"A New Passover" - Mark 14:12-26

Could you please stand if you're able as we read the passage that Brian is going to be preaching from today?

Today it's Mark chapter 14, verses 12 through 26.

Mark 14:12–26

This is the word of God.

Mark 14, verses 12 through 26.

Mark 14:12–26

On the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, Where do you want us to go?

And prepare for you to eat the Passover.

And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and a man you will meet will be carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him.

And wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, The teacher says, Where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.

Prepare for us there.

The disciples went out and came to the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening he came with the twelve.

As they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, Truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.

And they began to be grieved, and said to him one by one, Surely not I.

And he said to them, It is one of the twelve who dips with me in the bowl.

For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of him.

But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

While they were eating, he took some bread, and after blessing it he broke it and gave it to them and said, Take it, this is my body.

When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he had given it to them, and they all drank from it.

And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.

Truly I see to you, I will never drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

This is the word of God.

You may be seated.

Brian, please come.

Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the privilege of being here this morning.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, joined together for worship.

We ask you to lead and guide us as the word is proclaimed, that we would seek to apply these truths to our lives, and that we would be those doers in that way, Father, that you would lead us by your Spirit.

I ask you to guard my heart and my mouth, that I would only speak that which is true according to your will, and that all of us would receive it gladly, and that again we would be changed all the more into the image of Christ by the power of your Spirit through your word.

So lead and guide us in this way, we pray in Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, as you know, on Sunday mornings all over the world, churches just like this one are gathering to do the same thing that they've done for 2,000-ish years.

They're gathering as the ecclesia, or what that means is church, the assembly of God's people for worship.

From the preaching of the word to the reading of the word to the praying of the word to the singing of the word, even the fellowship that comes from being word-centered.

Those are some of the things that are the things that the scriptures call us to do.

Those are the things that we say that scriptures regulate for us.

But there's also two very important things that Jesus gives to his church as ordinances that we must not neglect that are not always on that list, it seems, of regulated things we do in worship.

One is baptism, baptism by immersion in the Lord as people become saved.

And the other is our focus for today.

And that's been called the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, also known as communion.

This table is taught in the scriptures, commanded as an ordinance in numerous places, and our Lord Himself commands us to come together to do this.

It's really a vital piece of the church and what we do.

But I think sometimes we don't really know exactly how to answer the question, why do we do this?

Why?

Can we as Christians answer why it's so important, why it's so stressed in the church?

Or maybe even the question, can we answer, where should my thoughts go when I come to the table?

Is it really that significant?

Is it really that important?

What if sometimes it does just feel like I'm going through the motions?

Well, to answer those questions, attempt to answer those questions, and to hopefully help us in this, I just want to start by saying it is a command of Scripture.

We see in 1 Corinthians 11 and in the Gospels, Jesus is commanding us to do it.

And so the question is why?

Well, today I hope that we can see together the absolute importance, the significance of this blessed part of what the church is to be doing, of who we are.

And we'll see that as we continue our journey through the book of Mark.

To do that, I'm going to give us three points to look at, three points that will hopefully help us to break it down so we can come away with a better understanding of this important observance.

For some of you, this may be all new.

For others, it may just kind of fill in some gaps.

And for others, it may simply just be a review.

But no matter what, I am trusting that God will use his word to grow us and strengthen us as we think of the magnitude of what we're going to be speaking of as we partake of the table here in a little bit.

But that being said, here's the three points.

The first thing I want to look at is the scene of the Last Supper.

That's your first point.

The scene of the Last Supper.

What's going on in Jerusalem at this time in the hearts of the disciples?

The second is a reminder of what's coming in the reminder of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

So we're going to go over that.

And then lastly, we'll look at the importance of the supper in our lives, in the life of the church.

So let's look at this first piece.

I think this will help set the stage, if you will, the scene of the Last Supper.

Look at verse 12 with me again.

Verse 12 tells us it's time for the Passover.

There's a unique and a specific time.

It was the first day of unleavened bread.

It's basically synonymous with saying it's Passover.

And this means that the Passover lamb was going to be sacrificed.

