Well, good morning, church let me just start this morning by just saying an incredibly big thank you from last week for all of you who jumped into giving towards our Kenya Resource Center, amazing, amazing response. That's the good news. There's also more news that we can still give this week we know the STEMI hit a lot of people this week, and we need to provide this amazing, amazing opportunity. So, be praying with your family how you guys can be involved with doing that? Well, we're going to start this morning by just a little bit of a moment of silence that today is the last day in our series on the disciples.  The disciples, I know a lot of us we've really gotten into these guys lives, we've really, man we've kind of fallen in love with who they are and what they mean to the faith in us. And every week, we've looked at an individual disciple and looked and seen how their life can point us in a direction of Christ. We've looked at each one of their lives, not all of them, but about seven of them over these last weeks. And we've looked at how their lives can kind of be transferred into our walk with Jesus can encourage us.  Well, this morning, instead of looking at a disciple, we're going to end the series a little bit different. And we're going to look at an event that affected all of these guys at one time and still affects us today. Because here's what I know about you and me.  Most of us in our lives, when we look back in our lives, there's about five to seven, maybe yours is a little more, events that have just totally shaped who you are. Probably about as much as the rest of just kind of the mundane activities of life. For me, I can kind of go back and look at a couple of them. 

I mean, the number one would be the day I was born, right? I mean, that's a pretty big day for most of us. It was dark and then it was light and there I was.  A lot of people staring at me, right?  I remember it like it was yesterday. Number two was the day that I gave my life to Jesus, that I surrender my heart to the Lord that day changed my life forever. Stepped from darkness into light. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a revival service; a Tuesday night and I mean we were a good church family. We were at church on Tuesday. And I mean, we were at a revival. I just remember God calling me. Just remember that in my life. Number three kind of day in my life was the day that my brother was killed in a car accident. I just remember my faith that day because in most of those times, either you run away from your faith or you run towards it. Well, in the grace of God, I was able to run toward my faith that day. The fourth event that shaped me was on February 14, the year 2000. We had just survived Y2K. Remember that? We just drained our bathtubs; our computers were okay. Our gold was all in the safe. I mean, whatever you did you youngsters you don't know what I'm talking about. It was a crazy deal. We all got weird about it. I didn't because I was in college.  I mean, I didn't have money anyway, so it didn't matter to me what happened? And I was like, well, okay I'll still wake up. But on February the 14th, Melissa and I that was the day that we got engaged. There was a little bit of a story to it, because we had been dating for over three years at this point. Now Melissa had gotten a little bit frustrated about this, a little bit frustrated that things weren't moving quite as fast as she thought that they needed to be moving. So in the way that only a good lady can do she proverbially drew the line in the sand, amen, and said, Hey, where is this thing going? I got an investment into this thing and I just need to know.  She didn't say that, but that's just basically how I remember the conversation. And I remembered I answered with one of what I thought was the best answer that I thought that I could come up with. And I looked her dead in the face without smiling without stopping without even thinking about it and said, well, Melissa, you have all the qualities of a girl that I want to marry.

I thought that was a good answer. She did not think that was a good answer. Well, we took a little break after that. We took a little three-day vacation in our relationship after that. But the good news is it resurrected on the third day, amen?  It came back to life on that third day and when it did come back to life, I knew that this girl was the one, I probably knew it beforehand, I was just thick headed and needed this moment because I need big moments to keep me on track. Well, anyway, a month later, we made it through that little breakup deal. I don't know it's happened and then months later on that Valentine's night, I remember we went out to dinner. I took Melissa to this cabin outside of Carrollton, we're just going to hang out for a little while, just me and her. I'd gone beforehand and made some preparations to the desert out there. Kind of got a fire ready for us in this little bitty cabin. We went out and had a nice dinner went out to this cabin, I lit the fire. We were having dessert. I mean, it was a hallmark movie. I mean, it was Hallmark, Lifetime, all at once the fire was crackling, the desert was good. We're sitting on the couch. And then all of a sudden, I put my plate onto the little table. And I got down on my knee. I reached under the couch because I was slick, had the ring already up under the couch. Because I knew this was gonna happen. I pulled it out, opened it up and I asked her to marry me that day, right there in that place. And guess what?  She said yes! She said, yes, at that moment, she put the ring on, there's like two people that clapped, that was awesome that he put the ring on her finger. And from that day forward, I want you to just go with me in this. From that day forward, our relationship changed. You see our commitment level changed. When Melissa put the ring on her finger, the ring of promise, when she placed it on her finger. From that point on, we looked to the day that we would get married. And listen, we got married. I know it's a surprise. But we did. And this is our 20th year as of January, she still loves me. I don't know why. And catch this. We've never broken up since. Now at other times, she's been mad at me a lot, but we've never broken up, our relationship changed. From the moment the ring went on the finger from the moment we said I do. These two moments changed us. 

