Palm Sun. 2014. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 My Body, My Blood

Good morning. We're going to take a two Sunday break from our Hebrew series. One of the things I want to let you know, we'll be taking a sort of a side trip in the Hebrew series, looking at parenting principles from scriptures, beginning in June. So we'll be continuing that for some weeks. So just kind of let you know ahead of time. And the reason for doing that is because it talks in Hebrews chapter 12 about discipline and discipline even of children. So we'll be using that as a good reason to sort of take a rabbit trail and then return back to our Hebrew series. Here this morning we're looking at this passage and we're going to start by doing a little time travel.

Okay, so if you can bear with me. Time travel going back around 3,400 years. And the way we're going to do that, it all began as a Passover. The account of the first Passover is given in Exodus chapter 12. The Passover feast, however, was originally as a celebration of Israel's delivery from about 400 years of slavery in Egypt. You have here a picture of the bricks that the Jews would make. The Jews would make mud bricks reinforced with straw, and then each brick would get a stamp of the pharaoh on the brick. No, the Jews did not build the pyramids. Those were in fact there already, those great pyramids already there when Abraham was there. So no, the Jews did not build the pyramids. What they did for centuries, they got very, very good at it, was making mud bricks. They'd make bricks out of mud, reinforce it with straw, and then stamp it with the pharaoh's mark. And they made thousands to millions of those mud bricks.

And the way it started off, the Jews were located in the land of Goshen. on the eastern part of the Nile Delta. And they got released from Egypt by the plagues that were brought by the Lord upon Egypt. They went through the plague of blood, that is the Nile River turned to blood. Then there was frogs. Now, you know, you might even like frogs, but you probably don't want them all over the place, croaking all night in your bed, etc. So that's why it was a nice thing, but way too much of a nice thing.

Then the lice, you probably don't like those. Flies, you probably don't like those either. Disease cattle, that was not good. Boils, and not on the Jews, but on the Egyptians, really bad. A boil is like a nuclear pimple. It's a pimple on steroids. It's really bad. I have had one or two and I wouldn't volunteer for another. Then there was hail, and then there were locusts, and then there was darkness, and then death of the firstborn with some very important exceptions. So you have this on your handout. And here are the 10 plagues in sequence.

It says here the Egyptian god defeated. In fact, the Egyptians had 700 gods. And so this is the primary Egyptian god that was defeated by each one of these. There are actually several secondary gods that were also defeated. So this is just the main one, not to confuse people. So there were the 10 plagues. The final one, the one that finally turned Pharaoh's heart, at least temporarily, was the death of the firstborn. So the Jews, however, were accepted from that death of the firstborn on one condition, and it goes like this, out of Exodus 12, 23, and 24.

For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. In other words, the intent is to hit the Egyptians, not the Jews, right? And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two door posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. So they would make a mark with blood at the top and each of the side posts being a symbol, a picture of the cross itself. And then, the reason this got carried on, verse 24, and you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.

You keep doing this every year. So from the first Passover, from Exodus 12, that it would take an unblemished male year old lamb for each household. One for each household. It was to be roasted and served with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Jews eventually developed other traditions we'll talk about in a minute, but that was the first one.

All of it was to be eaten while standing. Now that's a tradition that ended up being changed in haste. I imagine you're supposed to eat all of it. You're supposed to eat it while standing in haste. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing that all the time, but that's what they had to do this first time anyway. being ready, as they needed to be, for this imminent exodus. So they're to stand up, eat the entire meal, not leave any of the lamb, eat the whole thing, and eat it in haste, get it down, because why? Because they're leaving Egypt, leaving Egypt right after.

They were to rid themselves of all leaven from the very first day, this first day of Passover. the Jews were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and so that was then also carried on. The Passover is the first day of the week of unleavened bread. That's the tradition. So they would have matzah, this unleavened bread, and they would eat it for seven days. I hope you like reruns, right? Now, in this first Passover, the very next morning the Jews were to depart from Goshen, there in the eastern part of the Nile Delta, and from the land of Egypt in great haste. Hurry! Get out of there! Don't stick around. Don't hang around. Don't lollygag. Hurry! Get out of there! That was the message.

The Jews were repeatedly told to observe these practices as a memorial for all generations. We saw it here in Exodus 12. They continued to carry on that practice. The Passover, they would mark the top and the sides of the door with blood, the Lamb's blood, where they would stand. That part of it ended up being changed, as we'll soon see.

