Luke 22:14-20; Matthew 26:26-29; I Corinthians 11:23-26
Last weekend I was able to spend the weekend
with my two sisters. I have one older sister and
one younger sister. It was nice to spend time with
them. Since they live so far away we don’t get to
see them often. It was especially nice that it was
just the three of us. We had such a great time
telling stories about one another. Growing up, we
had some fun times and we had some challenging
times, but it’s good to remember them. It’s good to
remember that God used each of those experiences
to make us the people we are today.
This morning we are going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper
together. We are going to look at three passages of
Scripture that describe Jesus observing this ordinance
with His disciples for the first time.
As we read each passage I want you to look for
similarities and differences between each of them.
Luke 22:14-20
Matthew 26:26-29
I Corinthians 11:23-26
You probably noticed the following phrases
do this in remembrance of Me.
Blood of the covenant.
This is My body.
The Bible has many examples of remembrance.
2 Examples from OT
Joshua 4:4-7 “Then Joshua called the twelve men
from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed,
a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them,
“Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into
the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a
stone upon his shoulder, according to the number
of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may
be a sign among you. When your children ask in
time to come,
‘What do those stones mean to you?’
then you shall tell them that the waters of the
Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant
of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the
waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones
shall be to the people of Israel a memorial
forever.”
Joshua had the men bring stones to set up a memorial to
serve not only as a reminder to those who experienced
God’s blessing, but to the children who were not present
at the crossing of the Jordan.
We should make every effort to remember what God has
done throughout our lives, just like the Israelites did near
the Jordan river.
Psalm 77:11-12 “I will remember the deeds of the
LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your
mighty deeds.”
2 Examples from the NT
Our status before Christ
Ephesians 2:11-13 “Therefore remember that at
one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the
uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision,
which is made in the flesh by hands— remember
that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world. But now in
Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been
brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Our Salvation in Christ
2 Timothy 2:8-10 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen
from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached
in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with
chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not
bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake
of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation
that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”
Jesus told His disciples to practice observing the Lord’s
Supper as they were eating their last supper together.
Jesus taught that the cup represented His shed blood on
the cross at Calvary.
He also taught that the bread represented His body that
was crucified on the cross.
Why should we remember the Blood of Christ?
Remembering the Blood of Christ
Matthew 26:28 “for this is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.”
I Corinthians 11:25
The blood of Jesus has the power to forgive our sin.
Jesus went to the cross in our place. He was sinless, yet,
He took our punishment and endured the wrath of God so
that we could be reconciled to God. You may have heard
it called substitutionary atonement.
Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of his grace,”
By God’s grace, He sent His only Son to redeem us and
forgive our sin.
Think of how the disciples must have felt hearing Jesus
talk about His blood being poured out and His body given
for them.
Hebrews 9:14 “how much more will the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without blemish to God, purify our
conscience from dead works to serve the living
God.”
Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost
everything is purified with blood, and without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Jesus also mentioned there was a new covenant in His
blood.
Luke 22:20
The blood of Jesus established a new covenant.
This new covenant was also prophesied by Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days are coming,
declares the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of
Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their
fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant
that they broke, though I was their husband,
declares the LORD.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, declares the
LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will
write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and
they shall be my people.”
The old covenant pointed to Christ.
The new covenant fulfilled God’s plan to redeem us from
our sin.
Listen to how the author of Hebrews describes Jesus.
Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a
new covenant, so that those who are called may
receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a
death has occurred that redeems them from the
transgressions committed under the first
covenant.”
Why should we remember the body of Christ?
Remembering the Body of Christ
Luke 22:19
I Corinthians 11:24
Jesus told His disciples that His body was
Given for you
Jesus was about to endure the most cruel form of death,
crucifixion. Remember that the Romans didn’t take Jesus’
life, He gave it up. He uttered “it is finished” when He
knew He had accomplished God’s plan.
Matthew 27:26-31 describes some of what happened to
Christ’s body before the crucifixion.
“Then he released for them Barabbas, and having
scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. Then
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the
governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the
whole battalion before him. And they stripped him
and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting
together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head
and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling
before him, they mocked him, saying,
“Hail, King of
the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed
and struck him on the head. And when they had
mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put
his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify
him.”
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper for us to remember His
shed blood and His body that was given for us.
We must not take it lightly.
APPLICATION
Our application is found in
I Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this
bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s
death until he comes.”
Our response to the Lord’s Supper is to:
Proclaim the Gospel until He Returns
Celebrating the Lord’s Supper should inspire us to obey
Christ’s commands. We should not do it out of duty or
obligation. It should be the natural outflow from our
relationship with Christ.
Mark 16:15 “and he said to them,‘Go into all the
world and proclaim the gospel to the whole
creation.”
What is the gospel?
Paul does an incredible job of describing it in his first
letter to the church at Corinth.
I Corinthians 15:1-4 “Now I would remind you,
brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which
you received, in which you stand, and by which you
are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I
preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I
also received: that Christ died for our sins in
accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures,”
Let’s remember what Christ has done for us and share it
with the world that is in desperate need of saving.