Services/Sermon in Longview 29.03.2018

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us quiet this evening in prayer and thanksgiving.

Dear Heavenly Father, we, your children, have gathered this evening around your holy and precious word with this prayer that you, in your love, would feed us and comfort us, and you would strengthen our weak faith. Amen.

This evening you also have prepared for us a meal of remembrance wherein we can experience an occasion to draw very close to you, dear Heavenly Father, and your dear Son, in the elements that we eat and drink on. For this reason, our faith could be strengthened.

We have many reasons to be thankful this evening, dear Heavenly Father. But tonight our minds are taken back to many, many years ago, where your word records that your Son was preparing his own for his death and resurrection and preparing a way of righteousness for us, that we can have hope of heaven in this time when we endeavor believing that our sins are forgiven in his name and blood.

This, dear Heavenly Father, is the greatest reason for joy. That you, through your unmerited favor towards us, have showed this way to us. This way of grace. This way of salvation. That you prepared for us through your Son.

So this evening we ask for your service blessing. We ask for your guidance this weekend as we gather around your word to visit about these matters of Easter and the celebration of the victory we have through your dear Son.

And we put these prayers and thoughts in that prayer that your Son taught us, saying, Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This evening I thought to read a portion of God's holy and precious word found here in the 26th chapter of Matthew, that occasion where Jesus gathered with his own to have the feast of the Passover. And we begin reading in the 17th verse, in Jesus' name, as follows:

Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The master saith, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover.

Now when the eve was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born.

Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of this vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Amen.

Before we begin to examine this portion of God's Word, I bring you greetings from my dear wife and family who were left behind this weekend at our home there in Houston. Also, from that other small family of believers there whom we're able to gather with and take comfort in the fact that though we are at times feeling like strangers in a large foreign city, we have escorts there. And God has given us occasion to gather around his word and comfort one another in our place of watching.

The events that we'll visit about this weekend, if God so wills, center around the most precious time in Holy Scripture that's been recorded for us. A precious time for the child of God because in it we can see the love of the Heavenly Father to His own children when He turned away from His Son for a moment and allowed Him there to become that sacrificial lamb on the middle cross of Golgotha and make preparation and become that sacrifice for sin for you and I.

Jesus knew of what His calling was when He was on the earth. And though He spoke to His disciples at many different occasions about what kind of end would come, you can imagine it was difficult for them to fully comprehend what He was speaking about.

Our text even says in the last verse that I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. The text doesn't explain or doesn't go into any more detail but understanding the nature of the disciples we can almost imagine that they would have also been confused by that time-type of a comment as they were when He said that He was going to leave them and that He would come again.

And even perhaps some of them felt the same as those Jewish leaders and those carnal leaders who thought that Jesus' kingdom that He was establishing here upon this earth was some sort of temporal kingdom that would challenge their authority, even the Roman governance of the time.

Jesus tried to explain to them that His kingdom was not of this earth but was a heavenly kingdom and He was here called upon this earth to do that which the prophets spoke about centuries before His arrival.

And so in the tradition of the time, our text brings us to that time of Passover when the children of the Jewish nation would come together to celebrate a memorial feast of that time when God in His love protected His own to bring them out of the land of Egypt, bring them out of that land of bondage.

And we remember that evening before the final plague when it was told of them to mark their doorposts with the blood of the Lamb to be protected from the angel of death when He passed over.

So this evening they were gathering together to have this Passover meal and Jesus knew that it would be the last supper when He would eat with His own and He knew of what end was about to face Him.

The disciples asked Him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And He said unto them, Go into the city to such a man and say unto him, The master saith, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.

Another, we could say, remarkable miracle of Jesus in that He made it known to such a one that in that individual's home He would keep His Passover meal with His disciples and when the disciples appointed Him they would know of what occasion He was speaking about.

And so the preparations were made. No doubt the lamb was secured, the rest of the meal, of course, of vegetables with herbs was prepared, and it was a long evening of feasting and remembrance.

There was an announcement made by Jesus that took the disciples, at least most of them, aback when He said unto them, Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.

They were, as our text said, exceedingly sorrowful and began to question amongst themselves and to Jesus, Is it I?

Jesus then explained how they would know who it is that was to betray Him. He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

And it was as it was meant to be, one of his own who had made arrangement with the chief priest for thirty pieces of silver to deliver Jesus unto him.

You may remember the great concern that was amongst the chief priests that even brought the Pharisees and the Sadducees together for a moment when Jesus brought Lazarus to life from the grave.

Remember he had been in the grave for four days and the sisters even protested when Jesus had come, that why did you come so late and why are you going to go into the grave now because the body already stinks.

But nevertheless Jesus said to remove the covering from the grave and called out to Lazarus to come forth and so he did.

Such a miracle being witnessed by the multitude set in motion those events amongst the Jews to bring death to Jesus for fear that he would have such a strong following and perhaps even fear that the Romans themselves would come to conquer them.

So they had put out a decree to anyone that saw Jesus to report him and Judas had made this promise or made this agreement with him that for thirty pieces of silver he would, by a sign of a kiss, make known unto or would bring the soldiers to capture Jesus.

