Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke. We're in chapter
22 this morning. And our last lesson began with
Luke 22, 1, Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew nigh, which
is called the Passover. And our lesson last week was
entitled Passover Themes and largely drew from what was written
in Exodus chapter 12 about the Passover and the institution
of it and the things that it called to mind. And then we spent a little bit
of time on Judas and how he betrayed the Lord. He went to the chief
priests and elders and covenanted with them for 30 pieces of silver
to deliver the Lord over at a time when there wouldn't be many people
around. He said, I know where He'll be
at a time. It'll just be us disciples and
a dozen of us or so. You can come and rest Him. There
won't be much of a tumult because during the daytime He's surrounded
by a multitude. Remember, at this Passover time, there were
probably a million people or more in Jerusalem, so a big crowd. They didn't want a riot in front
of the Romans, so they said, we'll take him by night. So in Luke 22, 7, then came the
day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And then he sent a couple of
disciples and said, go and prepare the Passover that we may eat. And when you get to the city,
there will be a man meet you. There shall a man meet you. Not
just you'll see a man and follow him, but there shall be a man
whom I've determined and arranged for him to meet you and he'll
have a pitcher of water and when you meet him, follow him into
the house and then there will be a room set up for the Passover
and there you can prepare. They went and found as he had
said and they made ready the Passover. They got the lamb,
the lamb that was killed, they got the bitter herbs, they got
the unleavened bread, they got all the elements, and they observed
that Passover just as it was prescribed in Exodus, as the
Lord would have surely made sure that every detail was fulfilled.
He wouldn't have skimped on that, especially since it portrayed
Him. So now we come to verse 14. Things change a little bit. In Luke 22, 14, when the hour
was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him, all
twelve, including Judas Iscariot. And he said unto them, With desire
have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For
I say unto you, I'll not eat 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 shall come. And he took bread, and
gave thanks, and break it. And he gave unto them, saying,
This is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance
of me." I think that'll be our title for our message today,
This Do in Remembrance of Me. And likewise, after the cup,
after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood,
which is shed for you. My body, which is given for you,
my blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of him that
betrayeth me is with me on the table. And truly the son of man
goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he
is betrayed. And they began to inquire among
themselves which of them that it was that should do this thing.
And we're not going to delve into that portion of today. We're
going to primarily spend our time looking at the things that
he said this do in remembrance of me. And so as we looked at the themes
that were presented in Exodus chapter 12, many things that there were to
consider. The Lord said that He was going to deliver them
from bondage. What a picture of our condition
in sin. And a sacrifice was needed to portray what was really going
to take place to deliver them from the bondage of sin, the
sacrifice needed to free the people to satisfy the justice
and righteousness of God. And that sacrifice was a lamb
as we followed that through Genesis and on up to Exodus, a lamb. first sling of the flock, a ram
caught in a thicket, all those things that portrayed the lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. And we looked at
the absolute necessary qualifications that the sacrifice needed to
be acceptable. And then that the Passover must
be killed. It plainly states that. The Passover
must be killed. And we find that in Luke 22.7. It came the hour when the Passover
must be killed. And we looked at that blood. It was applied specifically. not in an indiscriminate way.
And it was applied where the Lord directed it to be applied. The effectual nature of the blood
that was applied saving the people from their sins. He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And he said, this shall
be the beginning of months to you, the beginning of the new
year. Old things are passed away. All
things become new for them that are in Christ. Then we looked
at the issue of Levin, what that represented, and those people
that couldn't prepare anything for themselves. What a picture
of our situation before the Lord. We can't prepare anything to
make ourselves savable. We can't do anything. We have
no ability, no aid, no ability at all, no additives, no work.
They weren't even allowed to have leaven in the house. They
couldn't look at it. It was just totally put away. And then, as we come to our Scripture
today, we go back to in Exodus 12, verse 14, in this institution
of the Passover where it says, "...and this day shall be unto
you for a memorial." It was a memorial. You shall
keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep
it a feast by an ordinance forever. Now it's interesting that this,
I was telling Norm this morning, I was kind of delved into this
a little bit on this term ordinance. We, when we think of ordinances
in our modern language, we think of, well, there's a city ordinance
against letting your dog run loose or speeding in a school
zone. There's all kinds of ordinances.
