[0:00] Take up your Bibles with me, please, and turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 22.! We are nearing...
[0:13] Oh, I have too many things to think about today. Even have a new battery.
[0:34] Energizer, keep me going. We turn the corner now to enter into the Passion Time.
[0:45] We are in the last day of Jesus' life as we turn to chapter 22 here. Because in this chapter, we will have Jesus preparing the Last Supper with his disciples.
[1:01] We will have him talking about the betrayer. He will be talking about Peter's denial. He will be in Gethsemane praying with great drops of blood-like sweat dripping from his face.
[1:20] He will be arrested and Peter will deny him. All these things are happening in this chapter. Once he's arrested, then, of course, he goes before the trials.
[1:32] Before the Sanhedrin, before Pilate, before Herod. And then back before Pilate again, before he's condemned to death. So we're just hours away.
[1:42] Though Luke is giving us a lot here. We're hours away from his arrest and death. And so these moments that he spends in the upper room with his disciples are really, really important.
[1:56] Luke only gives us a few verses of this time. The Gospel of John has five chapters of that time. John chapter 13 through 17 are all about what Jesus did teaching his disciples in that upper room.
[2:14] So here we go. So we want to read, we're going to look at just the first 19 verses in Luke 22. I'm going to read through that. Then we'll pray and then we'll jump in.
[2:26] So if you're able, please stand as I read from the Gospel of Luke chapter 22. Verse 1. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
[2:40] And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death. But they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, who is called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.
[2:57] He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money.
[3:10] So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
[3:28] So Jesus said, Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to him, Where? Where will you have us prepare it?
[3:40] He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters.
[3:51] And tell the master of the house, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished.
[4:06] Prepare it there. And they went and found it just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him.
[4:21] And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
[4:36] And he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
[4:53] And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, This is my body, which is given for you.
[5:07] Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
[5:24] So it reads. Let us pray. Father, help us to enter into these moments. Help us as we contemplate what Luke has written down for us and what Jesus is experiencing.
[5:39] Help us, Father. Some of these words are very familiar. They're words that we hear over and over at communion. We'll hear them again today. Father, may we gain some new insight, some new application, some new encouragement to see, Father, what you would want us to see about your beloved son.
[6:06] May it honor him, too, what we hear and see and do with this text. This we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[6:17] Please be seated. So this is the Passover.
[6:29] We're told in verse 1. And again, verse 7 and several, actually five times in these verses mentions the Passover.
[6:39] Passover meal is something that God instituted way back in Exodus chapter 12 before he led them out of Egypt.
[6:50] It was the blood of the blood of the blood of the blood of the lamb.
[7:05] And they put the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their home. So that during that last plague on Egypt when God was going to slay the firstborn male of every family.
[7:20] Remember, Israel would be saved if they applied the blood of the lamb over the lamb over and the angel would pass over that household. Remember. So therefore, the name Passover.
[7:31] Pashka in Hebrew. So here's an interesting thing.
[7:44] Every year, faithful Jews celebrate the Passover. Except it's called the Seder now, which is a Hebrew word, which means the service.
[7:59] And they arrange this service of this Passover celebration around four cups. And the four cups are from the four promises in Exodus chapter six, verse six, which talks about how the Lord will bring them out.
[8:17] I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. And I will take you for myself. So four promises, four cups.
[8:30] So the first cup is called sanctification. I will take you. I will bring you. I will bring you for myself. I'll sanctify you as my people, right? I will set you apart from the Israelites.
[8:42] And then there's a second cup of wine, which was the cup of deliverance. I will deliver you from bondage in Egypt. I will deliver you. And during that cup of the meal, they would tell the story, retell the story of the Exodus, retell the story of the Passover of the Lamb.
[9:01] That's where in Exodus 12, Moses wrote that when your children ask you, what does this mean? This is what you will tell them. You will tell them the story of the Exodus.
[9:12] You will talk about the blood of the Lamb. You will talk about the suffering that our ancestors had during those days. You will talk about the plagues. You will talk about the bitter herbs.
[9:23] So during this meal, they ate the morar, which was the bitter herbs. Now, we did a Seder years ago, a couple of times we did it here in this church. And the bitter herbs are to make your eyes water, to make you compassionate toward the grievous suffering that the Jews did in Israel, I mean in Egypt.