Listen, we're looking at an event in Scripture this morning that changed the disciples. We're going to look this morning at the last Passover that they celebrated with Jesus and it moved to become the first Lord's Supper. And in some ways go with me on this, it was like a moment of promise that was leading to a Marriage Supper one day in eternity.  This morning, we're going to watch the disciples celebrate this moment together. We as a church are going to celebrate this moment together, we're going to do like they did. We're going to worship on the backside of this thing. But I got to start with a little bit of a warning. Because we've danced all over this scripture all through the disciple’s kind of this this whole series that we've never spent time looking at exactly what this moment looks like. Now, I know a lot of you are good church people. You've been doing the Lord's Supper your whole life.  You feel like you got a handle on it. But please don't let familiarity with the story breed contempt this morning. Don't just check out and play Angry Birds for these next 15 to 75 minutes, all right?   Here's where we're going. All right, here's where we're going. I want us to feel this morning, this moment through the disciple’s eyes. Let's get into the text Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 is where we're going this morning. We're going to bounce all over the place though. I'm going to make some application at the end. Mark 14:12 and I'm just gonna walk you through why this was such a big moment. I'm going to get a little nerded out for a few minutes, so bear with me.  "On the first day of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus's disciples asked him, where do you want us to go and made preparations for you to eat the Passover? Now pause right there. Because you've got to remember that this is Holy Week. This is the way Jesus is pointing towards the cross. He knows it's coming. The disciples have been let into the fact that this is coming. But then there's a lot of churchy words in this couple of sentences here that I need to tell you because you're not Jewish, most of you. All right? And you probably kind of know maybe not know about what it is. This is the third Passover that the disciples would have celebrated with Jesus while walking with Jesus. And it's got a couple of words. The first one is kind of this idea of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread. Now we don't really get this because we're not Jewish, but it was basically a holiday of seven days that the Jews were not allowed to have any yeast or any leaven in their home to look back towards that time that God delivered them out of Egypt. It was a memory maker for them. It was kind of a moment that they looked back and said from the 14th to the 21st day of Nissan, I'm not talking about the car, the month, you are not to have any impurity in your home of yeast.  That's what the Festival of the Unleavened Bread was.  The second term in this, Exodus 12, if you want to go read it later. The second one is the Passover lamb. Or maybe if you want to get really smart with your friends, you can say the Paschal lamb. Now, this was a moment in Egypt, that the Israelites, God told them to take a lamb to slay this lamb, and on the last of the plagues that God sent to change Pharaoh's heart was the plague of death. And the only way that they would escape this death was by securing a lamb, by slaying lamb and putting blood on the doorposts and down the sides of their door so that the death angel, third word would pass over them.  

