I'm going to speak to you today
on the subject the Lord's Supper called by some communion the
Lord's Table others the Lord's Supper and I'm choosing as a
text a passage from the 22nd chapter of Luke verse 19 and
20 if you care to open your Bibles to Luke 22 verse 19 and 20 The master is speaking here to
his disciples and it said he took bread and gave thanks and
break it and gave it to them saying this is my body which
is given for you this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup
after supper saying this cup is the new testament or covenant
in my blood which is shed for you." Now most people have a
thousand misunderstandings about the Lord's table. Others have
a thousand questions. But I'm going to try, if the
Spirit of God will be our teacher and give me the understanding
and wisdom, I'm going to try in this message to clear up the
misunderstandings. and answer the questions about
the Lord's supper. Now we have to go back and start
when Israel was in Egypt. When the nation Israel was in
bondage and captivity in the land of Egypt, they'd been there
almost 400 years. And the Lord showed mercy to
them and was pleased to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh
and from the slavery of Egypt. He sent, you remember, several
plagues upon the land of Egypt, and every time, Pharaoh would
halfway promise to let the people go, and then he'd change his
mind. The scripture said he hardened his heart. Well, after God sent
eight or nine plagues, the Lord came to Moses, and he said this,
he said, Moses, speak to the children of Israel. Have them,
number one, take a lamb, a lamb for each house. If the house
is too small for a lamb, they can't eat all the lamb between
them, then have a lamb for two houses, but have at least a lamb
for every house. Secondly, it's to be a lamb of
the first year. in the prime of life is to be
a male lamb. And then thirdly, the lamb is
to be put up or penned up for four days. It's to be penned
up for four days, from the tenth day to the fourteenth day. And
that lamb is to be observed because it's not to have one blemish
or one spot. It's to be a lamb of the first
year, a male lamb, and it's to be without blemish and without
spot, without disease. And then on the fourteenth day
of that given month, they were to kill the lamb in the evening. And they were to roast the body
with fire, and eat all of it, leave none of it to the morning.
And then they were to take the blood of the lamb, and put it
on the lintel and the two-side post of the house. And the Lord
said, I'll pass through the land of Egypt at midnight, and I will
kill the firstborn in every home from Pharaoh's palace even to
the firstborn of the cattle in the field. And Israel will be
protected, for this is the Lord's Passover. And when I see the
blood, I will pass over you." Now, I want you to clearly understand
what I'm saying, because this is very important. This is the
foundation for the Lord's Supper, for the Lord's table. Israel
is in Egypt. And God will deliver Israel out
of the land of Egypt. And he will do so through the
blood. He said for the Israelites to
kill a lamb and put the blood on the doorpost and on the little.
And God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. And this
is the Lord's Passover. Now, like every sacrifice in
the Old Testament, and like every sin offering, from the first
one which Abel offered, the blood on the altar, this is a picture
of Jesus Christ, the Lord, who is our Passover. You say, how
do you know that, preacher? Well, I know it For many reasons,
but chiefly, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5-7, for
even Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice for us. Now you'll
never understand the Lord's Table. You'll never understand how and
why it was instituted and what it means unless you can somehow
lay hold upon what I'm saying right now. Every Old Testament
sacrifice and every Old Testament sin offering, every Old Testament
offering and priest and altar is a picture of Christ. It is
a promise of Christ to come. You must see that. The Old Testament
is Christ and his sacrifice in prophecy, in promise, and in
picture, and in type and shadow. The New Testament is Christ in
person. fulfilling every prophecy, fulfilling
every promise, and fulfilling every picture. For example, let
me give you two or three. Our Lord said, as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. That's a picture. Jonah is a picture of Christ
in the earth. Christ said that Himself. And
then there was a rock. which Moses smoked, out of which
water came to satisfy and quench the thirst of Israel. And that
rock followed them. And Paul wrote in the New Testament,
that rock was Christ. That rock from which they received
water and nourishment and strength is a picture of Christ. That
rock was Christ. And then our Lord said, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." So you see, this lifting
up of the brazen serpent was not just some hocus-pocus and
some unique way God had of delivering those bitten by the fire serpent.
It's a type of Christ. It's a picture of Christ. All
right? Notice this, four times in the
Scripture, It is declared that Jesus Christ is a priest after
the altar of Melchizedek. Now let's go back to this Lamb.
