The Lamb of God, Matthew 26:17-19, 26-30

In this sermon, Pastor Aaron Shamp explores the significance of the cross in Christianity. He emphasizes that the death of Jesus on the cross is central to the Christian faith and should be the core of our belief and identity. Pastor Aaron explains that the cross represents Jesus' love, forgiveness, and salvation, and it is through his death that we are saved. He also highlights the importance of remembering and proclaiming the cross in the Lord's Supper. Additionally, he discusses the meaning of the cross in the context of the Passover meal and the new covenant established by Jesus' blood. He encourages listeners to make the cross a living reality in their lives and to be part of the Christian family.

Takeaways

• The death of Jesus on the cross is central to Christianity and should be the core of our belief and identity.
• The cross represents Jesus' love, forgiveness, and salvation, and it is through his death that we are saved.
• The cross should be remembered and proclaimed in the Lord's Supper as a central ritual in the Christian church.
• The cross is a living reality that should shape our lives and be the basis of our covenant with God.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:18 Starting the Series on the Passion Narrative
07:07 The Importance of Remembering Jesus' Death
08:04 The Central Image of Christianity
11:18 The Meaning of the Cross
14:01 The Cross as the Center of Christianity
20:49 Taking and Eating the Cross
27:16 The Ultimate Lamb of God
34:01 The Cross as a Living Reality
39:02 Being Part of the Christian Family
41:42 Prayer and Conclusion

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:01)
On the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? Go into the city to a certain man, he said, and tell him. The teacher says, My time is near.

I am celebrating the Passover at your place with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. And we pick up in verse 26.

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples and said, take and eat, this is my body. Then he took a cup and after giving thanks, he said it to them and said, he gave it to them and said, drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I tell you, I will not drink from the fruit, this root of the vine from now on.

until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

The central image of Christianity is a cross, right? Many of y'all wear it as necklaces or have a cross hanging maybe somewhere on a wall in your home, perhaps hanging above the dash in your vehicles, have it as backgrounds on your phones, computers, or so on. And for thousands of years in Christianity, this has been the central image of our religion, of our faith, is the cross.

What we need to understand is that in the mind of the New Testament Church, or in the cultural context of the New Testament Church, this was incredibly odd. To us, we look at it and we are comforted by the image of the cross, because to us, it means love, it means forgiveness, it means salvation, it means reconciliation with God. But to them, in that cultural context, it was an image of incredible shame.

An image of incredible shame. The death by crucifixion in this time, whenever in the first century AD, death by crucifixion was by far the most horrific and shameful form of death or of execution that existed. It was so shameful that in Roman law, Roman citizens were not allowed to be executed by crucifixion. It was something that was saved only for rebels, prisoners of war, slaves.

etc. It was so shameful, I think it was Cicero, who wrote that the word crux, which was the Latin word for cross, should not even be uttered because it was a, it was like a cuss word, right? However, in this cultural context, Jesus' followers said, that's the message for us. How? How is that? How can that be?

in this series, what we're going to do is we're going to explore the meaning of the cross. We're going to explore this meaning, see what did it mean, why is it so important, and have ourselves reacquainted with the cross of Christ. And so that's the name of the series and what we're going to be looking at. And we're going to be doing that by looking at the passion narrative in the Gospel of Matthew. And so we're not going to hit every single verse in these next

that help us to understand the meaning of the cross of Christ. And so we're doing that today by looking here at what we typically call the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples. We're going to understand this story by looking at three phrases that Jesus said at the meal. First, we're going to look at his phrase, this is my body. Then the second phrase we're going to look at is Jesus saying, this is my blood. And then the third is his phrase, take and eat it. OK, so this is my body, this is my blood. And then take and eat it. Now,

Let me just drive this home once again. Consider what event in the life of Jesus did Jesus himself tell us that we should perpetually commemorate, that we should perpetually remember? Now, you might think Christmas, right? Christmas is a huge holiday, like, you know, probably the biggest holiday on our calendar throughout the year. And that's whenever we commemorate and remember the birth of Jesus. But Christmas was not instituted by Jesus, right? I'm not nothing against Christmas. You guys know that I.

