Jesus Means It!

Today feels like a milestone for two kids here at Village Lutheran Church. Chris and Joshua today you are receiving the Lord’s Supper for the first time. And today towards the beginning of the service, you were invited up front. “Invitation” is kind of a funny word to describe your coming up at the beginning of service because an “invitation” you can reject. I am sure mom and dad did not give you much of a choice in the matter…Chris and Joshua…get up there!

And as you came forward you were hit with a bunch of questions. Questions concerning your faith...

Do you believe? Do you believe in God the Father almighty, in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is your Lord?

There is a series of questions that you were asked and your home family; parents, grandparents, siblings etc along with you church family were sitting here this evening paying close attention to your response.

Words that if spoken sincerely, are in fact, an affirmation of faith...”Yes, I believe.” “Yes, with the help of God.”

There was one question I asked you that should make us all pause and recognize that the Lord’s table is no country club gathering. The very best is not coming to the Lord’s table and you are not coming to the Lord’s table when you are at your very best.

Maybe tonight you are a bit more dressed up; but underneath your outward appearance is the same the reality for everyone.

You were asked the question… “Do you believe that you are a sinner?”

And like all the other answers you gave us this evening. You answered this question also by faith… “Yes, I believe”.

Now the elders who taught First Communion can attest that you family has been bringing you up well in the faith. You family has made it apart of your daily life to grow as followers of Christ. This becomes an important example to our church because before you come to first communion, before you come to confirmation — the primary place in which the essentials of the faith are to be taught is in the home.

Its the calling that God has placed upon mom and dad; upon the christian family and your family has taken that calling seriously.

To live in the Christian is to acknowledge; to recognize that we all come to this table as sinners.

Tonight, we are not looking back at an event in which Jesus grabbed a bite to eat with his buddies. At the last supper Jesus was dining with a group of unworthy sinful people - that he called his disciples.

You know there are different kinds of bibles out there…Different translations; NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV…there are so many different translations of scripture but there are other some unique features to different Bibles. Some bible known as what is called “Red Letter Bibles” these Bible are meant to draw our attention to the very words that came out of Jesus’ own mouth - everything thing in red is spoken by Jesus. This can be helpful and at the same time problematic.

It’s helps because it does draws our attention to Jesus’ words…its problematic because all of scripture is the word of God; between the words in red and the words in black…it is all the word of God. For this evening though, we are blessed by the red-letter words of Jesus as we look at the last supper; and as we receive tonight in the Lord’s Supper.

So let’s look at what Jesus says...

Luke 22:19 (ESV)

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Luke 22:20 ESV

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Now when Jesus says “New Covenant” he is bring out attention back to promises of God in the old testament - and pointing the fulfillment of God promises among his disciples that night and among you; those gathered by faith here and now.

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.”

The old covenant was broken…the old covenant depended upon the peoples goodness. The new covenant that is fulfilled here in the Lord’s Supper acknowledges our sin and forgives our iniquity. The new covenant is all about forgiveness that comes from God.

For the Lord Yahweh says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”