This morning we will share communion. In 1 Cor 11:23-26 Paul says, �I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.�
You may not have noticed before, but almost every time the Bible mentions the Lord�s Supper the term "covenant" is used. Jesus sets forth, �This cup is the new covenant in My blood.�
A covenant is a pledge, a guaranteed agreement based on trust. Covenants were arranged by mutual consent between two parties. In some translations they�re referred to as testaments. In fact the terms Old and New Testament are actually about the Old and New Covenants between God and humanity.
The word covenant literally means to "cover", in the sense of providing shelter, protection, or financial support. If I cover a bill, or I�ve got it covered, it means I pay for it.
In legal terms, a covenant is like a contract, treaty or compact (I mean like the Mayflower Compact, not what holds your makeup ladies). Some covenants involve an individual making a commitment that affects others, like a "last will and testament."
To make a covenant is to make a binding commitment.
1. The very first time God made a covenant was with Adam, which included a promise of enmity or hatred between the devil and humanity (Gen 3:15).
2. After the flood, a covenant of protection was made with Noah (Gen 8-9).
3. God covenanted with Abraham (Gen 15), promising that he would become the father of a chosen people.
4. Then on Mount Sinai God renewed His covenant with Moses and the nation He chose and preserved.
In each case God initiated the covenant.
In the Upper Room Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Seder or Jewish Passover feast. This involved a symbolic meal depicting the deliverance of the Jewish nation from the slavery of Egypt. The word "Passover" is in reference to the angel of death who passed over and spared the first-born of Israel�s children if the doorway to the house was painted with blood.
Several symbolic foods were eaten; Jesus took two of them, the wine and matzo and transformed them into what we now call Communion. Because of His role in our salvation, I Cor 5:7-8 calls Jesus our "Passover Lamb", who like the lamb in Egypt, was slain to save us from death.
II. CONFIRMING A COVENANT - THE BLOOD
The terms of Biblical covenants were always confirmed with a sacrifice. Noah and Abraham didn�t go out and hire a lawyer. They didn�t draft a document to sign or fill in a form.
The Bible says that covenants were "cut". In the Army we say that personnel clerks will "cut" a set of orders, and in finance we say we�ll cut you a check (a check is a paper covenant for cash). But in Bible days the word literally meant to cut.
God was saying, in effect, "Do you mean business? Are you sincere? Is this covenant really important to you? Then take your best lamb and kill it. Put it on an altar and cut it into pieces." Covenants with God are always sealed or confirmed with a blood sacrifice. Through sacrifice we�re forgiven. God doesn�t ignore or overlook sin. By His own law it MUST be punished or paid for. And since God is just, the payment for every sin must be satisfied.
Sin exacts a cost, a payment: Romans 6:23 defines that payment saying, �The wages of sin is death�.
Death in Hebrew though is separation just as life is the joining or bringing together of things. Physical life brings our spirit together with our body and physical death separates them. Scripture defines two births and two deaths, one physical and the other spiritual. Like physical birth, spiritual birth (being born again as Jesus put it) happens when our spirit comes together with God Who is Spirit and spiritual death, the condition we are all born into, is separation of our spirit from God by sin.
Before barcodes and electronic checkout devices, every item in most stores had a price tag that clearly told the cost. Some of us remember those days.
Sin, in God�s eyes, carries a clear price tag-punishment. And regarding this punishment or payment, God gives every one of us a choice; we can take the punishment and pay for our sins ourselves, or we can accept a substitute He provided for us.
In the Old Testament, people would confess their sin, admit their guilt, and then an animal would take their place in death on the altar. It was usually a lamb. The animal was a substitute. The one presenting the sacrificial offering was saying, "What�s about to happen to this animal is what should be happening to me."
The sacrifice fulfilled God�s requirement in Genesis 8:21 that �without the shedding of blood there can be no remission (or payment) of sin�. The way of forgiveness through animal sacrifice pointed toward the sacrifice of Christ.