Jesus knew this would come to be but nevertheless the evening continued where our Lord and Savior prepared and instituted the Lord's holy supper.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

They had been gathered there in the upper room eating the Passover feast when Jesus began a service to his disciples that no doubt they didn't understand in the moment.

And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, Drink all of it, for this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

What is this new testament? What is it that Jesus is speaking about when he says, For this is my blood of the new testament?

God had given covenant or testament promises to his children before. He had given one to Moses to bring him to the promised land. Very early on was the covenant promise with Abraham and very, very early on was the promise given to the first human pair that one would come to crush the head of the serpent.

But now was being prepared this final testament, this final covenant in which God had prepared a perfect sacrifice. No longer was going to be needed those elements of the old testament where the blood of animals was sprinkled in the temple as a token and a picture of that final outpouring of that perfect sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when his blood would then fall upon Golgotha.

And this blood, this is my blood of the new testament, is being shed for you and I and for many for one purpose: for the remission of sins.

Dear brothers and sisters, if I was to ask you, have you had need for the remission of your sins? You would have to say along with me that often.

Some of you, maybe younger, may be wondering what does this mean when Jesus said that his blood was being shed for the remission of sins? It is simply this: that it was shed for the forgiveness of sins.

This is that evil portion, that evil entity that the child of God wars against every day.

John in his gospel relates to us of an event that Jesus performed around the Passover meal to his disciples. When the supper was ended, he rose and girded and took a towel from around his waist that he was girded with and took a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet.

One of the disciples said to Jesus, You will never wash my feet. He said to him, If I don't wash your feet, you will have no part of me.

He then wished to have his whole body washed but Jesus' response to him was, When his feet are clean, it is sufficient.

You and I, dear brother and sister, have been born with features inherited from our parents. You may hear someone say of you that you look like your mother or your father.

There's also something else that we have inherited, dear brothers and sisters, from our original parents: this inherited portion of corruption.

It was no doing on our part that we received it but it is here. As it's often said, it's alive and well and close to us.

This inherited portion that reminds or that did say reminds us or allows us or creates within us an inability to do that which is good and that which is right.

How did the apostle lament about his portion in the seventh chapter of Romans? We hear his lament and it is most familiar to us when he pondered a very familiar rule to us known as the known, that although he tries to do good, he finds himself only doing evil.

And he lamented that, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.

In the preface to the sacraments of holy communion, we read these words when it says in this way about this nature of Paul or of the apostle when he lamented of this portion.

This is so familiar to us: this inward irremovable depth of corruption that oppresses the wayfarer frequently.

And with this corruption, the enemy, souls' enemy of souls, also presses and dims.

You no doubt can find yourself lamenting the same as the apostle Paul when he so eloquently outlined that sinful portion that we carry and we find ourselves also at times saying the same thing that Paul laments here: Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?

I thank thee God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then with the mind I serve the law of God; and the flesh, sin.

What is he speaking about? Namely this: the grace of the grace that God has presented to his children in his Son, that through his blood we have access to the perfection that was prepared and is being prepared by him in heaven.

We have access to those many mansions when, after this life, we lay down our journey staff and go to life eternal.

Dear child of God, when the sin collects and the enemy comes close, don't look inward for strength to fight but look outward and upward to where your victory against the work of the enemy is there on the middle cross of Golgotha.

Look to those dear escorts beside you, for they hold the words of reconciliation that to weak ones is extended.

This message that dear child of God, lift up your heart and believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

That blood is shed on the middle cross of Golgotha for you and for I.

That blood and that body which this evening in faith you can eat and drink of for one reason alone: that it would strengthen this begun faith in you.

And so Jesus then said he would not eat until that day when I drink new with you in my Father's kingdom.

And they close their evening in song.

Tonight you, dear child of God, are waiting. You are waiting for that time when Jesus says he promised will come again, when faith will have accomplished all that it needs to accomplish and we can then open our eyes to that which is promised in his word.

But what, dear brother and sister, is preventing you from seeing that this evening? If you're like me, it's those doubts that so easily come and beset us and make the journeys long.

You don't have to look there but dear child of God, look to that where your redemption is as it draws nigh.

Dear child of God, in your place of watching, in your place of weak faith, you have this simple permission to believe all sins and journey faults forgiven in Jesus' name, precious blood, and be of good cheer and be of good comfort.

The grace of God that is prepared and granted unto you is stronger than the work of the enemy.

As it has been said, the grace of the grace that God has presented to his children is even no firmer than the hills and the mountains; it is unshakable.

Dear child of God, come to the Lord's holy supper believing your sins are forgiven in his name and blood and come for the strengthening of your faith.

And as you gather around the altar, know that besides you are escorts who may be needing personally that simple assurance that they are still on the way to heaven.

Preach the gospel one to another. Ask for it because this is our source of salvation and our power against the work of the enemy in this time and until that time when Jesus comes to gather his home.

Sometimes it's easier to believe but tonight, dear brothers and sisters, it feels difficult because I also have the same sinful portions as you do.

I am also tempted and I ask, Can I believe my sins and doubts forgiven?

It is my desire to believe together with you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please, I wish you you you.