“This Do In Remembrance of Me”
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
OPENING: - Something my wife and I enjoy doing is having an elegant dinner experience like the Chef’s Table on the cruise ship or the exclusive private Chef’s Dinner experience. This is different than just a nice restaurant dinner because it is here where it is usually no more than 12 people and they serve you a 5 or 7 course meal and the experience of the evening is something you will remember just as much as the food. First, they take you on an exclusive behind the scenes tour of everything from the kitchen to the wine cellar and depending on where you are at the vineyard, winepress, and winery. Then you sit down in this very elegant room at a very elegant table with Louis Vuitton Gold Trimmed Platting, Platinum Silverware, Satin Napkins, and Waterford Crystal Glasses. The Chef then explains each course has it arrives and is placed in front of you. Every dish that is placed in front of you excites every aspect of your 5 senses sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. You are served delegacies from Mango Spheres, Lobster Foam, Scallop Carpaccio, Caviar, Wagyu or Kobe Beef, and different wonderful taste from around the world and then you finish it off with some of the most famous desserts with names you most likely can’t pronounce.
It is truly a wonderful and memorable experience that you will never forget, and I will encourage anyone and everyone to experience it if you can; however today I want to talk about another dinner experience and invite you to taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus said as oft as you do this in remembrance of me that you show forth His death until He comes again.
This Do In Remembrance of Me.
PRAYER
SCRIPTURE: - Luke 22:19-20 “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you”.
Now if I may use a football analogy let me start on the 1-yard line of the opposite side of the field and work this message down the field. The events in the Old Testament have a dual purpose of fulfilling God’s promises at that particular point in time as well as providing a view of what is to come. In our text we understand Jesus fulfills the meaning of Passover, we have been taught that this is the Last Supper and on the night that He was betrayed he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you, but I want to deal today how the so-called Last Supper and the First Supper or Invitation to Supper connect then come down through scripture bringing it all together and ending up at truly the last supper the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and the meaning and significance of This Do in Remembrance of Me.
God Has Always Invited Us to Dinner. Understand that sharing a meal is a primary way to build relationships with God and others, Jesus taught that we should welcome everyone to the table, including the poor and outcasts. In Luke 14, Jesus challenged a Pharisees to invite the poor and outcasts to their dinner, meals can be a way to witness and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to build relationships.
In the book of Genesis, God invites mankind to a meal. WATCH THIS: - Genesis 1:26-29 says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat”. In Hebrew the word “meat” is “Basar” literally means food of any kind or meal. Man is created in the image and likeness of God and is placed in the Garden of Eden and every tree was for eating. Genesis 2:9 says, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. We see here that the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are in the garden, and they are good for food. In verse 16 God gave this commandment “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat”. The eating of the tree was an invitation to a meal and the opportunity for mankind to eat and build an eternal relationship receiving God’s Eternal Life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was also good for food, but it offered death not eternal life. Although invited to eat freely in the life and trust and wisdom of God by eating of the meal He freely offered they chose to forfeit access to that meal and chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result Genesis 3:22-24 says, “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life”. So, God sends mankind out of the garden to keep them from getting to the tree of life, but He still wants to invite them to dinner WHY - because dinner establishes relationship and God desires to have relationship with His creation for, He loves us John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”.
So, He establishes Feast for mankind to follow throughout the year that would create habits and practices and structures in a person’s life leading them back into a relationship with Him. In Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 we are told about these Feast of the Lord in detail. Now there are a total of Seven Feast, 7 being the number of perfection and completion there’s Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Shavuot/Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of Tabernacles, Day of Atonement.
These Feast first serve as a way to regularly praise, repent, remember, and give thanks for what God has done. Second God intended for these feasts to remind people of the covenant He established with them, more than just a mental remembrance but the feast would engage all 5 aspects of the human senses taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell causing people remember and stay faithful to the promises of God. But as we know the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak and people are unfaithful continually choosing to eat of the wrong trees that lead to punishment and death.
Nevertheless, God still desired to have a relationship with His creation and He spoke through the prophets about a time when He would restore the broken covenant that man broke time and time again in Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah”.
