And Grove Family, it is a joy and a blessing to see you here this morning. Welcome to worship. In John chapter 20, Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, Thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen. And have yet believed.
Let's all stand together as we sing this song together. This I believe. Oh. Our Father everlasting, the all creating one, God Almighty through your Holy Spirit, the saving Christ the Son, Jesus our Savior. I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son, I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three and one.
I believe in the resurrection. That we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus, our judge and our defender, suffered and crucified, forgiveness is in you. Descended into darkness, you rose in glorious light, forever seated high. I believe in God our Father.
I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus.
I believe He rose again. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is created.
I believe in the resurrection that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in life eternal.
I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the saints' communion and in your holy. Holy church, I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again. For I believe in the name of Jesus, for I believe in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Church, please be seated. Listen to the choir now as they come to sing Holy Blood. Crimson love, Christ of Christ demand shameful sin placed on Him the hope of every man Oh, the blood of Jesus washes me Oh, the blood of Jesus shed for me for the Son Christ that saved my life Here's the love is my victory Save your Son, holy born, save so I can live. See the Lamb, the great I am, who takes away my sin. Oh, the blood of Jesus washes me.
Oh, the blood of Jesus shed for me. What a sad reply. Yes, the blood, it is my victory. Oh, the light of the land all the light of the land of God of the land, the precious love of the land, what a sun has saved my life. Christ alone is my victory.
Oh, my love, no praise. Grace, how can it be that in my sin, yes, he glanced in, he shed his blood for me. Oh, the blood of Jesus washes me. Oh, the blood of Jesus shed for me. What a sacred varce that saved my one, it is my victory.
What a sacred heart that saved my. Yes, the one is my victory. Wow, I'm super thankful for the blood and the sacrifice that was made for me and for all of us. What a good day to celebrate that.
So grateful that you're here. Thank you for being. In your place, you guys that have been so faithful being in Bible Fellowship here in the church hour with us, and so thankful as well for those of you who are brand new, or maybe you've come the second or third time. Is this what it is with us? And so, if that's you and you have yet to fill out one of those new here cards, or maybe this is your first time you're ever hearing about that.
If you'll grab that new here card that's in the seat back in front of you, fill that out between now and the end of the service, and then you can just take it out those doors there into the Just our greeting area, and you can get a gift. We'd love to put a gift in your hand. Just a small token of appreciation for you being here today. That's our first step. For us being able to get information from you so that we can get information to you and kind of let you know how things work around here at Union Grove.
A couple of announcements for today: Food Truck Friday. If you had to guess what day that was on, what would be your guess? Friday. And do you think there will be food trucks there? All right, so we're on the same page.
Okay, good. All right, so Food Truck Friday is this Friday. There's going to be five food trucks there. I'm setting my goals high. I'm going to try something from each truck.
That's my plan. Try something from each truck. You can see the The Facebook event that we've created, it's got all the trucks there advertised. You'll see what they serve. That's a good thing.
Bring your family, bring your money. And bring your lawn chairs so you guys will have a place to sit. We'll have games for adults and for kids, inflatables, those kinds of things are on us. But as far as food goes, that's on you guys. And I'll try to get in line right behind you so my food can be on you too.
No, it'll be a good time. I'm really excited about it. We'll see how things go. We got a couple more planned between now and the end of the summer. It'll be a lot of fun.
Easter at Union Grove. How many of you guys have been to Easter here before?
Okay, all right, so Easter is going to be good because we still serve a risen Savior.
So it's a great, that's really what we celebrate every Sunday. But Easter absolutely holds the key to our faith being legit.
So that is a good thing. That's on March 31st. We'll have a 7 a.m. sunrise service outside, followed by the 10 a.m. celebration service in here.
Those two services will be different, so we're asking you guys to come to both if you could for that day. There will be no Bible fellowship classes in between. But there will be an Easter egg hunt for the kids. I'm going to repeat that. for the children.
Easter egg hunt for the children right after the 10 a.m. service. I'm going to ask us to do something just a little bit different. That's the end of the announcements. I'm going to ask you guys to bow your head and close your eyes.
We get to celebrate communion today. Together, which I'm really excited about. But I just want to ask God to prepare hearts now for that, prepare hearts for listening. To what God has to say to us through His Word, and then also to prepare our hearts for the things that we're going to continue to sing about. You'll see in just a moment, or you'll experience in just a moment, a way to give as the ushers pass the offering plate.
I want to say thanks again so much for you guys being faithful in those areas so we can do ministry and make an impact in our community. But I'm going to give us just a few moments and ask God. to prepare our hearts for the rest of today. God, everything that you do for us is amazing. and incredible.
And we are so undeserving. God, we want the things that you have done in our hearts to motivate us to trust you more, to motivate us to follow you more closely. and also to motivate us to tell other people about how you've changed our life.
So, God, as we reflect on that, we look back on the things that you did for us on the cross, how your body was broken and how your blood was spilled. And that wasn't something that was taken from you, that was something that you willingly offered for us. payment that we could never pay. A price that was way too high. for us to satisfy.
Thank you for doing that. Thank you for bringing it to. bringing us to a place where we could look back and remember, but also look forward with hope. For the day that you come back, the day that you return to get us, to take us, to be with you forever. God, we celebrate all those things in addition to so many things about your name and your character, your faithfulness, your love.
Everything that you do As well, in addition to everything that you are. God, we thank you for a chance to give back to you from the things you blessed us with. But most importantly, and first, to give your hearts. God, that you would receive that today as we sing these songs to you, as these words resonate with our hearts, but then also the way that we listen to your word. with an open heart, with intent and open ears.
God, so that we can apply these things right away. And just like we said earlier, trust you more and be drawn closer to walk with you. God, we love you and thank you for this great day. Thank you for allowing us to be here together in Jesus' name. Amen.
