Services/Sermon in Minneapolis 29.03.2018

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, let us begin this Monday evening service with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, on this special evening, we ask that again you would be present through your Holy Spirit and that you would bless our service so that each and every traveler of the way of life in faith could be refreshed and uplifted and nourished with your everlasting gospel message and encouraged with your body and your blood in the sacraments.

We thank you for the gift of faith which you have granted, in which faith we can own the righteousness of your Son who has prepared all on our behalf. This is a gift of grace, owned by faith through the merits of your Son, Jesus Christ. So, reveal unto us the sole reason for our salvation. For it is of no merits of our own, no efforts, no work, but it is simply by grace, by faith, all done by your Son.

So keep us in this begun faith, strengthen us with your gospel message, and keep us all together in one flock and bring each of us one day to our home in heaven that waits for us on the shores of glory. All of this we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today is Holy Thursday. We're also called Maundy Thursday. And the gospel text for this evening, for this year, on the calendar is from Matthew chapter 26, verses 17 through 30. And so we will quieten our hearts to hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

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, Jesus, said, going to the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, my time is at hand, and I will keep the Passover at your house, with my disciples.

And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And now when evening 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 exceeding sorrowful. And began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

And he answered and said, He that dips his hand with me in the dish, the same one 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 if that man had not been born.

And Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He, Jesus, said unto him, Thou hast said, or you're the one who has said it.

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

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 covenant or testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the 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.

It was now the time of the annual great feast called the Passover Festival. A Passover feast that had been celebrated for hundreds and thousands of years annually. This was one of the three major Jewish festivals that were celebrated each year. The other two major ones were Pentecost, Old Testament Pentecost, and the Feast of the Tabernacles.

People living abroad had a desire to come to celebrate if they could for one of these festivals annually if it was possible. The population in the city during those several days of the festival swelled to be four times larger than normal.

People were coming into Jerusalem from every corner of Palestine, also from the neighboring countries of Syria and Egypt, and there were people of many nationalities: Jews living in diaspora having now a different nationality, some were Arabs, there were Persians, some were Greeks, and some were Romans.

Also the king and the governor of the country arrived for this great festival. We're not, we don't know for certain, but most likely Jesus himself at least several times if not often participated in these festivals.

There were Jews living in far away countries who for some reason, one reason or another, couldn't make it to this festival and so the father would say in their home in their far away land as they celebrated abroad, "Next year, perhaps next year we'll be able to be there in Jerusalem."

It was now Holy Thursday of Passion Week. A few days earlier Jesus had arrived on Palm Sunday into Jerusalem and every evening he would then withdraw from the city and then go to the neighboring village five miles away to the town of Bethany and most likely stayed in the familiar home, the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Each day he would make a trip into the city and now on this day, Thursday of Passion Week, something occurred not only this day but it happened every year. This was an annual event.

At three o'clock in the afternoon someone would blow a trumpet there in the temple and people knew that now the climax of the evening was approaching.

There were Roman soldiers dressed in red garments everywhere. They were afraid during a great festival like this that there might be an uprising as there were at times uprisings during these festivals. We can read of these in the Acts of the Apostles.

Pontius Pilate, who was the governor, also arrived into the city and there is an assumption that he called in 600 additional soldiers to keep things under control if they would break out of control.

So at 3 o'clock now in the afternoon the trumpet sounded and there were masses of people everywhere at that point and at the sound of the trumpet then an aisle or a pathway opened up in the crowd and a procession began to proceed down the walkway or the aisle or the pathway that was opened through the crowd.

And the procession was being led by the high priest himself. The high priest on this day was dressed in a different manner where he took out a special robe out of the palace and put it upon himself.

This was the high priestly garment that was only worn at very special festivals such as this one and then the next day it was put back and left in storage until the next year.

It was blue in color decorated with beautiful embroidery, red and gold lacing. He had bells sewn to the hem which tinkled and rang with each footstep that he took.

He also had a breastplate hanging by his chest and it had twelve different precious stones, each one of these stones representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

He wore a hat or a miter on top of his head and then he had a little plaque or a diadem on his forehead and then it was inscribed in there it says sanctified unto the Lord.

This is the special clothing that he was adorned with on this special day.

So the high priest, of which there was only one at a time, was leading the procession but then he was followed by all the other priests that were available and typically there were 7,000 in number following behind him, 7,000 priests following the high priest.

And they were all dressed in white robes different from the blue robe which was decorated with embroidery worn by the high priest and all these priests had a white miter or a hat upon their head.

