In the twenty-sixth chapter of
Matthew, the Lord is instituting the Last, or the Lord's Supper.
And in verse twenty-six, we're going to read then through verse
twenty-eight. Then switch to I Corinthians
chapter eleven. Watch the record, please. And
as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke
it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is
my body. And then he took the cup, gave
thanks, gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it. for this is my blood of the New
Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sin." Now,
Paul's account in 1 Corinthians 11, he gives this account for
a certain reason, their great abuse of the supper of the Lord,
and he writes them on that account. Verse 23, For I have received
of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the
Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he broke it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is
broken for you, this do in remembrance of me." After the same manner
also, he took the cup when he had sucked, saying, This cup
is the New Testament in my blood. This do as oft as you drink it
in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until
he come again." One of the brethren in the back, this row of lights
did not get turned on over there, please. Some folks are half in
the dark. I think that might be what it
is. All right, our subject this morning is the Supper of the
Lord. We are aware from reading the
chronology of the Gospels of our Lord that one of the last
acts of our Lord Jesus Christ before his arrest, his subsequent
condemnation, and his crucifixion was the institution of a memorial
supper in his remembrance and honor. It was to be observed
by his people, it was to be done as a commemoration of his death
and the giving of his body as a sacrifice for the salvation
of his people. Paul said it occurred on the
same night in which the Lord was betrayed, 1 Corinthians 11
and verse 23. The Scripture tells us that there
were two material elements that were used in the supper of the
Lord, and they are bread and wine, and that the eating of
the bread and the drinking of the cup were to be done as a
memorial and to show forth the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His body bruised and beaten and
upon the cross. his blood shed there for the
remission of sin and for the initiation of the brand new covenant. Now as far as its name, we have
called it the Memorial Supper, one called it Communion, a name
that I am less than fonda, but is used by Paul in 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 16. He uses the word communion. Paul also refers it to the Lord's
Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 20. And concerning this
memorial supper, we can say the following things to be biblically
and scripturally true. First of all, the supper is biblical,
that is, it is a spiritual thing to do. It is clearly set out
for us in the Blessed Scripture in three synoptic Gospels and
by Paul. It is mentioned in all first
of the three Gospels of the New Testament, and Paul has a large
and elongated passage on the celebration of the supper in
1 Corinthians chapter 11 as to its right use. So it is a scriptural
thing to do. Secondly, it is special, being
the only one of its kind, or the only one of its likeness. It is special because it has
a special and a particular purpose in mind. Thirdly, it is spiritual,
because it relates or remembers for us the Lord's death, and
the partaking of it stirs up in us spiritual feelings for
the Lord and about the Lord and His death. And fourthly, it is
a standing ordinance under the Church. 1 Corinthians 11 and
verse 26, it shows the Lord's death. until he come. As often as it is done, Paul
says, it is so. Now the institution of the memorial
supper was on this wise came to pass in this way. Jesus, you
remember, had assembled together in an upper room with his disciples
or apostles in order that they might eat the Jewish Passover
supper. Now, that Passover was celebrated
by the Jews every year as a memorial of their deliverance out of the
land of Egypt by the hand and the power of God. And each family,
therefore, was to take a lamb A lamb provided a lamb as ordained,
and they were to kill that lamb, and they were to put the blood
upon the doorpost of their houses down in the land of Egypt. And God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. When I smite the wicked, I will
pass over you. Hence the name Passover. And it was kept for a long time. Now, here is a point to make,
and one that we could expand upon. that just as Spurgeon noted
in his commentary on the book of Matthew, that it was while
Jesus and his disciples were together eating the Passover,
or the Paschal Supper if you prefer, it was while they were
eating, and perhaps near the end of the meal, that the Lord
instituted this memorial supper to commemorate his death. For
Paul says, Jesus is our Passover and has been sacrificed for us. Thus, all over the city at this
particular time, all over Jerusalem, There were Jewish families there
who were eating and keeping the Passover according to the ordinance
given through Moses. Having killed their lamb in the
evening, and Hal had making it ready, they all over the city
were in their homes observing the Passover supper. And Jesus
did so as well. He was born under the law, do
you remember? and he kept those Jewish ordinances
up until his death. He observed the ceremonial law
as being a Jew. For example, he was circumcised. He kept on the Sabbath day and
the feast days and the high one, the Passover. Each time that
it occurred during his ministry, the Lord kept the Passover. Now, just so we are clear, On
the manner and the meaning of the yearly Passover, it was itself
kept as a memorial of the deliverance of the nation of Israel out of
the bondage of Pharaoh and of Egypt. Exodus 13, 1 through 10
is a good account of that. Exodus 12 and verse 42. is another account where it was
to be done through their generation as a memorial of God having delivered
them out. I fully appreciate the comment
that I found in Spurgeon's commentary on Matthew, though the commentary
itself is not extensive but rather brief, but Spurgeon did say this. that the Lord Jesus made the
