The sermon, based on Matthew 26:26-30, explores the significance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, focusing on the Lord's Supper. It emphasizes the fulfillment of the Passover meal through Jesus, highlighting His role as the ultimate sacrificial lamb. The sermon discusses key doctrines such as election, substitutionary atonement, and the new covenant sealed by Jesus' blood. It portrays Jesus as the High Priest presiding over the Lord's Supper, providing a gift to His people. The Lord's Supper is described as a vital time of remembrance, thanksgiving, and proclamation of the Gospel, symbolizing Jesus' sacrifice and the believer's unity with Him. The sermon also emphasizes the importance of understanding the symbolic nature of the bread and the cup, representing Christ's body and blood, and the ultimate exchange of Jesus taking the cup of God's wrath for humanity's blessing.

Matthew 26, 26 through 30 if you read with me. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink from it all of you For this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins But I say to you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it, new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, They went out. Father, I thank you for your precious word.

How we need it. It's especially precious today as We consider these words about the pinnacle of all of history when your son, having lived a perfectly righteous life, would allow for his body to be broken and would allow for his blood to be shed for the joy that was set before him. We marvel at the text, Lord, and we give you thanks And we pray, God, that you would come and help us through the foolishness of preaching. That your people would be built up and encouraged, convicted, helped. Maybe so in Jesus' name.

Amen. Our text is about the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last week the text really took us to the doctrine of election because you cannot understand Judas unless you understand election. If you come to last week's text without an understanding that God in His sovereign plan shows mercy on people that he chooses to show mercy to, you'll be raised up and you'll think he's a monster and you're nothing like him. But the truth of the text is really that you're a monster just like him.

And the only daylight between you and Judas, the only separation between you and a man like Judas, would be that God would decide that it's good to show mercy on a sinner. This week we're in a text about substitutionary atonement. An innocent standing in place of a guilty one and a change of places so that the innocent one is actually condemned and takes on the guilt of the guilty one and the guilty one goes free. It's so unfair. But when we were in Romans 9 last week, what we saw, If you see anything in Romans 9 that says you don't want fair, that fair is going to lead to your destruction because you're guilty.

What will you do with that guilt? But there's an innocent one that is willing to trade places with you. That's what our text is about today. An innocent one. One who lived the life that you were bound to live, that you should have lived, that you have not lived, trading places with you.

Who deserve to be paid your wages. And it's the wages of death. In Exodus 3, Moses comes upon a bush and it's burning and it's not being consumed, it just keeps burning. And so he stops to look at this phenomenon and there's a voice that comes from this burning bush that says, Moses, take off your sandals. You're standing on holy ground.

When we come to this text about the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we're standing on holy ground. There's no holier ground in all the scriptures than the passages we're in from now to the end of Matthew 28. All of history has been coming towards this point, And it's the pinnacle of all of history. When you look at the mountain range of history, this is the highest peak of them all. This is the highest peak in all of history.

And so we come both in terms of doctrines, election, substitutionary atonement, and in terms of events, circumstances. The Son of God laying down His life. He had the power to lay His life down. He had the power to take it up again. No one took his life from him.

He willingly offered himself. And so, this is the holy ground of Scripture. Here's how we'll structure our time today. I'm going to begin speaking about the Lord's Supper in general. There are some things that should be said from this text and also from other Lord's Supper texts that ought to be said about the event itself.

And so I'm going to start there. And then there are some things specific to the bread that ought to be said. And then there are some things that are specific to the cup that ought to be said. And then I'll be making applications. So Let's begin with the Lord's Supper in general.

There are eight things that I want to say about the Lord's Supper in general. Verse 26, the beginning of our text, begins this way, and as they were eating. And it's not an ordinary meal that they're eating, it's the Passover meal that they're eating. And for fifteen hundred years, This picture of a lamb, a spotless lamb, one without any blemish or defect, being sacrificed because the people have sins. That's what the Passover was all about.