Then following the 7,000 priests there were thousands of thousands of Levites who were assistants to the priests. They would assist in the sacrificial worship program that would soon begin.

Most likely Jesus wasn't in this procession. He was highly likely most likely there in Bethany. For what reason? Six weeks earlier in the same town of Bethany he raised Lazarus from the dead and as a result of that miracle some believed in Jesus but others became so offended they brought word to the high priest, the same high priest who is leading this procession this evening.

Six weeks earlier that high priest gets word of what Jesus did to Lazarus and he puts out a decree that there is a warrant out for the arrest of Jesus. You'll get a reward if you capture him and bring him to the high priest and the great council.

So for the last six weeks of his life Jesus was a fugitive basically running for his life.

But as we read from our text Jesus had told his disciples, a couple of them, to go ahead of him into town on this great day, this great festive day, and go to this certain prescribed house and make preparations for our own small private Passover festival and he promised that he would arrive a little bit later that evening.

So Peter and James went to make preparations in that house of a man that they didn't know but they happened to meet according to the description that Jesus gave of that man and that man is mentioned here in our text.

At six o'clock the day changed. Our day changes at midnight, at 11:59 then the bell strikes twelve and the day changes from one day to the next but in the Jewish culture it changed at sunset and sunset is always in the Middle East at 6pm when the first evening star becomes visible in the sky and the sun is dipping behind the horizon then begins a new day and the beginning of this new day is the day of Passover.

Now these thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people are arriving into the city of Jerusalem for this annual festival called Passover Festival.

When they arrive into town and come to the temple area in the so-called Gentile courtyard, the courtyard for the Gentiles, there were booths. People were selling lambs, sheep which were sacrificial animals.

So these sheep, these lambs were being sold by the thousands and it was well prescribed, precisely prescribed what kind of lamb that should be: one year old male specimen and it had to be without flock flaw or error. It had to be a perfect specimen.

Then a male brought it forward into the next courtyard area where females couldn't go beyond that point and then they gave that animal, that lamb, to the priest.

The priest would take his knife and slit the throat of the animal and blood would then pour forth and it would be captured in a silver vessel, a silver bowl.

Then the priest would take the blood that was gathered from the animal and go up a few steps and cast it on the altar which was 15 feet high and on that altar was burning an eternal flame.

Then the priest would give that dead animal back to the one who brought the animal and then they would take the dead animal to that location where they were going to celebrate the Passover festival.

So this all began at six o'clock in the evening and they must have kept some of the blood each one bringing an animal of sacrifice for when they went to their homes and Peter and James and all of the disciples went into this home and they would take some blood and they would mark it or paint the doorpost of that outside door of the house where they were gathered and then their Passover feast and festival would begin.

And then generally in each of the homes the father of the house would read a blessing and the festivities would begin.

The lamb would be roasted and was typically roasted on a stick that was in the shape of a cross just by chance the shape of a cross and like a rotisserie chicken it was rotated over a burning flame to roast and prepare that animal.

They would also have bitter herbs and there would be unleavened bread and this is even called the feast of the unleavened bread as our text began.

Now was the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread.

So as they were seated around the table at some point in time then Jesus appeared through the open door and sat down to celebrate this Passover feast, this festival which will be now the last Passover feast and thus it's called the Last Supper.

So during that meal then they would pass a cup, a cup of wine around. There would be the first cup of blessing, there would be the second cup of blessing and there would be then the third cup of blessing.

And when the third cup was passed then typically the father of the house would then ask the traditional question that why is this evening any different or why is it different than any of the other evenings of the year, the other 364 days of the year?

Then the father would tell the story when the people of Israel were in bondage there in Egypt for 430 years and then after 430 years God allowed them to be released from the bondage of Egypt and this happened when the angel of death passed over.

That's where you get the word Passover, passed over the houses of those who were protected because their doorposts, their front door was painted with the blood of the sacrificial animal and this occurred on this evening as well.

So then Jesus at this point the Old Testament era comes to an end and now is the beginning of the new covenant era or the time of the new testament and Jesus is now going to institute the new testament sacrament of holy communion.

So he took the cup and he took bread, unleavened bread, and he broke it. So the unleavened bread is a bread without yeast and so we're all familiar with hardtack and it's a hard brittle sort of bread and so it's like a big sheet of hardtack and then Jesus would pick it up and then he would take it into his hands and bend it and bend it and of course it doesn't bend because it's brittle and then at some point it would snap and it would break.

So now Jesus and his disciples are celebrating the Passover Old Testament Passover feast for the last time, thus the Last Supper, and now Jesus is instituting the new covenant and it will be a meal of remembrance.

