The Lord’s Supper Wynne Chapel, June 5, 2005 John Chapman, Assoc. Pastor
Crucified….Christ
“took the fall” for you and me…he thought of us above all.
When we come together
around the table of the Lord we come to celebrate that sacrifice. We remember that Christ not only lived for
us, but that he died for us, as a sin-offering, once for all who would believe
in Him.
The act of sacrifices for
forgiveness of sin goes back to the Old Testament. Moses built the tabernacle according to the
pattern that God showed him so that sacrifices could be offered properly to the
God of Creation.
But, as Hebrews says, that
was a mere copy and shadow of the real thing.
CHRIST IS THE TRUE TABERNACLE
----------------------------OUTER COURT--------------------------------
ALTAR:
When one came into the
outer court of the tabernacle the first thing that was seen was the altar. They would bring their lamb, or bull or doves
to the priest. They would lay their hand
on the head of the animal as a symbol that it’s life
was being given for their sin and the priest would then kill the animal.
For us today we remember
the ultimate sacrifice, once for all, of Jesus Christ on the Cross
24Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not
guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away
our sins. 25For God sent Jesus to take the
punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made
right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life
for us.
And we read in
25Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again,
like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to
offer the blood of an animal. 26If that had been necessary, he would
have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came
once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by
his sacrificial death for us.
LAVER:
Next the priest
would go to the Brass Laver. It was
filled with water where the priest would wash his hands and feet before
entering the tabernacle itself.
Here again we see a
picture of Christ as Our Sanctification, Our cleansing
In
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also
loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word.
17So then faith comes from
hearing, and hearing by the word of God (some
translations say the word of Christ).
We are cleansed when we read in the Word
that Christ died so that our sin would be forgiven and we would have eternal
life with God. We find forgiveness of
sin in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.
But there is also another application.
That being the symbolic cleansing of our consciences
before we come into the presence of the Almighty God; confessing our sins and
failures before him each and every day.
-------------------------------HOLY
PLACE-----------------------------
GOLDEN LAMPSTAND:
Now the priest
could enter the holy place. On the left
as he entered the room was the Golden Lamp stand. It had 7 flames that burned continually
symbolizing the sevenfold ministry of the Spirit of Christ found in
1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
These “lamps”
used olive oil as fuel for the flame which also symbolizes the Holy Spirit. It
was the only light in the tabernacle and provided enough light for the entire
place.
A beautiful
picture of Christ as the Light of the World
We read in
12…“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
And in
Revelation 21 we read more of Christ as the light when New Jerusalem is being
described…
23And the city has no need of sun or
moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and
the Lamb is its light.
SHEWBREAD:
On the right as you entered
the tabernacle was the “bread of the presence” or the table of the
showbread. There were 12 loaves, one for
each of the tribes of
Christ is our Bread of Life .
He said in
51“I
am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life
of the world is My flesh.”
Without Him we do not have eternal life
I
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No
man cometh unto the Father but by me.
Without Him our lives have no meaning. Jesus himself said,
“apart from me you can do nothing.”
ALTAR OF INCENSE:
The altar of incense stood
in front of the veil separating the
Christ, as Our High
Priest, Intercedes for us before the Father
25Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw
near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for
them.
NEXT WAS THE VEIL which separated the
The High priest entered once a year to make
atonement for the sins of the nation of
CHRIST REMOVED THE VEIL
When he died on the cross the Veil was torn in two
from top to bottom – we can now come boldly before the throne of God through
Jesus.
-------------------------------MOST HOLY PLACE------------------------------
Inside the Holy of Holies
was the Ark of the Covenant. This is
where the presence of the Almighty God would appear. The High Priest sprinkled
blood on the “mercy seat” once a year for the sins of the people.
Christ, as Our High
Priest, offered His Own Blood for our sin, not the blood of animals (Romans
and He is Our Propitiation, Our Covering
2and He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also
for those of the whole world.
And Christ is there now sitting at the right
hand of God the Father.
NEED/CONFESSION
For you and I today Christ
is STILL the answer.
1.
We are STILL in Need
a. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
b. The wages, or penalty, for sin is death. Rom.
c. 22And according to the Law, one
may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness or remission. Remission means release from having to pay
the penalty of death. Heb.
2.
God provided Jesus to pay the price for us
Atonement:
removing the barrier of sin between God & Man
Not only is
He our High Priest but He is also the offering.
3. He
is still the answer to our separation from God…we simply need to acknowledge Him
as Lord and Savior.
9…if you confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in
salvation.
Romans 10:9
But it is a CHOICE! In
“21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you
cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons”.
Choose this day
whom you will serve.
Today is the day of salvation.
The Lord’s Supper or Communion is to remind us of
what the Lord has done for us…that He has bridged the gap between God the
Father and us….and that he paid the price with his life. Paul says in
26For as often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 27Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in
an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the
Lord. 28But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of
the bread and drink of the cup. 29For he who eats and drinks, eats and
drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the
body rightly. 30For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number
sleep. 31But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are
disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting
way. Psalm 139:23
SILENT PRAYER followed by a PRAYER OF
CONFESSION
The BREAD
1.
Represents the BODY of Jesus…the physical body…
32So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of
the other who was crucified with Him; 33but coming to Jesus, when they saw that
He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34But one of the soldiers pierced His
side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34
Christ died.
He ceased to breathe. His flesh
ceased to live.
We are called to “die” with him. To consider our flesh as
“dead.”
5Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to
idolatry Col. 3:5
Paul put it this way to the Galatians:
20“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for
me.
.
Now we desire to live that
way in order to please Him…in order to please the one who gave His life for us.
2. The Bread of Life
(John
Through Jesus we have “life,” and we have “life” in the
“body of Christ” which is not of flesh but a spiritual body made up of all
those who believe that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the World.
The disciples asked Jesus, 28…“What does God want us to do?”
29Jesus told
them, “This is what God wants you to do:
Believe in the one he has sent.”
30They replied, “You
must show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What will you
do for us? 31After all, our
ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! As the
Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32Jesus said, “I assure you, Moses didn’t give them
bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from
heaven. 33The true bread of
God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34“Sir,” they said,
“give us that bread every day of our lives.”
35Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes
to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst.
51I am the living bread that came down out
of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my
flesh, offered so the world may live.”
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The CUP represents the shed BLOOD of Jesus
Blood is the source of life.
4“Only you shall not eat flesh with its
life, that is, its blood Genesis 9:4
We already read
in Hebrews (
The Blood of the New Covenant
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood;
do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 1
Cor. 11:25b
Blood of the
Old Covenant: was the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts; sides, top
and bottom-----------God passed over their houses and the lives of their
firstborn was spared.
Blood of the
New Covenant: Christ our Passover Lamb. (1 Cor 5:7)------God
passed over our sin and our lives were spared and allowed to continue for
eternity.
The New Covenant…
We read about this in
13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
We find the new covenant in
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, (Jeremiah 31:33, 34b)
And I will remember their sins no more.” (
19Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience (by the blood of Jesus: NLT) and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Heb. 10:19-25