Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 26:26-29.

"The Last Supper"

Safe Haven Worship Centre.

Sunday March 27th, 2022.

Please turn to Matthew 26

Today we are preparing in the four weeks leading up to the remembrance of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection with the observance the Lord's Table which is a remembrance of Christ's work on the Cross, and examining the significance of His death, burial and resurrection for those who put their faith in Him.

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."

(ESV)

As people love to make, give and receive cards, they often reflect key moments in our lives.

The common life events on the cards are like the card with a picture of a small boy wearing a straw hat and floating on an inner tube on a tranquil country pond.

His head was thrown back.

He was in perfect peace.

The caption read: "Each life needs its own quiet place."

Matthew 26 is like that.

The verses are a quiet place at the center of the storm that is about to break.

The rulers of the people are plotting how they might take Jesus' life.

Judas has offered to betray Jesus to them at the earliest possible opportunity.

Evil is afoot.

But while it is gathering, Jesus collects his disciples for one final time of fellowship and teaching before the crucifixion.

The center point of these last moments is the institution of the Lord's Supper (this Last Supper), recorded in verses 26-29 (Boice, J. M. (2001).

The Gospel of Matthew (pp.

557-558).

Baker Books.).

Matthew 26 itself is devoted to preparing for the cross.

Before chapter 26, has been the preparation that God had made, the preparation of the religious leaders, the preparation of Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus who anointed Jesus with costly perfume, and the preparation of Judas.

And now, beginning in verse 17, we come to the preparation of the Lord Himself as He begins to prepare for His own death.

It involves the last Passover, the establishment of His table.

It involves a time of exhorting the feeble disciples.

It involves a time of intercessory prayer before the Father in the garden of Gethsemane.

All of these elements Matthew gives us as parts of the preparation for the death of Jesus Christ, which, of course, is a climax of His life and ministry.

But in Matthew 26 the Passover Jesus was now concluding with the disciples was the last divinely sanctioned Passover ever to be observed.

No Passover celebrated after that has been authorized or recognized by God.

Significant as it was under the Old Covenant, it became a remnant of a bygone economy, an extinct dispensation, an fulfilled covenant.

Its observance since that time has been no more than a religious relic that serves no divinely acknowledged purpose and has no divinely blessed significance.

To celebrate the Passover is to celebrate the shadow, after the reality has already come.

Celebrating deliverance from Egypt is a weak substitute for celebrating deliverance from sin.

In fact, Christ ended the Passover and instituted a new memorial to Himself.

It would not look back to a lamb in Egypt as the symbol of God's redeeming love and power, but to the very Lamb of God, who, by the sacrificial shedding of His own blood, took away the sins of peoples around the world that would believe in Him.

In that one meal Jesus both terminated the old and inaugurated the new.

By historically linking Passover and Lord's Supper so closely together Jesus also made clear that what was essential in the first was not lost in the second.

Both point to him, the only and all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of his people.

Passover pointed forward to this; the Lord's Supper points back to it.(

Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001).

Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Vol.

9, p. 908).

Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)

As we see Jesus nearing the cross in this passage, we can remember the great love he has for his children.

His body (but not his bones (Jn.

19:31-36)) were broken, like bread, for us.

His blood was poured out, like wine, for us.

Our Savior was betrayed, denied, abandoned, beaten, cursed, spit upon, and mocked.

His faithful endurance secured our redemption and forgiveness.

Today, we can praise our Savior for not abandoning the path to the cross, and thank him that, although we-like Judas-have often betrayed him, He will never leave us or forsake us.

(Nielson, J., & Doriani, D. M. (2020).

Matthew: Making Disciples for the Nations (Chapters 14-28) (D.

M. Doriani, I. M. Duguid, R. D. Phillips, & P. G. Ryken, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 102).

P&R Publishing.)

In observing and remembering the significance of Christ's last supper with His disciples, we are invited by Him to come to His table this morning.

To properly partake of communion, the Lord's Supper, we are called to understand that it is our sin that sent Him to the cross and each time we participate in communion we properly remember His death, resurrection and His coming again.

In Matthew 26:26-29, in preparation for the Cross, Jesus' institution of the new memorial consisted of three primary elements: 1) The Directive (vv.

26a, 27), 2) The Doctrine (vv.

26b, 28), and 3) The Duration (v 29).

In preparation for the Cross, Jesus' institution of the new memorial consisted of the element of:

1) The Directive (Matthew 26:26a, 27),

Matthew 26:26a-27 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, (ESV)

It is not certain as to what part of the meal they were eating at this time, but the supper was still in progress, and our Lord instituted the new memorial in the midst of the old.

At some point in the meal, Judas leaves and the other disciples receive the blessing of a new covenant meal, in which the Passover is transformed into the Lord's Supper.

There were traditionally four cups drunk at the Passover feast, each cup relating to one of the four promises in Exodus 6:6-7.

Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper between the third and fourth cups.

(Wiersbe, W. W. (1996).

The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 96).

Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)

Showing this forth, first, we see that Jesus took some bread and offered a blessing of thanks to His heavenly Father, as He always did before eating (see, e.g., Matt.

14:19; 15:36).

The unleavened bread was baked in large, flat, crisp loaves, which Jesus broke into pieces before He gave it to the disciples with the instruction, "Take, eat."

The fact that He broke the bread does not symbolize a broken body, because John makes clear that, in fulfillment of prophecy, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken" (John 19:36; cf Ps. 34:20), just as no bones of the original Passover lambs in Egypt were broken (Ex.

12:46).

(Morris, L. (1992).

The Gospel according to Matthew (p.

659).

Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.)

Please turn to 1 Corinthians 10

Shortly after that, verse 27 records that he took a cup, and when he had given thanks again, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of/from it, all of you."

The verb behind given thanks is eucharisteō, and it is from that term that we get Eucharist, as the Lord's Supper is sometimes called.

As would be expected, all eleven disciples drank of it (Mark 14:23).

All believers should partake, as Jesus' explicit directive, of the disciples' obedient example, and of Paul's later teaching (see 1 Cor.

10:16, 21; 11:28).

Those two acts of Jesus were normal features of the Passover, in which unleavened bread was eaten and diluted wine was drunk at several points during the meal This was probably the third cup, called the cup of blessing.

Paul refers to it by that name in his first letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 10:12-21.

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

19 What do I imply then?

That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.