So when they are eating and preparing this lamb, the sacrificial lamb as they had done for hundreds of years, perhaps thousands of years, I don't remember the exact number of years but it was probably into the thousands each year when they ate, prepared and ate that sacrificial lamb, they would be looking forward with eyes of faith to that one perfect sacrifice.

As John the Baptist said at the shore of the river Jordan or the banks of the river Jordan when he was about to baptize that one man he pointed to him and said behold the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world.

So Jesus was that ultimate sacrifice, that unblemished lamb, that perfect, that sinless sacrifice which would be offered on the middle cross of Golgotha on Good Friday on behalf of the sins of all mankind for you and I every human being.

And just as this literal sacrificial lamb was being roasted over a fire, likewise Jesus the Lamb of God would be roasted as if between two fires, the fire of the wrath of God on the one side. God hates sin but then on the other side he would be roasted with the fire of love but God loves the sinner.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him would not need to perish but would have everlasting life.

So as Paul writes to the Corinthians that Jesus is our Paschal or our Passover lamb and already in the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah talks about the suffering savior servant he'll be like a lamb that is brought before its shears and he'll be brought before the slaughter and he will not even open up his mouth which literally happened when he was standing the same evening a few hours later before King Herod.

So Jesus is that Passover lamb would be prepared just like the Old Testament sacrifices each year and as those people even that night were bringing this sacrificial animal to the priest to be slaughtered and then they would later roast it they had a close connection or a contact between the one carrying the animal and the animal itself and then later that evening they would be eating actually tasting the meat of that animal in their mouth there was such a close connection.

Likewise there is that connection to the Passover lamb Christ Jesus and as Jesus says he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have fellowship and will be a partaker of everlasting life with me there in heaven and this we do by and through faith not literal eating but eating with and by and through faith.

So our undying soul lives of this this food Jesus says I am he also says I am the bread of life who has come down from heaven and our undying soul lives of this living bread of heaven.

So when one is able to own and possess this bread of life Christ Jesus one who is an unbelief it gives that person new birth and it breaks internally for them the bonds of sin that have kept them captive.

So Jesus now institutes the Lord's holy supper or holy communion and in this sacrament we eat the body of Christ and the blood of Christ and this was intended that evening for his disciples and so it is intended this evening as well for his believers wherever they are or wherever they may be.

Just before I came here I read an old article written by a believing minister ordained minister and actually he's one of the authors of that new book on Luther that was just published in English language just came out about a week ago and he mentioned that one time he had to be abroad for one month all by himself was it in Germany he was the only believer he was surrounded by unbelievers and very seldom did he even have contact with his friends and family back home they didn't have email back then and they didn't have cell phones and it was probably expensive to call and so at times he felt downcast and tried and even tempted and so he said he went to the local Lutheran church there in the community and he said he went to communion he did this not only once but he did it many times and he said that when he went to communion like in his homeland he wasn't able to choose when he came to the communion rail whether he wanted to receive communion from a believing pastor or unbelieving pastor sometimes in the state church in Finland you go to communion and there choose you can choose to go in that line where there is a believing pastor but here there is only unbelieving pastors so he had no choice the person who was offering the sacraments was not a believer but yet it was God's sacrament and he wasn't able to before kneeling down at the communion rail to ask for a blessing from any believer there were no believers but yet he received elements he accepted them in faith and he said that gave him strength and encouragement to yet take a few steps on the walk of the life of faith.

This may seem strange to us in America but it's not so uncommon in at the other side of the ocean but just to illustrate that the serving of the elements isn't dependent on the server whether he's a believer or unbeliever but if those words of institution are done according to the word of God and with the word of God they are valid.

He wasn't receiving his sins forgiven he wasn't receiving new birth he was a believer already new birth does not occur through the sacraments but he received encouragement and refreshment and new strength for his walk of faith.

So what's the purpose of communion for you and I this evening isn't it for this reason that we could be strengthened in our walk of faith isn't it for this reason that it would again refresh the hope of heaven the destination of our faith that awaits for us one day and then isn't it for this reason that you would tighten or strengthen the bonds of love between us as brothers and sisters of the one and same family the family of God the believers in the kingdom of God.

So this is a communion meal or the word communion means fellowship we can see that this altar rail is almost like a semi circle it's not a perfect semi circle it's got some corners on it but if we use our imagination we continue the unseen circle to go around us and if we look from above we have a complete circle and when we come and kneel down at the altar at the visible rail altar rail that we can see there on the invisible side of the altar rail which goes behind the wall we can imagine that those saints that have already gone to the glory of heaven our grandmother and our grandfather and relatives who have died in faith and Abraham Isaac and Jacob Apostle Paul and Apostle John and Ruther and Lysphadius and all of those saints that have gone to glory are there in faith kneeling down at that same altar rail.

