Now will you open your Bibles
with me to the book of Luke, chapter 22. Now we gather here tonight to worship
our Lord at the table of the Lord, and this blessed ordinance
was given to the church by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Luke chapter 22, we'll begin reading with verse 7. This was the day that the Passover
was to be slain. This was shortly before our Lord
went to the cross. And he met with his disciples
in the upper room to keep the Passover feast. It says in verse
7, Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must
be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying,
Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said
unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto
them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a
man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the
house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the good
man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the
guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?
And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make
ready. And they went and found, as he
had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he
sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them,
with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. Perhaps someone here tonight
would say, what is the Passover? What is the Passover? Well, for
that information, we turn to the book of Exodus, chapter 12.
Now, Israel was down in Egypt. They went down there, a band
of 70, and now they were 2 or 3 million. And they had been
there for about 400 years in captivity, in bondage, in slavery. And our God would deliver his
people from the bondage of Egypt, but Pharaoh would not let them
go. So the Lord sent his servant Moses down into Egypt to deliver
the people, and he sent plague upon plague upon plague, and
still Pharaoh would not let them go. And finally in chapter 12
of Exodus, verse 1, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning
of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb. Now note carefully the instructions
that Moses gave to Israel, and you'll learn what is the Passover. Every man, number one, take a
lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. If a household be too little,
too few people, for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next
unto his house. In other words, if there's just
a few people in that house, all of them together cannot eat the
lamb. It's got to all be eaten. So
you and the neighbor next door get a lamb between you, but only
take what you can eat. Take it according to the number
of souls. Every man, according to his eating,
shall make your count for the lamb." Now here's the second
instruction. And he said, your lamb shall
be without blemish. Not to be a sickly lamb, not
to be a frail lamb, not to be a worthless lamb, it's to be
the best lamb, first sling of the flock. It's to be without
blemish, without disease. It's to be a perfect lamb. And
then thirdly, it's to be a male. And it's to be a young male,
it's not to be an old sheep that's been around a long time and about
to die and worthless to you. But you shall take the perfect
lamb, the spotless lamb without blemish, and a male in the prime
of his life. And you shall take it from among
the sheep or from the goats. And here's the next instruction,
and you shall keep it up until the 14th day. Now that's four
days, three and a half or four days. You're to put that lamb
in a pen, the male of the first year without spot or blemish,
and you're to observe it. Make sure it's not sick, nothing
wrong with it. Make sure it does not fail the
test. Observe it for almost four days. And then you shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it. The
lamb is to be slain. It shall be killed in the evening. And you shall take the blood,
now watch this, and you shall take the blood and strike it
on the two side posts of the houses where you live, and also
on the upper door post of the house wherein they shall eat
it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, put the blood
on the door, roast him with fire. The lamb's not to be eaten raw.
It's to be roasted with fire. It's to be eaten with unleavened
bread. It's to be eaten with bitter
herbs. Verse 9, don't eat it raw. Don't mix it with anything. You don't mix the blood of Christ
with your works or law. Don't mix it with gravy or water.
Roast it with fire, his head, his legs, and with the pertinence
thereof, the inner parts. Let nothing of it remain. The
whole lamb, not just part of the lamb, but the whole lamb
is to be eaten. that which remaineth of it unto
the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it,
with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, staff in
your hand, ready to go, eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. The Lord's Passover. Now watch
the next verse. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt, nothing said about a deaf angel. God doesn't send
a messenger to do his work. He does it in judgment. God deals
with me and himself. I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the princes,
rulers of Egypt, idols of Egypt, whatever, I will execute judgment,
for I am the Lord. But the blood, the blood shall
be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. This is
going to be the separation between life and death. This is going
to be the difference between deliverance and condemnation.
