Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join us every Sunday morning at 9 or 10:30 AM in the Maywood Center. Sermons & Bible Studies available online on any podcast platform or visit our YouTube channel "@flipsidechristianchurch"! Download our app at https://flipsidechristian.churchcenter.com/setup for more info about our church and ministries.
Flipside Christian Church
Madera Ranchos, CA
in chapter 26 of Matthew.
That's where we are this morning.
Chapter 26 is going to take us four weeks
on all to get through.
So this is week two.
We got two weeks after this in chapter 26.
It's a big chapter.
There's a lot there.
But I want us to understand
some of the profound things
that are said about Jesus
and that Jesus said
some things that just.
They're quite the claims.
For instance,
revelation 3138
says that
from the foundation of the world.
It was decided
by the father, agreed to and submitted
by the son that Christ would be crucified.
This was decided
since the foundation of the world.
What we know is crucifixion Friday
didn't happen haphazardly.
It wasn't concocted in the mind of man.
It was predetermined since
the foundation of the world.
The desire of the father,
the submission of the son
in agreement with the father
that he would be crucified.
It's profound.
Jesus would say in
John ten, no one takes my life from me.
I have the authority to lay it down.
I have the authority to pick it back up.
Though the crucifixion happened
at the hands of the Romans,
at the request of the Jews,
the Romans,
the Jews were neither in control.
Jesus was.
The Bible says that
when he uttered the words,
it is finished, then he breathed his last.
That was his choice.
This all was orchestrated
since the foundation of the world.
Jesus knew exactly what he's doing.
He knew exactly when he would do it.
He knew exactly how he would do it,
and he knew why he would do it.
All of that was prefigured
throughout the pages of the Old Testament.
Throughout the festivals, the
the things that God gave his people to,
to remember him and his kingdom.
And it was it was really in full color
through what we call the the Passover
meal,
the Passover meal, or what
we have understood as communion
is what this portion of Matthew 26
is all about.
And I want to unpack it for us
so that we'll understand.
As we bring me
that little communion packet right there.
I appreciate it.
Yep. No, this is this one right here.
Nope. This one right here. Thank you.
When we celebrate this,
the bread and the cup,
we we we celebrate this
because we understand what Scripture says
about the Last Supper
or communion and Jesus's
instituting of what we celebrate
in this
day, how he instituted in Matthew 26.
So this that's where we're it's
a very small portion of Scripture.
I'm going to go back to the Old Testament
to give you the context
and the promise of the New Covenant,
and we're going to look ahead
and the in the,
in the New Testament as well.
So we're going to be all over the Bible
this morning.
All the Scripture will look
at is, is, is listed on your, on our app.
So if you can follow along there
it'll be helpful.
But but in order to understand
where we're headed this morning
and in this portion of Matthew 26
with communion,
I developed a big idea.
Communion
reminds us of Jesus's sacrifice for sin,
the new covenant established
through his blood,
and the promise
that he's coming back again.
When we take the bread and the cup
according to what Scripture House
has instructed us.
We're reminded of his sacrifice.
Jesus is sacrifice
for our sin of his body, his blood.
We're reminded of this new covenant
because of his blood through his blood,
and we're reminded
that he promises to come back again.
It's a statement of faith.
In communion.
His people look back to his sacrifice.
We celebrate the salvation
that he's provided,
and we look forward to his return.
And so let me just unpack
this portion of Matthew 26.
If you have a Bible
and you could follow along with us
just a couple verses at a time for 17, 18,
and 19 of Matthew 26.
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying,
where will you have us
prepare for you to eat the Passover?
He said, go into the city
to a certain man,
and say to him, the teacher says,
my time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at your house
with my disciples.
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
The Passover meal was
in memory of Jesus, of God's liberation
of his people from Egypt.
And we're going to go back
to the Old Testament book of Exodus
and look at that in just a moment.
But from the institution
of this Passover meal
up until this night,
the Jews would celebrate this
remembering God's deliverance,
this miraculous deliverance,
this this was not a dinner
as we understand a dinner.
