“Genesis 1” video
So Will I [D]
Welcome and Announcements
Instructions for the Lord’s Supper:
1. All who have placed your faith in Jesus are welcome to participate since you are a member of “the church” even if you are not a member of this local church.
2. If you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, please do not take the bread and the cup. The Bible contains some very serious warnings to those who do that. We encourage you to participate in the Scripture readings and in singing and pray that will be a testimony about what Jesus has done for you and encourage you to put your faith in Him.
I am indebted to Robby Gallaty, the author of The Forgotten Jesus: How Western Christians Should Follow an Easter Rabbi for much of what I am going to share with you this morning. I still haven’t finished reading that book but I can highly recommend it as a great resource in helping to understand the life and ministry of Jesus in light of his Jewish background and upbringing.
John takes a different approach to recording the events of the Passover meal Jesus ate with His disciples the night before His crucifixion than the other gospel writers. Instead of focusing on the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine like Matthew, Mark and Luke, John gives us the account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in the first part of John 13. Then in the last part of that chapter and continuing through the end of chapter 14, John records some of the conversation that took place during that meal, which is the basis for the observance we will be taking part in this morning which we usually call the Lord’s Supper or Communion.
We have talked from time to time about the Jewish marriage process as it existed at the time of Jesus, which is quite different than how most marriages work in today’s culture. But it won’t hurt us to review that process again, since it is so different than the process we are familiar with.
The parents of a young man would initiate the process of finding a suitable wife for their son when he was around 17 years old. The prospective bride would usually be between 13 and 15 years old. It was then up to the two fathers to make the arrangement for the marriage. Once a suitable wife was chosen, the two fathers and the prospective bride and groom would meet to negotiate a bride price, which reflected the value of the young woman to the household she was about to leave. Unlike today, where the family of the bride usually incurs the often-substantial cost of the wedding, the father of the bride actually received something of value, maybe something like 3 goats, 5 sheep, on ox, and a player to be named later.
After agreeing on the bride price, the two families would share a meal at which they would confirm the marriage agreement and the bride price with a cup of wine. The groom would drink from the cup first and then offer it to his bride to be, symbolically proclaiming that he was willing to give his life for her. The young woman would seal the betrothal by drinking from the same cup.
Once that dinner was over the bride and groom were considered to be legally joined and the betrothal could only be broken by a formal divorce. However, the marriage was not consummated at that time. Instead, the bridegroom left to prepare a home for he and his wife. But unlike today, he did not go out and find his own piece of land and begin to build his house or go out and lease an apartment. Instead, the groom would almost always build their new home as an addition to his father’s existing house. So over several generations those homes would grow to be quite large as each son got married. Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad practice today, although I must admit I do often enjoy the quiet of an empty nest.
The groom’s father would supervise the construction of the addition. It was not until the father determined that the house was ready that the marriage could take place. In the meantime, the bride would be waiting expectantly in her family’s home for the arrival of the bridegroom, knowing that her husband was preparing a place for them in his father’s house.
Once the new house was approved by the father of the groom, he would announce to his son that it was time to go get his bride. The bridegroom would gather his family and friends and the entire party would travel with him to get his bride. When the knock on the door finally came, she knew that her groom had kept his promise to come back and get her.
With that background in mind, go ahead and turn to John 14 and follow along as I read:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
(John 14:1–3 ESV)
In his book, Gallaty describes what the disciples would have heard as Jesus spoke those words:
I love each of you so much that I’m going to give up my life as the bride price for your freedom. I’m leaving to prepare a place for you, but I will return one day to get you so you can be with me forever. I don’t know the time or the season, Only my father knows that. Don’t be caught off guard. I will return when you least expect it, so be ready.
And then in keeping with the symbolism of the custom, Jesus reached for the cup of wine and said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20 ESV)
As each of the disciples drank the cup, they knew what it meant – Jesus had negotiated the bride price for them. The price was his body and the covenant was sealed with his blood. So every time that they observed the Lord’s Supper from that point on, the same picture would have flashed through their mind: Jesus paid for me with His body and sealed His promise with His blood.
Paul picks up on this same idea:
… You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV)
Paul also understood the nature of Jesus’ promise in John 14. He is gone, but not forever. He has not forgotten about us. He is preparing a place in His Father’s house and when the Father determines that the time is right, He will return to retrieve His bride. So when he gives instruction to the church in Corinth regarding the observance of the Lord’s Supper, Paul reminds them they are to continue to do that until Jesus returns for His bride:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
(1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV)
As the bride, it is our duty to wait expectantly, knowing that the bridegroom can return at any time. And one of the reasons that Jesus instructed us to observe the Lord’s Supper until He does return is to help us to remember not only His death and His resurrection, but His future return.
So as we take the bread and drink the cup this morning, we want to remember that Jesus paid the bride price to redeem us from sin and judgment by willingly offering up His body on the cross. And we want to remember that the shedding of His blood is His guarantee that He has gone to prepare a place for us and that He will return to take us there one day.
Passing of the Bread
Amazing Grace (#299) [G]
Congregational Scripture Reading:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
(Titus 2:11–14 ESV)
Eating of the Bread
Passing of the Cup
O The Blood [G]
Congregational Scripture Reading
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
(Hebrews 9:24–28 ESV)
Drinking of the Cup
Offering
Even So Come [G]
