Sermon Tone Analysis

The Lords Supper

Today I want to talk about eating The Lords Super Unworthily

But first I need to explain What Ordinance’s Jesus Instituted While On Earth

ordinance a law or command given by one in power

Baptism

Replaces Something from Old Testament (Home Work)

2. Feet Washing:

Represents Something

3. Holy Communion:

Replaces Something

The institution narratives of the Lord’s Supper portray the event as a Passover meal.

Luke’s Gospel is particularly clear about this point, as Christ underscores to the disciples at the beginning of the meal:

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (22:15)

Lexham Survey of Theology (The Lord’s Supper)

The text further notes that the preparations happened at the beginning of the Festival of Unleavened Bread “on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed” (22:7).

The Passover is the celebration of the deliverance of the Israelites from death and from slavery in Egypt.

The Israelites were commanded to slaughter a lamb and apply its blood to their doorposts so that they would be delivered from the judgment rendered by the angel of death

This deliverance also marked the beginning of the exodus from Egypt, and these twin meanings constituted the core of Israelite identity.

They are to commemorate it every year, at the inception of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Israelites were to rid their homes of yeast for seven days:

“For the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance”

Lexham Survey of Theology (The Lord’s Supper)

Christ intends for his disciples to understand that his sacrifice, his body and blood offered upon the cross, is simultaneously a recapitulation and summation of the depth of meaning of the Passover meal, and a deliverance from a deeper slavery shared not just by Israel but by all of humanity to the powers of sin and death

Romans 6:1–14 (AV)

1 What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid.

How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

His suffering on the cross is the cataclysmic confrontation with these powers, and his resurrection is his triumph and vindication over them.

When Christ ascends into heaven, Paul describes it as a victory march by a conquering general, a general who leads not defeated nations but captivity itself captive

When Christ leads slavery to fear and death captive in the victory of his ascension (Heb 2:14–15), Paul also says he “gave gifts to men” (Eph 4:8).

This gift giving is central to the New Testament theology of the Eucharist.

In this meal, Christ feeds us with his own presence and sacrifice, which is why he is described as “Christ our Passover Lamb” (1 Cor 5:7).

Although the bread and the wine of the Passover meal is mentioned in the institution narrative, the lamb is not.

The book of Hebrews develops this point in order to highlight the priesthood of Jesus.

Lexham Survey of Theology (The Lord’s Supper)

He possesses a priesthood more perfect than the Levitical priesthood.

He has a priesthood with no beginning or end, the priesthood of Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem who brought out gifts of bread and wine and blessed Abraham and to whom Abraham gave a tithe of a tenth of all his possessions (Heb 7; Gen 14:18–20).

Hebrews (Who Was Melchizedek?

(7:1–3))

Who Was Melchizedek?

(7:1–3)* The typology of the event recorded in Genesis 14:18–20, where Abraham returns from his conquest of four invading kings and is met by Melchizedek at the Valley of Shaveh (probably the valley of the Kidron at Jerusalem), is explained by the writer in verses 1–3.

Melchizedek was both a king and a priest, and so is Jesus!

Melchizedek blessed Abraham, refreshing and strengthening him with bread and wine.

So Jesus strengthens and refreshes those who come to his throne of grace for help (4:16).

Abraham paid a tithe (ten per cent) of all his goods to Melchizedek as an acknowledgment of his position as priest of the Most High God.

So believers are to acknowledge Jesus as the one who has bought us with a price, and to recognize we are no longer owners of ourselves or all we possess

Hebrews (Who Was Melchizedek?

(7:1–3))

Melchizedek was both king of righteousness (the meaning of his name) and king of peace (Salem means peace).

So Jesus is the sovereign possessor of both righteousness and peace, and can dispense them to his own as gifts which they may continually have but can never earn!

Finally, as Melchizedek appears in the record of Scripture with no mention of his parents or his children (though he was a normal human being, certainly with parents and probably with children)—nor does the Genesis account mention his birth or his death—so the risen Jesus has neither beginning nor end, nor a human parentage to his resurrected life.

Therefore, he can serve as a merciful and faithful high priest forever (7:23–25)!

Though some commentators have viewed Melchizedek as a preincarnate appearance of Christ, the phrase like the Son of God seems to militate against that.