And that's just a modern, in the modern sense, it means a
rule or a law. And that definition is used in
the New Testament for an ordinance in Ephesians and Galatians. where
it's talking about the old law, the law of Moses as an ordinance,
and that word is translated actually law. But here in the Old Testament,
ordinance in the Hebrew traces its root word back to one that
essentially describes an engraving or a writing, a writing down. It means to hack or like like
chisel, or it gives several examples of like engraving on copper or
stone or things, or writing down for a memorial. It's something
that the Lord instituted for a memorial, and you were supposed
to have it written down so that you didn't forget. And that's
kind of the sense of that, so that it should be remembered
correctly, and there's no chance of it being changed or altered. And in the Greek, this term ordinance
is from a word that gives us a sense of transmission. When
you, something transmitted from here to there, but remains the
same, a transmission like, I was using the example of a, say a
news reporter gets on the television or the radio and transmits into
a microphone the news and that goes through some electric circuits
and a transmitter that transmits it maybe to a satellite and then
it gets retransmitted and that transmission goes out to all
the people and it's exactly what that person said. It's not been
altered. And I was saying to Norm, well,
perhaps if we saw their lips moving, but something else was
coming out. We know that that wasn't an accurate
transmission, but we can pretty much tell that the transmission
is what they said. That's kind of the sense of that
word in the Greek, although there are two examples in Ephesians
and Galatians where it refers back to the law of Moses and
that ordinance is translated as a law or a rule. But here
it's more of a sense of keep the ordinances as I deliver them
to you. Take the transmission that which
I received I also delivered unto you." The exact same thing. It
wasn't changed. It wasn't altered. And we have
that sense about the Bible where the Lord says that you shouldn't
add to it or take away from it. So we want to keep the ordinance,
as Paul said, as I delivered them to you. There in 1 Corinthians
11, verse 2, and where he talks about the gospel in 1 Corinthians
15, I delivered unto you that which I also received, the exact
same thing. What I got from Jesus, from the
Lord, I delivered unto you. So as we look at that, this memorial, this ordinance
for a memorial forever. We have that same thing portrayed
here in Luke where he says, do this in remembrance of me. And so the Lord followed this
theme of this ordinance of a memorial, a thing to remember with these
words. this due in remembrance of Me."
And you know, we were talking a little bit about this morning,
scarcely has there been a more contentious topic in the religious
world than what men have promoted regarding a simple remembrance
of what the Lord did for us to save us from our sins. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. That was His
purpose. And one of the things that came to me as I studied
this, and he's sitting down with these twelve, and one of them,
he says, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is the
devil? One of you is going to betray me? And yet he looks at
them as a fulfillment of what he's longed and desired to do
from before the foundation of the world. With desire, and that
word means longing. With desire, I have desire to
eat this Passover with you. And if we could just take a minute
and think back, or however we might do that, since we have
no real experience with eternal things, but try to imagine the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. The Lamb in eternity
looking forward to this moment in what we see as time with His
disciples. He's about to give His life a
ransom. And he says, I've been looking
forward to this for a long time. With desire, I have desired.
With great longing, I've desired to eat this Passover with you. And what a theme we have there
in that. It's just a thing so simple and
so wonderful and so beautiful that we just need to keep it
in mind that way. He instituted this simple gesture
that the church might always keep in mind this truth that
Paul stated, Christ died to save sinners of whom I am chief. This expression of his eternal
longing and joy and desire, they're expressed in Luke 22, 15. You know, in the Gospel of John,
he says, greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down
his life for his friends, and I've called you friends. So we
need to kind of keep that perspective of how the Lord views this time
just before He says, I want to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer and fulfill all those things that
are required so that you'll be safe, so that you'll be at peace
with God with whom you were formerly at enmity. all the things that I'm going
to undergo to provide that and to endure that. And, you know,
the elements of the observance so completely and clearly express
what the Lord would undergo as He satisfied the justice of God
and became the justifier of them that believe. He took the cup
and divided it among them. And it said, and He took bread
and gave thanks. And that's something we're always
reminded to do, everything with thanksgiving and praise. Even
when he fed the 5,000, he took those loaves of bread and he
blessed them. and gave thanks and broke, break
them. It's interesting that when it
talks about that word break, he took the bread and break it.
That word is only, as far as I could tell, only used in the
New Testament in the connection with the Lord breaking bread.
whether it was feeding the 5,000 or any of the Gospels that talk
about him breaking this unleavened loaf here as an implementation
of the Lord's Supper. That's the only place that's
used there that I could find in the New Testament, so I thought
that was interesting, this symbolic, this breaking. so emblematic of a portrayal
of what he would endure in taking the wrath of God in our stead. He said, this is my body. Crumbled up, busted for you. Maltreated. As we go further
in, we'll read the graphic report of what they did to him. The
pilot had him scourged, and typically that meant they gave him forty
lashes, save one, with a multi-tendril whip. And many people didn't
survive that scourging. It was lethal in itself many
times, but yet, he said, no man taketh my life from me. He took
that. He was God Almighty and he absorbed
that punishment and then went on to the more brutal things. This is my body given for you. in a couple of Old Testament
Scriptures real quickly. Isaiah 53 said He was wounded
for our transgressions. In Isaiah 53, 5, He was bruised
for our iniquities. Boy, what a picture of that crushing
of that bread and breaking it up. Bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes, We are healed. And then further
on in verse 10 of Isaiah 53 says, 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, and he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand, and he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities." And boy, isn't that pictorial
of what we found in Exodus 12? You know, there was a lot of
people in the world, but the Lord said, Here's where to put
that blood. And when I see that blood, I'll
pass over you. In Psalm 22, verse 14, this prophetic
psalm David wrote that describes the
agonies that he went through as he was crucified. And it's
a fairly long psalm. I'm not going to read it today.