This is going to be the difference between God's mercies and God's
wrath, the blood, nothing else. Not good intentions, not promises,
not works, not your ancestors, not what you used to be, not
what you meant to be, not what you're going to do someday, but
right now, watch it. And when I see the blood, not
when you see it, approve of it, or your neighbor sees it, he
says, when I see. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over. There it is. I will pass over. It's the Lord's Passover. I will
pass over you. and the plague and the judgment
and the overflowing scourge of God's wrath and death shall not
be upon you. Why? You're under the blood of
Jesus, safe in the shepherd's fold, under the blood of Jesus,
safe while the ages roll, safe though the walls may crumble,
safe though the stars grow dim, under the blood, only under the
blood of Jesus, I'm secure in Him. And now the plague will
not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day, now this is why
the disciples and our Lord gather together in this upper room,
and this day shall be unto you for memorial. And you'll keep
it, you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations,
and you'll keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. forever. Now there's a sense in which,
as these believers here, and the believers, our Lord and His
disciples, you and I, in one sense, are partaking of the Lord's
Passover tonight. Because the Lord Jesus, our Lamb,
and our Passover is sacrificed for us. Now you turn to 1 Corinthians
5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And that's what Paul says over
here in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7, listen. He says in verse 7,
1 Corinthians 5, purge out therefore the old leaven. Purge out therefore the old leaven
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even
Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Now turn back to Luke
22. This right here, that we're witnessing
in the Word, that we're reading, is the last Passover as such. The last Passover. Lamb slain,
roasted, blood applied, lamb eaten, this is the last Passover,
right here. For Christ, our Passover, is
to be sacrificed that next day. Now, from then on, From this
point right here on, it's the Lord's table. Now listen, in
verse 15 of Luke 22, and he said to them, with desire, I have
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. No
more Passover feast, I suffer. And he took the, and for I say
unto you, I will not any more eat thy rod until it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, And he gave
thanks, and he 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
he gave thanks, and break it, and gave it to them. He gave
it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you,
this do in remembrance of me. Now, if you'll just hold that
right there, let me go back. You don't have to, but let me
go back here to Exodus. and read you a passage here in
Exodus 12. Now listen. The Lord gave them the Passover,
the year they were in Egypt, slavery and bondage. He's about
to deliver them out, which is a picture of his delivering us
out of sin and darkness and death and bondage and slavery. And
he gives them the lambs, take a lamb, so forth, slay it, roast
it with fire, eat it, put the blood on the doorpost, and I'll
pass over you when I see the blood. Now you observe this peace
on down, ages to generations, once a year. And you shall come
to Paris when you come to the land of Canaan, which the Lord
will give you according as he had promised, that you shall
keep this service. And it shall come to pass when
your children shall say unto you, what do you mean by this
service? What do you mean by killing a lamb and roasting it
with fire on this certain day and eating it? What do you mean
by this service and the sacrifice, the Passover? Then you shall
say to your children, this is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover,
who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt
when he smote the Egyptians. and delivered our houses. And
the people bowed their head and worshiped. And this is what our
Lord is saying here. Now look at Luke 22, 19. And
He took the bread and gave thanks and break it and gave it to them
saying, this is my body which is given for you. Now, this do.
This do. Not that anymore. I'm the fulfillment
of that. I'm the fulfillment of that.
I'm the Lamb. Now let's go back. You hold that right there. Let
me show you something. Our Lord told Israel to take a lamb. Christ
is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist pointed to Him
and said, Behold the Lamb of God. There's the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. Isaiah 53 said He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before her shearers
is done. Christ is the Lamb. The Lamb
was to be without spot or blemish. Our Lord knew no sin. He had
no sin. There was no guile or sin in
him. He was in the prime of his life. Our Lord was 33 and a half
years old when he died on the cross. He didn't die of old age
or sickness. He died in the full health and
prime of his life. He was kept up not four days,
but several years. And he was tried by heaven and
tried by the word and tried by Satan and tried by men and tried
by demons and tried by everyone he was found to be perfect. And
then on the cross of Calvary, he was slain. He was slain. And I'll show you how the blood
is put on even now the doorpost by faith, and how we eat his
flesh and drink his blood, and how this is the Lord's Passover.
