Well congregation, then this morning back to the book of Mark. We're in chapter 14. We've come to verses 22 through 26. Mark chapter 14. There is much to gather from this text which will edify and instruct us in Mark chapter 14. We might know this passage as the Lord instituting the Lord's Supper. We need to dig into that a little bit this morning and understand the implications and applications that flow from this for the church, and there are many. So then God's word this morning in Mark chapter 14, and again we're at verse 22 through 26. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, take it, this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, and they all drank from it, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. He said to them, I tell you the truth. I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. So thus far, dear congregation, the glorious word of the living God, a word which never changes. Let's ask his help as we come again to that word this morning. Let's pray. Our father, now we're very thankful that you have given to us all that we need for body and soul so that we may be spiritually fitted, which is the most important. We ask Lord that you would continue to guide us and instruct us in your word. Help us by your spirit to draw out the implications and the applications from your word, and to see, Lord, those applied to our own lives. We believe you are able to do this abundantly, and so we ask that you would, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, if I might put it to a way that we wouldn't be surprised to hear, we come now to one of these central texts of the last three chapters of Mark. Central, and certainly one that we return to again and again in our celebration of what here, right here, Jesus gave his church. Each time we partake of the Lord's Supper, we are saying that we believe Jesus. But what is it that we are saying that we believe about Jesus? We are professing absolute confidence in the truthfulness of God's word, including these words right here. Every time we partake of the bread and the wine, we are boldly stating by grace that we also are his disciples. We are saying that these words are for us, that he was speaking about his church, not just then, that moment, but down through the corridors of time, and hang on to this, until he returns. You see, beloved, the act of the Lord's Supper is a profession of dependence, but at the same time, it is a joyful profession of faith. Jesus instituted, established the Lord's Supper for our benefit so that we might have something to say to the world. And I'm not going to go much further into what happened in Paris than to say this. This is why such a passage like this is always a central attack of the world. Do we see that it is because this is for us a profession of faith that the world wants to denigrate it with such blasphemies by faith We are participating in Christ. So our hearts overflow with joy knowing that Jesus is our bread and wine unto eternal life. This is what we have from the text. Our hearts overflow with joy knowing that Jesus is our bread and wine unto eternal life. eternal life. Now if you're into taking notes or not, this might be a good time to do that because we need to see some details about what's going on here this morning. And so the first of all, the first thing of all is this. The setting of the Lord's Supper is Passover. And our text brings us to that immediately. Verse 22 we have it, while they were eating Now this is again one of those passages about which we are so familiar that sometimes we run right over that. We go right beyond it. But I wanna draw your attention back to chapter 14 in verse one. Verse one of this chapter, we notice this. Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away. And then go to chapter 14 in verse 12. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb. Jesus' disciples asked him, where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover? So verse 13, he sent two of his disciples, telling them, go into the city. And he said, a certain man will be there. Then ask, where's my guest room where I may eat the Passover? with my disciples. Verse 15, he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready, make preparations for us there. Verse 16, the disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. So that when we arrive at verse 22, the eating they were engaged in, beloved, has to do with the Passover. And we are going to need to understand that in a little bit more careful way this morning. The Lord's Supper was instituted during and within the eating of the Passover. Now the Passover itself was marked by and guided by four cups of wine. I'm just giving you facts now. Consuming cup number one marked the beginning of the Passover. The father would take that first cup and he would pass it around. They would all partake. When next the Passover food, the food itself was brought in and they weren't eating it quite yet. But when the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs and the stewed fruit and the greens and the roasted lamb was brought in, the tradition was for the youngest member of the family who was able to say these words would ask the question of the father, why these foods on this night? That would happen regularly. Then the father, here now Jesus, as the head of the table, so to speak, would recount for the family the exodus. He would instruct them and teach them in how God had delivered his people, Israel, out of that prison that was Egypt. He would recount that no matter how many times they had heard it before, that was the center of this whole process. And then telling them of the Exodus, they would sing Psalms 113, 14, and 15. Psalms 113, 14, and 15 would be sung by the family group. And then the second cup of wine was passed around. The food was not yet eaten. The unleavened bread was next. And we'll come back to that in a moment. But notice, beloved, that Jesus had just recounted with his disciples the work of God in delivering his people out of Egypt. Out of Egypt he called his son, God did, and his son's people. It should be incredibly comforting then to us to remember and to realize how important it was for the people, God's covenant people, to have continually brought to their remembrance the mighty acts of God. Now we can today be critical of the Passover as a particular religious celebration because it denies and ignores the fulfillment of the Passover, as we're going to see it a little bit later, of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we must understand this in its context, in its