The Meaning Of Communion

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I want to take a moment just to acknowledge something that we just sang about.

We said the Lord is in this place.

Do you believe that today?

Because if the Lord is not in this place, anything we're going to do this morning has no significance, it has no meaning unless God shows up.

So why he sent his Holy Spirit to be in us so that when we gather, something more happens than just singing songs and hearing words spoken.

God does something that only he can do because he's in this place.

So we're going to pray here in a moment, but before we do, I just want to ask you, just what we just sang.

Ask God to come.

Ask God to, through the power of his Holy Spirit, open your eyes to all that he has for us today.

Let's just ask him to do that for a moment right now.

Father, we're here to meet with you because you have promised to meet with us, Lord.

You said a long time ago, I will be your God, and you will be my people.

We are lost without you, Lord.

So Lord, I pray for those that are here today that feel far off from the kingdom, that they would know that there is the promise and power of a gospel, good news that brings them near.

So Lord, draw us near today so that we can meet with you.

Lord, we confess that we have given our attention to a lot of different things this week.

There's been a lot that we're supposed to be outraged about.

There's a lot that the culture tells us is a big deal.

And yet, Lord, there is no bigger deal, no more honor and glory that we could give than to come today and remember what happened at the cross, to remember what was accomplished, to buy our salvation, and not just for us only, but to be a part of what you're doing in the world, in the universe, Lord, of drawing all this to yourself.

So, Lord, help us today.

We confess that many of us, we have been lukewarm in our faith.

We go back and forth between loving the things of this world and the things of God.

Lord, we're here today to make much of the things of God.

So help us to do that now.

We pray this in Jesus' awesome name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Thank you for your presence today.

My name is Clyde Copeland.

I'm the worship pastor, and uh we are going to take a look at God's Word.

So I want to invite you to take your Bibles and open up to the Gospel of Matthew.

The Gospel of Matthew is in the New Testament.

It's the first book that you get to.

So open up your Bibles to Matthew 26.

We're going to be starting in verse 26 through verse 29.

The final week of Jesus' life is the most important week in the life of the most important man who ever lived.

It's the most important week in the most important life of the man who ever lived.

What I mean when I say that is a lot of things happen during that week that we make a big deal about every year.

We call it Holy Week.

If you've been in our church for a long time, you're familiar with it.

We celebrate Palm Sunday, then we celebrate Maundy Thursday, then we celebrate Good Friday, and then it all ends with Easter.

It's a full week because so much happens during that week.

One of those things that we're going to look at today is Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples.

Now let me pause right here.

Again, if you're new, you're probably looking around the room going, why are there tables and there's uh little cups on top of them?

We're gonna get to that in a moment when we celebrate communion together.

Uh but before we do that, let's take a look at God's word.

So starting in chapter 26 of Matthew, verse 26.

Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

And he took a cup, 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.

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Today we're looking at the meaning of communion.

There are three things that show us the meaning of communion that come out of this text.

The first is this communion shows us that the Passover is finished.

Communion shows us that our Passover is finished.

What is the Passover?

God's people, long time ago, were slaves in Egypt.

God punishes Egypt for enslaving his people and says, Let my people go.

Told them nine times, they didn't listen.

God says, before the tenth and final time, before he's gonna kill all the firstborn, he says something to Israel.

He said, I am going to pass over you and punish Egypt.

Here's what that's gonna look like.

I want you to slaughter a lamb.

I want you to take its blood, paint it over your doorpost.

When I see that blood, I'm going to pass over you.

I'm gonna pour my wrath out on sinful people.

And yet, Jesus, hundreds of years later, doing that same thing that Israel has celebrated all this time, he takes it and he changes it.

And here's what Jesus says, starting in verse 26.

Take eat, this is my body.

See, they they celebrated the Passover, they had the lamb, they also had bread that was supposed to be unleavened, they had wine.

But Jesus says all these things and then gets to this part take this bread, this is my body.

Now, I I picture Scooby-Doo when he goes, like John probably looks over to Andrew and says, did he just say my body?

My my blood?

Yes, he did.

Why?

Jesus is changing the meaning of the Passover.

He says, My body, my blood.

And this new meaning would have been shocking.

And this is what we need to understand first this morning when I say that the Passover is finished.

We don't have to have another Passover.

What we're celebrating today is what was accomplished, not in Egypt, but at the cross.

