It’s really great how this worked out because we took a week off our Matthew series last week to look at baptism and now we are jumping back into the series right at Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper. This happens on Thursday of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are what we call the two sacraments or ordinances in the church. If you come from a baptist tradition you probably call it an ordinance. If you come from most of the other denominations you probably call it a sacrament. And if you’re thinking, ‘Well, I come from a non-denominational background.” Well, here’s your annual reminder that non-denominational means baptist. Or as Tim Hawkins says, baptists with a cool website.
Now, the Lord’s Supper, also called communion or even the eucharist in the Episcopal, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic traditions, has been one of the most argued theological issues over the past 500 years. It was a huge part of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther didn’t believe that the bread and wine was literally Jesus’ body and blood as the Roman Catholic Church taught, which was a very big deal at the time. Then, Protestants broke with each other because Luther believed that Jesus was physically present with the bread and wine even though it was just bread and just wine and along came a guy named Zwingly who thought that Jesus wasn’t there in any way and that all that we do in communion is pure symbolism. Zwingly and Luther fought bitterly over this. John Calvin came along later and said that Jesus couldn’t be there physically because he is physically on the throne, but that Jesus is somehow mysteriously spiritually present through His Spirit when the church takes communion together. Then, baptists would come along and believe that the wine mysteriously becomes juice:)
And you might wonder what the big deal is, but Jesus only commanded two things that we are supposed to do in the church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And if Jesus commands it and if it is good for us to do, then we should want to get it right. When I think about the Lord’s Supper, three words come to mind. Remember, repent, and rejoice. And what’s interesting is that is exactly the flow of the passage today. The passage starts with a Passover meal which was commanded by God to remember. Then, we see Judas being dismissed to betray Jesus forever embodying what a lack of repentance looks like. Then, we have Jesus giving us the Lord’s Supper as a way to rejoice in Him after he is physically gone from this earth. So, remember, repent, and rejoice is the flow of this passage and a great summary of what the Lord’s Supper is.
- Remember
It’s not a coincidence that this passage starts with a Passover meal. The Passover was implemented by God after the Exodus. You may remember that when Moses was trying to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, God brought ten plagues on Egypt and the last one was that the first born in every family would be killed unless that house spread the blood of a lamb over their door. For those houses, God would pass over and spare them. So, the Passover meal was commanded by God as a way for the Israelites to remember what God had done for them. A way to remember God’s salvation of Israel out of Egypt.
But, this remembering served a purpose. It wasn’t just remembering the past. It was remembering the past as an encouragement about what God would do in the future. God had promised a Messiah. He had promised salvation not just from the Egyptians, but from sin. Remembering the way God had saved the Israelites was also a way of holding hope for the salvation yet to come.
Now, if you want to get technical, you had the Passover meal and then the festival of unleavened bread, but by the time of Jesus, those two events had pretty much merged into one. So, when you said festival of Unleavened Bread or Passover, you were probably just referring to all of it which is what I think is happening in Matthew. Jesus knew that this would be his last meal with his disciples. What we call the Last Supper. John records a lot of what happened at this last supper, but Matthew doesn’t.
I bet there was a lot of remembering going on at this meal. Of course, remembering God’s grace when He passed over, but I imagine they remembered Jesus’ miracles. His walking on the water. His multiplying the bread and fish. The highs and lows of their three years together. We can think of the Last Supper as this unique meal. As if the disciples would have suspected something was up, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. This was the most normal of all meals for them. The only modern equivalents we have would be like a Thanksgiving meal or a Christmas dinner. It seemed as normal as can be…but then… Jesus tells them that one of them would betray him. That takes us from remember to repent.
- Repent
When Jesus tells this to the disciples this, it changed the mood of the room in an instant. Matthew says they were sorrowful. They were grieved to their core. This is the same word Matthew uses for Jesus later that night in the Garden of Gethsemane. They go one by one around the table and ask Jesus, “Is it I?” This is interesting because no one had any idea that it was Judas. When I lived in Italy, I often went into beautiful old Catholic Cathedrals. The artwork in them is incredible and whenever you see Judas depicted, you can always tell he was bad. In some paintings he’s darker, in some you can see demons behind him, in others he just has a scowl on his face. You don’t need to know the Bible to tell that’s a bad dude.
But, that wasn’t the case at this meal. No one had any idea that it was going to be Judas. It wasn’t like Jesus said this and all eyes went over to Judas. They had no idea. Then in verse 21 he says that it is the person who dips their hand into the dish at the same time as Jesus. Apparently, Jesus said this softly and maybe only to one person. John says that Peter really wanted to know so he got John to ask Jesus who it was. And Jesus says that it would have been better for this person who is going to betray him to have never been born. And this is when Judas asks, “Is it I, Rabbi?” And Jesus said, “You have said so.” Which means yes.