And so what this tells us is that this is Thursday, 14th of the month of Nisan on the Jewish calendar.

Every faithful Jew, or mostly every faithful Jew, would have known this and would have begun their preparations for the Passover meal, including Jesus' disciples.

That's why we have this description.

And as we've been studying here in Mark, this is a reminder, I said Thursday, because this is the last earthly week of Jesus' life and ministry before the cross and, of course, the resurrection.

And so what we find is over the course of the last quite a few studies we've had is that we're really, Mark is intentionally slowing us down.

He wants to slow us down in this gospel narrative to ensure that we are all today, even back then and all the way to today, that we are captivated.

That we're captivated by the immense weight of this momentous occasion in history.

And so we find ourselves here in chapter 14 in Thursday morning.

On Thursday morning.

If you remember last week we looked at what transpired on Wednesday of that week, and today we move into the day just before the cross.

And here in verse 12 we read that Jesus' disciples say, Hey, where are we going to go?

How are we going to prepare?

How are we going to partake of the Passover feast, the Passover meal?

Now you've got to remember that they're in town for this.

They didn't have a church building to meet in.

They didn't have that school to rent out.

None of the apostles live there, so they were like the rest of the travelers who come to the city.

They're looking for a place to stay, a place to partake of the meal.

And it's even more difficult for them because there's quite a few of them.

But Jesus has a plan, doesn't he?

Always has a plan.

Also, what we have to remember in this is that this feast took a while to prepare for.

It consisted of roasted lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, other things, wine.

And they all had a purpose and they all had meaning.

I mean, the purpose of the slain lamb was to remind the Jews of the blood that was put on the doorpost back in Egypt so that their firstborn could be saved from the angel of death.

The unleavened bread was to remind them of the quickness of their departure that they had to get into the wilderness on that exodus in Egypt or out of Egypt.

The bitter herbs were a reminder of all the years they had suffered at the hands of the Egyptians, namely Pharaoh.

The disciples knew that this celebration and remembrance is coming, and they're a little concerned.

Jesus, how are we going to prepare for this?

It was to be celebrated in Jerusalem.

All Jews were commanded to come and do this.

So they say, How are we going to make this happen?

Where are we going to celebrate?

And Jesus is prepared.

It says that Jesus sends two disciples.

Luke tells us those disciples' names, Peter and John.

And they're to go into the city.

And they're told that a man is going to meet them, who is, or you will find a man carrying a pitcher of water, and you are to follow him.

Now that sounds, you know, in a city that's blown up in size population, wise, that sounds a little odd.

A man carrying a pitcher of water, there's got to be more than one, right?

No.

Probably not.

It would have been easy to spot because normally it wasn't men who carried water.

It was women.

That was a woman's chore, a woman's task.

And so for whatever reason, this guy's doing that.

And so he tells him, Jesus tells him, follow him to wherever he goes, whatever house he enters, enter the house with him, and at that moment tell him that your master has need of it.

The Lord needs his guest room and his disciples need to be there to eat the Passover meal.

This kind of reminds me of the just earlier in the week, essentially, where Jesus had sent out two ahead of him before the triumphal entry.

Sent two of his disciples to go and claim that colt, that donkey, for him to ride on.

I just love that too, by the way.

Isn't that so neat to just read that in the scriptures?

It's just a foregone conclusion.

Jesus' infallible omniscience, just all over the pages of Scripture.

His perfect knowledge and eternal decree come to pass as we read this text, and sometimes we just breeze by it.

And he already knows what's not even in his presence physically.

He knows what's going on, what's going to happen, he's ordained it.

And so from this interaction, what we get is that large upper room that you've heard of where Jesus and his disciples eat the Passover meal.

And I'm sure you've even probably seen paintings, weird paintings, where Jesus looks like a Norwegian or something strange.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, you know, maybe he's got a Viking hat.

I don't know.

Let's not do that, okay?

But most importantly, during this time in the large upper room, we get this first communion, this Lord's Supper that sets the stage for us as Christians to partake in down to today.

This command.

And we do this as commanded as a remembrance, a celebration, if you will, of our salvation.

