The Lord's Supper

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The Lord's Supper

• A Covenant Meal

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1 Corinthians 1125

• This cup is the new covenant in My blood.

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Luke 2220

• This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which
  is shed for you.

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Mark 1424

• This is My blood of the new covenant, which is
  shed for many.

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Matthew 2628

• For this is My blood of the new covenant, which
  is shed for many for the remission of sins.

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The Blood of the New Covenant

• When He says that the cup is His blood He means
  that which is in the cup symbolizes His blood.
• When He says My blood of the new covenant, or
  the new covenant in My blood, He means His
  blood is that which dedicates, ratifies or seals
  the new covenant, or makes the New Covenant
  effective.
• Before we can properly understand how His blood
  sealed the New Covenant, however, we need to
  under-stand the idea of covenant.

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What Is a Covenant?

• The word for covenant in these passages does
  not mean, an agreement between two equal
  parties, but an arrangement made by one party
  with complete authority, which the other must
  accept or reject, but cannot alter.
• The most obvious example of such an arrangement
  is a last will and testament.

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Who Sets the Terms of the Will?

• The benefactor and the beneficiary do not sit
  down together and make out the conditions of the
  will.
• The benefactor (one party) sets down the
  conditions of the will for the benefit of the
  beneficiary (another party), who can either
  accept or reject those conditions but not alter
  them.
• This is vividly portrayed in Hebrews 915-17.

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Hebrews 915-17

• 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. For where
  there is a testament, there must also of
  necessity be the death of the testator. For a
  testament is in force after men are dead, since
  it has no power at all while the testator lives.

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Who Sets the Terms of the Will?

• The benefactor and the beneficiary do not sit
  down together and make out the conditions of the
  will.
• The benefactor (one party) sets down the
  conditions of the will for the benefit of the
  beneficiary (another party), who can either
  accept or reject those conditions but not alter
  them.
• This is vividly portrayed in Hebrews 915-17.
• In this manner, His blood is the seal of the New
  Covenant in that it ratified the promises of God,
  as contained in that covenant.

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God's Last Will and Testament

• In the likeness of a will, and of His own free
  choice and grace, God offers man a saving,
  sanctifying relationship with Him through Christ,
  which man cannot change or annul, but only accept
  or reject.
• The conditions of the covenant of grace are
  belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God,
  repentance, confession of faith and baptism in
  water for the remission of sins.

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A Covenant Meal

• The Lords Supper is a memorial to the effective
  means of this covenantthe body and blood of
  Jesus Christ.
• Since this memorial involves eating and drinking,
  it is called a meal or supper.
• And since it is designed to commemorate a
  covenant, it is a covenant meal.

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Our Covenant Relationship w/God

• We must also recognize that our relationship with
  God as those redeemed by Christ is not something
  we have entered into in our own right and on our
  own terms.
• It is solely and completely made possible by the
  grace of the loving God through the merits of
  Christ, the Sin-offering.

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Ephesians 28-9

• For by grace you have been saved through faith,
  and that not of yourselves it is the gift of
  God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

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Titus 211-14

• For the grace of God that brings salvation has
  appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
  ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
  soberly, righteously, and godly in the present
  age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious
  appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
  Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might
  redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for
  Himself His own special people, zealous for good
  works.

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John 129-31

• The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him,
  and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away
  the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said,
  'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me,
  for He was before me.' I did not know Him but
  that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I
  came baptizing with water."

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John 132-36

• And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit
  descending from heaven like a dove, and He
  remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who
  sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon
  whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining
  on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy
  Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this
  is the Son of God." Again, the next day, John
  stood with two of his disciples. And looking at
  Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of
  God!"

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A Covenant Meal and a Grace Meal

• The Lords Supper can well be designated as a
  grace meal, as well as a covenant meal, since it
  is a reminder to the saint of the unmerited favor
  of God that made the covenant of grace possible.
• Every time we consume the elements - the bread
  and the cup, which symbolize the Lords body and
  blood, respectively - we show our appreciation to
  God for the countless blessings we have received
  through His wondrous grace.

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A Covenant Meal and a Grace Meal

• And since we have accepted the covenant of grace,
  the covenant in the Lords blood, we have pledged
  our-selves to obey Him in everything that His
  covenant enjoins on us.
• Thus in partaking of the Lords Supper we are
  reminded of this solemn pledge, to be incited to
  walk daily in the light as God is in the light.

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1 John 17

• But if we walk in the light as He is in the
  light, we have fellowship with one another, and
  the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
  from all sin.

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Physical Life is in the Blood

• God revealed, through His servant Moses,
• The life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev.
  1711),
• which is probably a reference to the fact that
  the blood carries oxygen to the various parts of
  the body, contributing to the proper functioning
  of each part.
• When Jesus died on the cross, He surrendered His
  physical life in the shedding of His blood,
  making it possible for us to have spiritual life
  in Him.

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Spiritual Life is in the Blood

• Thus, in partaking of the fruit of the vine,
  which signifies the blood of the new covenant,
  the faithful saint contemplates not only the
  remission of sins he has received, and is
  receiving, by virtue of that blood, but also the
  spiritual life that he receives from God after
  meeting the conditions of the covenant of grace.
• Shouldn't God's children do this as often as
  possible?
• And shouldn't they look forward to each
  opportunity to do so?