Sermon: This Is My Body

But this morning want to look here at Luke chapter 22 and I'm gonna read 14 through 22 though we're just gonna take one phrase out of this passage, but let me pray for us before we open God's word together.

Father, we are thankful that you are a God who speaks.

We're thankful that this morning that we have not left, been left in the darkness of clouded world that is void of helpful voices that you have spoken into this darkness.

We pray this morning that as your word is read and as it is preached that it would go forth and that it would pierce the darkness of this world, the darkness of our own hearts, cloudiness of our own minds, the waywardness of our own souls, and that we would find that we have heard from you

a strong, authoritative, clear word from you. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. Luke chapter 22 verses 14 through 22. This is the holy iner, sufficient word of God. And when the hour came, he reclined a table and the apostles with him and he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

He took a cop and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divided among yourselves for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cop after they had eaten saying, this cop that is poured out

for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table, the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he's betrayed. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

The scene is familiar to most of you, if not all of you. It takes place in what we have called the upper room in the history of Christianity. It is where Jesus chose to celebrate the last Passover with his disciples before he is led to the cross and eventually to the tomb and, and then eventually to his ascension to the right hand of the Father. It is, it is a room that is filled with all kinds of things that are going on as Jesus discourses

and speaks about his death and his upcoming bearing of the cross. As we see this beautiful scene of where John in one of the other synoptic gospels, Matthew, mark, Luke, where he has his head, uh, against Jesus's chest in the upper room and that intimate scene, of course we have this beautiful picture where Jesus will go around and he will strip himself down and he will take a towel and he will wash each of their feet as he pictures

before them, what it looks like to live in service of others for the sake of the kingdom. There are a lot of things that we could pick up from this passage, but the thing that I, I want us to especially focus on is the institution of what we call the Lord's Supper, where he takes the wine and he gives it to them where he takes the bread and he gives it for them. And he says, do this in remembrance of meme. And we could look at a lot of different facets of it.

But all I want to do this morning, and I want our focus to be very limited. I I simply want to think about together what Jesus means when he hands them the bread and he hands them the cup and he says, this is, this is my body, this is my blood. Consider that together. And then I want us to understand how we are to come to the table. And finally I want us to see the great blessings that flow from the table. But this is my body, this is my blood.

Those are shocking statements. They, they may not shock you because you've heard it so many times and it rattles around the brain. It's something that you know, but it, it is absolutely shocking. In the early church when the church was being persecuted by the Roman Empire, there were three main things that Christians were accused of and that they rumors were spread about them. The first was that they were pagans. Christians were pagans. Why were they called pagans?

Because they didn't worship the plenary of all the gods, the whole plethora of gods that are out there. They worshiped one God and then especially because they didn't buy into the cult that surrounded the emperor. And they did not worship the emperor as that came to be a cult in the Roman empire. And so they were called pagans. The second is that they were said to be incestuous. Didn't they call each other brother and sister

and didn't they give one another a holy kiss? So they were considered to be incestuous. The third is that the rumors spread that they were cannibals. 'cause you see, they would gather together and they would gather together and there was a part of their gathering together that only those who were actually Christians could be a part of. Nobody else could be part of this and it was done in secret. And what did they do in those secret gatherings?

What was rumored that they ate flesh and they drink blood or cannibals? You see, even at the, in the very early church, the the Lord's table, the Lord's Supper was at the very center of the Christian faith. It was part and parcel of the church.

It's important that you and I understand it more and more. It is what we call a sacrament. It is one of the two sacraments that the Lord Jesus gave to the church before his ascension. Two things that the church was to observe by his appointment. The first is baptism. That is the sacrament of initiation into the covenant people of God. It has his counterpart in the Old Testament of circumcision, when someone entered into the covenant people of God,

they were circumcised. When someone enters into the covenant people of God, they are baptized in the New Testament world. And as circumcision was only done once, so baptism is only done once. You only once come into the covenant people of God. The second was the Lord's Supper, which had its counterpart in the Passover. And it was something that was to be done regularly, that was to be done continually just as the Passover was celebrated annually, yearly.