He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become his righteousness. He humbled himself and carried the cross love so amazing, love so amazing Jesus Messiah. Yeah. Name above all names Blessed Redeemer Amen The Rescue for sinners the ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah before Josh and young His body the bread his blood the wine broken and poured out all for love Earth trembled and the veil was torn. Love so amazing Love so amazing Jesus Messiah came above all ways Blessed redeemer He manufacture The rescue for sinners The ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all our hope is in you all our hope is in you all the glory to you come the light of the Lord Jesus Messiah name above all things blessed redeemer amen you will rescue for sin The ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all Jesus Messiah Lord of all the Lord of all the Lord of all Amen Church, please be seated.
Amen. Amen. And man, what powerful, powerful music here today and just incredible. Incredible music. Hey, listen, it is good to see you.
Uh here at church. If you're excited to be at church, can you say amen? today And listen, it is good to be. and I'm so glad that that that you are here. And uh we love I love I know I'm a pastor, so I love coming on Sunday.
And I enjoy it. And I love seeing you here, and I appreciate you just taking the priority of being here each and every week. And we believe that the word of God is powerful and it's alive. And so when we gather and the word of God is preached, it can come alive in your life. And that's what we try to do here.
Well, listen, it is good to see you. I'm glad you're here. I want to echo what Pastor David said. If you are visiting with us today, possibly the first time in a long time or your first time ever with us, thank you for being here. And I met a couple of you here today for the first time.
And I'm grateful that you are a part of the service. We would love to meet you. And so our pastors are usually down front after the service. Come by, introduce yourself, and we would love the opportunity to be able to connect a little bit more with you.
Well, if you have your Bible, go to Matthew chapter number 26. Matthew chapter number 26. We started a brand new series last week entitled Passion. Yeah. Passion Week, the week that changed everything.
And you could add this: everything for you and also for me. And so we're doing this. We're going to take the weeks that led up to the crucifixion, that one week before Christ was crucified for us and rose again. We're looking at the different events that happened leading up to that on that week. And I can't believe this, but Easter is getting closer and it is nigh.
And so we're excited about that. And so this series will take us all the way there. And we'll conclude it on Easter Sunday, which is March the 31st. And looking forward to that moment. Last week we looked at the triumphal entry when Jesus made his way into Jerusalem.
And everybody gathered and they laid their clothing down and they were laying these palm branches down, waving them, shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. And today, we are going to be looking at the Lord's Supper in Matthew chapter 26.
Now, I want to say this up front: there is a lot happening in Matthew chapter 26 that I'm going to try to show you because many of you know this story like the back of your hand. If you grew up in church or you've been in church for any length of time, you have a background where you've come together with a local church where you have taken communion. You've heard these passages being read dozens and dozens of times. And so, it's easy to come to a passage like Matthew chapter 26 and immediately, immediately kind of think, Man, I already know this. Shut the Bible.
We're just going to sit here and I understand it. I get it. I know everything that there is to know about this. And I promise you that if you just open up your heart for a few moments here tonight, there's or this morning, there's a lot that we are going to unpack here from Matthew chapter 26. There's a lot at play that I want to show you.
And But before we do this, I'm going to do this every week of the series, is I want to remind you. of the reason why this week happened. The reason why this week happened. I said last week, if you go way back to the very beginning of scripture, back in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning, God created the entire world, okay?
So he created everything that we see, and one of those creations was man, okay? The reason why he created man was so that we could have a relationship with him. That was the reason why creation was created. That's the reason why things came to be, is so that we could have a relationship with him. And so God created man and he gave him this dwelling place, this garden of Eden, in which he lived.
And then he created Eve, and they lived there together. And here's what's awesome: in the garden, they could walk with God. And they could talk with God. They had a relationship with God. And that's the original design of why God created.
Man. That's why he created you, and that's why he created me. And so, but we know that in Genesis chapter number three, all of that relationship that he desired to have with man. Changed. Completely destroyed because of Adam and Eve's sin.
And now because of their sin, sin has passed upon every single one of us. That's every single one of us. Pastor up in front, Bible fellowship teachers, deacons, pastor staff, everybody sitting around you, every single one of us. Sin has now passed upon every single one of us for that all have sinned. And because of that sin, here's the thing.
Remember, holy God created man so that they could have a relationship, they could commune together, they could fellowship with one another. Sin entered into the world, and because of sin, here's what happened. And this is the reason why Passion Week had to happen. Because of sin, man, you know what happened? They were cast out of the garden.
Presence of God, sin, cast out of the garden. And now God set these angels, these cherubims, at the sides of the garden, and they ruled the garden with a sword.
So now there's sin. And because of sin, there's a sword, judgment. And that relationship with God had been destroyed. And that is the reason why this week had to happen. You see, all the way back from Genesis, God has had a plan to redeem mankind back into that original design, that original relationship with Him.
And that's the purpose of why Passion Week had to. Had to happen.
So here, let's pick it up. Matthew chapter 26. We're going to be reading. I'm going to read straight through 17 to 30 here today.
So just bear with us here. By the way, this is right after, you know, the chief priests and the scribes, they're all wanting to kill Jesus. In fact, the plot to kill Jesus, the plot to arrest him, has already been in the works at this point. But they say, and if you look back at previous text here, they don't want to arrest him now because everybody has traveled into Jerusalem. If you remember, we talked about this last week.
Everybody was in Jerusalem. For Passover, Passover was one of the Jewish feasts that they had to commemorate each and every year. We'll talk a little bit more about that here in a moment. And they would all come to Jerusalem. They were required to come to Jerusalem.
So, this is the moment Jerusalem is like crowded. It's just overcrowded. There's people everywhere. It's where some of you Davidson County residents feel when they build all these houses around, you know what I'm talking about? And you're upset about it.
And you're like, man, I've never seen so many traffic on Union Grove Road in my life, you know? And you're like, what in the world?
Well, Jerusalem was completely crowded with people because everybody had come to observe Passover. And so all of these chief priests and these scribes and everything, they had actually plotted to kill Jesus, but they said we can't because it's going to start a riot. It's going to start a problem because Jesus is so popular and there's so many followers that are kind of following him that we don't want to create these problems.
