Lord’s Supper Sermon

Lord’s Supper Message (Parkway Baptist, Tupelo, MS)

August 30, 2025

God has saved us from death and given us a life of remembering what He has done, obeying what He has said, and spreading His fame throughout the earth.

God gave His people a simple regular reminder that served to preserve the story of his redeeming work, so that His people would know who He is, what He has done, and know who they are. This regular reminder was the Passover meal.

The Passover meal was instituted when the Israelites were in Egypt on the night that they were delivered and set free. This happens in Exodus 12, but the context of this passage is the 10 plagues. This is when God used Moses and Aaron to confront Pharoah with God’s command to let his people go. And, with each time that Pharoah said no, God sent a plague on the nation of Egypt as a judgment. With each judgment the people of Egypt suffered and the Israelites did not.

Exodus 12 is when God gave Moses and Aaron the commands for the supper, and the supper is the way that God was protecting the Israelites from the 10th plague, his final judgment on the people of Egypt.

Exodus 11: 4-9 reads, “Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ 8 And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 11:4–9, ESV)

And, this is what happened. But, before this happens God gave Moses and Aaron instructions that would deliver them from the Egyptians, and save the firstborn of their homes. The instructions are known as the Passover meal.

Exodus 12:1-28 says,

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

What God promised that night is what happened. The people of Israel followed God’s instructions with the lamb, the blood, and the supper. When the Lord’s angel passed over Egypt that night, the first born of every home that did not have the blood of the lamb covering its door died.

Pharaoh and all of Egypt were broken and rushed the Israelites out of their country in the middle of the night, giving them gold and supplies as they left.

God delivered Israel from Egypt by substitutionary sacrifice of a lamb for their first born

God redeemed Israel from Egypt to bring them to Himself.

God saved Israel and sent them out of Egypt to live a life of remembering what He has done, obeying what He has said, and spreading His fame through all the earth.

The Passover meal was God’s plan for preserving the story of their redemption and reminding them of who they are and their purpose in this world.

In the NT, understanding the Passover meal is foundational to understanding the Gospel.

Look with me at Matthew 26:26-29,

26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “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.” (Matthew 26:26-29)

Here in this moment withe disciples Jesus celebrates the Passover meal with them, but during the meal he changes the ritual of the meal, and institutes what we celebrate today, what we call the Lord’s supper. You see, the Passover meal and the Lord’s Supper are not the same meal, but the Passover meal is foundational to our understanding of the gospel.

What did Jesus change when he instituted the supper?

As we have noted, “The very existence of the people of God in the Old Testament was grounded in the work of deliverance that God brought about at the Exodus. He visited judgment on the land of Egypt for their mistreatment of Israel, but as he did so, he provided a means of salvation for his people. A lamb would be slaughtered, and the blood of the lamb would be put on the doorframes of the houses of God’s people. When the angel of death passed over, the homes where the lamb’s blood was visible would be spared the plague of the death of the firstborn son. In a very tangible sense, the lamb died instead of the firstborn son of the household. The people of Israel would eat the supper of lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread as they prepared to flee. The Passover meal (Exod. 12) was to be a continual reminder of the great salvation that God brought to his covenant people through a great act of judgment.” (TGC article)

Jesus changed the symbolism of the bread and the cup to represent his body and his blood that would soon be shed.

In the Passover the bread was known as the affikomen. At the table is a bag with three compartments and three pieces of matzah. The middle piece of matzah is taken out, broken, and half is put back into the bag. The other half is wrapped in a linen napkin and hidden, to be taken out later, after the meal. This is what Jesus takes and breaks as recorded in the Gospels. And, after telling them that this bread represents his body, Jesus is then crucified, his body wrapped in linen cloth, and then brought out of the tomb three days later.

The wine in the Passover meal reminded the Israelites of the blood of the lamb that was killed to protect them from judgment and deliver them from their bondage. Jesus’s blood was shed on the cross to deliver us from sin and protect us from the wrath of God on the day of judgment.

Jesus celebrated His supper, the Lord’s supper, right before His death on the cross.

Like the Israelites celebrating the meal before their deliverance, Jesus celebrates and institutes this meal with His disciples before He has delivered us through the cross and the resurrection.

Jesus symbolically associated the bread and the cup with his body which would soon be broken and his blood which would soon be shed. The blood is now the “blood of the covenant” – the new covenant that Jesus would institute through his death and resurrection. As the Passover meal served as a foundational meal of the old covenant, taking place on the brink of the foundational saving act of the covenant (the Exodus from Egypt), so the Lord’s Supper was the foundational meal of the new covenant, taking place on the brink of the saving work that Jesus would achieve on the cross.2 As the Passover meal served as a reminder of the redemption that the Lord achieved for his people in bringing them out of bondage in Egypt, the Lord’s Supper becomes a powerful reminder of the redemption that the Lord Jesus achieved for his people in releasing us from slavery to sin. This meal is, then, the foundational and enduring symbol of the new covenant in Christ.

The Passover meal is foundational to understanding the gospel, and the Lord’s supper is how we remember our redemption in Jesus Christ.

When starting the Passover meal, the Israelites would ask the question, “Why is this night different than all the others?” And this was in reference to the meal…

As we begin to turn our attention to the meal, the Lord’s supper, I think it’s appropriate to ask the same question: Why is this meal different than all the others?

Paul tells us 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

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.. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, ESV)

God delivered Israel from Egypt by substitutionary sacrifice of a lamb for their first born, just like He delivers us from sin by the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus in our place.

The lamb died in the place of the firstborn of Israel.

Every home in Egypt that did not have the substitutionary blood of the lamb over the door lost their firstborn son.

