That's a good question, isn't
it? How can it be? If you will, let's open our Bibles
tonight to the gospel according to Luke chapter number 22. And I want to speak to us tonight
on remembering Christ. Remembering Christ. Luke chapter
22 and beginning with verse 14. And when the hour was come, he
sat down and the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them
with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For
I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break and gave unto 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 a new testament, new covenant in my blood which
is shed for you. But behold the hand of him that
betrayeth me is with me on the table. And surely the son of
man goeth as it was determined but woe unto that man by whom
he is betrayed. The Lord's Supper. is a communion
or remembrance service. We see from this passage of scripture
that I've just read, I trust you've read also, we see that
a person may eat the Lord's table, may eat the bread and drink the
cup and not be saved. We see that because our Lord
tells us the hand of him who would betray him was on the table. As our Lord spoke these words,
in other words, Judas was there, the son of perdition. He took
the bread and ate, and he took the cup and drank, but this is
not the way a person is saved. A person could take the Lord's
table for years and years, all of their life, and not be saved. This is a communion service for
those who are saved, with their Lord, with their Savior, a remembrance
service. The same thing is true about
baptism. And I bring this up because it
is true that people have been taught over the years that people
are saved by the Lord's Supper or people are saved by being
baptized. But we know that's not true because
we have the example in the book of Acts where was it Philip,
I believe it was, baptized Simon Magus. And when Peter and the
other apostles came down, this man who'd been baptized, he offered
money. He wanted to have that power
that he saw, the power of the Holy Spirit. to work miracles
that he saw that the apostles had. And what did Peter tell
him? Peter told him, thy money perish
with thee. So the first thing we see tonight
is this is a remembrance service. It's a communion service. It's
not a way of being saved. Salvation is by grace through
faith. by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, a person is saved. I read again this past week the
testimony of Charles Chinoquy, a French-Canadian, from his book
written in the 1800s, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, and his
testimony concerning his first communion service. He was 12
years of age when he was given communion first. But I want to
read to you, and I'm quoting what he said. Think of this,
a young lad, 12 years of age. I extremely abhorred the idea
of eating human flesh and drinking human blood. even when they assured
me that they were the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ himself. But what troubled me most was
the idea of that God who was represented to me as being so
great, so glorious, so holy, being eaten by me like a piece
of common bread. Terrible then was the struggle
in my young heart where joy and dread, trust and fear, faith
and unbelief by turns had the upper hand. This is not by any
means a service in which we eat the flesh and drink the blood
of Jesus Christ. We do this in remembrance of
him. How does a person eat his flesh
and drink his blood? And our Lord said, if a person
doesn't do that, he has no life. He has no life in him. But if
a person eats his flesh and drinks his blood, he has eternal life. But it's not physically eating
bread that has somehow been turned into the flesh of Christ or drinking
wine that's somehow been turned into the blood of Christ, we
know that. But it is by faith, by faith
we eat his flesh and drink his blood, that body which was prepared
him of the Holy Spirit. He as our mediator between us
and God Almighty by faith in him. Trust in Him that He is
the surety of the covenant, that He paid for our sins by His sacrifice,
yes. But that's how we eat His flesh
and drink His blood, not by some service like this. This, as I
said, is a remembrance service. How do you remember someone? How do you remember someone?
I thought about my father. How do I remember him? Well,
I remember things about him. I remember the year in which
he was born. I remember his parents that I
knew. I remember the life that he lived. What I was told before, of course,
I came along and then during my lifetime when he was alive,
and I remember when he died. How do we remember Christ? He said, this do in remembrance
of me. Well, we remember things about
Christ. That's how we remember him, just
like that's how we remember loved ones who've gone on before us.
things that we know about them. I have a few things tonight as
we think about remembering Christ that I want to mention. First,
we remember what we read about His birth. In remembering Christ,
we remember what we read, what we're told, and what we know
as truth about His birth. We remember that His birth, first
of all, was promised. His birth was promised, promised
to the first man who ever lived, Adam. The seed of the woman shall
bruise the head of the serpent. His birth was promised to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. In thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. His birth was promised to David. When the Lord told him, thy seed
will I establish forever. So when we think about his birth,
we remember that his birth was a promised birth, and it was
a birth that was foretold. It was foretold. 600 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world as a man, before he
was born into this world, 600 years approximately, we know
that Isaiah, by prophecy, by the Spirit of God, said, therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. 600 years before he was born. His
birth was foretold. A virgin would bring forth a
child, and he would be called Immanuel. And Matthew's gospel,
of course, tells us, doesn't it, what that word Immanuel means. It means God with us, God with
us. God with us. God came into his
creation as a man. The word, the eternal word of
God was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory
as of the only begotten of the father. We remember that his
name was given to him. Now, Mary was his mother. Joseph,
I think this is the way it's written in Luke's gospel, his
supposed father. In other words, the people around
them that knew Mary and Joseph and Jesus and his brothers, because
she had other children, well, they suppose that Joseph was
his father. But we know that wasn't the case. But do you remember that an angel,
an angel was sent to tell Mary, first of all, and then Joseph,
his supposed father, what they should name their son? Jesus,
Jesus. And you know, even the place
of his birth was foretold. This was some 700 years, Micah,
the prophet Micah, some 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world. The prophet said, but thou Bethlehem
Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.