Now this is what he said, listen, this is my body which is given
for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, he took the
cup, saying this cup is a new covenant, new testament, new
covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. You see, we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. His
blood make us atonement for the soul. Through Christ we have
now received atonement. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. His blood speaketh better things
than that of Abel. His blood hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. His blood gives us boldness to
enter, yea, into the holiest of all. His blood makes us kings
and priests unto God, and by His blood we overcome. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. So he tells his disciples here
as much to say, there's no more Passover feast. There's no more
sacrifices. There's no more lambs to be slain. Our Lord takes the bread and
said, this is my body. And he takes the cup and says,
this is my blood. Now this do ye, as oft as you
do it in remembrance of me. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 11.
Then the apostle Paul, our apostle, the apostle to the Gentiles,
the one whom God saved and called and sent to be an apostle to
the Gentiles, to us. The apostle Paul gives this ordinance
from his Lord to the Gentile churches. In 1 Corinthians 11,
verse 23, listen to him. Listen to him. He instructs the
church in the observance of the Lord's Table. He instructs us.
You say, how are we to observe the Lord's Table? Here it is.
When are we to observe the Lord's Table? Here it is. In what manner
are we to observe the Lord's Table? Here it is. What are we
to use at the Lord's table? Here it is. Paul passes it on
to the church, just like the Lord gave it to his disciples,
the simplicity of it, the elements of it, meaning of it. Verse 23
of 1 Corinthians 11, he says this, For I have received of
the Lord that which I delivered unto you. How that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, unleavened
bread. We use unleavened bread because
leaven is a type of evil, and our Lord's body has no evil therein. I would no more use leavened
bread at the Lord's table than I'd sprinkle for baptism, because
water's available. And we use unleavened bread,
it's the Lord's body. There's no need changing it,
is there? He said, this do. Purge out the old leaven for
Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us. Leaven. When the Jewish
home observed the Passover, there wasn't any leaven in that home,
no yeast, no leaven in that home. It was all cleaned out, specifically
cleaned out. God ordered it cleaned out. And
when we come to the Lord's table, it's the responsibility of the
pastor, the leader of the church, to provide the elements the Lord
told us to provide. If you have to bake it yourself.
But it's unleavened bread. That's what he said. All right,
he took bread, and he broke it. This symbolizes the breaking
of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. His bones were not broken,
but this symbolizes his suffering. And he said, take eat. This is
my body. This represents my broken body,
my body broken for you. And do it, not in order to be
saved. Do it in order to be sanctified.
Not do it in order to bring the church together in unity. You
do it in remembrance of me. There it is. This do. This do,
not something else. This do, in remembrance of me. And he took the cup. And after
the same manner, he took the cup. And when he had stopped
saying, this cup is the new covenant, new covenant in my blood, this
do ye, this do ye. And this cup is wine, it's fermented
wine, because wine is a picture of the pure and holy and perfect
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, why use wine? Because
it pictures the pure blood of Christ. It will not spoil. You can put wine back there and
leave it there for years and years and years and years. It
won't spoil. A great juice will spoil. And it cannot be a picture
of Christ. We use wine and unleavened bread
for the same reason that we picture death, burial, and resurrection
by immersion in water. It's the way the Word gives it. John was baptizing in Eden because
there was much water there. You got to have much water to
baptize, just like you got to have a big hole to bury people.
They got to be covered over. And the same thing with the Lord's
table. Why do otherwise when he said this day? Let's do it. It's a simple feast. It's a simple
feast. Our Lord gathered his disciples
and they observed the Passover. They picked it up back yonder.
