We did it.
We made it.
It's Day 5.
And throughout this week we've been
hanging out with Jesus in that upper room
as he's been setting everything up
to give us
this New Testament Lord's Supper.
Something we call communion.
We've checked out the disciples.
They're in-fighting, they're feuding.
We've hung out with Jesus,
reaching out to Judas to try to draw him back.
And here they're having this special meal.
And now Jesus is going to give you a special meal.
A meal that gives you the power
and the love
and the mercy of his forgiveness.
And all of it comes out of that Old Testament
Passover meal.
Earlier this week I told you some of the
dinner menu items that were there.
They ate roasted lamb over the fire.
And that was a picture of Jesus.
Remember, John the Baptist looks at Jesus and says,
"Look. The Lamb of God,
"who takes away the sin of the world."
Well, Jesus was that sacrificial lamb.
And through his blood, shed on the cross,
Jesus going through the fires of temptation,
the fires of hell for us,
forgiveness then is granted.
And in that Old Testament Passover meal,
they pulled out bitter herbs and they ate bitter herbs.
And that was to remind them of
what their sins do to God.
It's bitter in the mouth of God.
The sins, the wrongs that we do.
They also ate
unleavened bread.
Because the original Passover meal
was, of the ten plagues, when the Israelites
are in Egypt.
And so they're praying, "God, please get us out of slavery."
And as soon as that Passover meal happens,
the Pharaoh finally says,
"You can leave."
They didn't have time to make bread.
Put yeast in it for it to rise.
And so God is reminding them that, through this meal,
God brought them, in the Old Testament,
deliverance.
And so amazingly, then Jesus takes that bread,
reminding them of deliverance from slavery,
and he puts the New Testament
in our Lord's Supper.
And he takes the bread and he breaks it,
he gives it to his disciples and says,
"Take and eat.
"This is my body."
Jesus gives that over to them and now,
is going to give them freedom
from their slavery to sin.
After the meal, Jesus takes a cup of wine.
And he passes that to the disciples as well and he says,
"Now this,
"this
"is my blood.
"Poured out for you for the forgiveness
"of sins."
In the New Testament Lord's Supper,
what God grants to you, what God gives to you
is himself.
His mercy,
his love, his forgiveness.
And much like how that Old Testament meal, they ate bitter herbs,
it reminded them of their sins,
they confessed that to God.
So, also, when you come up for communion,
God encourages us to,
to open our hearts before God.
To confess our sins
and our weaknesses,
our insecurities, our infirmities.
Everything that's there.
And give that over to God.
And what does God give you?
Love.
Perfection.
Healing.
And forgiveness.
There's two final things I want to teach you
in connection with the New Testament Lord's Supper.
And here they are.
And here's the first one.
If you're new to church
and you haven't gone up for communion yet,
or if you've been a life-long Christian,
and you've been going to communion.
I want to teach you something about the brilliance of God.
God gets us.
Because he made us.
He gets that we're tangible beings.
Something has to be there for us to fully understand it.
At the beginning of the worship service,
at most churches,
there's a confession and forgiveness of sins.
Maybe at your church it's really formal.
It's called a liturgy.
Where the pastor speaks and the people speak
and it's this back and forth thing.
And there's the confession of sins.
And the pastor announces forgiveness.
Maybe in your church it's a little more contemporary,
where it's in a song
or it's in a prayer.
My question for you is this.
What is the difference
between the forgiveness that's given
at the beginning of the worship service
just announced verbally by the pastor.
And the forgiveness that's given and received in communion.
And the difference is, there's no difference.
But yet you go to communion and you
feel so connected to God.
And why is that?
Because God gets us.
He connects the intangible,
his forgiveness
with something that we can touch.
That we can eat.
And know and feel.
God's love.
The final cool thing that I want to teach you is
the original way that they ate the
Passover meal.
God commanded them, in the book of Exodus,
"Eat that original Passover meal
with your sandals on your feet,
your cloak
tucked into your belt so you could run
and your staff in your hand."
That seems really strange.
If you invited me over for a dinner party
and it was raining and I kept my wet shoes on,
my wet jacket and my car keys in one hand and ate.
Well, you'd think, "This guy does not want to be here."
But God is telling them,
"Hey, through this original Passover meal,
"as soon as this is done,
"I'm busting you out of here.
"I'm giving you what you need.
"I'm giving you freedom from your bondage of slavery."
And the New Testament Lord's Supper,
God does the same.
God, also delivers you
from a lifetime of sin and shame
into his gracious arms of love.
That is the gift that God has given you.
In his true body and his true blood.
His love,
his forgiveness.
Hope you understand communion quite a bit better.
May God bless you and give you great joy
as you live for him.
Looking forward to seeing you next time.