Communion Service

0:03 · Speaker 1 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. and he took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body given for you

1:11 · Speaker 1 do this in remembrance of me in the same way After the supper, he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

1:31 · Speaker 2 Morning. I suspect many of us can't remember many specific lessons that we've learned from our parents. Most of what we learn, we absorb over time just being with them. but you may have one or two specific moments that stand out that you do remember, likely because they involved some level of pain or discomfort that came as a result of learning the said lesson that means you don't forget it in a hurry. For me, there's one that stands out, and I'm not going into the details, but it was made very clear to me that you should never use words that you don't understand. And believe me, that is incredibly wise advice, and it also explains my very limited vocabulary. But I've been wondering recently if it's something we don't always get right in church. We maybe use words that we don't understand way more often than we care to think.

2:34 · Speaker 2 Like, even when we sing, like how about this? Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne, the potentate of time, creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime. And we sing it, and I'd love to know how many people here would confidently stand up and say, yes, I can explain every one of those words, because we probably can't. Even more intriguing, I suspect we use words we don't understand, but we use them correctly because we've heard the jargon enough over the years that we're able to do it. And so I decided I would test this out last week, and I've got permission to share this, unlike Russell last week. I bet you weren't asked permission. No, didn't think so.

3:27 · Speaker 2 I've got permission to share this so I'm covered. I decided to ask someone who's quite close to me, whose name might be Nick, what she understood by this saying when Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And she thought for a while and she said, well, obviously I know the phrase and I know it really well, but I've never really stopped to think about it and I don't think I'd be confident explaining it. And then she went on to share a conversation in home group that made the same point, that there were phrases the group together were saying, yeah, we can use all of these phrases in absolutely the right way, but we wouldn't be at all confident in explaining what they really mean. And so I want us to look at that phrase, that question I asked Nick. What do we understand when Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Because we've doubtless heard it quoted many times at communion, either from the gospels or from 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul writes about communion. But do we know what it means?

4:41 · Speaker 2 Or is it kind of just part of the ritual that we go through when we do communion. So I found myself reflecting on this notion of new covenant just recently, for a couple of reasons. Because I've been thinking about this communion service today, but also because the last few months I've been reading my way through the first five books of the Old Testament. And the notion of covenant plays a significant role in that developing story of the people of Israel. There's a whole lot of theological debate over what can be referred to as covenant in the Old Testament, and there's no way we can possibly cover it in a short talk today. So I just want to notice a few of the main examples. And the first one to note is in Genesis 9, and it comes right after the flood episode where God has protected Noah and his family and the animals during an intense, devastating period of judgment. And this is what we read in Genesis 9.

5:43 · Speaker 2 I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

6:46 · Speaker 2 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. God making a covenant. And a major point to note here is that God is making an unconditional covenant. It's a promise made on God's faithfulness alone. It's not dependent on any human responsibility. Human wickedness or righteousness will not affect this promise. And when we see a rainbow, it should remind us of God's faithfulness. To be thankful that even though God is holy and will someday call the world to account for sin and rebellion, he is also a patient, merciful God who does not treat us as our sins deserve.

7:39 · Speaker 2 The next covenant we want to notice is also a unilateral, a one-sided covenant. It's first alluded to in Genesis chapter 12. We read this, the Lord had said to Abram, go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And then as we read through the story of Abram, we find it more formalized a few chapters later in Genesis 15.

8:18 · Speaker 2 Very strange episode when Abram was seeking some answers from God about the promise of land and descendants. And we read this. So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

9:05 · Speaker 2 On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. There was deep significance to what was happening here in this story. Back then when two people made a covenant or a promise to each other, they would split animals and both of them would walk between the lines of the animals to signify their mutual commitment to the covenant. They were saying that if they failed to keep their side of the bargain, then what happened to the animals should happen to them. But this wasn't a two-sided covenant. Abram didn't walk between the animals. Here God was saying that he himself was guaranteeing the promise. He was going to create a people for himself.

9:59 · Speaker 2 And this people would end up blessing the world as his purposes for humanity are fulfilled. We could also then jump forward to the story of David, where again God makes a one-sided covenant, promising to raise up a king from David's line who would be God's great ruler. And of course, we see it fulfilled in Jesus. Some of David's line may not behave as if they're part of the covenant and they would face God's judgment, but God will ensure his promise is fulfilled. And even wicked kings will not be able to negate it. So there are three one-sided covenants where where God is giving us a glimpse of his commitment to restore humanity to the relationship with him that was broken by sin. But there's one other main covenant in the Old Testament that was not one-sided at all, and that's God's relationship with the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. God gave them the opportunity to be the vehicle through which those great promises to Abraham would be fulfilled.

11:14 · Speaker 2 But this time, it was a two-way street. And the story starts for us in Exodus chapter 19, where we read this, that Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. And there's one key phrase in there. One key word, and it's so small, but it's so important.

12:13 · Speaker 2 If. If you obey me fully. God says he's going to make a people for himself, and he will bless the world through them, and he tells the Israelites, you can be this people, but only if you keep your side of the deal. And most of us know how that went. After that opportunity put to them in Exodus 19, God gives them the first basic covenant responsibilities, and we call it the Ten commandments. We've moved over into Exodus 20. And the people say that they're only too happy to abide by this covenant.

12:58 · Speaker 2 And so Moses then goes to God to get more details on what it will mean for them to be God's partners in this covenant. And in case there's any doubt, God reiterates to Moses the very first commandments. He says again, the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites this, you have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. Do not make any gods to be alongside me. Do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. We move on to Exodus 24. Moses reports back to the people more details on the covenant. And we read this that when Moses went and told the people all the Lord's words and laws, they responded with one voice.