God's deliverance, God's salvation, God's miraculous deliverance,
God's love for Israel, God lifting them out, and as he brings them
out of slavery and bondage and captivity, he shows how he delivers
all sinners. This is the way God saves all
sinners. This is the way God redeems men. This is the way
God delivers all men out of bondage. He does it by the power of His
might. He does it by the blood of His Son. He does it through
the sacrifice of Christ. He could have brought Israel
out of Egypt some other way, but not showing His mercy in
Christ. And that's what you're doing
all the way down this Passover till now. And our Lord Jesus
gathered His disciples, And he takes the unleavened bread that
they used at the Passover. No leaven, no evil. And he breaks
it and shows his suffering and his agony, broken. His body was
broken, bruised, and he broke it. He said, this is my body.
And he said, you eat it. And you do it in remembrance
of me. As often as you eat this bread, this bread, you show the
Lord's death till I come. See what I said? And then he
took the cup, the wine at the Lord's table, and he poured it
in the cup, and he handed the cup to the disciples. Very simple,
isn't it? And he said, this is my blood.
Symbolic. It's not actually his blood.
His blood was still in his veins. He hadn't died yet. But this
is symbolic, representative of my blood. This element represents
my blood. Now you drink it, all of it,
and you do it. Why? In remembrance of me. In
remembrance of me. Why do something else? That's
what, again, that's what I can't ever figure. A preacher would
sit around and argue, why use this? He said to. Why not use
this? He didn't tell you to. Why not
do what he says? That's what I never can figure
out. Why not do what he says? It's very simple. He chose the
two simplest elements we have, bread and wine. Why not do it
like he said? You know, the religious world
has many thoughts and opinions about the observance of the Lord's
Table. There are many opinions. Opinions not hard to come by.
You can get an opinion most anywhere. Understanding is hard to come
by. Opinion comes off the top of
our heads. Understanding is revealed to
the heart of the Spirit of God. That's where it comes from. Understanding. To some people this is a mere
religious ritual. God have mercy on their souls.
Can you imagine the disciples sitting there around that table
when their Lord was about to go and suffer and bleed and die?
Sitting there with indifference? and carelessness, and just looking
upon that as another religious ritual, as he broke that bread
and crushed it and said, this is my body. As he took that wine,
and that wine was squeezed from the grapes, trampled from the
grapes, separated from the grape, which means death, and put in
a vessel. If your wine, John Chapman, was
put in a vessel tonight, you're dead. And that's what that is. This is my blood. And that to
them was no ritual. Meaningful. And God have mercy
on anybody to whom this is a ritual. And then to some people this
is nothing more than a church fellowship supper. I've asked
preachers, have you observed the Lord's table lately? No.
Why not? Church not in unity. And if you wait for every human
being to get in unity, you'll never observe the Lord's table.
There's no unity in this flesh. The unity is in Christ. Christ's
body is in unity. It's never out of unity. It's
always in union. To some people, this is a sacrament.
But what is it to us? All right. One verse, 1 Corinthians
10. I'll show you in one verse of
Scripture what this is. 1 Corinthians 10. This is what
it is. This is what it is. Verse 16. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? You know, we read a lot in the
Bibles about cups, this cup of blessing. Now look at it, this
cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? Is it not the communion of the
body of Christ? We read about various cups. Our Lord talked in Gethsemane
about his cup of suffering. He said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. He talks about the cup of our
suffering. He said to his disciples one
day, he said, can you drink of the cup that I drink of? And
be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized. Oh yeah,
you'll drink of the cup. You will. All that live godly
in Christ Jesus will suffer. at one time or other, maybe many
times. And then there's the cup of service.
Our Lord said this about a cup. He said, whosoever giveth a cup
of cold water to a believer in my name shall not lose his reward. And then there's the cup of God's
wrath. I read over here in Revelation
14, it talks about, Revelation 14, listen to this, verse 10. The same shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into
the cup of his indignation. Oh, cups, you could go on and
on, the cup of his suffering, the cup of our suffering, the
cup of service, the cup of his wrath. But Paul says here, this
is a cup of blessing. This is a cup of blessing. David called it the cup of salvation. Look over here in Psalms 116.
David calls it the cup of salvation. Be patient with me a few moments.