a small village among the many villages of Judah. And it was
pointed out because there were other cities, from what I've
read, there were other cities named Bethlehem, but it was pointed
out it would be Bethlehem of Ephrathah among the cities, small
cities. of Judah, the tribe of Judah,
the property that was given to the tribe of Judah when they
came into the promised land. Yet out of thee shall he come
forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings
forth, we know it was prophesied that he would be more than just
a man because his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. And before I move on to the second
thing, I want us to remember, we think about his birth, but
have you ever read what it took? Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. What it took for them to end
up in Bethlehem at the time that she gave birth. How did God move
the Caesar, the ruler of the known world, to decree the decree
that he decreed that all the peoples would go back to their
birthplace to be taxed or for there to be a census. God's providence
arranged the place of his birth. Remember that, who he is. We remember what we read about
his life. What we read about his life.
His life in this world was foretold again some 600 years before he
came into this world. Isaiah said he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant. And as a root out of a dry ground,
he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When we
read about his life, there's so much to remember him. We remember when the Jewish priest
sent the temple police to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
teaching in the temple. And those soldiers went, and
they came back without him, and they said, we sent you to arrest
him. Their response was, never man
spoke as this man. Never man spoke as this man.
Think about his words. He spoke words of power. That
evening when the disciples awaked him on board that ship, and the
ship was, they thought, was going to be overcome with water, and
he stands up and says, peace. Peace, be still. And the winds
and the waves obeyed his voice. Words of power. He spoke not
only words of power, but words of healing. When that leper,
oh, what an awful, awful disease, outcast from his family. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me whole. I will, be thou clean. Words of healing. He spoke words
of comfort. Remember that woman who was taken
in the very act of adultery, they said, and brought before
the Lord. And they said, now the law says stone her, what
do you say? Well, you know the story. But
in the end, he said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. He
asked the woman, where are thine accusers? Doth no man? Condemn thee or
accuse thee? No man, Lord. Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. He spoke words of kindness. No man ever spoke like this man. Words of kindness. Come unto
me, all ye that labor, all you loaded down with sin. Your conscience
is troubling you. You have a great fear. You're
going to meet God Almighty, and you know you're not prepared.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Both words of kindness. And then
when I think about his life, I think about his patience. Patience. He was patient with everyone,
wasn't he? But he was certainly patient
with his disciples. We didn't read it, but here,
if we'd continued reading here in Luke, we would have read immediately
after what we read, that they were having a discussion, which
of them would be the greatest. He was patient. When Philip said,
show us the Father, and we'll be content. Have I been so long time with
you? And hast thou not seen me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father, patient in teaching his disciples. And I kind of
jump ahead of myself, but don't you marvel at the way after God
the Holy Spirit came upon those men on the day of Pentecost,
how they He opened up their minds to the scripture and they saw
the fulfillment of prophecy and was able to preach and teach
with such clarity and such power. But our Lord was patient, patient. We remember what Peter later
said in the house of Cornelius, a Gentile man. preaching the
gospel to him, what he said about the life of Jesus. God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went
about doing good. Went about doing good and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And then we read about what John
the apostle wrote, and there are also many other things which
Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one,
I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the
books that should be written. How many miracles do we read
about? Surely just a tie, just a fraction. of the miracles that our Lord,
the healing miracles and opening blind eyes and giving power to
lame men to walk. This do in remembrance of me,
remembrance of life. And then of course we remember
his death and that's what is pictured to us here this evening. And we especially think of his
death. His death was foretold, just
as his birth was foretold, the time of his birth was foretold
in the book of Daniel, the place of his birth, that he'd be born
of a virgin. That was all foretold. His life,
the kind of life he would live, as Isaiah pointed it out, no
form nor comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. You
know, there was a time in the Middle Ages when if you were
an artist and wanted to paint or do work like that, you had
to paint religious pictures. That's all that was allowed.
