Sermons

The Lord’s Supper

A few years ago, a small church in the Midwest held a
community dinner every Thursday night. Nothing
fancy—folding tables, crockpots, paper plates. But every
week, people came: single moms, retirees, teenagers,
folks who didn’t have much, and folks who had plenty.

One particular Thursday, a man named Carl walked in. He
had been absent for months. His wife had passed away
unexpectedly, and grief had swallowed him whole. He
didn’t come to church. He didn’t answer calls. He didn’t
want to be around anyone.

But that night, he showed up. He sat down at the end of a table,
quiet, withdrawn. People noticed him, but they didn’t swarm him.
They just sat near him. They passed him rolls. They asked how he
was doing—not in a shallow way, but in a way that said,
We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.

And then something happened.
One of the men at the table slid his plate a little closer to
Carl and said, “Hey, we’ve missed you. You don’t have to
talk if you don’t want to. Just eat with us.”

Carl didn’t say anything at first. But after a few minutes,
he whispered, “I didn’t realize how much I needed this…
just being at the table again.”

That simple meal—nothing special, nothing
ceremonial—became a moment of healing. A moment of
connection. A moment where Carl remembered he wasn’t
alone. A moment where he felt loved, welcomed, and
drawn back into fellowship.

And here’s the thing:
It wasn’t the food that changed him. It was the meaning
behind the meal.

It was the reminder that he belonged.
The reminder that he was loved.
The reminder that he wasn’t forgotten.
The reminder that he had hope.

Today we are going to be looking at what the Scripture
says about the Lord’s Supper. This subject is mentioned
in three of the gospels and in Paul’s first letter to the
church at Corinth.

This morning we are going to be studying Matthew’s
account of the Lord’s Supper. It is found in Matthew
26:26-30.

Now, before we get to the text this morning,
we need to put things into context. We can do this by
looking at the previous verses, starting with verse 17. It
was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. This
is also known as Passover.

The Passover meal was when the Jews remembered the
final plague in Egypt. Every firstborn male child was to
be slaughtered. The Jews who sacrificed an animal and
wiped the blood on their doorpost were saved from this
devastating tragedy.

This meal was a reminder to them of the mercy and
grace that God provides to those who love Him.

Let’s look at our text for this morning.

Matthew 26:26-30

As we reflect on these verses this morning, there are
three lessons that can be learned from the institution of
the Lord’s Supper.

As we look at each of the three lessons this morning, we
are going to be taking a look backwards and then taking
a look forward.

Our first lesson about the Lord’s Supper this morning is
that:

It reminds us of;

God’s Covenant with us

First, let’s take a look back and recall God’s first covenant
of blood that he made with His people. It is found in
Exodus 24:3-8

Exodus 24:3-8

When Moses took the blood from the slain oxen and
threw it on the altar and on the people it served as a
symbol of God’s bond between Himself and the people of
Israel.

As I read that, I thought, gross. Ox blood being thrown
all over me? That doesn’t sound that great. But the
people understood. They told Moses. We hear the
commands and we will obey them.

The people were also required to perform animal
sacrifices when they sinned against God. This was the
only way of receiving forgiveness of sins in that day.

Fast forward back to our passage in Matthew for this
morning. Jesus is telling the disciples that He is about to
make the final blood sacrifice for them.

He tells them that His blood will be poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins. (v.28)

When He went to the cross. He gave us a new covenant.
The blood that He shed provides us the new covenant
that we need to receive forgiveness of sins.

We no longer need to worry about killing a lamb or an ox
and making a sacrifice.

But that does not leave us without responsibility does it?
When Jesus died on the cross He died for ALL. The Bible
tells us that God loved the world so much that He sent
His Son to die for ALL who believe in Him.

We have to believe in Him. We have to accept the
forgiveness of sins that His blood provides for us. He
doesn’t force it on us. We have to accept it.

The second lesson we can learn from the Lord’s Supper is
that it:

Reminds us to enjoy;

Fellowship with each other

Now, we are good Baptists so we don’t have any problem
with this category right? We know what fellowship is all
about. Food!!

