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[0:00] seated. So my doctor asked me to take a 30-day challenge. He said, no sugar, no dairy, no grain, no gluten. And then he added no alcohol. I said, well, no problem. I said, what's left to eat without the gluten? What's going to hold it together? It's the gluten that holds it together. He said, well, there are the things that God has made. Meat, vegetables, fruit. He had to say the things that God has made. Because he knew I'm a pastor. He said, he said, well, you've done that. So he says, Pastor Bell, what are you eating for breakfast?

[1:05] I told him, strudels, which is a glorified Pop-Tart.

[1:17] In fact, Pop-Tarts are probably healthier. He said, Pastor Bell, you've got to change. You've got to change. So he challenged me to do this.

[1:31] See, what we put into our body affects us. You are what you eat, they used to say. So I guess if you eat a lot of donuts, you become a donut. What comes into your body is absorbed.

[1:50] It either nourishes or malnourishes you. Now I'm not here to teach about physical diet. Here to talk about a spiritual diet.

[2:02] See, this is true spiritually as well. You reap what you sow. What you feed on. What you eat spiritually.

[2:14] What you take in. What you ingest, consume. Absorb into your body. Impact your spiritual health. Here at the Last Supper, Jesus establishes for us what we call communion.

[2:32] We call the Lord's table. What we celebrate once a month. We do in remembrance of him. Here at this Last Supper, at this Passover meal, Jesus establishes a whole new covenant, a whole new relationship, a whole new terms of dealing with sinful men.

[2:57] Which supersedes and does away with the old covenant, which could not save us, could not heal us, could not forgive us, could not help us, could only condemn us.

[3:12] So Jesus talks about, this is my body. This is my blood. Eat. Drink.

[3:24] Participate. So, I want to, this morning, to look at the purpose of this. What we do every month. What is the purpose of it?

[3:35] What is the meaning of it? What is significant about those words? This is my body. This is mine. To kill Jesus. The time is near, we realize, as the chief priests and the elders and the scribes are gathering together, counseling together, plotting to kill Jesus.

[3:55] And then we find out in chapter 14, verses 10 and 11, that there's an inside man. They're surprised to find out. There's an inside man who will betray him, who will turn him over, who will find an opportune time, where they can come by stealth, in the middle of the night, away from public crowds, and arrest him.

[4:18] This man's name is Judas. Then we see in verses 12 and following, there's a plan. There's a plan for his Passover.

[4:31] At the very time when they are sacrificing the Passover lamb, Jesus is planning his own Passover, his last supper. And it's interesting in the text, where the disciples say, where do you want us to prepare the Passover for you to eat?

[4:48] And then Jesus talks about, where is my upper room, where I will eat with my disciples? So in a sense, he's personalizing it. It's my Passover.

[4:59] It's my table. Giving hints already that he's going to change what has been an old tradition of great meaning and depth to something even greater, and of greater depth and significance.

[5:16] We found that Jesus was always in control of his destiny. He's, as he tells them where to go, where to find this room, he gives these specific directions with this, you're going to meet up with this man carrying a jar, and he'll take you to a room, and you'll ask him, where's the room?

[5:34] And the master will know, oh, the teacher said it, so here we go. He's directing, he's orchestrating, he's in full control of everything that's going on. He's not a victim.

[5:47] He knows. And then we see, as he reveals in the upper room, verse 17, that one of the twelve will betray him. He not only knows that, but he understands the betrayal, and he's understood it from the beginning.

[6:02] John 6 tells us that he knew from the very beginning who would betray him, and who would believe in him. He was never taken by surprise.

[6:15] He expected this betrayal of Judas. He knew Judas was a betrayer from the moment that he picked him. And so for these three, four years, he never gave it away, even to Judas, until that night in the room.

[6:35] Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. And we see how he felt about Judas. Woe to that man! And yet, how he acted toward Judas was consistent with kindness to sin.

[6:53] So what we see about Jesus is that he's in control. He understood what was going on. He knew this was all part of the plan. And in difference from how we, I'm sure, respond to people who betray us, or abandon us, or fail us, Jesus was not angry.

[7:15] He was not bitter. He accepted this part of what he was to go through in order to lay down his life and save sinners. So here we come, verse 22, to the Passover meal.

[7:29] And I'll talk more about that next time in terms of what's the order of the service, how was it laid out, there were four cups, and blessings, which we see that they're in the middle of here, in verse 22.

[7:44] But in that Passover meal, Jesus reveals the purpose of his own death. He talks about, this is my body, this is my blood. He takes the Passover's elements, the bread, bread, the unleavened bread, which was to be broken and given to everybody in the family, was explained as the bread of affliction when the Israelites were in Egypt.