So the blood goes on the doorposts and the destroying angels passes over. And this has always just been a picture of Jesus Christ coming to die for the joy that was set before Him, enduring the cross and despising the shame, but doing it anyway for the joy that was set before Him. So this is the meal that they are engaged in here. So here is the first thing that I want to say about the Lord's Supper. Number one, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover meal.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover meal. When you go to Exodus 12 and you read about the institution of the Passover, the people are on the verge of being set free from their bondage. Everything in Exodus 12 is so symbolic. A people in bondage, not free, bound up, suffering under a yoke of bondage and on the cusp of being set free and being taken out and taken to a promised land, every bit of Exodus 12 is symbolic and points to Christ. There's a destroyer that's hovering over guilty sinners in Exodus 12.

You get that? This is what Passover is about. There's a destroyer hovering over sinners. And God gives the remedy for this to certain ones. He said, you're my people.

I'm giving you the remedy. So tonight when every other household within these borders is going to suffer death, your households aren't going to suffer death. You're going to be exempt from the work of the destroyer. We say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We're coming to these texts and we just say the word.

Sometimes we couple it with Christ, so at least Jesus being the Messiah is in view. But we get so comfortable with the name. Have you forgotten what the name means? Do you ever think of what the name means? It actually means, Jehovah is salvation.

That's His name. Every time we've said the name Jesus, that's been the meaning behind the name. Jehovah, which actually means the existing one. Jehovah, the existing one. I AM is salvation.

That's what his name means. In the Old Testament where you see Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the most holy name of God, that's Jehovah. Jehovah is salvation. That's what Jesus' name means. So, when the angel comes to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1.

Right at the beginning of this gospel, what does this angel say to Joseph? Matthew 1 verse 21, and Mary will bring forth a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." So since the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, we've had the significance of the name Jesus. The angel comes and says to Joseph, you're going to call this boy Jesus. And it's because he's come to save his people from their sins. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10, Hebrews in so many different places, unfolds the ceremonial law and the meaning of it and all the nuances of it pointing to Christ. Hebrews 10 is a beautiful example of that. Hebrews 10 and I'll be reading verses 1-10. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?

For the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he, Jesus, came into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and in sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.

Then I said, Behold, I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." He takes away the first that he may establish the second. In other words, he takes away sacrifice so that he may establish obedience to God. Verse 10, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

What is the author of Hebrews teaching here? Well, it starts with a talk about shadows in the actual image. Shadows and substance. And the author of Hebrews is arguing that all that ceremonial law, all that law of sacrifices given to the people of Israel were just something that would foreshadow the actual image of the thing. It's just a picture of what's really going to happen in the future.

It's God pulling back the veil just a little bit so that the people of God might know that a redeemer is coming in the future. So what was it for? Well it's for that, but it's also a reminder for sins year by year. Look at verse 3. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

And so they would come and they would be killing these animals. And it's a very bloody thing that's happening. And it's a reminder of sin. It's a reminder of the sinfulness of sin. How dark sin is.

How much God hates sin. The anger of God against sin. So that year after year after year after year, There's not a forgetting that God hates sin. And that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. There can be no forgiveness without the blood.

And then in verse four, the writer says, it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. So it's just a picture. There's no substance in any of that. The killing of those animals didn't really take away the sins Because verse 10 says it's once for all. It's once for all.

There's only one sacrifice from the beginning of time to the end of time that ever really took away sins. And it's Jesus Christ giving his life on the cross. So the first thing that's so significant about the Lord's Supper is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover meal. 1500 years of doing this every year. It's not exactly true.

There were some years off for two exiles and apostasy. There were some years where it didn't happen. But there's 1, 500 years of history of this picture of Jesus Christ laying down His life for sinners. Number two. Jesus presides as the high priest over the institution of this ordinance.

Jesus presides as the high priest over the institution of this ordinance and he's giving it as a gift to his people. The Lord's Supper is a gift given to us by our High Priest. One that was tempted in every way, yet without sin. One who can be a sympathetic High Priest because he's known every sorrow in life that you could ever know. And so he comes and gives this gift as a high priest.

