His Name Is Jesus – Part 2
March 10, 2002
Big Idea: An authentic biblical community celebrates Christ’s covenant.
INTRODUCTION
A. There is a restaurant in Oak Brook that Kim and I would rank as our favorite place to go out for a nice evening.
It is all the more special to us because we have only been there a few times. The food is just a little bit better, the service just a bit more attentive, and the atmosphere is just a little bit different. All these things, combined with the memories we have established there, add up to a highly anticipated dining experience when we walk through their doors.
First a friendly hostess greets us. She asks how many people are in our party. “Two, for non-smoking,” we tell her. Because they don’t take reservations, people generally have to wait before being seated. But no one in the crowd seems to mind all that much. They must know what’s in store for them if they are patient.
The hostess gives Kim and I a square device, and tells us it will light up when they are prepared to seat us. So we wait while our stomachs rumble and our mouths water as observe fragrant entrees being carried from the kitchen. Finally our little pager erupts with a display of flashing red lights.
We return it to the hostess who says, “Rogers, party of two? Your table is ready. Right this way.”
B. On Thursday of the final week of Jesus’ life, he and His disciples would share a special meal together. This meal was special because it celebrated the Jewish feast known as Passover.
Jesus arrived in the city of Jerusalem just 4 days prior. And as we learned last Sunday from Luke 20, his second day in town was immediately filled with controversy. On that Monday the Jewish religious leaders tried everything they could to trap Jesus with trick questions. But Jesus masterfully pointed them to His God-given authority. And over the next two days their hatred for Jesus grew.
So the events surrounding this special Thursday night meal, would cast a long shadow on the celebration. Here is how the stage is set in Luke 22:
Read Luke 22: 1-13
1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
9“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
10He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
C. Jesus sent Peter and John sometime Thursday morning or afternoon to prepare for the Passover meal.
Many believe Jesus didn’t specify the location for the meal in advance so that Judas couldn’t inform Jesus’ enemies where he might be. Jesus wanted this last meal with His disciples to be a significant memory maker and free from interruptions.
Back in that culture, women were usually the ones to carry water jars, so the site of man doing this kind of work would be out of the ordinary.
The owner of a particular house showed them a large upstairs room, fully furnished. Peter and John would have then had to buy and prepare the items for the meal - the Passover lamb as well as the unleavened bread, herbs, and wine.
When they returned they could have rightly said, “Jesus of Nazareth, party of 13? Sir, your table is ready. Right this way.”
D. Jesus sent Peter and John to make preparations for the Passover meal. But God had been preparing the table itself for centuries.
TRANSITION: The secret to the table lies within the nature of something called a “covenant.” Covenant is a major theme throughout the pages of the Bible. Covenant drives the story of God’s efforts to save people throughout all history. Covenant is a word for an agreement or treaty of sorts. In the Bible, covenants are written by God and offered to people.
I. The Passover meal was symbolic of the Old Covenant
1400 years before the birth of Jesus, the nation of Israel was in bondage to the mighty empire of Egypt. God raised up a man named Moses to lead his people to freedom. But Pharaoh would not budge. Each time Moses said, “Let my people go,” God hardened Pharaoh’s heart a little more.
God turned the Nile River to blood, but Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go.
God sent a plague of frogs, but Pharaoh would not let them go.
God sent gnats and flies – Pharaoh still said no.
God sent a plague on the Egyptian livestock.
God sent boils,
hail,
locusts
and darkness.
But Pharaoh’s heart grew harder. He would not let the people go.
Finally God said He would send the most frightening plague of all. At midnight the firstborn son in every home would die. Never before and never again would there be wailing and mourning the likes of what would be heard that night.
And God gave the Israelites and instruction. Each household is to take an unblemished male lamb and slaughter it at twilight.
He said, “You are to roast the lamb over the fire with bitter herbs and prepare some bread without yeast. Eat it quickly while wearing your traveling clothes. Be ready to leave.”
“Furthermore you are to take some of the lamb’s blood and paint it on the doorframes of your houses. On the top and on the sides. Stay inside your house until morning. That way when the death angel goes throughout the land at midnight, he will see the blood on your doorframes and pass over your home. You will be saved by the blood of the lamb.”
God led Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. He destroyed the Egyptian army behind them. Then in the desert God told Moses to go to the top of Mt. Sinai. There God gave Moses the Law and offered his covenant to the nation of Israel.
In Exodus 19:5 God tells Moses to say these words to the Israelites on His behalf – "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession."
