Taste & See

Well, good evening. We’re so glad that you’re joining us for worship this evening. I’m pastor Ben. It is my privilege to share from God’s word with you this evening. And of course, welcome to all our regular attenders. A welcome to our guests. And welcome to those that are joining us online as well as we celebrate and we continue to move forward. If you’ve been with us on Sunday, you’ve heard this phrase. This is the most significant week in all of history, the one that we’re celebrating yet again. And to celebrate this unique service of Maundy Thursday, as Pastor Tim has already shared, where we get to dive deep into what Jesus did in his last hours, knowing full well what all was going to transpire in the coming hours in the following day, that he would take these moments that we can reflect on now to see what was important to him. And we’ve taken this theme where we’re looking at all of the senses two and one of our theme verses, as we were thinking about as we were going to approach Holy Week this time around, we were going to look at First Peter chapter one, verses eight and nine, and it says this though you have not seen him, that is all. You have not seen Jesus. You love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith.

The salvation of your souls, which helps set the stage for us to think about. How can we experience? How can we see, taste, touch, smell and hear the good news of Holy Week and all that transpired in all that Christ did? And tonight, as we’re going to be looking at Jesus in the upper room as he institutes this gift that we have in Holy Communion, we’re going to be looking at two senses. Can anybody guess what two senses taste and see to look and taste and see that God is good? Because those are some of the senses that we can use when we’re trying to determine, is it the real thing? Is that a thought, a sentiment that any of you’ve had when consuming something? Is it the real thing? Is it the authentic thing? Or perhaps, you know, if a guy is so brave and dating a girl, just long enough and he gets down on one knee and she sees a big rock, but then she has to wonder, is that the real thing? Or is that cubic zirconium? You know, either way, he loves you. But is it the real thing? And then something that has plagued generations trying to determine and maybe we can figure it out here tonight, the two pitted against each other.  Which one is the real thing? Pepsi or Coke campaigning against each other. Coke saying, you know, taste this is it’s the real thing.

And then Pepsi doing the taste test challenge to figure out how many folks are Coke people. You know, if you go to a restaurant, it’s going to be Coca Cola. Okay, Pepsi. And how many of you don’t drink that poison? You don’t put that in your body. You only drink Lacroix, or so you know, or sparkling water or reverse osmosis, something a little bit essential oil. And and I don’t. Bet they get pitted against each other trying to say one’s authentic. One’s the real thing. Oh, no. No, we’re the real thing. We’re what? People like it. I mean, what we did was even proved here tonight that we can’t even agree on what is the preferred beverage of our congregation. But this is an all important question. Is it the real thing when it comes to what Jesus is instituting here on this night in the upper room? And so let’s go ahead and take a look and see how the stage has been set. As we move into the upper room. Do you see, the day came, for the unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. And they said to him, where will you have us prepare it?

Now if you have been with us on Sunday, you know that Jesus has already know. He already knows all that is about to transpire, and he has a plan. But before we get into the plan that he is about to unfold for Peter and John, because he knows exactly what’s going to take place, what is this Passover meal? This Passover meal has been celebrated for over a thousand years at this point, and it goes back to the Exodus and this Passover, all the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. God raises up Moses and calls him to go to Egypt to set the people free. And it’s commanded that this Passover takes place because God was going to deliver his people out of slavery. This was the night of the 10th plague that was going to fall upon Egypt. That led to the death of firstborn sons, and the sacrifice that had to be made was a lamb without blemish. A spotless lamb had to be sacrificed for any household that wanted to keep their firstborn son. They had to sacrifice the spotless lamb. They had to consume all of the lamb. They had to then spread the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, so that when the angel of death came, that it would pass over. And this meal was continually celebrated year after year after year, as God’s people would look back and remember God’s faithfulness, his provision, and his mercy towards them as he delivered Israel in those moments.

And so this is the stage that’s been set. Jesus, at this point, he had three years of ministry. Now this is the third time, but the only recorded time that we see he’s having a Passover meal with his disciples. And so this is what’s on their minds. And there would have been a very elaborate meal with deep meaning connecting all the way back to this Exodus story. But what we’re going to see in a few moments is that this Exodus story was really pointing forward to this moment. And going back, Jesus gives his disciples instruction. He tells them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room? Where I may eat the Passover with my disciples, and he will show you a large upper room furnished. Prepare it there. And they went, and they found it just as Jesus told them. And they prepared the Passover. And then the hour came, and Jesus reclined at the table, and the disciples with Jesus. And Jesus said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Not the first time that Jesus is alluding to, he’s pointing to. He’s been clear, even up to this point of all that he was going to endure and suffer.

