The Gospel in the Elements

I want you to turn in your Bible.

Well, we're going to go a couple different places because I want to frame our lesson this morning

! and its intent clearly in your hearts.

But before we do that, we're going to pray.

Do you know why we pray?

We do so many different things when we pray, but one of the things we do is that we confess

His sufficiency in our dependence.

Isn't that right?

And if there's anything we always need, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in our frail

lives in rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being satisfied supremely with Him.

So you join me in prayer.

And don't kind of be sitting there like a bump on a log thinking about lunch.

You just be begging God to do something in your life that needs to be done.

Amen?

Amen?

Amen.

Holy Father, we are so very blessed to be able to come into Your presence this morning,

to come with humility, to come with boldness that is not of our own making, but is because

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we heard sung this morning when He said, Tetelestai, He was not only saying it is finished,

but He was also saying it is paid in full.

There is now, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

And, Lord, while it does not yet appear what we shall be, we know that the day is coming

when we will see Him and we will be like Him.

And so our prayer this morning is that our hearts would be good soil to receive the Word

of God and to allow the truth of the Word of God to affect our thinking and our living.

That as we study in the Scriptures this very particular truth relating to how Jesus looked

at the Last Supper, that we would grow to love Him, that we would grow to appreciate the beauty

and the depth of His work for us, and that our affection for the Lord Jesus Christ would be

something that not only makes a difference in our life, but makes a difference in the world around us.

And most importantly, that Christ is glorified.

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, I will get to the sermon eventually, and I do want you to put your finger in Luke chapter 22,

Luke 22 · chapter mention

because that's where we will be.

But one of the things that I think is important is to understand what's the takeaway?

What's it really going to look like when it all plays out?

Not just the sermon, but the work of the Word of God in your life.

I think about a passage in Romans chapter 8 where it says this, that God explains the issue of His

Romans 8 · chapter mention

sovereign care for us, and it says, all things work together for good to them that love God

and are called according to His purpose.

And then it goes on and says this, that in essence, we are going to be conformed into the image of Christ.

Isn't that right?

I alluded in the prayer to a passage in 1 John where it says that though we don't see Him yet,

the day is coming when we will see Him.

And what will be the effect of seeing Him?

What will be the effect?

Say it with me.

We will become like Him.

We will become like Him.

Can I tell you that duplication or modeling after someone else is the highest form of a compliment,

isn't it?

I want to be like whoever it is that you want to be like.

You are crediting as being someone significant and worthy, someone that you want to model your

life after.

And the truth of the matter is this, is that God intends for us who are His children to be

like Christ.

How does Christ-likeness happen?

I'll just kind of sit there and it'll happen automatically.

I want you to understand, for one, growing to be like Christ happens as the Word of God

makes a difference in our life.

And I think about a passage, there are several different ones.

One in particular is over there in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, where it says that we are transformed

2 Corinthians 3:18

from glory into glory and that transformation takes place when the Word of God makes a difference

in our life.

I also want you to understand that we grow to be more like Christ as we grow to appreciate

who He is and to grow in our love for Him.

The truth of the matter is, is that left to our own devices, we are only good at loving

one person.

Who is that?

Me, myself, I.

In fact, I'm a little irritated when everybody else doesn't love me as much as I do.

And you're the same way.

When you're pouty or irritated with whatever is going on in life that's not going your way,

it's just saying, hey, I want to be the center.

And it is the work of the Spirit of God and the work of the Word of God that brings us to realize

the supreme beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And seeing that, we grow to love Him and be interested in Him.

And if there's any time in our attention to the Word of God that our hearts should be stirred

in loving Jesus, it is when we come to this table.

Luke chapter 22, verse 14.

Luke 22:14

And when the hour came, He reclined at table and the apostles with Him.

And He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

And He took a cup, and when He'd given thanks, He said, take this and divide it among yourselves.

For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

And He took the bread, and when He'd 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.

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup is poured out for you.

It is the new covenant in My blood.