A time to mourn for our sin.

A time to be realigned with his will through repentance.

And of course, the knowledge of the presence of the Lord in this time.

And so what we find is that it took his disciples all day to prepare for this feast.

This wasn't easy.

From the food to be eaten to figuring out the whole wine thing to setting the table.

Because we've got to remember, uh, there's no electricity.

Okay?

I know it's gonna be hard to believe.

No McDonald's.

There's no, you know, the sherries, if you remember the sherries restaurant, the Thanksgiving style meal that you can just go pick up, you know, that thing if you don't want to cook for that holiday.

It's not it's not that.

That doesn't happen there.

This is cooking at its finest over an open flame after either butchering the animal or at least buying a portion of the meat and then making the bread and all the rest.

It's one of those you don't cook, you don't eat.

You don't cook, you're disobedient for Passover.

And it's a full day in preparation.

So those guys get that taken care of.

And then evening comes, time for the Passover meal.

Again, we're setting the scene here.

Which actually brings us to the next day.

Because we've got to remember their days, according to their calendars, started at sundown.

And so Friday has now come.

And that's very significant.

Because it is now on this same day that we've moved into, that he ate the meal with his disciples that same day that he would be taken to a cross to be crucified.

As was promised, prophesied.

And as verses 17 and 18 reveal to us, all twelve of his disciples were with him at this feast, and they're reclining at the table and they're eating.

But here's where things get interesting.

And I would say, here is where the shadow becomes the substance.

This is where the beauty and the glory of the new covenant really starts to just shine through the wonderful imagery of what they are about to do as a fulfillment.

What we find is as they're reclining at the table, Jesus begins to speak.

But instead of what would have been normal, instead of talking of the deliverance that God provided for the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians, that was what was supposed to be spoken of.

The meal again indicates that.

That's what's supposed to be on their minds as they celebrate Passover.

They all would have been used to it, they all are ready for Jesus to talk about it.

But Jesus begins to tell them of the sacrifice that's just about to be made on their behalf.

In and through his own life.

Now, this is stunning.

This would have absolutely blown their minds, though he had already mentioned it before.

They're reclining around the table, celebrating the Lord's deliverance that came to their forefathers many, many years ago, and Jesus says, Let me tell you what's about to come.

That's my paraphrase.

It's all about me.

It's all about my work.

It's always been about me and my work.

You see, he is just now beginning to lead their thoughts to what Passover foreshadowed the whole time.

It's not about Passover necessarily.

That is a true historical account, but it's meant to point us to the substance, Jesus.

Because it's meant to point us to the sacrifice of this lamb, this Messiah, that was to come and now has come.

For thousands of years, the Passover has been celebrated every year as a remembrance of God's deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians, from the Lord hearing his people's cry for help back in that time, to the plagues.

You remember the account, right, with Moses?

To the Exodus, to the promised land, everything in between.

It showed us that God is sovereign, God is supreme.

And now Jesus is telling them, I'm the deliverer.

I'm the one who delivers souls, not just to the land flowing with milk and honey, but to heaven, the greater promised land.

I'm the one who delivers souls from death to life eternal.

And he begins to do this by first telling them how it's going to come about in a more specific way.

And as he begins to do that, he begins to speak of this one who's going to betray him to death.

In verse 18, he says, one who is eating with me.

Now, we know from history, from biblical record, this is none other than Judas Iscariot.

We also know that Judas is the treasure of the group, and some theologians believe that since that's his position in the group, then he would have been eating on Jesus' immediate left, with the Apostle John on his right, based on the account that John himself gives about resting on the chest of Jesus at the meal in John 13.

But what's intriguing is that even this high honor and placement for Judas did nothing to change his heart and heart for what he was about to do.

They're all partaking.

Think about this, they're all partaking of the Passover meal, and Jesus drops this bombshell.

As I said, they've already heard him say more than once, I'm gonna die.

I'm gonna get taken.

Willingly, of course.

They still didn't get it at this point.

But then Jesus here at the table says something absolutely profound to their ears, or at least most of their ears.