[9:49] The morar, the matzah, the matzah is the bread, the unleavened bread. It was bread that they didn't have time to let it rise. They had to eat it quickly so that when the angel passed over, they're ready to go.
[10:03] And they go while Pharaoh's still mourning his son's death. And then the lamb. So there are all these different elements to the meal.
[10:18] And then the third cup is the cup of redemption. That was the, I will redeem you, right? Not just deliver you, but I will redeem you. I redeem you with the blood of the lamb. There had to be a lamb slain.
[10:30] There had to be a sacrifice in order for the people to go free, in order for the people to be saved from death. Right? So that picture there.
[10:41] And this is when, in the Seder meal, this is when they would eat the meal. They would, so this is where we get to our part, where they break the bread and they begin to eat the meal.
[10:54] And then at the end of that meal, they would take the third cup, which is the cup of redemption. So in the Seder meal, it's called the cup of redemption. And that's the very cup that Jesus now says is now my blood.
[11:08] He changes the whole significance of the bread that they broke and the wine that they drank. And then the final cup they would drink was praise.
[11:19] So we notice in Luke, maybe you notice that there was two cups Jesus mentioned in verse 17. He took a cup, right?
[11:30] That's not the cup we're thinking about, but it was an earlier cup of the meal. So we know that they did more than one cup. So Jesus transforms Passover, the Lord's table.
[11:41] Our whole, this is the foundation for our whole, what we do every month. This do in remembrance of me, Jesus said. So we're going to look at how does Jesus change the meaning and why is it significant for us?
[11:57] But first notice, at the beginning of chapter 22, Luke reveals a plot to kill Jesus. The scheming. There are three players in this. Notice verse two.
[12:07] There's the chief priests and the scribes. They're seeking to put Jesus to death. The chief priests and the scribes want to kill Jesus because Jesus's teaching had exposed their hypocrisy, had exposed their unfaithfulness, had exposed their inadequacy to deal rightly with scripture as he answers their questions far beyond their understanding and also poses questions they can't answer.
[12:37] Notice verse three. We have another, two more players introduced. Satan and Judas. Satan enters. Isn't that interesting?
[12:48] Luke tells us, Satan entered into Judas. Why did Satan enter into Judas? Satan is the serpent of the garden.
[13:00] He is also called the devil. He is called the serpent. He's called the dragon. He's called the deceiver of the world. He is the lead fallen angel of a horde of demonic forces that follow his charge.
[13:17] He is the expressed enemy of God. And way back in the garden, in Genesis chapter three, when we hear about how the serpent, or the dragon, deceived Eve into eating and then tempted Adam to outright sin, we're told that that that that the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent would interchange again.
[13:56] That the seed of the woman, which was eventually Jesus, and the seed of the serpent, which is just how the serpent worked through different people, so it would be Judas in this instance, that the seed of the serpent would crush the heel of the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, remember?
[14:26] So even way back at the very beginning of the story, God already knew that Satan would interfere again, would look for his opportunity. Back in Luke chapter four, when Satan tempted Jesus, remember the temptations.
[14:42] It said after Jesus told Satan to leave, it said that Satan would look for another opportunity. Well, here's another opportunity to take hold of Judas, who was ripe for the picking, to use him to try to crush the Son of God.
[15:02] So Judas is the third player. We have the priests and the scribes, we have Satan, and then we have Judas, who betrays Jesus. Now that just, there's been a lot of speculation as to why Judas would do it.
[15:17] We don't know. We're not told. We're told here, two primary reasons he does it is for money, because then he goes and talks with the chief priests and they agree to pay him money.
[15:30] And then secondly, because he is possessed by Satan. And how does he get possessed by Satan? Well, he must have opened a door through his covetousness, through his wanting money.
[15:43] We know from the gospel of John that he was pilfering from the gift. He held the money. Right? John reveals to us that he had been stealing all along.
[15:55] So he has a heart of covetousness and that must have taken deep root in his heart because he, that opened a door for him to be filled, to be possessed by Satan himself.
[16:10] One of the twelve. We're so used to Judas, right? But to think about that, one of the twelve would betray him.
