Join me tonight, if you would,
in the Gospel According to Esther. The Gospel According to Esther.
We're in the ninth chapter of this wonderful book of Esther.
God's providence displayed. God directing through the lattice
we have seen many times. His fingerprints are all over
this wonderful book. Even though we don't find His
name mentioned, we do find His presence. And that's so important. We're looking here in this ninth
chapter, and I'd like to begin reading tonight with verse 18.
We've looked at verse 18 a little bit in the past, and we're not
going to spend much time on it, but we do find in there three
things that the children of Israel did after the great plague was
thrown away, taken away from them, they were in serious issues,
serious problems. And you know, we find ourselves
after we're born again, we find out a little bit of what a serious
problem we were in. And it's not really understood
until after we're born again. And we see that if the Lord says
something, we can almost say that, well, it's worse than I
thought. It's worse than I thought continuously as we go on. So
there's not one good thing in us, nothing that promoted or
prompted God to move in us. So we're thankful it says, but
the Jews that were in Shushan assembled together, Esther 9,
verse 18, assembled together on the 13th day thereof, on the
14th day thereof, in the fifteenth day thereof, of the same they
rested and made a day of feasting and gladness." And we looked
at that, how the Lord blesses us with this. He blesses us with
rest, He blesses us with feasting upon Him, and He blesses us with
the gladness of the kingdom. And what a joy it is to enjoy
those things. And then in verse 19, therefore,
the Jews of the village that dwelt in the unwalled towns made
the 14th day of the month, Adar, a day of gladness and feasting
and a good day. and of sending portions one to
another. And Mordecai wrote these things
and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in the provinces
of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, nigh and far. And we
noticed last week as we looked at this, that this letters that
went out were specifically towards one group of people. They were
towards the Jews. Now we're going to find out,
or we have found out, that there were a number of those who were
Persians that became Jews because of the fear of the Jews, the
reverence, the respect that God had given them for himself. So
it wasn't because they were afraid to die and there's a blessing
here. We could see that God's moving
with them in a very particular and a special way through Mordecai
and through Queen Esther. So they become Jews and we noticed
that in the scriptures that there were a number of people in the
Old Testament that were Gentiles that God dealt with in such a
gracious way. Two of them of great note, they're
mentioned in the lineage of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. That's
Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabitess. So he dealt with them
and he has dealt with many of the Gentiles. In fact, if we
go back far enough, we find that Abraham was a Gentile just as
much as we are. And then he goes on to tell us
here, verse 21, to establish this among them, that they should
keep the 14th day of the month, Adar, and the 15th month of the
same yearly. So he is bringing to their attention
that it would be a wonderful thing if they kept this feast
perpetually, that if they kept this feast every year, that they
would be reminded of the great providence of God in setting
them free from bondage. They were at the very brink,
and yet the Lord brought them back and set their feet on solidness,
on a solid rock. They had a great leader to lead
them. They had Mordecai. They had Queen Esther. They had
this blessing given to them. And so the fear was taken away. In fact, we find God truly turned
their darkness into light. And we find that's what the gospel
does, turns our darkness into light and their agony into joy. It doesn't take us too much to
realize what they were in and how close that is to us when
he saves us. I mean, worst days of my life. I still term that as the great
tribulation. When God revealed to me that
my religion was worthless, everything I'd been taught was wrong, but
I couldn't get to the right until he revealed himself to me. We
find that he turned their weeping into singing, and their weariness
to rest, and their fear to peace. And it just takes us right back
to what we heard on Sunday. We get peace. Our fear is put
to rest. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And then it tells us, as the
days wherein the Jews rested, even from their enemies, and
the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and
from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days
of feasting and joy, and sending portions one to another, and
gifts to the poor, the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and
as Mordecai had written unto them." What a blessing it is
when God's people undertake to do what the Lord tells us to
do. That's our goal. I was asked today, do I ask for
forgiveness of sin every day? And I shared with this person,
yes, I may do that, but I'm not afraid that he hasn't forgiven
my sin. I have faith that he has forgiven my sin. Now we sin
every day and he's pleased when we come and we admit that, but
our eternal life does not hinge on whether we beg for him. He's not withholding his grace
to us. Forgiveness of sin is taken care
of at the cross and we, by the grace of God, come saying, Lord,
forgive me. Knowing full well it's forgiven.
