[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I don’t think any of us would put up with it or we would be shocked out of our skin. Did you hear what Moses did with half of the blood that had been gathered from all of the animals that were sacrificed? We know half of it went against the altar, but the other half was flung out on the people. Now think about that for a moment. For if you had touched a dead animal, you could not go into the temple until you have done the time of being cleansed. Here, God is using the sacrificial blood to be sprinkled on you to do what to the people, but to cleanse them.
And then isn’t it interesting, after having cleansed them with his blood, the blood that was sacrificed from those animals, the elders and Moses gazed upon God and ate and drank with God. Now today we hear of the new and eternal blood covenant. That was the old and temporary blood covenant. The new and eternal blood covenant was the blood poured out from Christ, thrown against the altar of the cross. And instead of being flung upon you, you get to eat it and drink it to be cleansed. With Christ’s forgiveness.
Jesus is extremely physically here with us. It is not an abstract presence. This is His new way of being with us. So that we know, He who is the true bread from heaven feeds us the bread from His flesh. And He who is the true vine that we are grafted into, our branches bear the great fruit, the blood from the cross that we drink. Amen.
Just as the people who were sprinkled with blood had to ask themselves, how was this animal blood thrown on us bringing forgiveness? So still to this day, people look at the Lord’s Supper and eat and drink it and question, how can this wine and bread bring forgiveness? The how will always be there. And you and I and our flesh will always ask the question how. But it is your faith that does not feed upon the how, but upon what God has revealed to us, where He invites us to come and take what He has given unto us.
The Old Testament covenant by blood from God was a very unique covenant. It was a unilateral covenant. You and I are most familiar with bilateral covenants, or contracts, for lack of a better word, where you enter into an agreement and they have to uphold their side, or the contract is broken. You have to uphold your side, or the contract is broken. When it is a unilateral covenant, God is the one who is the one making it unilateral. Therefore, if we break it, He remains faithful. If we refuse Him, He never stops seeking us. If we turn our back on Him, He keeps His arms open. That’s a unilateral covenant. That was the Old Testament covenant.
So when Jesus comes with the new covenant in blood, His blood, it still remains a unilateral covenant with you. Everything depends upon Him accomplishing what He came to accomplish. And everything depends upon Him dispensing it to you who need to receive it. There is one problem with all unilateral covenants. They’re always abused. They’re always taken advantage of. They’re always underappreciated. When God is the one making the unilateral covenant with you, that is what we have done. And though we are unappreciative of it, He remains faithful to you. He only asks for you to come, receive, and believe. Pure, sweet comfort.
Everything that happened on Calvary does this sacrament draw from to fulfill and proclaim His death until He comes. Every time you receive it, you’re receiving Him and all the benefits of it. Here is the picture of the wedding feast. So when Jesus says, I will not eat and drink again until you enter into the kingdom of heaven, He’s referring to the marriage feast that’s ongoing and eternal. This we keep doing until the end of time. We’re kind of in a practice mode for the eternal feast that awaits us in heaven.
And consider, what feast did Jesus celebrate with His disciples on this night before He instituted the Lord’s Supper? The Passover? And what great salvation event did the eating of the Passover lamb precede? The great salvation event was the ushering of the people into the promised land. We continually eat this Passover, the final Passover, in preparation for our exodus to the promised land of heaven.
Here is where He created you and becomes one flesh with you. This, as it were, is His bridal chamber, where He meets with His bride in a very personal, very relational, and very intimate manner to join Himself with you again and again that you may be confident of His love.
In the name of Jesus. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