“Melchizedek thus was the fak-si-mi-le of which Christ is the reality” (Howley 1969:552).

To a modern congregation, this passage should be presented as a vivid picture of the help which is available for believers today from our great high priest who can give us righteousness and peace from within if we “come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

This focus on Melchizedek in Hebrews is intended to bring out the inherent superiority of the priesthood of Jesus to that of the Aaronic line, the descendants of Levi, who had ministered in the tabernacle and temple throughout Jewish history

Verses 4–10 argue this superiority further.

The author argues that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, the great-grandfather of Levi, for four reasons:

Hebrews (The Melchizedek Priesthood Superior to the Levitical (7:4–10))

1.

Though the Levitical priests also received tithes from their Israelite brethren, their descent from Abraham marked their priesthood as less important than that of the one to whom Abraham tithed, namely Melchizedek (vv.

5–6).

2. Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek at the time of their encounter, and normally the lesser is blessed by the greater (v. 7).

3. Levitical priests all eventually die but, as Psalm 110:4 declares, the One who ministers in the order of Melchizedek lives forever (v.

8).

4. In some genetic sense, Levi, great-grandson of Abraham, actually also paid tithes to Melchizedek since he was at the time a part of Abraham’s reproductive system which would produce Isaac, then Jacob and, ultimately, Levi (vv.

9–10).

This line of argument may seem strange to our Western, individualistic mentality, but it reflects the more accurate realization of the links between generations, and the fact that we are governed more by our ancestry than we often believe.

The same line of argument is found in Romans 5:12, where Paul declares that the whole human race has sinned in Adam, and that death is therefore universal because of Adam’s sin.

He sees the whole human race as potentially present in Adam when Adam sinned, and therefore participating with him in the aftermath of that sin.

Hebrews (The Aaronic Priesthood and Law Replaced (7:11–19))

The Aaronic Priesthood and Law Replaced (7:11–19)* The argument of verses 11–19 constitutes a bold, and even radical, declaration by the writer.

This section asserts unequivocally that the death and resurrection of Jesus has introduced a new and permanent priesthood that brings the Levitical priesthood to an end and, with it, the demise of the law of Moses.

It is important to note in verses 11–12 that the law was originally given to support the priesthood, not the other way around.

The priesthood and the tabernacle with its sacrifices were the means God employed to render the sinful people acceptable to himself.

They constituted the shadow of Jesus in the Old Testament.

Then the law was given with its sharp demands to awaken the people to their true condition so that they might avail themselves of the sacrifices.

This agrees fully with Paul’s state ment in Romans 5:20 and Galatians 3:19–23 that the law was a teacher to lead to Christ (represented in Israel by the tabernacle and its priesthood).

Hebrews (The Aaronic Priesthood and Law Replaced (7:11–19))

If (as some Jews thought) perfection could be achieved by means of the law and priesthood, the author asks in verses 11–14 what need would there be for God to announce a new priesthood as he did through David in Psalm 110?

He clearly implies that the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus was in the mind of God centuries before the Levitical priesthood and the law.

These latter could never have produced the perfection of character which God required.

His argument is that if the priesthood of Jesus has now replaced that of Levi, then the law of Moses must also be replaced because it is the natural accompaniment of the Levitical priesthood.

Sacrifices and offerings would no longer be useful for covering sins, and the law which awakened sin must pass as well.

It is a powerful declaration which would arouse immediate antagonism among certain Jews, as indeed history has shown.

He further indicates Jesus’ priesthood as being different from the Aaronic in that those priests all belonged to the tribe of Levi while Jesus came from the tribe of Judah.

Since Moses said nothing about that tribe serving as priests, it is plain that the present priesthood of Jesus does not rest on Moses or his law.

It is the ultimate provision for dealing with human sin and weakness toward which the Levitical priesthood and law pointed.

Hebrews (The Aaronic Priesthood and Law Replaced (7:11–19))

One reason the law and the priesthood could not accomplish the perfection God requires is given in verses 15–18.

Levitical priests were ordained only if they could prove their ancestry from Levi, and must be replaced at death by another of the same line.

By contrast, Jesus holds the Melchizedek priesthood forever because he possesses an indestructible life.

It is not merely endless; by its very nature it cannot be ended!

As Psalm 110:4 declares, it is “forever.”