After the message this morning,
we'll observe the Lord's table. We will celebrate and commemorate
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the singular thing that
secured the salvation of the elect because that death answered
the demands of the law and justice of God and satisfied the thrice
holy God for the sins of all his people. Now text is Luke's
report of the institution of that ordinance to the church.
On this evening our Lord observed the last Passover and the first
Lord's table. He makes his distinction with
the word this. He says in verse 15, with desire,
with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
our supper." Our Lord had been with the disciples for three
years so they observed probably two other Passovers together
and He makes this distinction. It is a definite article that
distinguishes this Passover that is being observed from any other
that has ever been or ever shall be observed. To this day Jews
still observe the Passover ceremony but it actually ended on this
night with the Lord and His disciples because the true meaning of the
Passover was accomplished. This is seen in the word fulfilled
in the text. Our Lord said this in verse 18
when He took one of the four cups that were used in the Passover,
four cups of wine. He said, For I say unto you,
I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until the kingdom
of God shall come. And again, he says that the kingdom
of God shall be fulfilled. He speaks of a future event,
but one that is not too far in the future. In a matter of hours,
in fact, from this night, he will give himself to his enemies.
He will be betrayed by Judah's kiss. He will be nailed to a
cross and suffer and give his life for his people. That's all
going to take place in this short period of time. And when that's
taking place, There, the kingdom of God, and when you see the
kingdom of God in the New Testament, it means one thing, the sovereign
reign of God revealed. That's what it means. That sovereign
reign of God will be revealed and fulfilled, fulfilled on the
cross of Calvary. And that means that all that
has taken place since creation concerning the salvation of the
elect is forever done and never to be undone. This also means
that everything that takes place in the coming hours is according
to God's purpose and the breath and strength of those performing
their predestinated roles is provided and controlled solely
by the one who hangs in agonies and blood. Indeed, it was an
altar, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was also
a throne, whereas the men used their muscles and their breath
to drive the nails in his hands and his feet They did so because
God was empowering them to do so and giving them breath and
life to do so. They were doing exactly what
God had foreordained to be done according to Acts chapter 4 and
verse 24. This is the kingdom of God revealed. Everything that takes place,
God is in control. The kingdom, the reign of Christ
has come and the one who will hang on that tree will be fulfilling
all the law and the prophets have written concerning him.
The meaning of the Old Testament will be opened up in just a few
more chapters. In chapter 24, our Lord will
say to those disciples on the road to Emmaus, that the scriptures
speak of Him in Luke chapter 24 verse 45 and therefore it
says, He opened their eyes to understand the scripture. You
understand the scripture and we understand the scripture only,
only when we see that the scripture is about and concerning Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. The law will be fulfilled in
all its demands for the law demands death And Christ provided that
on Calvary's tree. The redemption of the elect will
be accomplished. And this Passover, this Passover
that our Lord is celebrating here, will institute the ordinance
that will continually bring to remembrance the salvation accomplished
by our Lord Jesus Christ, which is what we'll be doing in a matter
of moments. The first Passover was instituted
in remembrance of the night that the Lord delivered Israel from
the bondage of Egypt. 14 days before that night, the
people were to find a lamb without spot or blemish. They were to
watch it for 14 days, a male of the firstborn. Then they were
to take the lamb and kill it and draw its blood into a basin
and strike the blood on the side post and the upper door post
of the entrance into their house. Then they would go into the house,
roast the lamb and eat it all with bitter herbs and were dressed
and ready to quickly leave. because the Lord was going to
kill the firstborn in every house of Egypt. That was his promise,
not a death angel. The Lord said, I'm coming through.
I'm going to do this. And he got blood at every house.
