Commemorating Our Risen Lord (2)
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-Let me encourage you to...
...turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 11.
As you can see...
...we’re going to be taking a brief sabbatical...
...from our verse-by-verse exposition of Luke’s gospel, this morning.
And I’m doing that for two reasons.
The first is obvious:
To commemorate the Resurrection.
The second might be a little less obvious, but it is...
To combine that with...
...our commemoration of the Lord’s Supper.
Now, I don’t know how often...
...given our informal liturgical calendar, here...
...that those two things...
...will fall on the same Lord’s Day...
But, I can’t remember the last time it did...
So, I thought it would be good for us, this morning...
To see how much overlap there is...
...between the commemoration of those two events.
(I think there’s a lot more than initially meets the eye)
And I think that recognizing some of those correlations...
Will help us to have a...
clearer
fuller
better
...commemoration of the Supper...
...every time we do it...
And, I think it will help us to focus...
...our thoughts on the Resurrection...
...more frequently than just once a year.
(Although, the observance of the Lord’s Day...
...ought to remind us of that weekly)
(elaborate)
This should help in a similar way.
(at least that’s my hope)
-Alright, we’re going to start by reading 1 Corinthians 11:23-26...
And then we’ll pray, of course...
And then we’ll use those verses...
...as something of a framework...
...to trace out this connectedness.
-Let’s read it together:
This is the Word of the LIVING God:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
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Pray
-Let me draw your attention down to Verse 26 for a minute.
I want to point something out at the get-go...
...that may cause some of you...
...to stumble over my thesis...
...before I even have a chance to develop it!
I’m referring to the fact that Paul...
...explicitly said of the Lord’s Supper, that...
26 ...as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death...
That seems contrary to my whole thesis, doesn’t it?
-So, why am I still holding to it?
Because, as I’ve stated many times before:
Without the Resurrection of Jesus
The Death of Jesus would have been to no avail!
(That’s a concept that we’re going to...
...see a lot of this morning)
And in that sense...
...we’re going to see that, in fact...
...the Resurrection of Christ...
...is implicit in every ASPECT of the Lord’s Supper.
-Alright, Let’s jump back up to Verse 23.
Notice there, first of all...
...where Paul grounds the authority...
...for his treatise on the Supper:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you...
Who’s that?
Jesus, right?
What does it mean, then...
...that Paul refers to him as “Lord” (Kurios)?
Well, in it’s most basic sense:
Lexham Theological Wordbook κύριος
κύριος (kyrios). n. masc. lord,
a sovereign, or ruler.
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So, why would Paul refer to Jesus that way...
...while giving these corrective instructions...
...to the church at Corinth?
To remind them who the boss was!
Jesus is the Kurios of the church!
What he says goes!
Full Stop!
Amen?
-But, how does this...
point us to,
or even necessitate...
...the Resurrection?
Well, think about this:
Who was it that was prophesied...
...to rule over God’s people and God’s Kingdom forever?
The Messiah (Hebrew)
The Christ (Greek)
The Messiah would be...
...the “Kurios” over the Kingdom of God, right?
Now, what do we know about him?
Was he to be a man?
Or...
Was he to be divine?
Yes!
Okay, watch this...
...in the prologue of Paul’s letter to the Romans:
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
That’s the Messiah:
The Son of God
The Son of David
Fully divine
Fully human
He’s the Messianic King!
He’s the Kurios!
-Now, watch this:
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
This is the idea behind...
..Paul's reference to Jesus, in our text...
As “the Lord”
He is the...
Messianic King
Christ of God
Master and Lord of the Church
His Resurrection proves that!
Furthermore, Paul goes on to say, that...
...the recognition of that fact...
...is one of the criterion for salvation:
9 ...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
He wouldn’t be “Kurios” without the Resurrection...
You and I won’t be saved...
...if we don’t believe it and confess it!
It’s that central!
-Alright, let’s read on:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed...
Before we read on...
...don’t overlook the fact, that...
...Jesus knew and predicted his betrayal.
He didn’t fall prey to Judas’s deception.
It was all part of the Father’s plan for final victory!
Here too, we have...
...a subtle segue to the Resurrection.
How so?
Well, think about this:
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 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.”
The Resurrection was just as decreed and inevitable...
As was...
His betrayal, suffering, and death.
-Let’s read on:
23...the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body...
That is to say:
This bread represents my body
And, like this bread:
My “body,” my flesh, my real humanity...
Is going to be broken... crushed!
This is a metaphor for his passion.
(for his real human suffering)
-How/why should that point us to his Resurrection?
Because it made the Resurrection necessary:
Think about this:
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
So first of all:
Why did he have to...
suffer?
be rejected?
be killed?
That’s simple enough, isn’t it?
That’s intimated in the language of Verse 24:
24 . . . “This is my body, which is for you...
Or, as Luke spells out:
19 . . . “This is my body, which is given for you...
Meaning what?
It was given as an act of substitution
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree...
