new covenant in my blood. What is a covenant? Well a covenant is like a contract, a legal contract on which a relationship is founded or based.

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We commonly have covenants, we have marriages like a covenant where a bride and groom agree, they commit themselves one to another before witnesses, it's a solemn agreement but the covenant that we have with God through Christ is of a little bit different nature.

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It's similar to what was common in the ancient world that were called suzerain covenants and these covenants were common when an empire say conquered a nation and that nation became a vassal nation and the conquering emperor would come and establish a covenant with that people and it was really a one -sided matter,

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I'm going to establish this covenant with you and I promise to be your king and protect you and provide for you but in return you are my people and you will render me you know tribute and whatever and the covenant that God has established with Christ is similar to that and that God comes to us and he establishes a covenant with us and he sets the terms with us and of course when we believe on Christ we enter into this new covenant with God through Jesus Christ.

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There are many covenants throughout the Bible but ultimately every one of them point either indirectly or directly to this covenant that was established this night when our

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Lord died. Before we leave off direct attention to the words

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I want us to notice what our Lord did not say in his record of Matthew, there is no command or instruction with the words as often as you eat or drink.

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That command is not found there but rather it's found in first Corinthians chapter 11 and this is a passage that that we commonly read every month when we observe the

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Lord's Supper. Paul actually probably recorded the earliest record of the

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Lord's Supper in first Corinthians 11. It was written before any of the gospels probably recorded the

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Lord's Supper and so Paul wrote, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the

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Lord Jesus on the same night in which he would be betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me and in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood and hear the words this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the

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Lord's death till he comes and so the Lord's Supper is a there's a point of remembrance of what

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Christ did. There's a there's a point of affirmation we are affirming even as we eat and drink our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ as our only savior and then there's a forward a future look as well to the coming of Christ when he comes to claim his own.

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Amen. It's a glorious glorious ordinance that we are to come to in a solid manner but we ought to also have a festive spirit about us.

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This is a feast as it were a celebration of what's been accomplished.

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The the cup the wine itself of course speaks about the the great difficulty and pain that our

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Lord endured on the cross in order to redeem us and the the process of making this cup the process of squeezing out the grapes the fermentation process all point to the sufferings of Christ but it is wine a celebrative drink and so there ought to be a sense about us.

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We're mindful and attentive to his great suffering on our behalf and yet at the same time rejoicing in what he accomplished for us.

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It's it's a done deal and we can be so grateful and thankful for that. Let's pray.

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Thank you our father for this ordinance that we have before us and we just pray that you'd help us our

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God to eat and drink in faith. Lord we pray that you would help us also not only be mindful of the body of our

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Lord Jesus and his sufferings but that we'd also be mindful of his body as a as a body of believers this local church to which also the single loaf portrayed to the early churches and so help us our

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God to see our kinship with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and help us to look to the

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Lord Jesus. May this be a blessed time as we exercise faith afresh in him for we pray in Jesus name amen.