[8:12] And when they had to be prepared to run, prepared to escape, as soon as the death angel conquers, or comes and kills all the firstborn.

[8:23] they would take the blood of that lamb that day to put it over their doorstep, or their doorway, so that when the angel of death came, he saw the blood and passed over, and saved, delivered, protected, that family within.

[8:42] So they were literally saved by the blood of the lamb. And so we see how those pictures now foreshadow and point forward to a greater lamb, and a greater salvation, not just a salvation from physical slavery and oppression, but spiritual slavery and oppression to an even worse master.

[9:10] They're all enslaved and in bondage to the God of this world. Satan.

[9:23] And what Jesus does is he rescues us from that kingdom of darkness and transplants us into the kingdom of his beloved son under a master who is kind and gracious and faithful and honest and true.

[9:40] So what is the significance of this saying? We're going to spend actually a few weeks here because these words are so significant. These words have been spoken on and written of and thought about and interpreted over the centuries so many different ways.

[10:02] So we're going to kind of dive in a little bit and see what it says. First we want to just look at what's the significance of his body and his blood. We'll look later at where he talks about a covenant. What's that about?

[10:14] And we'll look at the application and the effect of this. But today I just want to look at what's the significance of these words my body might look. Well I think there are three intentions here.

[10:26] In what Jesus is revealing there is a past focus where we're called to look back. There's a present focus where we're asked to take something right now and then there's a future aspect where he talks about we keep doing this until that day.

[10:47] There's another day coming but we do this until that day. We proclaim his death until he comes. There's a past present and a future focus that go on here.

[11:00] So first of all the past focus I think we see is why do we do this? Why do we do communion? Why do we come to the Lord's table once a month? We do it first of all to awaken our love for Christ's sacrifice.

[11:15] We're to remember. Do this in remembrance Jesus says. Now we don't have those words here in Mark 14 but in the parallel in Luke 22 Luke tells us that Jesus said not just take this is my body but he said this is my body do this in remembrance of me.

[11:40] So Jesus calls us to remember. So in other words to look back. To think back on what he has sacrificed. Remember me. To look back.

[11:50] It's a visible reminder. So we're taking physical bread right? We take a little piece of bread. We break it up and we hand it out and we each take a piece of bread.

[12:03] And so we can feel that bread. We can touch it. We're going to taste it. We're going to savor it. We're going to eat it. So it's a physical, visible reminder that God sent his son in a physical, visible body for us.

[12:23] death. And it's interesting. He bids us to remember not his birth, not his miracles, not his life.

[12:34] He bids us to remember his death. Because of all of that. His death. Without his death, none of it would have need.

[12:47] his death is what forgives us. His death is what justifies us. His death is what sanctifies us. His death is what saves us.

[12:59] So two parts. Remember two things. First, my body. Reflect on my body. This is my body. And again, Luke's text, here in Mark, he simply says, take, this is my body.

[13:12] In Luke, it says, this is my body which is given for you. And then in 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul talks about this supper that we do over and over again, he says, do this in remembrance, this is for you.

[13:32] This is my body which is for you. Literally, in your place. So reflect on his body. And I think what we're thinking about, when we think of the body of Christ, we're thinking of the substitute.

[13:45] It's the body in our place. He died for us, in our place, as a substitute. He was the lamb that took our sins and bore our punishment.

[14:01] He bore our guilt. The bread is a physical reminder of a physical body. Christ took our place, dies on our behalf. He is the lamb.

[14:12] When the Israelites would bring a lamb to the temple, and they're bringing this Passover lamb, and the Old Testament tells us that on the 10th of the month, they were to get a lamb, and they're to bring the lamb to kill it on the 14th.

[14:31] So that means for four days they're to take care of this lamb, to get to know the lamb. Can you imagine that? Now, if you've grown up on a farm, or you're used to the animal whole thing, in our culture where we go to a store and buy, we don't see the killing part and the blood part, but God intentionally wants them to hold the lamb.

[14:58] I'm not talking about a bad sheep. I'm not a little cutie, right? Little cutie. Come on.

[15:10] Come on. Yeah. So, hold that puppy, lamby, for a few days, and then take it to the priest, and while you hold your hand on its head, he will shed its blood.

[15:29] You are identifying. You are touching the lamb while it's killed. Because you are saying, this lamb is dying for me, instead of me.

[15:43] The lamb is my substitute. That's what Jesus was saying. My body which is given for you, in your place. And so, we're identifying when we take that breath.

[15:57] We're physically touching. a physical thing that reminds us that it was a physical body that actually died in our place.