Meaning that:
4 ...he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Which means that:
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...
But again, how does this...
How does his substitutionary suffering and death...
...point us to/make necessary the Resurrection?
Vindication!
Think about this:
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Why?
23 For the wages of sin is death...
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
That’s why we die.
It’s a matter of Justice!
Yet...
5 ...in him there is no sin.
22 He committed no sin...
He was:
26 ...holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners...
He was:
19 ...a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was the...
17 ...beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
So, why did he die?
Why was his body “broken” ?
Because of this:
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Here’s how it works together...
...with the Resurrection:
25 ...was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
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You see, the Resurrection...
...PROVES beyond a shadow of a doubt, that...
1.) Jesus was perfectly righteous
Ergo...
2.) His body was indeed “broken” for us!
If he hadn’t risen from the grave...
...never to die again...
Then that would have meant...
That death had a just claim on him.
That he had died for his own sins
And if that had been the case...
...he couldn’t have died for ours!
-The Resurrection gives...
meaning
purpose
Divine validation
...to the “breaking of his body.”
-Alright, let’s read on:
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is . . . my blood...
Again, a representation.
Here’s what the symbol means...
...in its most basic sense:
14 ...the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life...
Here’s why that’s so important:
20 The soul who sins shall die...
This is why the Law of Moses said:
11 ...the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
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So again, its the principle of substitution:
A payment rendered to divine justice...
Imposed upon an innocent substitute.
A life for a life.
A divine transaction...
...that allows the transgressor...
to avoid that punishment for himself...
to avoid being forever cast away...
...from the divine presence...
And then, on the positive side of that:
...provides him with the necessary means...
...for him to have a relationship with God.
-And THAT specific idea...
...is what we skipped over before:
25...he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood...
What’s that saying?
His blood...
The substitution of his life for ours...
...has provided the means...
...for guilty sinners like ourselves...
...to enter into covenant relationship with God!
The author of Hebrews...
...explains the concept:
18 ...not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats . . . and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”
Why?
22...without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
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You and I can’t just...
...worship God the way we are.
We can’t just decide that...
...we’re going to be his friend.
We can’t just have...
...a personal relationship with him...
On our own merits
On our own terms
He sets the terms of relationship...
...through divine covenant.
And every covenant relationship...
(made on this side of the Fall)
Requires a life-for-life covering of atonement.
And, in the Lord’s Supper we are reminded...
...that it’s Jesus’ blood...
That provides that covering of atonement...
That allows us to be in...
...a covenant relationship with God.
-And Guys... not just any covenant...
THE Covenant...
The “NEW Covenant”
The Covenant that promised these blessings:
#1
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and
He’ll give:
The knowledge of his will
The DESIRE to do it!
#2
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
#3
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
#4 (Here’s what makes the rest possible)
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
And guys...
...Matthew’s account of the Supper...
...actually spells that promise out explicitly:
28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
None of the other promises are possible...
...without that!
But THAT is exactly what...
...the blood of Jesus Christ accomplished!
-But again, what does that...
...have to do with the Resurrection?
EVERYTHING!
-Think about this:
22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
The terms of the New Covenant...
...could not have been met...
The promises of the New Covenant...
...could not have been fulfilled....
...if its Covenant Head and Mediator, hadn’t...
Died for the sins of its adherents
Risen from that death...
...never to die again!
Paul said in...
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain....
17...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
But, as it stands brethren...
5 . . . Jesus Christ . . . the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth . . . loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood...
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-Alright, look at Verse 26:
(Let me ask you brothers...
...to go ahead and distribute the elements...
...as I go over this final Verse)
I always love to finish with this reminder...
But I want to hone in on...
...a different aspect of it...
...than what I usually do.
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
What’s that referring to?
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, right?
What does that have to do...
...with his Resurrection during his First Coming?
Absolutely EVERYTHING!
Consider this:
20 ...Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Now, watch this:
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Jesus, again, in Matthew’s account...
...actually points us to this consummate eschatological event...
...as he ordains the commemoration of the supper:
He says:
27 . . . “Drink of it, all of you,
28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
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You see, Christ’s Resurrection...
...is, in a sense, what makes everything else certain:
Christ’s sinless perfection
The validity of his substitution
The acceptance of that payment by God
The confidence that it rendered satisfaction
The effectiveness of its propitiation
The defeat of sin, death, and Satan
The inauguration of the New Covenant
Christ’s Ascension and Session
The Inauguration and Consummation of the Kingdom of God
The Final judgment
The future Resurrection of men
The reality of eternal bliss...
...for all those for whom:
His body was broken
His blood was poured out
And who have put their faith and trust in that provision!
That’s how central the Resurrection is...
...to the Redemptive purposes of God!
-Alright… Let’s read our verses again...
...and partake of these elements...
...with (hopefully) a greater appreciation...
...for what they represent.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(Click Off)
Pray and Partake
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
(Click Off)
Pray and Partake
Remember:
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
I say with the Apostle John:
20 ...Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