I love Christmas, right? But that was not instituted by Jesus himself. Jesus didn't tell us to commemorate His resurrection. He didn't tell us to commemorate His ascension. These are all incredible points in the life of Jesus. He didn't tell us to commemorate and remember and continually remind ourselves of any of His miracles or any of His specific teachings of the disciples. It was this event in His life that He said, I want you to continually remind yourselves of until I return, His death.

His death is the one that he says, this is one I want you to always remember, not his birth, resurrection, miracles or any of the other events, but his death. He tells us that not in the not in Matthew's telling of the Last Supper, but in Luke's telling of the Last Supper, he includes that Jesus told them, do this in remembrance of me. The apostle Paul, writing a couple of decades later, picks up on this and he drives it home to them. In First Corinthians, chapter 11.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. He's saying this teaching came straight from Jesus. On the night when he was betrayed, so that's this night, the last supper, the Lord Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Again, driving this home. In verse 26,

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, Paul says, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So this central ritual that we have in the Christian church, even up until this day, what is the point of it? The point of it is to remember for ourselves. And then also Paul says to proclaim what in Jesus' life? His death. Once again, his death, which was in this cultural context, remember,

seen as incredibly shameful, horrific, something that would have signaled failure in the ministry of Jesus Christ. You see, there were other so-called messianic leaders that rose up during this kind of similar time period, rebels who rose up within Israel to lead a revolt against the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire had them occupied.

during this time. They had certain freedoms, but they were certainly very heavily burdened and oppressed by the Roman Empire. And so you had other zealots who would rise up, gain a following and say, this is it. We're going to overthrow the Romans occupation over us and reestablish the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God. And what would happen was, is well, the Romans would eventually do as they always did, very efficiently, identify the rebellion.

capture the leader and any of his other followers that they could and then crucify all of them, usually along the highway outside of a town, so that all the people passing by could see and be reminded, this is what happens whenever you rebel. Right? Now look at Jesus, here he comes in his ministry and the very first sermon that Jesus preaches, the very first words from his mouth in all the gospels is that he came to establish the kingdom of God, right? So in this cultural context, think about what that means in their minds,

He's going to lead us to overthrow the Roman Empire, restore the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God, the Davidic kingdom, right? And then Jesus is eventually arrested and crucified. What does that mean to all these people? Well, just think about this. All of his disciples abandoned him. Right. You know, we read that story and we see it as a, of course, a very personal sin of the disciples against Jesus to abandon him in his hour of need. But remember what happened?

to those other groups where their leader was arrested and crucified, but they would also round up his meeting with their followers and do the same thing to them. You see, they went running and hiding because they thought it failed. They thought the movement failed. All their hopes, they thought, okay, well, it's going to be someone else. So they went and they hid.

But it's this that Jesus said, this shameful death that signified in the minds of everyone who witnessed it that he had been a failure. He said, this is what I want you to remember. Paul says, this is what we, in the Lord's Supper that we still practice to this day, this is what Paul says I want you to, we proclaim to the world. The failure of Jesus? The death of Jesus? Let's consider if we're gonna grasp the meaning of it and why...

it became the central image of Christianity. And while we proclaim it, we have to grasp the meaning. Consider the context that Jesus said this in, not just the cultural context that I've been talking about, but the immediate context. Whenever Jesus said, this is my body, right? He said it in the midst of the Passover meal. That's why we read verses 17 through 19 and then jump down to kind of the core of this story here in 26 through 30. In 17 through 19, he tells the disciples, I want you to go and prepare the Passover meal.

The Passover meal would typically happen sometime in the spring, which is why Easter is in the spring, right? And so it would happen sometime during the spring, and they would come together to remember the story of the Exodus. Whenever the people of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt, they were living in an area called Goshen, but they were slaves by Pharaoh in the Egyptian empire, and God rescued them with his mighty arm, it says, to bring them freedom. And so they remembered

God's work and giving them freedom, redeeming them from their slavery through celebrating the Passover meal every year. Every year, a family would come together and have the Passover meal. They would prepare it according to all of the ceremonial traditions that they were to do that. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment. But what would happen is they'll prepare the meal together, and then the family would gather around, and you would have, typically, the patriarch of the family would sit as the presider over the meal.