We are part of the same communion the same fellowship by and through faith as Paul writes in today's epistle text in first Corinthians 10 he talks about when we make a bread a loaf of bread you need to take many grains of wheat and bring them to the mill and grind those many grains of wheat into flour and then they all get mixed together and pour water and maybe a little bit of salt and a few other ingredients and then becomes a dough and then from that one dough becomes one loaf of bread.

So that one loaf of bread which is a picture of God's kingdom is made up of all of those separate grains of wheat which have been gathered from here and there and everywhere.

So we are always we can imagine like one little grain in that one large lump or loaf of bread and this is what makes up the kingdom of God the universal kingdom beginning from Adam and Eve throughout all times till the end of the world that is the kingdom the universal invisible kingdom of God including those saints that have already gone to the glory of heaven.

When Jesus took that bread in his hands he said this is my body he didn't say the bread is my body but he says this is my body eat in remembrance of me and when he took that bread in his hands he bent it and then pretty soon it snapped and it broke and I'm sure they heard it with their ears when it went snap symbolizing what would happen to him the next day when soldiers came to arrest him led him away before the tribunals and on good Friday led to the hill of Golgotha and he was crucified nailed to the cross through the bread of life who has come down from heaven.

As he is hanging between heaven and earth do this whenever you break of this bread do this in remembrance of me remember me hanging on the cross of Golgotha and likewise he took the cup he didn't say the wine is my blood but he lifted up the chalice of wine he says this is my blood it doesn't represent the blood as the reformers would say it doesn't change into the blood like the Catholics would say transubstantiation a changing occurs when they're ringing the bell during the reading of the words of institution but Jesus remember that Luther had this debate with Zwingli in the year 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy October 1st 2nd and 3rd of 1529 they were discussing communion and Zwingli says the bread represents the body of Christ the wine represents the blood of Christ Luther says give me a piece of chalk he took a piece of chalk and he wrote on the table and he says Jesus says this is he wrote in Latin this is my blood this is my body and as Paul writes and he says isn't the bread fellowship with the body of Christ isn't the blood or the wine fellowship with the blood of Christ this is my body this is my blood and this is what we are eating of and partaking by and through faith.

So what is communion it is a meal of remembrance as we mentioned already Jesus says do this in remembrance of me remember me hanging on the middle cross of Golgotha giving my life and shedding my blood on behalf of you and I and the sins of all mankind.

It is a meal of thanks we can always remember thanks to God that he has called me from the darkness of the world for those who have been prodigal sons and daughters and thanks that I have been preserved as one of God's own perhaps as a childhood believer alone of grace through the power of God through the gospel by and through living faith.

It is a meal of hope we have this hope that when we can close our eyes to this world we'll open them up there in the glory of heaven and it is a confession a meal of confession we called the all long and title to the end of the world we are giving that duty and responsibility in that task that go and proclaim the death of the Lord going all the world until the end of all times and it's a meal of communion or fellowship as we mentioned already it's a meal of love where brothers and sisters in living faith are joined and bound together by bonds of love by and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so we can come as we are just as we find ourselves feeling poor, sinful, and unworthy. In childlike faith we can eat the body of Christ and drink the blood of Christ. And remember that Christ has suffered and died for me and by faith we can own through his merits the forgiveness of all of our sins.

He has redeemed me a lost and condemned sinner not by offering gold or silver but by shedding his blood and giving his life on the middle cross of Golgotha.

And now when we soon read the words of institution then when the words of institution are read we always say that come for all things are now finished all things are now ready.

So what things are now ready or complete? The arms of the Heavenly Father are ready to receive a prodigal son who would perhaps be in the hearing of this word.

The hands of Jesus are always ready to forgive. In Zion there is always an open fountain that is ready for all sin and defilement.

Also the righteousness of Christ is ready and is prepared. And this is the righteousness which is acceptable before God our Heavenly Father.

Also the way to heaven is ready. It's open. It's blazed all the way to the shores of heaven.

Jesus did this when he went into the most holy where he went to the cross with his blood and shed his blood. And heaven is open. It is ready to receive a tired and a weary traveler.

And so even this evening just as you are just as you find yourself lift your hearts to believe sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood. The power of the gospel will lift you it will carry you and it will bring you one day to that home there on the shores of the glory of heaven.

You can believe unto peace freedom and joy. In Jesus name Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.