We know that. He got the blood of the firstborn
of the Egypt with the blood of his only begotten, pictured by
the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and lentils. And when
the Lord saw the blood, he said, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And so we get the term Passover
or the Passover. That day was to be remembered
each year in perpetuity and was continued until this night when
the Lord and his disciples had this last supper, the last supper. The observance was begun and
ended with wine. There were four servings of wine,
each attended by asking the Lord's blessing. The bread eaten was
unleavened bread, and during the seven days of observance,
no leaven was to be found in the house. Now, that's important
to understand. When you read the Old Testament, you think,
well, what does that mean? What's that all about? Well, the New
Testament explains what it's all about. The last day of the
Passover was the Sabbath day, and it was a day of rest, wherein
no work was to be done, no servile work was to be done. All they
were supposed to do was to eat. This is explained in Exodus chapter
12, as Moses, by the word of God, institutes this in Exodus
chapter 12 and verse 14. It says, this day shall be unto
you for a memorial. And you shall keep a feast to
the Lord throughout the years of your generation. Throughout
your generation you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Seven days shall thou eat unleavened
bread. Even the first day you shall
put away leaven out of your houses. For whosoever eat leavened bread
from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from the Israel. Serious business. And in the
first day there shall be a holy convocation And in the seventh
day there shall be a holy convocation to you no matter, no matter of
work shall be done in them, no matter of work, save that which
every man must eat and only may be done of you. You shall observe
the feast of unleavened bread, for this is the selfsame day
that I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore
shall you observe this day to your generation for an ordinance
forever. In the first month of the fourteenth
day of the month, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one
and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there
be no leaven found in your house, for whosoever eateth that which
is leavened Even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation
of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. So this Passover was very particular
in what it was done. The lamb was very particular.
It had to be a lamb without spot or blemish. It had to be watched
carefully for 17 days to make sure that no blemish rose on
the lamb or any such thing. He had to be the firstborn male,
which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being the only begotten
of God, the firstborn of God. And also when the eating of this,
it was eaten with bitter herbs, which most theologians believe
means repentance of sin. And also it was to, no leaven
bread was to be eaten. In fact, no leaven, which is
yeast, which has the properties of making bread puff up. When
you make yeast rolls, they puff up because they got yeast in
them. No leaven was to be had in your house. This was the Passover.
this was the Passover but according to the Lord it was not this Passover
all the other Passovers throughout the ages were Passovers there's
no doubt in remembrance of being delivered from Egypt but it was
not this one because our Lord said I desire to eat this Passover
with you and our Lord said with great desire or hearty desire
he had desired to eat this Passover with his disciples his people
there were other people observing Passover at this time, just as
there will be other churches today and many days in the future
that will observe the Lord's table. But this Passover tells
us something altogether different. And this table, the table of
the Lord, as it's set forth in Scripture is much different than
what most people think this table means. He desired this. He looked forward to this. This
day was important to him. From all eternity, our Lord came
down to this earth, laying aside his glory, looking to this hour. Because this is the hour of power,
if you will. This is the hour of darkness.
This is the hour of light. This is when all the stuff begins
to culminate. All the words that he said to
his disciples concerning his death and his suffering, which
they didn't really get. and really wouldn't get probably
until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and opened up what
the Scriptures mean. This Passover is about the glory
of God in His power of deliverance, but not in the deliverance of
Israel from Egypt, but His people from their sins. his people from
their sins. Scripture says coming from heaven
he set his face like a flint for Jerusalem. This is where
he was headed all along and we know his face is where the glory
of God is revealed. God has made his light, God who
has made his light to shine out of darkness has created light
in our hearts that we might see the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's not about the deliverance
of Israel, not this Passover. All the others are. but not this
one I desire to eat this Passover with you it's about his people
being delivered not from Egypt but from their sin where in Matthew
and recording this same event says our Lord said this cup is
for you for the remission of sins for the remissions of sin
this night has been planned and purposed since before the world
began and now at the culmination. This Passover was the first spiritual
Passover. All the others, even those practiced
today, are natural things. All the other times that the
feast was observed and the times that it yet be observed in this
day are not spiritual. They are remembrance of a physical
deliverance. Of a physical deliverance. And
that physical deliverance of the physical frames of the Israelites
enveloped and shrouded a spiritual mystery that was not to be revealed
until Christ came to this world. Of a spiritual deliverance that
was about to take place shortly after this night happened. shortly
after this Passover all those lambs all that blood for all those
centuries poured out a veritable crimson tide forming a mighty
river of coagulate covering millennia all that blood never delivered
one sinner from their sin the Passover in Egypt. The Passover
after they'd escaped from Egypt did not deliver a man from sin,
it delivered a people from captivity, but not a man from sin. But this
Passover, as our Lord explains what it means, this Passover
did. It did. This Passover involved
things that no other Passover involved. Around the table sat
a duke's mixture of people. There was a former publican.
