Lord's Supper Service - Pastor Greg Addison - August 4, 2024

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

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What an incredible picture of the gospel and exactly why we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

It is a picture, it is a sermon of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is the promise of salvation.

It reminds us how we are saved.

We are saved by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

It reminds us of the incredible power of our salvation when you think about the statement.

Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

And beginning in verse 17, Paul really breaks into why it is so important that we understand the Lord's Supper, some things that had just arisen in the church through time.

Here's what the Bible says.

Now in giving the following instruction, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse.

Now there's nothing wrong with fellowship.

We're doing that tonight, right?

But when we come together for the Lord's Supper, this is a very specific, special, and important time for the body of Christ.

And so what he's doing is he's kind of getting their attention and saying, look, when you guys come together and you're doing some of this stuff, you've missed the point.

We've lost the picture of what the Lord's Supper is.

And so he says, verse 21, for at the meal each one eats his own supper ahead of others.

So one is hungry while another gets drunk.

Do you have houses to eat and drink in?

Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing?

What should I say to you?

Should I praise you?

I do not praise you for this.

In other words, in this party or whatever they were doing, some people would bring, you know, uh lavish amounts of food or whatever, and other people were struggling.

And you know the church people had been saved all over from all walks of life.

And so he's like, Look, you're separating yourselves, and you know, these people are doing this, and these people are left out over here, and all of that.

And he said, You've missed the point of what this is about.

That this is about Jesus and the gospel.

This is about what, how we are saved, and understanding the truth of that.

That's what the Lord's Supper is about.

And so then he goes into verse 23, famous passage where he begins to explain about the Lord's Supper.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

On the night in which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

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

Do this as often as you drink 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.

So literally, what we are doing are we are proclaiming the gospel.

We're giving an invitation for people to be saved.

And this is such an important time.

This is actually what is referred to as an ordinance of the church.

And that means that it is something that is clearly gospel focused, it defines the gospel, and it is something that we observe as a church.

Baptism is the other ordinance that we recognize, which is exactly the same thing.

It is the picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

And so the Lord's Supper has actually been in the news recently through the Olympics.

And uh and I just want to take a moment and remind us of how important the Lord's Supper is and why that uh event was such an offensive uh moment uh for Christians because it is uh ridiculing and bringing down the very essence of what we believe in in the person of Jesus and in salvation.

So let's take a moment.

The Bible says uh on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, he took bread.

Go with me back to Matthew 26, and let's look just for a moment and make sure we are very clear on the importance of this moment and what it means.

This is a good time for us to really be clear about what's happening.

So here in Matthew 26, you get the same picture that Paul references.

In uh verse 26, he says, This As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed, and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take eat, this is my body.

Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and he said, Drink from it, all of you.

And there he is, for this is my blood that establishes the covenant, it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.

But I tell you from this moment I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in a new way in my father's kingdom with you.

And so you get exactly the same thing that Paul described in First Corinthians to the church, the essence of that moment that he described.

But let's take a minute and just understand the significance of what Jesus was doing.

If you'll look back just a little bit on verse 17, you're there in Matthew 26.

On the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, Where do you want us to prepare the Passover so you may eat it?

So when Jesus is breaking bread and he's doing the wine and the cup and all of that, they are actually in the middle of one of the key ceremonies of all of the Jewish faith.

Back in the Old Testament, when the Jews had found themselves in bondage in Egypt, and God raises up Moses to lead his people out of bondage and into the promised land.

If you'll remember, there were the ten plagues and all of that, and Pharaoh kept saying no, and you know, Moses let my people go, and all of that.

They got to the last one, and what the the judgment that was pronounced on Pharaoh in Egypt at that time was, if you do not let the you have not let the children of Israel go, and so what will happen is a death angel is going to pass through the country.

And if you have done the proper sacrifices with a lamb, which had already been utilized up to that point, the Jews understood what that meant.

If you will take your sacrificial lamb and you will sacrifice it, put it on the doorposts of your house, the death angel will pass over you.

In other words, you are protected by the blood.

And then they were instructed to prepare a specific meal that had a lot of symbolism in it, because God understood understood at the next day Pharaoh's going to let you go after this outcry of judgment occurs with the death of these firstborn all across this nation.