Listen to Genesis 14. In Genesis 14, it's an incredibly exciting drama. There are five kings against four kings and one group wins against the other and Lot is carried away as a prisoner of war. And Abram arms his 318, I think it was 318 male servants, and he's off after these kings who have been victorious because he's going to bring back his nephew. And God gives him victory.

And he's bringing back his nephew and the spoils of the war. In Genesis 14, we encounter this character that we never saw before and we never see afterwards in the book of Genesis. We only see him this once. He's the king of Salem, which becomes Jerusalem. And Josephus, in his history of Jerusalem, says Jerusalem was founded by Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is the character that we encounter. And he's the priest of God Most high. He's a high priest. Now listen to Genesis 14, 18-20 and then just superimpose that, overlap that over the top of our Lord's Supper text. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

Melchizedek brings out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High And he blessed him. Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said, blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And Abraham gave him a tie the ball. So, if all you had was Genesis, or if all you had was the Old Testament, you'd miss all the richness of the symbolism that you have here.

But now, in the light of the New Testament, with what we know in the New Testament, think back on this. So Melchizedek, he's in Genesis 14, and then he's in Psalm 110. So Psalm 110 is all about the Messiah from the first verse to the last. In fact, when Jesus quotes the Psalm where David says, the Lord said to my Lord, remember this just a couple of chapters back, and Jesus stumps the Pharisees by saying, how is it then that David says the Lord says to my Lord, but he's his son. So that's Psalm 110.

It's all about the Messiah. Listen to Psalm 110 verse 4, the Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. It's about the Messiah. Jesus is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

It's about the Messiah. Jesus is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He doesn't come through the Levitical line. He comes through a different line. He comes through the line of Melchizedek.

And then Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 7 develops who Melchizedek is and how Christ is a fulfillment of that picture. So now think back to Genesis 14 through New Testament lenses and you see Melchizedek who is just a little shadow of Christ coming out and blessing, bringing out the bread and the wine to bless Abraham who is just a little shadow of all those who would believe in faith. He is the father of all those who have faith. So there is the shadow of us who would have saving faith, who would believe, and it would be credited to us as righteousness. The shadow of that is there, being blessed by the shadow of Christ.

And he brings out the bread and the wine. Now There's no talk about body and blood there. You see when you overlay the New Testament on this, the richness of the symbolism. And then, as an act of worship to God, Abram tithes. Abram gives.

Number three. Number three. The Lord's Supper ought to be rooted in thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. The Lord's Supper ought to be rooted in thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. It's easy to come to the Lord's Supper and say, thank you Jesus, and thank the Son for the Lord's Supper because it was His body and it was His blood.

And there's nothing inappropriate about that. What could be more appropriate than to come to the Lord's Supper and thank Jesus Christ for laying down His life? And yet, Jesus roots the Lord's Supper in thanksgiving to his Father. Verse 26, Jesus takes the bread and blesses it. This is exactly like Matthew 14, where there's these 5, 000 men not counting women and children.

They're hungry, they've been with them for a long time. And what does Jesus do? He looks up to heaven and he blesses the food. And it suddenly, this meager little offering suddenly becomes enough for 5, 000 men plus however many women and children were there. So Jesus is looking up to heaven and he's blessing it, just like we see here in Matthew 6.

In verse 27, we see that he gives thanks over the cup. That's just like Matthew 15, one chapter later, very similar story. Now there's 4, 000 men, not 5, 000, 4, 000. The crowds are dwindling, I guess. 4, 000 men, not counting the women and children.

And Jesus gives thanks this time. So we see in Matthew 14 and Matthew 15 exactly what we see in verse 26 and verse 27. The first time He's blessing it. The second time He's giving thanks for it. But in all these things, it's towards His Heavenly Father.

His eyes are lifted to His Heavenly Father. Listen to Isaiah 53. If you want to go to a beautiful place about substitutionary atonement, the innocent standing in the place of the guilty, go to Isaiah 53. The Gospels is clear there as any New Testament passage that you can find. Listen to Isaiah 53 verse 10.

10. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has put him to grief. Listen to that again. 11.

Yet it pleased the Lord, God the Father, to bruise Him, God the Son. He, God the Father, has put Him, God the Son, to grief. It pleased God the Father to do this. It pleased Him to break the body of His Son. It pleased Him to pour out the blood of his son.

So as we come to communion, it's not just thankfulness to Jesus Christ whose body was broken and whose blood was shed. It's also his father who was pleased to do this, to redeem a people, to purchase a bride for his son. If you've thought of God the Son and God the Father as good cop, bad cop, then you've got it all wrong. It's not like that. It's not that Jesus Christ is tender and full of mercy.

And God, the Father, is always full of wrath, always angry. It's not like that. The Son has all the wrath towards sin that His Father has. In fact, in the book of Revelation, you find the phrase, the wrath of the Lamb. So, so much for cuddly Jesus theology.

All the wrath of God toward sin, Jesus has all that. And all the tenderness toward sinner, the Father has that. It's not good cop, bad cop. It's God, three persons, It's God, three persons, one essence. Number four.

Number four. The disciples were told to partake. The disciples were told to partake. The first draft of this one was the disciples were commanded to partake. I thought, you know what, that's kind of harder than what is in the text.

It might not communicate the right thing. So then I modded this draft. The second draft was the disciples were invited to partake. And I thought, no, you know what, it's more than that. So the third draft was the disciples were told to partake.

Hopefully that's somewhere between invited and commanded. But the point is, there's an imperative. There's an imperative here. They're told to do this. Not if they feel like it, not if they think it's wise.

They're instructed to do this. The Lord's Supper is not an optional part of our faith. I'm not saying it's salvific, okay? I'm not saying you can't be saved if you don't do this. But I'm saying God has commanded His people to do this.

Those are exactly the words that are used in Luke 22, which is a parallel text, same circumstances, different account. And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul's instructions on it. Do this in remembrance of me. Do this. It's an imperative.

In 1 Corinthians 11, we're there almost every week at the Lord's Supper because it's such a rich Lord's Supper passage. Paul starts that chapter by saying, imitate me as I imitate Christ. In other words, Paul has his eyes on Christ and he's taking his instructions from Christ And then he says to the Corinthians, okay, I've got my eyes on Christ, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And then that theme continues into the Lord's Supper portion of the chapter where in verse 23, Paul says, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. So it's just the same thing.

Imitate me as I imitate Christ. I received it from the Lord. I'm delivering it to you. Do it. Number five.

The Lord's supper is an essential remembrance. In Luke 22, this parallel text, in 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus takes the bread and says, do this in remembrance of me. And then he takes the cup and he says, do this in remembrance of me. The Lord's Supper was always intended to be a vital, essential, critical time of remembrance for the people of God. It's actually in 1 Corinthians 11 put before us as the central purpose for why the people of God gather.

The Lord's Supper is a central purpose for why we gather. It's not just singing and preaching. The Lord's Supper is integral to corporate worship for the people of God. Paul says, you're not gathering for the Lord's Supper, and then he says, I don't praise you for this. He rebukes them for that not being a central purpose for their gathering.

You may have seen a little book, it's by C.J. Mahaney, and it's called The Cross-Centered Life. It's one of those little Prayer of Jabez size books. And it's really good. The main point of the book is don't move on from the cross.

It's never appropriate to say we've obtained the benefit from this doctrine and just to move on to other things. The people of God don't do this. If we learn anything from the Lord's Supper, it's that the people of God never move on from the cross. We're to do this over and over and over and over and over and over again to remember so that we're not moving on from the cross. Number six.

The Lord's Supper is a proclamation of the Lord's death. The Lord's Supper is a proclamation of the Lord's death. First Corinthians 11 verse 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. If he doesn't come for another thousand years, the people of God will be proclaiming, Jesus died for sinners every time they take the cup in hand. Jesus died for sinners every time they take the bread in hand.