But eat the entire meal. Everything. You're not supposed to leave anything. eat it all, eat it in great haste, get ready to go. That's the pattern, that's the thought. And so they would pick up everything, they'd carry things, they'd put things in carts, they would put things on their backs, whatever it took to get themselves, their families, everything out of there.

They're leaving Egypt for good. And so they would travel along the way. Now, as it came, As it came about, what happened is they ended up coming across this big lake, big body of water, and ended up being up against there, panicked, and then the Lord performed a miracle through Moses holding his rod over the sea. And if it happened today, it would look more like this, right? Okay. But nonetheless, they went across on dry land in the middle of the sea, got across, and then it closed up over the Egyptians.

Their ultimate path, boy, it's amazing that it took them about four decades. Their ultimate path from Goshen to Canaan took them roughly in this big pattern here. Now, the timeline, and you have this on your handout. The exodus of the 12 tribes of Israel from Egypt is recorded in Exodus chapter 12. It took place about 1440 BC.

And then the last supper of Christ with his 12 disciples is recorded in the four Gospels, many years later, centuries later. So you can imagine by the time Jesus is having the last supper with the disciples, This Passover had been carried on for over a thousand years, almost 1,500 years by the time that Jesus was having the Last Supper with his disciples.

By New Testament times, however, there were some changes. Whatever aspects of the Passover required by the Old Testament were largely maintained, one major exception is we're not standing and we're not eating in haste. And that was one thing that they changed. They instead reclined at table and they actually ate slowly rather than in haste because they had the time and they didn't have to leave in the morning. In addition to what the Old Testament required, however, there had also been centuries of tradition, almost 15 centuries of tradition, which had been accepted practice by the time of Christ's first coming.

And if you think about it, this tradition was something that all of the disciples had become accustomed to, since as early as they can remember, they had all grown up with this Passover celebration. The next thing is the Gospels don't record all the details of going through the usual Passover. Why? Because all of them would have known that. All the disciples would have known this is what we usually do.

Now today, observant Jews have what they call a Passover Haggadah. And in this Passover Haggadah, by the way, it doesn't open like this. That's the back. This is the front. So in the Passover Haggadah, it tells them, and they would read this in an observant Jewish household, they would read through this as they're going through the Passover, and because it explains everything then to everyone present, and especially the kids, everyone present, about what does this mean, why are we doing this, what is this picture, what does this tell us?

And so they would have that. That's not recorded in the gospel except in the very slightest of details, and we'll go over that in a minute. So the purpose in the Gospels is not to tell us about all the Passover traditions that all the Jews would have known anyway. The purpose in the Gospels is to have the handoff from the Passover tradition to the Lord's table. That's the purpose.

Okay, let's take a look here. Now, a little bit of geography here. This is looking over Old City Jerusalem. That's centered towards the bottom of the page. And then you have the Temple Mount, which now is the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque of Omar. But that would have been the place where the temple would have been. And people would have gone to the temple about noon to get their lambs slaughtered for Passover. they would slaughter a couple hundred thousand lambs in that afternoon, and then hand them back to the people for their Passover celebration. So there's the Temple Mount, beyond that is the Mount of Olives, and back in the distance is the Dead Sea. So that's the perspective we get, kind of looking east, starting with Jerusalem. So the Lord and his disciples came to Jerusalem from Bethany and from Bethphage over the Mount of Olives in what is classically mischaracterized as the triumphal entry.

You see, today is typically called what? Palm Sunday? There's actually only one mention of palms. But let me tell you, when I said, hey, there's nine mentions of donkeys, nobody, nobody wanted me to call it Donkey Sunday. So we won't do that. OK? All right.

So now, it's called the Triumphal Entry, and it's basically Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that entry, a major common passage throughout the Gospels. But it started Bethany, Bethphage, Mount of Olives, and Jerusalem. And by the way, the modern Arabic name for Bethany, which is where Lazarus was raised, is Lazarus. Lazarus. Okay, now, so you have Bethany and then Bethphage. Bethphage is, by the way, Beth, you see that fairly commonly in biblical names, aside from the woman's name of Beth. That means house. So Bethphage is house of figs, house of unripe figs, actually.

And then the Mount of Olives and then Jerusalem. So that's kind of the sequence, stepping through it. Jesus would have come through this eastern gate, sometimes called the Golden Gate. You'll notice it's walled up. When the Muslims heard that the Jew's Messiah was going to come through that gate, they thought, well, we'll fix that. And they fixed it by bricking it up solid and putting a bunch of Muslim grays in front of it. I don't think that's going to stop anything.

