Sermon on Minneapolis 01.04.2010

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us begin our services with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, again this evening we thank you for this moment that we can gather around your Holy Word and we can participate in your Lord's Holy Supper. For the refreshment and encouragement of our weak faith and strengthening of the bonds of love and renewing the hope of heaven. So we ask for service blessings for your presence through your spirit and give unto us, every one of us, each and every undying soul that portion that our soul needs and longs for. So we ask. All of this in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

For this Monday, Thursday evening, a text related to this evening from another calendar year, from Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11. I'll read verses 17 through 18, 32 in Jesus' name.

Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you. And I partly believe it. For there must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, everyone taketh before another his own supper, even though the living have no supper.

For nothing is equal to that which is done, as you eat or drink, that the life which is devils, that the life which befalls, he who eats unworthily eateth to thyself, because of overthinking, pain, and wickedness, concealing, lurking, admonishing, and misguiding you, breaking those whose hearts are not wanted. Consider the perfectike of that who might be excepted in the spirit rocket, to an unrelenting might, that no fasting is devoured.

I received that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me.

After the same manner also he took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.

Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among the people of the world, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, carry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that you come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. Amen.

Some of you may have noticed that this week there was a full moon earlier in the week when the skies were clear and cloudless. Easter is always set according to the first full moon after the spring or vernal equinox. So, the vernal equinox was just recently on about the 21st of the month of March. The first full moon was sometime during this week. And so, the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the spring equinox, is Easter.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, at the same time of the year, when the moon was full, Jesus, along with hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions of people, were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival. Always during this great festival, the numbers swelled in the city of Jerusalem by fourfold. The Roman armies were nervous, afraid of an uprising. So this year especially, Pontius Pilate called 600 additional soldiers to his castle there in the city to be on guard and watch.

In this crowd was also a group of people who were looking for the man they were looking for, Jesus of Nazareth. Six weeks earlier, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the great council, the Sanhedrin council, gathered together, put a warrant out for the arrest of Jesus and Jesus for the last six weeks of his life was a fugitive.

So Jesus with his twelve disciples apparently came in quietly and inconspicuously. Did they realize or did they see the great procession that was taking place as the high priest was taking the cross, leading the procession of thousands of priests, perhaps five thousand priests, as they're making their way to the great temple of Jerusalem?

For at six o'clock the Jewish time when the day changes and the official Passover begins, the day of the Passover, a trumpet would sound and the priests would begin slaughtering hundreds and thousands of sheep and lambs for the Passover festival.

So Jesus now during the eve of the Passover festival entered into Jerusalem for his very last time. He had visited the city several times earlier during the week always going back to Bethany and spending the night with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.

Jesus sent his disciples ahead of time to make the preparations and prepare the room so it would be ready for them to enjoy and celebrate the annual Passover festival that had been celebrated for thousands of years since that time when Moses under the command of God was to lead the people out of the bondage of Egypt into the wilderness where they were for the next forty years of their lives.

So the Passover festival was celebrated annually since that time. Jesus was now ready to sit down and commemorate this Old Testament Passover meal. And this is the setting in which Jesus then instituted these words of Holy Communion which we read and will read again this evening before celebrating the Lord's Holy Supper.

So the original words were first recorded, put down on paper or on leather or some sort of writing surface by the Apostle Paul himself. Up to that point they were just as an oral memory going from mouth to mouth, from person to person recalling the words that were written in the Bible and the Bible as a message to the people of the world and to the world recalling the words that Jesus said himself on that first Holy Thursday evening.

So the Apostle Paul writes these words for us when he is writing this letter to the believers, to the congregation, to the church there in the city of Corinth. And it was a church, it was a congregation that had a very strong faith in the Holy Spirit. And it had many difficulties and many issues that needed to be dealt with. And these issues were so serious that they were even causing division within the church.

And we could mention some of these which are recorded in the various chapters leading up to this portion that we are going to read in the next few minutes.

So let's begin with the first chapter of the Gospel of John, chapter 1.

In order to celebrate the Lord's Holy Supper, here in Corinth, the believers would gather in homes. Some of the homes of the affluent believers were apparently so large that tens of people could gather in their homes, maybe up to ten or twenty people could gather at a time around the table where they would lean on their right side and rest on their right elbow.