[16:21] Not some outsider, not some, but one that Jesus chose. In fact, let me read, I thought J.C. Ryle was particularly good on this.
[16:39] Judas Iscariot ought to, Judas Iscariot ought to be a standing beacon to the church of Christ. This man, be it remembered, was one of the Lord's chosen apostles.
[16:50] He followed our Lord during the whole course of his ministry. He forsook all for Christ's sake. He heard Jesus preach and he saw Jesus' miracles.
[17:03] He preached himself. He spoke like the other apostles. There was nothing about him to distinguish him from Peter, James, and John. He was never suspected of being unsound at heart.
[17:17] And yet, this man turns out at length to be a hypocrite, betrays his master, helps his enemies to deliver him up to death, and dies as the son of perdition.
[17:33] These are fearful things, but they are true. Let the recollection of Judas Iscariot constrain every professing Christian to pray much for humility.
[17:45] Let us often say, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. At best, we have a faint conception of the deception of our own hearts.
[17:58] The lengths to which men may go in religion and yet be without saving grace is far greater than we suppose. how could a man be with Jesus three and a half years, see and hear all that he did, and come to the conclusion to betray him for money.
[18:23] And we know at the end of the story that he regrets it and he throws the 30 pieces of silver back at the scribes and Pharisees and went out and hung himself.
[18:39] Tragic. But it shows how close someone can be to Christ. How faithful one can be in all outside looking to appear faithful and yet be full of betrayal and hypocrisy.
[19:00] well that's the plot. So Luke mentions that and we'll come back to the betrayal later. Now beginning in verse 7 Luke describes now this Passover and he's going to reveal as Jesus reveals he's going to record what Jesus reveals about the true Lamb of God.
[19:22] So we make a couple of discoveries here in verses 7 to 14 we discover how Jesus is directing everything. We see that again. We saw that back when Jesus directed to get a donkey that he would ride into and Jesus knew all the details where you'd find it and how you'd do it.
[19:38] Same thing here. And then we'll see in verses 15 to 19 how the Lord gives himself now transforms the Passover to be what we understand it today.
[19:52] So the first discovery we see is that Jesus was in full control of his destiny. he was in full command of every event that happened in his life.
[20:03] He was not a victim he was not you know a tragic hero he was organizing orchestrating directing everything that's going on.
[20:16] We note three things we note the when the what and the where. When verse 7 it was the Passover verse 7 the day of unleavened bread the feast of unleavened bread Passover was the first day was the first night and then there would be seven more days of unleavened bread remembering the time in Egypt.
[20:39] They were to take a lamb without blemish they were to slay the lamb and to take the blood and apply it over the doorposts and now in the first century then as they're remembering this they roast a lamb to remember the redemption by the blood.
[20:58] And so that's the when the what what did Jesus know we see in verses 8 to 13 notice all the things that he that he does he's directing orchestrating events he knows the who the what the when the where and the why and the how note how he knows the details he says in verse 8 go and prepare the Passover verse 9 Peter and John say where do you want us to prepare it verse 10 here's what you're going to do you're going to enter the city and you'll see a man carrying a jar of water now in the first century they estimate there were 3 million Jews there on AD 30 in the first century because of the they know the number Josephus records the number of lambs that were sacrificed so a lamb for every family they could estimate there must have been about 3 million people there so enter Jerusalem where there are 3 million people around and you'll find a man carrying a jar of water okay well it was probably unusual for a man to be carrying it typically women were carrying the jars of water but it's not totally out of character for a man to be carrying a jar of water but you'll find a man there he's carrying a jar of water notice that detail he's carrying a jar of water where am I verse 10 follow him so he will meet you follow him into the house that he enters so Jesus knows about the house that he enters and then verse 11 then he knows there's a master of the house so tell the master of the house the teacher says to you where is the guest room where I may eat the