Now so here is Jerusalem modeled from first century times and you see there this is kind of a aerial oblique perspective and so you see the temple and the temple mount and it's off in this corner here called the Essene quarter off in this corner of Jerusalem where the upper room was located where Jesus had the last supper of the Passover with his disciples in this residential area of old Jerusalem. You can still go there now, as a matter of fact, this is not certainly but very likely the room where the Last Supper was held. The columns and arches that you see over the top were built later, but that floor area is very likely the place where the Last Supper was held. Now, here's another view of that same room. You would come in, the entryway is through that little stairway that you see in the middle there. Now, so do you enjoy what's wrong with this picture kind of puzzles? Do you like those kinds of things? Here's one. What's wrong with this picture? I'll give you a minute to check that out. So what's wrong with this picture?

Okay. Now, aside from having Bob Lockwood there on one of the heads, and that was just because he came in and announced about the lights. The other thing that's wrong with this picture, of course, we have the whole Hemingway family there in the middle, and that, of course, would be a little unusual. But they're sitting in chairs. That's what's really wrong with this picture. I really enjoy the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci. I have one of those coffee table picture books of his stuff, and this is one of his. But the one thing that's not quite right is he has them sitting on chairs. That they did not do.

What they would have done, as the Bible says, they were climbed at table. They would sit on a lower table, on chairs and pillows, excuse me, on pillows and things of that sort, and be lower but not have chairs. And so that was more the pattern and the practice that they would have had for the Last Supper and for what was instituted as the Lord's Table. So they would be said to be reclining at table.

And so you'll see that kind of a phrase show up repeatedly in all four Gospels. Now let's talk about the cups. You know, there's been a whole movie made, right? A whole movie made about, you know, looking for the Holy Grail and all that sort of thing. And even some comedy movies made about that sort of thing. The cup would have been made either of pottery, metal, or glass.

Glassblowing had just been invented before the time of Christ, so possibly any of those, and we don't know which one. It was set up for the disciples and we're not told what they used. The plates would have looked like this. Plates would be similar to this one. This one was actually from Samaria, but it's one from that era that's in good condition. About a foot across dates from a couple decades before the birth of Christ, this particular one.

But that would have been fairly typical, and they would not have had forks and spoons and knives and all that sort of thing. Now, the Old Testament would have required, as we mentioned earlier, an unblemished male year-old lamb roasted and served with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. That would have been the Old Testament's requirement. No work on the Sabbath except for the Passover meal preparation itself.

And by the way, it was permitted to send somebody out for more food and supplies in the middle of the meal, which is one reason why Judas, being a treasurer, It would have been thought as nothing of any significance that he'd take off in the middle of the meal because that was allowed by the rabbis that you go and buy some more supplies. So the disciples would easily have thought, oh, he's the treasurer, he's going to get some more. The requirements for the Passover were given not only in the Exodus 12 passage, but in other passages we show there later in Exodus, and there's also in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So you have all four of those books of the Book of Moses referring to the Passover and giving more emphasis to it.

Now, by custom, not by what the Old Testament says, by custom, four servings of wine would have been offered on the Passover. However, Things to note, the wine was diluted, according to the rabbis, with five parts of water to one part wine. So it was rather dilute. It was not straight wine. So that would have been part one.

Secondly, the wine was consumed with a substantial meal. And next, the wine was consumed over a period of a few hours. Unlike the first Passover, where they ate in haste, the Passover was typically not done in haste. And there were a number of things to observe and state and say in the typical Passover meal. So dilute with a meal over time.

And also, drunkenness was neither encouraged or well thought of. So, you know, some people would get really bothered by, had they served wine? Well, just keep these things in mind. There was not even the slightest inclination for people to be encouraged to be drunk with these kinds of conditions.

Now, each serving of the cup was for a specific purpose, taken from Exodus 6, 6 and 7. The first cup was the cup of deliverance. I will bring you out. So they would take that. And so what they did is they added the cups as a later tradition based on this passage. So they broke it up. One, I will bring you out. That's the cup of deliverance. The next, I will rid you of your bondage. That is, you're going to be free. There's going to be freedom. That's cup number two. I will redeem you out of Egypt, that's cup number three. And cup number four, I will take you for my people, and I will be your God, say consummation. Okay, so you have those four cups, and the things that went along with them.

And this would be a part of this Passover Haggadah that would be carried on even today, even today among Jewish families, something very much like this is practiced. So what does the cup mean? This first cup, I will bring you out, that would be the opening prayer for the day of Passover. They would have along with that first cup, the opening prayer for the Passover celebration.

