The Lord’s Table
Exodus 12: 1-14
Introduction
The observance of the Lord’s Table is grounded on the Passover command by God to each Israelite.
As we heard from the reading this morning from Exodus 12: 1-14, each household would take an unblemished lamb, offer it by slaying it at twilight and applying the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house.
The Passover lamb was then roasted with bitter herbs & eaten hastily as a common meal within the house by the family, dressed & ready for the exodus.
Shouldn’t we also be dressed and ready for our exodus from the world? We don’t know the day or the hour that Jesus will return for His own, nor do we know the day nor the hour that we may leave this earthly body through death.
Directives, Instructions
God issued a few directives that the Passover be observed as a memorial, a time to remember in detail how the Lord delivered them from bondage in Egypt.
The first we find in verse 14: this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
The other three instructs the fathers to recount the story of Passover: 13: 8-9, 14-16. You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year. ---- when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
Very clearly we can see that God is telling Israel that remembering His saving work & memorializing it, is crucial to the ongoing spiritual life & health of His people.
This theology of remembrance extends to the Communion Table, the Lord’s Table & Christ’s directive, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22: 19).
The primary function of the Lord’s Table is to help us remember in depth the substitutionary death of Christ, our Passover!
It has to be noted that Jesus picked the 14th of Nisan, the culmination of the annual Passover Feast, while He sat at the table with His disciples, to institute the communion of His body & blood - The Lord’s Supper -
Coming up to the New Testament times, when Jesus was on earth, the Passover had morphed into a ceremony which included, in addition to the un-leaven bread, the partaking of four cups of wine.
Jesus saturated the ceremony with the utmost redemptive significance when He broke the bread and said ““This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19) - and then took the third cup of “blessing” (redemption) and gave it a new meaning, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. (Luke 22:20).
As the blood of the Passover lamb had shielded God’s people from the judgment of death, Jesus’ blood initiated the New Covenant blessing of Jeremiah 31: 31-34 - Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This, in effect provided a spiritual profile for those who sat at the Lord’s Table.
This New Covenant in Christ’s blood caused a radical transformation & forgiveness to a community so they may be able to sit down in communion at the Lord’s Table.
It is all Jesus’ initiative; it is the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s cup because He is the host who rose on the third day which is now the Lord’s Day -
We must remember, whenever we celebrate this Supper, this Communion, that this meal is all from Him & He is the host!
A Memorial
Just as the Passover was instituted as a memorial of redemption, a day to remember the saving acts of God, (Exodus 13: 8-9) - In the same way Jesus two times commanded remembrance saying of the bread & then the cup, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” (1 Corinthians 11: 24-25).
These commands, imperatives given to us by our Lord Jesus tell us that it is an act on our part to remember what He did on the cross whenever we eat the bread & drink the cup; it is crucial to the proper celebration of communion & the health of our souls.
The Communion
The Lord’s Table is literally a “Koinonia”, a “fellowship”, a “participation”, or a “communion”.
The words speak of what happens when the body of Christ partakes of the cup & the bread as was read earlier from 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17.
The cup of blessing & the bread is a participation in the blood & body of Christ - though we are many, I don’t mean just us here at Quacco but the church universal as a whole, yet it is one body.
That tells us that ALL believers, and that is everyone here at Quacco today, are members of Christ’s body & when we partake of His table we experience a profound, deep sense of communion with our Lord Jesus Christ & one another.
A Presence
There is one more reality that is rooted in our communion, our sharing in the body & blood of Christ; that is the experience of Jesus’ spiritual presence. His real presence. While the bread & wine symbolize the body & blood of Christ, He is also present spiritually in a special was as we partake of the bread & wine.
Listen, if Jesus is present, as He says in Matthew 18: 20-22 that when two or more are gathered in His name, He is there among them, in their midst - Well, we can then expect that He will be present in a special was when we sup with Him.
Let’s go a little further, if our bodies are the Temple of God, as Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians, 6: 19 - do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God…
The Gospel
Jesus closes the institution of this sacrament pronouncing that as often as we eat this bread & drink the cup we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes. This means that the Lord’s Table proclaims the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,-
An Invitation
Before coming to the Lord’s Table, let’s all affirm our faith.
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.
This morning, through our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the death of Christ. These elements, which represent the body & blood of Christ, are a visible sermon to us; they are the gospel in tangible form.
They proclaim to us the great drama of redemption in Christ: salvation in the present (“for as often as you eat this bread & drink this cup”), salvation in the past (“you proclaim the Lord’s death”), & salvation in the future (“until He comes” ! Cor. 11:26). In light of such a salvation, Paul warns us, “Whoever eats the bread & drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body & blood of the Lord”, v27; Therefore let’s all before partaking of the Supper, examine ourselves, recognizing the gravity of sin & the weight of Christ’s glorious sacrifice.
With that in mind, in 1 John 1:8-9 we are told that if we confess our sins, He is faithful & just to forgive us our sins & cleanse us from all unrighteousness….
I want everyone here to know this, that He will forgive you if you confess to Him.
I encourage all to examine your hearts, so that you can partake in a worthy manner.
As the bread & the cup are served, we ask that you hold them, so that we all partake together.
Distribution of Bread & Cup
(After all are seated)
Jesus took the bread & when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said: “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me”
Let’s have a moment of silent meditation on this.
Silence
In the same way He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Let’s have a moment of silent meditation.
Silence
Benediction
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ & the love of God & the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all….”
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