It would pass over them and only strike those catch this that did not have the covering of the sacrificial lamb’s blood on their life. Now, there's some incredible foreshadowing in this. There are some incredible moments that we as Christ followers are looking at this going, wait a minute, the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross is the passing over of me, and my sins, covering my sins, pointing towards eternity. Well, this was God setting up the future of where Jesus would step in. This is what this festival was for. And listen, this festival, Exodus 12, you can read it all on your own, was celebrating the idea that the Israelites for 450 years had been in slavery in Egypt, but God delivered them out of Egypt by using this moment. So for 1450 years, the Israelites celebrated every single year, the Passover, Festival of Unleavened Bread, you can marry them in your minds, it's okay. It doesn't matter. But they celebrated this feast of God delivering them, God providing the lamb, God passing over them. For 1400 years, God laid out a specific plan of exactly what they were supposed to do. Now, look, you didn't mess with this moment. You didn't mess with the Passover. It was ordained by God. It was commanded by God; it was given by God. And it was the time that you were to celebrate what God did in your life. You didn't mess with this moment, unless, of course, you are the Lamb of God. All right?   Keep reading the story, verse 13, it says this. "So, he sent two of his disciples, telling them, go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.  Follow him.  Say to the owner of the house, he enters, the teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?  He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready.  Make preparations for us there."  Now, there's two disciples that Jesus sends out on this task, Peter and John, we see that in the book of Luke, he tells us who they are. But they go into the city and then they find this guy that's carrying a water jar. Now, for us, that's like, okay, that's cool. I can do that. But how do I know which guy is it that's carrying the water jar? Well, it's an easy answer in Jewish times, because it would have been the only guy carrying a water jar because guys didn't carry water jars. That was not a male's role during this time. So, we're beginning to see something take place here that maybe you've just glossed over.  Jesus had already made plans as to how he was going to tip off the disciples of what to do to make preparations.  It says go to watch for this guy carrying a water jar, follow him to this house and say to the master of the house.  Now, if you're anything like me, you start asking questions of Scripture, right? Well, who's the master of the house? Glad you asked. Because most scholars believe this is this is Augustine and Oregon and Hierapolis. Most scholars believe the owner of the house is none other than John Mark. It's none other than Mark that's writing this scripture for us. In fact, that house that upper room became the moment they had the Passover became the moment that they celebrated after Jesus's death together. And it actually became kind of a hub of ministry in the book of Acts and became one of the first churches in Jerusalem that you can, chances are, still go visit today. So, Mark is telling the story about this time that Jesus had worked out this clandestine plan of how He was going to have the Passover with His disciples. Now there's something else to notice here. And that is that Jesus had already made these preparations. I don't know if you've ever noticed this before. But Jesus had gone ahead of His disciples and made plans for them and here's what Jesus asked them to do. I just want you to walk into the plans that I've already made for you. Now, a little side note here. That's a great way to operate in life, isn't it? A great way to operate in life is what Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God's masterpiece, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things, He planned for us long ago." We're seeing Jesus do this masterfully right here. Now, why did he do that? 

Well, I mean, first of all, if you just think about it, he couldn't let Judas in on the plan, because Judas and all those religious leaders were hot on Jesus's trail, to take Him to come and have their way and take Him to the cross. Jesus knew that He needed this time with the disciples and his sovereignty. He knew that He wanted this moment.  He also knew that He couldn't let the religious leaders know and He knew that He just needed to make this moment happen.  Look at verse 16.  "The disciples left, they went into the city, and they found things just as Jesus had told them."  There's a promise you can always trust. You're always gonna find things that Jesus promises you. So they prepared the Passover.  When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve."  I can just see Him walking down the road, like, Hey, we're here, what do we do?  "While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me."  I want you to skip down to verse 22. Because we covered those other verses when we looked at Judas. Verse 22, "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, take it; this is my body." Now, if you're an underliner, that's your words right there. Because those six words have never been spoken in history. Those six words had never been used as a part of a 1400 year plus moment that had never been used. This one statement of six words changed a tradition that God has laid out for all of his people to celebrate.  Let me tell you what I mean, in this, let me get a little nerded out with you just for a minute, because at this time in history, the Jews would have celebrated this Passover meal exactly the same way, every single year.  Every single one of us, some little kid in the house, the youngest kid would have looked at the father and said, Father, what is different about tonight, and then he would have busted out into a sermon about what God's faithfulness looks like.  They would have done this exactly the same way. This was a leisurely meal. When we read it in Scripture, we read it as like a two-sentence kind of we pulled through the McDonald's drive thru, but this was like a five-hour ordeal where they would eat a little bit, and they would pray a little bit, and they would use a psalm and sing a little bit, they would eat a little bit more, they would pray a little bit more and this was a long, long deal. So, Jesus sends His disciples in to Jerusalem to make preparations for this meal. This meal was a beautiful meal, has tons of symbolism, brings them back to the memory of what God had done. Because we people, we need memories, and we need mile markers and we need moments in our lives of promise, right? So, they would have gone and gotten the lamb that Exodus 12 tells us about.  Now they would have secured the lamb on Monday, the Lamb would have lived amongst them. I love the symbolism from Monday until Thursday, the spotless one year old lamb would have lived with them in their home to represent the time Christ was with us.  On Thursday, they would have taken the unblemished, spotless lamb, they would have walked it to the temple, and it would have been killed at the temple, it would have been slayed at the temple, a portion of its blood would have been poured onto the altar of the temple to represent the blood that atones or is the forgiveness for our sins. 