The thing that I want you to do this morning with me is stop and think carefully,

deeply, about how Jesus viewed this table.

You look there at the passage, and if you would put your finger for me on verse 15.

I want you to do that consciously and deliberately.

And some of you have iPads and other electronic devices.

Go ahead.

You're afraid that if you tap it, it's going to, something else will happen.

But kind of mark it.

Look at what it says here.

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

The Hebrew reads this way.

In essence, it's saying, I have desired with desire.

And one of the things that we know about Hebrew language is that when something needs to be emphasized,

in our culture, when we want to draw attention to something, we underline it.

Or we use a yellow highlighter.

Isn't that right?

Judith and I are in a modest process of remodeling, and I promise it will be the last one.

But we have drywallers that are coming tomorrow, I hope.

I'm going to be away deer hunting.

And so I had to make some little notations on some boards in Spanish.

You know?

Remove this screw.

And so here I was talking with the drywaller because he is not going to be there, and his crew is going to be there.

And so I was spelling out in Spanish, remove this screw.

Big arrow, underline, underline.

In Hebrew, when you wanted to make something clear and emphatic, what you would do is you would double up on it.

Remember Jesus said, verily, verily?

Truly, truly?

So when Jesus says here, with desire I have desired, he is saying, I am really into this, and I care about it a lot.

I'm kind of struck by that when I thought about it.

How many of you have ever read a passage and missed it completely, and then later on it's like, wow.

It's there.

It's beautiful.

And I was praying several weeks ago about the Lord's Table, and I have to admit that when you do something month after month,

and I am now into about 35 years of the Lord's Table and have done many, many of them, right?

It can become a little tempting to be relatively routine.

And I always pray about sermons, but there is a sense in which I pray more about the Lord's Table because of that routine.

And as I was praying and meditating upon a variety of scriptures, I was just, it's like, bang, there it was.

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover before I suffer.

And I stopped and thought, what was it about this that made this particular Passover so important?

Well, I would suggest that it wasn't the historical significance of what the Passover represented to the nation of Israel

in that it was the Passover that historically was a celebration of God's work in delivering the nation of Israel from Egypt and from slavery.

It was more than that.

I think as Jesus thought about this Passover without question, He understood several things that I want you to ponder with me

and allow it to inform your thinking regarding why this Passover was so important to Jesus,

and by extension, it should be important to us.

For one, Jesus understood that He was the fulfillment of God's promise to provide for our sins.

Stop and think with me just for a moment that we don't even get out of Genesis chapter 3 before the world's a mess.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Sin entered the world.

Sin entered the world.

Sin entered the world.

and we will enjoy glory without all these impediments and heartaches.

And so here, as Jesus thought about what this table represented,

He understood that He was the fulfillment of the promises

that had been made throughout the Old Testament

regarding His coming and His salvation and His work of redemption.

He understood what was in front of Him was ultimately not this great tragic moment,

but the reality that He was the fulfillment of God's promises throughout the centuries.

Let me ask you, do you ever get a little impatient with God doing things slower than you'd like?

You know, I'm going to, I swear, use chewing gum on the side of my face so that it doesn't move.

But, at 67, I remember thinking to myself the other day,

God, why don't you go ahead and finish this process of progressive sanctification

because I was at a point where I was a little frustrated with some of the gross repetition in my life

of some of the difficulties I've had.

Anybody else there?

Why are we doing this again, Jesus?

You know, I mean, it's like, I've been through this.

I know how I should be.

And yet, we find that God in His mysterious plan of working out the plan of redemption over the centuries

brought it to fulfillment in Christ.

And here is Christ just days prior to the fulfillment of God's promises regarding our salvation.

He says, man, it is with desire that I've desired to do this.

Not only that, but I firmly believe that Jesus understood that His death for our sins would glorify His Father.

Do you know that there was nothing that gave Jesus greater pleasure than making His Father feel good or happy?

Turn in your Bible, if you would, to John chapter 13, verse 31.

John 13:31

John chapter 13, verse 31.

