The Grace of God - The Lord's Supper

I want to read the passage from a passage this morning in Matthew chapter 26, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. Matthew chapter 26, and I'll begin reading at verse 26 of that chapter, read through verse 29. We come today to celebrate what we as Baptists call the Lord's Supper. Almost every Christian group celebrates this event in the life of Jesus, but not all of them celebrate it in the same way. And even though everyone celebrates it, to many of the groups there's different meanings that they give to this event. One group believes that whenever you take the bread and you pray before it's distributed and the drink before it's distributed, that it literally and actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus. Now, if you tested the bread, it would test like bread, but the real essence or the inside of it or the part that you can't see becomes the body and blood of Jesus. And they believe that the grace of God, the saving grace of God, is communicated to human beings through the things that you see, through your senses, what you touch and what you can hear and what you can see and what you can smell are the means whereby the grace of God comes to us. And they believe it comes through the church and through the things that you do on the outside, not necessarily on the inside. This is not what Baptists believe, but it's what many, many believers, many Christians do believe. There's another group that says that the Lord's Supper doesn't really, when you pray, it doesn't really change the bread into the body of Christ, but instead that Christ is with it, so that when you pray and when you take it, Christ is around the bread, under the bread, near the bread. When you drink it, Christ is around the juice or the wine, and when you take it inside of yourself that Christ is actually really there, and they call that communion because Christ is with you. There's another large group that believes that the Lord's Supper really, or they call communion, is not necessarily that the body of Christ is there or in the bread or in the drink, but that spiritually, when you pray and when you take the bread, Christ is spiritually with you, and when you take the drink, he is spiritually with you. This also, this group calls this a time of communion. Baptists call it the Lord's Supper because we don't think that necessarily it means that Christ is with you in any special way or that it is a means whereby the grace of God comes to you. A verse that's very popular in almost every Baptist church I've ever been in is, by grace you are saved through faith. This is the means whereby grace enters our life. By grace are you saved through faith. Now you see what's common about everybody who celebrates this event is that every person, no matter what group it is, no matter what they think it does, believes this, that without faith, this event means absolutely nothing. Even in groups that say if you pray and it becomes literally the body and blood of Christ, they will say to you that if you are the recipient sitting in that group and it comes to you and you have no faith or trust in God, nothing happens to you. It negates any power that might come to that bread or that drink. So you see one thing that everybody agrees on about this meal is that the essential quality is the faith of the people who participate in it. For it's by faith that grace does come into our lives. Whatever a person thinks about this event, the key ingredient resides in the people who take it. Now in the story that I want to read this morning, Jesus has gathered around him a group of people, 11 of his followers. These people are dedicated to him. You know in their lives that Jesus interrupted their lives. They were living normal lives doing all kinds of different things with their career but all of a sudden one day Jesus came by and said, I want you to come and follow me. And they left their businesses, they left their families, they left everything to follow him. They listened to his instructions and the more they listened to his instructions they believed that he alone had the very words of life from God. They tried to appropriate in their life the things that he taught them. They tried to make those the rules by which they lived by. They were faithful to that. This wasn't something that they simply believed that Jesus was the Messiah in terms of saying I believe that it's true. It's sort of like a person who knows a general in the army. And as you know this person you might say, well I know this general is a man of great authority. And I know that the soldiers who are in the army believe that he is in charge and when he gives a command they have to do it. But you're not in the army. So you believe the person's a general but if he were to come up to you one day and say salute me you'd say, well that's stupid I'm not even in the army, no reason for me to do that. You see both you and the military man serving under him would believe that he's a general. But one of you would believe he's the commander and he's the master and the other one would just believe that that's his job. There's a lot of people believe about Jesus. He's the son of God. He came and lived in the world. He did wonderful things and all the things he says are good and true but they do not accept his authority as the master of their lives. That's what faith means in the Bible. It means not to believe something is true even though that's a key ingredient in it. It means to surrender your life to the authority of the person who's instructing us. Gathered around Jesus at this table were people who had one distinction, all kinds of careers, all kinds of backgrounds but one distinction. They had all encountered Jesus Christ. They'd all come to recognize this man is the master and Lord of the universe. They'd all come to believe this man has the words of life and they'd all said to him we will follow you. In fact, just before this, just after this takes place, the disciples are going to say to Jesus, we will never leave you even though