FBCWest 475 | The Lord's Supper
Recorded On: 10/31/2021
Bulletin
FBCWest
October 31, 2021
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him.
must worship Him in Spirit and truth.”
Praise and Worship
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 150
“Because of Your Love”
“All the Broken Pieces”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Confidently Draw Near to God”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Draw Me Close”
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
“Just a Closer Walk”
OFFERTORY PRAYER
SPECIAL MUSIC – By Pru Hungate
Continued Praise and Worship
“Chain Breaker”
“Break Every Chain (There is Power)”
Benediction “Egypt”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Hebrews 10:19 We have confidence to enter the holy place because of Jesus
Hebrews 10:20 Jesus’ blood inaugurated that new and better way through the veil of His flesh
Hebrews 10:21 We have a great high priest over the house of God
Hebrews 10:22 Draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, body washed with pure water
Hebrews 10:23 Hold fast the confession of our hope – He who promised is faithful
Hebrews 10:24 Consider how to stimulate each other to love and good deeds
Hebrews 10:25 Assemble together, encourage each other,
even the more when you see the end
coming
Why are we confident to draw near?
By His blood
Through the veil of His flesh
He is our high priest
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Audio file
FBCWest475.mp3
Transcript
We're going to be participating in what is frequently called either the Lord Supper or Communion.
So gins and denominations will argue about the elements at this table.
They'll say that the elements are the actual.
Body and blood of Jesus.
Others will say that it's the essence and then others will say that it is the symbol of his body in his blood, and they will argue back and forth.
And while those arguments are important and the positions are important, the sad thing is all too often we miss.
The rich teachings of this simple.
At the.
Passover that we call the Last Supper was a part of a Passover meal in that Passover meal.
There was a recollection of what God had done, and it was done so in a personal level it wasn't well.
God freed our parents or grandparents.
It was that God freed us from sin.
The God delivered us from slavery.
And there was that participation and also in this time that Jesus shared.
What we call.
The Last Supper that Passover meal he taught his disciples a significant amount of information.
Those I think that they didn't quite comprehend until after his resurrection and others.
Were a recounting, but this celebration, in essence, Jesus taught, but the teaching pretty much goes throughout the entire scriptures.
So for instance.
It was a Passover meal.
It was the night before.
Israel was going to be freed from slavery in Egypt, and so they prepare unleavened bread, and it was known as the bread of haste because God was going to be delivering them from ******* the next day.
And so it was done in a hurry because God had said so.
Furthermore, though.
When it comes to unleavened bread, oftentimes in the scriptures, leaven is considered as a symbol of sin, and so there is the significance there that we'll talk about in a little bit.
The celebration of the Passover.
In Egypt, God said, if you would take the blood of a lamb and place it on the door post and lentil almost like a cross if you will.
And when he saw the blood, he would pass over, and that that household would be free from the judge.
Movement of the death of the first born and the people in that house would place the blood on the door post and lentil because God had said so and they believed God and by that faith their house was safe.
Now notice he said if I see the blood I will Passover.
He did not say.
When I see the blood and I look inside and you've been good little boys and girls or you follow these things or you've been.
Excellent and your righteousness.
He didn't say that he said when I see the blood I will Passover and in essence Jesus as our Passover lamb is that one who, when God sees his blood for us, that we are passed over.
So in this meal we celebrate the sense of.
That it is.
Jesus's blood and righteousness that applies to me that I'm free not because I've been a good little boy or girl and not because I followed him fully, but because he promised that when I trust in him and his sacrifice that I would be free from sin.
Immediately, and so there is again that sense that even in Exodus, that teaching Jesus is showing that he is our Passover lamb, that his blood and his sacrifice is there for us.
He further when we take the bread, the unleavened bread, because it is a symbol, not just of haste by haste, if you will, because upon Jesus death, burial, and resurrection, we will be free from sin and the ******* of it.
And so it is, in essence of bread.
Of face, but it is a sinless body, because there is no leaven, no sin.
And Jesus was a perfect sacrifice when his body is broken, it is broken in a sinless.
If you don't see these things throughout the teachings of the scriptures, you miss the richness in the fullness of what we do by simply taking a piece of unleavened bread and some juice or wine or whatever, and say, well, we we celebrate at the Lord Supper, there is gritsch and great meaning at this simple celebration.
Likewise, the cup.
Jesus says that this is the new covenant that is inaugurated by my sacrifice.
It is his blood, just as in the sacrifice at Passover Jesus I'm your Passover lamb, but I am instituting a new program.
I am new introduced.
Instituting a new covenant that covenant isn't one where the high priests would once a year go and offer a sacrifice of atonement for himself and then for the people.
And in that sacrifice, as we've been looking at by the writer of Hebrews.
That sacrifice wasn't able to take away sins.
In essence, it was a reminder that were sinful and that next year need to be repeated and the following year need to be repeated.
But in Jesus inauguration his sacrifice was perfect.
Eternal and that we are saved eternally because he inaugurated a new and living covenant, and that covenant was to be written on our hearts.
Jesus initiated started this new covenant by his sacrifice, but it was then placed upon our hearts.