So we'll wait until you know things die down and everything leaves. And so they're kind of looking for Jesus. Finding him, finding a good time to do this when everybody leaves.
Well, in the midst of that, Judas, we know the story, Judas actually went. And he said, Hey, I can show you where Jesus is, and I'll be happy to help you find him. How much money are you going to give me?
So we see the betrayal. And then right after that, that's where we pick up here in verse number 17. Jesus is celebrating Passover and the feast of unleavened bread here together. Verse number 17.
Now, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
Now, there's a lot here. The Passover was one of the seven Jewish feasts that they would observe each and every year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is another one of the feasts.
Now, here's what's interesting is both of those feasts, the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they happened at this exact same time. In fact, the Passover feast, when it was instituted in the Old Testament, God said this is going to be the new year, the beginning of the calendar year for the Jewish people. And this is going to be one of those feasts where we are going to gather together and everybody has to travel into Jerusalem and we are going to observe this feast in houses all throughout Jerusalem, reminding themselves of how God delivered them out of Egypt on the night of Passover.
Well, the day right after Passover, so everybody's kind of still there and that kind of thing, celebrating the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread takes place. In fact, it takes place the day after. Passover.
So they are gathered together and they're figuring out where they're going to have their meal. And he said, verse number 18, he said, go into the city to such a man and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. The disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover.
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. They were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, Is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him.
But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born.
Now, Judas knew what, you know, Judas is the only one in that room other than Jesus to know who he was referring to.
So all of them are kind of freaking out. And in their minds, you got to understand that, like, you know, when you accuse people and you're kind of worried, nobody ever assumed Judas would do this. Judas was with them. Judas had followed Jesus along with the rest of the disciples.
So nobody was sitting here at the table and saying, like, oh, Judas, it's got to be you or whatever. And Judas is the only one that deep in his heart knows that he's already started the process that Jesus is now.
Now talking About. Verse number 25. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. In other words, you said it, Judas.
Could you imagine that? Oh, it'll be a fly on the wall in that room, right? And so you can imagine the feelings and different things of what they said. Verse number 26, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread. And he blessed it.
And he break it. and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission Of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
Let's have a word of prayer and then we'll look at this text together. Father, God, you're so good to us, and I'm so thankful for your grace. I'm so thankful for this moment that we can remember, that we can look at the significance of what was happening here in Matthew chapter 26. God, your word is alive, and I'm begging you today that it would become alive in every heart that is in this room today. God, that we could get a fresh glimpse of what you have done for us and the sacrifice that you made so that we could be restored and reconciled back into a relationship with you.
God, you are worthy of our praise today. Speak to our hearts, for it's in your name we pray. And all God's people said. Amen. So there's a couple of things happening here that I want to talk about.
And I promise, if you can bear with me, there's a lot of important truth in this passage for each one of you here today. The first thing I want to look at is this is Passover. I want you to understand what Passover really was because that is the reason why they had gathered together for the Passover meal. This is the purpose for why this passage is. And so when we reflect upon what Jesus did, I want you to contextually look at what this meant for the disciples.
Now, the Passover was instituted in the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter number 23. Leviticus chapter 23, you can find all the different feasts that God instituted. In fact, if you want to know more about those, we are doing a study on Wednesday night in this room on Wednesday night in our Bible study on the seven Jewish feasts.
So we're kind of looking at these one at a time. But in Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 23, God was giving Moses to give to the children of Israel all of these instructions. You know, all the law that many of you, if you've ever started reading the scripture and you get to like Exodus, Leviticus, you start losing interest because there's all these laws and rules and rituals and seasons that you can do this and you can't do this and all this kind of stuff.
Well, that's what's happening in Leviticus chapter 23. He's giving all these reasons to celebrate. One of those is Passover.
Now, Passover is so important to the Jewish nation because Passover was a reminder of God delivering his people out of Egypt. If you remember when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, God raised up a man, Moses. Remember in the wilderness, burning bush. He says, Hey, you're going to lead my people out of Egypt. And so he sends him and Aaron, and they go before Pharaoh, and they said, Hey, God says, Let his people go, right?
And there were his locusts and all these things, you know, happening in the time. And Pharaoh continued to let his heart be hard to where he would not let. His people go. And so God said, Hey, there's going to be one more final. Plague.
And it's going to be the blow. Of the blows that is going to force Pharaoh to let his people go. Go. And the final plague was that it was the death of the firstborn.
Okay? In other words, that the firstborn in all the houses there in Egypt is going. to die if he does not let God's people. Go. Now you can imagine Pharaoh's thinking, that ain't going to happen.
That ain't going to happen. And so, but it ends up happening. But God, He told the children of Israel: He said, Here's what you need to do. You need to kill a lamb, a perfect, spotless... Lamb, the best one that you have, kill that spotless lamb, and you take its blood.
And you put it over your doorpost of the house. And then, as the angel comes through at night, And when the angel sees the blood, here's what happens. The angel will pass over your house and go to the next house. And the houses that doesn't have the blood on the doorpost is going to the firstborn is going to die in that house.
So the next morning, when they woke up, All of the Egyptian households, because they didn't trust in the one true God. They didn't do the they didn't kill a lamb. They didn't put the blood over the doorpost.
So every single the scripture says every single house in Egypt. Every single one of them woke up to incredible morning, wailing, crying, screaming, anger, resentment, all of the emotions that you could imagine if you got up and the firstborn in your house was dead. That's what was happening there in Egypt. And so obviously, Pharaoh, you know, the people leave Egypt and they escape by night, and God leads them out of Egypt. And so, what he said in Leviticus chapter 23 was: God told Moses that every single year.