[22:47] Passover with my disciples so again Jesus knows about the master he knows the master of the house will know who the teacher is so maybe the master of the house is a disciple or maybe he's a follower he knows the master who's the teacher well he knows the teacher is Jesus and he knows that Jesus has a room now remember the first time Jesus came to Jerusalem or to Bethlehem remember when he was born there was no room right there was no room but now as he's directing things there's a room there's a room did he have a reservation well he certainly had a divine reservation at least so he knows about this room and then Jesus says in verse 12 he will show you a large upper room that is furnished prepare it there so he knows all these details he knows what the man the jar the house the master and he knows where this will happen it will be in a large upper room a large upper room that's still available with three million people in the city why a large upper room there are just twelve disciples plus Jesus right well
[24:01] Passover was a family event so Peter would have his family with him I imagine other disciples had families the Zebedees Mr. Zebedee would be there with his wife and James and John there's all the women that Luke told us about all these women that were following Jesus taking care of his needs we wonder you know Peter and John were sent to prepare the meal do you think Peter and John could do it I mean they're men I mean of course they could do it Jesus had them do it but it's it's not too far to imagine that here's all these women going along as well we better go help Peter and John because there's a lot of details to take care of because there's more than twelve people there's by Acts one there's 120 people in this upper room I don't know if there's 120 people at this Passover meal but it's more than twelve or thirteen people
[25:04] I can tell you that there's all these families that are there so it's not just one lamb they're preparing several lambs and guys are good at barbecuing right so they could they could do some roasting of the lamb so the large upper room well where is that well tradition says that this large upper room belonged to Mary the mother of John Mark the writer of the gospel of Mark that Mary was a wealthy woman she would have had a large home and and a large upper room and an upper room imagine that typically would be up on a second level and you would enter through stairs on the outside not the inside you go on the outside into this large upper room so this would have been a quite large home I've been in Capernaum where they show you the ruins of the homes and they're quite small so to be a large upper room had to be a large home and unusual it had to be a wealthy person so they're there to go to prepare it what does that mean well they had to get the lamb they had to go to the temple you get the lamb well you could bring your lamb to the temple remember they're walking their lamb on a leash or whatever they got the lamb they're bringing they're carrying the lamb to the temple they can't slay the lamb the priest must slay the lamb this is part of
[26:35] Passover so the priest is slaying the lamb and they take the slaying lamb and they take it back but on the way they have to also pick up some bitter herbs they've got to pick up unleavened bread or the flour to make the bread they've got to pick up wine they've got a shopping list to which I imagine it would be helpful if some of those ladies were along to help them pick all these things up then they had to roast the lamb and they had to get everything prepared now we're told in verse is it 12 yes that there's a large upper room that's furnished so it's furnished so not furnished like we think of oh there's a table with chairs around they reclined so this would have been on the ground so there would have been what they called couches right there would be pads that they could be reclining on they'd lay on one side and they'd eat around in a circle okay and they may have had several of these in this large room for the various families to gather but
[27:50] Jesus would have gathered with his 12 apostles so that's what they did but what we see is we see Jesus is ready for all of this he's preparing all of this he's in full control of the events that are going on he is not caught unaware he is not desperate he's not afraid he knows that at the end of this meal he will go to the Mount of Olives he will be praying and then there he will be arrested right because Judas will have found the opportunity to bring the hordes of people to arrest Jesus under the under the cover of darkness at night and only Judas as of the 12 knew where Jesus was staying on the Mount at that at night and he was staying in a particular place that the Gospel of John calls the place and I believe it was the
[28:55] Gethsemane not the garden but the Gethsemane is a wine press that was under the ground and I've been in that place it's one of the earliest traditions that that's where Jesus stayed during that week and it's a church now like everything in Israel has become a church but you go under there and you can imagine this particular cave has been fairly well preserved it was where the old oil press came out the Gethsemane means oil press and so there was a long log that went into the wall and they would come down and press the oil remember this is a mat of olives so they're harvesting all the olives and bringing it to the olive press to the Gethsemane and that's where Jesus would have stayed underground and when I was in Israel our tour guide didn't even know where this was they all want to go to the garden of Gethsemane and so