Here at midnight, God said, I'm coming to the land of Egypt in
judgment, in wrath, in destruction. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. Now, Egypt is a picture of the
world. It's a picture of sin. And as
Israel was in captivity in Egypt, in bondage and slavery in Egypt,
Even so spiritual Israel, and those for whom Christ died, and
those whom God has purposed to save, they're in bondage, they're
in slavery, they're in sin, they're in Egypt, they're in darkness,
they must be delivered. They must be saved. So God said
to Israel, take a lamb. A lamb, that's a male, and it's
Christ Jesus our Lord. of the first year in the full
strength and health of life, a lamb without blemish or spot."
That's our Lord's holiness and righteousness. He knew no sin.
He did no sin. He had no sin. Our Lord was a
man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. And
that lamb was without blemish or spot, even as our Lord Jesus
Christ is without sin. And then as the Lamb was put
up in a pen for four days and watched and observed to see that
there was no fault in Him, no blemish or spot, our Lord walked
on this earth thirty-three and a half years, and they found
no fault in Him. Pilate said, I find no fault
in Him. He knew no sin. He was without
sin. And then as the Lamb was slain,
Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. He's the Lamb slain, yea, before
the foundation of the world. But actually, in His death on
Calvary's cross, He was slain and His blood was shed for us.
And God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. As under the law, the Old Testament,
almost all things were purged with blood. Even so, without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. And Peter wrote,
we know For we know that we are not redeemed with corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, from our vain conversation received
by tradition from our fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without spot or blemish, as a lamb without
spot or blemish. And Paul wrote in Hebrews, by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. But the key verse linking the
Passover with the Lord's table and with the death of Christ
is the one Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5 when he said, even so Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Now then, notice this, this
is very important. God commanded Israel to observe
that Passover feast every year. He said you are to observe it
every year. On this certain day, every year,
the Passover is to be observed. And Moses wrote in Exodus 12,
26, And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say
unto you, What mean ye by this Passover service? What are you
doing? Every year they'd slay a lamb, every year they'd roast
its body with fire and eat it, every year they'd take the blood
and offer it as a sacrifice, called the Passover, every year.
And he said, now when your children ask you, what do you mean by
this service? Then you shall say to them, it
is the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians. When God vested
Egypt in judgment and wrath and condemnation and smote the Egyptians,
He delivered us, and He delivered us through the Passover. Now
the Passover feast continued from that day when Moses and
Israel observed it in Egypt, from that day until the day Jesus
Christ came to this earth. They were still observing the
Passover. And they did it to fulfill all
the law. You say, well, why did the Lord
Jesus Christ observe the Passover? Well, He was our righteousness.
And the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled every type and every sacrifice
and every holy day and every law to bring in a perfect righteousness
before God. You see, He was made of a woman.
He was made under the law. Christ, when he came to this
earth, was born of a woman, just like we are. And he was born
under the law of the home, under the law of the land, under the
Levitical law, under the law of circumcision, under the Sabbatical
law, under the moral, under every law. And he had to fulfill them
all perfectly. He was circumcised when he was
eight days old, being a Jewish boy. He was taken to the temple
when he was a certain age to fulfill the sacrifice of purification,
the sin offering for his mother. He was brought to the temple
when he was 12 years old. He was baptized of John in the
river Jordan. And John said, you've got no
business being baptized of me. I ought to be baptized of you.
And Christ said, suffer it to be so to fulfill all righteousness. And so on this night, on the
evening before his betrayal and before his crucifixion, as was
his custom, our Lord gathered his disciples around the table
with him to observe the Passover. You notice there in Luke 22,
he said to the disciples, go and make ready a place where
we can eat the Passover. And it reaches all the way back
to Egypt. all the way back to the time
that God passed through Egypt and slew the firstborn, and Moses
had Israel slay a lamb and eat the roasted body and put the
blood on the door. It goes all the way back there.
And every year, every year, the children of Israel observe that
Passover. They observed circumcision, they
observed the holy days, they observed the Feast of the Tabernacle,
they observed the Sabbath day, they observed all those things,
and Christ did too. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
in a Jewish home, under the Jewish law, under the Levitical law,
and he fulfilled every bit of it by obeying it. And when he
obeyed it, as our representative, he fulfilled it, and it ceased,
as far as the believer is concerned. And that's what happened here.
Now, stay with me. Listen carefully. If you've got
questions, they'll be answered. But now that Christ was to be
slain, and this was on the eve, He is our Passover, slain for
us. He is our sacrifice. There's
one more lamb to be offered. After all these years, after
all these Passover feasts, after all these sacrifices, there's
one lamb, God's lamb. God's lamb without spot or blemish.
