Lord’s Supper

Let’s stand together and read aloud the first nine verses from Isaiah 25. We’ll be reading from the ESV version, so you can either use your Bible if you have that version or there are some extra Bibles in the chair backs. The verses will also be up on the screen as well:

1 O Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

2 For you have made the city a heap,

the fortified city a ruin;

the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;

cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor,

a stronghold to the needy in his distress,

a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;

for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

5 like heat in a dry place.

You subdue the noise of the foreigners;

as heat by the shade of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is put down.

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

7 And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken.

9 It will be said on that day,

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

This is the Lord; we have waited for him;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Prayer – Dana

This morning we’ll be celebrating the Lord’s Supper together as a church family. One of the things that I love about the Lord’s Supper is that it has so many different aspects to it. So that is why each time we observe this ordinance together, we try to focus on a different facet of this celebration.

Certainly, the Lord’s Supper is a time to look back and to give thanks – not unlike our Thanksgiving Day which we observed a week ago Thursday. It may very well be that our traditional Thanksgiving holiday can trace its roots back to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, not surprising given the connection between feasting and giving thanks throughout the Bible. Even the Passover meal, which Jesus used as the basis for establishing the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, was a time to look back and to give thanks for how God has brought His people out of bondage in Egypt.

So as you take the bread and cup in a few moments, it would certainly be appropriate to give thanks to God as you remember the price Jesus paid on the cross to cover our sins and make it possible for us to have a relationship with God.

But this morning, I’d like for us to focus on the future aspects of the Lord’s Supper as pictured by Isaiah here in chapter 25. There is little doubt that Jesus had this passage in mind as He instituted the Lord’s Supper with His disciples:

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and 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. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Matthew 26:26-28 (ESV)

In particular, I want you to focus on the last statement of Jesus when He claimed that He would not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day that He would drink it with His followers in His Father’s kingdom. That is the scene pictured by Isaiah, particularly in verses 6-9. And, as we have seen previously, this is also the same scene pictured by John in Revelation 19 as he describes the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

One of the reasons that we observe the Lord’s Supper together is in anticipation of this great feast in the future when the small piece of bread and cup that we take now with be replaced with an abundant feast where Jesus will join us face-to-face and share the fruit of the vine once again with His followers.