Psalm 116, listen to this. Psalm 116, verse 12. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits toward me? I'll take the cup. I will
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll take it. I'll tell you this
about this cup of blessing. He gave it at the table where
he took the cup and gave it to the disciples. He gave it. It's his cup he gave to them.
And secondly, he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in
my blood. I make all things new. All things
new. Nothing added to what you already
have. Behold, I make all things new.
This is the new covenant in my blood. And then David said this. He said, my cup's running over.
It's full and sufficient that it runs over. So this cup of
blessings, he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in the heaven. Now look at the next phrase here.
This cup of blessing which we bless. Which we bless. What does it mean, we bless it?
We know the Lord Jesus blessed it, but we bless it. The Lord
Jesus blessed it and gave it to his disciples. But tonight,
some of us are going to bless it. You see what I'm saying? We bless. This cup, we bless.
How do we bless it? Well, several ways. Number one,
we bless it when we set it apart. This is no ordinary cup, Gerald. This is no ordinary feast. This
is no ordinary meal. This is special. This cup represents
the blood of our Master. It's special. This cup, we bless. We set it apart. And then secondly,
we bless it by faith. We bless it by faith. No one
is to take this cup tonight who does not believe and discern
the broken body and shed blood of Christ. That's right. We bless
it by setting it apart. We bless it by faith. No one
is to take it who does not discern the broken body and shed blood
of Christ. And then thirdly, we bless it by prayer. He took
the cup and gave thanks. Can you say that? And gave thanks. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. We didn't deserve it. We didn't
earn it. We didn't merit it. Thanks be
to God with supplications, thanksgiving to God. And then we bless it,
fourthly, by meditation and discernment. He says, let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat. When we take that cup, we meditate
upon it and examine ourselves and see if we will discern the
broken body and shed blood of our Lord. Meditation. We bless
it with meditation and discernment. And then, fifthly, we bless it
by consecration and perseverance. Keep this peace. till I come. I'm not coming to this table
tonight and never again. I'm coming again and again and
again and as often as you do this. How often? He didn't say. Do you think we ought to take
it every last day? If you wish. Well don't you think
we ought to take it at least once a month? If you wish. How
about every quarter? If you wish. Why would we bind burdens upon
men that God didn't bind? He didn't say. He's never said. He just said, as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you show my death until
I come. As often as you do it with discernment
and understanding. And we bless it. We bless this
cup. by setting it apart. We bless
this cup by true, sincere faith in Christ Jesus. We bless this
cup by prayer. We bless this cup by meditation
and consecration. And we bless this cup by perseverance. We'll continue. And I'll tell
you this, if you look back at verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 10,
just behind our text, it says, my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry. I'll serve no other God. Flee
from idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. Putting
anything where it ought not to be is idolatry. All right, let's look back at
the text. This cup of blessing which we bless, Is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? This blood which we break, is
it not the communion, the communion of the body of Christ? The word
communion, there's the key. The word communion. This cup
of blessing, is it not the communion? What is the word communion with
reference to a believer in Christ? What does it mean? Let me give
you two or three things. Communion. First of all, it means
a union with Christ. It means intimate relationship. That's what it means, an intimate
relationship. The scripture says, we are one
with Christ in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and
we're seated with him in glory. Our Lord prayed this, I in them
and thou in me, that they may be one as we are one. We are
one with Christ. What Christ is, we are. What
Christ has, we have. Where Christ is, we are. We're
one with Christ. He is the head and we're the
body. He is the vine and we're the branches. We're one in Christ.
Cannot be separated. That's communion. And it's all
because of this blood and this broken body. What this wine represents,
what this bread represents, is not this, the communion, the
relationship, the union, the intimate relationship we have
with Christ, is it not because of his sacrifice and suffering?