13:46 · Speaker 2 Everything the Lord has said, we will do. And Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up 12 stone pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people, they responded again, we will do everything the Lord has said. We will obey. Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

14:39 · Speaker 2 And then God takes Moses to spend more time with him, hearing more instructions, like for the building of the tabernacle, whilst the people wait. And it's all well and good. Except, here's what we read a few chapters later in Exodus 32. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. Aaron answered them, Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol, cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.

15:36 · Speaker 2 Then they said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. Like, you can't believe this. They failed at the very first and most basic commands. No idols, no other gods, nothing made from silver or gold. And yet that's exactly what they do. And so starts a pattern that keeps repeating. God reveals more of what being in covenant means, and the people find new ways to break their side of the covenant, either in disobedience or in failure to trust. And to use a cliche, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

16:26 · Speaker 2 They were stubborn and rebellious, And their hearts were just not capable of the kind of obedience that God required. Oh, sure, they had some high points of commitment and seeing God at work as they obeyed, but those were followed way too quickly by shocking acts of disobedience. And you can trace that story not just through the early days of Israel in the wilderness, but through all of their time, even in the promised land in Canaan, living under the judges and the various kings. And through all of that time, God kept reminding the people of their calling. He'd sent prophets to call them back and challenge them, but the prophets knew the same problem that Moses had pointed out, that these people had stubborn hearts and that those hard hearts would need to be softened so that obedience to God wouldn't feel like a duty, but would be something that was coming from deep within. The prophet Ezekiel looked forward to this, where God said, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

18:06 · Speaker 2 And the prophet Jeremiah articulated it actually in terms of covenant, a new covenant. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant even though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. And the prophet Isaiah promised a future leader who would lead the people in obedience to the Lord, the faithful servant of the Lord. And eventually Jesus Messiah would come.

19:14 · Speaker 2 And Jesus confirms the teaching of the prophets that the human heart by default is set against obedience to God. But he also said that he came to solve that problem and that he would fulfill all the requirements of God's law. The law is basically summed up, as Jesus said, in two commandments. Love God and love others. And that sounds so simple, but Jesus had to reveal to us just the depth of the meaning behind that. And so when he equated anger with murder or lust with adultery, and he called us to love our enemies, then Jesus was articulating standards that we just can't keep on our own. But Jesus did. He fully loved God.

20:14 · Speaker 2 And he fully loved others. And he loved his enemies to death. He's from the family of Abraham. He's the truly faithful Israel who kept the terms of the covenant. And he's the king from David's line, who goes about extending God's kingdom of justice and peace, shalom, wholeness to all. But he's no mere man. Fully human, for sure. but also God himself in the flesh, taking on himself the fulfillment of all of the covenant requirements and opening the way for any who will surrender to him to become part of his new covenant family.

21:18 · Speaker 2 And despite their failures, our failures, Jesus is committed into making them into those who will become more and more faithful. After his perfect life, his sinless death, and his resurrection, he promised that he would send his spirit to his followers to indwell them so that they could fulfill the purpose of God's law. Not because they could do it themselves, but because something had changed. Because his life was now living in them. And so when Jesus says, this is the new covenant in my blood, That's what he means. And as we eat pieces of bread and drink wine today, this is what we're celebrating. We're reminding ourselves of our complete inability to be what God wants us to be. And yet the complete achievement of it all on our behalf because of what Jesus has done.

22:41 · Speaker 2 We are celebrating the fact that the onus is not on us to please God because Jesus has already done that. In fact, we need to make sure that there's not even a hint in our thinking that somehow we could be good enough or that somehow we're better than others. if we approach God with even a shred of self-righteousness, it means we still haven't got it. And I couldn't help but think of the words of a really old hymn that sum this up. And I'm just hoping that I understand all of the words that I'm about to quote, because otherwise that'd be a bit hypocritical. But it's the hymn Rock of Ages. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands.

23:35 · Speaker 2 Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. And this, nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace.

24:06 · Speaker 2 Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Today, we own our absolute emptiness when left to ourselves. But there's really good news because the new covenant didn't just promise that our sins would be forgiven. The promise included this. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

24:56 · Speaker 2 God's promise to do his work in us, to change our hearts and give us hearts that are inclined to obey rather than disobey. And that's the promise that Jesus fulfilled when he said he would send his spirit to live in us, to change how we live, even to change how we want to live. And so as we share this simple remembrance feast today, as well as confessing our complete inability to satisfy God's demands, we're also looking again to Jesus to fill us again today with His Spirit, to change our hearts, to enable us to live as his covenant people. Let's pray as the band come back. Lord, what an incredible relief to know that we sit or stand here before you today knowing that we don't have to do anything to please you. Because we know that Jesus has already done it and that we're hidden in him. We thank you for his perfect life, his death and resurrection.

26:27 · Speaker 2 We thank you that he perfectly fulfilled all the obligations and now no more is it on us. Father, wherever we are in our understanding of that and in our experience today, would you just minister to us, we pray, For those of us who have been trying so hard to be good enough, set us free. For some of us who sometimes are tempted to think that actually we're okay and we're better than others, Lord, remove from us the delusion that sometimes takes over us. And Lord, wherever we are today, help us to have an encounter with the risen Christ and his life-giving spirit. Would you do something in each of our hearts today that enables us to want to love you more and to want to live for you more? In the knowledge that that's your promise and we trust you to keep it, even for us. We thank you, we worship you, and we love you because of Jesus. Amen.