John 13:31

In the context of the Last Supper, after Judas had left, it says there in verse 31,

when He'd gone out, Jesus said,

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.

The idea of glorifying someone means to draw attention to them, make them significant,

or recognize something particularly exceptional about them.

How is God glorified in the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf?

I want you to stop and think with me about the religions around the world.

I've said it before, and certainly not original with me,

that you may divide all the religions of the world into two groups.

The majority that propose that salvation comes about by your own efforts,

whether they're repeated and you allow for reincarnation to get another try at it.

I don't want to ask if any of you ever had to take a class over,

but the idea of Hinduism is that if you don't get it the first time,

you get it the second time, or the third, or whatever else.

Or the idea of slowly kind of working your way up the ladder,

and you do these things, and you do these things, and you get there.

On the other hand, you have the Bible that tells us that we, unable to save ourselves,

have received the grace of God who sent His Son to die in my place

and satisfy the debt of my sins and to redeem me with His own blood.

God is glorified in that His plan of salvation is so marvelous and so wonderful

and so unbelievably incredible that, you know, the angels kind of look at this whole thing

of people like me and people like you being saved, and they go, what is that?

God is glorified in the work of Christ in coming to be our Savior and our Redeemer.

I want you to recognize also that as Jesus, with desire, desired this,

that He must have been thinking also about His joy in our redemption.

I think of two different passages in relationship to this.

One was recited actually in our Sunday school class, one of the two Sunday school classes,

or three that we have.

And in Hebrews chapter 12, I want you to turn over there just for a moment.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

In Hebrews chapter 12, the author references Jesus in His attitude towards the cross.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him,

endured the cross.

I don't think it's right for us to think that Jesus, as He thought about the cross, went,

woo-hoo, that's it, you know?

But on the other hand, when He thought about the cross, He thought of our redemption,

and it satisfied His soul, and it gave to Him a pleasure and a delight that you and I can only appreciate and enjoy.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would.

You're there keeping your finger in Luke because we're coming back to it.

But I want you to look at Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

I have to confess, one of the characteristics of the Bible is that sometimes the Bible puts more thought into an issue

than our little pea brain can handle at one time.

And as a result of that, we kind of get buried on one point or another,

and we don't appreciate the fact that some Bible truths are profoundly complex,

and you can come back to them again and again and be enriched in each case.

And so it is when you stop and think about Jesus being satisfied with the matter of this Lord's Supper

as He thinks about our redemption over in Galatians 2.20, here's what it says.

I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

In the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith, now mark this,

in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So why did Jesus die?

He died because He loves me.

I want you to listen to me carefully because this is something that I think far too often

we diminish its significance simply by not thinking about it.

He loved me in that He was willing to die for me.

You know, when you ponder the depth of the love of Christ

and you begin to gain through the Scriptures that inform us of His love,

we either grow in our appreciation and affection for Christ

or we harden our heart at the claim His love makes upon us.

Does that make sense?

As you understand that Christ loves you as skunky as you are,

and I joined the crowd with that, you know,

you're either overwhelmed or you just dismiss it.

And so when we come to this table,

it is something that the Spirit of God intends for us to take seriously

and allow the thinking of the love of Christ to affect our behavior and our living.

Don't you wish that loving Christ could be done strictly in the abstract?

You know, we could kind of say nice things about loving Jesus.

Oh, I love Jesus.

But really when you stop and think about it,

every time the love of Christ is brought into frame for us little pea brains that we are,

it's always kind of tied in with loving other people.

And other people are what?

Are not as easy to love as we are.

And yet,

Jesus loves me.

And I,

in the glory of that truth,

am affected by that love

and slowly grow to be like Him.

Do you understand that?

Well, I want you to look as you think here

that as this,

going back to Luke chapter 22, if you would,

Luke 22 · chapter mention

as this first celebration of the Lord's table was taking place,

Jesus begins it by saying,

I have desired with desire

to partake of this with you.