At the beginning of your Jewish calendar, every year everybody travels to Jerusalem. And when you travel to Jerusalem, we're going to have a Passover meal, and we are going to reflect and remember what God did in leading His people Out of out of Egypt. And what they had to do at that meal is very important to this story. What they had to do is they had to kill a lamb. And every night they would put the blood on the doorpost as a reminder of what he did.
But here's what they would do with the lamb that they killed: it had to be eaten together. All the households had to come together: this household, that household, that household. And all of them had to get this perfect lamb and they had to eat all of it together. None could be left behind. And that was a reminder when they took this Passover meal with a lamb on the table.
It was a reminder that it took the death of a little lamb for God to deliver them. Out of Egypt. That's why the disciples had gathered. That's what Jesus had come to do here in this text. This is why if you had to be one of the disciples, This had to be an absolute mind-blowing experience, what Jesus was doing.
Think about it. They had since they were children. Sat at a table. Beginning of their year. With a lamb that they had killed, there that they are going to eat as a family.
reminding of what God did in delivering His people out of Egypt. And now Jesus has gathered them for this exact same moment. And they are there together. And Jesus repurposes. The bread.
And the cup. For them to remember. In other words, it's as if Jesus was saying this to them: hey, you're not going to no longer spend your time on Passover remembering what God did in delivering his people out of Egypt. You're now going to gather together, and here's what Passover is going to be about. It's going to be about what I'm about to do on the cross.
In other words, I'm repurposing the whole point of Passover in that all these years you've celebrated your deliverance out of Egypt, and now I'm repurposing all of that. And because of that, what I want you to do from now on is you're not celebrating your deliverance out of Egypt, you're celebrating your deliverance out of the bondage that sin has brought into your life. And he's repurposing everything. If I was one of the disciples, I'd be thinking. Jesus, we've celebrated all of these things.
How about this? There's so much here. Think about this. It's like there's bread. Sure, supposed to be, Old Testament talks about that.
And there's juice. But you know what was missing at the table? Do you know what? Every year, this is something that they knew. If anyone understood the Passover meal, it was the ones gathered there together every year.
Kill a lamb, put it on the table. We're eating every bit of this before the sun goes down because that's what God told us to do as we talk and remember what God did in deliverance. There was one thing missing from the table. It was the lamb. The lamb.
Where was the lamb? If I was one of, I'm surprised Peter, and maybe it happened and we just don't have a record of it. I'm surprised Peter didn't say in that moment, hey, Jesus. Like what you're doing here, but... I've done this a lot.
Where is the lamb? You see, the reason why they had gathered together to celebrate Passover. Was to remember the killing of the lamb. And they would put it there and they would remind themselves that it took the killing of this perfect lamb. For God to deliver them.
And now Jesus has brought them together. No lamb on the table. And the reason there was no lamb on the table is because the very lamb of God, the one John the Baptist saw coming in the wilderness, when he said, Behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The reason he didn't need a lamb at the table for them to eat on is because the very lamb of God was sitting right directly in front of them at the table. You see, that's the point.
That's what's happening here. That's what's so important for you to understand. That Passover, Jesus was creating a new Passover. But then the second thing I want you to see is Jesus was fulfilling or initiating. This new covenant.
This new covenant. Now, if you remember way back in the Old Testament. And there's a lot of Old Testament stuff here, but it's so, so good and powerful.
So, if you've grown up in church, I want you to listen because it's so important. But remember in Genesis chapter 12, God revealed himself to Abram and he said, Hey, Abraham, you leave everything behind, leave your kindred, leave your family, leave your homeland, leave it all behind, and I'm going to lead you to a place that I'm going to eventually show you. And when I do, I'm going to make of you a great nation. Do you remember that? And what's amazing about that is Abram didn't have kids and all this stuff.
Like he was, you know, and so he's like, all right, I'm going.
So he goes. And then, and then, like, years later, you know, him and Sarah, they don't have kids still. And there's all this thing like, hey, are you really going to make of me a great nation? And they couldn't have kids. They were past like the age of childbearing.
And God would remind them of his promise, his covenant. He would say, hey, he would take them outside and he would say, look at the stars in the sky. And he would tell him, he said, Hey, you might not have kids now, but I'm telling you, if you trust me, if you believe in me, That you're going to have more family members than the stars that you could ever count. in the sky. And so we know that they end up having kids, and Israel begins to expand, and then they find themselves in that bondage of Egypt that we talked about.
So God leads Moses to go out, and then you have the Mosaic covenant that was instituted. And that covenant is just what you find there in the Torah, in the first five books of the Old Testament: tons of rules, tons of laws, tons of if you do this, I'll do this for you, and different things like that. And so there's this Mosaic covenant that the children of Israel had lived under for all of these years. That's what they did. They felt that if I keep the law, if I keep all the first five books of the Old Testament, then God will accept me, God will love me, God will allow me to live forever with Him in this place called.
called heaven. But we find that in the Old Testament In the book of Jeremiah and the book of Ezekiel, what you find is both of them prophesied. These were Old Testament prophets, and they would prophesy to the nation of Israel. And here's what they would say. They would say, hey, this covenant that you have is good.
But it's not the final covenant that God is going to make with you. It's not the final end. It's not the end that, hey, the law and different things, all the Mosaic law that you are living by and things like that. It's not the end. In fact, Jeremiah says, Jeremiah chapter 31, he says that there's coming a good and better.
Covenant. Hebrews chapter 7 talks about that. That this covenant that God is instituting is greater than any covenant before. And that's what Jesus is doing here in Matthew chapter 26. He's repurposing the Passover.
In other words, like all these things that God used to bring his people into that relationship with him to make of his great nation, he's repurposing that whole covenant into this new covenant where all of us can receive salvation by grace. Through faith and what Jesus has done for us.
Now remember the old covenant was for Israel. Remember? Like the old test, if you wanted to know God, you had to become Jewish. You had to enter into the Jewish community, the Jewish family. If you were a Gentile, you couldn't know the one true God.
But aren't you thankful God always doubles down on his promise? Genesis chapter 12. You know what God said to Abram? God told him, I'm going to make of you a great nation.
