the fruit of the vine, from now on until the
kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some
bread and 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 in the same way he took the cup after they
had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out
for you is the new covenant in my blood. But
behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with
me on the table. For indeed, the Son of Man is
going as it has been determined. But where to
that man by whom he is betrayed? And then following
a conversation, we read in verse 39, And he came
out and proceeded, as was his custom, to the
Mount of Olives. And the disciples also followed
him. And when he arrived at the place, he said
to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.
And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw,
and he knelt down and began to pray, saying,
Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup
from me. Yet not my will, but thine be done.
Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening
him. And being in agony, he was praying very
fervently. and his sweat became like drops of
blood falling down upon the ground. And when
he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples
and found them sleeping from sorrow and said
to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray
that you may not enter into temptation. And while
he was still speaking, behold, a multitude came,
and the one called Judas, one of the twelve,
was preceding them. And then down in verse 54,
And having arrested him, they led him away. And
then followed the night of trial, of torture,
culminating in his crucifixion on the cross by
nine o 'clock the next morning. The Lord Jesus
Christ ate that last Passover meal with his disciples
and said to them, I will not eat like this with
you again. observance of this until it is fulfilled
in the kingdom. I believe that the Lord Jesus
was referring to that time in the future that
we call the marriage supper of the Lamb. When
with the twelve and with those of us who have
been saved during this age, he will sit down
at a meal and it will be the meal celebrating
his marriage to the Church, to those of us who've
been saved during this time, during this dispensation.
After they had eaten the meal together, he went
to the garden. His suffering began. It began
with prayer, because in his humanity, the thought
of the cross and of the despicable shame, the
agony that went with that, was grievous to him.
Undoubtedly, as he prayed, he prayed for strength.
When he said, if it be possible, take this cup
from me, he was not shirking what had been determined
from eternity past that he should fulfill. But
it was simply in his humanity he was asking,
if there is another way, let it be so. But of
course there was no other way. And gladly he
accepted that cup from the Father. Thus, he received
the mandate. The garden was agony for Christ.
We do not know how long he was there praying.
We know that the disciples slept through most
of that time. They had had an exhausting week
and day. Even Peter, James, and John had been
selected to go with him a little further into
the garden, fell asleep. That Garden of Gethsemane
was located at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
It was a special place where, we are told, the
elite people of Jerusalem often resorted. It
was a place that was well manicured. The Mount
of Olives was covered with many olive trees,
but there was this special area set aside called
the Garden of Gethsemane. And it was there that
Jesus and his disciples apparently often went
for times of prayer and meditation and fellowship.
On that last night as they were there, Jesus,
as we read in the other Gospels, prayed, falling
upon the ground, and then he would get up and
walk and pray and then fall upon the ground again.
And over and over again that process occurred
as he struggled in prayer. and as he cried out
to God, and as he accepted what God had called
him to do for us. And then he was arrested through
betrayal and went to the cross, and there his
blood was shed. He offered up his body for our
sins, thus giving meaning to the elements that
we observe tonight. He said to them at that last
meal together, this is my body. And of course,
he did not mean literally this bread is becoming
my body any more than when he said, I am the
door, he became a door. He's simply saying that
this bread is symbolic of my body. This wine
is symbolic of my blood. We come together tonight
because we have been commanded by our Lord to
do so. During this age, we are to observe this
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. It is to accomplish
a number of things for our fellowship. One of
the most important is that it is to accomplish
a cleansing, a catharsis of each of us individually
and of us collectively. We see this, for example,
in 1 Corinthians 5, and I will ask you again
to turn there. draws a parallel between what
we do and a situation that the Corinthian church
was in. I simply remind you that there was a
man who was a part of their fellowship who was
living in open sin without any repentance, and
the church up to this point had not rebuked him,
but rather had with... pride accepted him, thinking
that it was good to be broad -minded. And so
the apostle writes that this man is to be removed
from their fellowship. He says in verse 3, I
on my part, though absent in body but present
in spirit, have already judged him who has so
committed this, as though I were present. In
the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled,
and I with you in spirit, Such an action is the
most severe that any church can take in its discipline
process. There are various stages of church discipline.
And the one that is brought before us here is
that final, culminating stage, when an individual
shows no repentance or submission to the leadership
of the Church and insists on going on in open
sin. It becomes a flagrant, disgracing thing.
