In 19th century Scotland it became a tradition to not take communion every week or even every quarter. They would only do it once, maybe twice a year. It would be a very special service that would gather together with very many different churches and often do it outside and it would be sometimes a weekend long communion service. And there was some real benefits of doing it that way. They often broke out into revival. There were also some liabilities to doing it that way. And one of them is the Lord's sufferers almost became too big of a deal. People began to feel like they weren't worthy to take it. And during that time there was a pastor named John Duncan who loved the Jewish people so much they called him Rabbi, Rabbi Duncan. And he was at one of these services. He had already preached his sermon and someone else was standing up to preach the bread and the wine. And so he was there and feeling the conviction of sin and wondering if he was even worthy to take it. And he saw this young girl and she was just bawling in tears. And the pastor was handing out the bread and she wouldn't take it. She was unworthy. And he went up to her, he moved out from his chair and he put his arm around her and he said, Take it lassie, take it. It's meant for sinners. It's meant for sinners. That's what the Lord's suffer is all about. That is what Jesus does for us. He takes this Passover meal and he turns it from looking into the past of when our forefathers were rescued from slavery. And he changes it to a future looking celebration of God's kingdom and his body bringing us out of our sin. And he tells us at the very heart of this meal that it is for sinners. Everything about it is for sinners. It is not for the strong, it is not for the righteous, it is not for the good. It is for the weak, and it is for the repentance. It always has been and it always will be meant for sinners. Please stand as we read this wonderful text from Luke chapter 22. At first we were just going to read verses 14 through 27. And when the hour came he reclined at the 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. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until 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 cup after they had eaten saying, this cup 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. For the Son of man goes as it has been determined but woe to that man by whom he has betrayed. And they began to question one another which of them it could be who is going to do this. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, the kings and the Gentiles exercised lordship over them and those in authority over them were called benefactors but not so with you. Rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as the one who serves. For who is greater than one who reclines at the table or the one who serves is not the one who reclines at the table but I am among you as one who serves. And he came out and went as it was his custom to the Mount of Olives. We don't stop there. Let's stop there and dig into God's word. All men are like grass and all of our glories like the flowers in the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall but not God's word. God's word stands for ever. You may be seated. The lord's supper as inaugurated by Christ always has been and always will be a meal for sinners. I want us to kind of dig into this text and as we begin to do that the things that stand out to you the most, the things that all stand out to you the most. Especially the things that would have stood out to the disciples are the things that are different. He's celebrating the Passover. He's told Peter and John to go in to Jerusalem to prepare the Passover for him and he's told them that they're going to find a room that's already ready. And you've got to think about the guy who owns this house, right? Because it's part of the Passover to open the door of your house and to welcome strangers, anyone who wants to come in and celebrate the Passover with you should be welcome. But you know they never thought anybody would knock and then this guy these these two strangers knock and says the master needs a place to do the Passover and it's like 13 guests. Anyway, poor guy, but he gives him the room and and Jesus says these words that probably won't stand out to you but I want to let him kind of weigh on you. He says I've honestly desired to eat this Passover with you. There's nothing special about that to you is there. Maybe it's a little bit precious to think that Jesus desired to eat the Passover with him but it's nothing that stands out but you say if you'd been a Jew and you lived during the time of Christ, you would have known this. You always eat the Passover with your family always. That's not even a tradition that was a command and he did not eat it with his family and he took his disciples away from their families and they had them. They weren't orphans. We know that right? James and John were sons of Zebedee and their mother had just come and asked Jesus a special favor on their behalf. They had families and Jesus took them away from their family and he constitutes them as the new family and that should be incredibly important to you. Your family are the people you eat this meal with. This is the most important relationship in your life. That is what the church is. It is your new family, your reconstituted family. A family is not made up of blood. A family is not made up of genes. A family is made up of shared experiences, values and shared dreams. That's what makes a family. That's why every time you get together with your family you talk about all the old times, right? Because it's the shared experiences. It doesn't matter if you share the genes or not ask anyone who's adopted. But matters is that you share the experience and you share the beliefs. And Jesus is saying, we are the family. I've honestly decided to eat this meal with you. And honestly, we look at him and go, you picked a bad family. That's the other