But I want us to notice here for a moment those words I have earnestly desired, I have longed, I have yearned for this moment to sit and dine with you, and what might be on the minds of the disciples. They’ve been with him for three years. They’ve seen his miracles. They’ve dined with him hundreds of times. But here, this Passover, there was something significant. There was something different. Jesus, quite literally has been setting the table for them, that there was something different that was going to transpire this night, that he wanted them to know that there was great significance in what Jesus was about to do. It reminds me of this. Does anybody know what this is? You said jello. You’re wrong. This is grandma. These jello that you’d have on the holidays, either Thanksgiving or Christmas when you went to her house in Auburn, Michigan. When you’re a little kid, right? That she would take this great time and care. I mean, that the patience that it would take to make this I can’t imagine I, you know, greens fine. Right in my book. Right. But that she would make this year after year and that this would be something of remembrance for us. And how many of you out there do you have?

Something that there’s a meal, there’s something. It’s just like grandma used to make. Just like mom made that if you tasted something, that it would transport you in an instant to that location, to that time, to that table with those others gathered around. There’s being a table set by Jesus here. He’s wanting to set something up that this table of remembrance that have been set for Passover is now being set for something different. And this is what he does, is they’re sitting there and dining out. Jesus, while they were eating, took bread and after blessing it, he broke it. And he gave it to his disciples, saying, take, eat, this is my body.And he took the cup. And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you. This is my blood for the covenant of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Is it the real thing? You see, there’s a lot of different beliefs when it comes to communion. There are many, especially within our culture in American Christianity, that would look at this meal and they’re big word that they like to focus on is remembrance symbol. We can remember all that Christ has done for us through this meal, then going back to the early church and then things had changed there, and they had this fancy term called transubstantiation.

Don’t need to know that. I’m not going to quiz you on it, but now you know it, and it’s changed from one thing to the other. But I want us tonight to look at what does Scripture say now? What does Pastor Ben say or what does some other pastor say? What is the what’s their opinion, what the scriptures say. And then let us look together. Why is it significant? Why does it matter if it’s really real? Well, what’s the big deal? If it’s really real? Well, for just a moment, how is it that you experience Christ? Where is it that you look to Christ? How do you know it is that he loves you? How is it know that he is with you? Because all too often that can just be based off of our emotions. How do you feel? Do you feel close to him? Do you feel like he loves you? Do you feel like you are assured in your faith? Do you have warm fuzzies or is it based off of your circumstances? Because of his emotions? If it’s circumstances, if it’s feelings, if it’s input from other people, if it’s anything other than God, then it’s shifting sand. It is not steady and it’s not sure. Yeah, we know this. We know we can experience Christ. He told us, he said, surely I will be with you to the very end of the age. So then where do we look?

Where do we want to find him? Where he’s really real. The other part of it is, do we have a really real need for his real presence in our life? We’ll notice if you go into the Gospels, we go to Matthew, Mark, Luke. They all echo the same thing. And then even in the book of first Corinthians, Paul writes this when he’s talking to the church and he’s telling them about communion, he’s telling them about this night. He says, the cup of blessing that we bless. Is it not participation in the blood of Christ, the bread that we break? Is it not participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread we who are many are one body, for we all partake in one bread. So pop quiz. I teach communion here often and have been doing so for some time. When we take communion, is it bread and wine or is it body and blood? Yes, yes. Dan. Gold star. How you always set people up for a trap. Wow. It’s body and blood. Yeah, you. That’s like the holy sanctimonious. That’s a that’s the great answer to have it’s body blood. I really do believe it. Which you should. But what we also see is we’re just looking at what the scriptures say. What does Paul say here?

The participation in the cup. What’s in the cup? Wine. What’s also in the cup. The blood of Christ. The bread that’s broken. It is bread. It says it is bread. But what is it also the body of Christ. It is really there. And then examining it. It’s worthwhile to look at this moving forward. In that same book is Paul is teaching the church and he’s telling them about this most significant meal. He says that a person examine himself then and so eat the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, and drinks and eats and drinks judgment on himself. These are words that are not often spoken in regards to communion, but in this same area of text. Paul will even go on to say that some of you become sick and some of you have even died because you take the meal wrongly. The simple bread, the simple wine do. That was the true presence of a holy and righteous God within that meal. And then it brings us to this. So let us examine ourselves what’s really real. I want to propose to you that it is really, really bread and wine and really, really body and blood. But at the same time that we see the real presence there, we have to ask what is present within us.

You place your hand on your chest, you can feel your heartbeat, and there you can’t see it, you can feel it, you know it’s there. And if you have a heartbeat, you know that you need this meal because there’s more than just blood coursing through your veins. Let me put it to you this way. What is this? Coffee. Is that caffe or decaf? This? Well, what is it? Well, you drink it and you’ll find out, right? You know, when you’re still awake at 3 a.m.. Not that long ago, actually, I believe it was a coffee roaster here in Michigan that had hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of their decaf recalled because it was caffeinated and have been shipped out and gone into stores. But what’s in you think? All too often we can just look on the outside like, oh, I’m fine, I’m decaf. I don’t have any caffeine in me, I don’t know, but what what does what is God’s Word say to us? We can just take a look at one of the lists that comes from Paul in the book of Galatians, and it says this when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, high step hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties.

