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NOTES
As a Christian, when you partake at the Lord’s table, you’re not only looking back at his death but you’re also looking forward to his promises.
Luke chapter 22 records the last supper Jesus had with his closest followers before he was arrested and crucified. They were celebrating an ancient Jewish meal called Passover. The Passover meal commemorated and celebrated the time when God rescued enslaved Israelites from Egyptian tyranny. By remembering that redemptive work of God, they trusted God to rescue and restore them again in the future. But Jesus changed the meaning of that meal. He made the focus of that meal about himself, about his impending death, and about his promise to make all things new.
Now most followers of Christ correctly focus on the death of Christ when they take the Lord’s Supper. Jesus divided the bread among the disciples and said this broken bread represents his broken body that was given for them, and you. Jesus poured the cup of wine and said the wine represents his blood poured out on our behalf. The broken bread and poured wine represent the sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us on the cross. We deserve separation and judgment and punishment from God because of our godless ways. Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath that we might be fully and forever forgiven. What a remarkable truth! But his death would be empty if he did not resurrect from the dead. Likewise, the Lord’s Table is incomplete if you don’t do more than remember Jesus’ death.
In this series, we’re contrasting heaven-aimed Christianity with new-creation Christianity. Heaven-aimed Christianity says Jesus saves us to take us to heaven forever. No more earth. New-creation Christianity says Jesus saves us to live with him in new bodies on a new earth forever. Now, if you’re a heaven-aimed Christian, you likely take the Lord’s Supper to only remember death of Christ and how it paved the way for your escape of hell to inhabit heaven forever. But there’s more to it if you’re a new-creation Christian.
At the Lord’s Table, you not only to look back at what Jesus did for you. You also look forward to what he will do. It begins by looking back and you celebrate the presence of Christ with you now. His presence gives us joy and peace and guidance unlike anything else we can find in this universe. That presence is also a foretaste of what lies ahead. So we not only look back, we not only celebrate in the present, we also look forward to his coming kingdom when we take the Lord’s supper. In Luke 22:18, Jesus said he will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. When we take the Lord’s supper, we look forward to the full redemption of our bodies, we look forward to the renewal of the earth, we look forward to the establishment of Jesus’ kingdom on earth. As a new-creation Christian, when you take the Lord’s Supper, you are looking ahead to the renewal of all things. You’re not merely celebrating that you get to escape hell and live in a non-earthly heaven forever. The very acts of eating bread and drinking wine are earthly acts. And you’ll continue those earthly acts on a new earth forever with Jesus and the rest of the redeemed. Thank you for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.