[16:10] It also gives reassurance in his blood. Verse 24, he says, not just, this is my body, but verse 24, this is my blood, which is poured out for me, in the place of me.

[16:27] Whereas with the body, we're thinking of the physical substitute, with the blood, we're thinking of the sacrifice and the payment, the price. We are justified by his blood, Paul says.

[16:41] It's poured out for many, on behalf of many. It's the blood that saves and delivers and protects us from judgment. Just like the lamb's blood over the doorway, protected as the judgment came, saved them from that judgment, so the blood of Christ saves us from God's judgment.

[17:04] We are now cleansed, forgiven, made innocent by this blood, because Christ has taken the penalty for us. He's paid for us.

[17:16] so it saves not everyone. Look at it.

[17:26] It says it's for who? It's poured out for who? For many. Many. Many, many, many, many. All kinds of tribes and people and tongues and nations and all kinds of people.

[17:42] Many, many, many. men and all. It was all, then all would be saved. Because his blood is sufficient to save everyone.

[17:57] But it's for many. And who are the many? Well, we find out that the many are those who believe, those who accept, those who take it to themselves. themselves. So Jesus' sacrifice of his life is what forgives us, what declares us innocent.

[18:15] And as we remember this, God's intent, as we remember, is to stir our hearts to love him again. To remind us, to awaken our love.

[18:29] We don't go through communion as a ritual, kind of, okay, check the box, I did that. We want to do it in a meaningfully way. Meaningfully, is that right?

[18:40] Meaningful, probably good. Way. You know, Paul talks about going, if you do it in an unworthy manner. What's an unworthy manner? Does that mean, well, if I'm a sinner? No, because only sinners can do this.

[18:54] No, it means to not examine yourself, to kind of go without thinking. He says, don't do it in an unworthy manner, examine yourself, and then eat and drink. worthy.

[19:05] So, worthy simply means to be thoughtful, to be sincere, to confess anything I need to confess, so that he might renew my faith in you.

[19:22] First Peter, Peter describes the sacrifice of Christ. He says, for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, in your place, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

[19:36] What were his steps? Well, 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.

[19:56] He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. Why? So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

[20:09] By his wounds you have been healed, according to Isaiah 53. For you were straying like sheep, we sang about that, right?

[20:19] Wander, prone to wander, straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our soul. See, as we realize what Christ has done for us, that he bore our sins in his body on the cross, it helps us return to the shepherd, to love him, to remember.

[20:49] So at communion, this is what we remember. And we're remembering in order to stir our love again, to reawaken our love for him, to renew our first love.

[21:03] It's not a ritual we're going through motions, but it's a renewal of our faith, calling to mind, filling our thoughts of love for him. And the bread is a visible reminder that God's son took a real body and died in our place.

[21:17] His blood, the cup, visible reminder that he paid the price with his own life, a promise and a pledge that our sins are forgiven.

[21:29] So why is this significant, the purpose of Christ's death? Well, first of all, to awaken our love for the sacrifice of Christ. But that's not all. Jesus has more to say about this.

[21:42] Notice, verse 22, as they were eating, he took bread after blessing and he broke it, gave it to them and said, what? Take!

[21:55] Take it! So Luke, in Luke, he says, do this and remember. Here he says, take it. In Matthew, Jesus adds, eat it.

[22:11] Take it. Receive it. Take it. So notice, first of all, there's a receiving of the bread, there's a taking. And the second intention is a present focus where we participate in Christ's death.

[22:24] We abide in it. We identify with it. We do something right now. We're not just remembering something in the past, but we're now, we're taking, we're eating, we're drinking, we're involving our senses.

[22:42] Which is appropriate because the Passover meal that Jesus is doing, the Passover meal, is a very experiential meal.

[22:54] Have you ever done a seder? We did some seders here years ago. It's very, there's touching, there's hearing, there's seeing, there's tasting, there's savoring, it's very experiential.

[23:09] There's that connection between physical and mental. And so what that does is it kind of embeds it more into our memory.

[23:20] It personalizes it. When you add a physical act to the thoughtful act. So he says take, eat. So I've been thinking about that this week, especially since I had to change my diet.

[23:34] What is the significance of eating? Why does he say eat? What are we doing when we're eating?

[23:47] And I have to think about this because I don't think about it, I just do it. I'm like, hungry, eat. What's eating? Well, realize first of all that Jesus is teaching us to do more than just remember.

[24:03] He's asking us to get involved, to participate here, to feed on, to ingest. What we do when we eat is we ingest something into our body to be absorbed into our body, to strengthen us and nourish us, right?

[24:20] To enable us, but if you don't eat, you're going to get weak. If you don't eat well, you're going to get weak.