Next, they would have with this, I will rid you of your bondage, freedom, there would be a Passover explanation like you see here in this Passover Haggadah. They would sing Psalms 113 to 114, which by the way, that's the Hallel, the first part of the Hallel, and those were the Psalms you would also sing as you were going up to Jerusalem. As you're going up to Jerusalem, so they'd have them as every time they go up to Jerusalem, they would sing these psalms and they would say them at the Passover. So they actually had plenty of practice by the time you've got seven feasts throughout the year and also singing at Passover.

The third cup, I will redeem you. That would be the time when you would have the eating of the bread and the lamb and the bitter herbs. So that would be with the third cup. That would be the tradition there. And with the fourth one, they would then continue on with Psalms 115 to 118. So from Psalm 113 to 118 is called the Hallel. We get our word Hallelujah. Praise God. And so this is the praise. This is the praise. And it is from the Hallel, those Psalms, that you get many of the things that were said on Jesus' so-called triumphal entry. Hosanna. So now, let's take a look. When we look at the description of the Last Supper, what we find is in cup one, I will bring you out, deliverance.

It appears likely that Luke 22.17 describes Christ as saying the blessing before they all drank from the first cup. So that would have fit there. Notice, as we said before, that the New Testament doesn't go through all the details of the Passover because everybody would have known that. But we have at least this connection here with the first cup, that you would have said the opening blessing here with the first cup.

With the third cup, and this is the one we go to because it has a connection here with the New Testament, be the eating of the bread, lamb, and bitter herbs. It was during the eating of the bread, lamb, and bitter herbs associated with this third cup that Christ spoke of Judas' betrayal, as well as saying of the bread, this is my body. This is my body. So it would have been fit right in there.

And so nobody understood what Jesus was saying about Judas' betrayal. And when Jesus said something to Judas, the disciples would have thought, well, he's just dismissing him to go buy more food and supplies for us. That's all they would have thought. So they thought nothing of it. The disciples didn't get a clue as to what was about to happen.

Next, Christ would have said, this is my blood with the third cup. So this is my body, and now this is my blood with this third cup. And imagine with that, they were very puzzled. They have to have been very puzzled, because they didn't understand what was about to take place. They didn't understand. Oh, later they did. But here, they did not. When it was taking place, they didn't understand it. This is my body. This is my blood.

What? Wait a minute. Where's that in the Passover Haggadah? Right? I imagine them just kind of thumbing through and going through their memories. And wait a minute. That's not in here. This was new. He was instituting what we call the Lord's Table there at this Passover. And the disciples had no idea what he was talking about. So let's take a look at this memorial that is the Passover.

Here's from Exodus 12 verse 14. Now this day will be a memorial for you. And you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout your generations, you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance." Permanent ordinance. So Exodus 12, 25 through 27, when you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, what does this rite mean to you?

You shall say, it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord. who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel and Egypt when he smote the Egyptians but spared our homes. You're to remember this. This Passover is to remember what the Lord did. Remember what happened. Remember this exodus. So it's a memorial. That's the purpose of the Passover.

The Passover, as it's repeated year after year, doesn't do anything to the Jews. It's for them to remember, and for them to teach their children to remember, each generation on to the next. So, what exactly do the bread and the cup? What do they mean? The word used to describe the Passover in the Greek Old Testament Acts is 1222, means a memorial.

The word used by Christ to describe the bread and the cup in Luke 22.19, as well as in 1 Corinthians 23-26, according to Red Forest there, means a memorial. It's a memorial. Both the above nouns were derived from the same verb, which means to remember. Christ intended that the bread and the cup were to cause us to remember Him. To cause us to remember Him. You can imagine the disciples who don't understand. They don't understand the crucifixion at this point. They don't understand Christ being in the grave. And they certainly don't understand the resurrection. They don't understand any of that.

As Christ was conducting this Last Supper, all they had in mind to work with was this long-standing Passover tradition. That they'd become accustomed to. But this introduction of the Lord's table must have been stunning and puzzling to them when they first saw it. It wasn't until later that they began to understand, oh, that's what he meant when he said that. That's what he meant for us to do.

So it's a don't forget picture. The Passover was to help the Jews remember. The Lord's Table is to help us remember. It's to help us remember. That's what it's for. Just as the Passover was to help the Jews remember. The Exodus happened once. Christ's death on the cross happened once. But in each case, in each case, The ritual, the going through the Passover for the Jews and us, the Lord's table, is to remember what happened once. That we never forget.

So, what does Christ mean by these words? Take ye, this is my body. So verse 26 out of Mark 26, 26. While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body." Take, eat, this is my body. And of course the disciples are really puzzled at this. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them.

