 And tonight, our sermon title, the Lord's Supper, we're considering the subject of the Lord's Supper in our series on the essentials. And in particular, looking at various texts, our springboard texts this evening, if you will, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 through 32. As we consider the Lord's Supper tonight, wanna give you just basically an overview. And that's about all that we have opportunity to do in one sermon like this is just to give you an overview. And so we'll talk tonight about the biblical basis for the Lord's Supper. And that's about as far as we'll get. And we often, when we think about the Lord's Supper, we have many questions when it comes to this particular ordinance in the church. Last week, we were able to discuss baptism as one of those tonight, the Lord's Supper. And many ask the significance of the Lord's Supper to the Christian life, the significance of the Lord's Supper to our practice together in the church. What does the Lord intend to communicate or convey through the Supper? What am I to personally derive from a faithful observance of the Lord's Supper? For many Christians, coming to the Lord's table is a bit of a mystery. What is the biblical basis for this biblical ordinance? Let's begin building that biblical basis from Genesis chapter two. Turn to Genesis chapter two with me. We're gonna look at several texts tonight. And I think will help us to form a biblical basis for the Supper and inform our understanding of the Supper in our context. We begin that process with Genesis chapter two and looking at verse seven together. Genesis chapter two, verse seven. Again, in Genesis chapter two, we see here the creation of man and Lord God in verse seven, foreign man of the dust of the ground breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living nefesh, a living being. Far from being the accidental evolutionary process of millions of years of chance, so to speak. Genesis chapter two, God has seen as forming man from the dust of the earth, like the potter with his clay, forming and fashioning his masterpiece. God creates man in his own image. The Matthew Henry stated that he was not made of gold dust. Man was not made of powder of pearl or diamond dust, but from common dust, dust of the ground. God made the world out of nothing and he made man his masterpiece out of next to nothing. We are given here an earthly body made of the dust of the ground. What's even more extraordinary then in this creation account is what comes next. In contrast with the animals who are also given a nefesh or the breath of life, God himself breathes into man's nostrils his own communication of life and man becomes a living soul made in the image of God. The spiritual nature of man here created by God and described by the act of God himself breathing. And as we consider this together, we have to remember we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. We are made here, Genesis chapter two, body and soul. And namely for our interest in considering the significance of the Lord's Supper, we're made a body with living senses, right? Senses by which we enjoy and experience the blessings of God in creation and enjoy the blessings of our communion with God. Sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. You think about it, we're created to glorify God. We were given a body given senses through which we may experience our communion, our fellowship, our enjoyment of him and through which we may then turn and glorify him for who he is and what he's done. These senses are very important. So then in chapter two, verse nine, look there with me. God planted a garden eastward in Eden and he places man then in the garden. Now God places Adam in the garden to tend it, to keep it. He establishes a covenant with Adam wherein Adam is to obey God with respect to the fruit of a specific tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And from the Genesis account, we also know that there was another tree, another covenant tree in the garden. And that covenant tree is the tree of life. Adam and Eve were given the blessing of communion with God in the garden paradise of God. And they're given communion whereby they can enjoy him forever in the garden paradise of his creation, even while they experienced the fruit, as it were, of his goodness to them through their physical created senses. They experienced communion with God and his goodness to them through their senses. Now had Adam obeyed God in the garden, it may be surmised that Adam would have been given reward to take from the tree of life and live forever. We know, however, that is certainly not what happened. Look at Genesis chapter three in beginning in verse one. Of a serpent is more cunning than any of the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die. Now, so Eve then adds, doesn't she, to the word of God, do you notice that? She's not to eat of the fruit. And then she adds to God's command by saying that she's not even to touch the fruit. And notice already, implication of the use of Eve's senses, even in the fall here of man. Verse four, then the serpent said to the woman, you'll not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Eve is then deceived, isn't she, by what she hears? She listens to the voice of the serpent rather than heeding the word of God. And in verse six, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, notice her sense of sight, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Sight, hearing, taste, touch, certainly smell. Our first parents followed us in through their senses as well. And that communion, that