And he would remind everyone in the family who was sitting on the table of the significance of the meal, because every element of the meal had like a different significance tied to it. And so as they ate it, he would teach them, you know, this is the meaning of, of the cup. This is the meaning of the unleavened bread of the lamb and so on. He would remind them of their people's suffering in their history and how

God had redeemed them from their suffering. This is what would typically happen. They're having the Passover meal together as they would have always done. They have all the similar elements of the meal as they would have always done and Jesus sits as the presider over the meal. But he does something different. He doesn't take the bread and say, you know, this reminds us of our people's suffering. He takes the bread and he says, this is my body.

Jesus takes the Passover meal, they've been celebrated for thousands of years by this point. And he takes the elements of that meal and he turns them all upon himself. He says, all of this no longer is about your history, it is no longer about our people's suffering, it is now about mine. Jesus takes it all and he centers it, he turns all of the attention on himself. He says, this is my body. That is incredible.

an amazing statement from Jesus here. He takes his death and his own suffering and puts it at the center of the celebration, the festival of the meal that had made up the core of Israel's life and identity up until this point. Therefore, Jesus is doing is he is taking his suffering and his death and now placing it at the core of our consciousness and identity of who we are and what it means to be a Christian.

John Stott, a scholar in the 20th century, an amazing scholar, said this. He said, the fact that a cross became the Christian symbol and that Christians stubbornly refused, in spite of ridicule, to discard it in the place of something less offensive can only have one explanation historically. It means that the centrality of the cross originated in the mind of Jesus himself. And it was out of loyalty to him that his followers clung so doggedly to it.

The first thing that I want us to see in this story today, and as we consider the meaning of the cross of Christ, is that the death of Christ and his cross is central to Christianity. This is at the core. This is at the core of our belief, our identity. Whenever we consider what is the Bible and the story and meaning of the Bible from a big picture, it is the death of Jesus. It is the cross of Christ. Whenever we think about what it means to be a Christian, how do we become a Christian? How do we live as a Christian? How do we grow as a Christian? How do we?

do the mission, what is our church all about? At the core of it all is to be the cross of Christ because that is what Jesus placed at the center. And despite the ridicule, despite the pressure, the mocking and the persecution, his disciples clung to it, as John Stott said. And by their faith and their clinging to the cross of Christ, they, as it says in Hebrews chapter 11 of the Heroes of the Faith, overcame the world.

And so the same will be true for us today. If we are going to succeed in the mission of the kingdom of God, if we're going to live victoriously as individual Christians, fighting our own besetting sins and so on, and if we're to see Redeemer actually be a presence for the kingdom of God in Acadiana, it will only be if we do this, if we stay centered on the cross of Christ, if we become centered on anything else, if we drift away from that, we are.

losing the mission. We are losing our identity. It is the cross of Christ. Jesus saying, this is my body. Remember, that's how, that's how we do it. A gospel without the suffering and shame of the cross is not Christian.

It's not. Paul said in the first chapter of Galatians that if anyone, he says, even if an angel comes to you and gives you a gospel different from the one that I have given you, let it be anathema. That means cursed.

A gospel without the suffering and shame of the cross is not Christian. Moreover, a gospel without the without the suffering and shame of the cross at the center is not Christian because it is possible for us, you know, to completely remove the cross of Christ. That's easy to identify as a non-Christian gospel. We see this in different offshoots of Christianity, different cults like Jehovah's Witness, Mormonism, and so on. Those are easy to identify.

But the other false gospels sometimes aren't as easy to identify because they might still include the cross somewhat in their gospel, but it's not at the center. Here's what I mean by that. A gospel without the center is not Christian. A gospel that places religious practices at the center, replacing the cross, is not Christian. If we say that the essence of becoming a Christian, of knowing God, of growing into faith, is this and that practice. Whether it be even good things like

Lord's Supper. You know, it's by taking the Lord's Supper that you become a Christian, not the gospel. You know, if it is by church membership that you become a Christian, you know God, not the gospel. If it is by any other religious practice that could be preached to you, placing it at the center, replacing the cross of Christ, not the gospel, not Christian. Other things might be different movements, different political movements, social movements, and so on, you know, that says

