chapter 26. Beginning in verse 26, And as
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break
it, and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat, this is my
body. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them saying, drink you all of it, for this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. I think it should be clear to
everyone who reads the word of God that when the Lord Jesus
took bread, and called it his body, and when he took the cup
and called it his blood, that he was speaking metaphorically. This means that he used the bread
and the wine as symbols of his body and his blood. The same when he said, I am the
door, by me. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. No one
understands that he is referring to himself as a literal door. The same when he said in John
15, I am the true vine, you are the branches. in both places
and in this place as well. As I said, he is speaking metaphorically. He uses the bread and he uses
the cup, the wine, to represent his body and the wine to represent
his blood. As we observe the Lord's Supper,
we eat the bread. We eat the bread which represents
his body that was broken for us. And we drink the cup, which
represents his blood, which was shed for the remission of our
sins. And as we do this, we do show
forth his death. The bread is separated from the
wine, or the wine is separated from the bread. The life of the
flesh is in the blood. And we see these two separated.
We know that when the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood
on the cross that he died. He gave his life a ransom for
many. As we observe this ordinance,
it's a church ordinance. We don't have the liberty to
go in our houses and invite someone over and say, let's just observe
the Lord's table here tonight among us few that are here. It's
a church ordinance. communion, and it is communion
to only those who are in union with Him. He is in His people
by His Spirit. and his people are in him by
faith. We have union with Christ, and
at this ordinance, as we eat the bread and drink the cup,
we have communion with him. Now, we have communion with our
brothers and sisters in Christ as well, but the point is we
have communion with Christ. We commune with our Savior, our
Lord, as we observe this this ordinance. Tonight, I want to
speak to us from three sets of two words in this text, verse
28. I want us to look at his words,
my blood, my blood. And then I want us to look at
the two words, New Testament, and then at the words, For many. So three sets of two words. My
blood, New Testament, for many. First, his words, my blood. What do we know about the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you know about the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Think with me. If someone were
to ask you now, Just now, what do you know about the blood of
Jesus Christ? What do you know about his blood?
How would you answer that? I know that there's many ways
we could answer that, but I have four that I'm going to mention
to us tonight. There's many others, but this
is what we know. And what we know about the blood
of Jesus Christ, it all comes from this book. It all comes
to us, the knowledge that we have about His blood, it all
comes to us from this book, the written word of God. The first
thing that I would mention is we know that His blood is called
the blood of God. I want you to look in Acts chapter
20 with me. We're going to look at these
verses together tonight. But in Acts chapter 20, when
the Apostle Paul called the elders of the church at Ephesus together
to meet with them for the last time in this world. Notice in
verse 28, he spoke to them and he said,
take heed therefore unto yourselves. These are the elders of the church.
You know, the preacher, the elder, must take heed to himself first
of all. Take heed to yourselves. That may not mean much to you,
but it means a whole lot to me as a pastor. Take heed to yourself
first of all. Take heed to yourselves. It's
a big responsibility to be a pastor. And the weight of being a pastor grows heavier as I have grown
older. But to know tonight that in one
sense of the word, I'm responsible for every one of you, for your
soul, that I will have to give an answer one day for you, for
what I have preached unto you. the gospel. If I had known when I first started
out preaching, I don't know if I would have ever preached. If I had known the responsibility
that I know today. I feel in many ways saddened
when I see some of these men you see sometimes on television
preaching to thousands of people. and you look at them and you
realize they don't even know there's a problem, much less know there's an answer.