God gave his promise to be Israel’s guardian and protector. And the condition he placed on his people was to obey Him fully. Yet no one could keep God’s Law’s perfectly. That is why…
A prominent feature of the Old Covenant was sacrifice after sacrifice
To seek forgiveness of a sin required an animal sacrifice. When sin occurred, as well as at specified times every year, sacrifices had to be offered.
Can you imagine being a little child and watching your father go out to the sheep pen on a number of occasions to pick out the best among the flock and kill it on an altar?
The point should have been painfully made over time. The Israelites would have known, “Whenever we sin, someone has to die.” Sin must be serious business to God.
In 1 Kings 8 we can read about the dedication of the Temple. King Solomon offered a sacrifice to God. 22,000 cattle. 120,000 sheep and goats. That’s 142,000 animals slaughtered on one altar all in one day!
Can you imagine the river of blood that must have poured out from that place! Can you picture the awful spectacle of animal after animal being ripped open by a knife? Can you hear the screams of fear and pain coming from the mouths of all these cattle, all these sheep, all these goats?
Verse 7 of Luke 22 makes it clear that animals were still being sacrifice in Jesus’ day. 1400 years of sacrifice after sacrifice. Animal after animal. Sin after sin.
Hebrews 10 tells us:
"The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their sins year after year." (v. 1-4, NLT)
The Old Testament sacrificial meals continually pointed to the fact that sins were not yet paid for, because the sacrifices in them had to be repeated over and over again. The Jews looked forward to the Messiah who was to come and take away sin.
In the Messiah the Jews were looking for a new Moses. But instead God would give them a new lamb.
TRANSITION: And the lamb’s name is Jesus.
Read v. 14-20
14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The Passover meal was symbolic of the Old Covenant.
II. This meal is symbolic of a New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31 says “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.”
God’s people repeatedly broke that Old Covenant. So God did something He did not have to do. He could have called it quits, and said, “Fine, if that’s how you want to be, then don’t expect any favors from me!”
But He didn’t do that. Even though people couldn’t and sometimes wouldn’t keep the Old Covenant, in His grace, God offered a New Covenant. One that would be different.
The Old Covenant was marked by sacrifice after sacrifice.
But a prominent feature of the new covenant would be one sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:28 says:
So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.
And chapter 10 goes on to say:
(God) cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. (v. 9-10, NLT)
As you can see, God had been preparing this table in Luke 22 for a long, long time.
I want to show you three things the table of Jesus does for us. First…
A. It affirms His love
Normally at a Jewish Passover meal, a person is designated to ask this question to start the meal: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” And the presider answers by explaining the significance of the Jews eating the Passover meal in Egypt years ago.
A little later the presider holds up the loaf of unleavened bread and explains, “This is the bread of affliction which your fathers ate in the Wilderness.”
I’m sure when Jesus held up the loaf in front of his disciples during their Passover meal, they expected to hear those words. “This is the bread of affliction.” But that’s not what Jesus said. Instead Jesus said:
This is my body given for you. (Luke 22:19)
Imagine the curious looks on the faces of the disciples.
A little later in the meal one of the four cups of wine is shared. Instead of explaining its usual significance, Jesus said:
This cup is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:20)
Whenever we come to the table of Jesus we are reminded of his death. Jesus’ choice of words for “Body and blood” are words that describe a violent kind of death. A death he willingly died because he loves us.
The Passover was a reminder of the blood that saved the Jews from the Death Angel. This table is a reminder of the Lamb of God who shed His blood on the cross to save us from death and judgment on our sins.
Because of His love He invites me to come.
In Matthew Jesus is recorded as saying, “Take and eat.” And “Drink from it, all of you.” (26:26-27)
1 Corinthians 11:26 says – "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes."
The loaf of bread represents his broken body.
The cup represents his spilled blood.
Priscilla Larson writes, “My brother-in-law, who is a minister, responded to a Red Cross appeal for blood donations. When he didn’t come home by the time his young son expected him, the boy asked his mother, ‘Is Dad going around visiting all the sick people?’ His mother replied, ‘He’s giving blood.’ To which the boy said, ‘But we know it’s really grape juice, don’t we, Mom?’” (Humor for Preaching and Teaching, p. 41.)
Yes the loaf and the cup are symbols, but we must never forget that they are powerful symbols of love.
So when we receive the loaf and the cup, we affirm, like the old, old hymn says, “Amazing love! How can it be, that thou, My God should’st die for me?”
A second thing this table of Jesus does:
B. It affirms my faith
Throughout history, the Jews became fond remembering what God had done for them by saying, “This the Eternal did for me when I went out of Egypt.”
These people had not literally been brought out of Egypt because they lived hundreds and hundreds of years after the time of Moses. Yet they so closely identified with that deliverance that they could say, “This the Eternal did for ME when I went out of Egypt.”