You know, what the gospel and the kingdom is actually about is social change or political change. That's not the gospel. It's not Christian. Replacing the cross with politics, whether they be left or right wing, replacing the cross with social movements, despite how good their goals is not the Christian gospel. Replacing the cross with felt needs. You see, saying that what the gospel is really all about is meeting the needs that you have. You know, your, uh, your

depressed or your marriage is broken or you're trying to advance in your career or you have all these other hurts and things going on in your life, all these things that are going wrong. You know, all you need is Jesus in your life and then all those problems will go away. You need Jesus in your life and then the thing that you really want you'll get. You see, that's replacing the cross at the center with just having your needs met at the center. No, I'm not saying, look, you know, if you have a broken marriage you do need Jesus.

If you have a lot of problems in your life, Jesus is the answer. But friends, we go to Jesus for Jesus. And then everything else is secondary, as we say here in South Louisiana, Lanyard. Right. He's at the center. But so many churches, including churches here in Acadiana, are preaching a gospel of, you know, there's a lot of things in your life that you need. Jesus died so you can get them. In extreme cases, we call this prosperity gospel, where, you know, are you sick?

Are you poor? Whatever else? Well, Jesus wants to give you health, wealth, prosperity, and you just gotta go to him for those things. He died on the cross so you could get those things. That is not Christian. Replacing it with any kind of a form of good works is not Christian. The cross must be at the center. The work of Jesus Christ is at the center of our core identity, of our consciousness, of what it means to be a Christian, of how we grow as a Christian.

It's not that the cross is just the entry point and then you move on to works or you move on to religious practices. No, the cross is the entry point and it stays the center all the way through eternity. We are saved by the work of Jesus Christ. Right. What he did, we grow, we overcome sin. We are kept secure by the work of Jesus Christ. From this day until we go into eternity. He remains at the center. This is my.

body. All of that I just described is what Jesus does in those simple words. All of that. He's placing himself, his death, his work at the center. This is my body. So his first statement turns the centrality of that meal, that event, and now you know how we conceive ourselves and what Christianity means. It turns the centrality of all these things upon his death, his cross. But why did he die?

This is what we learned in the second statement. He says, first he says, this is my body. And then he says, this is my blood. This is my blood tells us why he died. It tells us the meaning of it, the purpose of it. Because he says, this is my blood. And in other translations, it says more simply, which is poured out for you. In our translations, he says, this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever Jesus says, this is my blood poured out for you, the word for there, it has the connotation of on behalf of. Jesus says, this is my blood poured out on your behalf. It is, this is my blood poured out instead of yours. It is the same thing as if a person was to say, imagine you have a great debt with the bank or the IRS, OK?

And someone goes and they says, and they paid that debt for you. And they tell you, hey, I put my money in towards that debt for you. Right. That means that they paid the debt that was yours on your behalf. You had to pay it, but instead of you paying it, they did. That's the same thing that Jesus means where he says, this is my blood poured out for you. It is the blood that you were supposed to shed for your sin.

And Jesus's blood is shed instead. That's what he means, where he takes that cup. Once again, that cup that used to represent the blood of the Nile and the blood of the lamb, he says, this is my blood poured out for you. The Passover meal had these different elements that would always be in place that represented different things. And like I mentioned, the presider over the meal would explain them. They had wine always, they had unleavened bread, and they also had a lamb that they would

slaughter and then roast and that they would eat at the table together. All these things connect back to the Exodus that you can read about in the book of Exodus on the night of the angel of death passing over Egypt. So the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt and God had sent different plagues upon Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let his people go, to give them their freedom, right? So they might go and worship him.

Pharaoh was stubborn. He continued to refuse. The last of the plagues was that Jesus, I'm sorry, the Lord told Moses that he was going to send an angel of death, an angel of judgment that would pass over the land of Egypt and that would take the life of every firstborn son of every living thing because of their sin. Now, here's what's interesting. In all of the other plagues, the locusts and the boils and so on, the frogs, in all the other plagues,

Goshen, you can think of it as this ghetto that the Israelites were forced to live in. Goshen was protected. They didn't have the plague of locusts. They were protected. They didn't have all the frogs. They were protected from it. But then in the last plague, which is whenever the angel of judgment is passing over to take the firstborn of every son because of sin, at this time they're not protected. God tells them through Moses,

that in order for their first born sons to not die, they're going to need to slaughter a lamb, take his blood and paint it over the doorposts of their home and then go into their home and celebrate this meal. One of those things being that they would roast the lamb that was slaughtered and its blood painted on the doorpost and then they would have that roasted lamb at the table and they would eat that lamb. And by that lamb dying and its blood being spread on the doorposts and them eating it, they would be saved from the judgment that was going to come.