And if you didn’t see any sin up there yet, he adds, it’s a nice catchall phrase, and others sins like these. He then goes on to say that anyone that lives in a sort of life like this will not go on to inherit the kingdom of heaven. We touched on, is it is it the real thing? How do you know it’s the real thing? But for a moment to look at ourselves and go, well, is there real sin in us? Is there real sin in us? Because all too often we can just push it aside and we can just give lip service to the fact that, yes, there’s sin in us, Pastor Ben, because that’s what you’re expecting me to say. But to actually recognize what Paul was writing there, if you have these things in your life, if you have this sitting in your life, then you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And it wasn’t just all these horrible things selfish ambition, envy. Have you been jealous of others? Have you coveted others and their possessions and the things that they have? And if that is the case, then the thing that is really in you, what is the real thing inside of us, is a sin that is much darker and deeper than we care to admit, and that we actually, when we come to terms with the fact that we try to scrub it clean, when we try to fix it ourselves, and we realize that we just can’t, then we realize this real thing.

Is a real problem. And this real problem that I have of sin in my life that is so pervasive and so persistent that I need something outside of myself to help me with this problem, that I just can’t fix myself. If, thanks be to God that he gives us this beautiful meal because it isn’t just a simple meal of remembrance of what he was doing there that night, but he was giving us something that was real. Jesus took the bread is it says, and looked Luke. And he said when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given. For you do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup that half likewise the cup, after they had eaten, saying, this cup is poured out for you, is the covenant in my blood. This meal connects us to the Passover, but not the Passover that saved the lives of the firstborn sons. It connects us to the Passover of the firstborn Son of God, the one who laid down his life to much in the same way as the Israelites were about to be delivered, that a lamb had to be sacrificed.

And the next day they walked out with all the riches of Egypt being freed from slavery. Here the Lamb of God is sitting in front of his disciples, instituting this amazing meal where heaven now meets earth, and he’s giving them true body, true blood, and true forgiveness for their true and real sin. They had a real problem, and Christ is giving them a real solution, not only for them, but for the church moving forward, that they would no longer look to themselves, that they would no longer look to their own ability to try to fix their sin, or try to whitewash it and pretend it’s not as bad as it really, that we would want to come to terms with. But rather that in this meal he’s saying, do you know what your sin cost me? It cost me my very flesh and blood that I would be nailed to a tree. And in that we see the vast severity of our sin. But at the same time we see the immense ness of his love and grace for us. In this meal we see the purity of God’s law and his gospel coming to us, that we might taste and see that this is what it cost our Heavenly Father.

I love the way that Martin Luther, the theologian from the 16th century, put this, and I think we can apply it to this meal. When I look to myself. I don’t see how I can be saved, but when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost. And then my prayer for you is that you approach this meal here tonight and moving forward, that you experience what Christ instituted, not a simple symbol of remembrance, but his very true body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Just as he said in His word. And that from that you’d be able to go forward, knowing full well that your sins are forgiven, that you would have assurance and confidence no longer. You’re looking to yourself, but looking to him in all that he accomplished, not in simply instituting the meal, but what comes out the following day on the cross. And these are the final instructions that Paul gives us. He says that whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Do you realize that even here tonight, you receive the strengthening of your faith?

You receive the forgiveness of your sins, and you, with all of heaven, proclaim the victory that has been won for you and for all who will believe by taking this meal and by also taking this meal again, it connects you to the past. It gives you forgiveness here and now, but it also points you and gives you a foretaste of the future that this is a foretaste of the feast that we will experience when we see Jesus face to face, and that this meal, celebrated around the sacrifice that he’s given us, is what we will be celebrating in heaven for eternity. That this good news is not just good enough, that we can come here on a Sunday morning, once a week and sing his praises, but it is good enough that we can stand before his throne for all of eternity, and sing and feast with the lamb who is worthy to be slain. And in this meal he wants to give you that taste, that there’s something better to come. He reminds me of just a few years ago, my family was going through a time of transition, and we were living in a rental house for a couple of years, and the market was up and it was down.

It was up and it was down. And we had fought battle to try to get the house and just kept getting outbid, kept getting outbid. And by God’s grace, he orchestrated things in our life such that we would be able to buy a house. And sure, it was fun to look at pictures. It was fun to show our kids, hey, this is what you know. This is the layout of the house. Here’s the pictures of the house. You know, one day we’re going to be able to go walk in it. One day you’re going to be able to see it. That’s going to be your room. That’s going to be your brother’s room. It’s going to be where you play. It’s the backyard. I’ll never forget. Looking at the pictures paled in comparison to the day that I was able to take my oldest son. Go get things ready. We’re going to start to prep the house for painting and just driving there one night, taking supplies and then just taking a moment to just savor the joy of being able to hold my son in the thing that we were hoping for, to have this living room, to have this house, to have this home for him, to pick him up, to play music, to spin around in that living room, to go, here’s the house.

This is what I wanted for you. This is what I wanted to provide for you. And in the same way, this is what God is giving you. This was a Jesus is giving you. Here’s a taste, here’s a taste, here’s real forgiveness. Here’s my real body. Here’s my real flesh. And it is only a glimpse of the goodness that is being prepared for all of us. A foretaste of the feast to come. Amen.