Now, Josephus, the historian estimates that about 250,000 lambs per year were slain at three o'clock till dusk on this one day.  They would have done this, they would have walked, they would have slain the lamb, they would have brought the whole lamb back with them to the house.  I'm telling you the preparations is important. They would have roasted the whole lamb, no broken bones. All right?  No broken bones, roasted the whole lamb, put it onto the table, and the lamb represented the protection that God had given them from the last plague of death. And that's not where the preparation stop. I'm telling you there's a lot of prep.  They would have gone and secured some unleavened bread. Maybe they made it, maybe they buy it, but it was just represented the fact that God called them out of Egypt too fast to have the bread rise. So, this moment, the only time they ate unleavened bread was at the moment they were celebrating this moment of God's deliverance.  They would have gone and prepared a bowl of salt water, it's kind of weird to us. But to them the bowl of salt water they would have put on the Passover table just represented the tears that they shed in the bitterness of how they lived in bondage in Egypt. But it also represented God's splitting the Red Sea, and God delivering them out and they would have taken this bowl and dipped these bitter herbs.  They would have prepared these bitter herbs of chickory and horseradish and endive and others.  They just represented, they're terrible to eat. If you've ever been in a Seder supper with some Jewish people, you got to just chew these things down.  it's terrible. But it represents this idea when you dip them into the salt water of how God delivered them out of the bitterness of their situation.  They would have had the bitter herbs on the table.  They would have also had this paste, this weird paste, it looks almost like peanut butter. It's called charoset. It was made from apples and dates and pomegranates and it was in this consistency of peanut butter. And it looks literally like the bricks that their forefathers had made in Egypt for the Pharaoh and the toil that he put them under.  It was a representation; it would have had a cinnamon straw sticking out of the top.  It's so weird to us. But it just represented the straw they put into these bricks. And all of this was on the table, bringing them back to this moment, bring them back to this time. And then they would have had these cups of wine. They call them the cups of promise, the cups of hope. And they had different meanings, there was four of them. But we're only going to get to the third one. The first one was just this cup of promises all from Exodus 6.  If you want to go read it, it would have been the promise that God was delivering them out of the work burdens of Egypt and how God did that. The second cup was the cup of bondage that God was delivering them out of bondage. So what they would have done is the master of the house, the adult of the house would have passed them. And every time somebody in this circle would have drank this cup, it would have been a moment that they were telling God and themselves and their families that they were accepting this promise, that they were looking for the next promise. But at the third cup, the third cup is the cup of redemption. I want you to really pay attention to this cup, because the cup of redemption stood for the idea that God redeemed his people out of bondage and set them free and to promise. You see what's at the third cup that we check in at Matthew 14:22. You see we don't read this right we read it their 21st century eyes.  We're like pull up to that drive thru, gimme them elements and let me get out the door. But at the third cup, Jesus says, Take this. This is my body. Take this. This is my blood. And when did He do it?  With the cup of redemption. Why? Because that's what Jesus has done for us. And what is the third cup telling us?  Jesus is taking the focus off of solely looking backwards at an Israeli and an Egyptian deliverance, and He's placing it on the deliverance for all mankind. That's what He's doing right here. 