But not everyone had a home, and not every one of the believers had a home large enough in order to gather the believers together. So they would apparently gather together in those believers' homes that were large enough to have an assembly for all of the believers at least in that part of the city of Corinth.

And it was typical at those times that they would gather together for an evening dinner. So it was a social gathering. It was like a potluck and everyone would bring some sort of dish or some sort of food item for everyone to share and enjoy together. They would eat each other's food as we are very well accustomed to when we have a potluck.

But in connection with the evening dinner, which they called Love Feast, Agape Meals, then they would celebrate the Lord's Holy Supper. So in connection with a normal evening meal, then at the end of the meal, they would commemorate and celebrate and enjoy the Lord's Holy Supper.

But there began to be problems when, for example, some people who were more well off would perhaps come with their abundance of food and not share it with the others, or they would bring their food and arrive ahead of time and their food would be all eaten before those who came later who were apparently so poor that they had no food to bring at all to the gathering.

And the food was gone by the time they arrived. And so this was causing strife and even divisions among the believers there in Corinth.

So this is kind of the background leading up to why Apostle Paul is writing about these issues before he talks about what is the true meaning of the Lord's Holy Supper.

Now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not. I don't have any words of praise for you, but I have concern that you come together not for the better, not for encouragement and help along this way of life, but your gatherings have come to be for the worse for all of you.

Why? For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you for many different reasons which we iterated already here in the letter to the Corinthians that they which are approved or acceptable unto God may be made manifest among you.

And another reason when you come together therefore into one place, into one of the homes of the believers, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

So in pagan times before those who were converted, when they would gather together for their meals, their so-called Love Feast, which were very common throughout the Bible during pagan times, they came to be gluttonous orgies and very unacceptable types of behaviors took place in those gatherings.

So when you come together therefore in one place, it was not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, everyone takes before the other his own supper. So they're supposed to share the food among all of the members that came, but some ate more than their share or all of the food before others, even perhaps even the arrived to the gathering.

So one takes before the other his own supper and another one is left hungry while the other one is drunken or has indulged in overeating, all right, gluttony.

What have you not houses to eat and drink in? Only some had a house in which they could gather the believers together into their homes while others did not have a place where they could have the fellow believers assemble or despise you the church of God and shame them that have not.

So those that had began to look down upon and prone upon those that had not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Should I give you praise? In this I praise you not.

Then he goes on to the words of institution. So that's sort of the background which leads up to the meaning and telling of the purpose of the Lord's Holy Supper.

For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you.

So now he's going to recite or tell the words of institution. The apostle Paul was not there at the last supper when Jesus instituted the Lord's Holy Supper, but Paul says he received this as a direct revelation from the Lord himself in what manner.

The apostle Paul says it was just a direct revelation for I received of the Lord that which I also now deliver unto you.

That the Lord on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.

So going back to when Jesus was there in that upper room of that home with his twelve disciples, they were celebrating the Old Testament annual Passover festival and the things that they ate at that festival were unleavened bread. They passed several cups of wine around. They roasted the lamb that was slaughtered above a fire and ate it whole and this was enjoyed with bitter herbs.

So now in connection with eating that Passover meal, then Jesus took that bread, that unleavened bread, that bread that was made without yeast, so similar to the hard tack as we know today, the Swedish hard tack, a very hard bread after it is baked in the oven.

And it's also known as bread of haste for when on that last evening, on that first Passover, they were supposed to be ready at any moment that when the call of the Lord comes that they could leave at that instant. They wouldn't have time to wait for the yeast to take effect for the bread to rise and then bake it.

So they used a bread without yeast which was called unleavened bread. But the leaven, of course, in the Bible refers to sin. So it was a picture of something that was without sin.

And so if we think of this bread, how is it made? First of all, grain from the field is gathered together and brought into the granary and then the grain kernels are separated from the chaff and then it needs to be ground at the mill into flour and then used to make the bread.

And so Jesus in one parable says that I am like a kernel of wheat and if the kernel of wheat does not fall to the ground it will just get left alone and nothing will happen.

But if the kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies and is planted into the bosom of the earth, then it produces abundant fruit.

So Jesus says that he is that kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies.

So Jesus was that kernel of wheat and what happens when a kernel of wheat or many kernels of wheat are gathered together and then made into flour.