Verse 27, Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And of course they don't understand that either yet, right? So this is Matthew 26, 26 and 27. This is the blood, and what does that mean? It's poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Now here's another one to ask, is it literal or figurative? John 6, 54, and by the way, John 6, 54 is well before this last supper well before the Lord's table Jesus tells tells them he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day John 640 for this is the will of my father everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up in the last day He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is then figurative, a picture for beholding the Son and believing in Him. It's a picture for beholding and believing. Beholding and believing. He. The result in each case is eternal life. And who's going to raise you up on the last day? Christ. Christ will be the one.

So consider these things as well. The Jews Passover observance every year was to be done as a memorial. That is a clue to what the Lord's table is all about. It's a memorial. This is the context in which Jesus' disciples would have understood, this is my body and this is my blood. That is, here is a Passover and it is a memorial. The Passover is a memorial. So now as he establishes the Lord's table, he would have thought of it as a memorial.

Both Luke's and Paul's characterization of in remembrance of me is the same Greek word. In remembrance, as a memorial. The Greek word for remembrance above is a synonym for the Passover memorial in the Greek Old Testament. So both of them are intended as a memorial. Also consider these things too.

When Christ was done with his work on the cross, he said it is finished. Completely done. It's one Greek word, tetelestai, and it's in the perfect tense, which means it's a completed past action, ongoing results on into the future, implying permanence. It is finished, completely finished, and it's actually, the Greek word is an accounting term, which means it's all paid. Completely, totally paid.

For by one offering is perfected for all time, as we saw in Hebrews 10.14. He is perfected for all time, those who are sanctified, and that's actually those who are being sanctified. He is perfected for all time, those who are in the process of being sanctified. Finished and perfected in these verses are both in the perfect tense. A completed past action, ongoing results on into the future, implying permanence.

I give Romans 6.10, Hebrews 7.27, 9.12, 10.10, 1 Peter 3.18. We don't throw a lot of Greek words at you here, but hapax, a simple word, means once given, perpetually valid with Christ's death. Once given, perpetually valid.

So Christ had this intent. The intent was to have believers remember Him for what He has done for us and who He is. What He's done and who He is. The intent was also to have believers anticipate His coming. Remember and anticipate. Jesus said in Luke 22, 18, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.

And in the passage we read, it ends with 1 Corinthians 11.26, until he comes, until he comes for us.

The spiritual value of the Lord's table is in remembrance and in anticipation. Here's contrasts under the law, comparing and contrasting Passover and the Lord's table, under the law and under grace. So the memorial for Israel under the law is Passover. Under grace, it's a memorial for the church. Under the law and the Passover, it looks back to the exodus and forward to God's salvation. You see, the Passover looked back as a remembrance, but it was also anticipative, anticipating God's salvation. For us in the church, it looks back on the cross and forward to His coming. You see that time perspective? So what was happening is Jesus was having a handoff between the Passover celebration that the Jews had celebrated for many centuries. It's a handoff from that to the Lord's table for the church. Both in remembrance, both in anticipation.

Paul even makes the point in 1 Corinthians 5.7, for Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. So it uses the Jewish point of remembrance and anticipation to point to Christ. the one whom we remember.

And we'll do that this next Friday, and we'll have the Lord's Table here at the Good Friday service. One way to look at it, I think, is to use this helpful illustration. Here we have the Passover and the Lord's Table timeline, where we have Israel looking back to the Passover, celebrating at regular intervals for them annually, and then looking forward to God's salvation through Christ. We in the church are looking back then to the cross, remembering, and also looking forward, because the Lord's table is in anticipation as well. So there is a similar purpose in both the Passover and the Lord's table. And so that last supper was a perfect handoff, a perfect opportunity to make the handoff from Israel to the church.

As we look at this, and we look forward to taking the Lord's table this Friday, it will be a great thing for us to remember all of what He did, all of who He is, and He completely accomplished it. It is finished. Completely done. Done for you and done for me.

Is there anything for us to do but to remember? Is there anything for us to do but remember? No, it's His accomplishment that we're remembering. And we're looking forward to not to something we're going to do, but to his accomplishment when he comes. So we do this until he comes. In fact, I hope it's today. Let's pray.

Lord, we give you thanks as we look at this. What you were trying to accomplish, even though the disciples were quite puzzled, is very clear. You intended for there to be a handoff from the Passover under the law required by law, the death of a lamb every year, to the Lord's table, remembering God's lamb. And so, Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you that it, too, the Lord's table is a remembrance, and it also anticipates. We do this until he comes. And we so look forward to his coming. May it be today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.