Sermon Tone Analysis

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Reflections Church Service

December 5th, 2021

“The Back Story”

Hebrews 12:1-2

We look at how well put together people are and don’t know and cannot appreciate what it took for them to get where they are, or the struggles they endure and are still standing.

Sometime the greatest praise comes with the greatest thrones in the side.

Every good story has an author that applies five key elements:

Character

Setting

Plot

Conflict

Theme

Our story is not going to end like this.

Wait on the sequel.

Put your trust in the one who finishes the story

Our story is not ours

ICEBREAKER:

Communion: The Lord’s Supper

Opening Question: What comes to mind when you hear the word “Passover”?

The Back Story:

The Passover was the most sacred feast of the Jewish religious year.

It commemorated the final plague on Egypt when the firstborn of the Egyptians died and the Israelites were spared because of the blood of a lamb that was sprinkled on their doorposts.

The lamb was then roasted and eaten with unleavened bread.

God’s command was that throughout the generations to come the feast would be celebrated.

The story is recorded in Exodus 12.

Exodus 12:1 - 13

Question: What if any family traditions do you practice faithfully?

[Soul Food - Sunday dinners]

Luke 22:14 - 21

The Last Supper brought the Old Testament observance of the Passover feast to its fulfillment.

Passover was an especially holy event for the Jewish people in that it commemorated the time when God spared them from the plague of physical death and brought them out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 11:1—13:16).

During the Last Supper with His apostles, Jesus took two symbols associated with Passover and imbued them with fresh meaning as a way to remember His sacrifice, which saves us from spiritual death and delivers us from spiritual bondage: “After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you.

For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:17–20).

Jesus’ words during the Last Supper about the unleavened bread and the cup echo what He had said after He fed the 5,000: “I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. . . .

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . .

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (John 6:35, 51, 54–55).

Salvation comes through Christ and the sacrifice of His physical body on the cross.

The Last Supper was rooted in the Old Covenant even as it heralded the New.

Jeremiah 31:31 promised a New Covenant between God and Israel, in which God said, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

Jesus made a direct reference to this New Covenant during the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

A new dispensation was on the horizon.

In God’s grace, the New Covenant applies to more than Israel; everyone who has faith in Christ will be saved

Ephesians 2:12 - 14

He declared that the bread spoke of His body which would be broken.

There was not a broken bone, but His body was so badly tortured that it was hardly recognizable.

Psalm 22:12 - 17

Isaiah 53:4 - 7

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

[Psalm 22]

[Isaiah 53]

Question: How has the meaning of the Lord’s supper changed for you?

When He said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” He indicated this was a ceremony that must be continued in the future.

It indicated also that 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 Supper.

The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant when Christ, the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), was sacrificed (Hebrews 8:8-13).

Hebrews 9:25 - 28

The sacrificial system was no longer needed.

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.

The Last Supper was a significant event and proclaimed a turning point in God’s plan for the world.

In comparing the crucifixion of Jesus to the feast of Passover, we can readily see the redemptive nature of Christ’s death.

As symbolized by the original Passover sacrifice in the Old Testament, Christ’s death atones for the sins of His people; His blood rescues us from death and saves us from slavery.

Today, the Lord’s Supper is when believers reflect upon Christ’s perfect sacrifice and know that, through our faith in receiving Him, we will be with Him forever.

Revelation 3:20