They really don't. They don't realize the responsibility,
obviously, or they would not spend their time talking about
how you can have your best life now and things like that. Never speaking about sin, never
speaking about righteousness, never speaking about regeneration,
that is being born again of the Spirit of God. Take heed, Paul
said to these elders, take heed of yourselves. Take heed. And not only to yourselves,
but to all the flock. over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers. To feed. That's the pastor's
work, isn't it? It's to feed the flock. What
did our Lord say to Peter? We read it just a few minutes
ago, didn't we? Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Not entertain. He didn't say
entertain my folks. He said feed them. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. The green pastures is the word
of God, isn't it? It's the scriptures. Feed the
flock of God over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you an
overseer. Now notice, feed the church of
God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Church of God,
which He, God, has purchased with His own blood. Now, you know that God is a spirit. God does not have flesh, bones,
blood. He is a spirit. The only way
that this could be true, and we know it is true, is that the
Son of God was made flesh. That is, He became a man. or
He took into union with His deity that body which was prepared
Him, that body that had flesh, that body that had bones, that
body that had a soul, that body that had blood. And He gave,
He shed His blood, and in shedding His blood, He shed the blood
of God because He is God. He purchased His church with
his own blood. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is the saved, they're his by gift. He said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. When did God the Father
give him his people? You know that took place in old
eternity before the foundation of the world. When God established the everlasting
covenant, the covenant of grace, he gave to his son, his people. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. We're his by gift and we are
his by purchase. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious
blood of Christ." That word redeemed is used today most often when
you have pawned something. You take an object that has some
worth, some value, and you take it to a pawn shop and It may
be worth, let's just say, $100. He says, I'll give you $50, and
you come back in two weeks and pay me $75, and I'll give you
this back. You've pawned it. And he gives
you a ticket, doesn't he? And you come back in two weeks,
if you've got the $75, and you redeem it. You see, we were his
by gift, first of all. But then he had to come and redeem
us because We had fallen into sin. We had become the servants
of Satan. And the scripture says we were
taken captive by him at his will. In Ephesians chapter two and
verse one, the scripture tells us, let me read that to us so
I won't misquote it. Ephesians chapter two and verse
one. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein a time passed, you walked
according to the course of this world, according, notice that,
according to the prince of the power of the air. Now who is
that? That's Satan. That's the devil. You walked. Everyone who is redeemed, everyone
who is regenerated, who is born of the Spirit of God, at one
time before we were born again, we walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation. We all lived in
times past, and the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature, that is,
by nature, we deserve God's wrath. But we've been redeemed. That's
the first thing that I know about His blood. It is called the blood
of God, and that blood redeems His people. The second thing
we know about His blood It cleanseth from all sin. Look at that in
1 John, if you will, 1 John chapter one. It cleanseth from all sin. In verse seven, we read, but
we walk in the light, but if we walk in the light, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship one with another. and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. You ladies, when you go to the
grocery store, and you men also, sometimes you do the shopping,
they've got all these aisles, and one aisle they have all canned
vegetables and canned meat on another aisle, and then they've
got one aisle is just filled up with cleansing products, all
different kinds of, of cleansing products. Why is that? Well, competition, that's for
sure. But one cleanser will cleanse
or supposedly will cleanse this kind of spot, this kind of filth. Another cleanser is good for
some other kind of spot or filth. You got different kinds of cleansers,
don't you? But there's only one cleanser
that cleanseth from all sin. It cleanseth from original sin,
that which we inherited from our father Adam. We came into
this world sinners by birth. And when you look at the news,
when you read the newspaper, if you do, or read online, Isn't
it obvious, don't you wonder how anyone could live in this
world and not realize something is wrong? Something's gone bad
wrong. The killings and the robbings
and the raping and so many things that we hear of every day, something's
gone wrong. What is it? It's sin. It's sin. That's very obvious,
isn't it? It's sin. Because men are sinful
creatures. And the only thing that cleanses
from sin we see of wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, all of
these various things that we hear and read about, they're
all in this world because of sin. cause of sin. But yet, thank God, you and I
tonight, we know, no matter what the sin is, and there are different
kinds of sin, I realize that, there's the sin of rebellion,
there's the sin of stubbornness, you know, have you ever thought
about that? God calls stubbornness as the
sin of witchcraft, there's presumptuous sin, David asked to be cleansed
from the sins of his youth, and there's sins of ignorance. There's
all kind of sins. But the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin, all sin. Here's the third thing we know.
We know that his blood speaks. It speaks. Look with me in Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
24, the writer tells us it speaks
better things. And Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that his blood
speaketh better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood, it spoke
to God. It spoke to God. His body was
buried. Cain, his brother, had killed
him. His body was buried in the ground, but his blood was crying
to God for vengeance, for justice. The blood of Jesus Christ, it
speaks better things than the blood of Abel. What does it say? What does the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ say? He cries for forgiveness. Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. He cries for acceptance. Father, accept them. Put that
on my account. Don't you love that story of
Philemon? Onesimus wasn't worth much, Paul
said. He's been an unprofitable servant
to you. But now the Lord saved him, and
he's not only profitable to me, but he'll be profitable to you,
Philemon. Forgive him. Receive him now,
not as a servant, but as a brother. And if he owes you anything,
put that on my account. I'll pay. Isn't that what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, for all of his people? Put
that on my account. I'll pay. And he did pay. and
His blood. We have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the propitiation for our
sins. If any man sin, and all men do
sin, if any man says that he has no sin, He's a liar, and
the truth is not in him. And as I said just a moment ago,
there are sins of ignorance, and sometimes we may sin, not
even realizing that we have sinned, but always we have an advocate
with the Father. And even when we sin presumptuously,
still we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. He doesn't deny that His people
have sinned, but He advocates for us. I've paid for that sin.