Jesus was having the Passover meal with his disciples
and decided that this was the best time for Him to give
them instructions for the future.

He was eating and drinking and having a nice dinner with
His friends. And then He turned the conversation to
spiritual matters.

Think about this for a moment. Most Christians do not
celebrate Passover and have a traditional Jewish Passover
meal complete with bitter herbs, salt water and
unleavened bread. Have you ever thought about why we
don’t?

This Passover meal that Jesus had with His disciples is
also known as the Last Supper. After this there was no
reason to have the Passover meal any longer because
Jesus is the Passover Lamb.

He is the Messiah that the Jews had been looking for and
waiting for.

Now as Christians we are to celebrate the Lord’s Supper
with one another rather than having this Passover feast.

Does that mean that we ought to cancel all future
potlucks? Of course not. We love to eat. But more than
that. Those times of fellowship are when we get to know
each other better and we connect on a different level.

We can share with each other in a casual setting our
hurts, our hopes, our irritations, our prayer requests, etc.

This is the best time to go deeper than the surface
conversations that we have with our friends as we pick
our kids up from school, or pass each other in the
grocery store. Church fellowships should include some
spiritual conversations and how God is working in our
lives.

Fellowship is a great thing to do as believers. Remember
how the book of Acts talks about the believers all being
together in one place and having all things in common?
They were fellowshipping with one another.

We should continue to do this as well.

Your relationship with your church family should be the
closest relationship you have outside of your relationship
with your immediate family.

That is because you have faith in common. Having faith
in common allows you to connect with people on a higher
level. I remember being on mission trips and meeting
other believers either from the US or from other
countries and you can just tell they are different. You
have a common bond.

This brings me to the third lesson we can learn from the
Lord’s Supper this morning.

It reminds us of our;

Hope for the Future

Jesus tells the disciples that after this cup of wine, He will
no longer drink any wine until He sees them again in the
New Kingdom. (v.29) This is Jesus’ way of giving them
hope for the future.

As the Jews celebrated the Passover they were
celebrating their deliverance from Egypt. They were
looking back and remembering a time of suffering and
persecution.

They were happy that they were no longer being held
captive by the Egyptians. This gave them great joy to
remember where they came from and how God provided
a way out for them.

Now, Jesus was telling the disciples that there was hope
for the future for them.

The death that Jesus would die on the cross would deliver
the disciples and all future believers from sin and death.

And it is all because of the death and resurrection of
Jesus. And that was in the past.

The future that we have to look forward to is that Jesus is
coming back. The Bible promises us that He is coming.

It tells us that He will come like a thief in the night.

You can read the book of Revelation and find out more
details on how Jesus will return and rule the earth for
1000 years.

It gives me enough comfort for right now to know that I
know the Lord and have a relationship with Him.

And when someone asks me about the hope that is within
me, that Peter talks about, I am ready to tell them about
Jesus.

So, these are the three lessons we can learn from the
Lord’s Supper as described by Matthew.
I want to take just a moment to offer an invitation to
anyone who may not know Jesus. Maybe you know
about Him, but have never asked Him to forgive you of
your sins. If that is you would you respond this morning.
I will be here at the altar. All you need to do is come
forward and let me know that you want to ask Jesus to
forgive you. The Bible tells us that He is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins if we just ask Him.

Invitation

We are going to share together this morning the Lord’s
Supper as a body of believers.
Before we do that I want to give you just a few
instructions.

The Lord’s Supper is a serious matter. It is one of the
two things in the Bible that we call ordinances. It is not
to be taken lightly or flippantly. Paul, when He wrote to
the church at Corinth told the church that they needed to
change their attitudes towards Lord’s Supper. They were
not observing the true spirit of the ordinance.

He also told them that they should examine themselves
before they came to the table to take Lord’s Suppers.
So, let’s take a few minutes to examine our hearts and
prepare to take the Lord’s Supper together.

Lord’s Supper