First time in history He’s doing it.  Why?  Because we're no longer looking at a yearly sacrificial lamb that is slayed, we are looking at one lamb that is slayed for all mankind. We're no longer looking at the blood on the doorposts. We're looking at the blood on the cross. We're no longer having to do this year after year after year. What are we doing? We are looking at what the 1 Peter 1:19 says, "the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed these last times for your sake."  But Hebrews 10:12 it says but our high priests offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for our sins, good for all time. And then he sat down at the place of honor God's right hand. This is the third cup.  The third cup, five-hour meal we get it in two verses. But you got to feel the weight, because Jesus knew what was coming. He knew He was about to be betrayed; He knew He was going to the cross. He knew that he could stop this at any moment. But He knew these little lambs weren't going to do it for all time it was Him. The Lamb of God.  The Lamb of God, what did he say? This is my body, that had never been said before. Keep going with the story chapter 14:22, let me read it again. "While they were eating, Jesus took the bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, Take it; this is my body. Then He took the cup." Here it comes the third one, the cup of promise.   The cup of redemption.  "Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it."  You know what that means? They're all receiving the promise. They're all celebrating the promise. They're all saying yes to the engagement. Look at what He said in verse 24, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, He said to them.  Truly, I tell you, I will not drink again, from the fruit of the vine until that day, I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives."  What are we seeing, we are seeing for the first time in history, God, Jesus, give them a new promise of redemption? That's what the word covenant means. It's just a big Bible word that just means promise.  It's a new promise that is not built on works that is not built on little lambs but is built on the hope and the love of the big lamb, Jesus, broken body, and blood. Now, look, I can't do the story justice in 50 to 60 minutes, I just can't. But what I can do is I can give you a couple truths that I hope God can stir in your hearts this week, that the Lord's Supper gives us this moment of promise that they're having.  Number one is this. The Lord's Supper teaches us that remembrance, shapes our current trajectory. What does that mean? That means when I'm looking back at what God has done for me, it shapes where God is taking me, it can shape the decisions that I make, as I'm going forward, because I'm remembering what God has done in my life. And here's what I know about myself. And some of you the longer I'm a Christian, the longer I've walked with Jesus, the more I need God to remind me exactly what He has done for me. That's what this moment is about, that we're about to have. 

I love Luke's account and Luke 22:7. Look what Luke says.  It's what we have engraved on every old school communion table.  "And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you;" catch this, "do this in remembrance of Me."  You see, when we truly remember exactly what God has done for us, it always points us in a direction that truly honors God. That's what the Lord's Supper is about. It's remembering that Jesus took my place. Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, He has removed our transgressions from us." When we realize exactly what God has done for us it changes us. Colossians 1:13, "For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves," watch this "in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."  This is what the Lord's Supper does. It enables us to look back and re account for what course we're walking on. But it doesn't stop there. The Lord's Supper teaches us number two, that proclaiming Jesus's death gives us hope. It gives us hope.  You see we look back and it reshapes our direction. But then we were proclaimed Jesus's death, it also gives us an incredible hope. Now this is kind of hard to understand. Because it's really hard to celebrate death. I mean, I'm not really sure how many of you get into the death thing, but probably not many of you. But it's okay to celebrate Jesus's death. I know it's counterintuitive, but we can celebrate Jesus's death. Why? Number one, because He didn't stay dead. He didn't stay that way. So, we can celebrate it. Number two, because He's now returned to His rightful place at the right hand of God interceding for you and me. The only way that could have happened is if He would have died, gone back to heaven. Number three, His death was for you. It wasn't for Him. It was for you, we can celebrate that. And number four, we can celebrate it because that was the only way to get out of this old system of hope and move into this old system of love. See, that's what Jesus did. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For God made Christ who had never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."  Because the Lamb has cleansed you. It's the only blood that makes you white as snow. Only blood we can celebrate His death. I love this idea because we don't look back onto a door post that is stained. We look back onto a cross that is stained for you and for me, it gives us hope. The third thing the Lord's Supper teaches us is that self-examination pushes us to walk towards Jesus.