He says, one of you is gonna betray me, one of you will sell me out.

What's their response to this?

Exactly as you would expect, exactly what you and I would be doing.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Me?

No.

Can't be me.

No way.

As we see from the verse 11, especially verses 10 and 11 from Mark 14, Judas has already begun the process of the betrayal.

Talked about that last week.

He'd already gone to the chief priest, conspired against Jesus for the price of a slave.

Things were already in motion under the sovereign hand of God.

And so that's really the quick version of the scene of the Last Supper.

But now we gotta dive in more and look at the end result of this betrayal.

Where does this lead Jesus and what does this mean for us?

Well, that's our second point for today, the reminder of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

What we have to remember as we look at this is nothing, nothing is outside of God's sovereignty.

Do you believe that?

Nothing is outside of God's sovereign control and working.

And we can be absolutely assured that the timing of Christ's betrayal and death is appointed by the Father.

Just think of this.

Why was this the perfect time for Jesus to go to the cross?

Well, it was to reveal to the nation of Israel that in yet another clear way, Jesus is the true Lamb.

Remember, every sacrifice that the Jews had made was to point their affections and their souls toward the one true God.

And this is the one truly great and final sacrifice that's coming.

The sacrifice that Christ is about to make on the cross is the final, the complete, the fulfilling atonement for sin.

Now you remember that the Israelites had been sacrificing animals according to the old covenant, faithfully.

But now the final and complete sacrifice is about to be made.

The Passover was a celebration of the deliverance, okay, from the Jewish people out of slavery, but in its institution, it was always meant to be a sign of a far greater deliverance that is to come through the Messiah from the bondage of sin.

Not just the bondage and yoke of slavery.

In an earthly sense, but of sin.

So much for us to reflect on when it comes to the Passover celebration and the Lord's sacrifice.

I mean, think of the death of the innocent lamb, right?

The spotless lamb.

All the way back in the Exodus that spared God's people from the death of the firstborn.

Just a foreshadowing, isn't it?

It's just a foreshadowing.

It points to the substance, this innocent lamb of God that was to be paraded and sacrificed through the town for the sins of people.

The blood that was painted on the doorposts of their houses back in Egypt that saved their children reveals to us today that the blood that was poured out by Christ on the cross covers over us.

Makes us secure in the Savior and free from the wrath to come.

The true death.

It reminds us that even the Israelites weren't saved from the angel of death in Egypt.

Without the sacrifice of the Lamb and its blood covering their entry to their homes, they're in the same predicament.

Therefore, this should tell us that only through the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross is there salvation for anybody, Jew and Gentile alike.

All of it, all of it was to point the Jews.

They were to have this in mind during the Passover celebration, but of course, they set that aside.

But isn't the Lord's timing impeccable?

I mean, as Christians, we've probably all seen and felt that to be true in our lives.

And this is one of those perfect examples.

That during the very time that pretty much every faithful Jew would have eaten this meal, spoken of the deliverance of their God many years before, it was that this time that the true Messiah was about to be delivered up to the hands of sinful men through the betrayal of one of his closest companions so that he could deliver people from their eternal damnation and thereby provide eternal life.

The sacrifice that was coming for Jesus on this day was to point the Jews away from the sacrificial system that they had partaken for so many years, where they would sacrifice the blood of bulls and goats according to their old covenant, and instead it was to point them to the promised new covenant, the one that was spoken about in Jeremiah and other places, that was about to be made with the blood of God's own Son.

The old covenant fulfillment of sacrifices could not truly take away sins of people, no matter how many animals were slain, no matter how many, or how pure the animals were, it didn't matter.

Yet they were to do it in faithful obedience as the Lord commanded, and it was in that faithful obedience that the Lord would reckon to them righteousness because it pointed to what truly does save Jesus, the true Messiah, the perfect atonement.

Only the new covenant blood of the Savior poured out on the cross could do this.

The blood of Jesus was to take away sin, to cleanse the heart, the soul of the believer, which of course should remind them and us today that salvation does not come through our religious customs or ceremonies, but instead by turning away from sin and confessing Christ as Lord and Savior, by placing all our hope, all our faith, all our trust in Christ.