This was a long, prolonged,
multi-hour event
and it had had to go through
it went through careful preparation.
Now, when Jesus sends his disciples
two into the city to prepare the room
for the Passover meal, he didn't tell all
12 of them to do this, he told two.
We know this from other parts
of Scripture, Peter and John,
and he told Peter and John in secret.
Go into the city,
you'll recognize the man.
I'm going to orchestrate the whole thing.
He's going to recognize you.
You're going to ask him for the upper room
to prepare the Passover.
But he only told Peter and John. Why?
Because he knew
of Judas plot with the Romans to hand him
over.
Passover is to be celebrated at night,
and it would have been very easy for Judas
to orchestrate, knowing that what Jesus
was going to do this Thursday evening,
to work with the Romans, to hand him
over at night so there would be no uproar.
And so Jesus tells Peter and John,
just those two go and prepare.
Everyone else will meet you there later.
So, so, so this is kind of a secret,
clandestine preparation of the Passover
on a Thursday night, not the Friday.
Jesus is doing this early
with his disciples.
Somehow this this man in the city was
it was a follower of Jesus.
Was a friend
of Jesus and prepared
allowed them to set the room up
for the Passover meal to be celebrated
with Jesus and his disciples.
Now, because this was a multi hour event,
there were a lot of things
happening during this Passover meal.
And the
Gospels are not designed to be strict,
chronologically aligned.
And so we go through multiple different
of the four gospels
to understand the totality of the night.
And so I want to introduce you
to some other things that were happening
during this Passover meal as well.
And for that,
we need to go to the book of John.
And in the book of John, chapter 13,
let me just read
part of what else was happening
during this, this evening.
Starting in verse one.
Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour had come.
Did you know that
six times in the book of John
it says, his hour had not yet come,
but now it's come.
We'll talk about it in a minute.
But he
he knows his hour had come to depart
out of this world to the father, having
loved his own who were in the world,
he loved them to the end.
During supper, when the devil had already
put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon, son, to betray him,
Jesus, knowing that the father had given
all things into his hands,
and that he had come from God,
and is going back
to God, rose from supper.
He laid aside his outer
garments and taken a towel,
tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples feet
and wipe them with the towel
that was wrapped around him.
This was a profound moment
for the disciples.
Culturally.
In that day, there was usually a servant
who was the foot
washer of the men
who would come into a room like this.
It was the lowest of the low position,
doing the lowest of the low job,
the foot washing.
And the reason is, understandably
in that culture, the walking around
with sandals and very dirty roads
amongst the dung of the of the mules
and the all this stuff,
and they just got filthy feet.
So especially when
they would go to recline at the table
because they didn't sit in chairs
like we do, they reclined on an elbow
with the fetus further as furthest
away from the table as they could.
But even with that,
they had to wash their feet
because they were just so nasty.
Apparently, in this context,
there was no servant to wash the feet.
You know what's interesting to me?
Any one of these men, had
they been asked where to wash
Jesus's feet, but none of them
would have washed each other's.
And so Jesus says, I'm
going to show you my expectation
of how you love each other.
Though
every one of them would have washed
Jesus feet had they just been asked.
Jesus, without being asked,
washed their feet
because none of them
would have washed each other's.
And he takes on the lowest role possible,
doing the lowest service
possible to show and emulate
the one who lays aside his authority
to become the servant.
The Bible says in Mark 1045,
Jesus did not come to be served,
but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom.
It's amazing
moment here for these disciples
and for Jesus's interaction with them.
The Bible says, knowing
that he was that he came from
the father was going back to the father.
Here's the thing when you know who you are
and whose you are
and where you're headed.
You don't have to fight for authority.
When you can live
knowing whose you are
and where you're going.
You can live with nothing to prove
and no one to impress.
Jesus
didn't have to act like he was somebody.
He knew who he was.
He knew where he was going
so he could serve willingly.
It's the insecure person
who has trouble serving other people.
Because they're so focused
on their own position and priority.
And Jesus says he gives us that example.