It's a proclamation of the Gospel. If we have a text some Sunday where the line between the text to the Gospel is really dotted and you have to go around things to get there, no matter, no matter, We're going to get there to the Gospel because we're going to be taking the Lord's Supper and we'll proclaim that Jesus died for sinners. If at no other time in the service, at least we'll take the bread in hand and the cup in hand and we'll say Jesus died for sinners. It's a proclamation. Number seven, the Lord's Supper is the first step in church discipline.

You thought that was Matthew 18 when you go to your brother in secret to tell him his fault. But there's actually one before that and it's self-examination. The Lord's Supper is actually the first step in church discipline. And it ought to make it unnecessary for our brother to come to us, because it's a checkpoint in the rhythm of life where we look in that heart and we ask God to put His finger upon our sins so that we can repent. Listen to 1 Corinthians 11 again.

1 Corinthians 11, 27 through 31. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. One of the great benefits of coming to the Lord's Supper weekly is that it's an opportunity to examine our hearts and judge ourselves so that God doesn't have to intervene and send a brother or sister to us to rebuke us in our sins. Are you using the Lord's Supper that way? If you're not, I want to exhort you to use it as the first step of church discipline that you would examine your own heart and judge yourself so that God doesn't have to intervene, so our sins don't get that far down the track that God has to step in. Maybe better said, it's one of the ways that God steps in.

He gives us this opportunity to reflect, to look at our hearts, to judge ourselves so that we wouldn't be judged. Turn to John 6. Actually, don't turn to John 6. We're going to save a little bit of time because Taylor read it. Thank you, Taylor, for reading it.

That's good. In John 6, Jesus says, if you don't eat my body and you don't drink my blood, you have no part of me. No part. The life is imparted through eating His body and drinking His blood. You're dead in your sins and transgressions.

All of the offense of the Gospel is at the Lord's Supper. All of the offense is there. No one is left with pride intact who considers and comes to the bread and the blood and the cup. Everyone is left as a sinner who stands condemned. No one can keep their hands on any merit.

It all has to be stripped away to eat His body and to drink His blood. It all has to be stripped away. You can't maintain your dignity. It was meant to be that way. It's meant to be an offense.

And so it was in John 6, so many, the majority, leave Him. And Jesus looks at the 12 and says, do you want to leave me too? What does Peter say? Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

So all the offense of the Gospel is here. Your pride will be stripped away if you want to participate in this. You're left a humiliated sinner with no other recourse, but one trading places with you. If you haven't realized that You're acknowledging that every time you come to the table, realize it now. You're acknowledging that you're laid bare, you're humiliated, you're with no other recourse, you're stripped of all pride and merit, And you have but one hope and it's to trade places.

That's what you're acknowledging every time you come to the Lord's table. So all the offense of the gospel is there and all the beauty of the gospel is there. So many saw the offense and went away. Peter saw the beauty and said, we've come to know that you are the Christ, the Son of God. All the offense and all the beauty of the gospel is there.

So that brings us to point A. The Lord's Supper is the perfect picture of the Gospel. Point A. The Lord's Supper is the perfect picture of the Gospel. Everything is there.

All the elements of the Gospel are there. The wrath of God towards sin is at the Lord's Supper. And the mercy of God and the offer of pardon is there. And so God is just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus, Romans 3. I think it's Romans 3, isn't it?

Just and the justifier. All at once. Angry towards sin, righteous, But offering pardon. Not overlooking. That's different.

That's foreign to the gospel. Overlooking sin is foreign to the gospel. Substitutionary atonement is the heart of the gospel. Not God overlooking your sin, but God paying the penalty for your sin. They're completely different things.

Okay, things specific to the bread. The bread is symbolic and only symbolic of the body of Jesus Christ. It's only a symbol. It doesn't turn into His body. Jesus says, I am the door.

I am the vine. You have no one who is arguing that Jesus is really a door. Jesus is really a vine. No, it's obvious that the language is symbolic. So it's very natural use of a hundred places in scripture to say, this is my body, this is my blood.

