(1) Christians and eating : What may we eat?
(2) Christians and eating : When and How?
(3) Passover
(4) The Last Supper [i]
(5) The Last Supper [ii] - A Better Lamb
(6) Why is it bread?
(7) Something old, something new
(8) Wine [i] - Drink my blood
(9) Wine [ii] - Dealing with broken promises
(10) The Lord's Supper in the early church
(11) The Lord's Supper and us
This new series of sermons on the Lord's Supper has two purposes. Firstly, to help us benefit more from our existing celebrations of the supper. Secondly, to help us consider how we might develop our practices as a church, in this area. To begin with, in this sermon we looked some general background to eating and drink from the Bible. We did this by taking a journey through the Bible and seeing how God altered, at various points, what his people may eat. From the beginning God made people to need food and for us to enjoy a wide variety, with initially mankind being vegetarian (Gn 1:29). One tree, however, was off-limits to us (Gn 2:17) but tragically that was the very fruit we chose to take, in rebellion against God. This sin ruined humanity, resulting in our deaths, and spoiled the world, bringing down curse and hindering the easy production of good food on the earth. Also, as a result of our sin, animal lives had to be taken. In his mercy, God killed some of his animals in order to clothe Adam and Eve so they could continue to live (Gn 3:21). From then on people offered animal sacrifices to God, until Noah was invited not only to offer meat to God, but to eat some for himself (Gn 9:2). And so, through God's permission, mankind became meat-eaters. This is a great privilege - benefiting from the life of another of God's precious creatures – and an example of God bringing good out of evil situations. But then God changed the eating habits of his people again, in the time of Moses. In the days before the flood the world of living creatures had been ruined in many ways (Gn 6:12 [ESV]), with the result that some animals now have behaviour patterns and characteristics which are far removed from God's original creation designs and categories. Leviticus identified these as unclean animals – giving tests and definitions for them – and restricted the Israelite use of them (Lev 11). In this way God showed the terrible effects of sin in the world and reminded his people of his holiness. However, when Jesus came he explained that the fundamental problem was not with the food but with the human heart whose wickedness has damaged everything (Mk 7). So when Jesus dealt with sin on the cross – the final sacrifice which was needed – and made his people holy, then all animals were made “clean” for Christians and may be eaten.
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Following on from last time (What may we eat?), we looked at three questions in this sermon. The first was “when shall we eat?” and this examined ways in which meals can bring greater benefits than just sustenance. From the Bible we saw meals as times of fellowship. The Lord Jesus was willing to eat with others and he gave food to others, out of kindness and love. Christians are called to be the same, even with strangers (Heb 13:2) and enemies (Rom 12:20). Meals can also be times of celebration as seen in the feasts of Israel (Ex 23). The Lord Jesus tells us he is looking forward to happier days when he will drink wine with his people (Mk 14:25). In the light of this, Christians will, at times, celebrate God's goodness over a meal. Thirdly, meals can also be times of remembrance, such as the Passover meal in Israel which looked back to the escape from Egypt (Ex 12). God has designed us so that taste and smell, the eating of a meal, can help to prompt thoughts and memories of past events. We then moved on to look at “how shall we eat?” which considered the things we do alongside eating, which helps our meals to be what they should be. Primarily the answer to us appears in 1 Cor 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Paul says that we may eat anything – even meat from pagans – so long as we glorify God in our eating. If a particular context will not bring glory to God then we should skip the food, as Paul shows with regard to people who want to boast about food coming from idolatrous worship. But in positive ways how do we glorify God in eating? Firstly, by being willing to share our meals in the ways described above. Secondly, by making sure we are grateful to God for our food, whether by general attitude or expressed through spoken prayer at the start of a meal. Thirdly, by praising God for the rich and wonderful ways that he has made our foods and made us to enjoy the variety. Fourthly by putting God first and even being willing to go unsatisfied if God's service requires it (Lk 4:3-4; 1 Cor 8:13; Mt 6:16-18). To conclude the sermon we thought briefly about how, in our resurrection bodies, we shall still enjoy food in the new heavens and earth.