The publican was a Jew who collected tax from his people and did usury
and charged them too much so he could put a whole lot in his
pocket. The publican, if you'll find when our Lord, when the
Jews spoke and our Lord spoke of sinners, if he was going to
categorize them, he said publicans and sinners. But the publicans
came first. Publicans came first. The revenuer, they hated him.
They hated him. They were considered the worst
of the worst. Well, there's a publican sitting there. His name's Matthew.
He was at the seat of the table collecting taxes when our Lord
came by and said to him, follow me. And he laid it down and just
walked right behind Christ out of that place. There are publicans
there. There's a man there who will
sell the Lord for 30 pieces of silver this very night and betray
him with a friend's kiss. and lead men to take the Lord
captive, though they had some difficulty with that. The chief
priests and the scribes and the lawyers, they all came with lights
and torches and swords and lanterns, and they were going to arrest
Jesus Christ. And when they came up to him,
he said, who are you looking for? And he said, we're looking for
Jesus of Nazareth. He said, Ego, I am. Same thing
he said in the burning bush when Moses tell them that I am has
sent me I am that I am he said I am and they just fell down
I can't I don't know the power of words I've never had that
kind of power in words but when our Lord spake and said who he
was they fell away backwards and they were laying on the ground
when our Lord approached them again and said who do you seek
He said, I'm sure they probably stammered around on this a little
bit. We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. They were probably
still flat on their back when they said that. He said, I am He. He said, but you see, if you
take me, you got to let my disciples go free. You can't have me and
my disciples. And then he told us why he said
that, that the scripture might be fulfilled which says, Of all
that thou hast given me, I have lost nothing, but raise it up
again on the last day. This night is when this all takes
place, this night of this Passover, this Passover. There's also a
man here A fisherman, a rough and tumble kind of fella, who
declared at this very table, others may deny you, but I will
never ever deny you. And before the sun rose the next
day, he had denied the Lord three times. What does that tell us
about these fellows? They're all sinners, and they
had some sense of it. When our Lord says, he that is with me
at this table is going to betray me, every one of them said, master,
He said, they knew something about their own capabilities
and their own filth. They knew that it was possible
that any one of them could deny him. He said, one of them is
going to betray me. And they said, every one of them said,
Master, am I the one? Am I the one? Because they didn't
know, but they knew they could. They knew they could. Here's
a group of men. They're all sinners. They're
all followers of the Lamb. They're all friends of Jesus
Christ. They're His disciples. Here they were, a group of good
Jews, obedient Jews, observing the ceremony that the Lord has
ordained thousands of years before. On the table is wine and bread. The supper is about to come to
a close, and the Lord picks up a piece of bread, and He breaks
it into twelve pieces and hands it to His disciples. And he says,
take, eat. This is my body given for you. In first Corinthians 11, it says
broken for you. Out of all the Passover's that
they had had, this had never happened. This had never taken
place. This was an amazing thing. Nothing
like this has happened before. The Lord's unbroken body was
sitting in front of them, and he said that the bread, the broken
bread in their hands was his broken body. That's one of those
dilemmas. I'm sure they look and say, what
is going on? Has your flesh ever wondered about it? Has your ever
flesh wondered when you take the Lord's table, how this can
be? This memorial that we take, how
can it happen? I remember many years ago, before
I knew the Lord, I worked in the instrument shop. I worked
on C-130E models, and the instrument shop had a sextant that you stuck
up through the ceiling of the plane, and you measured the angular
altitude of the stars to tell you where you were in position.