[24:32] or have other issues. America has all kinds of issues that are related to food. You see that? That's why when the doctor challenged me, I'm like, okay, I'll think about it.

[24:46] Nothing radical here. Ingest, and we're identifying, so we're taking and we're eating, we're identifying, there's a physical identification.

[24:57] I'm putting my head on the head of that lamb. I'm physically saying, this is me, this is for me.

[25:09] It should be me, but it's Jesus. We're joining. Think about the drinking part.

[25:20] You know, eating's one thing you enjoy. I always think of Isaac when I think of eating. Because Isaac was easily deceived by his son because he loved the savory meat.

[25:35] I always think of him as just kind of drooling. I don't have a great view of Isaac. He doesn't have a really good picture in the scripture. He's always laying in bed and he's always wanting to eat.

[25:51] He's dying for like 20 years. He's in bed. 20 years later, still laying in bed. I don't know what it was. But he was a patriarch and he did believe.

[26:05] So we taste and we savor and we ingest and absorb. Why do we do this?

[26:18] Why does he add this? Not just to think and remember but to participate and to eat. Well, it's refreshing our soul just as food nourishes our body or drink refreshes our thirst.

[26:36] So taking of Jesus, feeding on Jesus, feeds and strengthens and encourages and revives our soul.

[26:48] people. When we take communion, when we think about his body and his blood and we recall these things as not just that he did it but why he did it, how he did it, it refocuses me, it strengthens me, it deepens my faith.

[27:08] and it's like, yeah, but I already believed all that. That's kind of back to basics. Yeah, we've got to go back to basics all the time because we're still sinners and we're still falling short and we're still prone to wander.

[27:21] And how do we sing it? We're prone to wander the God I love. I wander from the God I love.

[27:33] I love him. Why do I do that? Right? And we hate that about ourselves. We hate our sin. But that brings us back to Jesus.

[27:46] Okay, I'm safe. I'm safe. Help me next time better. Okay, a little better. Strengthen me.

[27:56] And that's where this eating savors and it renews our faith and strengthens us and nurtures us again. we do this publicly.

[28:07] We do it together. We publicly declare our guilt when we take the bread and we take the cup. We declare publicly we're sinners in need of a savior. And we are renewing in those moments our dependence on his saving grace.

[28:24] And we renew by relying on the promise. He says in verse 24, it's my blood which is poured out for many. That's a promise.

[28:36] That's a pledge. My blood which is literally actually present passive tense which is being poured out. In other words, he's saying even as I'm telling you these words, my blood is being poured out.

[28:49] I'm already offering myself. I've already taken the step. I've already thrown the gauntlet down. There's no going back. I'm going. I'm already being poured out.

[29:01] That's why it's called the passion of Christ. The suffering. Passion comes from the Greek word pasha. So it's the suffering of Christ. He's already suffering.

[29:12] He's already suffering. He's already being betrayed. He's already going to be denied by Peter. So we need this reminder.

[29:25] The promise reminds us to draw our life from him, to depend on him. So we're feeding on him. We're depending on him. We're believing in him. We're trusting in what he has said.

[29:37] And without these reminders, beloved, what happens to us? We easily forget. We easily lean on our own understanding.

[29:49] We default into our own natural tendencies. It's just what we do. We are prone that way. We are of flesh.

[30:02] And so what is natural to us comes naturally. What is supernatural comes not naturally, but by faith, by an activation of depending on the Father, of looking to the Father, of feeding upon Christ.

[30:25] If I have any hobby horse, it's about what faith is. I always talk about active faith. Not just do I believe this concept, but is my faith active?

[30:37] Am I leaning? Am I reaching to him? Am I looking to him? See, it's that's what is depending. Not just kind of let go and let God.

[30:49] There is an aspect of, yeah, let go and God. There's time for that. faith is always active. It's always reaching. It's always please work in me.

[31:02] Seal my heart, as we sang. Seal my heart. It's so prone to wandering. Seal my heart from wandering. Bind me. I don't want to leave you.

[31:13] So how do we do this? How do we draw our life from him? How do we feed on him? How do we eat in this spiritual sense? How do we abide by faith in Christ's death?

[31:27] Well, remember back in the gospel when Jesus fed the 5,000. In the gospel of John, when he fed the 5,000, he had some words to add along with that.

[31:38] He gave a commentary about eating the bread. Remember the bread, the five loaves and two fish, which were multiplied into 5,000 men, plus women and children, so about 25 thousand, 30 thousand people from five loaves and two fish.