About 616 years later we get to the time of our text now Jesus had been teaching for over 3 years at this time He continued the theme of inviting people to a meal as God did in the beginning in the Garden of Eden when He says in John 6:48-61 “ I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink (remember the Hebrew word for meat is Basar = food the Hebrew word for drink means Water or to water) indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you”. This was an invitation to dinner but they were missing it.
Then in John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing”. Jesus is here showing that He is the tree of life that was offered in the Garden of Eden in the beginning to Adam and Eve and if you abide in Him and He in you and me we will bring forth much fruit for in Him is eternal life – that was His message an invitation to dinner.
Now we are at the Last Supper Jesus knows He is about to be betrayed by one of His closes followers for He said in Luke 22:21 “But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table” yet he is still invited to dinner given the opportunity to make the ultimate choice. And look what He does verse 19 “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me”. He took bread, food, gave thanks, break it and gave unto them and said this is my body which is given for you this do in REMEMBERANCE of me.
This remembrance is not just a mental thought, it is not just a glimpse of something that happened in the past, it is not just a moment in time that makes you say Oh I remember that it’s not a memory that will pop up on your phone and say 3 years ago and show you a picture of when you were on vacation and put a warm fuzzy feeling down on the inside. This IN REMEMBERANCE OF ME is that which affects every aspect of our senses, our sight I once was blind but now I see, our taste because I tasted, and found out He is like honey in the rock, our touch I can feel Him in my hands I can feel Him feet I can feel Him all over me, our hearing up above my head I hear music in the air, our smell 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things” – this is the fragrance of Christ to a life-giving aroma that leads to abundant life.
Vs#20 “Likewise also the cup after supper, WATCH THIS: - after supper remember dinner establishes relationship after supper, after relationship was established, He knew He was going to be betrayed yet He wanted and offered relationship saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you”. The New Testament (COVENANT) fulfills Jeremiah 31:31“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah”.
WATCH THIS: - Now the Bible says in Matthew 4:4 “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”. He is saying to the disciples, to you and to me this bread is my word if we will feed on His Word, if we will eat His word, He will be in us giving us life for He is eternal life. UNDERSTAND: - No one drinks blood it is forbidden to drink blood, but blood is the life source of every living creature. Remember the Hebrew word for drink means water or to water, if you water your life with my word, follow my example, live your life like I live mine, abide in me in my word and I in you and I will be in you, I will be with you till the end of the world.
If we do this in remembrance of Him there is an Elegant Dinner that we will be invited to. Isaiah 25:6 says, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined”. I like how the Message Bible says it - “But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will throw a feast for all the people of the world, A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts”.
This Dinner/Feast is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Revelation 19:7-10 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”.
The Revelation is of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb Jesus Christ and His bride the Church. The wedding feast / marriage supper is based upon 3 parts. 1) The bridegroom had to pay the parents of the bride a dowry which began the betrothal or engagement. When Jesus died on Calvary’s cross, He paid the price for our souls becoming our propitiation satisfying the penalty of sin betrothing or engaging us to Him. 2) The second phase of the marriage process happened much later the bridegroom went to the bride’s house with his friends usually at night and comes and takes his bride from her father’s house and brings her to his father’s house where he had prepared a place for them to live. This is where we are at currently – we are waiting for the Rapture when the bridegroom comes for us His bride and takes us to His Father’s house where He has prepared a place for us John 14:3. 3) The third phase is the marriage feast prophesied about in Isaiah 25, that was mentioned in John 2 the wedding at Cana the first recorded miracle of Jesus where He turned water into wine.
SUMMARY: - This do in Remembrance of Me is more than a mental snapshot of something that happed in the past. It is more than a sentimental emotion that places a smile on your face or causes you to perform a ritual out of tradition, but true remembrance affects every aspect of our senses our touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing. Our sight I once was blind but now I see, our taste because I tasted, and found out He is like honey in the rock, our touch I can feel Him in my hands I can feel Him feet I can feel Him all over me, our hearing up above my head I hear music in the air, our smell – this is the fragrance of Christ to a life-giving aroma that leads to abundant life.
Just as an elegant dinner affects every aspect of our sense God has invited us to an elegant Heavenly Dinner and He has told us all through the Bible just how wonderful this dinner is explaining every course in detail as it is laid out in front of us. He desires to have a relationship with us. The table is set at the feast of the Lord, and you are invited to dinner will you remember what He has done for you and accept His dinner invitation.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