That's incredibly interesting. Why is it that in this last one, they needed the covering of a substitute? Because in this last one, it was not just a judgment against Pharaoh, but it was a judgment on sin. And even they were guilty. You see that? Even though they were the people of God, they still had sin. In this plague, they are on equal grounds with the Egyptians.

and they needed a substitute. And so that's why the blood of the lamb was slaughtered. And then they ate that lamb that just died and knowing that this lamb died and I am now receiving sustenance because, and it died so that I wouldn't.

Now we read about this Passover meal that for like I said for thousands of years up into this point they always remembered that in that plague that we also should have suffered in we were saved because a lamb died in our place. There was a there was a substitute that died for us and they would always have that lamb and they would eat it. What's interesting here when we read about this supper. It doesn't mention a lamb.

It doesn't say they didn't have one, so we shouldn't go so far as assume there was no lamb at the table. There might have been very well, probably was, but it doesn't mention there being a lamb at the table. Instead, what it tells us is that is that Jesus said, this is my body with the bread. And then he picks up the cup and he says, this is my blood. What did they always celebrate it that it was the blood of a lamb that had died in their place, that had saved them from judgment, the judgment they deserve for their sins?

But now Jesus tells them, no, it is my blood that is poured out for you. I am the substitute. You see, I think that the reason that Matthew and the other gospel writers do not mention a lamb at the table is because they it was not about the lamb that was on the table, is that the true lamb of God was sitting at the table. And the way that the lamb for all those years and beginning of the Passover had died, so it's blood might be covering the home.

to give them salvation, dying as a substitute, it was always pointing towards Jesus. He is the ultimate lamb of God who died, whose blood was shed so that his blood might cover us. Just as being in church does not save you. You see, being in Goshen, being a Hebrew, did not save them. They needed a substitute just like the Egyptians. Guys, being in Redeemer today does not save you.

Having crosses on your wall does not save you. We need salvation from our sin, just like any other heathen in Acadiana or America or around the world. We are on equal grounds as sinners, and we need a substitute. Jesus says, I am the substitute. Paul himself reiterates this in 1 Corinthians 5, 7. He says, for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

He is the ultimate lamb of God. You see, they had to continually shed the blood of lambs and bulls and birds throughout the years, whenever they would worship, whenever they would celebrate the Passover and in other festivals, to always be reminded of that need for atonement of sins. But Jesus' blood was shed once. They had to do it over and over again because it was not the real thing. It was just a signpost pointing towards what would be the real thing.

The blood of lambs and bulls was not actually paying for their sins. It was just, it was a signpost. It was a temporary measure to point forward whenever God would atone for their sins, which is why the blood of Jesus was only shed once.

only shed once. We don't continue to add to his sufferings. There are some theologies in churches that teach that every time we take the supper, or we take a Eucharist, that we are, in a sense, having Christ suffer again. And this is not true. Because his blood was shed once, paying for sin once, and paid for it in full, never necessitating that his blood be shed again. He is the ultimate lamb of God.

who died on our behalf in our place. And you will only grasp the wonder of the cross if you can comprehend that he did it for you. I love what Tim Keller said. He said, you know, if two lovers are walking beside a river and they're holding hands and the man says to his girlfriend or wife or whoever, look at how much I love you. And he jumps into the river and drowns.

that would not be a great demonstration of his love for her, right? But if she were to fall into the river and he dives in after her to rescue her and pull her out, even at the sake of his own life, well, then that demonstrates improves his love for her. Suicide does not prove your love for anyone, but dying in their place does. If you do not recognize that Jesus's death on the cross was in

your place, that his suffering was in your place, the condemnation that he received was in your place, then you'll never fully grasp it.