And so you see those pictures most of the time with who is
supposed to be Jesus with a halo or around his head. His mother,
Mary, Joseph, and those others. No, that's not the way he looked.
He was acquainted with grief. I read one time, I'm pleased
to make your acquaintance. People don't say that anymore.
Used to. You meet someone, I'm pleased
to make your acquaintance. The Lord Jesus Christ, he made
his acquaintance with sorrow, with grief. That was his life
in this world, as he went about doing good. But oh, when we think
about his death, his death also was foretold and pictured in
the many sacrifices. You read through the book of
Leviticus, the book of the priest, Leviticus, and all of those various
sacrifices, they all pictured the Lord Jesus Christ somehow. Man would know that he had committed
an offense, had broken the law of God, and he'd bring an animal
and bring it to the priest. And he himself, for many of those
sacrifices, the man who brought the animal, he had to slay the
animal. What do we see there? We see
the innocent dying in the place of the guilty. That his death
was vicarious. That he died for his people. And we learn from him that he
laid down his life. He said it very clearly, didn't
he? No man taketh it from me. What power. What power is demonstrated
even in what we would think his weakest hour on the cross when
he of his own will, his own power, bowed his head and dismissed
his spirit. No man taketh my life from me.
I lay it down of myself. This commandment have I received
of my father, both to lay it down and to take it again. We remember his death. He also
tells us that the son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. We know
what a ransom is, don't we? I think we do. Someone is in
captivity and a ransom is demanded. In a country that I've read about
over the years, a wealthy family that have a son or daughter,
usually a son, it seemed like, but they'd kidnapped the son
and they cut off one of his fingers. and send that finger to the family.
This is what we're demanding, a ransom. A million dollars. One famous singer in Mexico paid
a million dollars to ransom his son. They'd sent his finger to
him. We know what a ransom is. It's
a payment to release a prisoner. Our Lord said that he gave his
life a ransom for many, for many. How many? As many as the father
had given unto him. The ransom paid, what must take
place? The captive must be turned loose. Kevin sang it in that hymn this
morning. Can God demand payment twice? First at my bleeding surety's
hand, and then again at mine? No, no. We remember his death,
don't we? How he gave his life a ransom
for many. And fourth, we remember what
we read about his resurrection, his ascension. The fact that
he said in the psalm, my flesh shall rest in shall rest in the
grave. Why? Because he knew, he'd been
promised that his body would not see corruption, that he would
rise again. And on that third day, as he
said, the only sign that's going to be given to this generation
is the sign of Jonas the prophet. As he was three days in the belly
of the well, so shall the son of man be three days in the heart
of the earth. On that third day, he came out,
didn't he? We remember that. Oh, the victory. Conquered death. Conquered death. Think about
that. You ever heard of anybody conquering
death? That's the last enemy that shall
be destroyed. That's the king of terrors. Lord Jesus, we think about his
resurrection, don't we? And then, 40 days later, his
ascension to the right hand of the majesty on high. And he's
there, not twiddling his thumbs, he's there reigning today and
ruling. And he's going to reign until
The last enemy is destroyed, which is death, and then he shall
deliver up the kingdom to his father, this kingdom over which
he reigns and rules. It's a real kingdom, a real king,
and real subjects. And then lastly, we remember
he's coming for us. He's coming for us. That's what
he said. That's what he said. I will come
again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may
be also. How many has he come for over
these years? Some people say, well, I'm looking
for his coming, his last coming, when he comes to judge the world. Well, I'm looking for that, too. But he's going to come for some
of us before he comes at that final judgment. When he takes
his children home, he comes. He comes for us. He comes for
us. We're like Abraham, we look for
a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. A city where sin can never come,
where sorrow will never be known, death will never happen, disease,
none of that. When we hear of tragedies, we
heard of one this morning and I told Ivan, I said, you know
Ivan, when we hear of tragedies, we have always got to remind
ourselves They're here because of sin. Because of sin. There'd be no tragedies if sin
had not entered into God's creation. But aren't you thankful tonight
we have a Savior from sin? A Savior from our sins. He shall
save his people from their sins. May the Lord help us to remember
Christ, to remember him. This do in remembrance of me. And we sang that hymn. It had
five verses, and every verse, the last line was, may I remember
thee. And then on the last one, may
you remember me. And Bill pointed it out. Thief
who was saved alongside the cross of Christ said, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom today. Thou shalt be with me in paradise. I'll ask the man, if you