Thank you. All right, Luke chapter 22. The Lord is preparing to eat
his supper with his disciples. The Jews have been eating the
Passover supper. for approximately 1,500 years. From the time in Egypt when the
Lord was going to pass over His people, those that He told, He
said, you take a lamb and you kill the lamb, take the blood,
put it on the doorpost, on the lintel of your door. And when I see the blood, I'm
going to come through and I'll pass over you. Now, the significance
of the Passover is the promise of Almighty God that the Lord,
for His people, the people of His covenant mercy, that He's
provided a Lamb. God will provide Himself a Lamb. That's what Abraham told Isaac.
Here's the fire, here's the wood, where's the lamb? God will provide
Himself a lamb. And that Passover, that was the
whole significance of the Passover. The promise of Almighty God that
God, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb, would
pass over His people in mercy. That blood, having made all satisfaction,
atonement was made, a payment was made. So for 1500 years,
they ate the Passover supper. Well, we've come down now, and
the Lord, since He's begun His ministry, His earthly ministry,
this is going to be the third or fourth time that he has partaken
of the Passover since his ministry began. He's always partaken of
that Passover fulfillment of the law. It was of the law that
it was to be kept. Now here he is. This is the last
time that he's going to eat of this Passover supper. And he's going to eat it with
his disciples. And the scripture says in Luke
chapter 22 verse 15. He said unto them with desire.
My margin says I've heartily desired. With desire I have desired
to eat this Passover with you. before I suffer. For I say unto
you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For
I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God she'll come. And he took bread, and gave thanks,
and break it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body, which
is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Let's pray
together. Our Father, this evening, we're
so thankful that, Lord, you've given us this precious time to
come and assemble ourselves together as brethren in your presence. And Lord, as we come to eat of
this supper, this ordained ordinance in remembrance of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Lord, would you help us to partake in the spirit of
this supper, in the spirit of truly being thankful. Help us. Lord, we're so needy. We're so frail. Have mercy upon
us for Christ's sake. Amen. You know, there's something
marvelously wonderful about coming together as believers and partaking
of the Lord's Supper. It's not just that we're coming
together to partake of a little piece of bread, to have a little
cup of wine, but we're coming together according to His instruction. And that's the foundation of
it. Why do you do this? Why are you
baptized? I preached last night on baptism. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth in it is baptized.
It's not that baptism saves you. The Lord's Supper doesn't save
anybody. There's nothing spiritually effectual to the importation
of life. But it's that the Lord gave us
instruction to do it. We do this at His command. And so it's a marvelous event,
ordinance, that we come together and we're coming together to
remember Him. And He said in that 15th verse,
with desire, Have I desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer? He was talking now to his disciples. There was 12 men there. And one of them was the devil.
The Lord chose him. The Lord chose him. But there
were 11 men there. that by the grace of God knew
him and loved him. And he loved them. And he said,
with a desire, the desire of my heart, I heartily desire to eat this
supper with you. This was going to be, as I said
a moment ago, this was going to be the last time. It's the
last time he's going to eat the Passover. The Passover kept saying,
he's coming. God's going to send the lamb.
God's going to send the lamb, he's going to die. And the blood
of the lamb applied to God's people. is going to be the foundation
and merit of God passing over, having mercy, having compassion.