time, in its setting. When the father of those covenant families would gather their family together and the Passover would be celebrated, what was it that was central? What was the primary thing? Well, I would say exactly what it is for us now and on the Lord's, the celebration of the Lord's Supper. We are praising the mighty acts of God. And in the family, the youngest child had the privilege during that high and holy meal of asking that all important question to kind of get the discussion going. Why these foods and why on this night? And the father would for the family recount the mighty acts of God. And do we sense what it is the Lord Jesus Christ is doing for his people at that moment? Can we begin to see, as we said a couple of weeks ago, the paths converging of the old covenant and the fulfillment of the old covenant in Jesus Christ? Him saying to his disciples, listen to what God did in delivering his people out of Exodus, and now I'm going to show you the fulfillment. Do we rightly value the benefit of being God-focused? Do we rightly appreciate the benefit and the privilege of being God-centered? It is the humanist, it is the worldly person who laments at how little they can accomplish and how little has been accomplished. But the Christian, the Christian looks and remembers how much God has accomplished. and believes what God can do. Since salvation is at the heart of what we do, dear Christians, let us look and remember and believe without doubt that out of Egypt, out of imprisonment, has God rescued his people fully and freely. We need to understand, beloved, that what's going on chronologically here in the text is exactly as God ordained it for the cross, which is just next. And so secondly, the bread of affliction is his body distributed to his church. So after the second cup of wine and before eating the meal proper, The father, here Jesus, would hold up the unleavened bread and speak words akin to these. This is pretty close to probably what they said. This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let everyone who hungers come and eat. Let everyone who is needy come and eat the bread. Now as I say that, you begin to see why it is we celebrate the Lord's Supper in the way we do. Why it is our form draws our attention back to Matthew. Why we see so much of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ writ large here, and even those words I just said to us. That after stating something like that, the Father would give thanks and break off a piece for each person present around the table and the pieces would be passed around to each at the table. Since he was at that table, since Jesus himself was the one speaking those words and breaking the bread, when he says, and notice this in our text, verse 22, take it, this is my body, we know immediately that he is speaking symbolically. He cannot be addressing, as Rome errs in when it says, his actual physical body, because he is the one saying it, and he himself is holding up the bread of affliction. He says, this represents my body. This is, in a sense, my body. And we'll deal with some of that later on. In the celebration of the Lord's Supper, then, we are doing exactly what the disciples did at the first Lord's Supper celebration. And beloved, we need to say that. by adding these words, no more and no less. And so we look at what Jesus here says he does for us. He takes upon himself the bread of affliction, the bread of deprivation. He says he takes loss so that we might receive gain. This bread is my body. This affliction I own as my own responsibility. This is Jesus saying what he is saying to disciples who don't yet understand. But we understand. He says to his church, just before he's about to go to the cross, knowing what that means for himself. The affliction, the deprivation that the cross will be for him, he understands this. The bread of affliction then has its full meaning and its full application, not in the old covenant, not in the wilderness, not in all the times the Passover was celebrated from the Exodus on to this moment, but has its fulfillment in Jesus Christ's work. That is its fulfillment. He knows that as they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, that he will be humanly abandoned. He knows this. He's about to say that to them. He knows that when he arrives at the cross, he will be forsaken by his own father. They couldn't possibly understand that had he said it to them at this moment, but he knows. what the bread of affliction is going to mean for him. The physical torment that leads up to the cross, the unjust ruling that brings him to the cross. All of that, beloved, is included in the bread of affliction that he says about it now, take it, this is my body, this is what I'm about to do for you. For our gain. As Isaiah put it, he will be despised and afflicted by man for us, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief so that we would know joy and peace with God. So, beloved, with all of that, let me ask you a question this morning. How do you assess the Lord Jesus Christ? How much do you make of him? What is his value to you individually? I'm not just asking about a bold statement of saying, well, I'm saved. I believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I would hope that is exactly your stance. But I am saying to us, how much do we value him? As we extract from this text his heart and what he is saying to his disciples about what he is going to do for them, the affliction that he will bear for them, do we see how much he loves us? Do we really grapple with the depth of his compassion and his mercy and the extent of his work for us? Do we say, oh, how much he loves me? Oh, the great extent that he's going to go for me. And if I might add, so that we might then be ready to say to those around us, do you know what Jesus Christ has done for his people? Let me open the scriptures and show you. He said about all of this of the old covenant, all of this about the Passover, it all finds its fulfillment in me and I do it for my people. Do you know how much he loves you? Well then, the third cup. The third cup of wine claimed by Jesus as his blood poured out for many. After the bread was broken, the words were spoken, the bread distributed, now the meal proper is eaten, including the Passover lamb. As soon as it was consumed, the third cup of wine was passed out by the father. One more cup was still to come. But as Jesus passed around the third cup. He verse 23. Gave thanks. And offered it to them. And they all drank from it. What he does here? like with the bread, is significant, beloved, and I'm gonna say this without any shame or without any concern that you might misunderstand me. Like with the bread, he does with the cup add a self-centered meaning. He adds a self-centered meaning. Here he says about the wine, about the cup, this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many. Now once again we see that Rome is wrong because his physical blood is still in his veins. He's not talking about his physical blood. Ask that question about John chapter 6 and reckon with it there. Deal with the matter there. How we must eat his flesh. How we must drink his blood. What is he talking about? The covenant you see that God pours out is centered upon and finds its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is of absolute necessity so that we might have reconciliation with God. He is here laying claim to the value of his soon poured out blood. He is laying claim to the value of his upcoming death, and then watch this, transferring that value to us. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for others, for many, not for me, for you. Can we see again, beloved, the richness of the love of Jesus Christ for us? No one makes him lay down his life. He lays it down of his own accord, John chapter 10 verse 18. But also he assigns the value of his death, his self-sacrifice, to us. They all drank from the cup as we do, drinking in symbolically the life-giving blood of Jesus Christ. Oh beloved, can I say it another way which we're familiar with? We are not our own, but we do belong, body and soul, both in life and in death. To whom? Do you notice that the catechism gets it exactly right here? We belong, both body and soul, to our faithful, what's the next word? Savior. Jesus Christ. Savior. This is what he is saying here. And what makes him to be our savior? What causes him to be the one who saves us? He causes himself to be our savior. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out. I'm pouring it out for many. So I ask us again this morning, what is our response? Are our hearts filled with thanksgiving? Does praise erupt from our mouth? Or do we sometimes, and I link myself in this charge I'm about to make, do we as Christians sometimes just go through the motions? Oh, beloved, let us not go through the motions. Where is our joy? Where is our confidence? Is it not in what Jesus Christ has done for his people? Putting himself forward is our only hope and every reason for our confidence. We should have a Savior-centered confidence. We are not our own because of anything we have ever done, but we belong to him because of what he has done for us. But do we know this? Do we believe this? Do we glory in this? Do we believe it so much that we will say to anybody who asks us, whatever slightest way they might be asking us, let me tell you, we say to them, let me tell you about Jesus Christ. Well then, fourthly, Jesus determines to not drink the fourth cup until the fullness of the kingdom. In every Passover meal, four cups of wine were shared. The fourth and final cup was the official conclusion of the meal, and there was rejoicing that God had fully delivered Israel out of Egypt. So here as the disciples waited for the one at the head of the table, Jesus, to show forth that fourth cup and hand it out, what does he say? Verse 25. I tell you the truth. I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God. And the fourth cup rested on the table undrunk. Why? It's why we say when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, reciting from 1 Corinthians 11 verse 26, that we will celebrate it until the Lord returns. Because you see, beloved, there is a sense in which, though our own salvation is complete, and though we will be brought to glory when we pass away, if the Lord Jesus does not return before that moment, there is a sense in which the fullness of the kingdom will not come in until the return of Christ. And so he says, I set aside this cup until the fullness of the kingdom work is accomplished, is experienced, is realized. until my second coming and the end of all of my work is fulfilled in its completion. It shows to us something about Christianity that we don't often contemplate. It shows to us what he means when he says, you must be busy until I return. Because the time of the work of the gospel and the spreading of the kingdom will come to a screeching completion and halt when he returns. But for us, we have now communion with him that is extended. We have communion with him that is extended until he returns. Sometimes, We get twisted up in knots and think, well, it's been 2,000 some years since he said these words. It's how much longer until he returns. What he is saying here teaches us that length of days and years and generations and centuries is no problem. Because his covenant promises and his covenant mercies are going to continue unabated and untainted until he returns. when the end comes, and it will come, we will celebrate with him just as he here promises that we will do. So in a sense, beloved, we are all awaiting that fourth cup at the marriage supper of the Lamb, the fulfillment, the consummation of his kingdom. And all that will matter then is Jesus Christ. And all that matters when we celebrate the Lord's Supper is Jesus Christ. And so everything about our lives right now ought to be centered upon the incredible benefit we have received in Jesus Christ. It says in the text, verse 26, that they had sung a hymn, probably from Psalms 116 through 118, one of those Psalms. And they went out then to the Mount of Olives. The disciples, notice this, the disciples still not fully aware of what was coming, but we know. We understand Gethsemane and Calvary and the empty tomb, but do you know that when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, We are doing so aware of His return. Do you know His return is next? That there's nothing else in God's ordering of events. The abominations we are witnessing all around us only make that truth all the more significant. His return is next. And then comes our full deliverance out of this wretched Egypt. Praise the Lord that eternal life means peace and unending joy. Amen. Our Father in heaven, how full and rich and glorious is your word and your work to your people's benefit. We pray, Lord, that as we are strengthened in your word, we might live accordingly, and we have great need for grace to live accordingly. Oh, Father, bless your church and strengthen us, we pray again this morning, asking in Jesus' name, amen. Well, congregation, we'll sing 138 in response. In sweet communion, Lord, with thee, we'll stand to sing the stanzas.