Jewish Passover to melt into the Lord's Supper." It seems
certain that the Lord Jesus also used the same lime and the same
bread that was used in the Passover Supper to institute the New Supper
of the Lord. For Matthew chapter 26 and 26,
we read, "...as they were eating." That is, the Passover supper
that Jesus took bread, probably a loaf of bread provided for
the Passover, and He broke it. And Luke 22 and verse 20 said,
"...likewise the cup after supper, after they had eaten, when he
had supped, the Lord took the cup. These were common elements
of the Jewish Passover supper or celebration, and the Lord
used them in the institution of it. And when he passed the
cup to them, he said unto them, Drink ye all of it. This is my
blood of the new covenant, shed for many. And when he passed
the bread to them, he said, E, this is my body which is broken
for you. In Mark's account, there is a
little bit of a distinction. Chapter 14, verse 23 and verse
24, And he gave to them, and they all drank of it, and he
said, This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for
many. Luke 22, 20 said, This cup is
the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. Now, there is a double memorial
in this wonderful supper of the Lord. worn the bread which signifies
his own body, which would be mistreated and beaten and bruised,
and then hanged on the cross and mutilated some more. Two,
there was the cup, or the wine, which signifies, he said, his
blood. And not only his blood, but his
blood as the blood of the new covenant, shed for many, for
his people, for the remission of sin. So let's latch on to
the words of the Lord. This is my blood of the New Testament,
or the Word could be covenant blood. Not only so, but it is
the blood of the New Testament or of the New Covenant. That's
very important. It carries us back to the Old
Testament, then back to that upper room again. This fact will
serve us better. if we now take the time that
we might consider the old or the first covenant. Scripture
speaks of first and second, the new and the old, and such like. So if we consider the old or
the first covenant. This will take us to a few places.
One is Hebrews chapter 9, verse 18 through verse 22, where the
author tells us, and the Jewish readers of this epistle in verse
18, listen carefully, neither was the First Testament dedicated,
that is, it was not set up, it was not inaugurated, it was not
put in force. The First Testament was not dedicated
without blood. That's a very important thing.
There was blood. And in verse 20, he quotes Moses. I'm talking about Hebrews 9,
verse 20. He quotes Moses as telling the
people on that occasion, this is the blood of the covenant
which God hath enjoined or we might say, commanded unto you. This we have in Exodus 24 and
verse 8, where Moses said to them, Behold the blood of the
covenant which the Lord has made with you. Now, the argument runs
something like this. The first covenant was not established
without blood. The first covenant itself was
not set in force without blood. It was not put in force apart
from death and the shedding of blood. We read that Moses took
the blood, that is, the blood of beasts. At that occasion,
Moses took the blood and he sprinkled it upon the altar, the scripture
said, and upon the people in Exodus chapter 24. Moreover,
in Hebrews 9, 19 through verse 21, he sprinkled the book of
the covenant. Moses did all of that. And not only that, but he sprinkled
the tabernacle and all the vessels used in the ministration of the
service of the Lord. And the reason why even the First
Testament was not put in force apart from blood and apart from
death is very clear. It is because Hebrews 9 and verse
22, without shedding of blood there is no remission. And that's why the First Testament
also was instituted or inaugurated with blood. Without blood there
is no remission of sin. Now, this being so, In the Old
Testament, it then follows that the New Testament itself be ratified,
be inaugurated by death and by the shedding of blood, that to
have the nature of a covenant between God and the people, there
was of necessity to occur the death of the testator and the
shedding of his blood. For the inheritance cannot pass
unto the heirs until there is the death of the testator. That's in Hebrews chapter 9. How many have killed their parents? or have hired someone to do it
in order that they might speed up the inheritance, for it is
upon their death that they inherit. In Leviticus 17 verse 11, here
is such a critical passage of Old Testament Scripture. We see
the significance again, see the importance of blood as a means
of atonement for the sins of the people. The verse says this,
if you didn't turn there, for the life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given it to you to make an atonement upon
the altar for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement
for the soul." All of that is in that chapter in Leviticus
17, 11 and so. This is in that place, and others
that the eating of blood, the ingesting of blood, was strictly
forbidden under the ceremonial or the mosaic law. Wonder why? Why were they not to eat blood? Well, number one, because it
was the life of the flesh or the life of the body. And number
two, and mostly, because blood was used for atonement, and they
were not to eat it as a common food, for it had been set aside
by God for use in atonement. Blood is the appointed means
of atonement. And so the ingesting of blood
was therefore forbidden upon two accounts, one in the nature
and essence of the blood, the other in the fact that it was
consecrated by God to a very holy purpose indeed, or atonement
that God in His sovereign purpose had determined that blood is
the only proper means of atonement. We are aware that that blood
of the first covenant was the blood of goats and calves and
bullocks and heifers and turtledoves. In other words, it was animal
or beastly blood with which Moses did sprinkle the people, the
tabernacle, the altar, and the vessel. And Moses referred to
it as the blood of the covenant. And we want to keep that in mind.
Now, what did the Lord say when he instituted the supper? This
is my blood in the new covenant. This is my blood of a new covenant."
