Matthew 26:17-29 | Kingdom Now: His Sacrifice, His Covenant, His Return

in chapter 26 of Matthew.

That's where we are this morning.

Chapter 26 is going to take us four weeks on all to get through.

So this is week two.

We got two weeks after this in chapter 26.

It's a big chapter.

There's a lot there.

But I want us to understand

some of the profound things

that are said about Jesus and that Jesus said

some things that just.

They're quite the claims.

For instance,

revelation 3138

says that

from the foundation of the world.

It was decided

by the father, agreed to and submitted

by the son that Christ would be crucified.

This was decided since the foundation of the world.

What we know is crucifixion Friday

didn't happen haphazardly.

It wasn't concocted in the mind of man.

It was predetermined since

the foundation of the world.

The desire of the father, the submission of the son

in agreement with the father that he would be crucified.

It's profound.

Jesus would say in

John ten, no one takes my life from me.

I have the authority to lay it down.

I have the authority to pick it back up.

Though the crucifixion happened at the hands of the Romans,

at the request of the Jews,

the Romans, the Jews were neither in control.

Jesus was.

The Bible says that

when he uttered the words, it is finished, then he breathed his last.

That was his choice.

This all was orchestrated

since the foundation of the world.

Jesus knew exactly what he's doing.

He knew exactly when he would do it.

He knew exactly how he would do it, and he knew why he would do it.

All of that was prefigured

throughout the pages of the Old Testament.

Throughout the festivals, the the things that God gave his people to,

to remember him and his kingdom.

And it was it was really in full color through what we call the the Passover

meal,

the Passover meal, or what

we have understood as communion

is what this portion of Matthew 26 is all about.

And I want to unpack it for us

so that we'll understand.

As we bring me

that little communion packet right there.

I appreciate it.

Yep. No, this is this one right here.

Nope. This one right here. Thank you.

When we celebrate this,

the bread and the cup,

we we we celebrate this because we understand what Scripture says

about the Last Supper or communion and Jesus's

instituting of what we celebrate

in this day, how he instituted in Matthew 26.

So this that's where we're it's a very small portion of Scripture.

I'm going to go back to the Old Testament to give you the context

and the promise of the New Covenant, and we're going to look ahead

and the in the, in the New Testament as well.

So we're going to be all over the Bible this morning.

All the Scripture will look

at is, is, is listed on your, on our app.

So if you can follow along there it'll be helpful.

But but in order to understand where we're headed this morning

and in this portion of Matthew 26 with communion,

I developed a big idea.

Communion reminds us of Jesus's sacrifice for sin,

the new covenant established through his blood,

and the promise that he's coming back again.

When we take the bread and the cup according to what Scripture House

has instructed us.

We're reminded of his sacrifice.

Jesus is sacrifice for our sin of his body, his blood.

We're reminded of this new covenant

because of his blood through his blood,

and we're reminded that he promises to come back again.

It's a statement of faith.

In communion.

His people look back to his sacrifice.

We celebrate the salvation that he's provided,

and we look forward to his return.

And so let me just unpack this portion of Matthew 26.

If you have a Bible and you could follow along with us

just a couple verses at a time for 17, 18,

and 19 of Matthew 26.

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying,

where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?

He said, go into the city to a certain man,

and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand.

I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.

And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

The Passover meal was

in memory of Jesus, of God's liberation of his people from Egypt.

And we're going to go back

to the Old Testament book of Exodus and look at that in just a moment.

But from the institution of this Passover meal

up until this night,

the Jews would celebrate this

remembering God's deliverance, this miraculous deliverance,

this this was not a dinner as we understand a dinner.

This was a long, prolonged, multi-hour event

and it had had to go through it went through careful preparation.

Now, when Jesus sends his disciples two into the city to prepare the room

for the Passover meal, he didn't tell all 12 of them to do this, he told two.

We know this from other parts of Scripture, Peter and John,

and he told Peter and John in secret.

Go into the city, you'll recognize the man.

I'm going to orchestrate the whole thing. He's going to recognize you.

You're going to ask him for the upper room to prepare the Passover.

But he only told Peter and John. Why?

Because he knew

of Judas plot with the Romans to hand him over.

Passover is to be celebrated at night,

and it would have been very easy for Judas

to orchestrate, knowing that what Jesus was going to do this Thursday evening,

to work with the Romans, to hand him over at night so there would be no uproar.