And so therefore we get redemption through the work that was just about to happen.

We must never forget that all of the scriptures that the Jewish people had of that day were given to them to not only just have God's word and instruction, but so that they would continually look to the true Messiah.

It all pointed to one man.

Jesus, the Christ.

I mean, think about it this way.

From the covenant with Abraham, okay, all the way back in Genesis, to the near-death sacrifice of Isaac, to the life of Joseph, to the mediating on behalf of the people by Moses, to the anointed king in Israel and David, to the fact that Jesus is the greater Jonah.

It was all meant to point us to Christ, the Son of God who was to come.

And this celebration, this Passover, this lawfully required feast, is the pinnacle of what it meant to read the Old Testament and look to Jesus, the Passover lamb to be slain.

The whole of the Old Testament.

This Passover, it's like, I like to say it's like a giant neon sign pointing us to Christ and his salvation, to the cross.

So, what does this mean for any who do not place their faith and trust in Him as their atoning Savior, including the Jews who are celebrating Passover?

Well, I think we can draw principally from verse 21 of our passage.

When Jesus speaks of the betrayal of Judas, it says, it would have been better if he would have never been born.

How many of you ever heard that statement before?

Just flippantly said.

How many of you ever thought about that in regards to either yourself or somebody else?

Maybe in a season of depression.

Unfortunately, sometimes societies may think that about somebody unlike them, maybe a poor person.

Maybe, you know, somebody's poor, their life has to be miserable.

It would have been better if they're never born.

Sometimes we hear that from those who who we would say with handicaps who have never been born, that would have been best for them.

As if living with the same intellect or physical capabilities defines what it means to be able to live a happy life.

Nonsense.

Back in the early 1900s, in our country and in Europe, many elitists were pushing what's called eugenics.

I mentioned that last week.

They said it was necessary for society to cut off the chances of somebody who, in the end, is not like us from reproducing, or they would seclude or even opt to kill those who they felt weren't good enough to live in society, that they thought it would have been better if these people would have never been born.

Well, let me tell you, there is only one reason why somebody should wish that they'd never been born.

And the only way to know that is on the day that you die or the day the Lord returns.

That's the only time that somebody may actually wish that they were never born.

Jesus says that it would have been better if Judas was never born.

Why?

Because he is an unrepentant sinner who has forsaken God, who has betrayed him.

And what I say principally we can draw from this is one day Jesus will righteously judge all of those who are outside of the faith, and they will at that moment, when he returns, wish they'd never been born.

Because the suffering that comes for those who reject this Messiah, this Passover Lamb, is unbearable.

But for the one on the flip side, for the one who places their full faith and trust in the Savior, I mean, rich, poor, handicapped, sick, infirm, doesn't matter.

For the one who has placed their hope in Christ, there will be joy forever.

You see, no matter what your life looks like here on this earth or what your handicaps are, I have them, you have them.

If you have placed your faith and trust in Christ, you will rejoice over your birth for an eternity.

Because Jesus is the Passover Lamb on your behalf.

And you will see him through the top of your eyes every day.

Why do I say top of your eyes?

Because your face will be so low.

For eternity you will be grateful for the fact that you were created, and you will also be grateful that you were redeemed by the blood of a perfect sacrifice.

And for all time you will enjoy the presence of Christ.

And in his presence you will forever remember what he has done for you in the gospel.

How he has chosen to shed his own blood for you.

This we will always remember and always speak about.

We say now and today that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is not just the entry point, if you will, into salvation, but it's for all of life.

Well, it's also for all of eternal life.

We will never forget Christ in his work.

One of the ways we do this now, one of the ways we do this today in the church, one of the ways that we remember what he has done for us as believers who are a part of the local church, is that table that sits before you now.

It's one of the ways we remember.

Let's look at our third point.

The importance of this table in the life of the church.

Now we see the commandment given to us in the scriptures to repeat what's here in this text, that we are to partake of the bread and the cup in remembrance.

Again, in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul tells the church in Corinth that they are to partake of the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of what he's done, and that they are, now get this word, invited to partake of this blood.

