The Lord's Supper

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Well tonight, we come to that passage in Mark's gospel at the Last Supper when our Lord makes a radical change. Last time, we left Jesus and the eleven disciples celebrating the Passover meal on Thursday evening of the Passion Week. Of course, by Jewish reckoning (because it was after sunset on that night), it was already Friday, the day that our Lord would die. At the end of that traditional Passover celebration, Jesus did something that changed everything. It affects our lives throughout our lives every month, every week, because our Lord gave us a way to remember Him. Let's read it together. Mark 14, beginning in verse 22,

While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and He gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drink from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Our Lord here in these few verses establishes a perpetual way for us to remember Him and remember His death through an ordinance that Paul would call the Lord's Supper. This same event is recorded four times in the New Testament. John does not record this event, but it's in Mark's gospel here in chapter 14, in Matthew 26, in Luke 22, and Paul recounts it in 1 Corinthians 11. All four of those counts are very similar with only really slight nuances of difference between them. Here in Mark's gospel under the direction of the apostle Peter, we have the benefit of Peter's eyewitness testimony of this event.

Notice the setting in verse 22, "While they were eating…." The reference obviously is to the eating of the Passover meal itself. As I mentioned to you last time, the basic order of the Passover meal has remained essentially unchanged for thousands of years. It was a simple meal to commemorate God's redemption of the nation from Egypt. He killed, you remember, the firstborn son of every Egyptian household, but He spared the firstborn son, or He passed over every house where the Passover lamb's blood had been applied to the doorposts and to the lentil. That commemorative meal was enjoyed with really six basic foods. There was lamb. There were bitter herbs. There was unleavened bread. There was charoset which was a mixture of a paste sort of fruit mixture of nuts and fruit and wine. There was a raw vegetable that was dipped in salt water or vinegar. And then there was red wine.

The likely order of the events of that night we covered last time. But just to remind you, the Passover Seder has four cups. It's divided into four different celebrations with the cup of wine. The first cup comes at the beginning of the time together. Then there's a ceremonial washing of the hands. Then to remind them of the bitterness of their captivity in Egypt, they eat bitter herbs and the charoset, which is to remind them, that sort of pasty substance is to remind them of the mortar with which they made bricks.

Then the host explains the meaning of the event. And then they sing the first part of the great Hallel, the Psalms 113 - 118. And at this point, that would have been Psalm 113 and Psalm 114. Then comes the second cup, then the unleavened bread. And after all of that, which is really just introduction, came the actual meal itself.

Now both Matthew and Mark say the events that we just read about happened while they were eating. So, at some point near the end of the Passover meal, near the, near the end of the actual meal of roasted lamb (while they were still eating), Jesus institutes what we refer to as the Lord's Supper or the Lord's Table or even communion. And by the way, the first two expressions come from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. He speaks of the table of the Lord, the supper of the Lord. And in 1 Corinthians 10, he uses the word "koinonia" to describe the, the supper, and it's translated in the King James as "communion" and that's where that word comes from. That's how we refer to it.

Now it's important to remember that the Lord's Supper is not the Passover celebration. But at the same time, Jesus intentionally linked them together (why?) because both the Lord's Table and the Passover picture the same spiritual reality. Think about what the original Passover was supposed to picture. It pictured the reality of human sinfulness and slavery. It pictured the reality of God's impending wrath through the destroying angel. It pictured that wrath and judgment being turned away through the blood of an innocent sacrifice.

The Lord's Table pictures the same thing. The Passover and the Lord's Table pointed to the same person. Clearly that's true with the Lord's Table as we'll see in a moment, but it's also true with the original Passover in Egypt recorded in Exodus 12. It also pointed to the ultimate deliverer from sin, and that was our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5 that "Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed." He takes us back and says that was a type of Jesus Christ.

So, when Jesus instituted the Lord's Table in conjunction with the Passover meal, He did so intentionally for those reasons. So, don't miss the big picture of what Jesus is doing here. He took two parts of the Passover celebration, the reminder of the physical redemption from Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb, and He turned those elements into an entirely different kind of remembrance, the remembrance of spiritual redemption through His own violent death.

Let's look together at the institution of this amazing reminder. We need to look first at the broken bread. The symbol of the broken bread is given to us in verse 22, "He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them…" As Jesus and the disciples gathered around that low U-shaped table that night, there would have been on each part of that table some little, flat loaves of unleavened bread – really sheets more than anything else of unleavened bread. He took some of that unleavened , and He used it. Now in the Passover celebration, they had unleavened bread to remind them that they had to leave Egypt in a hurry. They didn't have time to add yeast and wait for the bread to rise. They had to bake it without yeast because they needed to leave in a hurry. And so, that's the bread He used, the unleavened bread.

It is interesting though that none of the New Testament passages that command this ordinance of us mention anything about the kind of bread, whether it was unleavened or not. We use unleavened bread when we celebrate communion because it best pictures the reality of Jesus' humanity having no sin (yeast sometimes being used in Scripture as a picture of sin). But unleavened bread is not mentioned in those passages specifically, and it's not biblically required.

Now on a technical note, Mark says, notice, that He gave a blessing over the bread, and He gave thanks for the cup. Don't get too bent out of shape about that. Those two expressions are interchangeable. The other gospel writers use them interchangeably. He spoke a blessing over the bread and the cup that consisted of giving thanks to God. By the way, the Greek word for "giving thanks" is "Eucharisteo", from which some have come to call this the Eucharist, meaning it's the way to give thanks. Because of that connection with Catholicism, we don't typically refer to it in that way.

But our Lord took a flat piece or sheet of unleavened bread, and He broke it. In other words, He didn't cut the bread, but He tore it into pieces. And then the disciples either passed the pieces by hand around the table, or perhaps He put it on a serving tray and passed it to each of them. That was the symbol, but what did it mean? What was the meaning of this? Well, He explains it at the end of verse 22. He said, "Take; this is My body." Now if you've been a Christian any time at all, you know that that is a very difficult phrase for many people to interpret. It has caused a lot of disagreement in the history of the church.

There are four primary views of how to understand the connection between the elements of bread and wine and Jesus' blood and body. How are they connected? How are they related? Basically, four primary views – first of all, there is the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation. This is what the Catholic Church teaches. Once those elements, the bread and the wine, are consecrated by the priest - once he says, "This is My body," the bread and wine actually become the real, physical body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is what the Catholic Church teaches.

Listen to the Council of Trent, the Reformation era response to the Reformation. Trent says, "It has always been a firm belief in the church of God (that this holy council), and this holy council now declares it anew, that by the consecration of the bread and wine a change is brought about of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood. This change, the holy Catholic Church properly and appropriately calls transubstantiation." So that's the first view – that the connection between the bread and wine and Jesus' body and blood is that the bread and wine actually become His body and blood.

The second view is called consubstantiation. This is Luther's view and the Lutheran Church's view. Luther couldn't swallow (pardon the pun) the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation. And so instead, he said there still has to be something physical involved. And so, this is what he taught and is still taught in the Lutheran Church: that the literal blood and body of Christ is present in, with and under the bread and wine. You say what does that mean?

Well, one illustration that's used is picture water in a sponge. The water is not the sponge, and the sponge is not the water, but they're all intertwined together. And that's what Luther said. The, the real body and blood of Christ are there, but it's not some hocus pocus whereby the, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ, but they're present there.

The third view is called the spiritual presence view. This view says that the physical elements of bread and wine convey the spiritual presence (not the physical presence, but the spiritual presence) of Christ to the partaker through faith. So, something not physical happens but something spiritual, but nevertheless the spiritual presence of Christ is given to the one who partakes through the partaking.

The fourth view, and the one that I think best represents the biblical data (and we'll look at in just a moment), is the symbolic view; that is, that the bread and wine are physical symbols, visible symbols or signs that commemorate and point to the spiritual work of Christ. On your way into the church tonight, you drove past one of the signs, either on the main road or on the cul-de-sac that said "Countryside Bible Church". That sign is a visible pointer to a spiritual reality. We (the people here, we) are Countryside Bible Church. That sign is not the church. It merely points to the spiritual reality that gathers here.

That's what the bread and wine are in the ordinance. They are visible signs which point to a spiritual reality, and our Lord explains that for us here. And the reason this view makes the most sense for a lot of reasons (as we work our way through, you'll see that) is remember the word Jesus uses, and Paul records it for us in 1 Corinthians 11, to describe what this is. He says, "Do this in (what?) remembrance of Me." Do it to remember. It commemorates something. It reminds you; it points to something spiritual.

Now what exactly is the bread meant to symbolize? When Jesus says, "This is My body," what is that bread describing or pointing to? Well, it is a symbol of His incarnation. He says, "This is My body." By the way, that can't mean that the bread actually becomes His body for several reasons. I mean, look at what He says about the cup, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." Obviously, Jesus did not mean that the wine in that cup was the new covenant. No one says that He meant that, and yet that's what He actually said. He said, "This cup is the new covenant," but the wine did not literally, physically become the new covenant. Instead, He meant that the cup, the wine in the cup represented the new covenant sealed with His blood. He's simply using a figure of speech.

And folks, Jesus did this throughout His ministry. Think about this. Jesus said, "I am the door…." How many people do you know who think that Jesus was saying that every time you walk through a door to come in this church, that's Jesus? That's figurative language, and we understand that. And this is figurative language. It's, it's clear that it is. He said, "I am the water of life" … "I am the true vine." Over and over again, Jesus used these, these visible symbols to point to the spiritual reality of who He was, and there's no reason to believe anything different is going on here. In addition to that, remember Jesus is still sitting at the table with His human, physical body intact. So, when He said, "This is My body," He was saying this bread represents My body.

I wish, I wish we hadn't gotten over the surprise of that. I want you to think about that for just a moment. It's really shocking. Jesus says, "The bread represents My human body." That means that the Son of God, the eternal second member of the Trinity, had a human body just like you have. And more than that, He didn't just have a body, but He was and continues to be fully human in every sense you are. There is nothing about you that Jesus wasn't except for sin, and He continues to be that. He didn't just come down for thirty-three years to be one of us. The Scripture says He will always be one of us. Having taken on flesh and blood, that continues into eternity. He has a glorified body, we're told now. He continues to be fully human and always will be. That is, that is staggering.

But not only does the bread point to the symbol of the incarnation (become a symbol of the incarnation and point to that reality), but it's also a symbol of His substitution, His substitution. Paul links the Lord's Table with remembering that our Lord died as a substitute for the guilty. Notice what Jesus said about the bread. Here's 1 Corinthians 11:24 – "This is My body, which is for you…" "Which is for you …" – whenever Paul uses this Greek word translated "for" in reference to Christ, he's either talking about His death on our behalf or His death in our place. "This is My body which is given in your place (which is given for you) …" In Luke 22:19, He says, "This is My body which is given for you (given in your place) …"

In 1 Corinthians 11:24, some ancient manuscripts even add the word, "This is My body, which is broken for you (broken for you) ..." By the way, I think that's why all four accounts of the Lord's Table mention Jesus (doing what with the bread?) breaking it. It's the tearing up and the breaking of that bread that gives us the picture of Jesus' full humanity torn and broken for us.

By the way, both Luke and 1 Corinthians add after Jesus said, "This is My body, which is for you (which is given for you)," He added, "do this in remembrance of Me."