And so Jesus tells Peter and John, just those two go and prepare.

Everyone else will meet you there later.

So, so, so this is kind of a secret, clandestine preparation of the Passover

on a Thursday night, not the Friday.

Jesus is doing this early with his disciples.

Somehow this this man in the city was

it was a follower of Jesus.

Was a friend

of Jesus and prepared allowed them to set the room up

for the Passover meal to be celebrated with Jesus and his disciples.

Now, because this was a multi hour event,

there were a lot of things happening during this Passover meal.

And the

Gospels are not designed to be strict, chronologically aligned.

And so we go through multiple different

of the four gospels to understand the totality of the night.

And so I want to introduce you to some other things that were happening

during this Passover meal as well.

And for that, we need to go to the book of John.

And in the book of John, chapter 13,

John 13 · chapter mention

let me just read part of what else was happening

during this, this evening.

Starting in verse one.

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come.

Did you know that six times in the book of John

it says, his hour had not yet come,

but now it's come.

We'll talk about it in a minute.

But he

he knows his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father, having

loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,

Simon, son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given

all things into his hands, and that he had come from God,

and is going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer

garments and taken a towel, tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet

and wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

This was a profound moment

for the disciples.

Culturally.

In that day, there was usually a servant who was the foot

washer of the men who would come into a room like this.

It was the lowest of the low position,

doing the lowest of the low job, the foot washing.

And the reason is, understandably in that culture, the walking around

with sandals and very dirty roads amongst the dung of the of the mules

and the all this stuff, and they just got filthy feet.

So especially when they would go to recline at the table

because they didn't sit in chairs like we do, they reclined on an elbow

with the fetus further as furthest away from the table as they could.

But even with that, they had to wash their feet

because they were just so nasty.

Apparently, in this context, there was no servant to wash the feet.

You know what's interesting to me?

Any one of these men, had they been asked where to wash

Jesus's feet, but none of them would have washed each other's.

And so Jesus says, I'm

going to show you my expectation of how you love each other.

Though

every one of them would have washed Jesus feet had they just been asked.

Jesus, without being asked, washed their feet

because none of them would have washed each other's.

And he takes on the lowest role possible,

doing the lowest service

possible to show and emulate

the one who lays aside his authority

to become the servant.

The Bible says in Mark 1045, Jesus did not come to be served,

but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom.

It's amazing moment here for these disciples

and for Jesus's interaction with them.

The Bible says, knowing

that he was that he came from the father was going back to the father.

Here's the thing when you know who you are and whose you are

and where you're headed.

You don't have to fight for authority.

When you can live

knowing whose you are and where you're going.

You can live with nothing to prove

and no one to impress.

Jesus

didn't have to act like he was somebody.

He knew who he was.

He knew where he was going

so he could serve willingly.

It's the insecure person

who has trouble serving other people.

Because they're so focused

on their own position and priority.

And Jesus says he gives us that example.

When you know who you are and where you're headed,

you got nothing to prove and no one to impress.

Serve love.

And he does, in profound ways. And.

And he came to

Simon Peter, who said, Lord, you do, you wash my feet.

Jesus answered him,

what I am doing, you don't understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him, you will never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him, if I don't wash you, you have no share with me.

Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands in my head.

Jesus said to him, the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet,

but it's completely clean, and you are clean, but not every one of you.

For he knew was who was to betray him.

And that's why he said, not all of you are clean.

Peter says, you're not going to wash my feet.

That's that's. No,

just as unless

I clean you, you have no part of me.

So, Peter, being like, well, then wash, wash all of me then, like,

it's like, relax, I've already cleansed you,

but you walk around in the dirty world

and some of that dirt gets on you, and that needs to be cleaned up.

You're good, Peter,

but let me clean that dirty part of you.

And the Bible says he knew that there was one at that table

who was going to betray him, who was not cleansed by him.

He knew what Jesus Judas was doing.

He knew what Judas was already had already instituted.

That's all going on

as we enter into this communion table.

And there's so much more.

There's so much more. But but I want to get back.

I want to get back to, to Matthew 26, in verse 20. Now

when it was the evening he reclined at table with the 12,

and as they were eating, he said, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.

And they were very sorrowful, and began to say to him, one one after another.