So it's not a, we're not in a parley sense. We're not, he's not gonna
put us out of the kingdom because we didn't come one day and the
next day he's gonna put us back in because we did ask for forgiveness.
So, you know, so many things are asked people when you don't,
they don't know anything. All right, and the Jews undertook
to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written unto them.
The Jews accepted Mordecai's proposal. You know, we hear the
word accepted a lot. Did you accept Jesus? Well, I'm
thankful that in the scriptures we find that word used the other
way around. We're accepted in the beloved. If God hasn't accepted us in
the beloved, we can never accept him. And that's foolishness.
The Jews undertook to do as it was begun. And because Haman,
now just a little bit of why this is going on, just a little
bit of history about why this is happening. Because Haman,
the son of Haggadoth, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had
tried to kill them all. had devised against the Jews
to destroy them and had cast Pur. Now this word Pur means
a lot and it means that he was a superstitious person. He was
superstitious in the sense that he cast lots on days, months,
and months of the year to find out when would be the luckiest
time to go against the Jews. And that's why that date was
said, the 13th day of the month Adar, somewhere in December,
but he cast lots over this. Well, it is interesting that
the Jews adopt a name that reminds them of the peril that they were
in. that Haman had this idea of taking
them all out, and yet the tables were turned, just as we find
the tables were turned on our sin, the tables were turned on
our relationship to Adam, the tables were turned on him being
our father, we have the tables turned to God as our father,
Jesus Christ as our savior, things are all new. It goes in there
in verse 24, that is the lot to consume them and to destroy
them. But when Esther came before the king, a more reminder, let's
keep this up. Let's be reminded of why we're
having this celebration, why we're having this time once a
year that they're being encouraged to meet together. And remember,
Haman tried to destroy us. We're going to be talking about
the Lord's table here in a minute. That's our remembrance. That's
we're reminded of it. And we're reminded that sin was
our enemy. And Christ took care of it. And then we have Esther
came before the king, commanded by letters that his wicked device,
which he devised against the Jews, should return unto his
own head, that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows.
Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name Pur, therefore
for all the words of this letter and of that which they had seen
concerning this matter and which had come unto them. So this is
gonna happen every year. And if I'm not mistaken, they
still do it. They still do the Passover. The
Orthodox Jews still do the Passover. And I think they still do this
per every year as the Passover reminds them of getting out of
Egypt. And this reminds them of the events during Haman's
reign there in the time of Esther. Turn with me back to the third
chapter of the book of Esther for just one verse, Esther chapter
three and verse seven, and we find out this is what Ahasuerus
did. It says, in the first month,
that is the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus,
they cast Pur, that is the lot, before Haman from day to day,
from month to month, to the 12th month, that is the month Adar.
So they were trying to come up with the best time that the gods
would smile on them. They cast lots. Well, it didn't
work. You know what it did? To me,
it's just amazing. It put it off far enough that
a second letter could get out, that liberty could be declared.
And it just really shows to us that when it pleases God, that's
when he saves us, when it pleases God. It's not when we're too
old. It's not when we're too young.
It's when it pleases God. When the Apostle Paul wrote there,
when it pleased God to reveal his son in me. That's the issue. So when it pleased God, this
was taken care of. Now they planned and planned
and planned, but their plans were turned around and we're
just thankful that the plan that took place in the Garden of Eden
was destroyed by our great victor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what a blessing that these Jews did not try to redo an ancient
Persian celebration, they made a new one. God called on them
through Esther and through Mordecai to have something totally different.
I'm sure that there were many celebrations in Persia at this
time for the old ancient gods. But they did not do that. They
did not pick up something from them. It was totally new, and it was
totally new to them, and it was totally new in the Persian Empire.