The reason I picked the word repent for this part of the passage is because all the disciples ask the same questions, but there is a stark difference between the heart behind it. The disciples mournfully ask if it could possibly be them who would betray Jesus….but Judas asks to find out if he’d been caught.
The posture of the disciples when they ask this question is one of repentance. It’s the posture of the Psalmist in Psalm 139 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! vTry me and know my thoughts!3 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and wlead me in xthe way everlasting! - Psalm 139:23,24 There is a willingness to hear the hard things from Jesus. Repentance means turning from our sin and toward Jesus. Repentance is willing to hear and own the things we have done that we should not have done and the things we have not done that we should have.
Repentance isn’t sorry you got caught. It is being grieved by how it grieves God. It’s not being afraid of how God might respond to your sin, but a response to your sin based on who God is. I’ve had times where my kids come to me and confess having done something they shouldn't have and something I very well might have never found out. And in those moments, my heart is softened and the last thing on my mind is punishment. And if that’s how I, a sinful dad, feels, how much more will a perfect God respond to our true repentance toward Him.
Our culture says that when we do wrong, we should try to learn from it and do better next time working toward a life where we do more good than bad. This is why so many billions of dollars are spent on self help books and podcasts. But the Christian message is much different. It isn’t a ledger of good works on one side and bad works on the other trying to see if they cancel each other out in the end. Christianity rightly understands that one offense to a holy God is all it takes to be condemned by Him.
And some people feel like that escalated very quickly or that it just seems unreasonable. But if that’s what you think, you’re minimizing both your sin and the holiness of God. I’ve used this example before, but imagine that one of you came up on this stage and punched me in the face. What’s the worst that would happen? You’re pretty safe from my hand to hand combat skills. I’d probably call the police, you’d be arrested, but you’d be back in your own bed by tonight. But, if you did the same thing to the Governor, you’d be in prison. If you managed to get into the White House and punch the President of the United States, you might not see the light of day again. It’s the same offense, but the punishment gets worse. Why is that? Because as the one being sinned against gets more important, so does the punishment for that offense. And if that’s how we operate here on earth, how much more punishment is necessary if the one being sinned against is God Himself? C.S. Lewis wrote, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.”
Repenting is laying down your arms and submitting yourself to the kingship of Jesus in your life. It’s seeing that God loves us so much that he took on the punishment for our sin on the cross in Jesus. He received the wrath we deserve so when we repent. When we lay down our arms, we are acknowledging our need for that forgiveness and for Jesus’ righteousness. We aren’t running from our sin, but owning it and running to God’s love for us and grace on us.
King David and King Saul are Old Testament pictures of the disciples and Judas. Both kings were extremely sinful men, but when confronted with their sin, Saul tried to save face and David repented. When we try to save face, when we try to make things look good on the outside, it actually causes our inside to die just a little bit more. But, when we own the sickness on the inside and take it to Jesus, it actually causes us to become more alive. Repentance is the right recognition of who we are and who God is. Then, and only then, can we truly rejoice.
- Rejoice
This is where we get to the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus gets up and begins to speak. This makes sense because when you celebrate the Passover, the head of the household was supposed to get up and explain what it meant. They would get up and say something like, “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the wilderness. They suffered that we would be delivered.”
But, Jesus changes this up. He says, “This is the bread of MY affliction. This is the bread through which YOUR suffering will end and YOUR deliverance is at hand.” He’s basically saying that Passover remembers God bringing us out from under the Pharaoh's bondage, but on this night Jesus is going to bring us out from under the bondage of sin. He’s bringing a redemption that the Passover can only faintly point to. Jesus will deliver them from sin and death. I can’t overstate what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying that tonight he may be betrayed, but that it is going to be the singular moment that all of human history has been working toward.
Every return from exile. Every deliverance from any tyrant. Every substitutionary sacrifice of an animal. Everything. Everything that has ever happened in the whole history of redemption, in the whole history of God’s work with his people, everything is moving toward this night. It’s so significant that Jesus is saying this over a Passover meal. He’s saying that this is the deliverance of all deliverances. This is the exodus of all exoduses.
This is why we come to this part of the passage rejoice. Jesus is willingly being betrayed so we can be eternally saved. And this is the only thing Jesus ever tells his people to do over and over. Matthew doesn’t record this, but Mark, Luke, and Paul do, that we should do this over and over in remembrance of Him. And you have to imagine that the disciples were like, “Remember? How could we ever forget you, Jesus?” But, Jesus knew that we are forgetful people.
In the same way God commanded His people to celebrate the Passover to remember their deliverance from Egypt, He commands that we celebrate communion to remember our deliverance from our sin. So, let me ask three questions. What is happening when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Who is it for? And how often should we do it?