Is it I, Lord?

He answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

What's interesting?

They're all going to dip their hand in the dish after him.

The Son of Man goes as it is written of him.

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

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

Judas, who would betray him, answered, is it I, Rabbi?

And he said to him, you've. You've said so.

This Passover meal.

As they recline at the table.

This meal

hearkens back

to the Old Testament,

the book of Exodus, chapter 12.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

The is the Passover meal

that they're celebrating one with another.

The thing I love, one of the things I love about this passage,

as Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me.

I think it's so beautiful.

Do you notice what their question is?

What's their question?

Is it I

notice?

What is not their question.

Is it him?

They.

There's no accusation of another.

They don't accuse one another.

Do you know why they don't accuse one another?

Because they all know what they're capable of.

They all know.

I mean, if it were,

honestly, if I was, I'd probably be like, I think I know who it is.

I think it's Bill.

You know, like, we wouldn't

we wouldn't say it's probably me.

It's so beautiful in this moment

that they realize what they're capable of.

Even those who promised they would never.

Peter.

End up betraying him.

Do you realize what you're capable of?

And the audacity

for Judas to then ask, is it I, Lord, what a hypocrite!

He had already agreed to it.

Can can you imagine?

What would have welled up in your heart if this were you

being asked?

Does it mean when you know they already had?

And Jesus is so gentle

in essence he says, Judas, you.

You've already said it.

In essence, he's almost giving you

this one last chance to repent.

Judas, you've already betrayed me.

Would you come back?

This Passover meal.

Back to Exodus

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12.

Exodus 12.

This is.

This is when God's people are in Egypt.

There's slaves there, there, there, there.

Abused.

They're living under incredible oppression of slavery.

There have been crying out to God for 400 years for liberation.

Finally, God has moved on their behalf.

Nine plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians, each one worse

than the previous, each an attack and the destruction of the Egyptian gods

just prior to the 10th plague, which was the plague of the

of the death of the firstborn.

Unless the house of that firstborn

had the blood of a lamb put over the doorway of the house.

God said, unless I see that blood of the lamb on the doorway of the house,

the death angel will come and kill the firstborn of every man and every

animal in that home.

That's the 10th plague.

And right before that, God gives instructions.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is verse

12 of Exodus in the land of Egypt this month shall be for you.

At the beginning of the month it shall be the first month of the year of the.

This will be the first month of the year for you.

So this event resets their entire calendar.

The calendar of God's people will be set based on this event.

So God says this is a brand new year for you now at the institution of this event.

Tell the Congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of the month,

every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses.

A lamb for a household in the household is too small for a lamb

than he and his nearest neighbor shall take, according

to the number of persons, according to what each of you can eat.

You shall make your count for the lamb.

So basically they said, listen, there can't be any leftovers.

One lamb basically for ten people,

because the whole thing has to be consumed.

He's going to talk about how to prepare the lamb

and how to eat the lamb and and all of this.

So he said basically one one lamb per household.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.

You shall.

You may take it from the sheep, from the goats, and you shall keep it

until the 14th day of the month, when the whole assembly

of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Now he said, you get your lamb one per household, get your lamb,

take it into your home.

Let it live with your family on the 10th of the month,

on the 14th of the month you're going to slaughter it.

You're going to.

This little lamb is going to live with you for four days.

Do you know why he told him to do that?

So that their hearts and the hearts of their children

were to get attached to this little lamb, so they would feel the pain

of death

that sin caused.

So they would realize the cost and the weight of sin

that it would require blood.

You know,

it's interesting to I just realizing this

in the Garden of Eden, that sin

God killed an animal

and gave so that they could be covered and closed.

One animal for one person

in the Exodus,

one animal for one family.

On the high

holy day of the year in Judaism, Yom Kippur,

one animal for one nation,

symbolically, and then with Jesus,

one life for the world.

Then they shall take some of the blood and of the lamb, and put it

on the two doorposts and the lintels of the houses in which they eat it.

They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with the fire,

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it.

Says, listen, when you

kill this lamb, you take the blood, and you put it over the doorpost.

And then, and then this lamb is by fire to absorb.

I mean, fire is a symbol of judgment, to absorb the judgment

that would have landed on your home in death.

And you're to eat it with unleavened bread.

All through Scripture.