It had a clock on it, and we used to have to repair that clock.
There was an old man there that was a civilian that worked in
the shop, smoked a little short cigars, gray hair, had a little
goatee like me, had gray hair like me. As a matter of fact,
I had red hair back then. But he said, he said, I don't
much believe in that Christian business. I said, how come? He
said, they talk about drinking blood and eating bodies. He said,
I don't talk about that. I don't know about that. Of course,
I didn't know anything about it either, so I didn't have anything to
answer to him, except that I knew as a Southern Baptist, we had
always done that. We had always celebrated that. Usually the
quarterly, fifths, every month that had a fifth Sunday, we did
it. The bread is obviously not his
body. Is it? I mean his body is right
there. It's obviously not his body.
How is it then called by him his body? It's represented. It's representative. It's a type
in a picture. It's New Testament typology.
It represents his body and only in this sense in that it was
broken. in that it was given, his body.
He's saying to his disciples, I'm going to the cross. My body
is going to be broken and it's going to be broken not for me,
for you. It's going to be broken for you. It's going to be given for you.
Though the broken bread was given to them, he said of the bread
that it was his body given for them. His body was not broken
for himself, it was broken for them, instead of them in their
place and in their room. This is substitution. My body
broken for you. My body broken for you. He was
teaching them the meaning of this Passover that he is suffering.
He said, I'm getting ready to go suffer. I'm going to teach
you the meaning of this Passover. Then he took the wine and the
cup that ended the meal and said to his disciples, this cup, what
a statement this is. Now you think of who these men
are. Our Lord has hinted about a new covenant. He's talked about
it in his teachings and he's hinted at it and they've not
got it. In fact, again, they probably won't get it until the
Pentecost, where in John 18, or John chapter 16, he says,
the Holy Spirit's got some things he's gonna teach you that you're
not ready to bear at this moment. You're not ready to get a hold
of what that means. But he took the wine that ended the meal,
and he said to his disciples, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. which was shed for you which
was shed for you again he's right there in front of them he's handing
them the cup and he wasn't bleeding he wasn't bleeding yet he said
this is my blood how was it his blood? it represented his blood
His blood represented His death. And the disciples knew what death
was and how death came to be. Our Lord had said time and time
again in the Old Testament, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. So they understood what this
was talking about. He said, my death for you. He's teaching them the gospel.
Right before he goes to the cross. He's speaking of spiritual things.
He says a new covenant. Wait a minute. God made a covenant
with Adam. God made a covenant with Noah.
God made a covenant with Abraham. God made a covenant with the
Jewish people or the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai. That's the covenant we live under.
Those laws, those ten laws that the Lord gave us and all this
ceremony that we're doing right here, part of that whole thing.
These Sabbaths that we observe, that's our law, that's our covenant.
He said, wait a minute, my blood is gonna establish a new covenant. That's what it says in Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse nine. He came to do the will of God,
but he establishes, he taketh away the first covenant and establishes
the second covenant or the new covenant. Think about that. This must have been something
to these fellas, indeed. He was speaking of spiritual
things. The old covenant, you see, what about the old covenant?
And the covenant of which they held on to was not the Abrahamic
covenant. It was not the Noahic covenant.