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The passover meal remembered passover night in Egypt – the tenth disaster God brought about to achieve the release of the Israelites from slavery. During the night every first-born from both people and animals died, but the Israelites were kept safe. However, they were not to feel proud about this since all human beings deserve to die because of sin: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). So God made passover night a very tense and nerve-racking one for the Israelites to show they were only kept safe by God's mercy. Preparations began on the 10th day of the month, when a lamb was selected and taken into the home of each family. The lamb was old enough to have spent time with its mother and then before slaughter it spent four days in the care of the family. The Israelites had to see the lamb as a precious, living creature dying on their behalf, and not just as a roast picked up from Tescos. On the 14th day the lamb was killed and roasted, to form the basis of a tense and hasty night-time meal: preparing the Israelites for their escape in the dark from Egypt. This lamb was a sacrifice and its blood was painted on the door-frame of each house, to protect the Israelites from the wrath of God against sin. With the lamb, the Israelites ate bitter herbs to remind them of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. They also ate unleavened bread, not only for the passover meal but also during the days following. This bread was prepared quickly and was flat and hard. It symbolised the tension of the escape from Egypt (Deut 16:3) but was also connected with the throwing out of yeast (Ex 12:15). A pot of yeast would be kept going all the time in an Israelite kitchen using dough from yesterday's bread. But the Israelites had to throw this out on passover night: there was to be no Egyptian yeast in Canaan. In other words they were starting new lives and weren't to hanker for the old days in Egypt. How does this apply to Christians? Paul tells us (1 Cor 5) that Christ is our passover lamb who has protected us from the wrath of God against sin. We are living in one long passover night in which we constantly “eat” of Christ at the Lord's supper. We must also throw out our old yeast – the “yeast of malice and wickedness”. Christians are to live new lives, taking radical steps, to get rid of sin.
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All four gospels record details about “The Last Supper”, showing how important it is. This supper is the transition moment between the meal which the Lord gave to his Old Testament people (the passover) and the meal the Lord gave to his New Testament people (the communion). In this sermon we concentrated on Matthew's gospel and looked at verses 1-25 which take us up to the moment when Jesus gives the bread and wine. Jesus sets his death firmly in the context of the passover festival because understanding what happened at the first passover helps us to understand Jesus' death. Firstly, we see Jesus being prepared for death by an anointing with expensive perfume. The disciples fail to understand the importance of this but that's because they still don't realise Jesus must die: that is what he has come to do; his death and resurrection are the heart of the message of Jesus. Being prepared for death in this way reminds us of the preciousness of the Lord Jesus – this is going to be a costly sacrifice to save God's people from their sins! And it is an echo of what happened at the first passover when the lamb to be slain was cared for in the family home for four days (Ex 12:6). In the same way Jesus is cared for in a family home before he goes to his death. Meanwhile Judas is scheming to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins. However, Jesus remains in control of the whole situation and won't let Judas act until he is ready. So he organises a secret passover meal with his disciples 24 hours earlier (Thursday evening) than the official one (Friday evening), using a contact of his in Jerusalem. This prevents Judas from informing the authorities until Jesus is ready to be arrested. Then at the meal itself, Jesus takes the initiative and exposes the fact he is going to be betrayed. However, he doesn't name the betrayer which means both that Judas still has time to act but Judas also has time to think again. Jesus then speaks a terrifying warning about his betrayer before explaining that he will be betrayed by somebody who is eating the passover with him. Which means that Judas is going against the whole spirit of passover which was supposed to be about people eating together to be kept safe from death! But Judas looks at Jesus and denies his plans. The human heart is so hard.
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The key item which forms the heart of the passover meal is the passover lamb. Yet no lamb is mentioned by Matthew 26 and so we asked ourselves: “Where is the lamb?” The Last Supper progressed in the normal way for a passover meal, and so before the main course of lamb, herbs and bread, Jesus blesses God – which was what the head of each Jewish household would normally using words like these: “Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth” However, when Jesus then breaks the bread for distribution he puts a whole new meaning onto it saying “Take and eat; this is my body.” (Mt 26:26) Of course at that moment in the meal the disciples expected to eat the body of the lamb! But Jesus redirects attention to himself by asking them to eat his body. In doing so, he is telling his disciples to redirect their understanding of God's salvation. Up until now they've always looked back to what God did at the Exodus: a great salvation. But now they must look to a better salvation where a better lamb will die – the death of Christ on the cross – in which they think of themselves like those ancient Israelites: in danger of wrath but protected by the lamb. However, Jesus cannot literally give them chunks of himself, so he uses the bread in front of him to represent his body. So what is Jesus teaching them? That the old passover was always a limited salvation and so was only a first taste of something better. The passover lamb was a perfect specimen in every way, like a creature from the dawn of creation unmarked by sin. And yet that precious, beautiful life could only protect the Israelites for one night only: passover night in Egypt. Soon Israelite people would be dying under the wrath of God in the desert. So they should have realised that they still needed a better salvation, which could fully rescue them from their sin and hence God's wrath. And that's why Jesus has come: to be that better lamb. He has come as the perfect sacrifice to turn away God's wrath not just for one night, but for ever. The bread of the Lord's Supper reminds Christians that the gospel is about a passover: about people being rescued from God's wrath. We must reflect that solemn truth in our worship, our prayers and our witness to others.
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This sermon gave four reasons explaining why bread is particularly suitable for representing the body of the Lord Jesus and how it is rich with meaning. Firstly, bread is the basic foodstuff of life. Jesus spoke of bread in this way in the Lord's prayer: “give us this day our daily bread”. However, such ordinary bread is only good in the short-term - we'll be hungry again. So Jesus pointed out how we need a better bread which will give eternal satisfaction and he then described himself as that bread saying “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6:35). Therefore, we eat bread at the Lord's Supper as a token of our taking Jesus as our bread of life by: trusting in him; learning from him; and living for him in obedience. Secondly, another reason for eating bread at the Lord's Supper is because it comes from both God and man, like the Lord Jesus himself. Some food, such as apples, occurs naturally but bread needs the skill of a baker as well as the ingredients which God causes to grow. Which makes it suitable for representing Jesus who in the eternal son of God, dwelling in an ordinary human body. Therefore, we eat bread at the Lord's Supper to remind us of just who Jesus was and is: man and God brought together, for ever. Thirdly, we use bread remembering that it requires yeast to rise. Yeast, in the Bible, is symbolic of the old of life of “malice and wickedness” (1 Cor 5:8) that we lived before the Lord saved us from our sins ; a life which the believer must put away. Jesus' life was lived free of such sin: his was a holy life. Therefore, we eat bread at the Lord's Supper to remind us of the sin within us which needs forgiving and of the call of God for us to follow the Lord Jesus, in his perfect life. Fourthly, we eat bread at the Lord's Supper because the one loaf which is shared out is a symbol of the unity of the church. “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Cor 10:16). In fact, Paul says that the church is the body of Christ: so by eating of his body, we become his body! Together we are being changed, by Jesus, into all that we should be. Therefore, we eat bread at the Lord's Supper to remind us of our fellowship in Christ and how he is making us into one people, who will together bring glory to God.
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When the Lord Jesus came into the world, he brought about a great change from one type of life to another. Ever since Adam, the life of the human race has been overshadowed by three features. Firstly, we are creatures who suffer pain and die. Secondly, we are corrupted creatures who do not live by God's ways. Thirdly, we are creatures who are under the influence and rule of the Devil. However, God sent His Son to start a new race of people free of these problems. Jesus has overcome death, brought forgiveness for sins and defeated the devil. So those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus gain all of these blessings or, in other words, they receive a new type of life. Now ever since Jesus, Christians have been living during the great changeover period between these two types of life. We are in the process of leaving behind our old life, inherited from Adam, and receiving our new life, given to us by Christ. So we still die, but we die confident and at peace looking forward to the resurrection. We still sin, but we repent and find forgiveness and look forward to being free of sin. We are still tempted, but we seek to resist our wounded enemy and look forward to the final banishment of the Devil. Christians are leaving behind an old life and moving into a new life. And the Lord's Supper is a meal designed just for this changeover period. It is a meal which looks back to the life we're leaving behind and forward to the life we are receiving. The bread helps us to look back because it reminds us that Jesus is our passover lamb. He has rescued us from death, from God's wrath against sin, and from slavery to the devil. The wine helps us to look forward because it speaks to us of our new relationship with God, which brings forgiveness, resurrection and life under the rule of the Lord. Of course, one day we shall be completely free of the old life: that's the day when Jesus returns. Which is why in Mt 26:29 Jesus tells us that he will drink wine again one day, but doesn't mention eating bread. It is because when Jesus returns the old life will be completely gone and the new life will have fully come. In this world, then, Christians are to be balanced people. We remember what we were in Adam but we also give equivalent time to thinking about what we are in Christ.
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From very early on in the Bible, God put a prohibition on the use of blood when he told Noah “you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Gn 9:4) This was done so that mankind would greatly honour life. The prohibition was then confirmed to the Israelites when they were told to pour the blood on the ground (Dt 12:23). Yet Jesus tells the people of God symbolically to drink his blood, when he gives them the wine! The wine itself was not a part of the original passover meal, but came in later in the promised land as the Israelites celebrated their new life in Canaan. Jesus accepted the use of wine and gave it to his disciples in a single cup, which indicated their unity in him. But why did he describe it as his blood? The idea looks back to the use of blood for atonement. In the Old Testament (Lev 17) the Israelites were taught that an animal sacrifice was a substitute for them: the animal died instead of them (they deserved to die because of sin). But the effects were only temporary since soon the worshipper would have to offer another sacrifice, and another, and so on until eventually the worshipper would die anyway. Which should have left each Israelite longing for a final salvation from their sin, as David did in Psalm 51: something radical which got rid of sin and gave a new life to a person. Well, God did give that through His Son. The freely-given sacrifice of the Lord Jesus provided a complete atonement for the sin of his people. His resurrection proved that the sacrifice was fully accepted since no animal sacrificed ever came back from the dead. So Jesus now has a new, eternal life which he can give to people – something animals could never provide. In the Old Testament, animal blood simply had to be poured out but Jesus' blood can be drunk, symbolising the new life he gives. So whenever we take the cup at the Lord's Supper we are asking the Lord Jesus to pour his new life into our souls. That prayer will be honoured and the Lord Jesus will give his Holy Spirit to us. The Holy Spirit will then bring new life into us and thus make us holy in every way. This too is symbolised in drinking Jesus blood, since in the temple blood was sprinkled to make external things holy (Ex 29) but for us the blood/wine makes us holy inside as well.
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This sermon on the Lord's supper thought about Jesus' words in Matthew 26:28, which come from some Old Testament ideas. After he rescued the Israelites from Egypt, God entered into a covenant with them. Out of his love, God chose to give wonderful promises to the children of Israel (Ex 19). But he also expected them to keep a promise: a promise to obey his law. This solemn agreement or covenant was sealed by animal blood which was sprayed over the people by Moses (Ex 24). In Israel blood was the precious liquid used to cleanse things for holy use and so Moses was showing the people their need to be cleansed from sin and made holy for God's use . This was in keeping with what God had said he wanted them to be: a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. However, the people never kept their side of the agreement and soon they broke God's law by making the golden calf idol. This was followed by a relentless stream of failure from the Israelites, each time bringing down God's judgement until eventually they were taken away into exile by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Now the nation was so devastated that it seemed the promises of God had come to an end: Israel had lost them. But Zechariah the prophet told the people that God still intended on keeping his promises (Zech 9). He would send a king to his people who would rescue them and then establish a worldwide kingdom of peace. This prophecy is being fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. And why does God do this? Because, says God through Zechariah, “I remember the blood of my covenant with you” God acts in grace. He remembers his promises and the precious blood spilled over them, and decides to keep his side of the agreement despite the failure of the Israelites. But it costs much for God to do this: it costs the spilling of the blood of his own son to deal with the sins of his people. This is what Jesus tells us in Matthew 26:28. His “blood of the covenant” has been spilled to do what animal blood couldn't do which is truly to make people holy through and through and thus put them into a relationship with God which can never be spoiled. So we drink “Jesus' blood” at the Lord's supper (rather than just have it sprayed over us) because it changes us on the inside as well as on the outside (see Jeremiah 31).
