The Meaning of the Lord's Supper: Substitution, Redemption, and Hope

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Let's pray together.

And uh Ross is just going to play for a second.

I want you to do something that uh uh that we don't do a lot in church, and that's just I want you to I want to guide your thoughts to a certain thing.

When we sang and we said the word Savior, you can move a mountain, you can move the mountain.

I want you to think about the biggest obstacle in your life right now.

It may be a person, it may be a problem.

Uh the person may be you.

Uh but before I pray uh and we continue in our service, it's not enough just to say to God, I believe you can move mountains.

Every once in a while, you have to ask him to move those mountains.

And so just if you would, just bow your head and just just spend just a second or two, just maybe a minute, just asking God, you know, here's this big thing in my life, and I need you to act on that with what only God can act on that with.

Because that's a demonstrated fact.

The cross tells us that.

We will orient our lives today around communion, and this service will be centered around that.

But not only is he savior, he's the God that moves the mountains.

Jesus said if you had this kind of faith, you could say the mountain be cast into the sea, and it would.

So it's not a line or a lyric that a songwriter came up with.

It's a promise that God made.

Maybe you prayed about something for a long time and you just quit.

After a while, you just thought, what's the use?

I'm just painting the ceiling with my words.

Maybe you could just go back to that and say, God, I'm not done praying this.

I prayed it so long, I'm not even sure I mean it anymore, but you invite us.

Isaiah 62, God says, I invite you to give me no rest until I watch over Jerusalem and I establish it as the peace of the nations.

The same God extends the same invitation to you and I.

He says, Give me no rest.

Be like the persistent friend that comes at midnight and just keeps knocking until they get up and give them some bread.

He doesn't answer your prayers because you're well-mannered and well-spoken.

He answers your prayers because you keep asking and keep knocking and keep seeking.

And so, great God of heaven, Savior, who can move the mountains, we come to you today just to say, whatever our mountain is, whatever the obstacle in our life this morning is, we want to just hold it up to you and say, Would you do something about this?

Would you act upon this so that we could be convinced that you really are who the Bible says you are?

For some of us, it's been a long time since we've seen a demonstration of your power.

We're not asking you to convince us with that, just remind us, God.

And so, Holy Spirit, some people in this church have been praying for babies for a long time.

They pray, God, you just open up their the womb and make it fertile.

Some have been asking for a job for a long time, God.

Even this week, would you just pour divine favor down on them?

We're never in such a hurry in the worship of this church that we can't just stop and just call out to you and say, God, we thank you that you're Savior.

And because we believe that, we also believe you can move mountains.

And so, God, whatever people have been thinking about today, would you that even this week, even today, move those things out of the way so we could see clearly a fuller, bigger picture of what you have for us.

The cross reminds us of all of this, and for that we're grateful.

And so we pray and we listen now in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I'd invite you to take it and open up the 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

And if you're our guest today, let me say thanks for coming out and checking out a new church, especially on Super Bowl Sunday.

Uh, if you look around, you kind of see the room set up a little bit different because uh we're observing communion today, and for us, communion is not just uh a part of the service.

I remember as a little kid I would go to church, and it was always on a Sunday night.

Remember when you had church on Sunday nights?

Who wants to go back to that?

No, I'm just kidding.

You'll be here by yourself tonight.

Anyway, uh but it was always kind of a tacked on thing at the end of the service, kind of hurriedly, and but we don't do that here not because we just want to be different, but because we want to orient our lives around what happened there.

And so Paul gives us some instruction on how we should observe this ordinance of the church that's referred to as the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper or communion.

Uh 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, he writes these words.

1 Corinthians 11:23

He says, For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you.

But the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And he said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

And in the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Just want to stop right there.

And just uh Paul makes, he uses probably one of the most unpopular words in the English vocabulary today, and it's judgment.

People say all the time, You can't judge me.

And God, there's a difference in God judging when he says to believers, he says, you know, if we judge ourselves truly, verse 31, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, that we may not be condemned along with the world.

When you hear judgment in relation to God and his people, it's about discipline.

It's about you loving your kids enough not to let them run out in the street and just kind of like this past week, my youngest, our eight-year-old and I were coming out of a uh out of a store and we're walking between parked cars, and she took off running between the parked cars, and the street was right there.

And I just yelled out and reached out and grabbed the back of her shirt, and it startled her, and she started crying.