[31:57] And from that, Jesus taught a spiritual lesson. He said in John 6, 35, he said to them, I, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

[32:13] Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. God says, I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

[32:25] Speaking of unbelievers. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven. He's very, very specific now.

[32:38] He doesn't talk like this in the gospel of John, in gospel of Mark. gospel of John tells us Jesus' very revealing word. I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

[32:54] And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him, and should have eternal life.

[33:14] And I will raise him up on the last day. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died.

[33:25] They ate bread in the wilderness, remember? Bread from heaven, manna from heaven. Jesus is giving another analogy. Remember, you had the bread from heaven, you ate that, what happened?

[33:38] Still died. there's a new bread from heaven. You eat this bread, you don't die. You don't die.

[33:52] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

[34:04] If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I give, just to be specific, the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh, my body.

[34:19] There we go. Years before the last supper, Jesus was already talking about this. Years before he said, this is my body, this is my blood. Way back early when he spent the five thousand, he's already talking about this.

[34:33] I'm the bread. You need to eat me. Which, by the way, after he preached the sermon in John 6, the big majority of disciples stopped following him.

[34:46] He said, this guy's nuts. Talk about eating a split. We're out of here. And it was kind of a moment for Jesus because then he turned to the twelve and said, are you going to leave too?

[35:02] Peter, good moment. Peter, good moment. Got to notice because he had some bad ones. Good moment. You're the only one with the words. I don't get him, but you got the words.

[35:13] I don't want the words. You know? I know the right. I know you're the guy. And I'm all in. I ain't leaving. I'm all in.

[35:25] One day I'm going to get it. Because you're talking like, okay, I want that. So notice the parallels. When Jesus talks about I am the bread, notice the parallels.

[35:38] He talks about believing in him, which is the same as coming to him. Whoever comes to me will never hunger.

[35:48] He who believes in me will never thirst. So in other words, believing in him and coming to him are the same thing. How do I believe in Jesus? Come to him. Later he says, the one who looks upon the son and believes in him.

[36:04] Well, how do you believe in him? Look upon him. Investigate. Think upon him. And then he adds this eating. What's believing?

[36:15] Coming, looking upon, and eating. Okay? We know it's not physical. Nourishing. Feeding on.

[36:27] Ingesting. Absorbing. Taking in. Savory. That's faith. That's faith.

[36:42] Verse 25, Jesus adds one more perspective. We're just going to mention it. He says, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new.

[36:53] And Paul adds in 1 Corinthians 11, we do this, and every time we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[37:06] So we keep doing it until that day. Until that day when he comes. Until the day when he returns. We do it. Why? To remember.

[37:20] To awaken our love for him. To renew our mind. To participate with him and to put some feet on our faith of touching and savoring and absorbing.

[37:40] Contemplating. we long for the day. It's interesting he mentions that day. The older I get the more I long for it. Physically, mentally, emotionally, I long for that day.

[37:54] We long for that day when we see his face. Can you, do you think about, I want to see his face. That scarred, marred, which he still bears for us.

[38:15] Nail-scarred wrists. When, that day when our faith becomes sight, oh, we believe and hope, we believe and hope, we believe and we hope.

[38:27] I knew it was right. No, it's a little more certain than that. when temptations are gone. That day when temptations are gone.

[38:43] When our weakness is no longer part of our maker. Our proneness is no longer part of our maker. When suffering ends, and Paul says, you know, the suffering we go through now, it's not even comparable to the eternal weight of glory.

[39:04] And we get that mentally but it's still, yeah, we're still suffering now. And all things are new. Until that day, we keep on renewing our mind and awakening our love.

[39:18] So is there any application to any of this? Well, if you haven't gotten anything yet, just simple, just let me put it in a simple question. How's your spiritual diet?

[39:29] what are you taking in? What are you feeding on? What are you absorbing? What are you consuming? What is it that's nurturing you?

[39:45] What's strengthening you? What's building you up? What's reviving and refreshing you? I mean, think of that. You're parched and you're thirsty.

[39:56] You drink and, ah, it goes down, you know? Ah. Especially if it's flavored a little bit. But you can't have anymore.

[40:13] Sorry. Bye. Bye. Love you, brother. Bye. All right.

[40:27] This is the heart of our faith. This is my body, this is my blood. This is the heart of our faith. So let us remember him.

[40:40] Let us stir up and awaken our love to him. Let us take tangibly, let us abide, participate with him as we keep looking with great hope to his return.

[40:55] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these words. We've only begun to look at these words, how life-changing they are, how transformational they are, how radical they are in the context of the Jewish Passover.

[41:17]  There's so much here. But, Father, we can't absorb all of that. We just want to nibble today, to savor today. Today. we'reNINGNINGNING