Unleavened bread leavened is a sign of sin.

Unleavened bread is getting rid of sin.

And eat it with bitter herbs,

so that you'll remember the pain

that your slavery has caused

and the pain of sin.

Verse 12 for I will pass through the land of Egypt

that night,

and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.

And on the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

I am the Lord.

The blood shall be assigned to you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague

will befall you to destroy you.

When I strike the land of Egypt. This is the Passover,

he says, when I see the blood.

I'm not looking for your faithfulness.

I'm not looking for your activity.

I'm not looking for what you say you believe.

When I see the blood, my

judgment of death will pass over you.

And so for generations, the the,

the Jews, the Hebrews, the Jew celebrated this in, in, in, in recollection

and memory and gratitude for what God had done, the liberation done

for the liberation of them from bondage and slavery and death.

And it was their celebration of all that God had done.

Now I want you to realize,

as we put this together.

That what was important in that

moment was not what they said they believed was not how they lived.

It was not how they had.

The thing that was important was the blood that was shed

applied to their life.

So the death angel would pass over them.

Here's what we've got to understand.

Hebrews 922 without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins.

Unless blood is shed,

the judgment of death remains.

That's Passover.

First Corinthians five

seven For Christ are what

our Passover lamb?

The Bible says that Jesus

is the Passover lamb, the one who was slain,

the one whose blood applied to the life.

Makes it so.

The judgment of death passes over that life.

So understand, I started this message

with the affirmation of what the revelation

13 says from the foundation of the world.

This has always been God's plan

submitted to by the son,

that he would be the Passover lamb.

Knowing that there's no forgiveness without the shedding of that blood.

Think for a moment every

year that Jesus, as a Jewish man, celebrates the Passover.

What's going through his mind?

This is not just the story

of my father's liberation of our people from Egypt.

This is my story that I will live out in my own body one day for you.

Can you imagine?

When they're solely

focused on the thanksgiving of the liberation from Egypt?

Jesus says, you have no idea.

This is my story.

Can you imagine every year that goes by as it wells up more and becomes

closer and closer to reality of his life?

The emotional toll

that this starts to take as he looks forward to now on this night.

The hour has come

and he sits down with his disciples.

And in

essence, this is not the story of the Exodus any longer.

This is a story of my life and my death

for your liberation, not from slavery, but from sin.

And it's going to come at the expense of my blood shed

for you. Wow.

And he's orchestrating this whole thing.

Back to Matthew.

Verse 26.

Now, as they were eating.

And it's interesting, this first Passover

when God instituted this with this people, there were only three elements.

The lamb, the bitter herbs and unleavened

bread that now, as years went by,

it became very elaborate and very symbolic in many different ways.

But in the beginning, the Passover were these three things

unleavened bread,

bitter herbs, and the lamb.

There wasn't even any wine, any cup in the first Passover.

By the time we get to Jesus, there's four cups of it.

And so,

as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and after a blessing,

he broke it and gave it to his disciples, said, take, eat.

This is my body.

This was

this was profound for Jesus to say

all through the history of the Passover meal.

The bread was a symbol of God's blessing.

And when it would be broken and given it, it was.

It was. God is blessing his people.

And now Jesus says it's not just about God's blessings, people,

because he has this is my body now

that I'm giving for you not just God's blessing, but my very life.

There's an unfortunate mistranslation of the King James Version that says

that Jesus took the bread and broke it and said, this is my body broken for you.

That's a that's an unfortunate mistranslation.

Jesus's body was never broken.

There's a prophecy in Psalm 22 that says not a bone of his will be broken.

And actually, the command in the Passover that God gave his people for the

killing of the Passover lamb.

This is not a bone of the lamb is to be broken.

So Jesus's body was never broken.

It was crushed as you would have grape

to produce wine, but it was never broken.

When they came to make sure he was dead on the cross, and the soldiers wanted

to break the the femurs of the of of the criminals so they would die faster.

They came to Jesus to break his legs, and he was already dead.

Because the Bible says not a bone will be broken.

So the bread was broken

and Christ gave and said, this is now my body.

That's I'm giving for you.

Every time you take this, I want you to remember my life.

And then he says something profound again.

And he took the cup. Verse 27.

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.

There were four.

Generally we understand there were four cups during the community.

