What Is In A Meaning

Matthew 26:17-30

¹⁷ Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?" ¹⁸ And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples." ¹⁹ So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. ²⁰ When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. ²¹ Now as they were eating, He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." ²² And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" ²³ He answered and said, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. ²⁴ "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." ²⁵ Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, "Rabbi, is it I?" He said to him, "You have said it." ²⁶ And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." ²⁷ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. ²⁹ "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." ³⁰ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:17-30, NKJV)

Today I want us to look carefully at a meal that I think has become ritualistic and has lost some of its meaning to many sitting in pews of the church. In Exodus 12 and 13 we are told of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  To many the Feast of Unleavened Bread is called the Passover. If we remember the Passover is a remembrance of the Angel of Death passing over the houses of the people of Israel that had the Blood of the Lamb on its doorpost and lintels. This has great significance to us today because it is through the true Blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) that death passes us over and we have the wonderful news of eternal life that is found in Him.

     As part of Passover, the first night and the seventh night is a time of meeting between God and man. It is an intimate time of relationship between God and His chosen people!  As we gather here this morning for Holy Communion we need to understand that this is our time of intimacy with our Lord and Savior and treat this time at the table as sacred and holy.

Leaven is symbolic within the Scriptures of sin or evil. Not only was leaven left out of the Passover meal because of the hurried state that the people of Israel left Egypt; leaven was left out of the bread as a symbolic gesture of the removal of sin and evil from the lives of the people who partook of the Passover meal.  I found it amazing that a common Jewish tradition in preparing for the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to sprinkle leavened (yeast) bread crumbs throughout the house and then subsequently sweep them all up and collectively burn them outside.  Leaven is also a fermentation agent. The Lord said to His disciples "Beware of the leaven (false doctrine) of the Pharisees" (Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15). In addition, the apostle Paul warned the Church at Corinth that "a little leaven (yeast) leaveneth (ferments) the whole lump" (I Corinthians 5:6). Paul was simply saying that if sin goes unchecked, it will permeate and infect everything and everyone around them.

Unleavened bread symbolizes sanctification. In our partaking of unleavened bread or the symbol of unleavened bread it symbolizes that we are constantly in a state of sanctification; a state of being set apart to serve the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might.  The Lord Christ Jesus was crucified on the cross at Golgotha on the day of Passover. He was then buried in a newly hewn tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea. However, unlike all other corpses, the body of Jesus (Yeshua) would not decay in the grave. There would be no decomposition of His body, no, none indeed. God the Father would not "allow thine Holy One (His Son Jesus) to see corruption (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27). The Feast of Unleavened Bread proclaims that Christ's physical body would not experience the ravages of death while in the grave; for He was sanctified (set apart) by God the Father.

      In verse 19 we come to our part of the preparation for the Service of Holy Communion.  Notice it says that the disciples did as Jesus had directed them.  They knew He was the answer and Lord of their life.  They were committed to Him.  As we come to the table today we need to come to Jesus with humility. We need to humble ourselves and come with the realization and understanding that we need Jesus’ intervention in our lives in order to have salvation and eternal life; which we cannot achieve on our own.  It is through Him, the true Paschal Lamb; the true Passover Lamb whose blood was shed for us; the one who truly delivers us out of the bondage of Satan and sin; that we come to this table today.  We come to this table with a renewed commitment to follow Jesus no matter what the cost. Out of love for our Savior and what He did for us, we willingly lay down our lives at the foot of the Cross in love and gratitude for what He has done for us; ever mindful of His death for our sake.  And finally, as we come to the table we come before the Lord in a time of examining our lives before we take Holy Communion.  As we read in 1^st Corinthians 11 we are told not partake of the Holy Supper without first examining ourselves and so after today’s sermon we will take a few moments of silent reflection to examine our lives and our unworthiness to come to this table, except for the intervention of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

     Looking over at verses 26 and 27 we come to an interesting time in the meal that comes out of our time of self-reflection.  The Scripture says that Jesus took the bread and blessed it.  Have you ever thought of this and what Jesus is actually doing here?  Jesus is blessing His upcoming torture and Crucifixion.  Think about that – Jesus is blessing His upcoming scourging and death!  This amazes me because He did this for you and me.  Jesus was blessing the beating He would take on our behalf; in other words he was blessing the stripes by which we are healed.  He then goes on to bless the shedding of His blood, just like the sacrificial lambs blood would be shed for the sins of the people, so that we might be cleansed of all unrighteousness and be place back in a right relationship with God.  Yet, this sacrifice that Jesus is speaking to at the Last Supper will be the final sacrifice.  Later on when on the Cross Jesus said, “It is finished,” we need to understand that another way of translating that phrase in Greek is, “It is paid in full!”  Jesus was willing to bless His upcoming death because He knew the end result would be that He was paying in full our debt before God!  This amazed me when I saw this point this week.  Have you ever thought of Jesus blessing His death as part of the Holy Supper!  How many of us here this morning can bless the things we are called to sacrifice?

     Finally we need to understand why we have communion and what it means to us here today.  I call it a time of anxiously awaiting the return of Christ.  Jesus told his disciples to do this in remembrance of me. He was telling you and me this morning to be in remembrance of His death for our sins until He returns.  And then tucked away in verse 29 is something I don’t want us to miss.  He speaks to His resurrection and more importantly His return.  Look at this verse along with me.  He states that He will not drink of this cup again until the Father’s Kingdom.  What He is actually saying is that He will not drink of this cup again until the Father’s Kingdom is reestablished on earth.  Can you see what verse 29 is telling us this morning – this meal we are about to partake of reminds us and points us to the Return of Christ!  There is coming a day when we will all partake of that meal with Jesus Christ at the great wedding feast and become the bride of Christ.  What a day that will be and I am looking forward to it, are you?

     The final point I want to make this morning speaks to one of the crowns that will be available to us at the Day of Judgment.  Without going into too much detail, there will be five crowns we can receive when we are judged by Christ.  This Day of Judgment is for Christians only and will take place in Heaven right after the Rapture of God’s church.  This is not the Great White Throne Judgment which will happen after the 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ – that is for the unsaved only.  This crown I speak of is found in 2^nd Timothy 4:8, “Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to only me but also to all who have loved His appearing.”  This Crown is for those believers who are ready and waiting for the Return of Jesus – all those who have Loved His Appearing. So as we come to the table we do so with that anxious expectation of the Return of Christ or as I like to say we are anxiously awaiting the Return of Christ. 

     As one can see the meal we are about to partake is not some ritual we do the first of every quarter or on special occasions.  Zwingli had it right when he wanted emphasis only on the meal and that it should be seen as a special occasion to spend quality and sacred time with the Lord.  Today, we have learned about what the Feast actually means in the context of Jesus’ time; what our preparation should be; what Jesus was really blessing and can we make that same commitment to bless our sacrifices; and finally that we are to celebrate this meal by anxiously awaiting the Return of Christ.  Jesus gave us this Remembrance Meal for a reason and let us never take it lightly.  To those who have ears let them hear the Word of God and His message…