Hebrews it says this, Hebrews 10, verse 1, for since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:1

You see, Passover was just a shadow.

It's moved to reveal the light that created the shadow, and that's our perfect sacrifice.

Now, what does this mean for us today?

Jesus says, My body, my blood.

Your body and your blood would not have been enough.

And believe me, we are tempted to think in such a way that there are things we could do, things that we could say that would be a good enough sacrifice for God to love us, for God to accept us.

And that's not true.

Because we have our sin has it offended an infinite God, a perfect God, and it demands an infinite and perfect payment.

Only Jesus' blood could do that.

And you see, this is the beauty of this.

As I said, Passover was God pouring out his wrath upon sinful people that had enslaved his people Israel.

Communion today is the reminder that God has poured out his wrath, not on sinful people, on sin itself.

We don't have to be slaves to sin anymore.

God has poured out his wrath on sin itself to free us from slavery to sin and to give us a relationship with Him.

So all of our attempts to do that, they have no merit.

Before the cross, all our attempts are laid to waste because grace has been given to us through the cross.

The second thing I want us to see is this communion shows us that forgiveness is possible, necessary, and accomplished.

Forgiveness is possible, necessary, and accomplished.

Look with me again, verse 27.

It says this.

And he took a cup, 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.

Now, covenant's one of those words we see a lot in the Bible, and it means different things at different times because God relates to his people in the Old Testament through covenants.

One of the covenants that we see is the Mosaic covenant.

Exodus 24, uh Moses seals that covenant with blood.

And Jesus is referring to that here, but he's also referring to another covenant that comes up in Jeremiah.

It's a new covenant.

This is what it says in Jeremiah 31.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt.

My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them.

I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Forgiveness is possible because God kept this covenant.

God makes promises and he keeps promises.

And that's what today reminds us of when Jesus says, This is my blood of the covenant.

Now, the second thing I said in that part was communion shows us that forgiveness is possible, and then I said, necessary.

What do I mean by that?

Forgiveness is necessary because of our sin.

Sin depends on there being a right and a wrong.

God decides what sin is.

Sin is a reality, and the world is confused about this reality.

The world is confused about right and wrong.

I saw an article yesterday.

The American Medical Association has recommended that hospitals no longer put a sex on a birth certificate of male or female.

Because our world is confused about right and wrong.

They're confused about basic realities, about how God has created us.

That reminded me of this quote from Pastor Alan Jones.

He says this we live in an age where everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven.

Think about that.

We live in an age where everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven.

There's no standard of right and wrong.

And if there's no standard of right and wrong, on what basis can I forgive you?

On what basis can you forgive me if I decide what's right and wrong, if you decide what's right and wrong?

The church can't be confused about this.

The church can't be confused about what is good and what is evil.

The Bible talks about this.

It says people will call good evil and they will call evil good.

Our sin offends a good God.

So that's what I mean when we say sin is necessary.

And the third thing is this it's accomplished.

Sin has been forgiven.

It's been accomplished.

Isaiah 53, 11 says this, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my suffering servant, like many, make many to be counted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Jesus took our sin.

God doesn't see it anymore.

It's washed away because Jesus' blood has been poured out on us.

The Westminster Confession puts it this way There is no sin so small that it does not deserve damnation.

But if you have truly repented, there is no sin so great that you cannot earn salvation.

I shouldn't say earn, excuse me, so that you cannot have salvation.

There is no sin so small that it will not damn you.

But there is no sin so great that God will not save you.

That's the good news of today when we celebrate communion, that forgiveness is necessary, but it's been accomplished.

Third thing, communion shows us that something better is coming.

Verse 29.

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

Jesus says this to his disciples to help them look forward to something, to help them long to something.

What is that something?

What is that day?

It's in Revelation 19, verse 9.

Revelation 19:9

It says this Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

This is the feast that we are all created to look forward to.

When God wipes away the old heavens and the old earth, and he brings in the new heavens and the new earth.

This kingdom that we live in now, it's gonna be gone.

It's gonna pass away.

The things that we care about that are most important, that seem to take all our time and our attention, it's gonna be gone.

And we are gonna be in the full presence of God.

And Jesus says, He says this, in my Father's kingdom.

Jesus makes a big deal about the kingdom of heaven versus the kingdom of earth.

We should look and long for the kingdom of heaven.

How do we do that?