thing that stands out to you about this text, right? I mean, I understand having bad people in your genetic family because you had no choice about that. But you chose these guys and you chose badly. Look at who he's offering his body and his blood to. He offers his body and blood to Judas. Satan has already gone into Judas. Judas has already decided that he's going to receive money to betray Jesus. He's going to hand Jesus over at the right time. And Judas is always our favorite one to hate, but hey, let's just be honest. The only thing that separated him from the other disciples was he's a little bit more greedy and he was smarter. He saw which way the wind was blowing. Jesus was going to lose. Jesus had already told them he was going to lose. He's going to get killed. That's obvious. I might as well make a little money off of it. I might as well try to get myself situated on the winter side. He was just being politically expedient. And Jesus gave him his body. He offered him his blood. He was giving him one last chance to repent. I know what you're going to do. Don't you wish he'd said, you're right. I'm so sorry. He wouldn't. Why? Why would Jesus offer his body and blood to Judas of all people? Because it's for sinners. He's always been meant for sinners. It's not just Judas. The apostles, his 12 best friends, we'll narrow it down. We'll cut you this out. His 11 best friends. You know what they do? They get into a fight at the original Lord's table. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we talk about this is a celebration of our union. How we're at one with each other. We're all united with Christ. Therefore we're all united with each other. We are one. This is a table for us to take in harmony. If you have anything against anyone in the room, you're supposed to go and become reconciled with them before you take it. And they got into a fight. And they got into a fight over who is the greatest. I mean it starts out when Jesus says one of these are going to betray me and they're all looking at each other going, it's probably you. I know it's not me. It's clearly you. And then somebody, probably Peter, says, it's not going to be me. He already told everybody I'm the rock upon which this church is built. I'm better than you. They literally read the text. They literally get into an argument over who is the greatest at the Lord's table. I mean that's just awful. You probably remember like very important sacred meals in your lifetime that were ruined by a fight. For some reason we got into this conversation just Saturday night or Friday night. And I remember the worst Christmas Eve ever was the Christmas Eve that was dominated by a fight because we were celebrating it on the 23rd instead of the 24th. And I was just kind of sitting there going, we're here now. Can't we just be in, I don't remember the words that were said because it's my family and in my family we don't say anything. It's just a bunch of passive aggressive dirty looks. But I remember those locks. It was ruined by the fight. They ruined the original communion. It wasn't very communal. Communicable. Communal. That's the word.
Why? Why would he offer it to them because it's meant for sinners and it always has been and he changes things. He changes the entire world because he offers us to Peter and Peter takes him aside and says, I'm never going to betray you. Peter says, you're going to betray me tonight. You're going to deny that you ever knew me. And Peter says every one of these guys abandoned you. I won't. And he's Peter Satan has asked for you. He has asked to sift you like wheat. But I pray for you. And when you return, strengthen the brothers. When Jesus does that, he's establishing a completely different method of leadership, a completely different meritocracy within the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, he says, is not going to be like the other kingdoms where you lord it over each other and where you have the benefactors who are the important people giving of their wealth to the poor people. And the poor people are expected to show them obedience and love and do things for them. He says, it's not going to be that way among you. The wealthy people are not going to be on the top. The smart people won't be on the top. The people with the grace, the abilities won't be the people who lead. It's going to be the people, Peter, who repent. When you return, strengthen your brothers. Peter, you are important. You are the one who's going to lead the church. You are the one who's going to be the rock upon the church upon which the church is built. It's true, but it's not because you're the smartest and it's not because you're the most eloquent preacher. It's going to be because you repent. You publicly repent. Everybody's going to know about your sin. Everybody. And when you return, when you return, strengthen your brothers. It's meant for sinners. It always has been. It always will be. That is the core of our fellowship. That is what holds us together as a community. Not our beliefs. Not our desires to bring about cultural revolution. Not our causes. It's our repentance. It's that we're sinners. That we're weak. That we've returned. And through talking about that repentance, we strengthen each other because it's meant for sinners. That's the first thing that stands out to us as Jesus passes this first cup around. There are all kinds of other changes and I can't go into all of them instead of saying this is the bread of our affliction or this is the bread that our forefathers have eaten on the night that they were rescued. He says this body, this is my body and my body will be the affliction and my body is going to be the salvation of us all. Instead of saying this is the cup of salvation or this is the cup of sanctification or the cup of redemption or four cups that were passed around during the meal, he only passes around two. He says this cup is my blood which is meant for shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the