So the Lord's supper was to be celebrated regularly. It is what the shorter catechism calls a holy ordinance. It's holy in that it's, it's set apart, it's distinct. It's the the meal that you and I will have later this morning. It is different from any other meal that you will enjoy in this life because it was set apart by Christ and set apart by Christ to be a means of giving you grace, of ministering to you. It's a holy ordinance.

This is my body, this is my blood given for you. Does he mean this is my body, this is my blood. What does that mean? Well, the Roman church teaches that Jesus means by that, that there is a, a physical union between Christ and the elements, a physical union between the bread and the cup and Christ. So that when a priest, and they will do this physically, they elevate the bread and they elevate the cup in the mask. When they say these words, this is my body,

this is my blood, that there's a transformation, that the bread actually becomes the body of Christ, that the cup actually becomes the blood of Christ.

The elements are transformed. Of course our senses, they tell us otherwise, when you eat the bread, it still tastes like bread. When you drink the cup, it still tastes like wine or like grape juice. There's no transformation. It still smells like it. And it would be odd in one Corinthians 11, it's still cold bread and it's still cold wine even after those words have been said over it in one Corinthians 11. But we still have to make sense of the language.

What what, what does it mean? This is, doesn't that imply that the the bread became his body? That the, the the cup, the wine became his blood. This is, this is what I want you to do. I want you to turn with me back to Genesis 17. So the very first book in the Bible,

and let me give you a little bit context before we look at a couple verses here in Genesis 17 and the context is this. And Genesis 12, you will remember that God calls Abram from the earth, the Aldis and he tells him that he is going to give him a land and he tells him that he is going to make him his descendants numerous. He is gonna make a great nation out of him and that he's going to bless all of the nations of the earth through him.

And so Abrams sets out, but you remember that in Genesis 15 that Abraham begins to doubt in his faith, it begins to waver. He begins to struggle with trusting God and this promise because he still does not have a child. He, he still does not have a descendant. So how is it that he's going to be a great nation and bless all the nations of the earth? And so though God has promised it, he says to Abraham in Genesis 15, well Abraham,

I will enter into a covenant with you. And you remember the scene where God will have Abram divide the animals and it is God that passes through those divided animals. Abraham already has the promise of God. He's already promised him these things, but God in his kindness, credible graciousness, he seals those promises to Abraham by now entering into a covenant with him or now Abraham, you not only have my promise, I've entered into a covenant with you so that it's sealed

to you that these promises are true. But then you hit Genesis 16 and Abram's faith is wobbly.

It's teetering all over the place. So much so that when Sarah comes to Abram and suggests that he sleep with her maid servant Hagar so that he gets a child because he still doesn't have a child. Abram gives in, he bears a son.

And then we get to Genesis 17.

Look at verse four. God reminds Abram this, behold my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of a multitude of generations. I promise this to you Abraham, mature. Then look at verse 10. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring. After you, every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant

between me and you. He calls circumcision a sign of the covenant between me and you. It's a sign I've given you these promises. Now I've entered into a covenant with you. And because your faith is still tottering, because it's still wavering, because it's still feeble and it's frail and it's falling all over the place, I'm going to give you the sign of the promise.

It points to something else. It points to the promises of God that we're already sealed in the covenant that we see in Genesis 15. It's a sign or as the catechism says, it's a sensible sign. The Lord's table is a sensible sign. It appeals to our, our senses.

God has promised Abra with words,

but he struggles and and here's the wonderful graciousness, kindness of God. It it's he stoops down. Have you ever seen this where you know an adult will stoop down in front of a 4-year-old and will talk with her hands and talk in an animated voice and talk in simpler words so that the 4-year-old can understand the sacraments are God's stooping down,

pressing upon us so that we understand all the more appealing to all our senses.