Another wonderful scholar who's still alive today named N.T. Wright said this. He said, when we say that Jesus died because of our sins, we don't just mean that in some high flown abstract sense. We mean that what put him on the cross was precisely the sins that we not only commit, but wallow in.

His suffering, the shame that He endured, as we will look at throughout this series, He did because of my sin, it put Him there. The same thing with yours. And because He endured it, I am saved from it. He did it in my place, He did it in your place.

One thing that makes Christianity stand out against all of the world religions is that it says that we get in, we are saved by the work of Jesus Christ, that being his death on the cross. You know, no other religion teaches that you're saved because your God died for you. And if we do not emphasize the meaning of the cross.

not just that he died to demonstrate his love, but that he died for you, for us, and by that substitution, he proves his love for us. If we do not emphasize that, then Christianity's ridiculous. It doesn't make sense. Moreover, every other religion says that the covenant, or you're being saved, you're getting in, is based on your commitment. If you can commit in the works, in the...

rituals and the religious things that you have to do and so on, that is how you're saved, you're held in the covenant, is by your commitment. But the gospel says that our covenant with God is based on his commitment to us. He says, this is my blood of the covenant. Our relationship with God, that covenant with him, that relationship is not based upon, he doesn't say,

You know, if you can live out the mission really well, then that's the basis of our covenant. He doesn't say how well you performed this week is the basis of our covenant. He doesn't say, you know, it was your baptism or it was your taking of the Lord's Supper or it was how much you tithed or anything else that is the basis of our covenant. The basis of the covenant is this. He says, this is my blood of the covenant. That commitment that he made to die in your place at the cost of your own life is what it is based upon.

So on your best of days, whenever you're living righteously, whenever you're living on mission, whenever you're fully submitted to the Lord, it's still based on his blood. It is based on his work. And on your worst of days, whenever you feel like, how could God love me? Am I still really a Christian? You know, how could he receive me again? How could I go back to him again? Even on your worst of days.

Whenever you wonder and question to yourself, am I still in a relationship with him? Could he still truly call me his own? Do I still have the privilege of calling him mine?

This is my blood of the covenant. It is still based on Jesus's blood.

but you have to take and eat it. Jesus tells them, whenever he lifts up the bread, he says, this is my body, and lifts up the cup, and he says, this is my blood. He doesn't just show it to them and put it back down. He says, you have to take and eat it. You have to receive it. You know, just as if you were presented with a wonderful feast before you, and you say, look, this is all for you. Look at these meats and these drinks and these.

wonderful, all these wonderful delicacies that we have for you. Here, this is for you. If you just go and look at it and say, oh, nice, thanks. And then you walk away like, I appreciate you did that for me, but you don't take and eat it. Well, you're not really receiving the gift that was given to you. And it's the same thing with the cross of Christ. You cannot go and look at the cross. You cannot look at the death of Jesus and see and hear that. This is his love demonstrated for you and say, wow, how nice. And walk away. You have to receive it.

You have to take and eat it. You have to look at the cross. And then as Stott said about his disciples, and then cling to it and say, yes, his death was my death. And now his life is my life. Whenever I stand before the Lord and my life is brought into account, I will not stand before him in my own righteousness, but I will stand before him in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. I appropriate it for myself. His work, his life, his righteousness is mine. I want it.

He's my Lord. You have to take and eat. You have to receive it, stake your life upon it. If the cross is the center of Christianity, it will become the center of your life.

And so as we close, I want to ask, is the cross a living reality in your life? Is it a living reality in your life or is it just a nice thought? You know, the power of practicing the Lord's Supper, which we should have planned to do today, we'll do it. We'll do it soon. So keep this in mind for next time. All right. The power is that when you take that bread in a cup,

is connected to a real experience you've had. It reminds you of something that has actually happened in your life. You know, last summer we got to go on this, me and Layla and our family, we got to go on this wonderful trip to Tennessee to go and see some of our dearest friends in the world who now live in other parts of the country. We all met up in Tennessee kind of at a middle spot to spend a long weekend together.

and fellowship and catching up. And it was just, it was wonderful. It feels like a dream whenever I think back on it. And while we were hanging out that weekend, we had a little Bluetooth speaker that was playing music and we were talking about Cajun music because they all once lived here and they kind of miss some of that. And we put on people around here know how to party if y'all have ever heard that song. It's such a fun song. We put on that song and all the kids started dancing. We were dancing with the kids together. And it was just such a...

precious moment of connection with our friends. And now every time I hear that song, it brings me back. I feel that same warmth in my heart and connection with those people that I was feeling at that time. You know, in the Lord of the Rings, one of the hobbits named Pippin is in Gondor during this battle, whenever the wicked forces are coming against the city to overtake it.

