We wrap up this three-day look at “Palm Sunday Preparations” by visiting the institution of “The Lord’s Supper” once again. I want to encourage you to be here this coming Sunday as we celebrate together the Lord’s Supper and look forward to Easter Sunday on April 8th.

In our own Baptist Faith and Message, it states that “The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.”

Matthew 26:26-29 records our Lord’s introduction of this Supper to His disciples and to each believer. Following the departure of Judas, Jesus changes the Old Covenant Passover into the New Covenant Lord’s Supper. John MacArthur says:

“In fact, Christ ended the Passover and instituted a new memorial to Himself. It would not look back to a lamb in Egypt as the symbol of God’s redeeming love and power, but to the very Lamb of God, who, by the sacrificial shedding of His own blood, took away the sins of the whole world. In that one meal, Jesus both terminated the old and inaugurated the new.”

Jesus first took some bread and offered a prayer thanking the Heavenly Father. After breaking it in two, He gave it to His disciples to eat. He followed the bread with the cup, and after giving thanks He instructed His disciples to drink.

First, Jesus gives a brand new meaning to the bread. The bread represents Christ’s own body, sacrificed for the salvation of man. Luke adds the phrase “given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), recognizing the fact that He was setting up an ongoing memorial of His sacrificial death for His disciples. Jesus did not mean to imply that the bread actually became His literal body; but just a symbolic picture.

Second, the disciples drank from the cup as Jesus said,

“This is my blood of the covenant.” “Obviously there was nothing in the chemistry of Christ’s blood that saves. And although the shedding of His blood was required, it symbolized His atoning death, the giving of His unblemished, pure, and wholly righteous life for the corrupt, depraved, and wholly sinful lives of unregenerate men. Representative of the giving of that sinless life was the pouring out of that precious blood for many for forgiveness of sins and that blood made atonement for the sins of all mankind, Gentile as well as Jew, who place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.” (MacArthur New Testament Commentary)

The Lord’s Supper is the Lord’s Table and as often as we partake of it, we celebrate and remember His sacrifice and free gift of eternal life until He comes again.

I will meet you this coming Sunday morning at The Lord’s Table. Together, let’s remember and celebrate His sacrifice on our behalf as we also look forward to His return with grateful hearts.