Now, for you and I, here's what that means: Israel, right? But here's what he said. He goes down a little further. And now, up to this point, no one really knew what this meant, what God was telling him in Genesis chapter 12, until this moment in Matthew 26. Here's what God said back in Genesis 12.
I'm going to make a view of such a great nation. That the whole earth That's you? That's me. It's all of us. The whole earth is going to be blessed.
Because of the covenant that I'm making with the nation of Israel. And all these years, we've been waiting for what that means and speculating for what that really means. And here, Jesus is repurposing Passover, and He's repurposing, and He's instituting a new covenant to where now it's through the blood of Jesus, everybody. Gentile, Jew, doesn't matter. All of us, the entire world that he spoke about and prophesied about back in Genesis chapter 12, all of the world could now know God.
Because of this new new covenant that has been given to him. The third thing I want you to see, and I know there's a lot of Old Testament stuff here. But this one's so important. is that covenants were always ratified or agreed upon the same way and here's what that way meant. There had to be sacrifice.
Every single covenant that you see in the Old Testament, there had to be a sacrifice. In other words, something had to die to kind of solidify the bargain between the two parties that had. That had happened. In fact, in the Old Testament, when a covenant between two parties was being made, here's what would happen: they would kill. An animal.
And it took the killing of an animal. And what they would do is they would take the blood of that animal that they killed between these two parties, and they would say they'd put it between, like, it's like if Patrick and I had made a covenant. And what we would do, if we were living back in the Old Testament times, is we'd kill an animal and maybe a neighbor's cat or something like that. I don't know. That's a joke.
And so, what we would do is we would put all of the blood from this animal that we had killed, we'd put it in between us. And here's what they were told to do: Patrick and I, we would both walk on top of the blood that we had put from this animal. And what that was saying is that for Patrick, when he walks across the blood, he's saying that if he doesn't keep his end of the bargain, Then let what happened to this animal happen to him. And when I walk across the blood. That was laid out before me.
Then I'm saying that, hey, Patrick, if I don't keep my end of the bargain. Let what happened to this animal happen to me. And you see this, if you have some time, read this in your own time. Genesis chapter number 15. You see this actually happen.
And here's what's amazing about Genesis chapter 15: it's when Abraham, and Abraham was a human being just like the rest of us. He doubted that original covenant that God had instituted with him. You know, make of you a great nation, things like that. One Genesis chapter 15, he's doubting God.
So God doubles down on his covenant with him. In fact, he tells him to do this very thing. He tells him to gather up numerous animals, in fact. Genesis 15, he tells him to gather up all of these animals. And what he said was, I want you to slice open the animal.
And I'm going to prove. That I am going to double down on my covenant that I've made with you. I'm going to prove that I'm going to keep my end of the bargain. And so he tells Abraham, he says, kill all these animals. Abraham goes out, he kills the animals.
He lays out this like trail of blood from all the animals that he had just slaughtered. And here's what Genesis 15 says, so important to you and I today. It says that God made Abraham fall asleep. He fell asleep and he's out. He's waiting on God, and as he's just sleeping, here's what happened at sundown.
Is that at sundown, there was this like pitcher of fire and smoke. Signifying it was God. And what God did at sundown is what he did was: okay, Abram did everything he was supposed to do. He killed the animals and he put this trail of blood between him. And Abraham knew, hey, yeah, what we're going to do is as soon as God shows up, we're both going to walk across.
And if I keep my end of the bargain, like, hey, or if I don't keep my end of the bargain, hey, let what happened to this animal happen to me. And God's going to do the same. And that's going to give me the confidence for Abraham to trust God that he's going to one day make of him a great Nation.
Well, Abraham was asleep, and here's what happened at sundown. At sundown, God did something that was so Countercultural to what he would have ever understood. You know what God did? The blood was there. God went across the blood.
by himself. You say, why would he do that? Why would he do that? Here's the reason. The reason why God went across the blood, and this is so important for you and for me.
And we're going to get to the significance here in a second for you. But for Abraham, he's there and he watches God go across, and Abraham's like, okay, I'm supposed to walk with you. And now, God, you've kind of gone across the blood by yourself. What in the world does that mean? Here's what God was telling Abraham.
He said, if I don't keep my end of the bargain, my end of the covenant, Let what happens to this animal happen to me. But here's the beauty of it and why it's important for you. He was telling Abraham. If you don't keep your end of the bargain. I'll still.
Die for you. That's the point. That's the point. And that's what you see here. You see, these covenants were ratified in the same way.
So, fast forward to the upper room. He's here today. Jesus is gathering with his disciples, and they're instituting the Passover, and Jesus is kind of repurposing everything, and things are happening so fast for them that they're kind of trying to understand everything. He's instituting this brand new covenant, and you see that when he says a new testament. And it's this new covenant that Jesus is instituting.
But here's the thing: what he was saying all along. Just like he did in the Old Testament. In order for this covenant to be ratified, There has to be. sacrifice. There has to be a sacrifice.
And you say, okay, then here's what I want you to understand: the reason there has to be a sacrifice is just like God made Abraham back in Genesis 15 to fall asleep. You and I have to understand something. You are dead. When you were born into this world, you were absolutely, the scripture says, dead in your trespasses and sins. You're completely at the bottom of the sea.
You're not just trying to drown on keeping your feet above water. No, you're completely dead at the bottom of the sea. If you don't know Jesus. And what the, and so just like Abraham was asleep, and just like we were dead, here's what happened at the cross. And we'll see this eventually: is at the cross, you know what happened?
Darkness. Genesis 15. You know what happened when God walked across the... The blood? Darkness everywhere.
You see the significance. And when darkness came, here's the point. When Jesus died on the cross, there was darkness that crept across the world. And as he was on that cross, as his blood poured out like a river onto the ground, do not miss this, he suffered. And he died.
