Sermon Tone Analysis

Why We Do What We Do

The Lord’s Supper

Introduction

Passage

23 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 ; 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 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." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

27 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.

28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

Introduction

In a few short minutes we will be observing the Lord’s Supper.

We will pass around this small stale tasting cracker, and then pass around this small cup filled with Welch’s Grape juice and ask that you eat and drink it.

Some are put off by this because of the wording in Scripture.

It sounds too cannibalistic, too gory for today.

After all who wants to be eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking his blood?

There are others who relish every opportunity to do this spiritual exercise.

They believe that doing this is almost magical and can clean them and make them whole.

There have been fights over the Lord’s Supper for centuries.

Is it a symbolic meal or as some believe you are actually partaking of the flesh and blood of Jesus?

Is the Lord’s Supper a prerequisite of salvation?

Can only certain people partake of it, or is it open to anyone?

Is it a hap-hazzard exercise, or is it something that should be taken seriously?

How often?

How seldom?

This morning I would like for us to investigate through the Scripture what the Lord’s Supper is all about.

We will hopefully answer 6 investigative questions about the Lord’s Supper.

Read Passage

1.

What is the Lord’s Supper?

We see in the Gospel’s that the night that Jesus was betrayed, he had the Passover Meal with His disciples.

12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover ?" 13And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water ; follow him; 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples ?"'15 "And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready ; prepare for us there."16

The disciples went out and came to the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

17 When it was evening He came with the twelve.

18 As they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me-one who is eating with Me." 19 They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, "Surely not I?"20 And He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl.

21 "For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!

It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."

22 While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body."

23 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

24 And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

The Passover was the meal that remembered God delivering the Hebrew people out of Egypt’s hand of slavery.

The Passover was the meal that remembered God delivering the Hebrew people out of Egypt’s hand of slavery.

In , God told the Hebrew people through Moses how to prepare and observe the first Passover.

They were to slaughter an unblemished Lamb cook it and coat

the door posts of their house with the Lamb’s blood.

They were to eat the lamb, with unleavened bread and bitter

herbs.

Whatever that was left after the meal was to be burned.

They were to dress ready for travel.

Anyone who was within the house where the lamb’s blood was

on the door post were safe from the last plague that God put

on Egypt, the death of the first born.

It was the plague that would break Pharaoh’s resolve and he

would release, set free the Hebrew people from slavery.

It was the night of the Hebrew’s freedom.

You see the Passover is a very important celebration for the Jews.

But it was a precursor to what the Messiah would do not only for all who will but their full faith and trust in Him … Jew and Gentile alike.

You see the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be the unblemished, sacrificial lamb to set free men from the bondage of sin, that is death.

The Passover meal became the Lord’s Supper, to remember not the Exodus from Egypt, but to remember the Death of King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus!

So as Paul says here in verses 24-25, it is a time to remember the sacrificial death of Jesus.

2. Who are the participants?

The participants are those whom Jesus has redeemed.

Those who have put their full faith and trust in Him.

Whenever you see the Lord’s Supper partaken it was always with the confines of the Church body.

The true church body is made up of those who have put their full faith and trust in Jesus for their salvation and forgiveness of sin.

41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized ; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

So the participants are first believers.

7 On the first day of the week, we gathered to observe the Lord's Supper.

Paul was preaching; and since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight.

So the participants are first believers.

They also need to be believers who are clean.

We must be free from sin in our life before we come and remember the sacrificial death of Jesus.

We must be free from sin in our life before we come and remember the sacrificial death of Jesus.

It was Jesus’ death on the cross that removed the penalty of sin, the bondage of sin, and the guilt of sin in the believers life.

Why would one want to remember the death of Jesus if there is un-confessed sin in their life?

We must come with an examined heart to the table free from the burden of sin.

3. Why do we observe the Lord’s Supper?

We observe the Lord’s Supper to remember Jesus’ sacrificial death.

When we remember Jesus’ death, we remember what He went through on our behalf.

When we remember Jesus’ death, we remember what He went through on our behalf.

When we remember what Jesus went through to bring us salvation from our sin, should it spur us on to love Him more?

We observe the Lord’s Supper out of obedience!

Jesus commanded his disciples and us to do this.

4.

Where do we do it?

19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

4.

Where do we do it?

We do it where we meet together as a family of faith.

Commonly it is in this room, but it does not have to be here.

Is it the best place?

Probably.

But the church is not this building.

The church is us.

So where ever we meet together, there is the church.

Thinking outside the box a little bit ….

Maybe it would not hurt to do observe the Lord’s supper somewhere other than here.

Why?

Look at verse 26

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

This tells me that us observing the Lord’s Supper is a witness of the Gospel.

Why should we not be willing to go out into the community to bear witness to that fact?

The early church observed it where they met.

In the tabernacle, in the synagogue, in houses.