And so you need to be prepared, and they created this Passover Supper.

It's referred to as the Passover because the angel would pass over.

And so what happens is exactly what God said.

The angel, death angel, came through the nation, and anyone who had the blood on the door, they were protected by the blood.

Anyone who did not, their firstborn died.

And it's a picture of the judgment of sin and God's redemption.

And so they let the people go and they went on into the promised land.

Every year from that moment, they began to, as a religious exercise of the Jewish people, do the Passover Supper.

And it is reminding them of that moment, reminding them of God's redemption.

But God, as He did so often in the Old Testament, built in that pictures of the Messiah who would come.

And the Lamb of God who would come to take away the sins of the world.

That lamb, each year that that family sacrificed and put that blood on the doorposts and all that stuff as they ate this meal, they were remembering God's redemption then, and they were looking forward to the promise of the Messiah.

Then, as you get into this moment, it is also significant because this is when in verse 21 Jesus says, While they were eating, I assure you, one of you will betray me.

Remember, Paul said on the night in which he was betrayed.

And so they all began to panic, and not me, it's not going to be me, is it going to be me, and all of that?

And then it is revealed between Jesus and Judas that it's Judas.

And then you get to verse 26 again, and the Bible says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed, and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take and eat, this is my body.

Jesus is making an incredibly powerful statement and lesson here that he is the Lamb of God, the Messiah, who had come to take away our sins.

That he has been trying to explain up to this point to his followers that I'm going to go to the cross and I'm going to die in your place and I'm going to be rise raised again from the dead, and they're struggling to understand all that.

But when you understand Jewish heritage and the power of this moment and the Passover Supper, and as Jesus steps into this Passover Supper and He says, This is my body, I am going to the cross to die for you.

This is my blood which will be shed for you, and the covenant of God and salvation is met through the shedding of my blood as the Lamb of God.

It is an incredibly powerful moment, and it is vital to our understanding.

Jesus is stating clearly in this moment that He is our Savior.

That's why the Lord's Supper is such an iconic moment for believers in every generation.

It is a moment that we see Jesus stake the ground that He is God's Savior and promised Messiah.

That's why this is such a significant moment.

It's why it's such an important thing for us to understand.

It is why we take time and we observe the Lord's Supper and walk through this.

And it really is significant, I think, when Paul is giving those instructions.

It's a significant time for us to be reminded, even in that simple few moments, why this is so important for us and why it is such a powerful moment for us.

Now, as we are going to take the Lord's Supper here in a moment, a couple of things I want to share with you.

First of all, this is a moment for believers.

We are doing this to observe that Jesus is our Savior.

If you are not a believer, we are super glad you're here in this moment because this is a picture of what the gospel is.

And so we're going to ask that only believers take the Lord's Supper, but we are excited that you're here to watch this, to understand what salvation means and who Jesus is.

And at the end of this service, we'll have an invitation where we will give you an opportunity to place your faith in Jesus, whose body was broken for you and whose blood was shed for you.

If you are a member of another church and you're visiting with us, we are and you're saved, we're fine with you taking the Lord's Supper.

If you feel more comfortable waiting and doing that in your church, that is perfectly acceptable too.

And we're just glad you're here to celebrate this moment with us.

So we worship and enjoy this moment along with us as we celebrate Jesus.

The other thing Paul said to us because of the nature of this event, because of how important it is that we're sharing the gospel.

He says in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11, whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.

So a man should examine himself and excuse me, I have hiccups.

So a man should examine himself in this way.

He should eat the bread and drink from the cup.

For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

And so what he's saying is, because of the seriousness of this, and because we are literally proclaiming the gospel, that we should do that in a setting where we have given our hearts a moment to step before Jesus and say, Lord, thank you for saving me.

What is there in my life that you need to get rid of?

What is there that you need to deal with?

Clean this out of my life in this moment so that we can freely experience the worship and to worship Him without hesitation.

So I want to take just a moment where you are and give you a time, if you'll bow your heads where you are, and take just a moment and ask the Lord to point out is there anything in your heart, any attitude, any struggle?