Alone. Alone. Just like way back in Genesis 15, that he, God, walked across the blood. That was spilled. Signifying that this covenant, it is not dependent upon you, Abraham.
It's not dependent upon you. It's dependent only based on who God is. And what you see all the way in the New Testament is what Jesus is telling them is that when the blood on the cross is going to be spilled out all over to the ground, it's me, it's Jesus that is going to be dying alone. And here's the point. Was he dying because he didn't keep his end of the bargain?
No, he was dying. Because you and I. did not keep. Our end of the bargain. You see, that is the significance.
What Jesus was telling these disciples when he instituted the new covenant, he was saying to them, Listen, listen, disciples, Peter, you struggle with this, Thomas, you doubt all the time. Get this, is that this covenant, when I die, it's not going to be dependent upon you. It's not going to be dependent. This new covenant that I'm instituting, it's not going to be dependent upon how good you can be, or it's not going to be dependent on the works that you can do. It's not going to be at all dependent upon you.
In fact, I am going to die for you because you didn't keep your end of the bargain, and I am going to complete and finish the work all by myself. And so, as we take the cup and we take the bread, the Gospel of Luke says it this way: the body or the cup that he shed, he mentions this, it was given. For you. It's given for you. You see, that's the point.
Here's what I want you to think about, and we're about to go into communion. Here's what I want you to think about. is that this new covenant is a hundred percent Yeah. 100% for you. Everything that we're going to look at here in this passage.
It's for you. If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus. And you're like, man, I don't know Jesus. I'm doing fairly decent without him and that kind of thing, but I don't know him today. Here's what I want you to know: wherever you're at today, you say, Pastor, I'm a pretty bad, bad sinner.
I don't care how bad you are. All I know is how good God is, and God can save anybody. It doesn't matter. You see, this covenant that he is offering, that he's instituting here in this upper room experience, it's for. The world.
Everybody. That's you. That's me. It's for us. But here's the beauty of the covenant.
Not only is it 100% for you. It's 100% on him. The covenant that he is showing you, that he's offering you to enter into, it's not based on what you can do. It's a hundred percent offered for you as a free gift. But at the same time, it's 100%.
On Him and what he accomplished on the cross of Calvary. That's the beauty of it. That's the beauty of the upper room, this Lord's supper that we see. Here's the point. A couple things.
I'm going to bullet point these and rapid-fire these about the Lord's Supper, and then we'll go into the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper was a reminder, and that's what we're going to do here in a minute. It's a reminder of what Jesus has done for you. Like he's instituting this new Passover, where for them every year they would gather and they would remember the deliverance out of Egypt.
Now Here You're not going to remember that anymore. You're gonna remember my death. That I died.
so that you could live. That's what we have to remember. That's why we say this doing remembrance of him. And so, in a moment, we're gonna have some time to reflect, just you and God, and remember the body. That was broken.
for him. The blood that was shed. For him aren't you thankful? It wasn't an animal sacrifice. They had to sacrifice animals every single year.
When Jesus came to be our perfect sacrifice, our Passover lamb, it took him dying one time to save you forever. To cleanse you from every sin that you've ever committed, the sins that you're in now, and the future sins that you are going to commit. You see, the Lord's Supper, it's a reminder of what Jesus has done for us. Number two, the Lord's Supper was to proclaim salvation. I love what 1 Corinthians 11 says when Paul's talking about the Lord's Supper.
He says this: For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show. The Lord's death till he comes. In other words, here's the point: Paul was saying that when we take up the table, This is a proclamation. This is a moment where we can show everybody what Jesus has done for us. And I'm thankful that John 6, whosoever, Jesus said this, whosoever shall eat of the bread of life, She'll live forever.
Whosoever, I'm grateful. Listen, I'm grateful he didn't list a bunch of sins.
Okay, only the people that have committed these things can. Can live forever. But if you've done these things, probably not. Can't make it. Right?
He said, whosoever. That means everybody. That means adulterers. That means murderers. That means those who are prideful, arrogant, gossipers, hateful, judgmental.
All the sins that we struggle with, guess what? He died for those things. He died for those things so that you could live forever. And the Lord's Supper is an opportunity. Every time that we take of the Lord's Supper, it's an opportunity to show.
Until Jesus comes back. And by the way, that's why Jesus said at the end of Matthew chapter 26 when he instituted it, he said, I'm not going to partake of this until we're all in heaven together. You know what that means? What Jesus is saying is he's saying, hey, listen, this is the last time I'm going to partake of this until we're all together there at the marriage supper of the Lamb together as all saints that have trusted in Jesus. That's going to be the next time where he's going to institute this together.
You see, the point is, this Lord's Supper, until he comes back. Or until you die and go home to him. This is an opportunity for us to proclaim what he has done for us. Number three, the Lord's Supper was to examine ourselves. 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says that this is a time of examining.
Before you take the supper, it's in a time before you do this where we look deep within us. And the reason he said that was the church at Corinth was struggling. Church of Corinth was, there was division in their church. There was bickering. There was sin.
And he said, Hey, before you can take of this, you need to examine yourself and confess that sin in your life. Because he said, if you take of the cup and of the bread, With sin all in your life, here's what Paul says. He doubles down on this. This isn't me talking, this is the Apostle Paul. He says it's as if you're sinning against Jesus' very body yourself.
So that's why it's important for us in a moment to reflect, confess sin, get things right in your life before him. The fourth thing, the Lord's Supper was to be a time of thanksgiving. After Jesus broke the bread and he gave the cup, here's what's amazing. Each time he gave thanks. For some of us We struggle to thank God for what he's done for you.
If it wasn't for him, you'd still be dead in your sins today. If it wasn't for him, you would still be outside of the garden, outside of the presence of God. Remember his original design? Without Jesus shedding his blood for you, you could never be reconciled back into a relationship with a holy, righteous, perfect God. For some of us.