When you know who you are
and where you're headed,
you got nothing to
prove and no one to impress.
Serve love.
And he does, in profound ways. And.
And he came to
Simon Peter, who said, Lord, you do,
you wash my feet.
Jesus answered him,
what I am doing, you don't understand now,
but afterward you will understand.
Peter said to him,
you will never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, if I don't wash you,
you have no share with me.
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet
only, but also my hands in my head.
Jesus said to him, the one who is bathed
does not need to wash except for his feet,
but it's completely clean, and
you are clean, but not every one of you.
For he knew was who was to betray him.
And that's why he said, not
all of you are clean.
Peter says,
you're not going to wash my feet.
That's that's. No,
just as unless
I clean you, you have no part of me.
So, Peter, being like, well,
then wash, wash all of me then, like,
it's like, relax,
I've already cleansed you,
but you walk around in the dirty world
and some of that dirt gets on you,
and that needs to be cleaned up.
You're good, Peter,
but let me clean that dirty part of you.
And the Bible says he knew that
there was one at that table
who was going to betray him,
who was not cleansed by him.
He knew what Jesus Judas was doing.
He knew what Judas was already
had already instituted.
That's all going on
as we enter into this communion table.
And there's so much more.
There's so much more.
But but I want to get back.
I want to get back
to, to Matthew 26, in verse 20. Now
when it was the
evening he reclined at table with the 12,
and as they were eating, he said, truly,
I say to you, one of you will betray me.
And they were very sorrowful, and began
to say to him, one one after another.
Is it I, Lord?
He answered, he who has dipped his hand
in the dish with me will betray me.
What's interesting?
They're all going to dip their hand
in the dish after him.
The Son of Man goes
as it is written of him.
But woe to that man by whom
the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would have been better for that man
if he had not been born.
Judas, who would betray him,
answered, is it I, Rabbi?
And he said to
him, you've. You've said so.
This Passover meal.
As they recline at the table.
This meal
hearkens back
to the Old Testament,
the book of Exodus, chapter 12.
The is the Passover meal
that they're celebrating one with another.
The thing I love, one of the things I love
about this passage,
as Jesus says,
one of you is going to betray me.
I think it's so beautiful.
Do you notice what their question is?
What's their question?
Is it I
notice?
What is not their question.
Is it him?
They.
There's no accusation of another.
They don't accuse one another.
Do you know why
they don't accuse one another?
Because they all know
what they're capable of.
They all know.
I mean, if it were,
honestly, if I was, I'd probably be like,
I think I know who it is.
I think it's Bill.
You know, like, we wouldn't
we wouldn't say it's probably me.
It's so beautiful in this moment
that they realize what they're capable of.
Even those who promised they would never.
Peter.
End up betraying him.
Do you realize what you're capable of?
And the audacity
for Judas to then ask, is it I, Lord,
what a hypocrite!
He had already agreed to it.
Can can you imagine?
What would have welled up in your heart
if this were you
being asked?
Does it mean
when you know they already had?
And Jesus is so gentle
in essence he says, Judas, you.
You've already said it.
In essence, he's almost giving you
this one last chance to repent.
Judas, you've already betrayed me.
Would you come back?
This Passover meal.
Back to Exodus
chapter 12.
Exodus 12.
This is.
This is when God's people are in Egypt.
There's slaves there, there, there, there.
Abused.
They're living under incredible
oppression of slavery.
There have been crying out
to God for 400 years for liberation.
Finally, God has moved on their behalf.
Nine plagues that God sent upon
the Egyptians, each one worse
than the previous, each an attack
and the destruction of the Egyptian gods
just prior to the 10th plague,
which was the plague of the
of the death of the firstborn.
Unless the house of that firstborn
had the blood of a lamb
put over the doorway of the house.
God said, unless I see that blood
of the lamb on the doorway of the house,
the death angel will come and kill
the firstborn of every man and every
animal in that home.
That's the 10th plague.
And right before that, God gives
instructions.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
this is verse
12 of Exodus in the land of Egypt
this month shall be for you.