It was not the covenant made in the Garden of Eden. The covenant
they held to that made them believe that if they were good enough
and worked hard enough and were obedient enough, God would accept
them was called the old covenant. It was a covenant of works. It
was a covenant that required the obedience of a human being
in order to either be blessed or cursed by God. It was up to
you to do the obedience. If you obeyed, God would bless
you. If you disobeyed, God would curse you. Well, what's the difference
between that covenant and the new covenant? The new covenant,
a man must obey it, and a man did. the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
that covenant. He was obedient even unto death,
the cruel death of the cross because the end of the covenant
of works is this, the soul that sinneth it shall die. To fulfill
the covenant you must die in the old covenant. But this new
covenant still one must die but Jesus Christ dies in the room
instead of his people this new covenant is about the body and
the blood of Jesus Christ about his broken body and his shed
blood the Passover was a feast of remembrance and this Passover
ended this way do this in remembrance of me this Passover do it this
way do it this way what does this mean this is the meaning
of all those lambs and all those days of unleavened bread and
all those feasts over all those centuries this is what it was
pointing to this Passover this night the meaning of the Passover
you see all along regardless of all the elements that went
into it was about one thing the meaning of the Passover was Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. It was Jesus Christ, His body,
His blood, His death until He comes again. That's what the
Passover was about. That's what He told them that
night. This Passover, taking this unleavened bread. We've
been doing that for thousands of years. We'll take this unleavened
bread and I'm gonna break it up and hand it to you now. Look
at it. This is my body broken for you. He took that cup and
passed it around and said, take a sip of that wine. This wine,
this cup is the new testament, the new covenant in my blood.
My blood, which I was given for you. My blood, my body. My blood in my body. Well, it
couldn't be, could it? I mean, it's not really that
what Debbie made the bread last night out of some Martha White
flour. Martha White have anything to
do with your salvation? I don't think so. And the wine is Manischewitz
kosher wine. That's the wine we use. Bread
and wine. But it's actual bread and wine.
I poured the wine just this morning. Deb made the bread last night.
We put them in the little glasses that we're going to hand out
to everybody. but it's not really his body or his blood. But here's
the question that Paul asked in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
Do you, in order to take this cup and this bread worthily,
do you discern or understand the body and blood of Jesus Christ? Do you understand that though
many were taking the Passover this night, this Passover was
only for the people of God those who are believers those who were
chosen by Christ that's how the disciples became disciples they
didn't have a lottery they didn't have somebody sign up they didn't
have long queues around the building people waiting to get in so they
could be a disciple he walked by and said put down your nets
Peter and follow me Matthew put down your coin and follow me
And they did, because He chose thee. It was for His people.
Do you discern that? Do you understand that the body
and blood of Jesus Christ was shed for His elect and His elect
only? What is this Passover? Turn to
1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, this
Passover. Here our Lord takes the elements
of the Passover. through Paul the Apostle, four
chapters before he teaches specifically about the taking of the Lord's
table. It says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 7. Purge out
therefore the old leaven. Well that was part of it wasn't
it? Wasn't that part of the original passage? Purge out the old leaven. Unleavened bread only, no leaven
in your house for the seven days of the whole ceremony. None whatsoever. Why? So you can have a new lump
that is unleavened. As you are unleavened, what is
leaven? Throughout the New Testament,
leaven is symbolic of self-righteous Phariseeism. a little leaven, leaveneth the
whole lump, it says. And a little self-righteousness
will fill you up, too. Won't take much. Purge out that
old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened,
as you are unleavened, even as Christ, what? Our Passover is
sacrificed for us. Christ, our Passover, our Paschal
Lamb, our Passover is slain. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
what? This Passover. That's one that
he did when he instituted the Lord's Table. Not with old leaven,
which is the covenant of works. That leaven is of malice and
wickedness. You mean that was a wicked covenant? Everybody
who practiced it, practiced it to exalt themselves at the cost
of somebody else. the Lord spoke the parable of
the Pharisee in the public to those who thought themselves
righteous and despised others that's how it's described therefore
let us keep the feast not with the old leaven neither of the
leaven of the malice of wickedness but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth note well no leaven symbolic of the old
covenant pharisaical religion new lump Christ and the new covenant
which was ratified by his blood his death which propitiated God
for our sins. Moses said it's the Lord's Passover. Paul said it's the Lord's table. It's the Lord's table. That's
what we're going to do right now as children of God. I'm going
to ask Sam and Jim to help me serve today. We're going to take
and commemorate the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.