We need to get off our high horses sometimes and hit our knees on the ground and say, God, thank you. Because without him, we would not be. Here. Listen, at this time, I'm going to, we're going to take of the Lord's Supper today. And before I invite our deacons to come, I'll give you a little, because if you're new here, I want to be respectful and things like that.
Here's how we practice communion here at our church: we practice what they call open communion. You say, what exactly does that mean? I know that's church terminology. You might not understand what that means. Open communion means this: if you are a child of God, that means that if you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you stop trusting in yourself, you know you have a relationship with Him, you know you're going to heaven when you die because of what Jesus did for you.
If you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, then this communion is for you. You don't have to be a church member here. You just have to be a born-again follower of Jesus for you to partake in this. And so that's what we're going to do. But here in a moment, when the deacons come.
And we're going to pass out the elements and things like that. Here's what I want you to understand. This is a time, like the Apostle Paul said, this is a time. For you. to reflect.
To confess. To look inward. At your sin, confess it all, but it's also a time for you to spend time in thanksgiving to God. to remember his sacrifice. That he did on the cross of Calvary so that you and I.
Could. Left.
So at this time, the deacons can go ahead and come. And here's what I want you to know as they're coming. Is that we do, this is what I call like COVID communion. And so we give them together.
So there's a thin layer. on the top of of your uh Of your cup, and that thin layer is going to be the bread here in a moment. And then the big layer is going to be for the juice. And so, just to help you know that, but as the instrument plays, they're going to pass. Nobody's going to say anything.
We're going to have music playing. This is a time for you not to be looking around, not to be hoping everybody else is confessing their sins. This is a time for you to do business with God in reflection of what He has done for you. And just if you're new here, we'll give the instructions for the bread and the cup here in a moment. At this time, once you get it, you can just sit there and do business with God.
I did want to say one thing because I saw this growing up one time. We were doing communion, and somebody in the audience didn't know Jesus as Savior. And here's what I want you to know. If you're in here today and you're like, man, I don't know him as my savior. If you want to come, like, listen, we can take someone and we can show you right here in this moment how you can know.
And then after that, you can partake of your very first Lord's Supper because of what Jesus has done for you. I would welcome you and I would love to help you with that here in the moments that we have. But this is an opportunity for you to do business with God, make decisions. and reflect. Amen.
You can look this way. The instruments will keep playing throughout this, but in verse number 26. We'll read it again. It says this, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread. And he blessed it.
And here's what I want you to know: before we take of the bread together, it says that he blessed it. In other words, we can give thanks for what Jesus has done for us. I'm going to ask Pastor David to come, and Pastor David's going to lead us in a prayer, just reminding ourselves of the broken body that was bruised and broken, so that you could live. And then after he prays, we will partake together. God, we come.
to you at this time. Just humble. Realizing that the only thing that we have to offer To this whole process of you dying was the sin that made it necessary for you to die.
So, God, thank you for your forgiveness that we receive. We receive that because of your body that was broken for us, and we. As we receive that, God, we receive it with thankfulness. Because again, it's something that we couldn't do as a price too high for us to pay. had to be you.
So God, we receive it and we trust you and we thank you. for willingly giving your body to be broken for us. In Jesus' name. And he said, and he broke it. And he gave it to the disciples, and he said, Take, eat.
This is my body. Let's eat together. And then in Matthew chapter twenty six, verse twenty seven. He says this, and he took the cup. And once again, he gave thanks.
And so, before we take of this cup and drink of this as a reminder of the blood that was shed for you and for me so that you could have life, I'm going to ask Pastor Bailey to come. And he's going to have a prayer of just thanksgiving for the blood. That was shed. for all of us, and then after he prays, we will partake of the cup together. Heavenly Father.
God, I'm so grateful, Lord, for this representation. Yes. And you say, as often you do, you do it in remembrance of you. And Lord, we're reminded that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And God, we did nothing to deserve it other than to.
except the sacrifice that was given for each of us. And Lord, I'm grateful that, Lord, before the beginning of time, before any of us were born, you already had a plan. to forgive us of our sins. And that was to send your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die. for our sins.
And I am grateful for the precious blood. that did save. and will save and will continue to save. As long as man confesses their sins and asks you in their life for salvation.
So, Lord, thank you for the blood. Lord, may we continue to praise you for all that you do and have done for us. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. And he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Let us drink together. As you can imagine, the disciples, I I can't just fathom what they're thinking as they've celebrated Passover in one direction. In one way, with a lamb, with everything just celebrating, and now they're completely repurposed. What this is, now they're reminded, like being reminded of what Jesus was about to do for them that would solve their sin problem for once and. for all the final sacrifice.
And then I love this part. is verse number 30. And I can only imagine the choir there in that upper room of what that sounded like after they heard and saw what Jesus was doing. It says verse 30, and when they had sung a hymn, They went out into the Mount of Olives. I felt it'd be fitting for us to sing together.
So I'm going to ask our praise team to come at this time. And the rest of the congregation, you guys can go ahead and stand. We're going to sing a very familiar song, Just As I Am. And the reason why I wanted to choose this song is this is a reminder that every single one of us, regardless of where you're at here today, we come to Him broken, undeserving. Full of sin, full of brokenness, and yet Jesus loved us the way we are, and He died.
For each one of us. And so I would love for you to just think about this, reflect upon what Jesus has done for you as we sing this. together. Just sad. As I am without one plea, God thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidest me come to thee, O Lamp of God I come I come just as I am and waiting God to raise my Soul of one dark thought to thee whose blood cleans my whole lamb of God I come I come I come broken to be mended I come wounded to be healed I come desperate to be rescued I come empty to be filled I come guilty to be born I'm the blood of Christ the Lamb and I'm welcome with open arms.
Praise God, just as I am just as I am, I would be lost, but mercy and grace I free of blood and bound to glory in your cross O Lamb. Of God, I come I come I come broken to be mended I come wounded to be healed I come desperate to be rescued I come empty to be filled I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb and I welcome with open arms praise God just as I am I come Broken to be men. I come wounded to be healed. I come desperate to be rescued. I come empty to be filled.