In a case like that, such a one is to be removed
from the Church, the sphere of the Church, and
as the Apostle says that he is to be delivered
to Satan. That does not mean that that individual
somehow loses his salvation, of course. But it
does mean that that person is put outside the
sphere of the Church. He is returned to the world
in that sense. And the result may well be that
his body, physically, he will be torn down, will
degenerate because of that. And yet the result
of that is that his spirit will still be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus. No question about
his salvation. But there's the awful possibility
of wasting his life. For having been placed outside
the sphere of the Church, he is in a place of
chastisement by God and attack by Satan. Well,
we know the result of this, don't we? In 2 Corinthians,
the man was restored, and the Apostle writes
to them at that time, Reach out to this one as
a brother, and since he is repentant, restore
him to your fellowship. But he goes on to say
in verse 6, your boasting is not good. In other
words, your boast about having this man in your
fellowship. Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump of dough? Anytime you
read about leaven in the Bible, it pictures evil.
Leaven never pictures that which is good. It's
always evil. He says, clean out the old leaven.
that you may be a new lump, just as you are,
in fact, unleavened. For Christ our Passover
also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate
the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Here's
what the Apostle is doing. He is saying, Christ
our Passover, Lamb. has been sacrificed for us
in fulfillment of that feast in the Old Testament.
And now he says we enjoy feasting upon Christ
just as those Old Testament Jews feasted upon
that lamb during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
We now in this age are enjoying that Feast of
Unleavened Bread. feasts that we enjoy in Christ
spiritually, along with the fellowship that we
have with one another. Now what the apostle says
here is that fellowship needs to be kept clean
and pure. We need to purge out the leaven so
that we remain unleavened in our fellowship and
pure and clean. Later in chapter 11 of Corinthians,
the apostle again rebukes them because they had
not done this. And he says as a result, the church
was, was weakened and there were some people
in their fellowship who were sick and some who
had even died early. How important it is that
we do that. We intend here at this church to
practice before God as faithfully as we can and
with love and with the gentleness of Christ,
church discipline. As a matter of fact, for the
last two months we've been dealing with one particular
case that we thought we would have to bring before
you tonight. for the removal of a person. And
we thank God that as that began to get more and
more serious, that it resulted in repentance
on the part of that person. And it's unnecessary
to do that. But when it becomes necessary for
us as a fellowship to do exactly what the Apostle
commands us to do here, it will be at this time
as we come to the Lord's table. It will not be
a time for us to point a finger and judge anyone.
It would be a recognition of the importance of
keeping ourselves clean. It would also be a rebuke
to each of us and a reminder to each of us that
our own lives need to be kept free of leaven.
That's why the Apostle says that as we come to
this table, we should not come unworthily. In
other words, we should not come in an unworthy
manner. We should not come unprepared. In fact,
we should come to this observance with our hearts
having been opened before God. We should have
already gone through our lives and purged out
any leaven that we have found which the Holy
Spirit has showed to us. As we come to this table
tonight, I would like for us to meditate upon
these things and to allow the Spirit of God even
now To reveal to us any leaven that would be
in our lives so that we may quietly and humbly
confess before him and cleanse that leaven so
that as we observe this table we may do so without
leaven and in a worthy manner that would be pleasing
to him. Jesus said that we are to do this until
he returns and that time that we observe it with
him in heaven. May that day be hastened. that
we will see him face to face. But until then,
we draw near to him, and he draws near to us
as we specifically set aside this time to observe
this ordinance. I would like for us now to bow
in prayer and to complete the preparation of
our hearts, personally and individually, as we
come to the bread and the juice. reminding us
of the sacrifice that he made for us. Let's meditate
and pray. Father, we thank you for the very special
plan of salvation which you and your wisdom ordained
before the world was founded. We thank you for
your faithfulness in bringing about the fulfillment
of your promise. We thank you for the Son who
became flesh and dwelt amongst us. We thank you
for his blessed submission in receiving the mandate.
When he came into the world, he said, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God, a body you have prepared
for me. We thank you for the body of Christ which
was broken for us. We thank you that that veil
has been rent and that now we may enter into
the very holiest place and enjoy your fellowship.
Thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray.