The Lord's Table: Christ Our Passover and Covenant

``Now why would we proclaim his death? You would think as people that are set free, we would wanna proclaim his resurrection, And we do that. We live as resurrected people who have been raised to new life through Jesus, but we proclaim his death because his death becomes the sacrifice that pays for our sin and sets us free. There is no resurrection without death, and the death is the perfect substitutionary death that pays for every sin that has been ever committed. [00:31:43] (43 seconds)  #ProclaimHisSacrifice

Today, we remember with joy, not with sadness. This table is not about sadness. Yes. Death is involved, but we are not sad nor do we grieve without hope. We come to this table with joy knowing that our lives have been forever changed by the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus said to his disciples in the planning of this table that he desired to share this meal with them. He longed to share in this event. [00:33:22] (50 seconds)  #CommunionWithJoy

And I wanna be very clear upfront with these two things, that celebrating the Lord's table and celebrating baptism has no saving merit. So taking the Lord's table doesn't save you, and being baptized doesn't save you. Salvation comes through faith alone and Christ alone. But out of the overflow of our joy and being in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are called to two things that the Lord commanded his disciples to do as an expression of our relationship with him. [00:28:01] (49 seconds)  #FaithNotRitual

So we need to set all sin before the Lord, confessing it while not holding on to it, remembering the promise of the new covenant of the blood that Jesus inaugurated with his disciples. That takes us to Jeremiah 31 that says that the Lord will forgive our sins and remember it no more. He's our substitute. He died in our place to set us free. What a table. What a memorial. What an opportunity for worship. [01:09:09] (40 seconds)  #NewCovenantForgiveness

Jesus spends the last night of his life sharing a meal with his disciples. In twenty four short hours, he will be dead. He will suffer on the cross. He will have the longest evening of his earthly life, and all of it is for us. And that meal that he shared with his disciples becomes an illustration and a fulfillment of everything that Jesus would do. And so it is good that we remember and that we remember often. [00:29:01] (54 seconds)  #RememberTheLastSupper

The cup of redemption is the cup of the blood of the covenant. That's a loaded statement. There's a lot there. The first question you might ask is what is a covenant? Well, the word for covenant in verse 24 is a Greek word, diatheki. It's a unique word because it describes a covenant or an agreement that was made by one person for others. It it wasn't a bilateral covenant. I agree to do this. You agree to do that. [00:56:53] (40 seconds)  #CovenantOfRedemption

And when I when I think about this meal, what I can't wrap my brain around is why. Why would Jesus do it for a sinner like me? Knowing my heart the way that I know it, I don't deserve to share in the goodness of this meal, the gift of his life for mine, the innocent suffering for the guilty, that Jesus paid our death penalty. [00:54:06] (44 seconds)  #UndeservedGrace

This table in front of us is a visible message that proclaims the cross of Christ. Jesus died, and Jesus is coming again. And so what does Paul say? Examine your heart. Prepare. Search. Look inside. The danger is that if we don't examine ourselves, Paul says we bring judgment on ourselves. [01:08:19] (31 seconds)  #ExamineYourHeart