The Memorial of the Sacrifice

Rev Enoch Thompson | APRIL 6, 2023 | Matthew 26:26-30

KEY VERSE:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Matt 26:26 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

Anniversaries and memorials help recall and immortalise important events for individuals, families and nations. In the Upper Room in the week of His passion, the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, a memorial, a recalling of the great sacrifice that He was headed to Calvary to offer. The meal was the annual Passover Feast, celebrated by all Israel in recollection of the mighty deliverance accomplished by God in the lives of their ancestors, from the tyranny of slavery in Egypt. Through dramatic spiritual encounters against the gods of Egypt and the display of the superior power of Yahweh, the slavery of Israel to Egypt was brought to an end. God directed that, that event was to mark the first month in the calendar of the nation Israel, and they were to celebrate their deliverance in the Passover (Exodus 12:24-27).

Christ had come to instate a fuller version of Passover, and in all the enactment of the prophecies throughout His life and ministry and especially in this week in which He would be offered as the ultimate perfect sacrifice He gave us the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, to help us remember and celebrate the new Passover, the deliverance from spiritual bondage, and freedom to live a new life of freedom in Him. The bread that He broke was a symbol of His body that was about to be broken. The wine He offered them was to symbolize the precious blood that was about to be shed and to remind us that His blood was able to cleanse all our sins and make us acceptable before the Father in Heaven.

It is our privilege and our responsibility to take part in the Lord’s Supper as regularly as it is arranged by the Church. In that ceremony, we also celebrate the Body of Christ, the Church that emerged from that great sacrifice. The unity of that mixture of Jews and Gentiles, the new humanity that was made possible by the reconciliation with God that came about because of Calvary. What joy to celebrate the memorial of the greatest and best sacrifice ever!

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Do you partake of the Lord’s Supper? Do so gladly with true understanding. Thank God for the wonderful gift of His love in the death of the Saviour Jesus Christ. If you are not partaking of the Lord’s Supper, correct whatever concerns there are; talk to a Pastor or a Christian friend, and begin to memorialize Calvary for your blessing.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord Jesus thank you for your body that was broken, and for your blood that was shed. May I encounter you afresh, Lord, each time I partake of the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper, may I receive a fresh grace to take up my cross and follow you. For your dear Name’s sake, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!