They need to be ground.

That Monday, Thursday evening and Good Friday the following day.

If we have ever eaten hard tack, we know that hard tack has all kinds of holes poked in it and this is a very clear picture of what happened to Jesus, the body of Jesus the following day on Good Friday when he was nailed by his hands and his feet to the middle cross of Golgotha and a spear was put into his side.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah says that through his stripes we will be healed.

And so that evening at that Passover meal Jesus took that bread, that hard tack-like bread, that unleavened bread which was a picture of him for Jesus was unleavened. He had no sin as the Bible clearly says.

He was tempted and tried in every point like you and I but he never sinned.

So Jesus took that bread and he broke it and he snapped it and he began to break it into little pieces and pass it around to the twelve disciples at that Passover meal and he said, Eat this bread whenever you eat it do it in remembrance of me.

Whenever you do it remember what they will do to my body. They will pierce it with nails and a spear. Remember me what I did on your behalf.

And then he took the cup and after he had given thanks he gave it to them saying, After the same manner also he took the cup and when he had supped or when he had eaten he said, This cup is the new testament in my blood. This do you as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.

During the course of the meal several cups were passed around the table and cup number four that was passed around was always known as the cup of redemption, remembering how God redeemed the people, how he released them from bondage, from the bondage of Egypt so that they were able to travel toward the promised land.

And when we think of this wine, this grape juice that they were drinking and enjoying, it was made of grapes that in order to get this grape juice or wine the grapes needed to be crushed.

And this is exactly what would happen to the body of Jesus this night.

And Jesus says this will be a new covenant.

The old covenant was established with Moses on Mount Sinai after God gave via the medium of Moses the Ten Commandment law of God and that was the old covenant, the covenant of the law which was then sealed with the sprinkling of the blood there on the hill of Mount Sinai.

But now Jesus says that I will give you a new covenant and it will be sealed with blood.

When we think of the Old Testament sacrificial worship they always killed the animal, drained the blood from the animal and then there was always the sprinkling of blood upon the altar, upon the items that were there in the temple and even sprinkled upon the people.

So in the Old Testament they always had this belief that life was in the blood. So when the blood was shed it was an indication that death had occurred.

So now Jesus when taking this or passing this fourth cup around, this cup of redemption, Jesus says I am now this cup of redemption. I will shed my blood to the last drop on behalf of your sins and the sins of all mankind and this will be a new covenant as Jeremiah already prophesied hundreds of years ago.

The new covenant is this that there will be the forgiveness of sins for all of your iniquities and I will give to you a new law, a law of the Holy Spirit, a law of love which is completely different from the law of Moses which I will inscribe into the flesh of your hearts, not like the old law which was inscribed in two tablets of stone there on Mount Sinai.

So here after the same manner also he took the cup and when he had supped or eaten he said, This cup is the new testament in my blood. So this do you as often as you drink of it.

Whenever you drink often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the Lord's death until he comes.

So the Apostle Paul is given this exhortation that whenever we assemble together for services and as services enjoy the Lord's Holy Supper, enjoy Holy Communion, we are proclaiming the Lord's death. We are celebrating the death. We are remembering the death of Christ Jesus and do it as often as you do it until that moment till I return back to earth the second time to take you and all of the believers to our home in heaven.

So in the Lord's Holy Supper on the one hand we are looking backward. We remember what Jesus did for us there on the middle cross of Golgotha by shedding his blood and giving his life, paying that price of redemption and opening up the way to the glory of heaven.

But then on forward in time do it until I come looking forward to that moment when we are able to celebrate that communion service that will have a beginning and will never end when Jesus instituted the Lord's Holy Supper in connection with that last supper, the final Passover meal with his disciples he said the next time we commemorate together it will be there in the glory of heaven.

So in faith we are our hope is renewed through this Lord's Holy Supper and our eyes are fixed to that goal waiting for that moment when we can leave the trials and cares and concerns of this life behind and enter into heaven's glory where we can rejoice with the Lord and all of the other believers forever and forever.

But then he said that there are perversions or there are misuses of the Lord's Holy Supper.

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily or in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

One religion, the Catholic religion, even today when they celebrate Mass or Eucharist, which they call Eucharist, is a word which means thanks, a meal of thanks which is very biblical because Jesus said when he had given thanks then he took the bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples.