Uh but when she got to the end of the car and I grabbed her, a truck came speeding by.

And I said, Babe, you you can never run out between cars because she's looking and seeing my truck down in the distance in the parking lot, and she's just running across the street.

But in that split second, I have to make a choice.

I'm I'm loving my daughter enough to say, I can't let you do this.

This is not right.

And so if you're here today, in just a minute, we'll spend some time just examining, reflecting on our own lives and how they're lived, and not to give ourselves a grade, but to come not haphazardly to the to the cup and to the table, but to examine ourselves and kind of orient our lives back around.

Oh my gosh.

It's one of the reasons that Paul says, and Jesus himself said, when he gave the commandment and this ordinance to his followers, he said, do this in remembrance of me.

As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

And so I want to just give you a couple things to think about as you remember, just for a minute.

And the first thing is simply this is that it was in your place and in my place that Christ died.

The big theological phrase is they talk about substitutionary atonement and penal substitution and sacrifice.

And basically it's just that he took what you and I deserved.

And not only did he take what you and I deserved, he died in our place, but something happened because of this transaction that took place.

The Bible describes it like this.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, uh, he made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in him we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

If you're in this room today and you're a Christian, you have a relationship with Christ, you're not just a sinner saved by grace.

You're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

See, that's part of that transaction.

He took your sin, but he gave you his righteousness.

And so when you think today and you remember this morning and you think, in my place.

So whenever you look at the cross, you need to be reminded that Christ took what you deserved.

Second thing I want you to remember is that a price was paid.

You and I could never pay it in a thousand years.

And if you're a parent, you understand this.

Because anytime your kids are in the hospital, here's the thought that you have.

I would gladly trade places with them.

It's just a parental instinct.

And you try to explain that to your kids and they don't get it.

And you you try to, and you're it's just frustrating because if you're trying to like, you know, you don't understand.

When our kids are babies, they get sick, I'd get mad.

And my wife's like, why are you mad?

I don't know.

I don't want my kids to be sick.

Because here's what happens when your kids get sick.

You are bumping up against the limits of your capacity.

Your kids are experiencing something that you cannot do anything about.

You know what I'm talking about.

Take that thought and multiply it infinitely.

And when God looks down on humanity, he sees sin.

You and I are experiencing something that we couldn't do anything about.

But he could.

And so he paid the price.

Last thing I want to guide you and kind of point you towards this morning by way of just thinking about and remembering is that not only was your past secured, but your future was secured.

Think about just for a minute.

We always talk about your past.

When we say your past was, he stood in your place and he paid your price, but he also redeemed your past.

That everything you've ever done, it doesn't have power over you anymore.

It just, every once in a while you'll be driving down the road and you'll think of something.

I was talking to somebody this morning and he mentioned Dime Box.

And I know where Dime Box, Texas, is that's a little dance hall there.

They had the Dime Box Dance, and I was kind of like, yeah, I probably don't want to think about Dime Box too much.

And you just you drive by certain places and you're like, oh yeah.

I go back to my hometown and I see the water tower and I think I climb that thing and drink beer on top of that.

Uh and not to be boastful, I don't say that in front of my kids because my kids are usually with me, and I just look at that kind of going.

I mean, I don't inclined to the side, I've been climbed up on the very top where the red light is.

Hug the red light.

Because I was an idiot, that's why.

I would never say that to my kids.

Hey, see that red light up there?

Here that.

But yeah.

And then one of my buddies pulled out a buck knife because we were in East Texas, we had everybody had buck knives, whipped it out, and we scratched our initials on the top of it.

So some painter, years later, because they repainted it, I'm sure he was kind of going, who Neil was here?

What an idiot.

Who climbed up here?

And so all of us have memories that bring us less than some of them are funny, but some of them are shameful.

And the Bible says, as far as the east is from the west, that's how far God has removed your sins from us.

He says in the in in the Old Testament, in one of the minor prophets, says that he has taken your sin and throw it into the sea and he's remembered it no more.

You see, that's what he's done with you.

He's redeemed your past, but also think about this: he has secured your future.

We don't talk about that much when it comes to communion, but you need to think about it, and I just want to read what I mean because if you look, you don't have to turn there.

Uh just listen.

This is from Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

I was thinking about communion today, uh, and I thought about this.

This is a picture of what John sees taking place in heaven.

He says, then I saw in the right hand hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals, and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, is conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.