At the beginning of the month it shall be
the first month of the year of the.
This will be the first month
of the year for you.
So this event resets
their entire calendar.
The calendar of God's people will be set
based on this event.
So God says this is a brand new year for
you now at the institution of this event.
Tell the Congregation of Israel
that on the 10th day of the month,
every man shall take a lamb
according to their father's houses.
A lamb for a household in the household
is too small for a lamb
than he and his nearest neighbor
shall take, according
to the number of persons,
according to what each of you can eat.
You shall make your count for the lamb.
So basically they said, listen,
there can't be any leftovers.
One lamb basically for ten people,
because the whole thing
has to be consumed.
He's going to talk about
how to prepare the lamb
and how to eat the lamb
and and all of this.
So he said
basically one one lamb per household.
Your lamb shall be without blemish,
a male, a year old.
You shall.
You may take it from the sheep,
from the goats, and you shall keep it
until the 14th day of the month,
when the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel
shall kill their lambs at twilight.
Now he said, you get your lamb
one per household, get your lamb,
take it into your home.
Let it live with your family
on the 10th of the month,
on the 14th of the month
you're going to slaughter it.
You're going to.
This little lamb is going to live with you
for four days.
Do you know why he told him to do that?
So that their hearts
and the hearts of their children
were to get attached to this little lamb,
so they would feel the pain
of death
that sin caused.
So they would realize the cost
and the weight of sin
that it would require blood.
You know,
it's interesting to I just realizing this
in the Garden of Eden, that sin
God killed an animal
and gave
so that they could be covered and closed.
One animal for one person
in the Exodus,
one animal for one family.
On the high
holy day of the year in Judaism,
Yom Kippur,
one animal for one nation,
symbolically, and then with Jesus,
one life for the world.
Then they shall take some of the blood
and of the lamb, and put it
on the two doorposts and the lintels
of the houses in which they eat it.
They shall eat the flesh
that night, roasted with the fire,
with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it.
Says, listen, when you
kill this lamb, you take the blood,
and you put it over the doorpost.
And then,
and then this lamb is by fire to absorb.
I mean, fire is a symbol of judgment,
to absorb the judgment
that would have landed
on your home in death.
And you're to eat it with unleavened
bread.
All through Scripture.
Unleavened bread
leavened is a sign of sin.
Unleavened bread is getting rid of sin.
And eat it with bitter herbs,
so that you'll remember the pain
that your slavery has caused
and the pain of sin.
Verse 12 for
I will pass through the land of Egypt
that night,
and I will strike all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.
And on the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgments.
I am the Lord.
The blood shall be assigned to you
on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you, and no plague
will befall you to destroy you.
When I strike the land of
Egypt. This is the Passover,
he says, when I see the blood.
I'm not looking for your faithfulness.
I'm not looking for your activity.
I'm not looking for what you say
you believe.
When I see the blood, my
judgment of death will pass over you.
And so for generations, the the,
the Jews, the Hebrews, the Jew celebrated
this in, in, in, in recollection
and memory and gratitude
for what God had done, the liberation done
for the liberation of them
from bondage and slavery and death.
And it was their celebration of all that
God had done.
Now I want you to realize,
as we put this together.
That what was important in that
moment was not what they said
they believed was not how they lived.
It was not how they had.
The thing that was important
was the blood that was shed
applied to their life.
So the death angel would pass over them.
Here's what we've got to understand.
Hebrews 922 without the shedding of blood,
there's no forgiveness of sins.
Unless blood is shed,
the judgment of death remains.
That's Passover.
First Corinthians five
seven For Christ are what
our Passover lamb?
The Bible says that Jesus
is the Passover lamb,
the one who was slain,
the one whose blood applied to the life.
Makes it so.
The judgment of death passes
over that life.
So understand, I started this message
with the affirmation
of what the revelation
13 says from the foundation of the world.
This has always been God's plan
submitted to by the son,
that he would be the Passover lamb.
Knowing that there's no forgiveness
without the shedding of that blood.