[29:55] I remember when I was wandering around and I already knew about it because I read about it in the archaeology magazine and asked some of the locals and they pointed at the garden and said no the Gethsemane oh you go down go down we found it and you come out of the Gethsemane and there's a little courtyard there and literally a stone's throw away is the garden so where he left his disciples and where he would win away a stone's throw now stone's throw is relevant right if you're see we're in Colorado if you're John Elway a stone's throw would be quite a ways if you're Bill Story the stone's throw might be about 100 feet which was about what it was about 30 yards where the garden was that there's a church over of course there as well but so
[30:57] Judas would know where this was so Jesus was ready full control not unaware remember what Jesus said John recorded in John chapter 15 Jesus said I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he's hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep I am the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd for this reason the father loves me because
[32:01] I lay down my life that I may take it up again no one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this charge I have received from my father my father gave me this charge to lay down my life for the sheep that I do what my father says so Jesus knew his purpose he had this charge from the father this is the father sent the son right God so loved the world that he sent his son into the world to lay down his life for the sheep and Jesus is doing this it's his own volition he's it's voluntary it's a sacrifice he does it willingly no one makes him do it and so we see Jesus is in full control of his destiny he's not a tragic hero caught unaware he's not a victim of circumstances he is directing every single event that's going on so that's the first truth we discover we discover a second truth and this one's more important as Jesus then begins the meal in verse 15 we find that Jesus gives his body as a substitute for all our guilt so we're focusing here this morning on the first element the bread right we're gonna take the bread here today we'll get we'll talk about the cup next week but the bread he gave his body as a substitute for all our guilt he mentions it in verse 15 he says
[33:53] I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer he already knows he's going to suffer he has a deep desire isn't that interesting verse 15 I earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer he's already got the suffering in mind but he has a deep desire to eat this Passover with his disciples he has a deep desire to have this fellowship to let them know this new meaning of what this Passover is he's anxious to tell them about the body the bread and the cup the body and his blood he's anxious for them to understand this new meaning of Passover the old Passover saved by the blood of the lamb that was one thing now this new Passover the saved by the blood of the true lamb is a whole other level of deliverance and salvation now he makes two curious statements verse 16 verse 17 and he took a cup and when he gave him thanks he said take this divided among yourselves for I tell you that from now on
[35:15] I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes two times he says I won't eat the Passover again until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God and I won't drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes two statements of fulfillment what is he talking about till the kingdom of God is fulfilled till the kingdom of God comes when is that now we already know that in a sense when Jesus came the kingdom came he's the king of the kingdom and so the kingdom was already there every time he casts out a demon the kingdom comes but we also know that there were more there's more to this kingdom that's the kingdom already but not yet it's already a part of it we are experiencing the power of it but not all of it it sets us free from sin but but we still sin and so there's still an ultimate day coming when we will sit down with him in fact he refers to it in verse skip down to verse 30 in
[36:24] Luke 22 verse 28 you are those who've stayed with me in my trials and I assign to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel so he's talking about a future meal a future supper that's when it will be fulfilled at the end when he returns when he returns and revelation talks about the marriage supper of the lamb right and blessed are all those who come right that's the that's the fulfillment when everything's done so he says I won't eat or drink again until the kingdom is fulfilled God comes so he makes those statements and then we come to verse 19 now he takes the bread now this would be the part of the meal right they've already told the story of the exodus this would be the part of the meal where they start they're eating the meal and they're breaking the bread they're breaking the matzah right the matzah just just just!