And between the throne the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns, with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a golden, each holding a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people, nation, background, orientation, affiliation, and you have made them a kingdom and a priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

You see, when heaven looked around and there was no one found worthy, one of the elders looked at John and said, Weep no more.

For the lamb that was slain is worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.

And as you crack these seven seals, you read the rest of Revelation, you see it unfold in what is to come.

See, he's redeemed your past, but he's also secured your future.

Why?

Because he's worthy.

Because his obedience to his father on the cross.

Jesus said, No one takes my life from me, I lay it down for my sheep.

You are a died-for people today.

And so if this is your first time you've been in church and your wife said you can get a new big screen TV to watch the Super Bowl, and if you go on Sunday and you're like, great, let me just say this to you, okay?

There's nothing that you've done that God can't forgive.

And just a minute, uh, we'll spend some time kind of reflecting on what we've just talked about briefly, and then uh we'll enter into a time because the response to the worthiness of God, to the sacrifice of Christ is worship.

And so Ross and the band will come back and we serve communion against the backdrop of worship.

And so after a time of reflection and self-examination, uh, I'll say to people that are helping, hey, would you move to your stations?

And then while we're worshiping, while we're just extolling and remembering, oh yes, there was somebody that was worthy, thank you, God, uh, will come.

It's an individual, it's families with your friends.

Uh, there's three stations here in the front, and there's two in the back.

And just while you're worshiping, when you get ready, you can just get up and come to one of these stations.

And if you got something going on, you want us to pray with you, just say to the people at your station, hey, would you pray with me?

And they'll say, How can I pray?

We'd love to pray with you.

We'd love to just kind of lift up and help you bear your burden today.

Or you may just want to come and receive the elements and go back to your seat.

That's fine as well.

Okay?

Uh we practice open communion here at Grand Parkway, which means if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you're welcome to come and receive the elements today.

You don't have to be a member of this church.

You may be thinking, I'm just visiting.

That's fine.

If you're a Christian, you're part of the body of Christ, and you're welcome to receive communion today.

But before we do that, let's do what the Bible says.

Paul says, hey, examine yourself so you don't receive the elements in an unworthy manner.

And so if you would, just bow your head.

And uh I want you just to spend some time reflecting and thinking.

And Paul instructs us, he says, let a person examine himself.

So eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For if anyone eats and drinks without destroying the body, eats and drinks judgment of yourself.

It's not about judgment, it's about discipline.

Because if you persist in sin, you will destroy yourself.

So Holy Spirit, we just want to be still and spend some time reflecting and examining ourselves, our body, what we do with our body.

Because the Bible tells us very practical things like, don't you know you're not your own, you've been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God with your body.

The Bible also says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God, because this is your spiritual act of worship.

And so, because we don't want to just worship with our lips, but with our lives and with our bodies, we offer our bodies up to you and say, God, search me.

Examine my life.

Because you're my father and you love me, you're gonna tell me the truth.

If there's anything in me I need to repent of, I want to do that before I come to the table and receive the cup and the bread and remember the body and the blood of Jesus, the new covenant was poured out in his name.

So let's take a moment just to examine ourselves.

The difference in self-examination and self-hatred is that there's always hope when you examine yourself like scripture talks about.

Repent and remind yourself this is this is what Christ died for.

I don't have to keep this in secret.

Just take a moment longer.

Just again, self-examination, not self-hatred.

It is not the will of God that you walk out of here today and go, man, you stink.

It is the will of God that you walk out of here today and go, you know what, I am deeply loved by God.

I am by nature so screwed up that I would get liquored up in my adolescent stupidity and climb a water tower.

And merciful God kept me from destroying myself.

But I'm so screwed up that Jesus had to die for me.

But I'm also so loved by God that He was glad willingly and glad to die for me.

Let that end today as well.

Let me voice a prayer and then we'll remember together.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the body that was offered up on our behalf in our place, that you took what we rightfully deserved and gave to us what we never could deserve.

That's the transaction of the cross is that you took our sin and gave us your righteousness.

And so the only answer to my unrighteousness is God's righteousness.

It is sufficient.

It qualifies me for what the Bible says is mine and who the Bible says I am.

And that you paid a price that we could never pay.

And so instead of just marinating in our unworthiness today, we're gonna bask God in your sufficiency.

He didn't put his own layaway, you paid in full.

That's why the Bible says that we're not our own.