And the Jews, once a year, were going to follow this. And it
seems that they followed it out until the Persian Empire disappeared
and someone else came along. They'd like to take these thoughts
of celebration and move forward to the time of Christ. once a
year. Now we do not find a definite
time in scripture when we're supposed to do what we're going
to read about. There they had it once a year and I've known
places that only have a communion service once a year. I'm not
in favor of it, but it doesn't mean I'm going to declare non-fellowship
because there's nothing said about it. It was toward the end
of the Lord's ministry. He brought something totally
new to the disciples. Now it was not new to him, but
it was totally new to the disciples. They tell us in the book, and
we'll read that in just a moment. They tell us in the book of Matthew
that they were ready to partake of the Passover. Where do you
want us to prepare the Passover? And the Lord went along with
it. This is where, when they said, go ask a man and he'll
tell you where a place is already. So the Lord took care of it.
The Passover was instituted while Israel was in Egypt and it declared
when they were set free. But when we get the true Passover
lamb, that was done away with. Christ is our Passover. Turn
with me to the book of 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul was led to write
many things to the Corinthians to help them understand that
Christ is the issue. And here in the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 5, he brings out this very point. Christ is the issue. Whatever you're doing, It better
be in line with Christ is the issue. Purge out, therefore,
verse 7 of chapter 8 of the book of 1 Corinthians. Purge out,
therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be new lump, as ye were
unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrifice for us. So when the significance of the
Passover was completed, when the Lamb of God became the true
Passover and fulfilled what that pictured, we have that right,
that celebration done away with on the very night that Jesus
Christ was betrayed. He did away with what is the
Passover, and it's foolishness to continue it. I don't care
where you are, it's foolishness. Now people are going to continue
it, just like we find people continue many things that the
Bible says, it's over, it's finished, it's done away with. Well, here
we find that Christ is our Passover. And turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Matthew. As we think about those Jews
many years ago in the Persian Empire, we're instructed by Mordecai
and Esther to start a celebration of remembrance. Be reminded once
a year how the Lord has blessed you. Well, if it follows suit,
we're going to find out that they began to worship it more
than the one that saved them, just like we find it today. People
would worship the institution of communion service over the
Savior that it declares. And they turn it into things
that it is not. It is not salvation. Never has been, never will be.
But it has been turned into that, just like baptism and the other
things. So Matthew chapter 26. In Matthew
chapter 26, we find that the Lord Jesus shares with us a remembrance
similar to what we find over here. Only this remembrance is
to be done as oft as you do it. As oft as you do it. There is
no instructions how often. There's no instructions where.
We can have this down on the riverbank. I'd want warm weather. There's no instructions where?
There is instructions who? That's believers. That's the
ones that is intended to take the Lord's Supper. All right,
here in the book of Matthew chapter 26, verse 17, we read these words. Now on the first day of the feast
of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him,
Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? Now this is the last authoritative
Passover. This is the last time a Passover
is going to be commemorated, sanctioned by the Lord. The next
year when they had it, He's not in it. It's finished. It's over. He's done away with it. So it
says here, where do you want it? Now he said, go into the
city to such a man and say unto him, the master saith, my time
is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. Now that's interesting instructions.
My time is at hand. He's recognizing what is going
to happen. Now, when he was born, he recognized
that. Before the foundation of the
world, he recognized what it was going to take to deliver
his people from their sins. And he said, my time is here.
There's a special man, there is an individual, we don't even
know his name, but he has been instructed by the Holy Spirit
that when these disciples come, he's gonna show them the place
that the Lord has need of. And I'll keep the Passover at
thy house with my disciples. He doesn't even invite this guy
to come in. Only his disciples were there.
And I think one of them left by the time it was instituted.
I think he took the Passover, but I don't think he took it.
The disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made
ready the Passover. Now, what did they have? They
had a roasted lamb without broken body, no bones broken. How they
did that, it's not told us. Where did they cook that lamb?