And so what I would like us to do

is just take a moment right now

and ask the Holy Spirit

to help us desire the Lord's table

because what it reminds us of.

Can I say that again slowly?

I'm asking that you join me in prayer quietly right now

and that you say to the Holy Spirit,

Holy Spirit, help me this morning desire the Lord's table.

the way Jesus desired it.

Not exactly because I'm human,

but let me do more than just be here as a passive bump

waiting for 1215.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, this morning we are thankful

that we can come in humility

to you

who we know in John

tasked by the Father,

sent by the Son

for the express purpose

of helping us understand

and grow in our affection

and grasp of the holy glory of Christ.

Christ.

And so we ask this morning

that you would help us

to appreciate the beauty

of what Jesus has done for us

that we remember this morning

at this table.

And that as a result of our taking these elements,

the bread and the cup,

that our affection for the Lord Jesus

who is our Savior would grow

and our passion for godliness

would grow

and our hatred for personal sin

would grow.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, we've looked, first of all,

this morning at the passage

and marked what it says

that Jesus there in verse 15,

He says,

I have earnestly desired

to eat this Passover with you.

Now let's look at the second part

where Jesus says,

before I suffer.

Jesus never hid the fact

that He was going to suffer

for our sins.

He understood

from the very beginning

that He was destined

for suffering.

And He often,

at various times,

referred to His cross work

in His ministry

with His disciples.

He wanted them to know

what was in front.

Incidentally,

that is one of the characteristics

of God in His dealings with us.

He lets us know ahead of time

how the story plays out.

Isn't that right?

He tells us of the hardships

and difficulties.

He tells us also

of the future glory

that we are going to have

with Christ

so that in the journey

and in the difficulties we face,

we're not utterly overwhelmed

and surprised.

We knew it

because He told us ahead of time.

I want you to look there

with me at verse 19.

It says there,

He took bread and broke it

and gave to them,

saying,

and later on,

comments,

this is my body

which is given for you.

There are several things

that I want to draw out

from this passage

as we think about it.

For one,

I want you to understand this,

that Jesus did not die accidentally.

It wasn't something

that just kind of happened.

If you're there in Luke,

turn with me just for a moment

over to John chapter 10

John 10 · chapter mention

and verse 17 and 18.

Let me just read it to you

if you're not there.

But in 17,

it says,

For this reason,

the Father loves me

because I lay down my life

that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me,

but I lay it down

of my own accord.

I have authority

to lay it down

and I have authority

to take it up again.

This charge I have received

from my Father.

I kind of chuckle

when I think about

and I just finished reading

the book of John

and over and over again

in each of the Gospels

when it talks about Christ

before Pilate

and before the Sanhedrin,

et cetera.

Remember Pilate says to him,

How come you don't say anything?

I've got the power

to put you to death.

Yeah, right.

No.

Jesus of his own volition

and of his own choosing

decided that it was appropriate

for him to lay down his life

for Tim Knoyer

and for you.

For another thing,

Jesus fully satisfied

the debt for our sin.

Over in John chapter 19,

John 19:30

verse 30,

I want you to look at the passage

just for a moment

and I have to appreciate

the way in which

attention to the Word of God

directs the songs

that we sing.

John chapter 19,

John 19:30

verse 30.

When Jesus had received

the sour wine,

he said,

It is finished.

And he bowed his head

and gave up his spirit.

This morning as we listen

to Stephanie and Caleb

sing,

Te Telestai.

They were referencing

the point that

when Jesus died

for our sins,

what he did was

he fully satisfied

the debt for my sin.

It's really hard for us

to fathom

the infinite offense

that our sin

is against the Holy God,

isn't it?

I mean, hey,

we're pretty comfortable

with our own sin.

You know,

I stop and realize

that an indication

of how serious sin is

is that Jesus

had to die for my sins.

Let me help you understand

the two different choices

that a sinner has.

And there may be

some of you

sitting here this morning

that have never come

to the place

where you have cast

your faith

completely on the

finished work of Christ.