We've been bought with a price.

And finally, God, you secured, you redeemed our past and you secured our future.

You redeemed all the goofy things we ever did.

And you've also made provision for all the incredible things we're going to do in the future.

We get to be a part of.

Because there was no one found worthy except you, the Lamb that was slain.

And so we come today to the table to remember your body and your blood that was offered up and poured out, and to celebrate the new covenant that is ours because of your sacrifice on the cross.

We do this now in remembrance of you.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, all God's people said, Amen.

Same trip where she almost ran out between the cars.

We walked in Target and walking out.

And this mother was yelling at her son, and he was ducking and getting away from her.

And I could see Sophie kind of darting her eyes over there, like, hmm.

And I could tell her little wheels were turning.

We got in the truck, and I said, Hey, Sophie, did you see the way that boy was ducking to get away from his mom?

And she's like, Yeah.

And I said, It's because he's afraid of her, because she's probably hit him before.

Because he was getting out of her out of her arm's reach.

And I said, I want you to know that you never have to be afraid of your mom and dad.

When we talk to you, we're never mad at you.

We may be frustrated with something you've done, but you don't need just you don't have to fear your mom and dad.

You have to respect us.

And from the backseat of my truck, she reached up and put her hand on my shoulder and she goes, I'm not afraid.

And at that point, I started biting my lip because I'm like, I don't want to just go into the ugly cry right here.

But I tell you that to remind you that you don't have to be afraid of him.

You may be new to this whole Christianity thing.

You may just be checking it out.

He's not coming to hit you.

He's not the dad that gets angry and talks through his teeth to you.

I'll tell you what.

This is not the posture of a believer.

This is the posture of a believer.

You are a wanted people.

And so let's just take a moment and just kind of just ask the Lord just to wash fear off of you.

The Bible tells us he's not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father.

And so just take a moment and just seal up in your heart.

A lot will go on today.

It won't be a very still day.

It'll be loud.

A lot of stuff, a lot of food, a lot of drink.

Glory to God.

Thankful for all that.

But for right now, just gather up what he said and get ready to take it with you.

It's just big one, one big long commercial, and the game doesn't even start.

Right now there are people glued to their TVs, and they know every little fact about Tom Brady, what he had for breakfast.

But at some point in the pregame hype, they'll run out of things to say.

And the game will have to kick off and begin.

And life sometimes feels like pregame hype.

Everybody's trying to, every time we turn on our TV guy, there's a new reality show, and they're trying to define reality for us.

But we know deep inside, not just in our head, but in our hearts, that reality awaits us.

And so we're able to be in this world and be free, liberated, authentic, winsome people because of what you made possible, what you accomplished on the cross.

And the Bible says, but now the righteousness of God has been made available, apart from the law, to all those who have faith in Jesus.

And so, Lord, if there's anyone here today that doesn't have faith in Jesus, maybe even now they could just say, you know what?

I want my faith to be in Jesus.

I don't want it to be in myself.

So, Holy Spirit, thank you for the privilege of coming around the table and being reminded and remembering the body and the blood.

Thank you that it's not self-hatred, it is self-examination because in it there's hope.

And the gospel is the gospel of hope.

That's what makes it good news.

We're grateful for that now.

Seal up in our hearts all that you've said to us so that we can live in light of it this week.

Stand to your feet.

Now, when I said stand to your feet, some of you, your day just began.

You realize that, don't you?

Some of you men just looked at your wife and said, like a calf, like calf rope.

Done.

Isn't God good?

Some of you, Tim Ramsay, gonna be down here like he's shot out of a gun in about two minutes.

He's over there, he's got his wife, it's like they're gonna go down to this chick children's hallway right here and just give us a kid, any kid, we're out of here.

And you ain't gonna feel guilty about that.

Who do you think created the technology to make TV?

That didn't come from Marconi or whatever the guy's name was.

God's a giver of all good gifts.

Hold your hands up and speak a blessing over you.

Your gift giving God has given you every good thing you've ever tasted, and every good thing you've ever looked at, or sat on, or lived in, or drove.

Don't you ever forget that?

You see, because of that, you can glorify Him in whatever situation you find yourself, whether that be sleeping today on your bed that He provided or watching the TV He invented.

Be reminded that your God is good and that He's God, and you're His people, the sheep of His pasture, cared for, provided, and led.

Depart now and live as led people.

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

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.