I mean, we could spend an entire month just talking about that word, that you and I are invited to that table.

Praise be to God.

We also know that the church there in Corinth had some problems.

And so a lot of what Paul is writing about is to show them what true worship, true faithfulness should look like.

And he uses the Lord's table as an example.

1 Corinthians 11, Paul says that they are partaking in a wrong way.

They're getting drunk.

There's divisions in the church.

They are not taking it in unity, and so on.

And then after Paul reminds them of the words of Jesus during this Last Supper, he tells them something really important.

In verse 27 of the 11th chapter of the first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says, Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

I don't need to tell you, that's not a good place to be.

Turning back to our passage in Mark, notice that Jesus calls out Judas before the supper is actually given by him.

In John's account in chapter 13, it tells us that Judas left the room to go and betray Jesus before the first communion.

See, the Lord's Supper was meant to lead us to remember, as Christians, many things.

But we've got to remember that only Christians are called to partake and remember.

And we remember that Christ's yoke is easy in comparison to the regulations of the ceremonial law.

Isn't that good news?

Christ has paid it all on the cross.

Therefore, that unbearable yoke of the law has been fulfilled in him.

We're to rest in this, rest in him and remember all of this at the Lord's table.

It was meant to lead us to remember his death.

He took, broke the bread, showing us that he will be bruised and beaten and torn for us.

He pours out the wine which represents his bloody death that is coming, and we are to remember that only through this precious blood that we can ever have salvation.

It was meant to help us remember that there is a new covenant, a new and far better Passover, as we have spoken of.

He hands them the bread, and then after supper, the cup, and tells them basically, this is refreshing to your souls.

That when you partake of it, it should cause you to forever be satisfied in Christ and his sacrifice, as they think of what it represents.

It was also meant to remind them of the future.

Who doesn't want to think of that?

That that this thing that's in store for all who believe, that Jesus spoke often about.

That as we partake, we can and should let our minds, let our thoughts go to what we get to partake of in eternity.

That we will forever break bread at his table because of his blood and victory over our evil.

And we will do this together.

That's a big table.

And so that's why this table is seen as this is the greatest meal a Christian will ever take.

Ever.

Doesn't matter how good the steak is, this meal is better.

It represents something eternal.

But all that to say, when we partake of this table, when we come to this table, it's a huge deal.

It cannot be taken flippantly.

It's not just a going through the motion week after week.

It must be taken in faith.

We must come to the table as worshipers, and probably with repentant hearts week after week.

We must never take the Lord's table in a dishonoring way, or we will be guilty as Judas was of the Lord's body and blood.

There's a lot at stake at this table.

Paul says, You are to examine yourselves before coming to the table.

Now, we've got to remember in that that the meal is not the actual body and blood of the Lord, nor does it become that after a prayer, as some wrongly teach, nor does it save you, nor does it magically change your heart and your affections toward the Lord by partaking in it.

Our hearts should already be in tune with the mind of Christ as we come to it.

And so what this means is that we are to come with humility.

Humble hearts that are repentant, self-examined, realizing the command and the promised presence of the Lord in this time.

Again, that's why we reserve this meal for those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus and have turned from their old ways and have turned to Him with new and regenerate souls.

As Christians, we can never go to the table if we know that there is sin in our hearts, in our lives.

But we can never let that be an excuse to avoid it either.

Because if that's the case and we remain in sin, then we are also forsaking the commands.

But on the other hand, we must never take the table without a true and in-depth reflection of our hearts and lives.

We must never take it as a mere formality, just going through the motions, so to speak.

I love what the great Puritan Thomas Watson said when speaking of the vital need to prepare ourselves to partake of this table.

He says this: he says, There is no receiving a crucified Christ but to a consecrated heart.

Which means that we need to have hearts that are first consecrated by the Lord, by his Spirit, and then daily consecrated by repentance.

And as we come to this table as repentant Christians, let us allow our repentant hearts never to be without rejoicing.

I love what one commentator said.

He said, rejoicing and repentance must go together, because rejoicing without repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair.