I'm just going to read two verses of it. Psalm 22, 14. I'm poured out like water, just
drained. And all my bones are out of joint
as He hanged there. My heart's like wax, it's melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
Thou has brought me to the dust of death." How pictorial that
is of the things that he endured. And so
he says, he break the bread. And he said, remember that. And
of course, it hadn't physically happened to him yet, but these
words would come back to them after that crucifixion. And he said, later on, this do in remembrance of me. It's just a symbol. It's just
a picture. It's just something that We gathered
together and as a group we remember what the Lord endured for us. And likewise in verse 20 of chapter
22 of Luke, also the cup, he said, likewise
also the cup after supper saying, this cup, This cup is the New
Testament in my blood, which is shed for you." You know, we just think, New
Testament, well, that means the last half of the Bible and stuff. It's a testament. It's a record. This is the New Testament in
my blood, which is shed for you. The blood which was portrayed
there, again, as we mentioned in Exodus chapter 12, verse 7,
the blood from the lamb slain applied effectually. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you, Exodus 12, 13. And he says in
the next verse in Exodus 12, 14, and this shall be for you
a memorial. It's interesting that we follow
this back into Genesis. chapter 49. All these Old Testament
scriptures are all tied together, and then they're applied effectually.
And then when we see them in the New Testament, we say, well,
I know where that came from. That was the gospel that they
preached from the Old Testament. Genesis 49.10, Binding his foal unto the vine,
and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes." What a pictorial
picture of this shed blood and his garments being drenched in
that forest. Isaiah 63. I thought this was
really interesting and I didn't really explore it very much in
this particular lesson because I wanted to focus on this due
in remembrance of me. But in Isaiah 63, 1, who is this
that cometh from Edom? Well, isn't that a strange place? We think about the Edomites and
we think of The guy that was the ruler there
being an Edomite, Herod. Herod was an Idomenean, an Edomite. The temple had been redone by him in his own kind
of image. He said, who is this that cometh
from Edom, with dyed garments from Basra? that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
Boy, what a picture of him. We think of the greatness of
his strength and enduring all this stuff for his people, all
these torments and abuse. He says, I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Boy, what a powerful words to
the church. He says, that's me. I'm the one coming. There's a question asked in verse
63, 2. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, in thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-fat?
Guess how pictorial that is. Crushing those grapes and squeezing
the grape juice out of them in the wine press. I've treaden the winepress alone,
and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in mine
anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment."
What a picture of his sacrifice for us. I've trodden the winepress alone."
And isn't that what it says in Psalm 22? I looked around, there
was none with me. There couldn't be anybody with
him. There was only one that was the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. There was only one that could
satisfy the justice and righteousness of God. So we have this do and
remembrance of me. When we take that cup, we think
of His blood and how it was squeezed and crushed out of Him. When we get to the crucifixion,
the Roman soldier that thrust his spear in, outflowed blood and water. But
before that, I don't think we can imagine the amount of blood
that must have flown from the scourging that he took, and from
the crowns. They had those wicked thorn crowns. When we were down in Yuma here
a while back, it's like everything down there either stick you,
stab you, or sting you. Everything got thorns on it,
and you come anywhere near them. I can't remember what those plants
were that our mom has there by her carport, but they got these
long leaves that come out, and they're real stiff. And on the
end of them, there's a thorn about that long. And if you walk
within three feet of that thing, it'd get you. And it hurts, and it's wicked,
and it's going to make a mark. And to have that jammed on your
head in mockery, the blood that surely ran down
from those things poking into him, and the scourging, and all
those things. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16,
Paul wrote, the cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the
communion? And that means partnership or
share of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break. Is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? We share. Paul said,
you know, I'm crucified with Christ. Not physically, I'm in him and he suffered those
things for us. And so kind of vicariously we
take part in those things because he did it for us. And it's a remembrance. It's a thing
to call us to mind to remembering what he did in our behalf. And so we come to another verse
in 1 Corinthians 11, and this has been sort of a, I don't know,
maybe a contentious thing, but I think it's not in the right
context. In this section in 1 Corinthians 11, these Corinthians were gathered
together for what they called the Lord's Supper, but they were
doing something else there that was not, It wasn't do this in
remembrance of me. It was a little party that they
were having there. They were calling it that, but
it really wasn't. And so Paul said, that's not
what this is for. If you want to do that, go home
and do it. When we come together to remember
what the Lord did for us, here's what we do. And he said, but let a man examine
himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. And so it becomes really an individual feast of remembrance
for each one of us that the Lord has saved and each one of us
to consider our deliverance by the Lord. And you know, we just
need that every day. When Norm brings the Lord's Supper
later, he quotes from Corinthians. Paul wrote, he was quoting Jesus
from these Gospels and said, as oft as you do these things,
as oft as you do these things, there's no set schedule. But
even if we don't observe them in a kind of an official capacity
like we will today, we need to be remembering this every day. And this bread of life, this
unleavened, this nothing added, we leave our works at home. We leave our works behind and
trust only in what He has done for us. The only ingredient is
pure, free, sovereign grace. The cup, the shed blood of Christ
in the place of those whom he loved with an everlasting love.