There's no need at all to make this literal as if when you take it in your hands it becomes the actual body of Jesus Christ. That creates... There's no problem with taking it symbolically, and there are so many insurmountable problems with making it literal. Three things about the bread. Number one, there's deep symbolism in the breaking of the bread.

So this isn't Jesus just making a way for you to have your own piece. This isn't just logistical. We can't all eat the same piece of bread so we've got to break it. There's deep symbolism in the breaking of the bread. First Corinthians 11, 24, And when Jesus had given thanks, He broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you.

So Paul here preserves the fuller version of what Jesus has said. By the way, this is the same words you find in Luke 22. The fuller version is he breaks the bread and then he explains it. This is my body which is broken for you. Which is broken for you.

So when we go to Psalm 22 and we read the details of the crushing of a body, of hands pierced, It's speaking of this breaking of the bread. We go to Isaiah 53, talk about the marring of the body of the substitute. This is what is being described. So the breaking of the bread isn't out of the blue. It's in many places in the Old Testament that the Messiah would suffer.

It had to be that he would suffer and die, the breaking of his body. So the breaking of the bread is deeply symbolic. Number two, Jesus is the bread of life. Back to John 6. Verse 35, I am the bread of life.

In verse 48, I am the bread of life. In verse 41, all this is John 6. In verse 41, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And then Jesus starts talking about manna and how manna was just one of those beautiful Old Testament pictures where God is sustaining and providing for His people but Jesus says, your fathers ate that and died. It was just a picture.

It wasn't the substance. If it was the substance, they would have eaten it and not died. Jesus is the substance. He is the bread that came down from heaven. That if one eats of that bread, you'll never die.

You'll never hunger again. You'll never die. This is the bread that came down from heaven. The substance, not the picture. Manna was the picture.

Jesus is the substance. Jesus is the bread of life. Lastly, number three. The bread represents the oneness secured for the people of God through the work of Christ. The bread represents The oneness secured for the people of God through the work of Christ.

First Corinthians 10, we're always in First Corinthians 11, but there's two verses in First Corinthians 10 that preface his remarks on the Lord's Supper. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 17, for we though many are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread." It's a beautiful picture. You start with one loaf, and then you break it, and It makes you one loaf. Our unity comes from the breaking of the body of Christ. And the work of Christ on the cross has secured the unity of His people.

Made one body, made brothers and sisters, brought into one family. This is what the work of the cross has secured for us. Now the cup. The cup is symbolic and only symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ. Four things I'll be saying.

Number one, the blood of Jesus Christ seals the new covenant. It's said right here in Matthew 26. For this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remissions of sin. This blood seals the new covenant. Covenants in the Bible are always sealed with blood, and it starts in Genesis.

You have God's covenant with Noah in Genesis 8, and there's sacrifice and death and blood. And God says, I'll never wipe out the earth again by means of a flood. God makes a covenant with Abraham. He has Abraham cut these animals in half and separate them and then God Himself walks between to seal his covenant with Abraham. God makes a covenant with Israel through Moses.

Listen to this, Exodus 24 verse 8. And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. It's just like Exodus 24. There's blood and a sprinkling of the people to seal the covenant. The Mosaic Law, the law given through Moses, with all the ceremonial aspects of it that point into Jesus was actually very complex and it required a lot.

That was the Old Covenant because there are pictures to give the people a sense to peel back the veil just a little bit. But now the substances come and all that complexity and all those requirements are swept away. God always promised a new covenant. It was always the plan. So the new covenant is another one of those things that didn't spring out of nowhere.

God's been talking about a new covenant for a long time. He's talking about it in Jeremiah 31, where he talks about it being a covenant of faith. And he says, they shall all know me from the least to the greatest in Jeremiah 31. It won't be a covenant of a bloodline where some know Him and some don't know Him. It's a covenant not according to blood, but according to faith.

So all of them in that covenant will know Him. It's a new covenant. It's a different covenant. In Ezekiel 36, there's the speaking of a new covenant that will result in cleansing and a new heart. The heart of stone will be taken out and the heart of flesh will come in its place and the Spirit will come and indwell.

