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Sermon of
In Remembrance of Me Scripture – 1 Cor. 11:23-26 “For
I have received of the Lord 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 brake [it], 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, when he had supped, saying, This cup
is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it],
in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.” Many
today do not understand the Lord’s Supper so I would like to spend a
few moments this morning looking it over. This is the greatest memorials
we have of the greatest sacrifice given to mankind. In
the Lord’s Supper we find Christ standing at the point of transition
between two economies and their two great festivals. Jesus, the spotless
Lamb of God was about to present Himself as a sin offering for all
mankind once and for all. By doing so He would thus bring to an end the
system of types and ceremonies that for some 4,000 years had pointed to
His death. The Thursday night before His crucifixion, Jesus ate the
Passover with His disciples. Here He instituted in its place the service
that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The Passover was the
national festival of the Jews. Now it was about to pass away forever.
The Passover was ordained as a memorial of the deliverance of Israel
from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that every year as the children
should ask the meaning of the Passover, history was to be repeated. This
way the wonderful deliverance of the power of God was to be kept fresh
in the minds of every follower of God. And it is the same with the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.
It too will help us remember our deliverance from our bondage to sin.
And it will also help us to remember our Savior who gave us everything. The Lord’s Supper consist of three parts; The Bread, the
Wine, and the Ordinance of Humility. The Ordinance of Humility is
sometimes described as the Ordinance of Service or Ordinance of Foot
washing. Quickly lets look at what Communion means to us today. Please
turn to Matthew 26:26. “And
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed [it], and brake [it],
and gave [it] to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” The bread represents the body of Christ. Unleavened bread is always
used. It and the unfermented grape juice both have extremely important
meaning. Kernels of wheat had to be broken, crushed, and ground into a
fine flour before it could be used to give life-giving nourishment in
the form of bread. The same with the body of Jesus. It too had to be broken,
crushed and bruised before His death could give us life. In verse 27 and 28 of Matthew 26 we read; “And
he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it] to them, saying, Drink
ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins.” I believe the wine or grape juice used was unfermented. Why do
I believe this? Because fermentation is a form of spoiling. Spoiling
would not be fitting to represent the blood of a pure and perfect
Savior. The grapes had to be bruised and crushed in order to produce
juice. And it was so with the Savior’s shed blood. Up this point, almost every religion agrees. But most stop
here at this point. They fail to realize there is a third part to
Communion. Turn with me to John 13:5 and 6; “After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash
the disciples' feet, and to wipe [them] with the towel wherewith he was
girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord,
dost thou wash my feet?” This is what is referred as the Ordinance of Humility. You may
recall when Jesus assembled His disciples together to celebrate
Passover, they were arguing on who was the greatest. They were not ready
to receive Communion with Jesus. They needed a lesson in humility and
Jesus knew it. So Jesus fulfilled the role of a servant when He washed
the feet of each of His disciples. Taking part in this meaningful ordinance today has a marvelous
way of causing each of us to search our hearts. Here, in the moments as
we wash each other’s feet, we have the opportunity to make things
right between us. By doing this, we prepare ourselves for the blessing
of the Lord’s Supper. Let me give you an example. Each morning you take a shower. But by lunchtime before you
eat, you feel the need to wash your hands to wash away any germs you may
have been exposed to. The same with baptism. When we were baptized, we
were washed by the blood of Jesus. All our sins we had encountered in
life had been washed away. Like wise with the foot washing. Here we are preparing ourselves for the Lord’s Supper. We
are restoring the “cleanness” we experienced following baptism.
Listen to verse 10 of John 13 from the Good News Bible; “Anyone who
has a bath is completely clean and does not have to wash himself, except
for his feet.” In
a sense, foot washing is a miniature baptism. Jesus continues in verses
14-17 of John 13;
“If
I then, [your] Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to
wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should
do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is
not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that
sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” We are blessed when we washed each other’s feet. Now to
conclude this morning, please let me ask you a question. Who washed the
feet of Jesus that evening? Listen to SDA Comm. V5, page 1139; “When we wash the feet
of Christ followers, it is though we were touching the Son of God.” In
other words, when we wash each other’s feet, it is though you are
washing the feet of Jesus. Friends
we do this act because Christ instructed us to. It is His way for us to
become unified. To be of one accord. At this time we will separate and
return together after the foot washing to celebrate the Lord’s Supper
together. (For further reading, see DA pg. 652, 5BC 1138-39).
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Printed From Texarkana SDA Church Website http://www.tagnet.org/texarkana |