[37:38] seen matzah the unleavened bread right it's like crackers but it's a bigger flat piece and you break it in the seder meal you break it at this point and you hide half of it and then later in the meal the children go to find it and they bring it back and they take it to their dad and dad has to pay a ransom to get the bread back so they finish the I don't know if they did the hide and seek thing in that day but it's during the meal that he breaks this bread and so we're told verse 19 he took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you this bread is my body given for you given for you given in the place substitute for you given on behalf of you this is my body which is for you in your place my body for you sacrifice substitute to bear all our guilt when he gives his body in our place that's the new
[39:03] Passover because he gives his body in our place death passes us judgment passes over us it's the new and greater Passover Israel was set free by the powerful hand of God from slavery from Egypt from death they were set free and delivered but that was temporary it was dramatic and it was a God honoring thing but the real purpose of that Passover was to point forward to the real Passover this one that we need that is eternal that is forever that is personal for each one of us who believes in Christ his body takes our place his sinless body takes our place pays our debt removes God's wrath satisfies God's law and justifies us before a holy God and then
[40:06] Jesus gives an application this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me do this do this present active imperative for all you grammar fans present tense keep on doing it active you do this imperative these are my orders these are my instructions keep doing this in remembrance of me take the bread isn't interesting every communion service every lord's table service is a visual sermon is a visual reminder we take a physical piece of bread that reminds us of a physical body that Jesus took and gave in our place we take a cup a physical cup and we drink it we taste it we see it we eat it we assimilate it and so you can imagine there's deeper applications to that this is not just some vague lesson this is physical a continual reminder that we see and taste my body for you a real body in the place of you bread that you touch that you eat that you taste is a physical reminder of a physical body that Jesus laid down in our place and we need we need a substitute we need a redeemer we need one to to remove our guilt to take away our sin as John the Baptist said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world here's the real Lamb of God the real
[42:14] Lamb of God perfect spotless Lamb of God he is the remedy for our ruined lives he is the Lamb Jesus sacrifice of his life is what forgives us and what God forgives he declares innocent Peter says it this way he reminds us of this of the body of Christ he says 1 Peter 2 for to you for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly here's the verse listen to this 1 Peter 2 24 he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross why so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds we are healed for you were continually straying like sheep but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls
[43:41] Peter quoting from Isaiah 53 he himself that verse takes up the gospel he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross and the purpose that we might die to sin and live to righteousness not just that we might be forgiven but that we might be transformed that we might be renewed that our purpose of our lives would be radically changed that we would not just know the joy and peace of forgiveness but that we would recognize and begin to experience the transformation of life that we might die to sin and live to righteousness Paul writes a whole chapter or two chapters basically in Romans 6 and 7 I mean that's our life that's the process of our life until he comes to learn to die to sin and live to righteousness because we still have that old man in us right we're not the kingdom is not totally fulfilled yet but we have the kingdom in us we have the Holy
[44:48] Spirit in us working with us encouraging us to die to sin and live to righteousness to let put off the old and put on the new continually being renewed in our mind we were straying like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls we all like sheep have gone astray so at communion this is what we remember we do this in remembrance of him of what he did it's not a ritual it is a reminder Paul warns us to be very careful that we do not make this a ritual that we do not do this without thoughtfulness that we do it genuinely or don't do it because this is serious this is the body and the blood of the Lord and Paul even says that some have died some have gone sick and have died because they did not take the Lord's table seriously treated it as simply a ritual now we've probably all done that at times especially when we were young but Lord help us yeah I mean we wander right
[46:13] Lord help us to take these things to awaken right we try one of the reasons we do it once a month and not once a week a lot of churches do it once a week it is our concern is we do it once a week it's easier for it to become a ritual for it to be it's harder doing it every the more often you do it's harder to do it genuinely some churches do it once a year when Jesus says do this do this what Passover so that would be once a year do this does it mean every time you take bread that would be every meal does it mean what does it mean well and of course there's there's charity in how churches apply this we as a church apply it monthly we feel that's often enough to keep it before us but not too often that it's tempting to let it become a ritual it's a it's a way to renew our faith to call to our mind and return ourselves to him to repent if we need to the bread is a physical reminder that
[47:20] God's son took on a real body died as a substitute for sin his blood is the price that he paid with his own life the promise and pledge of our sins forgiven so will you do this to remember him will you do this to return to him do you make it a priority to be with the church on the Lord's day to do this the first Sunday of every month that doesn't mean when we miss we're radical hypocrites but make it a priority one of those things it's something you apply in your own life and you decide in your own life how you follow the Lord but we have decided to do communion once a month the first
[48:20] Sunday of each month may we make it a priority as much as we can as much as is doable may we make it a priority to be here for that let's pray Paul we thank you for what we see in Jesus in Luke 22 we thank you Lord that he is a savior a master a Lord who who's not tossed by the waves he's not tossed around by what will he do he is in charge of the events he is in control of his destiny we thank you Lord that he is anxious and eagerly desirous Lord that we participate in this he calls us to keep doing this in remembrance of him so Lord as we do that today in just a few moments as we will take the bread and the cup help us prepare our minds and our hearts and our souls for this today that we might honor you and remember you rightly we pray in Christ's name amen amen no no