Something similar is affirmed when you and I come to the table of Jesus. We affirm our faith. In essence we say, “Jesus I need you and trust you. Jesus, my sins were the cause of your death.”
Jesus says:
Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19)
And we respond by taking the loaf and the cup affirming our faith, “This my Jesus did for me when He died on the cross in my place.”
Names of this meal have significance for our faith:
Lord’s Supper – reminds us of the Upper Room
Breaking of Bread – calls to mind the disciples of Acts 2 sharing these symbols in their homes
Holy Communion – tells of the participation we have in Christ’s body, and how the church who takes communion is to be one body too
Eucharist – comes from the Greek word eucharisto, which means “to give thanks.” It reminds us that Jesus first gave thanks then broke the bread.
Each of these terms affirms our faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. Actions that save us from our sins. Because they were done on our behalf.
A third thing the table of Jesus does:
C. It affirms our salvation
In the Upper Room that Thursday night, Jesus told his disciples:
I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes. (Luke 22:18)
Through the loaf and the cup, Jesus points us to the future. He directs our thoughts to the time when everything will be brought to fulfillment. He asks us to think about when He will return to take us home.
Throughout the Bible God uses the image of a wedding to express the intimate relationship between Him and His people. In Jeremiah 31 God says, “they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.”
In the book of Revelation when all is brought to fulfillment a wedding finally takes place. A wedding between God and His people.
Revelation 19:9 says – Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!
When Jesus says he won’t drink the fruit of the vine again until the Kingdom comes, He is referring to that day when he celebrates the wedding supper with us in heaven.
A.T. Pierson wrote: “The link between the cross and the crown is the Table of the Lord. Do not forget, when you sit down at the Communion, that the bread and the cup point back to Christ’s accomplished work, and forward to your accomplished salvation.” (A.T. Pierson, quote found in Stories, Illustrations and Quotes, Robert J. Morgan, ed.)
This table of Jesus affirms our salvation.
TRANSITION: The table of Jesus is about a covenant. A covenant of grace. A covenant where God promises to save us, provide for us and never leave us if we come to Him in faith. It is a covenant of grace.
CONCLUSION
ILLUS – A few years ago Kim and I went down to Mt. Vernon, IL to attend the wedding of Clarendon Hills’ very own Jason and Alicia Derry.
Jason and Alicia chose to share communion with each other in their wedding ceremony as a display of their oneness in Christ as husband and wife.
When they raised the cup to drink from it, a little girl no more than 7 years old sitting in front of us whispered to her mother, “Is that good for them?”
Her wise mother simply replied, “Yes it is. Shhh!”
That is precisely the point behind God’s covenant. It’s good for us. The loaf and the cup affirm Jesus’ love, my faith and our salvation. Yes, it’s good for us!
We’ve been talking a lot about community so far this year and how to be a church where no one stands alone.
And today we learn:
An authentic biblical community celebrates Christ’s covenant.
Because it’s good for us. It draws us close to each other and close to Jesus himself.
Andrew W. Blackwood says, “The Lord’s Supper should be the crowning service in the church, and thus be earth’s nearest approach to heaven.” (Andrew W. Blackwood, The Fine Art of Public Worship, p. 204)
After centuries in the making, God has fully made all the preparations. Your table is ready. Won’t you come?
The servers will now distribute the loaf and the cup. Please hold onto your piece of bread and your cup so we can take communion together.
*******************
I attended a military funeral this past week for Vernon “Slim” Paaren.
The key symbol was the American flag. As it was being folded by the service people, one of the Veterans who had fired the three shot gun salute began to speak. He said the flag is a symbol of our freedom.
He said, "The red stripes represent the blood of those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms.
The white stripes signify the purity and innocence of freedom itself.
The Blue field with white stars representsbthe great wide sky that stretches across our land, reminding us that we are truly one Nation under God."
Reminders are helpful.
This is Christ’s body. It represents the torture he went through when he hung on the cross. He incurred a punishment that was rightfully ours. This my redeemer did for me when He died on the cross.
Prayer for the bread
And he said, “This is my body given for you. Take and eat. Do this in remembrance of me.”
This is Christ’s blood. It represents the stream of blood that poured out around the cross. Grace from God at the expense of the cruel and painful death of the spotless Lamb of God. Can you imagine the scene? Can picture the blood? Can you hear his cry of agony, “It is finished! Father into your hands I commit my Spirit?” This my Jesus did for me when He died on the cross.
Prayer for the cup
And He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. Take and drink. Do this in remembrance of me.”