Maybe right there. Maybe it was roasted with bitter
herbs. They came together to take the
Passover, and the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them,
and they were made ready the Passover. You know, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, three of them out of the four, mention the
institution of the Lord's Supper. John doesn't, but you know, it
is so important that Jesus Christ instructed a disciple of his
by the name of Paul, the apostle, to write to the Corinthians Now
there is nothing ever else said about baptism. Paul was never
used to write the instructions about baptism. He was used to
say, I thank God, I baptize none of you. Then the Holy Spirit
brought to his attention, except Crispus and Gaius and maybe another
one. But that was not his job. His job was preaching the gospel
and God would take care of the deliverance of people and then
they would ask for baptism. So they're up there, they're
in the upper room, and he says here, and when it was even, he
sat down with the 12. They made ready the Passover.
They had the same elements that we read over in the book of Exodus
chapter 12. They were under the same economy
as we read in Exodus chapter 12. This has been going on for
hundreds and hundreds of years. Now, there was great span of
time that we read in the Old Testament that they did not take
the Passover, and one king was brought to his attention. He
said, oh no. So he sent out word to all the
tribes to come and take the Passover. Now, it was too late to do it
at the right time, but you know what? God said, okay. It's important
that you take it. It's not the date. Days, moons,
all that stuff. So they came. Now he sent posts
out, just like Ahasuerus did, just like Mordecai did, just
like Esther did, to bring the news. And come down here and
join us. And we find everybody laughed
those posts to scorn. What are you talking about? I'm
not going over there. We haven't done it for a thousand,
no, a hundred years. There's no need to do it. And
there are a few out of Manasseh and a few out of Zebulon whose
hearts were turned. Nevertheless, some hearts were
turned and they came. And there was never a Passover
like that, it says. One of the things about it is
the people did not provide the lamb, the king did. We find what
a beautiful picture this is. The king provided the lambs.
Here we find whoever provided this lamb, they are sitting down
to the Passover. This is the last one. This is
the last one. There will never be another one
that God will authenticate. So it says, they sat down with
the 12 and as he did eat, he said, verily, I send you that
one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful
and began everyone to say unto him, Lord, is it I? You know,
there's only one guy there that didn't know what that meant. The rest of them knew they were
capable. They knew. We know. If it wasn't for the guiding
hand of God on us, what we are capable of doing. I'm thankful
for restraining grace. All 11 of those, the 11, denied the Lord, ran away, Peter
gets his name tacked on, and so he's the one, that's the culprit,
but everybody did that. And you know what happened? When
it was all over, the Lord came to all of them and said, peace
be unto you. Peace be unto you. He never ragged on them about
it. All right, and then it goes on here. And he answered and said, he
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. And the son of man goeth as it was written, but woe unto
him, a woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It
had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas,
which betrayed him, answered and said, master, is it I? And
he said, thou hast said. And as they were eating, I think
at this point Judas goes out, Devil comes in him, we'll compare
the other scriptures. If not, it doesn't make any difference.
But he starts right here, and as they were eating, Jesus took
bread and blessed it and break it. Now this is what the Apostle
Paul says, I received of the Lord. Don't think for a moment
that he's just carrying on about the Passover here. Don't think
for a moment that he hasn't changed gears. The Apostle Paul helps
us to understand he changed gears here, that he is instituting
something whereby we are called on to remember his death, his
death. Not over in Egypt, but his death. We're caused to remember Calvary.
We're caused to remember him going to the cross. We're caused
to see him. And he shares with us that it's
not a lamb. It's not a physical lamb. It
is my body and it is my blood. He wants them to understand this. And you know, when we come together
and we celebrate the communion service, we are called on to
celebrate his death. for us. He's talking about the
atonement. He's talking about the atonement.
And he's talking about the atonement as he shared with us earlier
in the book of John. He says, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I lay down my life for my elect. I lay down my life for those
I have known from eternity. I will not, I shall not, and
I never will die for the whole world. I'm not dying for people
that go to hell. I am dying for those that I will
save. All right. And he takes it says
he took the bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to
the disciples and said, take eat. This is my body. This is
symbolic of my body. I am going to the cross. I am
going to die. I am going to do what the Old
Testament scriptures have declared, and I'm going to do what I've
been telling you every day of my personal ministry with you.