Why? Because we're embodied beings.

We have physical bodies.

And so he, he in his kindness, he he he comes to us and he knows the weakness of our faith and it needs to be propped up on every side. As has been said, Abraham's faith waivers, the disciple's faith is going to waver. They're all going to be Tray Christ and he knows it as he is giving them this table. Faith is often weak. And so in his kindness he gives them and he gives us until his return something we can sense that you can taste, that you can feel that

you can smell, that you can touch

and all of it bolster our faith.

The sacraments are, as Augustine wonderfully said, the visible word. There are signs that point to him, to his promises do this in remembrance of me. They are signs that point to him. They are not him. They point to him

then what about the language? This is my body, this is my blood. Well, did you notice a language in Genesis 17? He says this, this is my covenant, which you shall keep circumcision. What? Circumcision isn't the covenant, it's a sign of the covenant. And he goes on to say that the sign of the covenant that I give you is circumcision, but he just said, my covenant with you is circumcision. So what's happening? This is my

body, this is my blood. It's what we call sacramental language. There's such a close relationship between the sign and the things signified that they can be interchanged for one another. This Is my Covenant circumcision. This is the sign of the covenant circumcision. This is my body. It's not your body. Uh, but it's a sign of my body. This is my blood. It's what we call in English, a autonomy where one thing can stand for the other.

We do this all the time in our language. If I said to you this morning, I said the White House said this morning, none of you are thinking there is a house that has a big smile on its face with a tongue wagging and teeth hanging out. Nobody pictures that. You know what I'm talking about. The president of the United States or his administration has said this this morning. There's such a close relationship between the thing

and the thing it signifies. We see this Throughout The scriptures. Jesus will say, I am the door and yet None of us are looking for a brass doorknob on him. Paul will Say in one Corinthians 10 that Jesus is the rock that was in the wilderness, but we don't expect him to be granite or sandstone. There's such a close relationship between the sign and The thing that it signifies that one can be substituted for the other.

This is my body And as we see in the other synoptic gospels, this is my blood. There's a sign pointing to the person of Christ and all the promises in the person of Christ. Now having said that, there are some in the history of the church that have gone to the other extreme and they say, well, it's, it's true that The, the bread doesn't become the body of Christ. The blood doesn't become, the blood of the cup, doesn't become the blood of Christ. It's a sign

And it's just barely a sign. It's just only a sign that also is not true.

This is my body, this is my blood. Paul points Out in Romans four 11 that the sacraments are, what he says are, are signs And seals. That is they are not only signs that point to things, they are seals that, that have an effect. They, they stamp Upon the soul thing Like when you would seal a parchment paper in the ancient world and you would roll it up and you would melt Mack wax on it and then you would, you would seal it,

it would seal impress upon it. So the sacraments are not only signs as you're speaking about a circumcision there in Romans four, all the sacraments are not only signs, they are also seals. They, they impress upon, they actually communicate something and that's grace. In fact, you see that it is not just a bear sign because there are also cursings that come with the sacraments. If you think about one Corinthians 11 or opposed writing to the church there in Corinth, he says

that some have come to the table and he says they have come unworthily to the table and he says, because they've come unworthy, they fallen asleep, they've actually died. Why? Because if they had come in faith, they would've received blessing, but they came not believing. And so it was actually a curses.

It's not just a bare sign,

this is my body, this is my blood. Martin Luther understood that they must be more than mere signs, but also understood that it isn't a, a transformation of the elements into the physical body and blood of Christ. And, and he kept returning back to these, this statement here, this is my body, this is my blood. And he's trying to make sense of it. And so he said, it must be that Christ is somehow locally present is in some way physically present,

but it's not that the elements are transformed. Rather it's that he is in and with and under and around the elements. He is locally present in the same way that magnetism is present in a magnet. He's there locally. Now here's the issue with that. Where is Christ? Where is he bodily at the right hand of the father?