III. A NEW COVENANT
In Jer 31:31-34, the prophet wrote, �Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.�
Jeremiah presented a covenant that had not yet been cut. Centuries later it was realized as Jesus lifted His cup and said, �This cup is the New Covenant in My blood.�
It is a �new� covenant because God Himself provides and is the sacrifice. Jesus ratified the terms with His own blood. Martin Luther once said, "One drop of Christ�s blood is worth more than heaven and earth."
Sacrifices under the Old Covenant were temporary; they had to be repeated each time someone sinned. Hebrews 13:20 explains that the sacrifice of Christ is an "eternal" covenant, one that doesn�t ever have to be repeated. It was a once-and-for-all event.
There�s a distinction between our practice of communion and the practices of some other groups of Christians that I think is important to notice. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican and Episcopal Christians call this a sacrament instead of an ordinance. They believe that as the priest blesses the elements something mystical happens and they either literally and physically or at least spiritually become the body and blood of Jesus and as a result, every time they share this meal they are repeating or reenacting Jesus� sacrifice. In other words, every week at mass Jesus is crucified again, sacrificed again for their sins.
We believe Jesus commanded or ordered us to share this meal to remember His death, not to repeat it.
Rom 6:10 says, �the death that He died, He died to sin once for all�
Heb 7:26-28 tells us that, �such a High Priest (meaning Jesus) was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.�
And Heb 10:1-10 says, �the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come - in the volume of the book it is written of Me - To do Your will, O God.'"
Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them"(which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.�
Just as the Passover meal is to remind the Jewish people that God delivered them out of Egypt, when we observe Communion, we�re not repeating or reenacting Christ�s sacrifice; we�re simply remembering it symbolically, with the elements Jesus Himself used. Like He said, �do this in remembrance of Me.�
This New Covenant is unconditional and undeserved. It�s a covenant of grace born from God�s mercy. We can do nothing to earn it; we simply accept and receive it by faith.
We all disappoint the Lord often, but He doesn�t disown us; we�re covered, paid for, under the terms of this New Covenant. It�s a promise to us that He will never break.
The need for a second covenant implies that the first covenant was faulty and the second makes the first obsolete. The Old covenant sealed by the blood of animals served its purpose but the new covenant sealed by Jesus� blood is far superior.
The book of Hebrews explains that there is no point in returning to the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant.
�Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.� (Heb 9:11-15)
Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the New Covenant was put into action at Jesus� death. His death marks the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the former covenant.
When we trust Christ, we�re covered by this new, eternal covenant and become heirs of an eternal inheritance.
IV. ACCEPTANCE OF THE COVENANT
How do we show God that we accept His covenant?
In Bible days, after 2 people sealed an agreement or contract, they would sit down together and share a meal. There�s something about eating together that binds people. When we take the Bread and Cup at the Lord�s Table, we are publicly saying that we accept the terms of this New Covenant.
And the terms of this Covenant are:
1. We are sinners; we�re guilty before God.
2. We deserve punishment.
3. Christ our Substitute took our punishment; His blood was shed for us upon the cross.
4. If we accept His sacrifice for us, then His blood "covers" our sins.
5. We�re forgiven on the basis of Christ�s sacrifice.
6. God then writes His Law on our hearts and enables us to live for Him.
The Bread and Cup are signs of the New Covenant - they point to the reality of the sacrifice of our Savior. Jesus isn�t talking about the cup itself, but what the cup contains.
You�ve heard about quests to find the "holy grail", the actual chalice or cup Christ used in the Upper Room. If it were ever found it would be of great archeological significance, but the cup doesn�t have any special powers. And there is no magic in taking Communion.
The cup we share doesn�t save; what saves is faith in what the Cup represents. After we receive Christ as our Lord, we then confirm our commitment over this holy meal.
Every time we observe the Lord�s Supper we remind ourselves of our commitment as God�s redeemed people.
Hab 1:12-13 says, �O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.�
Unlike the Old Covenant, under the New Covenant when God looks at us He�s no longer repulsed or turned away by our sins; the blood of Christ has them covered.
Our pardon is sealed, the Covenant is cut and as participants we�re guaranteed pardon from the penalty of our sins and the everlasting life by this new and everlasting Covenant!