God's sacrifice on the eve of His sacrifice, on the eve of
His offering, on the eve of His crucifixion, He gathered around
the table with His disciples. This is the last Passover. For
after this, there'll be no need of a Passover. There'll be no
need of a Sabbath day, there'll be no need of a holy day, there'll
be no need of these feasts, because Christ is the fulfillment. After
he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
And Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. And when God
sees His blood, He doesn't have to see any other sacrifice, any
other offering, because Christ is the sufficient sacrifice.
And when He sees His blood, He'll pass over us. There's no judgment. There is therefore now no judgment,
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our
Lord fulfills the Passover picture in his sacrifice. And as he sat
with his disciples around the table observing the last Passover
before his crucifixion, he instituted and ordained the Lord's table.
He gave to his disciples the Lord's supper, and he tells them
this as he takes the bread. He holds the bread in his hand.
And he broke the bread. He blessed it and he broke it.
And he gave it to them. And he said, this is my body. This is my body broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And then he took the cup of wine
and he blessed it. And he gave it to his disciples.
And he said, this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant,
the new testament, which is shed for you. No more lamb slain. No more lambs eaten. No more
blood shed. No more sacrifice. This is it. This is my body broken. This
is my blood shed. You eat the bread and drink the
wine in remembrance of me. In remembrance of me. And as
often, Paul said, as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you do show the Lord's death until He comes. And the key to
the observance of the Lord's Supper And the key to understanding
or comprehending the Lord's Table is in these words, this do in
remembrance of me. Now, my friends, the Lord's Supper
is not a sacrifice. It is not a sacrifice. Christ
is our sacrifice. It is not a sacrifice. It's a
memorial feast. These elements do not contain
the body and blood of Christ. They represent the body and blood
of Christ. That's right. This is not a sacrament.
That is, it has no saving power. Christ is the only Savior. It
has no more saving power than water in baptism has cleansing
power. It's the blood that cleanseth
us from all sin, not the water. And the water is a picture. Baptism
is a picture of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It's
identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
It is not actually putting away sin. It pictures the putting
away of sin. And this bread, this element,
This symbol represents Christ's body, which was broken, which
does put away sin. And this wine is symbolic. It
represents the blood of Christ, which does put away sin. And
the whole purpose is summed up in these words, this do in remembrance
of me. He didn't say this do in order
to be saved. He didn't say this do in order
to stay in fellowship. He didn't say, this do in order
to get the church together in one accord. He didn't say, this
do as superstition. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. And then the Apostle Paul, in
1 Corinthians 11, instructed the church in their observance
of the Lord's table. Now listen to him, in 1 Corinthians
11, Paul said, that which I have received of the Lord. That's
why we call it the Lord's table. It's not the church's table,
it's the Lord's table. The Lord instituted it, the Lord
ordained it, the Lord gave it, and the Lord will bless it. The
same night in which he was betrayed, now listen to me, the same night
in which he was crucified, for he is our Passover. He is the
fulfillment of the Passover. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you, and Christ is the fulfillment. He took bread, unleavened bread,
Now, which is a picture of his perfect life. You see, leaven
is a type of sin. And all the leaven was to be
removed from the houses of Israel when they observed the Passover.
All leaven. It was to be unleavened bread. You can take unleavened
bread and put it in your cabinet, in your kitchen, and it'll stay
there for months and months and months. It'll never mold, it'll
never decay. It's without leaven. And Christ's
body is without sin. And therefore, to accurately
observe the Lord's table, unleavened bread is to be used, because
it pictures our Lord's perfect life. And then the wine, He broke
that bread. He took that bread and broke
it, which shows His suffering. He chose his suffering to show
his body was broken in suffering and agony on that tree. Broken. And then he took the wine, which
also pictures his sinless life. Wine which juice, which is put
up in a cabinet, will mold, it will spoil, but wine which is
fermented will not spoil. And you can keep it for months,
even years. And it represents the holy, spotless
life of Christ. And another way that that wine
represents the suffering of our Lord is the grape has the juice
in it, and the grape is pulverized, and the grape is squeezed, and
the grape has the very life mashed out of it, and the juice comes
out, and that's Christ's blood was shed. His body was broken,
and his blood was shed. It's an accurate picture. He
took the bread and broke it. This is my body broken for you.
He took the wine that was poured from the grape and squeezed out
of the grape and mashed out of the grape, gave it to them and
said, this is my blood. Now when you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you show the Lord's death until He comes.