I'm going to the cross. I'm going to be betrayed. Be
betrayed. The high priests are going to
condemn me. I'm going to be taken out. I'm
going to be crucified. I will be lifted up. And if I
be lifted up, I will draw all mine unto me. That's what he
said. So he shares with us in verse
26, he comes to the point, and this is so important because
this is where the apostle Paul picks up. He doesn't cover the
Passover. He covers the Lord's supper.
the same night that he was betrayed, all right? He said, the Lord
Jesus, while they were eating, concluded Passover's over, Jesus
took bread. Now, I'm convinced that this
was unleavened bread. but I'm not gonna argue over
it, because he doesn't say it's unleavened bread. I just believe
that he was spotless. I believe that unleavened bread
represents his spotless body. There's no sin, no contamination. Sharing with a young man today,
there's so much about Jesus Christ that we cannot understand. He
never had a pimple. He never had a cold. He never
had indigestion. He never needed to go to the
doctor. He never had sinus problems. He never had poor eyesight. He
never had any of the marks of sin. His hair did not turn gray. It didn't fall out. And I shared
with that young man, can you imagine when Mary got her second
child? This is totally different. Yeah. By the way, that young man said,
I didn't know Jesus had brothers and sisters. Well, we showed
him in the scripture that he did. He did have brothers and
he did have sisters and four of his brothers are named in
the scriptures. All right, so in verse, there
it says, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and
gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drank ye all of it. Now
that's very interesting, most religions deny Deny drinking
of the cup. You'll get the host, but you
won't get the wine because that's too precious. If it gets down
on the floor, we have the blood of Jesus on the floor. Well,
anyway, it says, take it, drink you all of it. This is for you.
I want you to know that this is a demonstration of how you
are saved. You will eat me spiritually. You will have life from me. You
will be grafted in from me. I will sustain you. I will carry
you. And then it says, for this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not
drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when
I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. All right,
we are having our thoughts directed to the lowest part of the humiliation
of Jesus Christ when we look at the Lord's Supper. He came
to this earth and was humiliated. He was humbled. He was King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. And to begin with, to be placed
in a woman's womb for nine months, when he was the creator of heaven
and earth. To be born in the agony of his mother's agony,
to be born that way, to have to have a navel cut, to go through
the circumcision, to have all of this humiliation, that is
just small potatoes compared to what he endured on the cross. on the behalf of his people,
taking all their sin and having it imputed to him, placed upon
him in such a way that he could take care of it all and pay for
it all and never have another sin brought up. No charge will
ever be laid to any of his people. So he has done this. This supper preaches the doctrine
that Christ died for our sins and that we live by his death.
He's gonna die, but we're gonna be alive. To look at the remembrance,
all right, we must conclude that he speaks volumes about the atonement
here. He is going to lay down his life
for his people. He is going to pay every debt
they've ever owed spiritually speaking. Now we may owe money
to the people who own our house, but he may not take care of that.
You may have to work by the sweat of your brow to do that. But
when it comes to the sin issue, we have no participation in the
payment. It is all his or it is nobody. We can't pay it. This celebration
causes us to remember the atoning death of Christ for his people. And the emblem here, bread and
wine body and blood. His life, his life, his life. This do in remembrance of me.
What a reminder. We rejoice in the rest, the feasting,
and the gladness. When we participate in this communion
service, we are declaring we are at rest. We're declaring
that we're feasting on the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and
we're glad to be in the kingdom of God. We know that the two
ordinances were instituted, the Lord's Supper and baptism. And
as we read there in Matthew chapter 26, but the apostle Paul, was
used to write some things over in the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, again, 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. As we're called on to remember,
remember, remember, we're called on to remember the death of Jesus. Until he comes back to remember
the atonement of our savior until he comes back to remember the
payment price That it took to buy put our sins as far as the
east is from the west That's what we're to remember. So here
in the book of first corinthians chapter 11 We have the apostle
paul writing these words verse 23 Verse 23 we're going to start
there paul shares this And it's so important. There are people
that could go over there and they could read Matthew and say,
well, see, he's not changed. He's just going on with the Passover.
He's just talking about that. Well, God headed that off and
says, Paul, you're gonna write to these Corinthians and you're
gonna straighten that mess up. People will go off to anything.
Now Paul says, for I have received of the Lord. This is from the
Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. and when
he had given thanks. Now we find here that this is
such a demonstration of thanksgiving. He gave thanks over the bread
and over the wine, but we give thanks over his broken body and
his shed blood, his atonement made for us. We thank God. When he had given thanks, he
break it. He took that bread. You know, I've made a few loaves
of bread, not very many. We used to have a bread maker.
So you're not even involved in the baking process. It takes
care of it all. Wonderful bread. That's why we
had to quit. It was too good. But, you know, I have helped
my dad grind grain. into flour. Now we had to turn
those knives or those, the cutter heads so close together to make
flour because it was used to just breaking up the grain and
feeding it to the stock. But we wanted to make some flour
out of it. So it took so much more effort by that tractor and
heat was, you could just feel the heat on there. Well, we think
about this bread that Jesus Christ is using. It had to be broken
grain. and it was mixed and it was baked,
how it describes the work and ministry of our Savior. He was
truly put in an oven on the cross. And then grapes have to be crushed,
broken, and that juice taken and go through the process that
is necessary to have wine. Both of those things illustrate
broken body, shed blood, broken body, eat, the great payment
that Jesus Christ made on the behalf of his people, the atonement
that he made that they would be set free, the propitiation,
propitiation, payment price for our sin. Take eat, this is my
body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Don't remember. Egypt, remember
me. This do in remembrance of me.
Now we're finding over there in the book of Esther that those
people were called on to remember being set free, being delivered
of the act of grace that God did to spare those people from
certain death that had been prescribed. You know what? Adam gave that
to us. He gave us the death warrant.
We are dead in trespasses and sin, and we can't do a thing
about it. We may whine about it, but we
can't do a thing about it. Well, Jesus Christ has taken
care of the death warrant. Just like Mordecai and Esther
and King Ahasuerus took care of the death warrant that had
been sent out by Haman. They're delivered and now they're
celebrating over it. We're gonna do this once a year.
Thank God we get to celebrate more often than that. Every time
the gospel is declared, we get to celebrate. And then there's
a special celebration that we have when we take the communion
service. It is a time of thanksgiving. He broke it and said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. Keep me in mind. I am your atonement. Keep me in mind. I am your deliverance. Keep me in mind. I am your salvation.
And then, and after the same manner, he also took the cup
when he had sup saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do you as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. You
know, the New Testament, as he mentions here, it is new only
that it takes, it supersedes the Old Testament. This covenant
is called the Everlasting Covenant in the book of Hebrews, and the
Everlasting Covenant and the New Covenant was made in the
council halls of eternity between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit in old eternity. This is what God had always purposed
and how he would save his people. They were not saved by the sacrifices
of animals in the Old Testament and they were not saved by doing
some thing. They're saved by the grace of
God. And then in verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death and all that it entails. Why? For who? When was this determined? Just go and look at all the things
that surround us. The spokes that come out of those
words in every direction, sharing with us in the scriptures why
Jesus Christ came to begin with. I came to lay down my life for
the sheep. He's always saying that. And
then it says there, show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." If you look at
it more than that, if you look at it more, if it is something
that's going to deliver you from a position that you're in, you
have taken it out of context. it will be used against you.
So God's people say, yay and amen. This is a picture, this
is a type, this is a shadow of the broken body and shed blood
of Jesus Christ. I'm declaring his death on my
behalf until he comes again. And when he comes again, there'll
be no need for it again, anymore. Passover's done away with. All
of the Old Testament sacrifices were finished and over with.
We only have these two things, in New Testament times, and that
is the ordinance of believers baptism and the ordinance, the
celebration of celebrating the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the behalf of the church. And so as Mordecai says, we're
going to have a celebration. We're going to have it once a
month. I mean, once a year, we're going to do it for two days out
of a year, annually, over and over. Well, I'm sure that there
were a few of the people over time said, oh, isn't this a fine
time? I don't know what it means. Well,
to the church, the supper is never put into that light. I
know what it means. It means his death, my life. We'll stop there.