communion that we were intended to experience with God even through our senses, through which we would glorify our creator is now cut off by sin and death. That's no mere coincidence then that at the consummation of all of redemptive history, we see that reward, tree of life, once more available to the people of God. In Revelation chapter 21, John has given vision of the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And in verse three in Revelation 21 there, John says, listen, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and will be their God and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. In chapter 22 verse one, John is shown a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. Verse 12, behold, I am coming quickly. My reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and they enter through the gates into the city. That's no mystery at all through the biblical record that God intends for his covenant people to enjoy the riches of his goodness to us through our senses. And it's often this sensory experience, often the sensory experience comes in the form of a meal. That part of that is the sight, the taste, the touch involved in a sensory meal through which this fellowship, this communion with God is conveyed. So in that sense then, history begins and redemptive history is consummated with this very sensory experience. It's not just any meal, it's a covenant meal. We're in covenant communion with God. This is a meal that signifies a covenant relationship. It's no mystery that between these two trees then, between these two experiences of the enjoyment of this communion with God and this fruit that is given through our communion with God, that the covenants of our covenant keeping God are marked by this same sensory experience. Covenant signs or covenant meals intended by God to remind us of his covenant keeping purposes and covenant plans for those whom he has determined to set his love upon. And it's through this sensory experience, it's through this covenant meal that we enjoy communion with him. The Bible is rightly referred to as a covenantal book. God's people rightly referred to as a covenant people and Bible's theology rightly referred to as covenantal theology. And that covenantal history begins with Adam in the garden and upon Adam's fallen to sin, that covenantal history then continues through a series of covenants established by God, aimed at the redemption of those chosen beforehand by God to be saved or to be redeemed to himself. And through each of those covenants, God gives covenant signs intended by God to point his people to the covenant promises that God has made and their future in communion or in fellowship with him. In fact, looking at the New Testament, Paul in Ephesians 2 verse 12 refers to all those covenants that succession of covenants from the promise given in the garden, Genesis 3 to the new covenant, Paul in Ephesians 2 verse 12 refers to those covenants as the covenants of the promise, articular the promise that promise originating in Genesis chapter 3 in the midst of God's curse upon the serpent where in verse 14, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field on your belly you shall go, you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now that communion with God lost through man's sin at the fall would be restored and restored in keeping with this promise of God. The seed of the woman would deal a death blow to the head of the serpent. And in each successive covenant then the Lord would remind, instruct, build up and encourage the faith of his people through the sensory experience of covenant signs. Now of particular interest to the significance of the Lord's supper in our covenant, particular interests are the feasts associated with the mosaic covenant. For look at those, turn with me to Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23, let's take a look at those particular feasts, those particular covenant signs. Leviticus chapter 23, describing the feasts of the Lord. These covenant signs given to the covenant people of God. Look at Leviticus chapter 23, beginning in verse four. And these are the feasts of the Lord. These are covenant meals, covenant signs, intended with a covenant purpose, okay? These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month that twilight is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it. So think with me now, the first of these covenant meals instituted by God was the Passover. And we understand what the Passover was meant to celebrate or to remember, right? Immediately after the Passover, the very next day, we also see the feast of unleavened bread. But everything to do with the Passover meal was intended by God to remind the Israelites of his deliverance, his salvation, how he delivered them from bondage in Egypt. That twilight on the eve of Passover, Israel was to sacrifice a lamb and Israel was to do two things. First, they were to spread the blood of that lamb over the doorposts and the lintel of their houses. And secondly, they were to eat the lamb inside the house. A great judgment was coming in which the angel of God's judgment would strike the firstborn in Egypt. And in seeing the sign of the blood, God said that he would pass over Israel sparing their firstborn. And through the blood of the sacrificial lamb, God had redeemed them for himself. Now all of this, the feast, in particular the feast of Passover was an exceedingly important lesson. And it was through these covenant signs, particularly the covenant meal of Passover that God taught and reminded the Israelites of these lessons. The children of