And it looks like the city is lost, like as though the battle is lost. But then Theoden, the king of Rohan, arrives with his army, and they swoop in and overtake the evil forces, and they save the day. But they save the day at the cost of Theoden's life. He dies. And Pippin was there in the city. He remembers the feeling of knowing that death was imminent, and he remembers hearing the horns.

of the writers of Rohan, whenever they came and their salvation came, but that it was at the cost of Theoden. And the book says that from that point onward, even for years afterwards, every time Pippin heard the horns, he wept because it brought him back. You see, that's something that's a living reality in your life. And so in the Lord's Supper, in worship, whenever you're in the scripture and reading the words of God,

Whenever you're in fellowship with fellow Christians or whenever you hear the gospel declared to you, is it more than just words? Is it more than just sounds? Is it more than just bread and crackers and juice and wine and so on? But is it a living reality? Does it take you back, right? Is it cross a living reality in your life? If it's not, perhaps you have been hearing the message, you have been seeing the invitation, but you have not yet taken and eat. Take and eat, make it yours.

And the last thing that I want to ask you is, are you a part of the Christian family?

As I said before, you know, I want to remind you, the Passover was a family celebration. This is something that households and extended families would gather together and do. It was not just a religious celebration, but something that families would do with one another as a part of both their religious life, their faith and their family life together. It was a family meal. But Jesus does this with his disciples. What this shows us is that Jesus forms a new family. And what it shows us is that if

Jesus is your lamb, your substitute, then you are not only brought into relationship with him, but his family. You cannot be both a Christian and a long ranger. You have to be in the family. And that doesn't just mean in some abstract sense, because in a sense, whenever we become a Christian, we are adopted into the family of God and connected to, you know, the body of Christ, the universal

church that is spread out across the globe, the kingdom of God. Yes, in a sense, that is true, right? But it has to be lived out. How is it lived out? Guys, look, it's not lived out.

I'm going to make this simple. It's not lived out anywhere else, but in the local church. All right. That's how it's done. It's not lived out in any Bible studies outside of the church. You know, services of mercy to the community or just hangouts or anything like that. It is only found in the local church. Are you part of the family? Because if you if Jesus has been is your lamb?

then you will be a part of the family. Jesus and his disciples show us that there is deep community to be found that we are called to participate in the Christian fellowship. Let's pray. Father, we come before you and we thank you. We thank you for the cross. But we remember, when we hear of the cross and we practice the ceremonies, when we practice worship and prayer and scripture reading,

what it was that brought us here and that holds us in relationship with you, that keeps us in the covenant. It is your blood, it is your cross. And so we praise you and we thank you for the cross, Lord. Today and throughout this series, would you make the cross so much more meaningful and come alive? For those of us who have grown dry, for those of us who have grown distant, for those of us who have forgotten about the wonder of the cross, would you, would you?

Bring it back. Would you refresh us? Would you give us new perspective? Would you give us a new experience that we are able to take as a living reality? For those in here who have never experienced that because they have not taken and eaten, because they have not actually laid themselves down before the cross, submitted to you, clung to it, or asked that you would help them to do so this morning, that they would truly.

confess in their heart that it is not by their own works that they repay for their sins, but that it is by the blood of Jesus Christ that their sins are paid for. It is His blood applied to the doorposts of their life that saves them from judgment, and that they will one day stand before you completely exposed, but in full joy, because though they are fully exposed, they are washed.

in the blood of the lamb. And so with nothing to hide, with no reason to worry, fear or be ashamed. Lord, would you hold us in this covenant established by the blood of your son. Let it be a living reality, let it help us to grow, overcome sin and participate in the mission of the kingdom. We pray all of these things in your name, amen.