This Do in Remembrance of Me — 1 Corinthians 10-11

0:02 Turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. This morning we sat down together and we had the the breaking of bread, the communion service and and we enjoyed it I believe. I believe the spirit of God was working in our midst and brought out some neat themes. I'd like to just take a minute to read over a couple of verses about the breaking of bread. Start with Matthew 26 verse verse 26.

0:41 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and break it, and gave 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. And then turn with me to first Corinthians 11, we'll get shall we say the the divine summary of it. First Corinthians 11. There was some disorder going on in the in the Corinthian church and they were they were not honoring the the breaking of bread in with a holiness.

1:42 Some even were getting drunk at the breaking of bread and and the apostle rebuked them and then he summarized it starting with the twenty third verse what he had received from the Lord. For I received from the Lord at which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And he gave thanks and broke it saying, take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. In the same manner also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So thank the Lord that he's that he instituted this this breaking of bread, this this remembrance that that we do weekly and take the the emblems and pass them from one to another in remembrance of his death.

3:35 And and you wouldn't say, well, that picture is my wife. We'd say, no, that's a picture of my wife. So the Lord Jesus was presenting to them at the Last Supper was present presenting to them a picture, something that when they would do it, we believe weekly, when they would do it weekly this would this would picture for them this this time when the Lord Jesus Christ was taken and nailed on a cross and and his body was broken for us. And so and so the Lord Jesus, he he gives thanks, and and we're we're to follow that pattern. We we we take the bread and and we give thanks for it.

4:27 It's it's something that that... It's this remembered ceremony is something that's going to generate thankfulness in us, and and we're we're going to be lifted up in our hearts to give thanks to the Lord because we're stopping and taking a moment to just remember what he did for us as he... As his body was broken there on the cross. And so we... So the Lord Jesus gave thanks, and then he broke it.

4:54 Now this this act of breaking it, that this is something you can't... You couldn't partake of this loaf unless it were broken. And and understanding that the the loaf is is is not the reality, it's the picture of the reality. So so as as the bro as the bread is broken, we're reminded that that he was broken for us on the cross. So we in our minds picture, and and I I like to do this when when I'm at...

5:28 When we're actually going through the the remembrance of the Lord Jesus to actually in my mind picture him up there on the cross and the agony and the brokenness. Being actually physically nailed to a cross, to be physically nailed to a cross, and and to realize that he was broken for us. He was broken, but we have to understand that we had to break the bread. We have to break that bread in order that we could eat it, and so in order for us to feast spiritually upon the savior, he had to be broken. We had read in the in the remembrance meeting, we had read this this verse, where the Lord Jesus said, if if it's if it'd be possible that this cup pass from me as as though to say, is is there some way is there some way possible that this this that this wouldn't have to happen?

6:23 And and the answer is was was a a grand silence. No. There was no other way for for us to be able to feed on the bread except that the bread be broken. And so we take the bread and we get this picture of of the bed bread being broken, the picture of Christ suffering for us physically upon the cross. And and then we're we're told we're told this, it said the Lord Jesus said, this do in remembrance of me.

6:57 So so the the Lord Jesus is giving an instruction. We're to take this bread and and there's to be a purpose in in taking it and breaking it. The purpose is remembrance. Somehow by taking that loaf and breaking it, somehow we bring back to our minds on a regular basis. We we we take it once a week on a regular basis, bringing back to mind that he was broken for us, and so we do this as a remembrance.

7:28 And I might I might kind of counsel and and warn the the young people that are here to to not to take the emblems and without without carefully considering what they mean. So so don't don't don't lightly take the emblems and partake without pausing in your mind and thinking, this this is my reminder of what Jesus did for me, so that we honor him in the in the process of of remembering him. Then we're told that after after supper that the Lord Jesus, in this manner also, he took the cup after supper in the same manner. If if you if we turn back to to Matthew 26, you would see that he also gave thanks for the cup. So, that's I believe is what he meant by in the same manner.

9:01 And and because Jesus Christ shed his blood there for my sins that I am forever forever forgiven, and and and that's what we're going to remember as we take that cup. Okay. So this cup was to be the blood, which was which is the the emblem of his death. Now it's interesting that that when the children of Israel killed the Passover in in Exodus 12, that we're told that they caught the blood in the basin, and then they they they took hyssop, which is just a little weed and made a brush out of it. It it's in itself was sort of a picture of humility.

9:45 I rather was speaking of humility earlier. And and the they were to take this this hyssop and dip dip it into the basin, and they were to paint the blood as an emblem on the outside on the doorpost and on the lintel outside. And and it it's it stated that it was a symbol. It was something that was out there on the door, and I I know it's it's been suggested before. I thought it was a kind of a neat idea that that supposing that that inside this house, you had a little boy who who's the eldest in the family, and and there was this prophecy that was about to be fulfilled in which in which the destroyer was to come through the land and was to destroy the eldest in each household.

10:36 And and the little boy said, but father, God's gonna come through and he's gonna destroy the the firstborn. That's me, you know. And so so he's the the personalization of it. But the father, so to speak, this is this is not an actual story of the bible, just just a visualization of what might have happened. So the father, so to speak, would take the little boy and say, son, come with me a second.