So here are the choices

you have.

You can spend eternity

paying for the infinite

offense of your sin

against an absolutely

holy God.

God.

We finished painting

the lobby several weeks

ago.

Kathy, you saw me,

didn't you,

wiping the paint off?

I mean, here's the deal.

I enjoy painting.

It's something I kind of like.

But some things happen

after you finish

painting something.

Do you know little kids

put scuff marks on walls?

And within a couple days

after that lobby was painted

and I was having

infinite pleasure

and how nice it looked,

there's a couple marks

on the wall

and I'm going around

rub, rub, rub.

And Kathy walks by me.

She says,

what was it called?

Magic eraser or something?

I wasn't getting it

with a paper towel

and spit.

You know,

I was like,

do something better, Tim.

Now listen,

if I was a little tweaked

about kids' black marks

on the,

why do kids put marks

on walls?

I don't know.

I used to be a kid

so let's balance

that one out.

But you know,

here I am kind of

moderately irritated

at marks on walls.

That's nothing compared

to sin.

Against the holiness

of God.

And Jesus satisfied

my debt.

He paid my price.

He took my sins

upon Himself

and bore the full wrath

of God.

Remember I said,

you got two choices.

You can suffer for your sins

for all eternity.

And there are some of you

sitting here today

that consciously,

whether you understand fully

what's going on or not,

every time you say no to Jesus,

you're saying,

hey, I'm taking it.

Bring it on.

I don't care about

what you did for me.

On the other hand,

you can come brokenhearted

to Jesus and say,

I realize I'm a sinner

that stands justly condemned

before a holy God

and I understand

God the Father

willingly sacrificed

His Son for me.

I can't help but think about

the words to that song.

My sin,

oh the bliss

of this glorious thought,

my sin,

can you say it with me,

not in part

but the whole,

is nailed to the cross

and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord,

oh my soul.

Is that true for you

this morning?

My sin,

oh the bliss

of that glorious thought,

my sin not in part

but the whole,

is nailed to the cross

and I bear it no more.

There is now,

therefore,

no condemnation

to them who are in Christ Jesus.

Does it get any better than that?

Huh?

No.

Later when you take the bread,

I want you to think to yourself,

Jesus died for my sins

and He died in my place.

He suffered the full measure

of God's holy judgment

against sin for me

and there is no remaining debt

on my account.

Now look at verse 20.

Verse 20,

it says,

the cup that is poured out for you

is the new covenant in my blood.

I don't know how excited

you get about the new covenant

but I want you to think with me

just for a moment

and we're going to kind of

press things together here

a little bit.

Understand the significance

of the new covenant.

There are really two pieces

that we're going to enjoy

this morning.

The bread that reminds us

that Jesus died for our sins

and the new covenant

that says,

and He made a promise.

Do God's promises

get you excited?

Yesterday as I was

out on our porch

a guy was cycling by

who I've gotten to know

in my neighborhood

and he's cycling by

and he stopped

and looked at me

and says,

hey, Reverend,

pray for me.

I'm going to play

my lottery ticket.

I said,

not in your life.

Why do people expect

a reverend to pray

for their lottery ticket?

Don't ask me again.

But in comparison

to a little bit of cash,

I have the promise of God,

the new covenant.

Let me kind of touch

on three little pieces

of the new covenant

because I am overwhelmed

when I stop and think about

when I take that blood,

it reminds me of promises

God has made for me.

One is this,

the new covenant

promises transformation.

In Jeremiah chapter 31,

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

and we're not going

to look there,

it says,

I will give them

a new heart.

How many of you remember

when it was

that you had a heart

that was darkened

and miserable by sin?

You were absolutely burdened

with the nastiness

of your soul.

Christ Jesus came

into your life

and gave you

complete forgiveness

and he gave you

a new heart.

One of the things

that I love to say

to people

when I'm sharing

the gospel with them

is you don't have

to stay the way you are.

Oh, by the way,

to some of you

who are believers,

I got to tell you,

you don't have to

stay the way you are.

