Easter Sunday: 4/5/26

Title: Biblical Justice: Christ Died for One Race, One Blood & And All Will Live Eternally.

However the question remains, where will we spend eternal life, in heaven or hell. For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and He not only died for our sins and was buried, but rose from death on the third day, can be assured of our eternal salvation and dwelling place with Him.

This morning, we celebrate Easter across the world and for Christians, we observe and worship our God not on Thursday, Friday or even Saturday. But we gather together on Sundays, the first day of the week which is the day that Christ was risen.

This past Wednesday, in our weekly Bible Study series, we completed the Book of Luke ending with Chapter 24 where we read of Jesus’ Resurrection, His walk on the Road to Emmaus, his Appearances, and His Ascension.

Luke ends his writings with the Ascension in Luke 24:50–53 “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God.”

And this my brothers and sisters is why we continually celebrate and worship God on Sundays; the first day of the week, the day our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus Christ was risen and conquered death.

We also partake in the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of His suffering and sacrifice for the world.

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

The accounts of the Lord’s Supper are found in all four Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:17-25; Luke 22:7-22; and John 13:21-30).

The apostle Paul wrote concerning the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. Paul includes a statement not found in the Gospels: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

We may ask what it means to partake of the bread and the cup “in an unworthy manner.” It may mean to disregard the true meaning of the bread and cup and to forget the tremendous price our Savior paid for our salvation. Or it may mean to allow the ceremony to become a dead and formal ritual or to come to the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin.

In keeping with Paul’s instruction, we should examine ourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup.

Another statement Paul made that is not included in the gospel accounts is 1 Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

This places a time limit on the ceremony—until our Lord’s return. From these brief accounts we learn how Jesus used two of the frailest of elements as symbols of His body and blood and established them as a monument to His death. It was not a monument of carved marble or molded brass, but of bread and wine. Jesus declared that the bread spoke of His body that would be broken.

There was not a broken bone, but His body was so badly tortured that it was hardly recognizable; we read in:

Isaiah 53:4–7 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

And the wine spoke of His blood, indicating the terrible death He would soon experience.

He, the perfect Son of God, became the fulfillment of the countless Old Testament prophecies concerning a Redeemer:

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”; 

When He said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” He indicated this was a ceremony meant to continue into the future. The Passover, which required the death of a lamb and looked forward to the coming of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, was fulfilled in the Lord’s death on the cross.

The New (or second) Covenant replaced the Old (or first) Covenant when Christ, the true Passover Lamb was sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:7 “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

Hebrews 8:8–13 “For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

The old Levitical system was no longer needed.

Hebrews 9:25–28 “nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

The Lord’s Supper/Christian Communion is a remembrance of what Christ did for us and a celebration of what we receive as a result of His sacrifice.

Lord’s Supper

As we gather here today, we are faced again with God’s love for the unworthy and are strengthened by faith in the one whose body was given and whose blood was shed for us.

This soul-stirring experience  causes us to remember our Lord’s death and resurrection and to look for His glorious return in the future.

Paul tells the people of the Corinthian Church in:

1 Corinthians 11:23–29 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 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.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.”

This morning, we are parting of the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Christ dying on the cross as the ultimate, perfect, and only sacrifice for the worlds sins and for salvation of mankind.

At the heart of the Christian life is active trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death for sin.

In this symbolic meal, originating from Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples, we express and strengthen our trust in him, as we eat and drink with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

AND A BRIEF BUT NECESSARY WARNING BEFORE WE PROCEED

We must also recognize in our gathering that this sacred time at the Lord’s Table is for believers who have rested all their hope on the death and resurrection of Christ.

If you are not yet a believer, you should refrain from partaking until you come to faith in Christ, and then joyfully partake along with the body of Christ.

Now, before we as believers partake of the Supper, let us examine ourselves this morning, and repent of of our sins, recognizing both the gravity of our sin and the weight of Christs glorious sacrifice.

Please use this time to reflect on God’s love for us in Christ as we pass out the bread and cups.

“Lamb of God”

Alright, let us come then with heartfelt repentance and genuine trust in the Lord Jesus, recognizing the significance of sharing this way.

PRAYER

Pray with me.

Almighty God, the table that you have set before us calls us to the deepest ongoing remembrance of your death for us. So now Lord, quiet our hearts, still our souls, remove all distractions, so that when we take the bread we remember your body hanging impaled, as you who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.

And when we take the cup, may we remember that you bled out on the cross for us as the perfect passover Lamb, paying an infinite price for our sin.

May we partake of the bread and partake of the cup with perpetual, saving, remembrance. Amen

Before we partake of the bread, consider in Matthew 26:26, God’s Word says “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Fellow disciples, take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your heart by faith and thanksgiving.

Now we move to the partaking of the cup, but before we do, listen to God’s Word in Matthew 26:27–28, “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

Brothers and sisters, now drink from your cup in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for you, and be thankful.

Having partaken of the bread and the cup, let us also remember and acknowledge that Jesus not only died, but he was buried in a tomb, and He has risen. Without the resurrection, the Gospel is meaningless.

Jesus is Risen and sits at the right hand of God advocating for us in His continuous saving of us along our sanctifying journey until our full glorification in the presence of Him one day, which may be soon. Be ready brothers and sisters, with a watchful mind and heart, for we know not the day or hour that He will return.

In Jude 24–25, we read “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Come Lord, Jesus, Come.