“The First Lord’s Supper” Mark 14:12-25

An Expositional Sermon
“Eating” and “drinking” are metaphors for, “looking on the Son and believing in Him for eternal life.” (John 6:40) Jesus is the bread of life. So, now, when we remember Christ’s death and resurrection in the Lord’s Supper we feed upon Christ by faith, not His rematerialized actual flesh in blood through a mystical transformation of the elements. The point isn’t the food, the point is Jesus Christ. The point is having a substitute. The point is the propitiation of God’s wrath. The point is the Hebrews 10:11-12, “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Even as we remember the Last Supper when we practice the Lord’s Supper, we aren’t re-sacrificing the body and blood of Christ. That happened one time for all time. There is no inherent power in the elements that we eat when we practice the Lord’s Supper. When you participate in the Lord’s Supper it’s not somehow contributing to your salvation from God’s wrath. No, it’s a means of remembering: 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” And when he comes again there will again be a feast. In Revelation 19:6-9 describes the final consummation of this hopeful feast in Jerusalem: “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’” The Passover feast pointed back to salvation in the tenth plague, and forward to the Jews’ hope for Christ. This Last Supper looks forward to the cross, the place where God’s wrath will pass over and where His wrath would be satisfied for His people in the blood of Jesus Christ. And now when we observe the Lord’s Supper it points back to the death of Christ for the salvation of His people, and the future hope of banqueting at the marriage supper of the Lamb with the church. Christ will bring His people to Himself. He will wipe away every tear. He will judge with perfect justice. And we will feast. This is the feast that Isaiah looked forward to in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” We will say along with the bride in Song of Solomon 4:2, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” We’ll close by singing The King of Love My Shepherd Is. This hymn is a meditation upon how Christ fulfills Psalm 23. Listen to verse 2, “Where streams of living water flow my ransomed soul He leadeth, and where the verdant  [lush and full] pastures grow, with food celestial feedeth.” Now look at verse 5, “Thou spread’st a table in my sight; Thine unction [anointing or healing] grace bestoweth; and O what transport of delight from Thy pure chalice [cup] floweth.” Jesus is our passover. He is the Lamb of God, and the Bread of Life. Hope in Him.