Israel deserved to die for their sin as well. But God showed mercy to his people. And in showing mercy, however, God would uphold his righteous justice and mercy could only come through the shed blood and through the death of a substitute. And God chose to remind the people of these lessons through a covenant meal where they would kill the sacrificial animal, shed its blood, spread the blood on the doorposts and the lintel of the house and eat the meal inside the house as the angel of death, the angel of God's judgment passed over. Now this we know wasn't only or merely to remind the Israelites of God's deliverance out of their bondage in Egypt, but also was intended by God through the sacrifice of an animal, through the sacrifice of this Passover lamb, also designed by God to point Israel forward to the future provision of that promised seed, that promised seed that we saw in Genesis chapter three, who would be the once for all sacrificial Passover lamb for God's people, who through his own substitutionary death would redeem God's people once and for all. It's interesting to think of the Passover in that way. In one sense, the Passover a look back at what God had done in delivering them out of Egypt and at the Passover a look forward at the promised Messiah who would come delivering his people fully and finally from their sin. In 1 Corinthians chapter five verse seven, Paul would say indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Passover lamb. And listen to the instructions then given by God in reference to the Passover meal, listen to the instructions given by God in Exodus chapter 12 verse eight. Listen to this text. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night. Now again, this is a covenant sign, covenant meal intended to teach covenant lessons. They shall eat the flesh on that night roasted with fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Years ago, someone we had, we're having a fellowship at someone's house and they had sort of presented these elements of a Passover Seder. It's interesting how these elements of the meal are to communicate facts about the Passover. Very interesting how the Jews would have understood the different elements or the different lessons taught in this meal. They shall eat the flesh on that night roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water but roasted in fire. It's head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning. And what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. That sacrifices to be entirely consumed. Verse 11, and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. This meal memorialized for Israel God's deliverance of the people from their bondage. And we don't have time, won't take time tonight to get into the details of that meal. But these lessons were taught by the meal itself. The Feast of Passover was to be followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days. They were to put leaven out of their houses to eat unleavened bread all week. This unleavened bread, a reminder of the wilderness and God's provision of bread for them out of heaven. Leaven is a New Testament metaphor for sin or for error. Eating unleavened bread would remind them of the necessity to be a holy people. Following the Feast of Unleavened Bread we see the Feast of First Fruits in Leviticus chapter 23 and the Feast of Weeks would follow that. These Feasts celebrating and remembering the Lord's gracious provision of a harvest including a command to leave the corners of their field unreap for the poor and the stranger among them. These Feasts followed by the Feast of Trumpets including a memorial involving the blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation. That followed by the Day of Atonement on which Israel was to afflict their souls and offer sacrifices for sin. And then the Eight Day Feast of Tabernacles, remembering God's provision for Israel and the wilderness and the fall harvest. Seven covenant meals year by year, all designed by God to remind, instruct, encourage and build up the faith of the people of God. God used these meals as covenant lessons. And the notice, these were Feasts instituted in covenant with God. These weren't Feasts that were instituted among the pagans. These were meals designated as communion meals, if you will, fellowship meals between God's covenant people and God himself. He was their God and they were his people. He reminded them through the meals through the signs of his faithfulness. He reminded them of his gracious provision for them. He was the one who provided for them. He was the one who cared for them, delivered them, protected them, provided for them. He was the one who had drawn them near to himself when they were undeserving. Sometimes through sorrow and affliction over sin. At other times, God would draw them near to himself in joy and rejoicing in what God had done. Always God drawing them near to himself for the purpose of worship. Always drawing them near to himself as a corporate body and always, always in the context of his covenant with them. This is a corporate covenant remembrance, a corporate covenant meal, a corporate covenant sign. It always involving these memorial meals eaten in the presence of God, eaten as it were in fellowship or in communion with God himself. What were these meals ultimately designed to teach the covenant people of God? I think David conveys that lesson really well in Psalm 23. Listen to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me even in the presence of my enemies, David says. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Even in the very presence of his enemies which surround him, God prepares a table of provision wherein David is assured of God's protection and God's goodness to him. And he says, verse six, David surmises, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, we know, I'm reading our old testaments, we know the history of Israel. Despite these memorial feasts of remembrance, despite all the lessons that God had intended to teach his covenant people through these covenant meals, Israel forgot the Lord their God. Israel continuously ensnared by the idols of this world, continuously ensnared by the false pagan religion of those countries around them, amongst them, Israel would repeatedly sin against God, would repeatedly violate the terms of a covenant and they would presume then to honor God on occasion with their lips, but their hearts grew far from him. Israel, having broken the covenant, having departed the living God, how does God then respond? What does God say about these covenant reminders? Listen to Amos chapter five in verse 21. Listen, God says, I hate. I despise your feast days. I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings, your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings, take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel? You also carried sycath, your king and chun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. It's from this place of judgment that God rebukes the nation through his prosecuting attorneys, the prophets. But it's also from this place of judgment that God begins then to speak through his prophets of restoration and where that old covenant would be going away, having been broken, even though he was a husband to them, God would make a new covenant with the house of Judah. Then listen to how God begins to speak of that restoration under a new covenant from Isaiah chapter 25 verse six, listen. And in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people, notice all people in that interesting, right? The Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wine on the leaves. In other words, as God begins to communicate now the restoration of God's people and a restoration of covenant communion fellowship with God, he begins to communicate the significance of that restoration in terms of a feast, in terms of a covenant meal. He says in verse seven, he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken and it will be said in that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him and he will save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And God will once again draw near to his covenant people and one of them, the means through which God communicates that restoration is a feast, is a covenant meal, if you will. It's fellowship with God at his table. Listen to Joel chapter two, beginning in verse 18. Then the Lord will be zealous for his land and will pity his people. The Lord will answer and say to his people, behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil and you will be satisfied by them. I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. Fascinating how the Lord does that, right? In communion and fellowship with God, we're said to have a fellowship meal with him. He describes it in terms of a feast and in communicating to us about this feast, he communicates to us a restoration of our right standing with him. I'll no longer make a reproach of you among the nations. Jeremiah chapter 31, we see the new covenant. Verse 31, Jeremiah says, behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Do you think that new covenant will have new covenant signs associated with it? Well, it certainly will. The Lord is always giving covenant signs, covenant meals in particular to communicate or to convey important facets, important facts concerning his covenant. And so certainly we'll see that. Verse 32, it's not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to leave them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts. I will be their God, they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. He speaks of a restoration of his covenant people. He speaks of a new covenant. When we come then to the New Testament and we know how this progresses, we have New Testament revelation. When we come to the New Testament and a fulfillment of all those Old Testament types and shadows, a fulfillment of them in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we see there the Lord himself begin to teach and to preach about the kingdom that has been inaugurated in the fulfillment of all these Old Testament promises and how that kingdom then grows to a full and final yet future consummation. And he often speaks about that coming kingdom, that inaugurated kingdom and that finally fully consummated kingdom in terms of a covenant feast of fellowship with himself. For example, turn with me to Matthew chapter eight, verse five. And Matthew chapter eight, verse five is interesting for a couple of reasons. We'll note here in a moment. Matthew chapter eight through the Lord's teaching in the New Testament, through the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament, we see these terms, these new covenant terms communicated to us through this covenant meal, this feast of fellowship. Matthew chapter eight, look at verse five. Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I'll come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go and he goes and to another, come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it. Well, when Jesus heard that, verse 10, he marveled. And he said to those who followed, assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you, again, foreshadowing a restoration of his people that would include the salvation of the Gentiles. He says in verse 11, I say to you that many will come from east and west. In other words, many Gentiles will come and will sit down. That word means there to recline at a table. In other words, it's referring to a feast. It's referring to a meal. Many will come from east and west and sit down at the table, so to speak, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said to the centurion, go your way as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. Notice verse 11, both Jews and Gentiles will be included. Many will come from the east and the west and they're going to join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, in the kingdom of heaven. Notice, secondly, from verse 12, that many of the Jews, many of the sons of kingdom will be cast out. In other words, salvation here is not by ethnicity. It's not going to be by descendancy, by heritage. It's going to be by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And point three, Jesus describes the kingdom in terms of a great fellowship meal, a feast. We're gonna sit down together at the table with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. We'll eat that meal with him, with the Lord Jesus Christ in the kingdom. He characterizes their fellowship, their communion in the kingdom as a seat at the table. Do you see? As a feast with the king. And while, what the Old Testament had pointed to with all of its types and shadows is now fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and is coming to fruition in the spread of the kingdom. We see that throughout the New Testament, right? Think with me about all the parables that we can recall in the gospels. Matthew chapter 22, the parable of the wedding feast, right? It's a wedding feast. The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage supper, a marriage for his son. In Luke chapter 14, verses seven through 11, parable about sitting in a lowly position at a wedding feast in verses 15 to 24, the parable of the great supper. Matthew chapter 25, verses one through 13, 10 virgins waiting to join the marriage feast upon the return of the bridegroom. He's going to bring them into the marriage banquet, right? The wedding banquet. The kingdom often described or understood in terms of a great wedding feast. The blessings of the kingdom described in terms of a feast that God prepares for his covenant people. Now these blessings, all of these blessings, we understand and know come through the gospel, come through the person and work of Jesus Christ who gave himself on Calvary's cross shed his blood for the remission of sins, shed his blood to redeem many. The gospel is an invitation to this feast. Do you see? The gospel is an invitation to the feast where undeserving sinners are invited to share communion with God himself. Even us Gentiles who count it great joy to eat the scraps that fall from our master's table. Amen. Now the reality is, as we consider that wonder that fellowship with God in the kingdom where we'll sit at the table with all the sons of the kingdom with our elder brother. The reality is that between now and then many dangers, toils and snares await us. Many dangers lie between these days in the inaugurated kingdom and those days wherein we will enjoy the consummated kingdom in all its fullness. And so what has God done for the benefit of his people? God has determined to communicate his faithfulness to bring us to that feast through a new covenant sign. Now think with me about that. What is the purpose of that sign? The purpose of the sign is to communicate God's covenant faithfulness through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to bring us to that feast that will be consummated in the kingdom. And he does that through a sign, a new covenant sign, a new covenant meal, the Lord's Supper. Do you see the Lord's Supper? Through it, through the Lord's Supper, the Lord feeds us with manna, as it were, as we wander our wilderness on our way to the promised land. It's through the gospel that in this life we're treated to an appetizer, if you will. We're treated to an appetizer, an appetizer of that feast that we will enjoy with him in the kingdom. I want you to notice the unique position and purpose of the Supper. Turn with me to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, and just a few statements here pertaining to the unique position and purpose of this Supper. And I want you to see that in relation to the position and purpose of the covenant meals that have come before. Luke chapter 22, look there, beginning at verse 14. Verse 14, when the hour had come, the Lord sat down, the 12 apostles with him, and he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. It's interesting, isn't it, that this meal, the Lord is here in Luke chapter 22, instituting the Lord's Supper. And the Lord's Supper, in first instance here, is a look back at the Passover. And why is it a look back at the Passover? Because the one who has fulfilled the Passover is sitting before them at the table with them. The Lord Jesus Christ would go to the cross. His death, his crucifixion looms on the horizon as he sits with the disciples eating this fellowship meal together. His death is imminent, okay? And so with the crucifixion looming, the Lord says, I've had great desire to eat this meal with you. Eat this Passover with you before I suffer. The Lord Jesus Christ will be the fulfillment of the Passover. For I say to you, verse 16, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in all its fullness in