But on the other side, rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change.

And that is no truer than when we approach this glorious occasion.

And so as we come to this table as rejoicing, repentant sinners, we come to remember what Christ has done on our behalf.

And one of the things I always try to remind myself, and I hope you too, is we must remember that sin must truly be awful indeed.

It's not just an accident, it's not just a mistake, just this thing.

It must be truly awful.

Because it placed our Lord on the cross as the only possible way to atone for ourselves.

But as we remember, we gotta do more than just reflect back.

A remembrance must also be a recalibration of our lives unto obedience.

As participants in this blessed and sacred meal, we remember by being overcome by the power of what is going on here, if you will.

We come to this table as we are invited with hearts that are to be examined.

Meaning that's way more than just reflecting back.

We are participants together as brothers and sisters in our gospel unity, have been redeemed by the Lord, joined, united with thousands that have gone on before us, thousands that are doing it right now.

Maybe already did it a little bit earlier in Mexico.

I think the hours are a little different there.

In Poland, as was mentioned, in Malawi, wherever that is, we join and we do it together by repeating the words of our Lord.

This is my body.

This is my blood.

Take it, eat, drink.

This is a new covenant.

And now it is in this way that we are individually and communally recalibrated, realigned to obedience.

And a righteous standing by his grace.

Such good news.

In closing, I want us to know that the Lord's Supper is just a wonderful reminder of what the Lord has done.

It's a wonderful reminder for us to tune our hearts to the Lord as we examine them and honestly go before Him.

And in looking at this table, we must never forget one thing.

And that's that each celebration of the Lord's table, each time we receive these elements, we must remember that we worship a God who rightly requires sacrifice.

But unlike the God of the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the evolutionists, our God has chosen from before the foundations of the world to make himself that sacrifice on our behalf.

He and he alone has paid the price.

He's won the victory.

He endured what we could never do.

He alone has conquered sin, death, and the evil one.

His blood payment has ransomed sinners, caused regeneration in the hearts of the redeemed.

Now you tell me what God is loving like that.

That this king would sacrifice himself for his subjects.

It's a God who is full of mercy and grace, and he deserves our wholehearted devotion.

One day, as I mentioned, we will partake with Jesus of the fruit of the vine and the new kingdom when he comes and we partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And this is all because of his sacrifice.

All because of his blood spilled.

You and I can't get there on our own.

We need Christ.

All because ultimately he took the wrath of the Father that should have come to me.

For the Jews, this Passover feast is a memorial of a past victory.

But here, Jesus institutes a new Passover, a new kind of supper celebration that would be the memorial of his death and therefore a continual means of grace for those who believe as we look forward to what's coming.

And so I just remind you, this is a gift for you if you're in Christ.

This is why on Tuesday evenings we hand out the little insert slip that says to prepare for communion for the following Sunday.

Never forget to prepare for it.

Never forget to come humbly and repentant.

But also don't forget to come rejoicing and thankful.

As you remember that you are invited to be a partaker of this meal if you're in Christ.

And how can we not come to this table rejoicing if our Lord was singing a Passover hymn based on the Psalms just hours before the cross, as verse 26 says?

How can we not rejoice?

So today we come and we remember our Lord Jesus.

But unlike our remembrances of people on this earth and usual circumstances, we don't remember him as someone who is in the grave, do we?

No.

He's alive and alive forevermore.

By faith we have communion in him and with him.

And by faith we remember his sacrifice as we come loved of God.

And so, brothers and sisters, come to the table today, knowing your Savior's love.

Come repentant, come sorrowfully rejoicing.

I love Paul's phrase.

Sorrowfully rejoicing.

Sorrowful at what it took to get you saved.

Rejoicing at so great a salvation.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the privilege it is to know Christ our Lord, to be called to this table, invited, commanded.

Given every provision needed, every provision possible to come, to be reminded of the greatness of the sacrifice of Christ.

Give us joy, Father.

Let us never do this flippantly.

Let us never do this lightly.

Let us do this with the grace of Christ needed to honor our King.

We pray this all in that majestic and powerful name, the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.