With a written law.
That God would be placing there by his Holy Spirit.
So there is this.
Awesome teachings that what we are doing here is not just a formality. It's not just. Oh well, I feel good because I've taken the Lord's Supper or communion. It is a sense of I need to understand completely and fully what this meal does.
And represents.
We are told in the scriptures.
That as often as we eat this.
Bread and drink. This cup we are to declare the Lord's death.
So again, it is a statement of faith.
It is a statement that says, I believe, that Jesus died for me.
I believe that his sacrifice was for me it was once and for all and that just as the blood was applied to the doorposts and the lentil, his blood is applied to me and I no longer have.
To worry about perception, what is inside though as the.
Israel would do, and Jews do today.
They would clean out their houses and throw out the 11 or whatever and there is a sense that we need to clear out sin and we need to clean our lives so that we are proper vessels.
But we are saved not because there is some leaven we are saved because of the blood, because he sees it and will pass over.
And so we declare his death.
Something that usually would cause shame because Jesus died on a cross on a tree, which was something to be shameful about.
But we declare it because that death.
Symbol and to cause us to be delivered from the sin and ******* of the slavery of sin.
Israel was freed from the ******* of Egypt.
We have a greater freedom because we've been free from the ******* and shame.
Of sin, and therefore we can have a clean conscience, because I don't have to say that I am self righteous because I am not.
But I can say that I am righteous because of the blood of Christ because of his sacrifice and I declare that I make it a statement of faith.
But there's a further statement also that says that we are declare that death until it comes, which means we are again a statement of faith that Jesus said that he would return.
He said that no man.
Knows the time or the hour.
Not even him, but the father in heaven had determined what that time.
Would be but because Jesus said it because God said it, we have this promise and therefore when we take this, we also not only declare his death, but declare it until he comes.
It is a statement of faith while we declare his death in the sense of that depression that I feel.
That God would die for me, and why would he do that?
And and I don't deserve that love and that sacrifice.
And at the same token.
A statement of celebration and a victory that he's returning that, yes, he died.
But he rose again.
And he's returning, and we declare that so this simple act of taking some unleavened bread and some drink.
It says so much more than taking some bread and some drink, but it says.
That we understand what he taught.
We understand what God is doing in the lives of his people in our lives, and we understand that that applies to us.
The scriptures again say about this meal that we are not to take it unworthily now.
The problem with that is so many people look at the word worthy.
And as I frequently say, if we were to be worthy to take this, we would set the elements out.
We would all look.
At it
And say.
I can't participate because I am not worthy.
And even at my best.
I am not worthy.
Because my righteousness is not sufficient for this meal, but again, going back to the original.
Last Supper, that original Passover meal.
The teaching is when I see the blood I will Passover.
It wasn't that the people were worthy inside it was that they believed God and placed the blood.
And so we come here not because we are worthy, but we recognize that Jesus blood is.
Is sufficient for us and that we do so not worthy.
But worthily, but what does that mean?
That we discern that what we are doing is understanding that Jesus body was broken for us, us as an individual, and us as a people, and that we acknowledge that by consuming this unleavened bread?
Jesus made a statement.
During his ministry where a lot of the people who were following him stopped following him when he said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.
If you want to have any part of me.
And the people said.
That's a hard statement.
Who can?
Bear it and many left.
But there were those who stayed because he said where else?
Do we find the words of God?
And so when we take these elements, we do so understanding that we are consuming him because he makes us righteous?
We are participating in his flesh.
We are participating in but.
And when we.
Remind ourselves that it was his sacrifice.
And that we're doing so from his body and his blood.
We do so worthily.
Not worthy.
So when we take these elements.
There's a time for us to stop the distractions of the world and wonder what's happening on the outside world.
But it's the time for us to reflect on exactly what Jesus did for us.
To reflect.
Our need.
And his love.
Our sin.
And his perfection.
And that he substituted himself for us.
So we come and we learn these things.
Then we teach these things.
Understanding the fullness of what these two elements mean.
His body was broken for us.
That his blood was shed for us to start a new covenant.
One there was so much better because it not only reminded us of sin, but causes us to have a clean conscience because we are.
Righteous we are Saints. We are God's people because of what Jesus did, not because of what I have done. Nothing I can do can add to this table.
All I can do is understand what he did and remind myself by the taking of these elements of what he's done.
But if I only do that when I take these elements and go away and and act as if nothing was different, then we've kind of missed the point.
Jesus could have had this meal the first night, the first year of his ministry, but he waited to really teach these things so that.
They might know.
Oh them.
And again, the disciples didn't quite grasp all that was happening.
They kind of got it a little better.
After the resurrection.
And when we come to the table, we come to the table, understanding that we aren't perfect theologically, that we don't know at all and that we haven't considered the entire Council of God.
But hopefully we know a little more today than we did the last time we celebrated, and the next time that we celebrated, we understand a little more of the whole Council of God.
This wasn't just a one night, one time off.
Event that God was teaching what he was doing from Genesis to revelation.
So we're going to take a time for us to reflect on what God has done before we celebrate and participate in this meal, because we want to take it.