Greatness of the Lord’s Supper
It’s true that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the last weeks, days and even hours of their life. This is especially true when someone knows the time of their death.
Take a condemned killer who is about to be executed for his crimes, and the news media reports what he read, who he met with and what his late meal consisted of in the final 24 hours leading up to his death.
Jesus knew when He was going to die. He had done nothing wrong and yet He was executed for our sins. We can learn much from studying the Last 24 hours of Jesus’ Life over the next several weeks leading up to Easter.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young pastor and seminary teacher who opposed Adolph Hitler’s policies in the 1930s. On April 5, 1943, the Germans arrested Bonhoeffer and put him in prison. Two years later the Nazis executed him, hanging him on the gallows just days before the Allies swept in to liberate Germany.
About ten weeks after his arrest, Bonhoeffer ended a letter (his correspondence during captivity has been published in “Letters and Papers from Prison”) to his parents with these words:
“It is Monday, and I was just sitting down to a dinner of turnips and potatoes when a parcel you sent me by Ruth arrived. Such things give me greater joy than I can say. Although I am utterly convinced that nothing can break the bonds between us, I seem to need some outward token or sign to reassure me. In this way, material things become the vehicles of spiritual realities. I suppose it is rather like the felt need in our religion for [communion].”
Bonhoeffer knew his parents loved him. Yet he still hungered for that love to be reaffirmed. He needed to be reminded of their love in a tangible way. His package from home served that purpose, and Bonhoeffer saw the Lord’s Supper doing the same.
(Title: Beyond Infosermons: How To Preach With Impact, Not Just Information; Author: Martin Thielen; Date: 01/01/95
Source: Online Leadership Journal: America Online)
There’s just something special about getting a gift from someone who you are separated from for a period of time. The contents of the package – whatever they are — serve as powerful reminders that someone loves you and is thinking of you.
The Lord’s Supper is God’s way of saying, “Remember, I love you and am thinking of you.”
Luke is the third gospel book in the bible. Gospel means good news and the book of Luke was written to share the good news about God’s love for us.
The Lord’s Supper especially represents the great love God has for us and we will observe this special remembrance toward the end of our service today.
Luke 22 provides us with,
Some Great Lessons from the Lord’s Supper:
► The Lord’s Supper Helps Us Keep Our Minds On Jesus.
Luke 22:7-14
It shows how Jesus fulfilled the great Passover Feast.
The Passover refers back to the time when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 11:1f). He had pronounced judgment, the taking of the firstborn, upon the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt for their injustices. As God prepared to execute the final judgment, those who believed Him were instructed to slay a pure lamb and sprinkle its blood over the door posts of their homes.
The blood of the innocent lamb would then serve as a sign that the coming judgment had already been carried out upon the sacrificial lamb. When seeing the blood, God would pass over that house. Those who believed God applied the blood to their homes and were saved, but those who did not believe did not apply the blood to their homes and they were destroyed.
. . . do this in remembrance of Me.
1 Corinthians 11:24
Symbolically, the Passover pictured the coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior. The lamb without blemish pictured His sinless life (cp. John 1:29), and the blood sprinkled on the door posts pictured His blood, shed for the believer. It was a sign that the life and blood of the innocent lamb had been substituted for the firstborn.
What does this Christ's mean in terms of its great purpose in your life? It means that you can enjoy a personal relationship with the God Who created you. It means whatever your worries are today, whatever mountains are staring you in the face, whatever trouble you experienced over this past week or month, God's grace is sufficient for you.
In fact, we think our weaknesses are our worst enemies right? If you are weak at something then you worry over it. You try to get stronger to overcome the weakness.
God says in His Word that He uses our weaknesses for His credit.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
You feel inadequate for a task God has called you to perform and He says let me handle the results you be faithful.
You sense you are unprepared and unqualified to do a job God has called you to and He says then I'll get the credit because nobody ever thought you would be able to do it.
Years ago I shared Jesus with a friend of mine who always listened but turned down the opportunity to respond and enter into a personal walk with Christ. For years, Melody and I prayed for this man and loved this man. We moved away and just this past week I received an email that he had become a Christ follower. He's now reading his bible and trying to do God's will instead of his own.
Stories like that make sharing Christ's love worthwhile.
Luke 22:15-20
Jesus loved with fervent desire. He told his friends, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;” (Luke 22:15). Notice Jesus mentions desire twice, once on the form of a verb and again in the form of a noun.
The combination of the verb “desire” and the noun “desire” doubles the intensity in Jesus’ expression of his deep longing to be with his friends.
When a wealthy young man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked how he could inherit eternal life, “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21).
As soon as he saw him, affection welled up in his heart for him, just as sometimes when you meet someone, you get a strong feeling that you could develop a deep relationship with this person.
Jesus was definitely tying both the love and this last supper to His death. Jesus of all people could have taken out revenge on his enemies, but He chose a much better way.
Berlin used to be separated by a great wall between the East and the West until just recently, the last 22 or 23 years.
The Berlin Wall was a wall that stood in East Berlin over the ocean in Eastern Europe. It was built by a cruel government to keep its citizens from fleeing to a better life in the free world.
In the early days of the Berlin Wall when emotions were still very much on edge and hostility was running high, truckloads of garbage were dumped over the wall from the eastern sector onto the western side. Everyone in West Berlin was outraged at such a terrible deed. The topic of conversation on every street corner, in every home, was how best to get revenge.
Then the word went out from Mayor Willie Brandt that every flower, every petal, every bit of green that could be gathered was to be brought to an appointed spot at the wall. Then all that beauty and fragrance was thrown over the wall to the eastern sector. And above the wall a great banner was hoisted. As the banner was unfurled, these words were revealed: “Each gives what he has.”
The East German government had thrown garbage; the West German people threw back flowers.
(Title: Palm Branches, Beautiful Flowers And An Empty Tomb; Date: 1/1/92; Source: Dynamic Preaching Disk, Winter 1992 “A”)
Look carefully at the message of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. A banner could read, “You threw Him your insults, your spit, your hatred, your cursing, your fists, your crown of thorns, your nails and your spear. He threw you His love through His broken body and shed blood.”
What is the significance of this for you?
When people offend you, hurt you, criticize you, attack your reputation and let you down by their behavior, you can respond the way Jesus responded to His enemies.