11:02 And he would he would step out the door and he'd point up to the blood that's on the door and he would say to his son, son, the blood's on the pillar. You're safe. You're safe inside this house. The blood is on the door. And so the the the emblem that we have of the cup is more or less like the blood that was on the door.

11:51 We're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We in Ephesians it says we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. I wanna turn to one verse in Leviticus 11, which I think captures the idea. And I I think it's kind of neat that this was that this was known. This idea was well known in the Old Testament.

12:16 I believe it's in Leviticus eight eleven. Now I have the wrong reference. Let's see. Leviticus seventeen eleven. I don't know where I got eight.

12:29 Leviticus seventeen eleven. Speaking of the sacrifice, so in the eleventh verse, the lie the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for souls. It is the blood that makes atonement for the souls. And so if in your imagination you could you could turn back to that moment probably a few months before this verse was written when, when the children of Israel were there in the land of Egypt, and and the little lamb was killed and the blood was sprinkled on the door.

13:18 And and the result was that they were sheltered from the judgment that was pronounced against the land of Egypt. And and when we when we preached out in the City Of Mission we've tried to say it kind of like this to make it to personalize it. You know you know, that judgment was pronounced against the land of Egypt, and the children of Israel with the were in the land of Egypt. So in one sense, that judgment was just as much pronounced upon the children of Israel as it was to the rest of the Egyptians. In other words, if the blood hadn't put on the door, been put on the door, they were just as subject to that judgment as the as the rest of the Egyptians.

14:07 But God told them there was a way that they could be sheltered by the blood. And so they were described how they would take the lamb and kill it and put the blood on the door. And so that that having that that having been said, the children of Israel went and put the blood on the door and and so there say say there's two houses side by side and in one house it's an Egyptian home and they they may probably some of them did hear about putting the blood on the door, why should they put the blood on the door? What does that have to do with it, know? But in the next house is that there's an Israel family, Israeli family and they said this is what God said to do.

14:54 And so they put the blood on the door, but shortly after midnight there was a great cry in the land of Egypt and only those that had the blood on the door were delivered from the judgment that had been pronounced. And so brethren, and so friends here today, judgment has been pronounced in this world, but the blood covers us. Well, what are we remembering in this communion service? We're remembering that the bloods that applied and that we are sheltered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And and we we we ponder it and we praise the Lord.

16:10 You'll be an encouragement to one another. You're gonna sit down together. You're going to put the emblems in in the midst of you, and you're going to stop. And you're going to spend an amount of time, we spend approximately an hour, we're gonna spend an amount of time, we're gonna set it aside on a regular basis. We're gonna remember two things.

16:30 First of all, we're gonna remember how much he suffered for us. The depth of all his suffering no heart could conceive. And and we're going to remember that. And then we're going to stop. We're going to do another thing.

16:45 We're going to remember that before God, the blood of Jesus Christ stands as as our security, the token of our safety, our forgiveness for sins. We're gonna stop, and we're gonna remember it. I I thought it was interesting in in the tenth chapter of Corinthians, the one before this, that that the Bible tells it it speaks there, speaking more of the Lord's Lord's table, but that's akin to the Lord's Supper. But but it starts off that chapter and it and it and it goes through about 10 verses that are that are very serious verses, talks about about... I'm gonna turn to a verse or two just to catch the catch the sense of of what it says.

17:40 I know my time is up here, I'm just going to do it quickly. It talks about it, and it says, now all these things happened. It's talked about some of the terrible things that happened to the children of Israel in in the wilderness scene. Now all these happened to to them as examples and were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come. Therefore, let him that thinks he stands take heed.

18:08 Thus, he followed our brother talked to us about humility. It was appropriate message about humility. Let's have the humility to realize, brother, and that that so quickly our minds turn away from the remembrance of our Lord. Then he says there's no temptation that is overtake no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to men. But God is faithful who will allow you to be who will not allow you to be tempted above what you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

18:47 I'm sure humility fits into that. And then he gives two two points here. The first one is, and I would say this is part of the process of escaping the temptation. The first one is, therefore my beloved, flee idolatry, and I believe it's speaking of idolatry in a more general sense, that is what what what is an idol to my soul, and how can I how can I escape being caught by it? And so so he said, the first thing is flee idolatry.

19:19 Don't let anything take the place that God deserves in my life. Covetousness is idolatry, it says in one place. And then after that, it jumps immediately into the idea of the Lord's table, the cup of blessing, and and the communion of the blood of Christ. And I believe that it's it's implying this thought that that when when when you and I weekly and regularly sit down to the communion of the Lord and remember him in his death. We're doing something in our minds.

19:56 We're putting something on a regular basis back into our minds. It's preservative in nature that that that helps us to remember, to recall, to keep it before ourselves that that he did that for us. And the result is is very... Is preservative. It's preserves us spiritually.

20:19 Thank the Lord for that. Father God, we do thank you for this time when we could open your word, and and we're we're thank... We're thankful to you that you've also put before us the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, the bread and the cup, and and we're thankful for this, father. This is something that you've given us that that we might be redirected regularly back to remember whose we are and whom we serve and what he endured on the cross for us. We thank you and we praise you, Lord.

20:51 Pray that we would be consistent, faithful followers of you, true disciples. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.