Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Today is the last Sunday before the start of a new year.

New years often signal new opportunities, new moments for reflection and making new resolutions, new commitments, sharpening up that which has left unkept.

It is a great time to honestly reflect with the Lord and ask, “How is my faith.”

As a Pastor, the great burden on my heart that I think of week in and week out is, how your faith is doing?

The questions that keep me up at night are about the challenges this flock has before them, and how I can come alongside each of you and seek after Christ fully together.

When it comes to resolutions, I can imagine that many of you will have any number of ideals you will be chasing after in the coming year.

But today I want to take some time to teach on an area that God has laid heavily on my own heart, and that is the topic of the Lord’s Supper, the Communion Meal.

Allow me to explain a bit of the background.

When Covid first began, we had a very short season as a Church where we were not meeting in person.

For those few months, we as Church wrestled through whether or not we should take the Lord’s Supper together, and how to do that well.

That query sent me into a season of increased study on this topic.

What I found was that God was beginning a journey for me that was far more profound than simply answering that particular question.

The more I reflected on the Lord’s Supper and allowed the Scriptures to deepen my theology, the more the Lord pressed it on my heart how vital this Sacrament is not only to each of our walks with the Lord, but to our community’s life with the Lord as well.

And so today we are going to spend an entire sermon looking at the theology around the Lord’s Supper.

And I believe if you will permit, that this sermon is fitting for the start of a new year.

If you are looking for fresh conviction in your walk with the Lord, fresh strength in your faith, fresh revelation from the Lord, I do believe that rightly practicing the Lord’s Supper may be a significant part of that new step.

Move 1: Signs & Seals

The Command

Let’s look together at our short text today.

We are going to be in Matthew 26.

The Lord’s command to take this Communion Meal together are in three of the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

if you recall this moment was just before the betrayal and arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemane.

Jesus is seated in the Upper Room with his disciples sharing the Passover Meal.

That’s important context that we’ll get to more in just a moment.

Hear the words of Christ.

Matthew 26:26-28 “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.”

Understanding the Context of The Passover Meal

Let’s consider the context just a little bit before.

The Passover Meal is a meal full of deep symbolism.

Nearly every element of the meal contains signficance.

Jews continue to practice the celebration of the Passover annually even today.

It is an annual reminder of the moment that the Lord’s judgment “Passed Over” the people of Israel.

God’s peopel were being held in slavery in Egypt under a ruthless Pharaoh who would not let them go.

God’s final plague sent upon Egypt in the book of Exodus was the death of the every firstborn son in the land.

The Israelites were spared from this judgment by taking a lamb, sacrificing it, and spreading its blood over the doorposts of the home.

When the angel of death came to bring the judgment, the angel would see the blood of lamb over the door, and passover that family.

Unleavened Bread

All of the elements are deeply symbolic.

As an example, during the Passover every bit of bread with leaven in it was removed from the home.

They only ate unleavened bread.

Why?

It was a picture for them of the immediacy with which they finally left Israel, they did not have even enough time to allow their bread to rise.

Bitter Herbs

Similarly, at one point in the meal, the family would eat bitter herbs.

The bitter herbs would taste bitter in the mouth and would remind the Israelites of the bitter life they lived while in slavery, and how God had redeemed them from it.

There’s much more, but what’s important that you understand is that everything in this meal was symbolic.

Jesus Adds New Depth to Two Elements of the Meal

So Jesus gets to the part of the meal where they break bread and drink wine.

And rather than applying the old incomplete meaning of these elements of the Passover Meal.

He looks to his disciples and he applies utterly new meaning to these two elements.

With the bread he says, “This is my body.”

With the wine he says, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is looking forward to what is about to happen to him on the cross, and he is saying, “I want you to commemorate my death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins through this ceremony forever.”

Sacraments are Signs & Seals of the New Covenant

Now let’s dig in and really try to understand all the details of what is signified in this meal.

Biblically and historically, we often refer to the Sacraments as signs and seals.

That language is very important and I would like you to really work to remember these two functions of the Sacraments.

They are signs and seals.

As a sign, they signify something, they symbolize a truth.

And a seal, it is a public authoritative declaration of the authenticity of your faith, much like King’s Seal on a letter.

Two Types of Signs: Elementall & Ceremonially

What is a sign?

A sign is an outward display that appeals to the senses that signfies some deeper meaning.

The sign signals something.

In the Lord’s Supper the elements of the bread and the wine are perceived by the eye and by the mouth.

These are the Elemental Signs.

The elements themselves have meaning that is applied to us when we take the meal.

Then there are the Ceremonial Signs, the process of breaking the bread and distributing the wine just as Jesus did on the night when he was betrayed.

These procedures also are part of the overall sign that is communicated.

Elementally

Let’s consider the elements, the bread and the wine.

What do they stand for?

The Lord’s Death

First of all, they are a sign fo the Lord’s death until he comes.

We read this in 1 Corinthians 11:26.

1 Corinthians 11:26 “26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

The bread which Jesus said represents his body which was broken.

And the wine which Jesus shared represents his blood that was poured out.

The whole meal is asking us to deeply reflect on the reality of Christ’s death for us on the cross.

I will note here that I have been convinced through my study that when Jesus established the sign he did not intend for us to tinker with it.

He said, “bread and wine,” not “bread and juice.”

Now, that might seem like a minor thing, and historically I have thought of it as a minor thing.

But the more I have reflected on the words of Christ and the meaning that he applied to these specific elements, the more I am convinced we should be using wine.

In the coming months I will begin offering “wine” as our regular element for this Communion Meal.

For some, I recognize juice is appropriate and we will continue to make that available.

The Full Hope of the New Covenant

Secondly, the bread and the wine are a sign for us of the full hope of the New Covenenant.

1 Corinthians 11:25 “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.””

Whenever we take the Communion Meal Together we are reminded that God has made a New Covenant, not like the old covenant.

It is a New Covenant.

Christ is the mediator of that new covenant.

His blood is the ratifying element of the promises of that new covneant.

Hebrews 8:8-12 “8 … “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.””

The communion meal is a sign that we are living under the new covenant, where God remembers our sins no more.

All because of the Blood of the Lamb.

Hallelulah.

Every time we take this meal we are declaring all of the promises of the New Covenant.