Think for a moment every
year that Jesus,
as a Jewish man, celebrates the Passover.
What's going through his mind?
This is not just the story
of my father's liberation
of our people from Egypt.
This is my story that I will live out
in my own body one day for you.
Can you imagine?
When they're solely
focused on the thanksgiving
of the liberation from Egypt?
Jesus says, you have no idea.
This is my story.
Can you imagine every year that goes
by as it wells up more and becomes
closer and closer to reality of his life?
The emotional toll
that this starts to take
as he looks forward to now on this night.
The hour has come
and he sits down with his disciples.
And in
essence, this
is not the story of the Exodus any longer.
This is a story of my life and my death
for your liberation,
not from slavery, but from sin.
And it's going to come at the expense
of my blood shed
for you. Wow.
And he's orchestrating this whole thing.
Back to Matthew.
Verse 26.
Now, as they were eating.
And it's interesting, this first Passover
when God instituted this with this people,
there were only three elements.
The lamb, the bitter herbs and unleavened
bread that now, as years went by,
it became very elaborate and very symbolic
in many different ways.
But in the beginning,
the Passover were these three things
unleavened bread,
bitter herbs, and the lamb.
There wasn't even any wine,
any cup in the first Passover.
By the time
we get to Jesus, there's four cups of it.
And so,
as they were eating, Jesus took the bread,
and after a blessing,
he broke it and gave it to his disciples,
said, take, eat.
This is my body.
This was
this was profound for Jesus to say
all through the history of the Passover
meal.
The bread was a symbol of God's blessing.
And when it would be broken
and given it, it was.
It was. God is blessing his people.
And now Jesus says it's
not just about God's blessings, people,
because he has this is my body now
that I'm giving for you
not just God's blessing, but my very life.
There's an unfortunate mistranslation
of the King James Version that says
that Jesus took the bread and broke it
and said, this is my body broken for you.
That's a
that's an unfortunate mistranslation.
Jesus's body was never broken.
There's a prophecy in Psalm 22 that says
not a bone of his will be broken.
And actually, the command in the Passover
that God gave his people for the
killing of the Passover lamb.
This is not a bone of
the lamb is to be broken.
So Jesus's body was never broken.
It was crushed as you would have grape
to produce wine, but it was never broken.
When they came to make sure he was dead
on the cross, and the soldiers wanted
to break the the femurs of the of
of the criminals so they would die faster.
They came to Jesus to break his legs,
and he was already dead.
Because
the Bible says not a bone will be broken.
So the bread was broken
and Christ gave and said,
this is now my body.
That's I'm giving for you.
Every time you take this,
I want you to remember my life.
And then he says something profound again.
And he took the cup. Verse 27.
And when he had given thanks,
he gave it to them, saying,
drink of it, all of you, for
this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
There were four.
Generally we understand
there were four cups during the community.
The first cup
was the cup of sanctification
that that that that by God were made holy.
The second cup was a cup of deliverance
that God would deliver his people.
The third cup
was the cup of redemption.
That at the cup of redemption that the
at the third cup after the supper,
they would, they would celebrate the fact
that that they had been redeemed.
And at the end of it there was a fourth
cup, the the cup of praise.
And they were actually seeing Psalm
5115 through 118 together, the fourth cup.
This cup
we know from other parts of Scripture
was the cup after supper,
which would make it
the third cup of communion,
which is the cup of redemption.
He says, this is the cup of my blood.
My blood is for your redemption.
It's by my blood that I'm redeeming
your life and your soul.
Do you understand?
And he says, this new, this cup is the new
covenant, the my blood, new covenant.
What are you talking about, a covenant?
We don't make a covenant with God.
God makes a covenant with us.
And all of a sudden Jesus says, no, no,
I am making a covenant with you
because I am God.
And what is referring to is,
is, is is back in the book of Jeremiah.
All this is firing through their heads.
In the book of Jeremiah,
this is what Jesus,
this is what God says through the prophet
Jeremiah.
Tell the congregation of Israel
that on the 10th day of this month
every man shall take a lamb, according.