But the Catholics have this understanding that every time they celebrate the Lord's Holy Supper the body of Jesus is being sacrificed again.

But Jesus was that one, that final and that ultimate sacrifice which never needed to be renewed, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament which were offered daily, weekly, and even annually at the great festival of atonement.

But when Jesus offered himself as that final sacrifice, never was a sacrifice needed to be offered. Jesus was the final and ultimate sacrifice.

So that is a doctrinal error that every time communion is celebrated Jesus' body is being sacrificed again.

But Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me. It's a meal of remembrance.

But then also there's another misunderstanding. For example, the Catholic have this understanding that at the moment when the priest reads the words of institution and the bell rings, then the wine changes into the blood of Jesus and the bread changes into the body of Jesus. They call it transubstantiation.

And Luther refuted this wrong understanding.

But then the Reformed Church, Calvin and Zwingli and even yet today, they have this understanding that the bread only represents the body of Christ and the wine or the grape juice only represents the blood of Christ.

At the Council of Marburg in the 1520s, a very important council, Luther and Zwingli were debating about many points of doctrine and the biggest one that they had a disagreement over was over this issue of Holy Communion.

And they debated and they debated and they debated and finally Luther took some sort of object that he could write with chalk or whatever he used at that time and he wrote in Latin on the table and he wrote these words, Hoc est corpus meum, This is the body of Christ, quoting the words of Jesus.

Jesus said, This is my body which is given for you. This is the new testament, the covenant of the new testament in my blood which is shed for you.

Jesus Luther said did not say it represents but he says it is.

And therefore Luther had to say this wittingly that we have a different spirit one with another.

We remember when after the resurrection there were two disciples who were downcast and forlorn and walking on their way to the city of Emmaus.

And as they were walking that trip of perhaps several miles, a third person joined their company, a person that they didn't recognize at that moment.

And this third person asked these two that why are you so sad and downcast and forlorn?

And the two said, Are you the only stranger in this part of the country that doesn't know what has happened?

And then the third unknown to the other two began to quote Old Testament scriptures of what was to come and what had been fulfilled, quoting that Jesus the Messiah would come and he would be captured and he would be scourged and mocked and ridiculed.

He would die on the middle cross of Golgotha and be buried in the grave and would rise again on the third day as a victor over death.

And at that moment the sun was setting and the third unknown, the stranger, was going to continue on his way and the two disciples then invited this unknown guest into their home.

And the unknown guest then took bread and when they were enjoying a meal together, a meal of fellowship, and this is what Holy Communion is.

The Lord's people, the believers, gather together, kneel down at the altar of the Lord and together as one family unit joined together by bonds of love and through the Spirit of God.

And so Jesus there in the home of those two disciples he took the bread, he broke it and began to pass it out to those other two.

At that time their eyes were opened and they realized that Christ Jesus was there in their midst and then they recalled how their hearts burned, were warmed when Jesus was explaining the Holy Scriptures unto them.

The brothers and sisters this evening before us we will be able to enjoy the Lord's Holy Supper and it is a meal of remembrance to remember what Jesus has done on our behalf and it is a meal of thanks.

We give thanks for what God has done on our behalf through a Son, Christ Jesus.

It is a meal of love. We are joined together as brothers and sisters in this one family of Christ by bonds of love through the Holy Spirit.

And in this meal our weak, faltering and many times failing faith is refreshed and encouraged and uplifted.

And so as the Apostle Paul says, Do it till I come, till that moment when the angels of God come and take us there into heaven's glory where we can be at that everlasting communion celebration there in the glory of heaven.

So even this evening we can feel how we may feel, seem how it may seem, surrounded by doubts, afflicted by temptations and cares.

You can even now believe sins and doubts, cares with a way forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

You can believe unto peace, freedom and joy in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us thank and pray.

O Lord eternal God, Thou who made us partakers of Thy sacraments, we thank Thee for Thy grace and pray make us with all Thine elect saints to be partakers of Thine eternal honor and glory through Jesus Christ Thy Son and our Lord who lives and has dominion with Thee and the Holy Spirit and the Godhead from everlasting through everlasting. Amen.

Humble your hearts before the Lord and receive the benediction.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee.

The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.