Is it not? That's what it is. And when I
take, watch this now, when I take this bread, he said, it's out
there on the bulletin board now, except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man. and drink his blood, you have
no life in you. Now this bread here and this
wine, this bread which represents his sinless body, and this wine
which represents his sinless blood, we're taking now into
our mouths and into our bodies and into our beings, symbolically,
representing what we've already done by faith. We receive Christ
in you. That's the hope of glory. Paul
said, I travail to Christ be formed in you. See that? All right, secondly, this communion
is not this cup of blessing. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The word communion, secondly,
means sharing. It means possession. We are joint
heirs with Christ. If God spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? You know why I share in His glory? Because of this cup of blessing.
That's why. I got no right to it. Like old
John Jasper said, if somebody stops me at the gate of heaven
and says, John Jasper, what rights you got to be here? He's going
to say, I'm going to say, I got no right to be here at all. I'm
here on my rights. I'm here on the righteousness
of another. And that righteousness was perfected
by what he did in the breaking of his body and the shedding
of his blood. He died that we might be righteous. He lived
that we might be righteous. And because of what he, you see,
this cup of blessing, is it not our sharing? Is it not our possession
of what Christ has bought? Shall God not with him give us?
Is this in vain? The general atonement people
would tell you that. This might work and it might
not, depends on you. Did he die in vain? Was this body separate, broken,
in vain? Was this blood shed in vain?
Oh no, no, no, no. Never, cannot be. He of God is
made unto us all we need. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. This communion, union, intimate
relationship, sharing, possession, and I'll tell you this, thirdly,
it means fellowship. When we're in communion and when
we're communing, we're in fellowship. Not when we're arguing, when
we're communing. We're in fellowship. And John said, and our fellowship
is with him. And I preach to you that your
fellowship might be with him and us. That's fellowship. And you'll find it there, look
in the next verse, verse 17. For we, being many, are one bread
and one body. We're one. We're in union. with
Christ in one another, for we are all partakers of that one
broken body and that one shared blood. We're in union. We're
family. We're one body in Christ. See that? And then this union
means this in closing. It means reconciliation. Turn
to Romans 5. Now this is what Charlie read
to us, Romans 5. It means reconciliation. It means
no more anger, no more warfare. No more penalty, no more condemnation,
Romans 5 verse 10, forever. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled, brought home, pardoned, forgiven, accepted to God by
the death of His Son. How? By what's right here. This cup of blessing, is it not
the communion of the blood of Christ? What is the communion
of the blood of Christ? Union with Him. reconciliation
to Him, sharing in Him, possession of Him. All that I am or hope
to be is right here. It's all right here. If we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, much more being now reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. So do you see Do you see the
profoundness of it, and yet the simplicity of it? Profound. God became a man in
human flesh, a lamb, a Passover lamb, without blemish or spot,
and was slain. Here is his broken body and shed
blood represented by these simple elements. Simple elements. And yet it takes the revelation
of the Holy Spirit for men caught up in their ritualism and tradition
and in their do's and don'ts and in their rules and regulations
and in their processionals and complicated religion. And our
Lord calls His disciples apart. while they're down there in the
temple going through all of that ritualism, and feast days, and
holy days, and broad phylacteries, and long robes, and chantings,
and processionals, and all these things that made their very table
a stumbling block and a snare, and he calls them apart. He takes
a simple bread and he breaks it. He said, it's my body, broken
for years. And he takes the cup, he pours
the wine, says, my blood shed for you. It's my blood of the
new covenant, shed for the remission of your sins. Now you take this
bread and eat it. And as often as you eat it, you
show my death till I come. The heart works this. As often
as you drink this wine, you show my death till it comes. But Paul
says, let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth damnation, and drinketh
damnation to his soul. There's no game. There's no ritual.
It's experience. This cup of blessing, is it a
ritual? No. Is it a tradition? No. Is it a sacrament? No. Is it a form? No. It's the communion
of the blood of our Lord. It's the communion, the union,
possession, reconciliation, reality. He's more real to me than you
are, isn't he? Because we'll decay, and he'll
never live. Always has and always will. Can
you join with me in taking it in a meaningful manner? Russell,
you serve us, will you?