Now Luther's no dummy, he understands this. And so he's wrestling with how is Christ locally present? How is he locally present at first Lutheran in Lansing and at our savior Lutheran in Tokyo and that, uh, blessed savior in Timbuktu, how is he locally present in all of those different places if he's at the right hand of the father? Oh, so Luther like way too many theologians decides to make up a doctrine. He called the ubiquity of Christ.

He said, look, Christ is two natures in one person. He is truly God and he is truly man. And it must be for him to be locally present in all of these different places. It must be that he has to somehow translate some of those attributes of his divinity to his humanity. If he's two natures in one person, you know his divinity is everywhere. He's present everywhere. He's omnipresent everywhere as a spirit. But if he's going to be locally present, it must be

that his attributes, some of his attributes of his deity are communicated to his humanity so that he can be everywhere locally, physically present,

but that throws a lot of shade upon the person of Christ. We need a Christ who is truly God, truly man in one person, not some kind of hybrid

that confuses it. It makes it much more complex than it needs to be. It is much simpler than that. There's a much more straightforward answer than inventing a whole new doctrine. What does he mean? That this is my body, this is my blood. If it's not transformed, if it's not the bare sign, if it's not that he's locally present in some kind of physical way, how is it that this is my body and this is my blood? Well, he is present. He's truly present.

He is so spiritually in and with us at the table.

He's truly present by the work and by virtue of our union with the spirit, we can truly say that we feast upon Christ at the table. We, we don't, as it's said, chew upon him with our teeth. We feast upon him with our hearts by faith. He's with us.

Again, the table is a sign but is a sign with substance. It it, it, it seals to our senses, to our persons, the the grace of Christ. And again, it is a sign that the table does not give us something different than what we receive in the word the promises of God from his word. It's not different from this. It's the same promises, the same Christ, the same grace.

It always concerns me. People begin to elevate the table above the word.

You see, the word governs the table.

The word isn't necessary and essential.

You can't have the table without the word, but you can have the word without the table

because the table makes no sense apart from the word it's but a sign of the promises you hear.

Yet having said that, it does not mean that the table is trivial, that it's unimportant. It's a, it's a great gift. It's a wonderful gift from a very kind and gracious God to help courage. You and I, one of the greatest, Robert Bruce a Presbyterian in the 16th century preached a famous sermon series on the Lord's supper and he once said something along these lines, he said, we do not get a better Christ in the sacraments than we do

in the word, but we do get Christ better. That is we receive the grace of Christ with all of our senses. The this is my body, this is my blood. We, we, we, we see it, we we touch it, we feel it, we smell it, we taste it. It's meant to to get your whole person involved and receiving the grace of Christ.

This is my body, this is my blood. Bruce said it like this. He said, we get a better grip of Christ now for by the sacrament. My faith is nourished the bounds of my soul enlarged and so where I had but a little grip of Christ before as it were between my finger and my thumb. Now I get him in my whole hand,

whole grip of him

with all my senses. He, he signifies to us and he, he seals to us inflaming all of our different senses. This, this Christ is mine, this grace is mine. Seals it impresses it upon us.

How are we to come to the table? Well first means we must come as a believer.

If Christ's human nature is in heaven, how do we receive him this, this one Christ in all of his benefits. How is the distance between heaven and earth traversed? How? How do you get that which is there?

It can only happen by faith, by the spirit working. It's by faith that we enjoy union with Christ is by faith that the spirit lifts us up and and brings Christ down and that we truly receive the body and blood of Christ. It's always the work Of the spirit. It's not simply by doing the Lord's table that people Receive grace. It's not the action. The Spirit has to tend to it and he works by Faith To paraphrase Calvin, unless the spirit shows us

that in the sacrament God is speaking to us, softening the stubbornness of our hearts, moving our affection, stirring our souls, the Lord's table Accomplishes nothing more than our minds, than the in our minds, in the splendor of the sun shining upon blind eyes Accomplishes nothing. Robert Bruce Said it this way, he Said, it's like someone singing a tune in the deaf man's ears.