In fact,

everybody follow me

with this.

Are you with me?

Over here.

If you don't see

the evidence

of progressive change

in your life,

you probably ought to

check your birth certificate.

Now, I agree,

you're not moving

probably as fast

as you'd like

or your family

would like either.

But here's the deal.

If a man

is in Christ Jesus,

he's a different person.

He's a new creation.

Old things are passed away

and he's at work.

And I am so very thankful

that at 67,

I'm not the man

I used to be,

but I look forward

to being the man

I someday will be.

Why?

Because the new covenant

tells me,

I will give them

a new heart.

Secondly,

the new covenant

also grants me

complete forgiveness

through Christ's blood.

You know one of the things

it says in the new covenant?

In the book of Jeremiah,

it says,

their sins I will remember

what?

No more.

How many of you

have family members

that bring up

some of the old things

you did

that were incredibly unkind?

I was a scoundrel

and a skunk,

still partially that way

a little bit,

but I have a lot

of people that I grew

up with that just

cannot imagine

that I could be

any different

than I ever was.

And they can't get over

some of those things.

Here's what Jesus says

in the promise

of the new covenant.

It says,

I will remember

your sins against

you no more.

Satan may bring up

your past,

but God doesn't.

In fact,

he made a promise,

ironclad,

bound,

that he will never again

bring those things up.

Finally,

the new covenant promises

a full and unchangeable

relationship.

I love this.

If you ever want

to have fun

in kind of a little

Bible survey,

start in the book

of Genesis

and work your way

to the book

of Revelation

asking,

where all

in the Scriptures

do I find

this concept?

I will be their God

and they will be

my people.

God says that

he will be

in relationship

with me.

Not just kind

of a distant,

yeah,

well,

I know him.

No.

My name is written

on his hand.

The believer

is as precious

to God

as the apple

of the eye,

the eye itself.

And so this morning

as you take

these elements,

our prayer earlier

was this,

is that the Holy Spirit

would stir your heart

to desire

these elements

the way Jesus

desired to take them.

And he took them

thinking about you

I want you

to take them

thinking about him.

Do you follow that?

Have the men come

as we gather

around the table

and I would plead

with you,

listen,

we're going to

take these elements

this morning

to honor the Lord

Jesus Christ

and to remember

his sacrifice

and I pray

that your heart

is overwhelmed

with thanksgiving

and as we,

John are you

playing the instruments?

Okay,

you're playing

quietly,

softly.

Here's what I want

you to do

back up to the

just quiet soft music.

Everybody look at me.

I want Bible verses

from you

as the elements

are passed,

right?

Bible verses.

Now that's a little tricky.

Some of you are going

to have to rely

on using one hand

and somebody else

holding the cup

or you can go

for memory.

But I want Bible verses

just to absolutely

roll out of this

blessed congregation.

God's people said what?

Let's try that again.

And God's people said what?

That's moderately better.

Okay.

We want to pray

and ask God's Spirit

to give us clear consciences

as we come to this table,

don't we?

Let's do that.

Our Father God,

this morning we think

about the Lord Jesus Christ

who you sent

to be the Savior of the world

and our Savior in particular.

And as we take this bread

and we take this cup,

we do show forth

the Lord's death

until He comes.

We remember that He died for us.

We remember the promise

that He made to us.

And our hearts are lifted up.

This morning we understand

Father that to take this bread

and take this cup

in a dishonest,

deceitful way

is dangerous.

And so if there's someone here

that does not know Christ,

Father,

on the basis of Your Word

I would plead with them

to trust in Christ as Savior

and then take the elements

or to let the elements pass.

and let us as believers

who take these elements

take them with a clear conscience,

allowing the Spirit of God

to challenge us

to think carefully

if there are things in our lives

that we need to confess

and to forsake.

And let that confessing

and that forsaking

be something that is genuine

and deep

that we would be a people

that are marked by holiness

and the desire

for the glory of Christ.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.