I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb. And I'm welcome with open arms. Praise God just as I am. Praise God, just as I am. Amen.
You can have a seat. We're long, and so I just want to mention a couple. things before we have a few families join. here tonight. But just remember, if you forget anything I said today.
It's 100% for you. But it's 100% on him. And don't forget that. Hey, just a couple of closing announcements that I wanted to mention. We have a couple of Bible study opportunities.
I know our ladies are in some right now as well. I don't want to miss them. But Financial Peace University, which is a great way to organize your finances and give you purpose behind each one of those things. We've had many families do that in our church over the years. We'll be starting that up.
If you're interested in that to help you manage your finances, there's a sign-up sheet. We've had quite a few people sign up over the last couple of weeks. Please sign up in the Welcome Center today so that we can get that and get you the information that you need. And then also, Jim Marshall did a great Bible study last semester, and he is going to be starting a new Bible study up tonight in the cafeteria. That's at 6 p.m.
That's for everybody, all ages, male, female. Everybody's invited to be a part of that in the cafeteria at 6 p.m. tonight. And he's going to be doing it's on the major doctrines of scripture.
So if you're newer to faith or newer to our church, to know a little bit more about those things, this would be a great opportunity for you to jump in over the next couple of months on that. One prayer request I wanted to mention, Jane Koontz. Jane Koontz's son, Greg, he is at Baptist Hospital in ICU in critical condition. And he's been recovering from an infection. And so he's over there at Baptist.
We just found that out. And that's Miss Jane Koontz's son.
So if you could remember her if you would. And on our way out today, we got some families that are joining that have attended starting points. I'm going to introduce a few people to you.
So I'll come down here on the floor. Where is Amy Beasley? Right over here. I'm going to invite Amy to come. You can come on down here, Amy.
You're the next contestant. I'm just kidding. And so, this is Amy. Amy, you come join me down front. And this is Amy Beasley.
Everybody say hey, Amy. And this is awesome, and this is really special. And I don't want to make this really emotional here today, but Amy and her husband, Tony, started coming to our church towards the end of 2023. And her husband came here about four Sundays in a row, loved our church, was really wanting to plug in until his health turned bad. And so we had his funeral just a few weeks ago.
And so Amy, when she pictured this moment, she thought she was going to be. Up here with Tony because they felt like they had their church. And so this means a lot to her. And so I want you to know that. But Amy has been saved.
She's been baptized. She attended Starting Point. And she wants to plug in deep with our church. And we are so happy about that. I'm going to ask Joey Brown and Leah to come forward.
They're going to come down as well. And you'll see a picture of them as well and their kids, Jackson and Jordan, up on the screens and things like this. And this is Joey and Leah. A lot of you know them. They've been a part of our church for a long time.
And we are super excited about them coming. They just came to me. God's doing a lot of things in this family, and I'm super excited about those kind of things. And so Joey came to us recently and he said, hey, I've been saved, baptized, but I've never officially become a member at the church, and we would love to do that. And so they came to Starting Point.
They've been here a while, so I just had them teach it for me. And so, just joking. But we are super excited about their family. Family taking this step. I'm going to ask Luke and Dana to come down.
You guys are down here down front. Luke and Dana Erdos. Am I saying that right? I've never asked you. I'm not saying it right.
At least you corrected me. And so, how do you say your last name, Luke? Ertis, I've said it wrong, and you've never corrected me, but until now, in front of the whole church, thank you for that. And so, but this is them, and they have a great, great family. They're a part of our school, so we've known them for a while, even before they started coming here.
But they've been coming here for the last several months. And you can see their kids up here: Adriana, Roman, Ryan, and Revan, they're all awesome, and we are grateful to have them a part of our ministry. I was super excited when they started coming several months ago and they've been plugging in, came to starting point. Once again, they've been saved, baptized, really excited about plugging in deep here. And then I want to ask last but not least, Justin and Abigail, you can come down as well.
And everybody say, Hey, Justin.
So, this is Justin. You guys are good. They can stand right here with me. And here's what I want you to understand: this is so, so good because when I first got here, Abigail, we met Abigail and she started coming. To the church, and shortly after that, made some decisions and everything, joined our church and started teaching in our school, just doing a great job.
And we were super excited to have her in our ministry. And I remember her specifically telling me to pray for the day that we get to celebrate today. And we talked about that for a while because she joined by herself. And Justin, he's had several things happen in his life, loss of his father, that has kind of got him all, you know, in the last few years away. And he has come back to the Lord and really is on fire about what God is doing in his life.
We can celebrate that. And Justin, he came recently. It kind of surprised me because we've been praying for this day and not pushing Justin, but he came and said, I want to go to starting point.
So Abigail came for the second time to starting point to tag along with him. And Justin is coming for membership. Abigail's already. We know Ella and Hunter as well. And we are grateful to have them.
And so instead of going one by one on this, can I just have a motion that we would bring all these in? Let's go Harvey first, Roger second. If you're in favor of this, can you just say amen today? All right, very good. And this is always nervous when people are up here because we never know if somebody's going to say nay right now.
So I'm always waiting, and it did not happen. And so we're grateful for that and everything. And so, but we're excited.
So, what we do anytime we have new families join the church, we are a family. We think of it like a family. And so, we would love for all of you to stop by. I know we're late and you're worried about who's going to beat you in line at lunch and that kind of thing. I get it.
So, if you could, on your way out today, I want you to pop down this row and welcome them into the family. Introduce yourselves. Let's stand. I'll dismiss in prayer. And then, on your way out today, come welcome them into our family.
Father, you're good to us. We're grateful for your sacrifice. We rejoice in that. Let us proclaim that until you come back to get us, to bring us home forever to be with you. We love you.
Thank you for these families and them coming to be a part of what you're doing here at Union Grove. Bless them and their families, for it's in your name we pray. Amen. You are dismissed.