I loved you with an everlasting love and from that time I've
looked forward to delivering you from the condition that you're
in. In 1 Corinthians 5-7 Paul said,
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as
you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Therefore let's keep the feast
not with old leaven, the old works, the old I did this or
I kept the law or I I, I, I, I, I kind of thing. Not with
that old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Isn't
that a wonderful way that he puts that? No, no efficacy in
the, what we do is it's a memorial. It's a remembering, just remembering, just pausing. in considering
what he's done for us. Another thing that I think is
that I wanted to touch on briefly here today was because it said
that a man examined himself and Of course, it has that application
of there's no efficacy in it. There's no salvation in observing
that memorial. Judas was a good example of that
because Judas didn't have much to remember. He was there and he partook of
the elements of it with the other eleven. duly in remembrance of me probably
didn't mean much to him at that time. But in 1 Corinthians also,
in chapter 11, verse 20 through 29, where it talks about those
ones that were engaged in this poor behavior there regarding
the Lord's Supper. He says, He that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. And so some there at Corinth
were not observing this as a remembrance again, but for other purposes.
But it gives us a sense of that remembrance can only occur if
there's something to remember and that there's no works. And it also
doesn't mean that you need to somehow become worthy
before you partake. And when in truth, it's the exact
opposite. We're just needy all the time.
We're just needy every minute. And so we can no more become
worthy then we can become worthy for salvation. We can't. So it doesn't mean you have to
get yourself into a special state or some preparation whereby you
somehow become worthy. If you're not mentally prepared
or not in the right frame of mind, you somehow condemn yourself
to damnation. That's not what that was talking
about. So it doesn't mean that, oh, yesterday I committed some
terrible sin, or 20 or 30 on the way to church this morning,
or I haven't been attending, or I did this, or I didn't do
that. And that makes me unworthy to
participate in communion when actually, It really means that
you need to do in remembrance of Him more than ever. You need
to remember that of all those things that happened, He paid
the price for every single one. And while we don't desire to
sin, That's what Paul said, you know,
all the stuff I don't want to do, it seems like that's what
I end up doing. And no matter, I set my mind today, I'm just
going to do all good things and not sin. And yet, he says, that
doesn't seem to be what I do. And so that we have this flesh
warring against the spirit and the spirit warring against the
flesh. But the key thing is always to remember this due in remembrance
of me, that he took care of all those issues. And, you know,
David wrote about that in Psalm 86. He said, bow down thine ear,
O Lord, and hear me, because I'm poor and needy. Not like
I'm I'm pretty good. I haven't done anything this
week. I'm okay. I don't need you. I'm
poor and needy all the time. Preserve my soul, for I am holy."
And he recognized that it was God that made him that way. Now
my God, save Thy servant that trusts in Thee. Be merciful unto
me, O Lord, for I cry unto Thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy
servant, for unto thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou,
Lord, art good, ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all
them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to my voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble, I'll call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. What
a position that we're all in that. He's just writing for all
of us there. We're all poor and needy. We
need to be calling on him all the time. And he says, this do
in remembrance of me. What I did to take care of those
Those things. Paul wrote, Christ came into
the world to save sinners. Who I am, chief. I was a bad
sinner, but I'm not anymore. Right now, as he penned that
word down, he said, I am the primary worst sinner. That's what that word means. So, back to our text in Luke
22, 15, with desire, with great longing, I've set my heart on
eating this Passover with you from before the foundation of
the world. And so we look to Hebrews 12,
2 in closing and say, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Just remembering what
is needed every day and giving thanks. So, my friends, be free
in that. Until next time.