the kingdom of God. Then notice the Lord's Supper looks back to the Passover, something fulfilled by Jesus Christ. And then notice how the Lord's Supper looks forward to this meal that we are going to eat together with him when it is fulfilled in the consummated kingdom, right? It looks forward to the consummated kingdom. Verse 17, then he took the cup. He gave thanks and he said, take this and divide it amongst yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me, right? And even then in that statement, we as we take the Lord's Supper as beneficiaries of the new covenant, as members of the new covenant, we look back, not to Passover. Now we look back to he who fulfilled the Passover, the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his death at Calvary. We look back to the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. And then we look forward to our fellowship with him in the kingdom. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom of God comes. Verse 20, likewise, he also took the cup after Supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. In other words, this meal is a covenant meal. It is a covenant sign. His blood shed to secure the new covenant. This is a sign of the new covenant, meant to remind us of the content of the new covenant. This is another example, another example of that sensory experience, isn't it? Whereby God through our sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, God designed this to remind us and to instruct us and to encourage us and to build up our faith through it. God intends to remind us of his promises and of his faithfulness to his word, to remind us of the blessings and the benefits, hard one for us at the cross of the new covenant, which is forgiveness of sins, is law written on our hearts, his spirit in dwelling us. But behold, the Lord says, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. And truly the Son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing. Notice at the Lord's supper, there is no lamb. Jesus Christ is the sacrificial lamb. Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Notice the meal has two basic elements or signs. Jesus establishes a relationship, symbolic relationship between his body and the bread, and between his shed blood and the cup. It is through this means then, his body offered in death, his blood shed for the remission of sins that we are brought to enjoy the benefits and blessings of the new covenant, forgiveness of our sins, right relationship to God, reconciliation to him. We experience the blessings associated with the covenant meal by meditating on the significance of the two signs, physical elements that signify great spiritual truths, just like all of those other covenant meals. The Lord's supper then is the means through which we won enjoy fellowship or communion with Jesus Christ by faith of the meal in that sense strengthens our faith, reminds us of our communion with him and causes us to look forward to the communion we'll have with him in the kingdom. Two, it's a family meal, isn't it? A corporate meal whereby the body comes together in union with our head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoys this meal in fellowship with one another. And thirdly, this supper distinguishes the people of God from the rest of the world, those who are not in union with him, those who are not in communion with him, testifying of the saving grace of God in the gospel, testifying of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, pointing us, his covenant people forward to the day when we will eat it together with him in the kingdom. Can you see how that builds up our faith, right? Can you see how that builds our anticipation of that day when we'll enjoy this together in the kingdom? And you can see how the Lord uses it as a means to continuously remind us, just like those other covenant meals, just like those other covenant signs, this Lord's supper designed to preserve us in remembrance of the Lord who bought us with his own shed blood until he brings us home that day to eat it anew with him in the kingdom. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for this beautiful sign that you've instituted for our benefit, for our good, to remind us of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the shedding of his blood and purchase and securing the new covenant. And we thank you, Lord, for all the blessings that are afforded to us through the person and work of Jesus Christ in the new covenant. Thank you, Lord, for this covenant sign, this covenant meal, this covenant reminder, whereby we are called to remember him as all that he has done for us at Calvary's Cross as we look forward to the day in which we will eat it with him in the consummated kingdom and enjoy perfect fellowship and communion with you through his sacrifice on our behalf, our justification, our eventual glorification and how we long for that day. Lord, come quickly. We praise you and thank you for this time wherein we remember this sacrifice. Thank you, Lord, for this reminder that we have in the meal. I pray that we would seek further understanding of all that the meal entails, that we would eat and partake of the meal in a worthy manner, and that we would glean from it all the blessings and benefits that you intend through it and that, Lord, it would be a means through which your spirit would work in us and through us to apply these truths to our heart and to preserve us in the faith. We love you, Lord, and we're grateful to you for these blessings. Be with us as we observe the supper together as a family. In Jesus' name, amen.