It's not a saving power, it's not a sacrament, it's a memorial.
You show the Lord's death until He comes. I'd like to show you
how the Lord's table shows some things about the life and suffering
of Christ. Number one, it shows his incarnation.
The bread represents his flesh, his body. And the wine represents
his blood, that's flesh and blood. Our Lord became a man of flesh
and blood. He actually came into this world
in flesh and blood. Secondly, it shows his holiness,
unleavened bread and wine, without leaven, without evil. And then
thirdly, it shows his suffering, for the bread was broken and
the wine was poured out. And then it shows his substitution.
He said, broken for you and blood shed for you. And then it shows
our union with Christ because we eat it. That's what Israel
did with the lamb. They roasted it, which shows
our Lord's fiery sufferings on the cross, and they ate the lamb.
And we take the bread and put it in our mouths and chew it
up and swallow it and drink the wine, and that shows our union
with Christ. Our union with Christ. Now, let
me ask this question. Who is to observe the Lord's
table? There seems to be a lot of issues raised about that,
a lot of questions raised, a lot of conflict. Well, I'm telling
you this, the Lord's table is to be observed first of all by
believers only, those who know Christ. Because I ask this question,
how can you remember one whom you've never known? Our Lord
gave the bread to his disciples and the wine to his disciples
and he said to them, this do in remembrance of me. They knew
him. They loved Him. They believed Him. They walked
with Him. And they could remember Him. Now, one who's never loved
Christ and never known Christ certainly can never remember
Christ. And then Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 said this, "...let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat." What shall we examine ourselves
about? What is this examination concerning? Well, first of all, do I know
Christ? Do I love Christ? Do I believe
on Christ? And then do I discern? You know
what the word discern means? It means to judge. It means to
understand. Do I discern the Lord's broken
body? Do I know what this represents,
what this is all about? I've got no business at the Lord's
table if I don't know what this is all about. For Paul said,
he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, or in an unworthy manner, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's broken
body. And not understanding, not judging
the Lord's broken body. So who is to come to the Lord's
table? Well, those who know Christ. Those who choose to remember
Christ. Those who have something for which to remember Christ,
His sacrifice, and those who discern in a spiritual experience,
who judge and understand what it's all about. It's not just
a ritual. It's not just a religious ceremony. It's not just something to make
folks feel good. It's not just for atmosphere.
It's a memorial supper. It's a feast. celebrating the
sacrifice of our Lord and remembering Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. Who observed the Passover? Israel. Israel, the people who were delivered. Israel, the people who were brought
out of Egypt. Israel, the people whom God delivered
by His grace and power. Who observed the Lord's tables?
Spiritual Israel. Believers who are delivered from
sin, who are delivered from darkness and evil, who are delivered from
this present evil world by the blood of the Lord whom they remember,
and whom they honor, and whom they exalt, they observe the
Lord's table. Now then, how long are we to
observe it? He said, till I come. Till I
come. As often as you, and how often
are we to observe it? There's no rule. You say, should
we observe it every Lord's day or twice or three or four times
a year or whatever? There's no rule. As often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's
death for how long? Till he comes. And if your children
ask you the meaning of this service, what meaning by this service?
You're to say to them, it's the Lord's table. It's the Lord's
supper. In other words, when Israel,
when their children ask, what mean you by this Passover? It's
the Lord's Passover, who delivered us from Egypt when he smote the
Egyptians and destroyed them. And our children ask us, what
is this Lord's Supper? It is the Supper of the Lord,
who delivered us from sin by the sacrifice of himself. And
when he passes through in judgment, we're delivered. We show it.
To whom do we show it? Well, I show it to myself. It
strengthens me. I show it to God. Oh God this
is my hope. I show it to fellow believers.
I'm with you in the one hope Christ Jesus and then I show
it to the world. It's instruction in the way of
life. Now this very important message
on the Lord's table is on a cassette tape along with another message
I'll be bringing next week on the subject the life of faith.
Now I feel these are two Very significant messages, very important
messages, and I believe they'll be helpful to those who will
take them and study them and listen to them and pass them
on to someone else. And I want you to have them. This message, The Lord's Table,
and the one next week on The Life of Faith. If you'll write
to us, we'll send you these two messages on one cassette tape.
You send a donation of two dollars. That's what it cost us to make
them and mail them to you. And we'll be glad to send them
by return mail, right for the Lord's table and the life of
faith. Until next week, I bid you a
very pleasant good day.