"This Do In Remembrance Of Me”

“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”.