What is happening? The bread and the wine are not literally Jesus' body and blood as the Roman Catholic Church teaches. There have been books and books written about this on either side of this argument. But I think the simplest way to understand what is going on here is to look at this passage. Jesus is physically present with his disciples, he’s holding the bread, and he says, “this is my body.” Whatever it means that the bread is his body has to have the same meaning at the Last Supper as it does here today. And it seems so simple to me that Jesus is using the bread and the wine symbolically. He was there with them. His blood had not been shed yet. The bread and wine have to be symbols and not his literal body.
But, what’s happening is more than just symbolic. I can’t say it any better than the Dutch Theologian, Herman Bavinck. He says, “The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace which Christ has instituted in his church in order to distribute and communicate himself to believers. In the Lord’s Supper, Christ does not again sacrifice himself, nor does he again descend to earth, but he does truly give himself in the Spirit to his own, so that through faith they may be nourished by his body and blood unto eternal life.”
Do you hear that? The Lord’s Supper is a way He gives himself to us through His Spirit. It is a way we are nourished. That means it’s more than just remembering. Remembering is certainly part of it, but it’s more than what Zwingli taught. Jesus is mysteriously with us through His Spirit. When we take communion, we don’t just hear the gospel, we see the gospel, we touch it, we taste it, and we smell it. And the Holy Spirit uses this to fuel our walks with Jesus. To draw us closer to him. To help us remember, repent, and rejoice. This means that what is happening is more spiritually profound than other things we do during the week. It’s more spiritually profound than a quiet time, a Bible study, or community group. And all those things are very important. Tim Keller says that in communion “Jesus and the Holy Spirit take the cross and shape our hearts with it.”
So, who is it for? All those who remember, repent, and rejoice in Jesus. It’s not for perfect people, it’s for repentant people. And it’s not for perfectly repentant people either. There is this idea that unless we can think of and confess every single sin we have committed that week, we are unworthy of going to the table. That’s not how it works. It’s for anyone who knows that they are sinful and willing to acknowledge that Jesus is our only hope in our sin. It’s not a Roman Catholic confessional that only works if we confess every sin. It’s a call from Jesus to come to the table and say, “search me, oh Lord.”
I heard of a pastor once in Mississippi who was passing out communion and this young woman had tears in her eyes and she let the plate pass. The pastor saw this and went over to her and in a way only a sweet older pastor who knew this woman could say, he said, “Sweety, it’s for sinners. Take it.” Don’t come to the table hesitant if you are worthy. Come confidently knowing that Jesus has made you worthy.
Then, lastly, how often should we do this? This is very debated. Should it be once a year? Once a quarter? Once a week? I think there is freedom to have different opinions on this, but let me just give you four reasons we take it each week. First, Jesus said as often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord’s death. So, it sure seems like doing it often is good. Second, we know that it was the practice of the early church to do this once a week. This is what is happening in Acts 20. [7] On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread… -Acts 20:7a They gathered every Sunday and when they did, they broke bread, which most everyone acknowledges as taking the Lord’s Supper together. Third, as I’ve said, Jesus is setting up The Lord’s Supper as the new and better Passover. They only celebrated the Passover once a year. But, the Lord’s Supper is superior to the passover in what it communicates and so increasing the frequency seems prudent. Fourth, we would argue that the same grace is present in preaching and the Lord’s Supper, but no one ever debates how often we should preach. So, we have decided to take the Lord’s Supper together every Sunday.
I want to finish by asking this question. When you look at all the other religious leaders, why would anyone pick Jesus? Really. All the other religious leaders died peacefully at an old age having spent the majority of their lives teaching things that people thought were wise. Moses died at 120 after an amazing run. Buddha died at 80 in what seemed like perfect serenity. Confucious was welcomed back into his hometown of Qufu and died at 72 surrounded by people who revered him and celebrated his work. Muhammud died in his 60’s in the arms of his wife after having united all of Arabia.
Then you have Jesus. He died around the age of 33 after only three years of ministry. He is alienated from his family. He is arrested by the Romans. He is abandoned by his disciples. And he is killed in an excruciating and humiliating death on a cross. The cross represented shame, humiliation, and defeat. The other religions at least had founders who finished their lives in a way that we would want to finish ours. Who looks at Jesus and says, “That’s what I want to follow!”?
The Last Supper explains this. It’s because this is the death we deserve and he took it for us. No other religious leader did that. The cross is the emblem of shame that we glory in. Jesus brought glory, honor, and significance to the cross because he went there in our place. And he did that because of his love for us.
And as we come to the table, we take the elements and the Holy Spirit does a work in our hearts. He brings that glory into our lives. And that cross brings down all the other boundaries that stand between us. This is why Paul says that in Jesus there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. Only our God is a God with scars. Scars of love. Scars of redemption. Scars of grace. And because of that, billions of Christians around the world today have chosen Jesus. And billions of Christians today come to the table and we remember, we repent, and we rejoice. And as we rejoice in this, we also rejoice in the fact that this doesn’t just point backward. It points forward as one day we will do this with Jesus.
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