You see, self-examination; when I am really honest with myself which side note, is not very often, because we're really good at faking it, especially to ourselves. self-examination, the Lord's Supper teaches me when I take a moment and look introspectively at who I am, it points me to walk towards Jesus, we kind of glossed over it today. But this is the moment that when Jesus looked at his disciples and was like, hey, what of you are going to betray me? What did it force the disciples to do? Mark 14:18, "While they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, truly one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me, they were saddened, and one by one, they said, surely you don't mean me?"  You know what that really means? They're actually looking at themselves at this point, because of what Jesus had just said to them going, I don't want to be that.  I don't want to do that. I don't want to fall into that. I need to look inside of myself. This is what communion is about. This is what the Lord's Supper is about. This is what the Passover was about. But now this time that we celebrate, it's about.  But look, even Paul spoken to this and gives us a warning. 1 Corinthians 11:27, Paul says, "So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. Now, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the church of Corinth, we don't have time to talk about but catch this next verse, verse 28.   "Everyone ought to examine themselves, before they eat, of the bread, and drink of the cup.  See, when we hold the cup, and we hold the bread in our hands, what we're doing is we're allowing that to examine us, in light of what He has done for us, and points us in a direction. See, the Lord's Supper is a moment for all of us to have the spiritual check in. It teaches us that.  Here's number four. The number four thing that the Lord's Supper teaches us is that anticipating eternity shapes our earthly decisions. Anticipating eternity shapes, our earthly decisions, Matt, what do you mean? What do you mean by that?  I want you to watch. All right?  I know we've said it a few times, because what did Jesus do? Jesus looked back on the past, right? celebrating the deliverance out of Egypt. He looked at the present, right? He's looking at the present going, Hey, this is my body, it's gonna be broken for you. It's gonna be shed for you in like 24 hours from the time that we're having this meal this was happening. But then also Jesus points to the future. He points to the future and want you to see it, don't miss it. 

Verse 25 Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day, when I drink it new in the kingdom of heaven." What is Jesus doing? Jesus is not only looking back, but also not only looking present, but Jesus is also looking to the future. At the day when his kingdom comes, at the day when He returns at the day when all believers are at the Revelation 19, the supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Alright, catch this, don't miss this revelation 19. You can read it later, where Jesus with His bride who's His bride?  It's the church, right?  Where we sit down with Jesus, and we celebrate this meal that we're about to have this moment that we're about to have with the one who's provided it for us and no longer will it be a promise that we have to have faith in, it will be a reality that we live the rest of our days in.  The rest of time in and I love this is where Jesus says, at that supper of the Lamb, the marriage feast of the Lamb, we will do this together, let it shape your life. Speaking of marriage, so when I gave Melissa the ring, she accepted. She put the ring on her finger, and she's worn it ever since the day we got married. I've worn mine ever since. But if you were Jewish, and you are getting engaged, things went a little bit different for you. Let me just describe it for you for a moment. The guy would have walked to the future bride’s house with his father, they would have got to the gate of the house they would have knocked on the gate.  The father and the bride to be would have come out into the courtyard, they would have negotiated what is called a bride price at that point or a dowry and some societies.  So they would have gone back and forth and the groom would have put a value, it's so weird, on how much this girl is worth. They would have negotiated this price and at that moment, the father of the groom would have paid the bride price.

Now follow me with me where this is going. They would have had this moment together and then once the bride price was situated, the groom would have brought out a cup of wine a cup of promise, catch this, he would have handed over to the bride, and if she would have drank a drink of that wine, it was a momentary time where that deal was sealed.  It was promised, it was made. At that very moment, the bride would have gone back inside, the groom would have gone back to his father's house. At this moment, he would have built a room onto the side of the house for a year, maybe even two, however long it took him when the room was made, when the time was right. When the preparations were there, the groom would have got his guys together, they would have marched probably in the middle of the night, all the way back to the bride's house, when they got outside the quarters that would have blown this huge ram's horn to start the party of taking his bride home to the marriage events.  Catch this, it's so good the Lord's Supper. What is Jesus doing right here?  He's giving the cup of wine of promise to his bride, the church, Jesus is going back to the Father to prepare a place He will come back one day blow the horn, the big horn, not just this little ram's horn over this world, He will then take us to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Why? Because of the promise of redemption. That's the Lord's Supper. This is what it is, we just gloss over this so much. We just kind of read these two verses and we're like, yeah, let's hurry up and take this stale stuff. No. This is what it is. The cup seals the commitment. Looking back, looking now, looking forward, which leads to the fifth thing the Lord's Supper shows us. And that is that worship is always a response of meeting with Jesus. Always a response. Always, always the disciple’s minds were blown at this time. 