And in Zechariah 9, it speaks about the blood of the covenant. And as Zechariah 9 verse 11 ends this way, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. It makes you think about Luke 16 where there's this man suffering in agony and he says, oh just let him put one drip of water on my tongue. I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit." Zechariah 9 verse 11. So God's been talking about the new covenant for a long time And Jesus has come to inaugurate it and to seal it with His own blood.

Number two, the cup represents the pouring out of the Messiah for the forgiveness of sins. The cup represents the pouring out of the Messiah for the forgiveness of sins. The New King James here in our text talks about the blood shed. Good translation. The New American Standard though and the ESV and the NIV all render the same Greek word poured out.

I like that one better. Poured out. Because the pouring out of blood is so symbolic when we start tying it back to the shadows in the pictures. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the shedding of blood there is no remission. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.

Now turn to Numbers chapter 28. Numbers Numbers 28 to me is amazing when we overlay the Lord's Supper on top of it. Numbers chapter This is one of those pictures that has so rich a meaning. Numbers 28, Be reading verses 1-8. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel and say to them, My offering, my food for My offerings made by fire, is a sweet aroma to me.

You shall be careful to offer to me at their appointed time. And you shall say to them, This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to the Lord. Two male lambs in their first year without blemish, day by day, as a regular burnt offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening. And one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering mixed with one-fourth of the hen of pressed oil.

It is a regular burnt offering which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord. And its drink offering shall be one-fourth of the hen for each lamb in a holy place. You shall pour out the drink offering as an offering." You shall pour out the drink to the Lord as an offering. Verse 8, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening as the morning grain offering and its drink offering. You shall offer it as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

And then in verse 14, you see that this drink offering is actually an amount of wine that varies depending on whether you're offering a bull or a goat or a lamb. So it's wine that's being poured out before the Lord. So this is what you have here. You have two times a day, morning and evening, a three-part offering. You have a lamb that can't have any spots or blemishes or defects.

A perfect lamb to be sacrificed. And you have bread to be offered before the Lord. And you have wine to be poured out before the Lord. Two times a day. For hundreds of years you have this picture of a lamb sacrificed, an undefiled lamb sacrificed, and bread and wine poured out.

Hundreds of years of this picture. And it's all a sweet smelling aroma because it's a picture of his beloved son. It's a sweet aroma to him. It's an acceptable sacrifice to him. And so, in the baptism text, the baptism of Jesus text, when the voice comes from heaven and says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, It all comes back to this picture of the sweet smelling aroma rising up before God, the lamb that was sacrificed, the bread that is offered, the wine that is poured out twice a day.

Number three, the cup points forward to the wedding feast of the lamb. The cup points forward to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Yes, it points backwards. Jesus says do this in remembrance of me. So the Lord's Supper takes our eyes back in time to the cross and the sacrifice.

But it's not just that. It also points forward as a deposit, as just a little down payment on a wedding feast. Consider Matthew 8 verse 11. Jesus says in Matthew 8 verse 11, and I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The Gentiles grafted in and sitting down at this wedding feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So the old people of God, the patriarchs, the new people of God, these Gentiles that have been brought into the grace of God sitting down together. Revelation 19 verse 9, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. So the Lord's Supper makes us think back to the cross and it makes us think forward to the time of joy, of an abundance of everything around the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Number four. Of all the points in the sermon, if I could have just preached one of them, it would be this one.

The cup represents the ultimate exchange. In Isaiah 51, the judgment of God is proclaimed against Babylon because they're full of sin. And God in Isaiah 51 says, you're going to drink a cup of trembling down to the dregs. And then a few verses later it says, you're going to drink the cup of my fury down to the bitter dregs, down to the bottom of the cup. Every last drop of my fury you'll drink down to the bitter bottom of the cup." And this is the cup that Jesus is going to be speaking of just a few verses from now when Jesus is in Gethsemane and he talks about a cup passing from him.

It's not the communion cup. It's the cup of Isaiah 51. It's the cup of trembling to be drunk down to the bitter drags. It's the cup of God's fury to be drunk down to the bitter drags. It's God's wrath being experienced, consuming, destroying, crushing.

And Jesus takes the cup of trembling, Jesus takes the cup of God's fury and he drinks it down to the bitter dregs and He doesn't leave one drop in the cup. And having taken that cup, he hands off another cup. And it's the cup of blessing. It's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, is this not the cup of blessing? So Jesus takes one cup in hand and it's the cup of God's fury and he drinks the last drop out of the bottom of it and then he hands off another cup to his people.

You should have drank the cup of God's fury. It was your sin and my sin. It wasn't his sin, but he drank the last drop out of that cup of trembling. He didn't want to be made sin. He asked God if there could be another way.

There was no other way. So he willingly laid down his life to drink the last drop out of that cup. There is not one drop left for you if you're in Christ. There's no drops of his fury left. It's all gone.

And he hands off to you a different cup, a cup of blessing, like Melchizedek did in Genesis 14, where he comes to bless Abraham and he brings out the wine and the bread. The cup represents the ultimate exchange. The gospel is preached every time we come to the Lord's Supper. It's the exchange of an innocent in the place of the guilty. So come, come guilty friends, come.

Take the bread in hand. Take the cup in hand and rejoice that such a trade would be offered to you. The advantage is entirely in your favor. Did you ever think you had something to offer that God needed or wanted? No.

This is mercy. This is mercy. Three applications. Number one, know Christ. Don't know about Christ.

It's possible to come to these meetings and hear and understand on one level, and even appreciate, but not to eat His body and drink His blood. You must know Christ. You cannot know about Him and be saved. So many People know about Christ and they will fill hell. You must eat His body, you must drink His blood, or there will be no life for you.

You have to make peace with the reproach of the cross and the humiliation of being stripped bare of all your pride so that you can make this exchange that is entirely in your favor. Number two, parents, use the Lord's Supper as a time to whisper in the ear of the little ones on the row next to you. It's the perfect time to preach the gospel to your children. Listen to Exodus 12. Exodus 12 is the Passover text.

Exodus 12 verses 26 and 27, and it shall be, when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service? That you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel and Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households." Part of the giving of the Passover includes instructions to whisper into the ear of five-year-olds. And it's intended to arouse the curiosity of your children. Deb, what are we doing? Mom, why do we do this every week?

Because God has passed over our sins. Number three, think of the worth of Jesus Christ. Just consider this. Hebrews 10 verse 10 calls it once for all. One sacrifice for all.

Think if it was just you and think of all of your sins. What would Christ be worth if He could stand in the place of just your sins? Now the person next to you, now the person next to them, now everybody in this building, now all the believers in Youngsville, now all the ones in Franklin County, Now all the ones in Franklin County. Now all the ones in Franklin and Wake County. Now all the sins in North Carolina.

Now all the sins in the United States. Now all the sins in the United States. Now all the sins in the world right now. Now all the sins of every generation from the start of history until the end of history. And He can stand in the place of all the sins of His people and cover them all.

Think of the worth of Jesus Christ. What is Jesus Christ's worth? That God would accept that in the place of all those sins. We don't think enough of Christ. We don't see His worth.

Come to the table, see His worth. All those sins, and yet He's more than enough to overwhelm them. Grace that is greater than all of our sins and not just mine, but the sins of His people in every generation. Let's pray. Oh God, may you be lifted up and magnified today as we take the bread and the cup in hand.

May you receive the praise and the honor that is due to you who can come and give your one life as a ransom for all those sins and all those generations of your people. And you can take them from crimson to white as snow. Every stain removed, every last drop of the cup of the fury of God drained out and not a drop left for your people. Oh God, we marvel at your mercy that you would willingly lay down your life, receive honor and glory and dominion and power forever and ever. You are worthy of it.

We praise you, O God, in Jesus' name, Amen.