And He said, now I heartily desire to eat this with you because
tonight is going to be the night in which He's betrayed. And He's going to willingly give
Himself into the hands of those that come to take Him. He's God. He can do what He will. All powers
given unto the Lord in heaven and earth that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him. But He's
going to humble Himself in submission before God. He's got to be taken. They're going to lay down His
life. He is the sacrificial Lamb. He must die that we will not
die. And on the night that he's going
to be betrayed, here he is. He's going to eat this supper. I love the passage, Matthew 18,
20. He said, I'm going to eat this
with you. Here, we're gathered together. And I'm convinced. Well, I'm scripturally convinced. I've got authority on this statement. Whenever God's people assemble
themselves together, every time they assemble themselves together,
he said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
I am in the midst of you. Well, we're gonna eat this supper,
Lord willing, in just a few moments. And he said, I heartily desire
to eat this with you. And God who never changes, I
think about his desire to eat in our presence as we eat, remembering
him, him being in our presence, the affection that he has being
with us. I pray God give us a heart to
remember who is in our presence. We realize that He heartily desires
the company of His people. Psalm 133.1 says, Behold how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. Think about how good it is to
dwell together us in his presence. Well, at that last supper, that
last supper of the Passover, which now would usher in the
first supper of our Lord before he would lay down his life, he
gave this commandment. Verse 19 of Luke 22, he took
bread and he gave thanks And he break it. And he said
unto them, this is my body, which is given
for you. This do in remembrance of me. Now, just for a few minutes,
I want to ask a couple of questions, two or three questions. What
do we remember when we remember the Lord? Do we remember that
he, like the faith of demons, which is a dead faith, that he
is the Lord? We know he is the Lord, but what
do we remember about him? This do in remembrance of me. First of all, we remember that
he died being made like unto his brethren in the form of sinful
flesh. He said, again in 19, this is
my body. As almighty God, God is spirit. God's spirit. And for him to
die, a body was prepared him. I'll read Hebrews chapter 10,
Hebrews 10.5. The Scripture says, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. A body, a flesh and blood body, marvelously prepared, as I would
consider the Lord. It has always been, not always,
but since the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to me, it always
amazed me how He knew no sin. I wasn't always as old as I am
right now. I used to be younger. I used
to have jet black hair, and I had hair. But something has happened. The effects of sin has caused
me to age. And sin, that's what caused me
to age. But He knew no sin. He knew no sin. But He aged He
grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Now that's just too amazing for
me. A body was preparing Him. A body of flesh and blood. A body that knew no sin. but it possessed all the effects
of that which causes us to age and hurt and he fell, he got
thirsty, he was hungry. This is my body, a body fitted
for him, a real natural body. Flesh and blood. The scripture
says made in all points, likened to his brethren. Now you think
about us. All points. I mean, well, I'll just leave
it there. You can just start thinking of
them yourself. All points. Likened to his brethren,
yet without sin. This body was prepared in the
book of God's purpose. curiously formed by the Holy
Spirit in time in the womb of a virgin for the Son of God that
He might clothe Himself, robe Himself. Nothing changed concerning
His Godhead. God, God Almighty, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And here He is robed in human
flesh to accomplish the work of redemption for his people.
He must die in a body. This is my body. He humbled himself in the form
of a serpent that he might lay down his life. This is the great
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit. seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into
glory. So we remember that he was made flesh for us. God, the
word, was made flesh. Here's the next thing we remember.
He died willingly. This is what we remember. He
said, no man taketh my life from me. I lay it down. He took bread, he gave thanks,
he break it, he gave it unto them saying, this is my body
which is given, given, given. He told his disciples in Matthew
chapter 26, 18, he said unto them, go into the city to such
a man and say unto him, the master saith, my time is at hand. my times at hand. I will keep
the Passover at the house with my disciples. At the perfect
time of God's choosing, he obediently laid down his life for his people
as God's lamb for the elect, the lamb of God's providing.
Hundreds of years have passed since the first Passover in Egypt,
about 1500. But this was the day that God
had eternally beheld, and the Lord Jesus must now suffer. It is now. The time is now. This is my body, which is given. Thirdly, we remember this. He
died as a particular redeemer for his own. This is my body
which is given for you. He laid down his life for his
sheep. Isaiah 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Verse 11. The Scripture says,
I'll read 10 and 11. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, He shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. This is my body, which is given
for you. And then fourthly, we remember
that this supper, a supper of his anointing, his blessing,
is one that is given that we might remember those things. Made flesh, that he might die,
might suffer. A body that was given, and a
body that was given in particular, this is what he said. This is
my body which is given for you, this do. God's people partake of the Lord's
supper out of obedience. Who's worthy to take of this
supper? Nobody, nobody. Am I worthy? Where is all my worthiness? It's
in Him. You do this in remembrance of
me. My body was given for you. You do this in remembrance of
me. What are we? Wretched sinners
in need of a savior. You do this in remembrance of
me. We eat and drink tonight at his
command. this do. We eat with a heart
of appreciation, knowing that without his blessing, his presence,
his blessing, death, obedience, we've met in vain. We do this
remembering that there is a divine purpose in what we do, a divine
purpose. to remember. He who eternally loved us and
gave himself for us, stood for us, laid down his life for us,
raised for us, now intercedes for us, and by the grace of God,
soon will come back for us. You do this in remembrance of
me. Amen.