Look, ours aren't we've been reading this our whole lives. There's we're.  Look at what happened next, verse 26. "When they had sung a hymn, you can write the hymn above that, if you want, I'll show you in a minute. They went out to the Mount of Olives. What do they do? They sang a hymn of what?  They sing a hymn of worship. See, during this meal, they would have sang every Psalms from 113 all the way to 118. This moment would have been them singing the Hallel this is Psalms 118. Spend some time summarizing it this week because I knew I was going to be running over. Let me just read you my summary of Psalm 118 what these guys would have sang together and then we're gonna celebrate this meal together. This is the disciples This is Jesus. They said these words, "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 118, "He brought me out, he set me apart what can mere man do to me? God is my refuge, my defense and my strength. He is my salvation. His hand has lifted me, He has done mighty things. I will enter His gates with praise," this is what they're singing together, why the lamb is in front of them.  "For He is the stone that builders rejected. But it's become my Cornerstone.  Blessed is anyone who comes in His name, God, I will enjoy the eternal praise and I will lift You up, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever." They could sing this because of the cup of redemption in the broken body of Christ. And so, can we. Why?  Because our groom has gone to the Father and is preparing a place and he is coming back.  So, as we celebrate today, the cup of promise, broken body and the blood, remembering this moment. So, this moment as we walk into this time of the Lord supper and worship, and we got time to chill, alright, don't be going anywhere. As we celebrate this moment today, I just want this to soak into you. You see Jesus established it. The disciples confirmed it. And the early church celebrated it. And for 2000 years, believers all across this world have been having this moment because of this right here. 

So when your heart is ready during worship in a moment, it's on you.  It's on you. You'll notice there's two tabs on your cup. Makes you feel like a kindergartener opening up a High C box I know but is what we got. carefully take the top one off. You can take the body in just a second then you can take the bottom one off after that if you have trouble, it's okay. Everybody does. But I want to remind you this morning of thing.  What we're about to do is just a symbol. This is a symbol of what Christ has done. This is not his literal body and not his literal blood. It can't be, how?  The first time the disciples celebrated it, it wasn't.  Jesus walked out of that room; how can it be now? It's a symbol, of what He's done.  Awesome. Number two, this is for every single believer. If you've given your life to Christ, this is for you, in remembrance of him. Looking forward to Him, knowing what He has done for you. Look, if you have not surrendered your life to Jesus, let me just say this morning. 

I can't think of a better moment than right now. Because the Gospel is what we have talked about all morning this morning, that we were lost and dying and deserving hell, but the Lamb of God, Jesus has given His life for us. Listen, you can invite Christ into your life by saying, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I'm giving you my heart.  Come in my life and forgive me. If that's you this morning, you've never taken that step. Look, you can take that step right now. Later on, you can let us know about it, we'll flash up a next step slide in just a few minutes. But for now, I want you to know this, this is a believer’s meal. If you're not a believer, this is a family occasion. We love you, but this was for us.  I want you to spend s moment really, really, really letting God pour into you. Let me just read this, I'm gonna get out of the way for worship. 1 Corinthians 11, Paul said it like this. "For I received from the Lord when I also passed on to you, the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, he took the bread and when he had given thanks,” that’s what I want you to do. "He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you Do this in remembrance of me.  In the same way after supper He took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For whenever you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."  Lord Jesus, as we walk into this moment, that individually all over this place and in homes that we celebrate this time together. I pray there is a sweetness in looking back at what you've done. Looking at what you're doing right now, and pointing our face towards eternity Lord Jesus, where You will deliver us. It's in Your name, we pray Jesus. Amen. Enjoy your worship moments on your own. When you are done with your elements and you want to stand and worship, we're going to spend some time in this. And I'll close this up. Just a few minutes.