The first cup was the cup of sanctification

that that that that by God were made holy.

The second cup was a cup of deliverance that God would deliver his people.

The third cup

was the cup of redemption.

That at the cup of redemption that the at the third cup after the supper,

they would, they would celebrate the fact that that they had been redeemed.

And at the end of it there was a fourth cup, the the cup of praise.

And they were actually seeing Psalm

5115 through 118 together, the fourth cup.

This cup we know from other parts of Scripture

was the cup after supper, which would make it

the third cup of communion, which is the cup of redemption.

He says, this is the cup of my blood.

My blood is for your redemption.

It's by my blood that I'm redeeming your life and your soul.

Do you understand?

And he says, this new, this cup is the new covenant, the my blood, new covenant.

What are you talking about, a covenant?

We don't make a covenant with God. God makes a covenant with us.

And all of a sudden Jesus says, no, no,

I am making a covenant with you because I am God.

And what is referring to is, is, is is back in the book of Jeremiah.

All this is firing through their heads.

In the book of Jeremiah, this is what Jesus,

this is what God says through the prophet Jeremiah.

Tell the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month

every man shall take a lamb, according. I already read that one.

Go to Jeremiah.

Behold, the days are coming, declares

the Lord, and I will make a what?

The 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 the land of Egypt.

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

That covenant was the mosaic covenant, the covenant of law

written on stone tablets that they had to obey.

Do this. Don't do that.

And by your obedience you'll be blessed.

By your disobedience you'll be cursed.

It was the old covenant, the covenant of law.

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 not on stone, but where

I'm going to put it

inside them by my spirit,

and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother,

saying, know the Lord, for they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins no more.

He said, there's coming a day of a new covenant,

when the old covenant is gone, and this new covenant is ushered

in, that by my spirit I write my law on their hearts,

and they will each know me personally.

No longer will they have to have someone to tell them, this is how you know God.

Now you will know me personally.

And when that happens

with that new covenant, when you enter into that new covenant,

I will be your God.

You will be my people, and I will forgive their iniquity.

Remember, there's no more can you imagine?

And Jesus

institutes that new covenant on this night of communion, this covenant,

a new covenant of my blood,

so you can know me,

so you can follow me.

So my spirit is on your heart.

You don't have to ask someone else what I'm like now.

You can know me. Why?

Because Jesus shed his blood to start this new covenant.

See, without the shadow of blood, there's no forgiveness.

And Christ as our Passover.

And it's amazing to me

that he says, I will not drink of this cup again,

of the vine again, until I do it in the kingdom of my father.

This was at the third cup.

The fourth cup is the cup of praise, he said.

There's coming a day when I come back

and my father's kingdom is

established that will have another Passover meal,

and during that meal will be the cup of praise,

the cup of the kingdom.

Now all of this in Matthew,

this was written somewhere around 80 to 90 A.D.

and so Matthew doesn't go through a lot of the explanation of community.

He just says the what Jesus said about the bread and the cup and kind of moves on.

Paul wrote the book of First Corinthians

in about 55 A.D., long before the book of Matthew was ever written.

And Paul gives us instruction

on communion.

And so Paul's writings, the church kind of knew already.

So Matthew doesn't have to explain it all.

But Paul gives us explanation

when we approach this, how we do this

and this is important.

Let me, let me just

let me walk you through this real quick.

First Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

If we're going to take communion, here's the instructions

starting in verse 27.

First Corinthians 1127 whoever therefore eats the bread

or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty

concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

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

For anyone who eats or drinks without discerning the body,

eat and drinks judgment on himself.

When I was little in church growing

up, I vividly remember I was walking in the alley

or the alley, the lobby of our church, and they had a little communion.

You a little gold, little communion plate with the little tiny

little communal wafers.

And I'm like, looks pretty good.

I took when I ate it,

I thought, oh no, I'm going to hell.

That was so messed up.

I just judgment on myself.

And seriously, I still think of that today thinking, Lord,

please.

Whoever eats of the bread and Jesus cup of Lord,

an unworthy manner guilty of sinning

will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.

Examine yourself then eat here.

Here's what that means. It does not mean

that if you have sin in your life, you cannot take immune in that.

If you have sin in your life and you take them into your guilty

against the body, that's not what that means.

Here's what it means.