everyone in the world will. We will not. We will stand beside you even if it costs our lives. Now that's what faith really means. A commitment to God. A commitment to God to serve him regardless of the difficulty or the trial or the consequences. A commitment to say, God, I give you everything. Now we have a clue from the event that's taking place here about who ought to take part in the Lord's Supper. It's not that you need to be a member of this church. It's not that you need to be passing a test as to whether or not you can from us but there is one test. Do you know in your life if you've come to a place, may not be a specific event that you know about, but you know that you've come to a place in your life where you have acknowledged to God, you are the master of my life. I have a promise inside of me to live in obedience to you. That's what the Bible calls a covenant. When one person says to another, here's a promise I make to you, and Jesus in the Bible, all the way through, in Jesus too says, I commit myself to you. I will guide you. I'll show you what to do and how to make your choices. I will provide every need that you have. I will protect you from the things that destroy and crush you. And I will give your life value, significance, and meaning. That promise was made to Abraham and every one of the succeeding followers of God who placed their faith and trust in him. God made that promise back to them. All God asked of his people was, I ask you to tell me, I will do what you tell me to do. And beginning with Abraham, to Mount Sinai, to Jesus, to us, that's his requirement. And if you can say to the Lord today, I've given my life to you, whatever you ask of me I will do, then you've gathered around his table just as the disciples did. What were they trying to do? I don't think they were trying to get salvation. I think they already had that. I don't think they were trying to get a special blessing in addition to salvation. What they were doing was something that we can't replicate at all. We have a great advantage over them. They were taking this meal that day and they had no idea what it really meant. You and I do. While they were eating, Jesus took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to the disciples saying, take and eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and offered it to them saying, drink from it, all of you. 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 of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. They didn't know what was going to happen in just a few hours. They didn't know the agony Jesus was going to go through. They didn't realize what was going to happen when he was killed, when he was buried in the tomb. Even though he talked this way with them, they didn't see this whole picture. You and I around this table see the whole story. Well maybe not the whole story, for we don't yet know what it's like to sit with him around the table in heaven. But we do know what this event meant in Jesus' life. What Jesus was talking about as he was talking to his followers, he took a loaf of bread and he took it and he broke it in small pieces and passed it around to them. Now the English translations say, this is my body which is given for you. But in the language Jesus was speaking, there was no connecting verb. He would really have said in his Aramaic or Hebrew language, this, my body. I don't think that it represents the fact that Jesus' body turned into this bread or the bread turned into his body. But I think he was talking to us in the same way he said when he said, I am the door. He was telling us that there is some way by which this represents to us the body of Jesus. Now what was Jesus talking about? Well they knew something about what he was saying because the body of Jesus given to them was given to them in a small part of his life that they knew. What Jesus was talking about was, I have come from heaven down to this earth to live in a human body, which I didn't live in before. I've done this because you have such great need for me that I've come to give my body for you. And so Jesus came. He was born as a human being like we are. But he had a different mission than all of us have. Understand that we don't have a mission, but he had one unique for himself. His mission was to give his life for the sins of people. He began to see this in the scriptures when he was 12 years old. He realized, I have something different in my life. All the kids were playing. He was down at the church talking to the preachers and asking questions. Unusual guy for 12 years old. He told his parents, I had to do this because I had to be about my father's business. He recognized some connection with the father that was unique to him. We don't know exactly how he thought about this, but just these words that we have. But even though Jesus recognized this, he recognized that he had some great mission. He was to stay on earth without ever telling anybody about this from 12 years of age to 30, 18 years. The father may have been unfolding his purpose for him, but Jesus' family never caught on to this. Jesus' friends never caught on to it. No one knew. If you had a great mission to do and you knew that you had it to do, but you had to wait 18 years, some of us have trouble waiting a day. When we know something needs to be done, we want to get in there and get it done today. Jesus' self-control, how he held himself in and faithfully was a construction worker from the time he was old enough to work until he was 30. He gave his life in obedience by waiting. That was only the beginning. When the father said, now is the time, he came and he was baptized and started his ministry. He had great success for a little while, but it wasn't very long before people began to be angry with Jesus. Even John the Baptist said, this guy is not anything like I expected him to be. Jesus' disciples said, you ask him, is he really the Messiah? Even though he recognized him in the beginning. People began to gather around Jesus, thousands of people, and they were so excited about what Jesus had to