Jesus died in the place of all who believe in Him.

Every person that does not believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah and savior of the world will be judged in the end and condemned to hell.

God redeemed Israel from Egypt to bring them to Himself, and redeems us from our sin through Jesus to bring us to Himself.

The word starts with an “H” but it isn’t heaven… it’s himself.

Too many people look at the promised land as the goal of God’s deliverance. But, the truth is the promised land was the place where He promised his presence to them. And he gave it to them in the temple.

but, he gave it to them in the wilderness through the tabernacle, and at the end of our section we see that God is with them through the cloud and the fire.

From the biggest of pictures in the Bible we see…

What was lost in the garden is glimpsed through the tabernacle and the temple, accomplished through the cross and the empty grave, but fully gained through Jesus Christ at his return!

Garden- tabernacle- temple- Jesus- Holy Spirit- New Jerusalem

The new heaven and the new earth are the place where God has promised to dwell with us forever!

God saves us and sends us to live a life of remembering what He has done, obeying what He has said, and spreading His fame through all the earth.

In the same way that God used Israel to bring the Egyptians to himself

in the same way that God used Israel to spread His fame and His glory all over the earth… He has done the same thing through us as His people.

Like the Israelites used to ask, “Why is this night different than all other nights?” We ask ourselves, “Why is this meal different than all other meals?” And I would like to ask this question for each one of us:

Is the reason we celebrate the Lord’s supper true for you?

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Can you celebrate and proclaim the Lord’s death? By that I mean is the meaning of the supper true for you? Have you been delivered from your sin by placing your faith and hope in Jesus Christ? Trusting that that His blood shed on the cross delivers you from judgment, makes forgiveness possible, brings you into a relationship with Him, and that through His resurrection you have the promise of eternal life?

The language Jesus uses at the table with His disciples is the language that undoes the sin that plunged humanity into darkness.

Sin came into the world through the act of eating, and God in His kindness uses the same act of eating throughout the story of His redemption to remind us of His saving and redeeming work.

If you have not been saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ then you don’t need to eat the bread we are going to take today. You need to take of the bread of life, Jesus Christ, and be saved from your sin, find forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love in Jesus Himself.

“In the garden Adam and Eve “took…and ate: so simple the act, so hard its undoing. God will taste poverty and death before ‘take and eat’ become verbs of salvation." - Derek Kidner

When we take the Lord’s supper, as Jesus instituted, as Paul reminded us, we take and eat of the bread and drink of the cup to remind us that…

God has saved us from death and given us a life of remembering what He has done, obeying what He has said, and spreading His fame throughout the earth.

Notes, Quotes, and Commentary:

The passover meal is foundational to understanding the gospel.

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!” (Exodus 12:1–32, ESV)

The instructions for the Passover included what Israel must do right then to guard the firstborn of their families, and it also includes what Israel is to do in the future as a celebration and remembrance of what God has done- but hasn’t done yet at the time of the instructions.

Immediate instructions:

Selecting a lamb- unblemished and for the purpose of a sacrifice

Sacrificing the lamb at twilight on the 14th of the month

Putting the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintel of the house

Roasting the lamb with fire- not raw or boiling it

Eating the roasted lamb with unleavened bread on bitter herbs.

Eating all of the lamb that night and burning any leftovers

Eating the meal quickly and being ready to leave home at a moment’s notice.

The blood that was painted on the doorposts and the lintels of the house is a sign of trusting in God for deliverance. (Exodus 12:13)

Additional instructions and provisions that were made:

Outsiders and slaves were included.

The Passover meal had to be eaten in one house, for that house, and cold not be taken out of that house.

No bones of the Passover lamb were to be broken. (Which pointed to the Messiah who was also prophesied about that his bones would not be broken)

What does the Passover meal celebrate?

It celebrates and commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel from their sin!

What do the elements represent?

Leaven represents sin

Washing hands around the table (see John 13:2-17)

During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” (John 13:2–10, ESV)

A blessing, and then lighting the candles

Haggadah- the telling of the story through four questions: Why is this night different than other nights?

Haggadah and symbols

The first cup of wine

Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine.” Jesus himself blessed the first cup in Luke 22:17-18.

The second cup of wine

The second cup is to remind us of the Ten Plagues and the suffering of the Egyptians when they hardened their heart to the Lord. In order not to rejoice over the suffering of our enemies (Prov. 24:17), we spill a drop of wine (which is a symbol of joy) as we recite each of the Ten Plagues, thus remembering that our joy is diminished at the suffering of others.

Affikomen

A very curious tradition now takes place. At the table is a bag with three compartments and three pieces of matzah. The middle piece of matzah is taken out, broken, and half is put back into the bag. The other half is wrapped in a linen napkin and hidden, to be taken out later, after the meal. This is called the akifomen. (This is what Jesus takes and breaks as recorded in the Gospels)

The Seder plate- this is to participate in a celebration that identifies with the flight from Egypt.

Karpas- greens- symbol of life

Beitzah- egg- bring to mind the daily temple sacrifice that no longer is offered because the temple no longer stands.

Maror- Bitter herb- usually ground horseradish, and enough is eaten (with the bread). This is the reminder of the bitterness of slavery and sin that we are redeemed from.

Charoset- mixture of apples, chopped nuts, honey, cinnamon, and little grape wine. Brown pasty, brown mixture is symbolic of the mortar used by the Jews to build bricks in the Land of Egypt.

Shankbone of the Lamb- bare, represents the lamb.

The Meal

The hunt for Afikomen

The bread wrapped in the napkin and hidden. Once the bread is back, it’ is broken up into pieces and distributed in small pieces to everyone around the table.