The Lord Ties Us Together
Text: Luke 22:14-20 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Maundy Thursday Passages: Luke 22:14-20
Audio Sermon
Full Service Video
Luke 22:14-20
Institution of the Lord’s Supper (Listen)
14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it1 until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.2
Footnotes
[1] 22:16
[2] 22:20
(ESV)
The night before He died Jesus gave to us the Lord’s Supper in order to bind us together.
I recently found out you can cook a whole chicken in the crock pot. It works really well. The only slight problem is that when it is done cooking in you have to take it out and roast it in the oven for a few minutes to get that nice crispy skin. This is a problem because how do you get it out of the crock pot? A chicken that has been cooking slowly for 6 to 8 hours is falling apart. Finally I realized the solution, tie it together. Take coking twine, wrap it all around the chicken, when it’s done in the crock pot you pick it up by the string. The whole thing lifted right out. I set it on a try to roast in the oven for five minutes, perfect.
In our text this morning Jesus uses the Lord’s Supper to tie us together.
He ties together all believers, from the time of Adam and Eve all the way until he comes again in glory. All believers from the US to France to South Africa to India and back around. We are all bound together with this string. The body and blood of Christ as given to us in the bread and wine of the Lord Supper.
Listen to the words of Christ again:
“With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 “for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
First he mentions the Passover, then he mentions His death, and finally he mentions the kingdom of God, all of these events are tied together in the Lord’s Supper. With these words Jesus makes it known that the Lord’s supper is the fulfillment of the Passover, and the feast in the kingdom is the fulfillment of the Lord’ Supper.
Just as a frog begins as an egg then becomes a tad pole, and finally an adult frog, yet these are not three separate things but one thing in different stages. So also the Lord’s Supper is one stage, and not even the final one. It is something that began even before the first Passover in Egypt. It began with the Lord walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. It continued when the Lord came to Abraham and he killed the calf and served it to the Lord. For a while it was the Passover, and the Lord Supper, and it will finally become the feast of victory in the kingdom of our Lord.
It is a twine binding all Christians together from the beginning of time until now, and even far into the future
Hebrews 11:39-40 NKJ 39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
The Lord’s supper is a fellowship, a communion, that binds us together. It binds together all christians.
The Lord’s supper binds us together with all Christians but it also binds together as a congregation.
1 Corinthians 10:17 NKJ 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
Those who wear a wedding ring profess that they are bound together. They are one. those who receive the Lord’s Supper profess that they are one, one congregation, one family.
Even when we come to church and it doesn’t really feel like a family but more like a random group of people who just happen to be at the same place, still the Lord’s Supper binds us together. Even now when we are forced to stay home, the Lord’s supper binds us together. Even now when we can’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Supper still binds us together. We are a family, one in Christ, bound together by his Holy Supper.
We are a family and like any family, we fight. We say things wrong. We hear things wrong. We take things the wrong way. Like any family we have our troubles. A family is not defined by how often or how little they fight. A family is defined by how often they forgive.
We are forgiven. We are forgiven in Christ. We are forgiven in the Lord’s Supper and we forgive one another in the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s supper gives us forgiveness before Christ. The Lord’s Supper binds us together as a family. The Lord’s Supper teaches us to forgive as we are forgiven.
Is it surprising that we value this oneness and protect it?We want everyone to be one with us even as we are one. However, we do not make a mockery of the Lord Supper by pretending we are one when we are not. We do not pretend that we are one with those who clearly profess that they do not believe and teach what we believe and teach.
When you wake up on Christmas morning or stay up late Christmas eve to open your presents, who is there with you? Your immediate family correct? Or on Easter afternoon, or when you carve the turkey on thanksgiving day? It is your family. I never celebrated Christmas at the Meyer house until the December of 2012 when we were engaged. Then and since then I do celebrate with the Meyers because now I am a part of their family.
In His holy supper the Lord binds us together as a congregation, as a family.
It binds us together as a congregation it also binds us to Christ. It binds us for the day of salvation
1 Corinthians 10:16 NKJ 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
1 John 1:3 NKJ 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
More important than the fact that we are bound together with one another is the fact that we are bound together to Christ.
In the movies criminal are often bound together. Where the one goes the other must go. If you are going to try to make a jail break the guy you are chained to has to be go with you.
We are chained, joined, to Christ. Where he goes we must go.
The night before he died Jesus was concerned. He was concerned but not at first with his death or what his last meal would be. Rather he was concerned with his disciples and how they would make it through the tribulation and suffering of Good Friday. Not only the suffering and tribulation of Good Friday, but all the tribulation of this life.
“I greatly desired to have the meal with you”
Therefore he gave them the Lord’s supper and bound them to himself, in order to pull them through this life into heaven.
Christ binds us to himself. He binds us in the day or tribulation unto salvation.
We are tied together like that chicken in my Crock-pot. Tied together as a congregation, tied together with all other believers, tied to Christ to be preserved unto the day of Salvation. Amen