2^nd Corinthians 5:11-21; Galatians 5: 16 – 24; Luke 22: 14– 23 (Sermon)

We all like new things. The smell of a new car, the way we look in new clothes, the feel of a new baby, and the promise of a new year. And advertisers thrive on our thirst for new things. They put things in a new package or state that it is a new product to get us to buy it. We live in a throwaway society because Americans are convinced that new is better.

Today we come around our Lord’s Table to celebrate an old observance. The observance of the Lord’s Supper is as old as the Christian faith. For 2,000 years Christians all over the world have gathered around the table in remembrance of Jesus the Christ through this memorial meal.

Even though celebrating the Lord’s Supper is an old observance, there is also something eternally new about celebrating the Lord’s Supper. In Luke’s account, Jesus referred to something new twice. First Jesus said that He would not share the elements with His disciples until He drank the fruit of the vine when the Kingdom of God comes. Then, Jesus said He was making a new covenant with His followers. Sharing the bread and the cup is the seal of a new promise that God had made with His people through Jesus Christ.

Think about the way Jesus’ eleven disciples could / would remember Jesus; teaching the people, healing people, miraculously feeding the crowds, the way Jesus silenced His critics, the way Jesus had compassion on people, the time Jesus first called them to follow Him, etc. But Jesus gave His disciples and us a new way to remember Him. While all of the ways we could remember Jesus are important and they are all are certainly memorable, Jesus wants His disciples to remember Him for the primary reason He came to earth. He wants us to remember that He loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life to pay the price of your sins and my sins. "This is my body given for you." "This is my blood poured out for you." "Do this in remembrance of me." Jesus gave us a new way to remember Him and all that Jesus has done for us.

Also, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper He gave us a new responsibility. Jesus made it crystal clear that He was no longer going to be physically present on earth "I will not eat the Passover again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." "I will not drink the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes."

Jesus’ death on the following day fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover meal. Passover was both a memorial of the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and a prophetic type of Jesus sacrifice for our sins and our sinful nature.

In instituting the Lord’s Supper Jesus is commissioning His disciples to carry on the ministry that He started while He was on this earth; a ministry of reconciliation. Jesus called people to be reconciled to God and Jesus called people to be reconciled with other people. We as Jesus’ disciples have all been commissioned to carry on the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry that Jesus started while He was on earth. Jesus gave each of us a new responsibility.

In addition, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, Jesus established a new covenant relationship for His people with God. The Old Covenant was practiced by repeatedly sacrificing the blood of animals offered by men. But the New Covenant was Christ giving His own blood once for all. Jesus’ one time sacrifice is all that is ever needed because the sacrifice was God and the sacrifice was offered by God Himself.

Our salvation is based solely on our personal relationship with Jesus the Christ. That is why Jesus called it a new covenant. It is a relationship of faith; faith that Jesus died on the cross in our place, faith that Jesus is God, faith that eternal life comes only through the death of Jesus. Before Jesus’ crucifixion people were related to Jesus by the Law. Now we are related to Jesus by love. "Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

In this sacrament of The Lord’s Supper, the bread and the grape juice, the words and actions, make the promises of God visible and concrete. The many-faceted meaning of this sacrament we observe today is seen in the three names given to this sacrament.

The title Lord’s Supper recalls Jesus’ institution of the sacrament in the upper room with his disciples which we just read in Luke’s gospel. The breaking of the bread and the pouring of the grape juice describe the sacramental action by which Christ is known to his disciples. We are nourished spiritually as we eat the bread and drink the cup.

The name Eucharist, or thanksgiving, reminds us that we receive everything we are and that we have from and solely by God’s grace. We are to give thanks to God for all that He has done for us, we are to give thanks for all that God is doing for us, and we are to give thanks for all that God promises to do for us in the future. We the church are renewed and empowered and in thanksgiving we remember Christ’s life, death resurrection, and promised return.

The name Holy Communion reminds us that in this sacrament we are made one with Christ and with each other through the power of The Holy Spirit. We are united with the church in every time and place.

In this sacrament we also participate in God’s future as well. Because, this sacrament is a glad resurrection feast. Gathering around this table, the church anticipates the great banquet of the new age in God’s eternal kingdom.

The Lord’s Supper is therefore much more than a reminder of Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. This sacrament is a means, given us by Christ, through which the risen Lord is truly present as a continuing power and reality, until the day of His coming again. While the meaning of Christ’s sacrificial death is at the heart of this sacrament, it is a resurrected, living Christ whom we encounter through the breaking of bread and drinking the cup.

Our lesson from 2nd Corinthians reminds us that "God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God." The Apostle Paul also reminds us that, "If any one is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come."

Our lesson form Galatians contrasts our old sinful nature with our new nature in Christ. If we are truly a new creation then our lives will be controlled by the Holy Spirit and our lives will be living examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I hope you noticed that our Bibles said the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits of the Spirit. We are not given a pick and choose option of which characteristics we exhibit. The New life in Jesus is characterized by all nine of these characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

If we are honest with ourselves we will all come to the Lord’s Table admitting our need to be forgiven, admitting our need to be cleansed, admitting our need to be made whole, and admitting our need for a new beginning.

Each time we participate in this sacrament of The Lord’s Supper it is as though we can have a new beginning. When we come in faith, Jesus, who makes all things new, also will make our participation in the Lord’s Supper a new experience for us. Jesus invites all who believe in Him to come to His Table and to expect a new experience and a new beginning.