To take communion is to acknowledge

that because our sin were separated from God,

and that we need the blood of

the lamb to reconcile us to God,

that's what communion reminds us of,

to take communion with the heart

that says, I'm not submitted to God.

I don't need him in my life,

is guilty against what communion testifies to.

Do you do you follow?

And when I pretend?

That I understand

my need of the blood of Jesus, of my life, and I've never attributed that to my

except that to myself, I make a farce of the bread and the cup.

It's unworthy.

And so that's why we say that those who have a relationship

with Jesus can take the bread and the cup, as they acknowledge that I admit

I'm a sinner and I need the blood of Jesus to cover me.

Forgive me of my sin so I can be right with the father, I admit that.

Am I perfect yet?

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

So examine yourself, acknowledge your sin, confess it,

and then take communion.

And then Paul says,

if you do this in an unworthy way, you're

guilty against the blood, the body and blood of Jesus.

And and look at what he says in verse 30.

This is why.

That's why many of you are weak and ill

and some have died.

Because you took communion in an unworthy way.

This is why I was so petrified as a child.

Here's what you're saying.

When we live in rejection of Jesus,

in unrepentant and unforgiveness,

there will be times when the father

disciplines.

This is corrective discipline by a loving father

and sometimes it takes physical form and manifestation.

Now, I'm

not at all saying that every sickness is due to someone's personal sin.

That's not what the Bible teaches, but the Bible does give us warning.

Now, in the

church in Corinth, they made a mockery of this whole thing.

They got drunk at communion. They abused people at communion.

They made people starve who were hungry at communion, they didn't share

with like it was a mockery, the whole thing.

And just because you made a mockery

of my son

and his life and his death and his resurrection, his promise return

because you've made a mockery of the whole thing.

Refuse to acknowledge your into your future.

You continue to abuse the people.

Yeah.

He will discipline you severely.

So get this stuff right.

Do you follow?

Confess what needs to be confessed?

Repent what needs to be repented of.

Acknowledge that is through Christ, in him alone and his blood shed on the cross,

that you can only be made right with the father.

Have a seriousness about this.

It's not magic,

but is eternal.

Please don't be fooled as some of my Roman Catholic friends are.

And I love them.

But some of them are fooled.

They believe in this thing called transubstantiation, that they believe

that the bread actually changes substance and becomes actual flesh,

and the cup actually changes substance and becomes actual blood.

That's why they don't allow anybody but their priest to administer

the elements, because they afraid some, some might drop the blood of Jesus.

It's.

There's nowhere in the Bible that says that at all.

The importance of this

is that I acknowledge my sin, I acknowledge the payment of my sin, and

I honor Christ because he paid the price as my Passover lamb.

And he leaves us a promise I will eat this again.

Finally, in the kingdom of my father, I'm coming back.

So if church, every time we eat this, every time we drink

this, it's the acknowledgment

of what Jesus did for us.

And it's the celebration of what he's done in us, a new covenant.

And it's an anticipation that he's coming back for us.

Do you follow?

In, in reflection of that kind of love?

What's your response?

I want to invite you in this moment

so that you can, in a worthy manner, take communion.

As a follower of Jesus,

I want to invite you into this prayer right now.

Would you say,

father, I admit that I'm a sinner

and I've lived life on my own terms.

Jesus, I believe that you died

for my sin because of my sin and that you were raised to life.

Save me.

I commit to turn from my sin,

and I dedicate my life, and I dedicate my allegiance to you and you alone,

and power me to love you with my whole heart and soul

and mind and strength, without delay

and without hesitation.

Fill me with your spirit right now.

Clothe me.

Cover me with the power of your spirit to live a holy life.

I give myself to you

and your name I pray.

Amen.

Friends,

I want to invite you back to the heart of worship,

the remembrance of Jesus,

his body and his blood

date the bread.

This is his body.

It's been given for you.

Do this and remember him.

Take the cup.

This is the new covenant of his blood

shed for the forgiveness of sin.

Do this.

Remember him.

Case going to lead us in a very appropriate song

called The Heart of Worship,

where everything else is stripped away

and it's simply about him.

We will have people up front and in the back and outside

to pray with you, as you need prayer as that would

as you repent, as you give yourself to him as your pleasure allegiance to him.

Would you confirm that with someone in prayer

during and after we've seen the song, we lead us in that.

Thank you.