say and the food that he paid for them, but when Jesus began to tell them the cost of being his followers, how they had to give up their lives and live in obedience to him, they began to leave him. You know what it's like to become unpopular? Boy, it's hard. What you want to do is change so everybody will like you, but Jesus gave himself to such dedication to the father's will that even though it made him unpopular, he stood and said what he should say. Even his own family thought he'd gone crazy. They all came one day and said, we're going to take you back home and get you straightened out and then you can live a normal life. This stuff is crazy what you're doing. You're the Messiah. They thought he had a complex. What was it like for your whole family to think you'd gone nuts? Jesus thought he was doing the will of the father. That's what he meant by giving his body. Psychologically, Jesus' life was difficult. Even his own disciples kept saying to him, you're not doing this right. And then the leaders of the religious community started planning to kill him. Boy, it's hard to keep going when people don't like what you're doing. I don't know if you've ever discovered that or not. Even if you know you're doing the right things and people keep criticizing you, it's just you want to just throw up your hands and get out. Over and over, people criticized Jesus, ridiculed him, told lies about him, but he never once got angry. He never once turned against them. Because he had one thing in mind, I am here for the father's mission. And when Jesus said, this my body given for you, that's what he meant. I have given my life physically for you. He never married. He never had children. He never owned a house. When he was doing his work, he had to depend on people to contribute to him so he could even do it. He was a homeless pauper when he could have owned the universe. He gave all that, you see. His human life and his human body was given for one purpose, and that was for us. Jesus wanted his disciples then to remember, and what he wants us to remember, is that his life was a tremendous sacrifice on our behalf. So when he says to you, I want you to give your life to me, he might ask you to talk to your friends about him, he might ask you to go to Bible, teach Bible school, he might ask you whatever, he might ask you to give money. We don't know what he's going to ask us always, but when he asks those things, he's saying, because I have given myself for you, I want you to give yourself for me. I'm going to ask those who are going to serve our supper, if you would come please. We're going to pass out the bread that we've separated into small pieces for you. And as it's passed, I want you to take it in your hand and hold it there and remember the words that Jesus said. My body was given for you, and this bread represents the gift of my body to you. Now the covenant we make is the promise we make to God. It's two parts. One is, he says, this is what I'm going to do, and the second part you say, okay God, here's my promise to you. Father, I want to ask you to bless this bread, that it remind us of the promise Jesus made to give himself for us, and the promise that he kept. I want to ask that you would remind us of the promise we have made to you, that we would do whatever you ask of us. Now, if we've made that promise to you, and have not really kept it, we invite you to tell us what we need to admit, and what kind of confession we need to make, and what kind of renewal of the promise we made a long time ago to you. Bless this bread to remind us of the promise you made in your covenant, and of the promise we have made in our promise and covenant with you. Amen. Now what I want you to do as the bread is passed, is take it and hold it in your hand, and I want you to remember two things. One is, I want you to remember the life of Christ, and how sacrificial his life was, and how he gave himself so completely in your behalf. And I want you to think of some event in Jesus' life that is most meaningful to you. And then I want you, as you hold this bread in your hand, to remember the time that you may have said to God, I give my life completely to you. Now maybe you don't remember a particular day that that took place, but if you can remember the fact that I have said to God, I trust you, I believe in you, and I'm going to give you my life, remind yourself of that time. Now when you think of Jesus' life, I want you to remember one event in his life that you think, I don't think I could have done that. And give him praise and thanksgiving for his body given for you. And if there's something he reminds you of that you have promised him that you haven't kept, admit that and say to him, God, I renew the promise I made to you to give my body in service and obedience to you. And then I want you to think of a time in your life in which you have sacrificially given yourself in service to God. You may have been in a Sunday school class or teaching a Bible study class or inviting people to church or witnessing for him. Some way in which your life, you did something for God that was difficult and costly and maybe even painful for you. So you could say to God, my body given for you, just as he says in his covenant, my body given for you. Lord Jesus, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking of times in my own life when I started learning how to be a follower of yours. I would read in the Bible about how you turned the other cheek. I would read in the Bible how that you prayed for your enemies. I read in the Bible how many people disliked you and tried to do bad things to you. Even your family, even the people you grew up with tried to kill you one time. And even though it was difficult and hard, I learned that you were asking me to turn the other cheek, to forgive, not to get angry, not to get resentful or to get even. So I hope, Father, as that you have given your body for me in this small way, I too have given my body for you. This day, we remember the promise you've made to us and we renew the promise we made to you, amen. The scripture says, Then he took the cup and gave thanks and offered it to them saying, Drink from it, all of you. 