What is it there that the Holy Spirit would point out to you in a moment when we are reminded again that it is the new covenant of his blood?

It means that Jesus has promised to forgive those sins.

He is faithful.

And just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I want you to just give it to him.

Confess it to him.

And thank him for forgiving that.

Lord, we do take this moment and we say, We are surrendered to you.

Lord, those things are in our lives that would keep us in this moment from just freely stepping into your presence and worshiping you.

We ask that you remove those.

We thank you for the promise to forgive our sins, and so we confess those to you.

And we thank you in the name of Jesus for forgiving those.

It's in his forgiving name that we pray, and all God's people said.

Okay, I'm going to ask the deacons to come now, and they're going to prepare the elements and to deliver those.

Again, this will be one delivery to you.

There'll be the juice and then another cup underneath that has the unleavened bread in it.

And so it is there for you.

Invite you to continue to worship with us as we sing out.

We give thanks to the one who came and gave for us.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Now we have to see this moment.

Jesus wrote that.

And no one comes to the Father but you are the Lamb of God when you take away the sins of the world.

You are the promised Messiah.

You stand out of heaven and live a sinless life.

And then voluntarily, in the most incredible and undescribable act of mercy and grace and love.

You went to the cross and you took the sins of the world there.

And you paid the price for our sins.

Then you rose again conquering the death and sin to offer us salvation.

Forgiveness and relationship with you.

The promise and hope of heaven and an eternity with you.

Lord we are humbled in all we are not in any way adequate to describe the incredible truth of what it means that your body was broken for us.

And you shed your blood for us.

But we come and we observe this moment.

We are reminded of your pronouncement of your sacrifice and your love and we proclaim this gospel.

It is in your saving name we pray.

And all God's people say scripture says after each element they gave thanks and that's what we've just done.

We want to sing out praise and thanks to the Lord I remember who I was lost I was mine I was mine out of time separated from my side of the cats you help me in your side so you make a way across the fright where we are strong to deal with here and slide here at the cross fake the dead I hope broke my face for the first time I call thank you Jesus for the love Jesus to watch you wide to Jesus to the darkness to glory to my face in the car meet for case I'm Jesus.

And so as we wind down this time of worship I want us to sing out to him and praise his name forevermore for all that he's done for us.

So can we stand and we sing as we draw near to the time of decision.

Because here's what Paul said go ahead and be seated just for a moment I told you that we would have an invitation at the end of the service a chance if you've never accepted Christ as your savior if you've never trusted in the gospel that we've just illustrated and sung about we want to invite you and give you a moment to accept Christ as your savior.

Why?

Because here's what Paul said for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes and Paul is reminding us again that Jesus is coming back.

That last verse when he comes and his uh presence splits the night and the in the picture of that verse when he comes to take us home we will know the covenant and his blood was completely eternally and ultimately filled Jesus is coming back and if you want to be saved and experience that time of eternity in heaven with him then you need to make Jesus your Savior.

You need to place your trust in him give him your life Pastor how do I do that?

You take your life everything you've been you are and you ever will be and you give it all to Jesus because you believe he died paid God's full price for your sin and he rose again conquering death and sin and that he is coming back to take us home.

I'm going to pray and then we're going to stand and sing that chorus again.

Our ministers will be at the head of our aisles and if you'd like to give your life to Christ you come.

Lord we thank you just for the blessing of coming together as a church family to experience this time of worship with what we call the Lord's Supper, your supper.

Where you from the time when you brought your children out of Egypt were pointing to Jesus who would come.

When Jesus stood in front of his disciples and he said my body is broken for you.

And now as we look back and know that Jesus came and that he rose again and accomplished salvation we proclaim this gospel and tell you we believe it and we look forward to your return.

And then in this moment if there's someone who's never accepted Christ as their Savior Lord I pray that the words of the song of the Spirit that are in the room of the picture of his body broken for us his blood shed for us that the Holy Spirit will speak to hearts and draw them back to you.

Lord give us the freedom now to respond to you in Jesus' name we pray in all God's people we pray this message has been a blessing to you and help to strengthen your walk with Jesus please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

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