The Lord's Supper: Past, Present and Future

Introduction

Last week was Super Bowl Sunday. The big game has become one of the biggest celebrations in America:

Average ticket price: $6,214 (Lowest price ticket: $5,397)

An estimated 99 million people watched the game, which is actually down from the past few years.

A 30 second advertisement cost $6.5 million (unfortunately, FBCR wasn’t able to put enough money together this year for our ad. We fell just short, by roughly $6.5 million dollars.)

Of course food was involved:

Estimated 1.3 billion chicken wings were consumed; 11.2 million pounds of potato chips; 10 million pounds of ribs; 325 million gallons of beer.

Americans celebrate the Super Bowl!

This morning, we are going to learn about something we as believers celebrate that far more important, but for most, far less-exciting.

However, it shouldn’t be. One represents a game that only one team and their fan-base will remember fondly in the future.

The other celebrates something that has value in the past, the present, and the future.

Last week we saw Jesus make the Passover preparations. This morning we will jump right into that celebration!

Body: Luke 22:14-23

Verses 14-18

“…he reclined…”

“I have earnestly desired…”

Literally, “with desire I have desired…”

Jesus always desires with desire to communion with His people!

“…I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

Eating the Passover in Heaven?

Maybe. But the point is: intimate fellowship with God for His people, thus fulfilling His ultimate plans.

“…it is fulfilled…”

The Passover, and thus the old covenant, is fulfilled in Christ Jesus and will be finally and completely fulfilled when we all are in Heaven together, feasting at the Banquet of the Lord.

Traditional Passover Seder…

Four cups…no one knows which of the four the two spoken of here are…

Time of remembering God’s deliverance from bondage…

Time of intimate fellowship with family and loved ones…

What Jesus is going to do is imbue the Passover with new and fuller meaning. More on this soon...

Why “until…the kingdom of God…” again?

First was an introduction of why He earnestly desired to share the Passover with them. Second was during the Seder, pointing the apostle’s minds toward the future fulfillment. Specifically, that they will have intimate fellowship with Him again.

They would need this hope in the hours and days to come!

Verses 19-20

“This is my body…This cup…”

Within the Passover, the various different elements of the meal represented different aspects of God’s deliverance from Egypt.

It is the same here. Jesus is saying, in essence, “the bread we are going to eat represents my body…”

But, it says “is”! Doesn’t that mean it spiritual changes in some way?

The problems:

Jesus body wasn’t actually broken yet.

The Passover was a time filled with symbolic meaning which would cause Israel to remember. Jesus is doing the same thing with His disciples here.

Bock: “The call to ‘remember’ is Jewish, which the nation did annually in the Passover as they looked back at the Exodus. Such recalling solidifies a community’s identity by taking them back to their roots, to events that forged who they have now become.”

Jesus often speaks in metaphors like this: “I am the light” “I am the bread” “I am the door” etc…

There is no word for “is” in Aramaic…”This my body”

The focal word in Greek is “remembrance” not “is.”

“…given for you…poured out for you…”

This should be far more impacting than what happens to the elements!

Because it shows the depth of God’s love for us.

Jesus body and blood were not given for His sake. They were given for people, like me and you.

Let that fact wash over you for a second…

Personally, I struggle with God’s love for me at times because I know how unlovable I can be!

Yet, the LS is a reminder that Jesus proved His love by becoming the very embodiment of sin for my sake.

“Do this in remembrance of me…”

Tied in with the “given for you…” part, sharing in the LS would from that time forward be a time for Christ’s people to remember Him.

Christianity is founded on Jesus. Not just His teachings, His miracles, or His death and Resurrection. All of those are vital.

But Christianity is about Jesus.

Jesus is our only sure and steady foundation.

“…the new covenant in my blood.”

We know of the covenant from the OT. The covenant we find there was given by God and ratified.

It was that He would be their God and they would be His people.

However, time and time again the people turned their backs on God, rejecting Him for the false gods of their neighbors.

Thus, there was need for a “new covenant.”

That new covenant was prophesied in Jer. 31:31-34…

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

God would give the people an inner understanding of truth…(through the Holy Spirit)

God would make a way for the people to have an intimate relationship with Him…

God would absolutely forgive sins…

Jesus work of the cross would inaugurate that new covenant.

Verses 21-23

We’ve already seen this foreshadowed, but Luke shows a couple of key things:

Jesus is well aware of Judas’ wicked plans.

It’s possible to appear to be close to Jesus, yet, in truth, not really believe in Him.

Though Judas is responsible for his actions, God is still working things out for good.

Judas’ betray even takes the disciples by surprise.

Key Question: How are followers of Jesus to celebrate the Lord’s Supper?

By keeping the past, present and future dimensions of the celebration in mind.

Past: The Lord’s Supper is a time to remember Jesus death for sinners.

The bread and juice are reminders of Jesus broken body and spilled blood.

19th century preacher, JC Ryle suggested that they are “visible sermons”:

“The two elements of bread and wine were intended to preach Christ crucified as our substitute under lively emblems. They were to be a visible sermon, appealing to the believer’s senses, and teaching the old foundation-truth of the Gospel, that Christ’s death on the cross is the life of man’s soul.”

As we share in this celebration, realize that the elements are indeed a “visible sermon,” preaching Christ crucified for sinners, such as us.

As I said earlier, this should cause us to be overwhelmed with His great love for us!

Present: The Lord’s Supper is a time to reflect on our walk with Jesus.

Each of us should consider this: If Jesus love for me was such that He would become sin for me, then how am I living for Him today?

Too many today take Jesus death for granted…at our peril!

At best this shows a spiritual laziness that will never accomplish the task God has for us.

But, too often, this reveals a false faith, based more on a desire for socialization, a personal agenda or “hedging-your-bets” theology.

Remember what we saw in Jer. 31:31-34…

Future: The Lord’s Supper is a time to eagerly look forward to the Heavenly “Passover.”

Notice that Jesus twice focuses His disciples on the future fulfillment of the kingdom of God.

At the time they didn’t realize it, but they would need this hope in the days to come.

We too need this hope!

For far too many of us, our “hope is built on nothing less than money, comfort, and success…”

All of those things are going to pass away…but the celebration that awaits and the intimate fellowship we will enjoy with Jesus far surpasses anything we can gain on earth.