inauguration of a new covenant. A covenant for sealed by blood is my blood that's going to seal the covenant. And the thing that stands out the most about that second cup stands out about the first one as well actually. He didn't drink it. Isn't that strange? If I were to take you home from my hometown and show you my old house, you would probably be interested. He didn't make any of these stories up. He really could go across the street and go to deer hunting. He probably did. And he really did live in a two house duplex. It was turned into one house. That's odd. And all the stories that I told you about it were true and that's probably what you would notice is that we walked around. But you know what I would notice? My mom's not there. And if we talk about the Lord's suffer, we see the bread and the wine and those things stand out to us. But you know what I would notice? There's no lamb on the table. And he didn't drink the cup. Why didn't he drink the cup? Because there's another cup for him to drink first. Open your bowl and keep reading with me. Beginning with verse 39. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throne. And he knelt down and prayed saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being an agony, he prayed more honestly and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came through the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. He goes to the garden of guests, somebody to pray. And it's there that the text, if you combine with this with Matthew and Mark and John, you see that he becomes suddenly overwhelmed. That almost ambushes in the words that are used there. He's ambushed by anxiety and sorrow. He says, my soul is sorrowful on the death. And he goes to his knees and he begins to cry. And the thing he cries three times over and over and over again is take this cup away from me. And the cup is that that is described by Ezekiel and other prophets in the Old Testament, the cup of God's wrath. When he says to Israel, you will drink of my cup down to his drags and it will make you stagger. I will pour this cup of my wrath out upon you and you read Revelation about God's judgments. And over seven times we're told he will pour out his cup upon the nations. And it's that cup. And we're a little put off by it, honestly. Jesus doesn't die in a very manly way. He does. Every English speaking Christian to know the story of Ridley and Latimer, the two English martyrs, who are being burned at the stake for bringing the true gospel back to England, and bringing the Bible and the gospel of grace back to England, they were being burned at the stake for it. And Latimer looks at Ridley and he says, play the man. Play the man that the fires wet. Be of good cheer, he says. And play the man for today. We will light a candle that I trust will never be extinguished. Isn't that how you want to die? No fear. Composure. Why didn't Jesus die that way? Well, let's look the question. How were Ridley and Latimer allowed to die that way? They were allowed to die that way because they had no fear in death, because they knew they would not face God in all of his anger, that they would not have to pay for their sins, that their death, that they were only going home to a father who loved them. They did not have to face death with fear because Jesus faced it with fear for them, because Jesus faced death not as a forgiven sinner, but as the worst sinner who has ever lived, the sins of the world are put upon him. All of our sins are put upon him. And he is facing death as one who is going to die a death of sacrifice. That's why there was no land on the table. He was the lamb at the table. And the sins of the world were going to be put upon him and his death would be a sacrifice. And he is beginning to see that now. He's beginning to feel that now. And he realizes that he can't do it. And he throws himself on the ground. And he says, take this couple way. Take this couple way. And God answers his prayer in such a frustrating way it makes you just want. He gives him strength to bear it. That is not what I ask for. Don't you feel that way sometimes? I ask you to fix my marriage not to give me the strength to handle the divorce. I ask you to save my children, not to let them give me the strength to parent them through these difficulties. Don't you ever feel that way? You're not the first Jesus bags and he bags and he bags take this cup away and his father is there beside him saying drink it. It's meant for sinners. And unless you drink it, then we will never have them with us. Son the price is just too high. They can't pay for what they've broken. What they've said can never be unsaid. What they've thought can never be unthought. What they have done can never be repaired. It has to be paid for. And they can't pay for it. You have to drink it because they can't. It would take them all eternity. And they would never pay for their sins. Drink it, son. Drink it down to the drags. It's meant for sinners. And if we're going to have sinners with us, this is the only way. And he sends the angel there to strengthen them so that he can drink it, so that we can face our sins without fear, so that we can enter into his home without dread, so that we can repent. His grace is not meant to free us from having to repent. It freezes to repent because he's drunk the cup. He's taking God's wrath for us. Will you drink it? Will you receive it? Will you drink this first cup? Because he drank the second. Please pray with me. Father in heaven, I can't imagine what it must have felt like for you to force that second cup into your son's hand, but I know that would never call you father if he had not drunk it. And so father, we gather around you to worship you and to praise you. And to unite ourselves to him, our true lamb. And father, because we have confidence and forgiveness, we can fast our sins to you and we repent to each other. Will you show us where we need to repent? Will you pray in Jesus' name? Amen.