When we take of the bread (in a couple of weeks, we're going to take of the Lord's Table together), I hope you remember what we're learning tonight. I hope you remember what that bread is to point toward. It is to point toward the reality of His incarnation. He was made like you in all things except for sin. And it speaks of His substitution. That perfect humanity that was just like you was offered in your place. And when you eat the bread, you are acknowledging that His humanity was ripped and torn for you. That's the meaning. When we take the bread, not only does it point to His incarnation, but it points to His substitution – that our Lord, the perfect One, the innocent One, suffered in our place.

Now that brings us to the second part of this passage and the second part of the Lord's Table, and that is what I'll call the third cup, and you'll understand that in just a moment – the third cup. Let's look at the symbol in verse 23, "And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it." Wine mixed with some water was an integral part of the Passover celebration and still is to this day. By the time Jesus and His disciples ate this Passover together, there were already a prescribed number of times that you were to drink from the cup. It was four times during the meal. And each of those four cups that you symbolically took together corresponded to four promises that God made in Exodus 6:6 and 7, a promise to redeem His people from Egypt. Listen to the four promises,

"Say, therefore, [this is Exodus 6:6-7, say therefore] to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD [promise number one], I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians…" [That was cup number one in the Passover celebration.]

The second promise in Exodus 6 is, "… I will deliver you from their bondage." That was cup number two in the Passover celebration. It commemorated that great promise.

The third promise and the third cup was this, "I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments."

And finally, the fourth cup was, "Then I will take you for My people [the fourth promise], and I will be your God; and you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burden of the Egyptians."

So, when the Passover is celebrated then and now, those four cups point back to these four great promises God made in Exodus 6. So, the question is which of those cups connected with which of those promises did Jesus take to initiate the Lord's Table? Well, we know that. And we know that because two of the gospels orient us. In Luke 22:20, we read, "And in the same way Jesus took the cup (notice this) after they had eaten …" The same thing occurs in 1 Corinthians 11:25 – "In the same way He took the cup [again notice] after supper …" So, this cup that Jesus takes from the traditional Passover celebration and turns into something new with a new significance came after the meal.

Now we know which cup this was because at that point after the meal would have come the third cup. That third cup was called the cup of blessing or the cup of redemption. It was the cup associated with that third great promise in Exodus 6, "I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments." So that cup that originally celebrated redemption from slavery in Egypt comes to symbolize the shedding of Jesus' blood in redemption from sin.

Now we know that the Passover cup was always red wine mixed with water. But again, in the four passages that record the institution of the Lord's Table, none of them mention wine specifically. They simply refer to "the cup". Mark says that when He had taken that third cup again, He offered thanks. Now we don't know if Jesus used what has become the traditional blessing for that third cup or not. If He did, it would have gone like this,

"May the all-merciful One make us worthy of the days of the Messiah and of the life of the world to come. He brings the salvation of His kingdom. He shows covenant faithfulness to His anointed (that is, the Messiah) and to David and his seed forever. He makes peace in His heavenly places. May He secure peace for us and for all Israel. And say you, amen."

At that point, the eleven might very well have affirmed that blessing with an amen. But verse 23 says once He had given thanks, once He had issued a blessing, "He gave it to them, and they all drank from it." Now in this case, they didn't all have their little individual plastic cups like we celebrate communion with. They all shared a common cup. In fact, Matthew records it like this, "When He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you…'"

I remember the time I was in New Zealand, and I was preaching at a Maori church in New Zealand and just a wonderful time of fellowship, rich fellowship that morning with the folks that were there, but they were celebrating the Lord's Table. And as I was sitting on the front row, (it was wintertime) and you know, people were, were sick and coughing and lots of things were going on. I was sitting there on the front row anticipating communion, and I looked up and noticed there was a common communion cup, one large cup that we all were going to share together. Now I had a moral dilemma at that point and I said, I said to the Lord, I said, "Lord, you know, it, it would really be wonderful if I were to be the first one to be offered this because, because I hear all the snorts and sniffles and blowing…" And, and they picked up the communion cup, this common cup. And there were, I don't know, a couple of hundred people there, and they went to the back of the room. And it was passed to every single person. I was the last person to drink out of that cup with all of the little, you know, floaties of bread and the only consolation was for me was that it was real wine. And so, I was hopeful that that was a good thing at that point.

They all shared a common cup in the Last Supper. I don't think the New Testament requires that we use a common cup in communion, and in fact, I think there are practical reasons to use individual ones. But I do think (listen carefully, I do think) if we're not careful, we forget a crucial point, and that is that in a spiritual sense, we're not all drinking individually. We drink from a common cup; that is, we share in the benefits of a common sacrifice offered for us.

By the way, notice that our Lord's words in verse 23 directly contradict the practice of the Roman Catholic Church in the mass. It's not just the priest who is to drink the cup but notice every disciple, "Drink from it, all of you…"

But what did this mean, this third cup? What was the meaning of it? Well, look at, look at the various ways Jesus puts it. Here's Mark's version, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." Here's Matthew's version, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many (and here's the only difference, Matthew adds that Jesus said) for forgiveness of sins." In Luke's version, He says, "This cup which is poured out (instead of "for many") for you is the new covenant in My blood." And in 1 Corinthians 11, essentially all the other elements are already there.

So, you put all of that together, and Jesus basically explains the meaning of the cup with three expressions. First of all, He says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out…" This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out. This goes back to Exodus. I won't have you turn there, but in Exodus 24 you remember when the covenant, the old covenant at Mount Sinai was set apart, the people were set apart to keep it, you remember what happened? They killed an animal and that animal's blood was sprinkled on the people. It was ratified, the old covenant at Sinai was ratified by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice. That's what Jesus says of Him. The cup of red wine that He was offering represented or pointed to the spiritual reality of His blood poured out in death for others, which was the seal of a new covenant.

What was the old covenant? It was the Mosaic Covenant, which would convict of sin but couldn't empower obedience. So, God promised a new covenant in Jeremiah 31. And Jesus' bloody death as a sacrifice sealed (ratified) that new covenant. Listen. If you're a Christian, you better read about the new covenant because you enjoy its benefits. You are the recipient – let me, let me first of all back up. Some people are scared off by the word "covenant".

What is a covenant? It's simply this. It is a legally binding promise made in the context of a relationship; a legally binding promise made in the context of a relationship. If you're married, you've made a covenant with your spouse. You made a legally binding promise in the context of a relationship. Well, the beauty of it is God has made to us a legally binding promise. What is that promise? It's recorded in Jeremiah 31. Read Jeremiah 31. Read the exposition of the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 8:6 - 11. It's remarkable.

In fact, turn there with me. I don't really have time to do this, but I'm going to anyway. Go with me to Hebrews, Hebrews 8. Here is the new covenant. Hebrews 8:6. He says Jesus has a better ministry than all the Old Testament ministry because "He's … the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises." And then he goes on to describe that covenant, and he quotes from Jeremiah. Look at what he says in verse 8,

"BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING,' SAYS THE LORD, 'WHEN I WOULD EFFECT A [here it is, a] NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH [and with all who come to know God, with us as well]; NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHICH I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; … [BECAUSE] [they couldn't keep it] … THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND THEREFORE I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM,' SAYS THE LORD." [But here's what I'm going to do with this new covenant], verse 10, "'FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS,' SAYS THE LORD: 'I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. [God says, 'I'm going to give them the desire and power to obey My laws.] AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY WILL BE MY PEOPLE. … THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, … EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD', FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.'" [Those are the promises God has made you in the new covenant sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, but there's one more.] Look at verse 12, "FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE."

Listen. God forgave sins in the Old Testament, but this is the first time He included a legally binding promise to do so, and He does it through the death of His own Son.

Now go back to Mark 14. Jesus says, "This wine represents My blood which is poured out to seal (to ratify) that new covenant promise that God has made to you." That bloody death ratified a new covenant. Notice how Paul also connects the cup with substitution. Look at Mark 14:24 – "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." Luke 22 says, it's "… poured out for you." Matthew 26 - it's "poured out for many." So, this cup also teaches substitution – poured out in a violent death in the place of others. It's the language of Isaiah 53:12, "Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors." That's the picture behind the cup. It teaches substitution.

There's another part of the cup and its meaning. Not only is it the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out, but it's for forgiveness of sins. Matthew makes explicit what the other gospel writers imply. He says in Matthew 26:28 that it is "poured out for the forgiveness of sins."

And finally, He says it's "for many". Now I'm not going to go back over what I covered back in Mark 10: 45. If you're interested, you can go back and listen to that message because there I develop this at length, but let me just put it this way. Just as in 10:45, I think we are here told that Jesus offered His life as a ransom to the Father in exchange for the lives of a specific group of people here simply called "the many" - His eternally chosen ones, the elect. And the way Luke puts it is "for you" - for you, for the eleven faithful disciples. So, there's the third cup. There's the bread and the wine.

But there's a fourth cup mentioned in this passage. Remember it was the cup of blessing, the third cup of the Passover celebration that Jesus consecrated as part of the Lord's Supper. But normally, the Passover meal was completed by drinking one additional cup, a fourth cup. But in the case of the Last Supper, Jesus refused. He refused to drink the fourth cup. Look at verse 25, "Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Why? Well, it's because the fourth cup pointed past redemption, past the work that Jesus would accomplish later on that Friday, to the future consummation and restoration of all things. It was a commemoration. The fourth cup was a commemoration of the fourth great promise in Exodus 6:6 and 7, "Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God…" This fourth cup was connected to the promise that God would take His people to be permanently with Him.

Now with that background, look again at verse 25, "Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." I love this. If you go to 1 Corinthians – and you don't have to turn there, but if you go to 1 Corinthians, and you look at what Paul calls this ordinance, he calls it "the table of the Lord" in 1 Corinthians 10:21, the table that belongs to the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 11:20, he calls it "the Lord's Supper"; that is, the dinner at which Christ Himself is the host. Whenever we take of the Lord's Table, it's His table. He's the host. He's invited us as guests. Paul calls what we drink "the cup of the Lord". It's as if we're enjoying a meal together with Christ Himself. And here's the point. Someday that is exactly what we will do. Look at Matthew 26:29, "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."

Why Jesus refused to drink the fourth cup of the Passover meal is very clear. He wanted all of us to know (are you ready for this?) that His Supper with His disciples is not finished. It's not over. Someday, all of us will sit around the table and finish this meal with Jesus Christ, and then we'll drink the fourth cup together. That's His point. "It's not time yet," Jesus said, 'but it's coming.' And the Bible is so clear on this in so many places. Matthew 8:11 – "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (and of course, He Himself will be there)." Luke 14:15 - He said, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread (with Me) in the kingdom of God!" In Luke 12:37 – "Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them." That's incredible. Our Lord says He will serve us. Luke 13:29, "They will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God."

And of course, in Revelation 19, you have that beautiful description of the marriage supper of the Lamb when we all gather together at a future feast with our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand that's what the Lord's Table pictures as well? The supper that Jesus started on that Thursday night is not complete, and it won't be complete until every saint He died to save is with Him in glory and we have a meal, a feast, together with Him. And it's coming.

Now before we leave this point, let me just say that it's important to understand here that the Lord's Table wasn't just something for the eleven that night; that it's for all Christians for all history. You see that in the pattern of the early church. But how do we know that it's for us and for all time? Well, if you read 1 Corinthians 11, there Paul records that our Lord gave us all a command to do this in remembrance of Him. Twice He says, "Do this (after the bread, do this after the cup) in remembrance of Me." But in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11, Paul makes it clear that we are to do this until He comes. As often as you do this, he says, "as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you do proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." We are commanded as believers to do this. It's an ordinance, a rite or ceremony that Christ has commanded His church to carry out.

There's one last part of this passage and that's the closing song. At first glance in Mark's gospel, it might seem like after the institution of the Last Supper they immediately sang a hymn and left for the Garden of Gethsemane. But when you compare the four gospel records, you discover that after the Lord's Supper they actually lingered in the upper room for some period of time. This was customary in a first century celebration of the Passover. Normally after you enjoyed the meal with friends, you would stay around and talk. And you wouldn't talk about, you know, which of the gladiators was going to win the next contest. You talked about the great acts of God in human history. That was what the Passover meal was to commemorate. And you did that for several hours. The only requirement was that the dinner be completed before midnight.

And in the case of the Last Supper, Jesus had much to say to His disciples. In fact, notice verse 25 and verse 26. Between those two verses comes all of John 14, John 15, John 16 and John 17 – what we call the upper room discourse. All of that comes between verses 25 and 26 of Mark 14. It ends, of course, with the great High Priestly Prayer of our Lord. And then John says after that, verse 1 of John 18, "When Jesus had spoken these words (that great High Priestly Prayer of John 17), He went forth with His disciples … to the Garden of Gethsemane."

But before they left the upper room – after that long discourse, after all of those important issues He wanted to communicate to them – they sang. Verse 26, "After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." They had already sung earlier that evening, you remember, Psalm 113 and Psalm 114? And now at the very conclusion of their celebration, again they sing together the psalms that have been prescribed. What were those psalms? They were Psalms 115 to 118. Usually these were sung antiphonally; that is, the host of the meal would recite the text and the rest of the guests would respond with "hallelujah"; that is, "praise the Lord", "praise Yahweh".

I want you to go back for a moment as we finish our time together to Psalm 116. There's so much here, but I'm just going to highlight a couple of things for you in Psalm 116. I want you to read this thinking about our Lord singing it and His disciples affirming it. Remember now, we're almost near midnight. It's just a short time before He's arrested, before the trials. And at nine a.m. the next morning, He's crucified. Notice what He sings with His disciples as they complete the Lord's Supper and the Last Supper. Verse 1 of Psalm 116,

"I love the LORD, because He hears my voice and my supplications. He has inclined His ear to me; therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me, the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord, 'O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!' (You see how this points to the Garden and ultimately to the cross?)

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling."

Go down to chapter 118, Psalm 118, and look at verse 17. And again, you can read these psalms in this light, but let me just point out a couple of more passages. Psalm 118:17, "I will not die, but live, And I [will] tell of the works of the LORD." Go down to verse 22,

The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD's doing; [and] It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made [remember this isn't talking about your having a particularly good hair day. This is talking about the day of redemption, the day of the Passover, the day of our LORD's sacrifice. This is the day which the LORD has made]; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, … He has given us light [now watch the end of verse 27]; Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. Give thanks to the ORD, for He is good; For His steadfast love is everlasting.

Jesus left the upper room to go to Gethsemane and to the cross with these magnificent words upon His lips and upon His heart. It was a beautiful description of how the Father would guide His anointed One through suffering - unthinkable, unimaginable suffering - to glory. And that night as they finished that meal, Jesus recited these words and sang them together with His disciples, and then He went out.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, thank You that You've given us such a powerful reminder of what our Lord accomplished for us. Father, thank You that You have given us a glimpse into that intimate gathering in that upper room on the wealthy district of the city of Jerusalem in the first century as our Lord met with His disciples. O Lord Jesus, thank You that You embraced the truth of these psalms, and You went forward eagerly, voluntarily, to the cross, understanding the suffering and asking if it was the Father's will for it to be removed from You, and yet confessing, "Not My will but Yours be done." Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your amazing love, for Your amazing determination to die for us.

Help us as we celebrate the Lord's Table every month not to do it mindlessly, but may we remember these things and may the truths those symbols represent burn into our souls.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.