The prophet said that God would make a new covenant with the
house of Israel, and a covenant made with blood, therefore, to
ratify. And while animal blood was the
blood of the old covenant, the blood of Christ is the blood
of the new covenant. What did Moses say in Leviticus
17 and verse 11? I have given you blood upon the
altar to make an atonement. In Hebrews 9 and 22, without
shedding of blood is no remission. And Jesus said to those present
there, this cup is the blood my blood of, or in the New Testament,
shed for the remission of sin. Without shedding of blood is
no remission. This is my blood shed for the
remission of sin. It is the book of Hebrews that,
more than any other, clearly brings this into a proper focus
for our understanding, especially, would that be true for the sake
of those first century Jews, that the new covenant has a better
priest. It has a better sacrifice. It
has better blood. It has a better hope. It is established
upon better promises. It has a better mediator. So that in every single way,
it is a better covenant on account of Jesus who is its mediator
and whose blood represented it. He is a priest. after the order
of Melchizedek. Now, the cup was symbolic, a
representation of blood, which Christ would shed upon the cross
and, get it again, was the blood of the new covenant. This brought
in and sealed and ratified the new covenant in the blood of
the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 13 and 20 gives it as
much as can be given unto it when he says, it is the blood
of the everlasting covenant. The covenant everlasting, the
blood of Jesus by which God brought him again from the dead. is the
blood of the everlasting covenant. And I think here in this verse,
there is tied the knot between the blood of the Lord and the
covenant, or the new covenant. Jesus shed covenant blood. That blood sprinkled in the Old
Testament was covenant blood, but it was in the old form of
the covenant. That which Jesus shed is covenant
blood. And note again that it is called
there in Hebrews 13 and verse 20, the everlasting covenant,
the blood of the everlasting covenant. In that, unlike the
first or the old covenant, the covenant which was Confirmed
before of God in Christ, as Paul writes in Galatians, cannot wax
old, cannot decay, cannot vanish away, Hebrews 8.13. While that covenant at Sinai
was from generation to generation, the new covenant is in and through
Jesus Christ and is everlasting, for his blood is the blood of
the impeccable God-man himself, the Lord Jesus. And the coveting
parties in all of this are the Holy Three, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. in bringing many sons to glory,
the purpose of this death and incarnation. Some good theologians
make a particular distinction here that we might consider between
the covenant between the Godhead and the covenant of grace and
redemption in Christ made with the elect. John Gill calls it
the everlasting counsel between the three divine persons concerning
the salvation of men." And there was there made a covenant of
grace, a covenant of grace before the world began, by which the
elect would be saved through the blood of the mediator of
the covenant, even Jesus. by which covenant arrangement
the Son would put on flesh. He would assume human nature
while keeping his divine nature. He would become incarnate. He
would give perfect obedience to the law and all of the commands
of God. And then, bearing the curse of
that law, he would die the death of a malfactor upon a tree. whereby the Father would send
the Spirit on a mission of regeneration to those that the Lord had purchased
with His blood. The blood of Christ is the blood
of the everlasting covenant. It is the blood that appeases
the wrath of God. It is His blood that makes an
atonement for sin, that covers our sin, as in the Old Testament. It is called the blood of the
covenant because it makes atonement as a sacrifice unto God which
gains the pardon of those for whom It has been shed. He gave himself in death, and
he gave himself according to Hebrews 13 and verse 20. After having died, Jesus was
raised back to life again through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. There we ought to notice, just
for a bit, the word everlasting. The word everlasting actually
sets it apart from any temporal or worldly or covenant between
man. One that might be broken, we
might establish, but it would be broken. Because the covenant
with Christ cannot be broken, it has the son as the surety
of the covenant. The covenant cannot miscarry
as it hinges upon the death and the blood. of the Great Shepherd
of the Sheep, which John Brown, we can define this covenant as
that divine arrangement or constitution by which spiritual and eternally
blessed things are secured for the elect through the death and
intercession of our Lord. And the bringing Him up from
the dead is clear evidence that the blood is accepted as the
blood of the new covenant. Our surety is let out of prison
by which we know that the price is accepted. We know that He
coming again from the dead means that this new covenant has been
ratified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
point in relation to those texts and this covenant, in that so
many people who are regular in church have never heard in their
life that there is such a thing as a covenant, a covenant pertaining
unto salvation, and have never heard that salvation is after
the order of a covenant arrangement. Now, none can have a proper view
of salvation who are ignorant of the covenant. This is the
covenant in my new blood. And this morning, as we partake
of the supper, there are two things for us that we want to
note. Number one, it is done in remembrance
of Jesus. It is done to remind us as it
were a picture of his death and of his shedding of his blood.
Yes, he said, do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22 and verse 19. We are to remember the Lord in
the taking of the supper. But then there is a second thing,
that is, it shows the Lord's death. It symbolizes his body,
which was broken. His blood that was shed. The bread and the wine are symbols
of the body and the blood of our Lord. not a sacrament, as
some call them, not a means of grace, but a memorial supper
in remembrance of the Lord, showing His body was crucified, His blood
was shed, He was put to death, put to death according to the
everlasting covenant. This is my blood of the new covenant,
shed for many for the remission of sin. And thank God for the
institution of it. As oft as you do it, you show
the Lord's death until he come again.