Forgive that sin. I've paid for that. Here's the
fourth thing that we know. And back in our text, we know
that His blood is called the blood of the New Testament. This
is what our text tells us tonight. And that brings me to the second
set of the two words, New Testament. Look here in our text, verse
28, for this is my blood of the New Testament. Now I took the
time this past week in preparing these notes to look at the Greek
word, which is translated, is found 33 times in the New Testament. It's found 33 times in the New
Testament. And of those 33 times in the
King James translation, 20 of those times is translated covenant. 20 of the 33 times they translated
covenant. the same Greek word by the word
covenant, 13 times they translated it Testament. This is my blood
of the new covenant, the new Testament, the new American standard
Bible. Some of you may have that translation
in all 33 of the times that the word covenant is in the text.
It is always translated covenant, always. It's never translated
testament. In Hebrews, and the reason I'm
saying this, in Hebrews, the apostle tells us of what is recorded
in Exodus chapter 24. And that is when that old covenant,
the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel at Sinai,
when it was When it was validated, it was with blood. I want you
to look at that in Hebrews 9 with me, Hebrews chapter 9. In verse 18, wherefore, Hebrews
9 verse 18, whereupon neither the first Testament, covenant,
it was a covenant, was dedicated without blood. Neither the First
Testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken
every precept to all the people according to the law, he took
the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and
hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying,
this is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined upon
you. He didn't, when the Lord Jesus
Christ gave this word that we're looking at tonight, he didn't
say, this is my body of the New Testament. Speaking of his body,
the bread, but he said, this is my blood of the New Testament. What I'm saying is that testaments
or covenants were validated or ratified by blood. That first covenant, the covenant
that the old covenant, I should say, not the first covenant,
but the old covenant that God made with the nation of Israel.
As we read here, Moses took the blood of animals and with hyssop
and scarlet, he put it down in that blood and he sprinkled it.
the book that all these words were written in, the covenant. He sprinkled the book and he
sprinkled the people. The covenant was validated, that
old covenant. Now, look here in Hebrews 8 and verse 11. This is the new covenant that
God promised that he would make. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord, for all that shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first goal, Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. Now, what I'm pointing or saying
to us tonight, that when the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood,
when he shed his blood, he ratified the covenant, the everlasting
covenant, which we most often call the covenant of grace. And just as a sort of a byproduct, I guess. Let me point out three differences
between that old covenant that the writer of Hebrews is talking
of here and the new covenant. The new covenant has the Lord
Jesus Christ as the great high priest. that Old Covenant had
Aaron as its priest, and when Aaron died, his son, and when
that one died, his son. On the Day of Atonement, the
only day in the year when And a man, a priest, went into
the Holy of Holies, and never without blood. But do you remember
the first thing he did? The first time he went in there,
he went in there twice, actually. The first time he went in with
some blood, and he was making an atonement for his sins. For his sins. And then when he
came back out, he took the blood of the Lord's goat in to make
atonement for the sins of Israel. This covenant, this new covenant,
we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest. He
never had to make an atonement for his sins, for he had none,
but he made an atonement for the sins of his people. A second
thing, the new covenant has the Lord Jesus Christ as a mediator. He's a mediator of this covenant,
this new covenant. You know who was the mediator
of the old covenant? Moses was. He's the one that
went up on the mountain and got the word from God and brought
it back down. And the people wanted that. They
were afraid. Because when God came down on
that mountain, with its smoking and the loud noise and the voice
of God and everything else, they said, Moses, you go up there. You be the one who gets the word
brings it back to us. He was a mediator. Moses was
faithful in all his house. But I would just remind us of
this at one time, you know, Moses, the meekest man on the face of
the earth. But he got mad, didn't he? He
got upset with those people who were part of that covenant. He
said, you bunch of rebels. You bunch of rebels. Must we
get water out of the rock for you again?" And he struck that
rock. God had told him to speak to
the rock. What a difference, right? The mediator, our mediator,
he never speaks to his people like that. You bunch of rebels.
Oh, no. No. He says, my sheep. My sheep. thing that I'd point out. The
new covenant has the Lord Jesus Christ as a surety. That old
covenant did not have a surety. Everyone stood for himself. Everyone
stood for himself. Each person had for himself to
perfectly obey that covenant law. They had to perfectly. Love the Lord God with all their
heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind, and with
all their strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ stood.
He's the surety of this covenant. The last set of words for many. This is my blood. Whose blood? The blood of God. This is my
blood. Of what covenant? The new covenant,
which is shed for many, for many. The many for whom he shed his
blood to remit their sins are the many who were given to him. They are the many that he called
his sheep. He told some people one day,
and you can read this in John chapter 10, he said, you believe
not because you are not of my sheep. That's the reason you
don't believe. You're not my sheep. His sheep
believe. His sheep hear his voice. His
sheep follow him. And the scripture says, I am
the good shepherd, and the good shepherd layeth down his life
for the sheep. The many, the many are those
that the Father gave to Him. The many, as many as the Lord
our God shall call. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. That's what the scripture says
in Acts chapter 13 and verse 48. I pray the Lord would bless
these words.