The tune's there, they can scream it in the deaf man's ears, but it accomplishes nothing. And as Bruce points out, it's not the distance of a thing. It's not the Distance of a thing that makes it present or Absent, but rather it's the perception of the thing. Can you perceive it? Can you apprehend it?

You can sing that tune all day long in that deaf man's ears and he never perceives it. You can be right up against his ear and he never perceives it.

Christ, it's seems so far away. He is bodily in heaven. He is so distant

for those who perceive there is nothing more near

he's near to me than anybody in this room.

He's near to me than my own heart, to my own mind as I perceive him.

That only happens as a spirit works on us so that we perceive Christ. We perceive Christ inwardly, not outwardly.

Thus we come as believers to the table.

One Corinthians 11. Paul makes it so very clear when he says, we must discern the body of the Lord. That is we must know what we are taking And you can only know that by faith. This is why pedo communion or giving the bread and the cup to small children is

people think they're giving blessing. It's not blessing when it's not received in faith. It's just the opposite. You, you have to be able to discern and you can only discern by faith.

We come as believers.

Second, we come as believers who have committed themselves to the visible church. This is why I'm committed as a PCA pastor and required by our book of church order to to say when I do the table that you must be a communion member or a member of a Bible believing church. Why? Because Christ has chosen to intimately connect the word, the sacraments and the governance of his church. The word governs the table and the elders govern the congregation

that comes to the table. And I wish I had more time this morning to flesh all of that out, but it is part of the blessing of the Lord. These this is how he is chosen, though he is there, he ministers his grace to us here and the primary ways he does so is by the word and sacraments and prayer. And as he governs over us with these elders that are to keep watch over our souls, he speaks to us, he feeds us and then he cares for us watches over us with these men.

It's a safeguard again, a kindness of God. We come as believers who have committed themselves to the visible church and third, we come prepared. Paul says in one Corinthians 1 28, let a person examine himself then and so eat the bread and drink the cup. Notice that in the gospel counts. Jesus dismisses Judas. He leaves well before they are partaking of the cup and the bread because he has no part in it. We come as believers who want to have more of Christ.

We come to Christ and we want more and more of Christ. And so you notice that Paul's instruction is that we are to examine ourselves. He doesn't say that I'm to examine you or that we're to examine the person on the other side of the room. No, no. He wants you and I when we come to the table to be prepared in this way that we're seeking our own. We're sifting through our own consciences. We're weighing our own hearts.

We are testing our own spirits. Say, do I actually believe in Jesus and do I want more of Jesus?

He gives us more and more when we come to the table and that's what I wanna close with this morning is some of the great benefits as we come to the table. First is this, you receive ceiling, the ceiling of your salvation. You receiving receive ceiling of your salvation. When we come to the table, there's actually grace that is given when you come to it in faith and as the spirit works, he He's stamping upon your soul.

It's not just a bear sign that points and says, look, Christ died for sinners. Now it seals. It's not just that Christ died for sinners, it's sealing to me. Christ died for this sinner.

It's a sign that that Christ's blood was shed for sinners, but not just that. It was shed for sinners. It seals to me his blood was shed for this sinner.

It's not just a sign that says, oh Christ died to reconcile rebels and men and women and children to God, but that I am reconciled to God.

It seals to the Christian their salvation, which leads to the second receive affirmation of your acceptance. Affirmation of your acceptance.

It gives us these very tangible things. Bread I I hold it in my hands a cup. I feel it. I can taste it. It tickles my taste buds and I can feel it go down my gullet. Whatever a gullet is, it goes into my body and it's a tangible way by which he's saying to bodily beams,

look, my grace is just as real. You have peace with me that is just as real.