I already read that one.
Go to Jeremiah.
Behold, the days are coming, declares
the Lord, and I will make a what?
The 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.
That covenant was the mosaic covenant,
the covenant of law
written on stone tablets
that they had to obey.
Do this. Don't do that.
And by your obedience you'll be blessed.
By your disobedience you'll be cursed.
It was the old covenant,
the covenant of law.
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 not on stone, but where
I'm going to put it
inside them by my spirit,
and I will write it on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
And no longer shall each one
teach his neighbor, and each his brother,
saying,
know the Lord, for they will all know me,
from the least of them
to the greatest, declares the Lord.
For I will forgive their iniquity,
and remember their sins no more.
He said,
there's coming a day of a new covenant,
when the old covenant is gone,
and this new covenant is ushered
in, that by my spirit
I write my law on their hearts,
and they will each know me personally.
No longer will they have to have someone
to tell them, this is how you know God.
Now you will know me personally.
And when that happens
with that new covenant,
when you enter into that new covenant,
I will be your God.
You will be my people,
and I will forgive their iniquity.
Remember, there's no more can you imagine?
And Jesus
institutes that new covenant
on this night of communion, this covenant,
a new covenant of my blood,
so you can know me,
so you can follow me.
So my spirit is on your heart.
You don't have to ask someone else
what I'm like now.
You can know me. Why?
Because Jesus shed his blood
to start this new covenant.
See, without the shadow of blood, there's
no forgiveness.
And Christ as our Passover.
And it's amazing to me
that he says,
I will not drink of this cup again,
of the vine again,
until I do it in the kingdom of my father.
This was at the third cup.
The fourth cup is the cup of praise,
he said.
There's coming a day when I come back
and my father's kingdom is
established
that will have another Passover meal,
and during
that meal will be the cup of praise,
the cup of the kingdom.
Now all of this in Matthew,
this was written somewhere
around 80 to 90 A.D.
and so Matthew doesn't go through
a lot of the explanation of community.
He just says the what Jesus said about the
bread and the cup and kind of moves on.
Paul wrote the book of First Corinthians
in about 55 A.D., long before
the book of Matthew was ever written.
And Paul gives us instruction
on communion.
And so Paul's writings, the church
kind of knew already.
So Matthew doesn't have to explain it all.
But Paul gives us explanation
when we approach this, how we do this
and this is important.
Let me, let me just
let me walk you through this real quick.
First Corinthians chapter 11.
If we're going to take communion, here's
the instructions
starting in verse 27.
First Corinthians 1127
whoever therefore eats the bread
or drinks the cup of the Lord in
an unworthy manner will be guilty
concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Let a person examine itself then, and
so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For anyone who eats or drinks
without discerning the body,
eat and drinks judgment on himself.
When I was little in church growing
up, I vividly remember
I was walking in the alley
or the alley, the lobby of our church,
and they had a little communion.
You a little gold, little communion plate
with the little tiny
little communal wafers.
And I'm like, looks pretty good.
I took when I ate it,
I thought, oh no, I'm going to hell.
That was so messed up.
I just judgment on myself.
And seriously, I still think of that today
thinking, Lord,
please.
Whoever eats of the bread
and Jesus cup of Lord,
an unworthy manner guilty of sinning
will be guilty concerning the body
and the blood of the Lord.
Examine yourself then eat here.
Here's what that means. It does not mean
that if you have sin in your life,
you cannot take immune in that.
If you have sin in your life
and you take them into your guilty
against the body,
that's not what that means.
Here's what it means.
To take communion is to acknowledge
that because our
sin were separated from God,
and that we need the blood of
the lamb to reconcile us to God,
that's what communion reminds us of,
to take communion with the heart
that says, I'm not submitted to God.
I don't need him in my life,
is guilty
against what communion testifies to.
Do you do you follow?
And when I pretend?
That I understand
my need of the blood of Jesus, of my life,
and I've never attributed that to my
except that to myself,
I make a farce of the bread and the cup.