We do that by making much of the things of God and making little of the things of earth.

I was reminded of this this week because my daughters refuse to go to bed without their favorite toy.

My uh youngest Nora May does this right now.

My second daughter, Mabel Grace, she did it when she was younger.

And my oldest EVK did it.

All of them did it.

It got to the point with Mabel Grace, her favorite toy, it was the silliest toy.

It was a it was a little dog and it was a mermaid.

So we called it Murdog.

We're very creative with names.

I would look for two hours for this dog that's a mermaid, and could not find it, and she would not go to sleep.

She wasn't having it.

Now you give her that thing, poof, she's out.

She was so stubborn.

She had to have that murdog.

You got to the point, I just kept a bunch of extras in the closet because I'm like, I'm done looking for this thing.

But that's how we're supposed to be with the kingdom of God.

We're supposed to not settle for anything else, except nothing other than the kingdom of God.

We want to be hungry for the kingdom of God.

See, what we experience now, today, this is just a taste of what God's kingdom's really going to be like.

When we experience communion, we remind ourselves there's a better and greater feast that's waiting for us.

See, what we do today is two things.

We we we look back to what happened.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, when you do this, you proclaim his death until his coming.

But the second thing we do is we look forward to this greater feast that waits for us.

I'm a big fan of Pixar movies.

Uh one of my favorite is Ratatouille.

I don't know if you've ever seen Ratatouille, okay?

Uh it's it's the food one.

So uh very appropriate.

There's a great, great scene in this movie where there's this restaurant, they've kind of fallen on hard times, they're trying to get back, you know, to being a great restaurant, and they've got to please this critic.

Anton Ego is his name, and he comes and he is ready to review the food.

He's ready to destroy the reputation of this restaurant, and they bring out the dish, which appropriately enough is ratatouille, uh, which is just vegetables.

I'm like, really?

Vegetables?

That's what everybody's thinking.

And it's a great scene because what happens is he takes his first bite, and then you have this poof flashback, and it goes to a little boy, and he's just wrecked his bike, uh, he scraped his knees up, his mom brings him in the house, sits him down at the table, and he he he she brings out a bowl of ratatouille.

He starts eating it, and oh, it makes it everything better.

That's what this is like.

It takes you back to another time, it takes you back to your true home where you've come from to remind you of something so good that nothing else can compete with it.

When we look back today, we proclaim his death.

We look forward, we're looking forward to a feast that we were really created for, our true home.

That's what today is a taste of.

I'll be and I'll be honest, this ain't the best juice.

This is not the best bread.

Okay?

I bought it, so I'm I'm just saying, I know that.

And and and that's not to make, you know, here's here's the beauty of this, though.

We could have the best artisan-made sourdough bread in here and have, you know, a great Bordeaux wine from France.

It would not matter.

It would not compete to the feast that waits for you and me.

And that's the point.

Today is just a taste, today's the appetizer to the meal.

So, what does all this mean for us today?

Communion is our opportunity to look back at what was finished, to enjoy what is accomplished, and to long for what waits for us.

First Corinthians 11 28 says this let a person examine himself to be sure he is approaching the table in a worthy manner.

So, what we're gonna do today is take some time to do that.

I'm gonna ask Lindsay and Wes.

They're gonna come back up, just gonna play softly.

He may sing something, but we're gonna take a moment to just examine ourselves.

And as we do that, I want you to think about two questions.

One, have I forgiven others with the forgiveness that I have received?

Have I forgiven others with the forgiveness that I have received?

And the second thing is this am I more concerned with the kingdom of earth?

Or do I long for that day in the kingdom of heaven?

Am I hungry and thirsty for the for the temporary things of this earth?

Or do I long for the eternal things of heaven?

Let's think about that together.

Just take up take some time to examine ourselves.

We're here to long for our home.

Yes, we need strength, we need understanding, we need the power of your Holy Spirit to help us live this life now.

But we live this life thinking about the life that's to come, Lord.

Help us to do that today.

And to pray all this in Jesus' name.

And God's people said, Amen.

Matthew 26, there's one verse after where we left off today, and it says this.

They they sing a hymn and then they departed to the garden.

That's how I'd like us to include our time today as our closing blessing.

So, as is our custom, hold your hands out like this.

I want to invite you to sing with me.

This will be our blessing today.

Thank you, my father, for giving us your son, and leaving your spirit till the work honor is done.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.