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 of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. Father, I ask as we dispense this drink, hold it in our hand, you'd remind us of the covenant promise that you've made to us and remind us of the promise we've made to you. This is like a wedding anniversary celebration for us where you renew your vow to us and we renew our vow to you. What happens inside of us is that we suddenly remember how important you are to us, how important we want to be to you. As we renew these vows, remind us of what they mean, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. As this drink is passed to you, I want you to hold it in your hand. In the Bible, blood is a very important part of the covenant promises. In the book of Exodus, when it tells about people of Israel being caught and being on the verge of being destroyed or killed, God told them to take a lamb and kill it and put the blood around the door post. It was a covenant promise. If you will do what I tell you to do, the death angel will pass over you and it was true. Not a single one of them died from that result. As time went on and the temple was built, people would bring an animal in and they would slaughter the animal and take the blood and pour it on the altar every time as a way of giving the life of that animal to God, making sure that God's promise of forgiveness was given to them. And then when Jesus comes to his disciples, he said, I want you to see this event as my blood poured out for you for forgiveness of sins. What Jesus was promising was, no matter how bad your sins are, and Peter was getting ready to deny Jesus three times, no matter how bad your sins are, the blood that I'm shedding on the cross will pay the price for your sins. You won't have to do that if you're my child. If you ask for forgiveness, for my blood will redeem or pay for your sins or buy you back from your sins. The blood of Jesus was the blood that ran down his face when the thorn of crowns were placed on his head. The blood of Jesus was the blood that ran down his back when he was beaten. The blood of Jesus was the blood that ran out of his side when a spear was thrown into his side. The blood of Jesus was the blood of an innocent man given for someone who's guilty. Sin is not a mistake. It's not an accident. It's a conscious choice you make to do something contrary to the will and instructions of God. I want you to think about the worst sin you've ever done, maybe even something you'd go to jail for if people knew. If you have committed your life to Christ and asked him to save you and forgive you of your sins, that sin God has bought back from you. Because of his blood, he can look at you and say, your sin is forgiven. It's wiped off the face of the earth. Never again will God hold you accountable for that act, that thought, what you did. It's gone. The blood of Jesus Christ has allowed him to forgive you of that and every other sin that you've committed. You owe him a great deal. For if you had to pay for those sins, it would be impossible for you to find peace, salvation, and a pure life. But it's that blood you hold in your hand, that symbol of it, that reminds us that his blood has made us whole. But that isn't the end of it. What you hold in your hand is a symbol of something else. Jesus looked these people in the eye and said, I won't drink this again until I drink it with you in the kingdom. He's made a promise. If you've given your life to him and all this is true, the promise you've made, his promise with this is, when you die, you will be with me. This physical thing represents the promise that God has made to you. As certainly as you can see the cup and the drink, it is that certain that if the promise you've made to God is real, you will be with him one day. And so we're renewing the vows that we're making. Lord, I give my life to you to live in obedience to you because I believe you're the master of the universe and I've surrendered my life and its future to you. And he says, okay, Doyle, I'll forgive you of all the terrible things you've done. And here's my second promise. Someday you'll be sitting with a table with me and we'll be eating and enjoying each other's company or Jesus bless this drink to remind us of the price you have paid for our forgiveness. Remind us of the price you have paid that after death, we might live forever with you. Remind us of the promise we made when we stood openly and publicly in the water and said, Jesus Christ is my Lord. We know you will keep your end of this. We ask for the wisdom and strength to never give up hours. In Jesus name, we give thanks for your blood given for us. Amen. Thank you, guys. And so the supper is a reminder, a reminder of the great promise that God has given to us. Some of it you've already began to live and it's a reminder of the great promise we've given to him. Some of which you've already began to live and some of which we're all to experience in the future. Would you join me, please, in a moment of prayer? I want you to pray. I want you to renew your vow to God. I want you to thank him for his life given for you and for his blood shed for you. So we today, Father, have tried to do what Luke said, to do this event in remembrance of you. What you did for us, what you gave for us. And we tried to remember today what we have promised to you. None of us have lived completely as we should have. But it's your precious blood that allows us to come back to you and start again. Give us the faith to believe that no matter what our circumstance looks like today, placing our lives in your hand is a guarantee that the future will be victorious, fruitful and successful because you've promised it. In the name of Jesus, we give thanks for this vow. Ours to you and yours to us. Amen. Will you stand with me and we're going to sing Something Beautiful and then we can depart. Something beautiful, something good. Have a beautiful day. Amen.