It's unworthy.
And so that's why we say that
those who have a relationship
with Jesus can take the bread and the cup,
as they acknowledge that I admit
I'm a sinner
and I need the blood of Jesus to cover me.
Forgive me of my sin so I can be right
with the father, I admit that.
Am I perfect yet?
Not by any stretch of the imagination.
So examine yourself,
acknowledge your sin, confess it,
and then take communion.
And then Paul says,
if you do this in an unworthy way, you're
guilty against the blood,
the body and blood of Jesus.
And and look at what he says in verse 30.
This is why.
That's why many of you are weak and ill
and some have died.
Because you took communion
in an unworthy way.
This is why I was so petrified as a child.
Here's what you're saying.
When we live in rejection of Jesus,
in unrepentant and unforgiveness,
there will be times when the father
disciplines.
This is corrective discipline
by a loving father
and sometimes it takes physical form
and manifestation.
Now, I'm
not at all saying that every sickness
is due to someone's personal sin.
That's not what the Bible teaches,
but the Bible does give us warning.
Now, in the
church in Corinth,
they made a mockery of this whole thing.
They got drunk at communion.
They abused people at communion.
They made people starve who were hungry
at communion, they didn't share
with like it was a mockery,
the whole thing.
And just because you made a mockery
of my son
and his life and his death
and his resurrection, his promise return
because you've made a mockery
of the whole thing.
Refuse to acknowledge your
into your future.
You continue to abuse the people.
Yeah.
He will discipline you severely.
So get this stuff right.
Do you follow?
Confess what needs to be confessed?
Repent what needs to be repented of.
Acknowledge that is through Christ, in him
alone and his blood shed on the cross,
that you can only be
made right with the father.
Have a seriousness about this.
It's not magic,
but is eternal.
Please don't be fooled
as some of my Roman Catholic friends are.
And I love them.
But some of them are fooled.
They believe in this thing called
transubstantiation, that they believe
that the bread actually changes
substance and becomes actual flesh,
and the cup actually changes
substance and becomes actual blood.
That's why they don't allow anybody
but their priest to administer
the elements, because they afraid some,
some might drop the blood of Jesus.
It's.
There's nowhere in the Bible
that says that at all.
The importance of this
is that I acknowledge my sin,
I acknowledge the payment of my sin, and
I honor Christ because he paid the price
as my Passover lamb.
And he leaves us a promise
I will eat this again.
Finally, in the kingdom of my father,
I'm coming back.
So if church, every time we eat this,
every time we drink
this, it's the acknowledgment
of what Jesus did for us.
And it's the celebration
of what he's done in us, a new covenant.
And it's an anticipation
that he's coming back for us.
Do you follow?
In, in reflection of that kind of love?
What's your response?
I want to invite you in this moment
so that you can, in a worthy manner,
take communion.
As a follower of Jesus,
I want to invite you into this prayer
right now.
Would you say,
father, I admit that I'm a sinner
and I've lived life on my own terms.
Jesus, I believe that you died
for my sin because of my sin
and that you were raised to life.
Save me.
I commit to turn from my sin,
and I dedicate my life, and I dedicate
my allegiance to you and you alone,
and power me
to love you with my whole heart and soul
and mind and strength, without delay
and without hesitation.
Fill me with your spirit right now.
Clothe me.
Cover me with the power of your spirit
to live a holy life.
I give myself to you
and your name I pray.
Amen.
Friends,
I want to invite you
back to the heart of worship,
the remembrance of Jesus,
his body and his blood
date the bread.
This is his body.
It's been given for you.
Do this and remember him.
Take the cup.
This is the new covenant of his blood
shed for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this.
Remember him.
Case going to lead us
in a very appropriate song
called The Heart of Worship,
where everything else is stripped away
and it's simply about him.
We will have people up front
and in the back and outside
to pray with you,
as you need prayer as that would
as you repent, as you give yourself to him
as your pleasure allegiance to him.
Would you confirm that
with someone in prayer
during and after we've seen the song,
we lead us in that.
Thank you.