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The disciples received a meal the Lord Jesus to remember him by. What did they do with it when the early church was formed? To answer that, this sermon looked at Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 11. In Acts 2 we see that people became Christians by repenting and being baptised to show their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Then they joined with other Christians for four key purposes: learning, fellowship, prayer and the breaking of bread. Breaking of bread refers to their practice of eating meals together. They did this because they were a family with God as their father. They also did this because the Lord Jesus regularly ate with others, even to the point where his enemies called him a glutton (Mt 11:19). Jesus did this to show his love and concern for others and the first Christians also wanted to show love for one another in Christ. However, these were not simply regular meals because also during the meal, the Christians would pause to take THE meal that Jesus gave to them: the bread and wine which remember the Lord's death. So the Lord's Supper was very important to the first Christians, being one of the key things which united the first church. And therefore the Lord's Supper was part of church life; it wasn't just for individual Christians to do by themselves but for those who had devoted themselves to their fellow Christians in the church. 1 Corinthians 11 then shows us a little more of early church practice, although by looking at a situation which was going wrong. The Corinthian Christians were also holding community meals which included the Lord's Supper, but they were acting selfishly at them. Wealthier Christians were stuffing themselves, without worrying about needy Christians who had no food to contribute to the meal. Yet then they all had the Lord's Supper together which makes Paul angry. Why? Because their selfishness in the main meal denied the meaning of the Lord's Supper, which is about Jesus' death when the Son of God chose to give himself, selflessly, for his people. Their self-satisfying behaviour showed contempt for the Lord's sacrifice for others. They needed to examine their behaviour in the light of Jesus' conduct, and urgently change. The Lord's Supper challenges Christians to be like their saviour.
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This sermon completed our series on the Lord's Supper. Using 1 Corinthians 11, we pondered three key points for ourselves as Christians today. Firstly, outward ceremony is never enough. A church can be doing many right things outwardly and yet being going wrong, like the church in Sardis: “you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Rev 3:1) So at the Lord's Supper we must ask whether real spiritual life is found amongst us. Secondly, the Lord's Supper is about the community of the church. The Corinthians were no longer living as one body – there were divisions amongst them. But Paul warns in verse 29 that anyone who takes the Lord's supper whilst refusing to be united with all of the rest of the body will bring down God's judgement. That's how seriously God's take the Lord's supper: a malfunctioning Lord's Supper, in a disunited church, will result in punishment and discipline from God. So Paul says believers must examine themselves before taking the Lord's Supper. In what way? Well the meal preaches the death of Christ i.e. total self-giving for the sake of others. So any person taking the Lord's supper must ask if they have the same attitude as the Lord, namely: “Am I humbly loving other believers and willing to put them first?” If not then that person is despising the Lord's death. (Such self-examination is also an outworking of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:23-24.) Thirdly, the Lord's supper is to be valued highly. Paul describes in 1 Cor 11:23 how he “received” and “passed on” the details of this meal. That language was used by the Jewish Rabbis for the handing down from one generation to the next of important teaching. Paul now uses it of the Lord's Supper to show how it is like a precious heirloom that Christians must value. This means that, firstly, we don't adjust it or play around with it. We are concerned to do just what Jesus told us. And then, secondly, we are not to treat the Lord's Supper as a secondary matter. If you asked many Christians what a they and their church must do, what would they say? Sing? Preach? Pray? Evangelise? But how many would say: take the Lord's Supper? The New Testament does say that: this meal is central to the life of a church. It is very important and is to be highly valued.
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