You are just as accepted. You're pulling up a chair at my table without fear of condemnation. You have peace here yous with people that you have peace with. You're invited into homes of people that actually have an interest in you.

You're accepted here. In fact, the grace that is yours is even more real than the elements you hold.

Third, you receive encouragement for endurance.

Encouragement for endurance. Listen, it is not easy to be a Christian in this world.

Any Christian that tells you that it's easy to be a Christian is either lying or ignorant. It's not easy. It's not easy when you have the entire world, this fallen world that is set against you, where the voices of the world are telling you, do not believe that which you have said that you believe in when you have an adversary that is prowling around like a lion looking to devour you when you have to deal with the sins of other people

and the way that they affect you, and worst of all to deal with your own sin,

know the blackness of your own heart.

Doubt grips and faith waivers says you doubt the need. You're struggling the drink.

Taste my grace.

And you watch these last couple of weeks as all these Olympics are going on, and I always think about the marathon and those marathon runners and oh my goodness, how is it that they, they run so far, not they just give up.

They can keep running because they know there's a finish line. And then you watch them as they're running the course and they're running through the streets and there will be different members of their team and their coach there that is standing along the sides and will reach out with that glass of water and they will take it and they'll down it and they'll keep going.

He, he just gives a little nourishment along the way,

just a little bit of encouragement. They look, ah, my grace is sufficient. You keep going. There's actually a finish line to this thing.

Drink, eat, keep going.

It's fascinating to me that Jesus in the discourse in the upper room, that he will say that he will not drink from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Here's the Lord of lords and the king of kings and he limits himself. Isn't that fascinating? He's triumphed over everything and he limits himself. Why? I'm not gonna drink until the kingdom of God has come. Why? So that you know that I'm coming back. There's a finish line. He's drinking again.

There's a finish line

just giving you encouragement in the journey. You keep drinking. I'm not drinking. You keep drinking. I'm not drinking. Be reminded I'm coming back.

Finally, it's fuel for your faith. It's fuel for your faith.

Best of us in this room are simply wimps among wimps.

The most mature person of faith in this room is just a little more solid weakness than all the rest of the weakness in this room.

The best of Christians doubt

you say, I don't know that I doubt. Really. Did you sin today? You did. That's doubt.

Abram doubted. The disciples will doubt every Christian doubts. God knows and he's gracious and he's so kind.

Doubt and faith are not, as Bruce once said, directly opposed to one another. Faith and despair are he can't have faith and despair because faith and hope are tied together that we can. And we are Christians who doubt your faith will not be perfect in this life, but it doesn't have to be perfect because your savior is, if your faith was perfect, you wouldn't continue to need a savior. Do you need one?

And and he keeps feeding you and he keeps saying, my grace is sufficient for you. And he gives you a tangible sign that he keeps feeding you and that he wants your faith to grow and grow and grow. He's nourishing you to feed your faith so that it grows so that it reaches greater heights of maturity, greater heights of maturity until that day that your faith becomes sight and you no longer need faith.

Just behold him in all of his splendor, glory,

he's saying to you and I, this is my body, this is my blood. He's just propping up your faith. Just in His kindness. Kindness and his grace. Just, just dropping up your faith. Keep believing, keep trusting.

The promises I have given you and all the blessings and salvation that are yours in me are very real. They're the most real things in the world. See it. Know it. Taste it. This is my body. This is my blood. Your mine, I'm yours.

Pray for us.

Father, we are thankful for your exceeding kindness.

We and frail people such as us, that you meet us and our weak faith and you prop it up on every side. Though you have given us your promises and that is sufficient,

and you give us that which we can handle and see and taste,

and you so care for our souls, you will nourish us until that day that our faith becomes sight.

Thank you for caring. Not only or us has lost sinners, but has pilgrims on a journey. And we look forward to the return of our Christ and when he shall drink again and we shall get drink with him. Everlastingly, we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.