Matthew 26:26-30 (KJV) "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. {27} And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; {28} For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. {29} But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. {30} And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives."

We as believers routinely gather together - some weekly, others on a quarterly basis - and celebrate that sacrament we call the "Lord's Table". Yet the Table should never be considered routine or commonplace. The Lord's Table is a perfect jewel, a precious thing that our Savior left for us. Throughout the Old Testament the Lord gave Israel ritual after ritual in the Mosaic Law. The purpose of these many rituals were to teach Israel about the coming Jesus. The Law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ:

Galatians 3:24-25 (KJV) "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. {25} But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

The Law as a schoolmaster could not save anyone. This was not because the Law was imperfect, for the Law was - is - perfect, righteous, holy, just. The Law is without flaw. We are the flawed ones, we are the ones who could not keep His Law. The Law was not given to save, nor were the rituals of the Law given to save:

Galatians 3:21 (KJV) "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law."

The Law was a teaching tool to lead us to Christ, and the Law - like a Swiss Army knife - contained many tools hidden, folded within its handle. The rituals of the Law were for training God's chosen nation. But beloved, within the Church Age there are only two sacraments, two training tools that our Lord has left for us. We who are saved by faith in Christ in this present age are left with two wonderful training tools - the Lord's Table, and the ritual of water baptism. Neither tool should be treated lightly, or dismissed as mere ritual. Though both tools have no ability to save the soul, just as the Law had no ability to save the soul, both tools teach us deeper truths, and both tools lead us closer to Christ. Of the two tools the Christian has been endowed with, only one of these tools are commanded to be repeated on a regular basis.

And that is the Lord's Table.

1. The Table Shows That Jesus Gave His Life

Matthew 26:26-30 (KJV) "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

The Bible says that Jesus took bread.

It is interesting that the bread that our Lord took was unleavened bread, bread that remained uneaten up until this point, bread that came from the Jewish feast of the Passover. The bread Jesus took was unleavened, unblemished. In ancient Israel God used leavening agents like yeast to represent sin:

Mark 8:15 (KJV) "And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."

And only unleavened bread was used in the feast of the Passover. Jesus Himself took some of this unleavened bread, and in the Jewish tradition broke the bread while telling His disciples "This is My body".

The Bible says that Jesus took bread. Jesus took His own body, and gave it to us. There is a lot of talk about the murder of Jesus Christ in evangelical circles. There are a lot of people who liken what Jesus did for us on the Cross to the act of a martyr, to someone who had his life snuffed out prematurely. Yet when we are told "Jesus took", our Lord taught us that His crucifiction was not some awful mistake, nor was it a miscarriage of justice. Though the High Priest and the religious crowd brought Jesus up on false charges, though Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, though Pontius Pilate allowed an innocent Man to be crucified, though these people are in eternity now suffering for their unbelief and evil, Jesus Christ was not murdered. His life was surrendered to death so that we could have eternal life.

Jesus said:

John 10:15-18 (KJV) "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. {16} And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. {17} Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. {18} No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."

Jesus said "I lay down my life for the sheep". His life was not taken away from Him, nor was He murdered. Our Lord said "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself". When we see the death of Christ on the Cross there is something inside of us that says, "this must have been a travesty of justice. He must have been murdered, taken away. Things must have gotten out of hand, and Jesus must have suffered more than was needed. Pilate must have been a monster, and we do not understand how a High Priest could be so corrupt". Certainly this thing could not be voluntary. Yet Jesus says that it was.

Jesus laid down His life for us. His life was in His own hands, and He made His own choices. When Jesus stood in the Garden that dark night, so long, long ago, He said:

Luke 22:42-44 (KJV) "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. {43} And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. {44} And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

Philippians 2:8 (KJV) "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Jesus our Lord was willing to go to the Cross for us, willing to be obedient - even unto death - yet it was not His heart's desire to do this. His death was necessary that we might have life. Jesus' blood had to be shed in order that we, dead in sin, could have eternal life. Jesus did this for us despite the suffering, despite the agony. When we speak of crucifiction we, as Gentiles, have only a dim concept of the agony involved in that terrible process. Doctor David Terasaka wrote in his article "Medical Aspects of the Crucifiction":

Psalm 22:14-15: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death."

"Having suffered from the beatings and flogging, Jesus suffered from severe hypovolemia from the loss of blood. The verse above describe His dehydrated state and loss of His strength.

When the cross was erected upright, there was tremendous strain put on the wrists, arms and shoulders, resulting in a dislocation of the shoulder and elbow joints. (Metherall) The arms, being held up and outward, held the rib cage in a fixed end inspiratory position which made it extremely difficult to exhale, and impossible to take a full breath. The victim would only be able to take very shallow breaths. (This may explain why Jesus made very short statements while on the cross). As time passed, the muscles, from the loss of blood, last of oxygen and the fixed position of the body, would undergo severe cramps and spasmodic contractions."

Jesus went through a literal hell on earth so that we could spend an eternity in Heaven. He took the Bread, His life, into His own hands and chose to surrender that life for us. If at any time Jesus had called out "enough!", the angels of Heaven would have rallied to His defense regardless as to our eternal estate. Yet Jesus held His tongue, and went to His death - for us. C.H. Spurgeon said:

"What learn we here as we see our blessed Lord led forth? Do we not perceive that truth which was set forth in shadow by the scapegoat? Did not the high-priest bring the scapegoat, and put both his hands upon its head, confessing the sins of the people, that thus those sins might be laid upon the goat, and cease from the people? Then the goat was led away by a fit man into the wilderness, and it carried away the sins of the people, so that if they were sought for they could not be found. Now we see Jesus brought before the priests and rulers, who pronounce Him guilty; God Himself imputes our sins to Him, "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" "He was made sin for us;" and, as the substitute for our guilt, bearing our sin upon His shoulders, represented by the cross; we see the great Scapegoat led away by the appointed officers of justice. Beloved, can you feel assured that He carried your sin? As you look at the cross upon His shoulders, does it represent your sin? There is one way by which you can tell whether He carried your sin or not. Have you laid your hand upon His head, confessed your sin, and trusted in Him? Then your sin lies not on you; it has all been transferred by blessed imputation to Christ, and He bears it on His shoulder as a load heavier than the cross."

2. The Table Demonstrates What Christ Expects Of Us

When we as Christians come together at the Lord's Table, we see Christ - our scapegoat - carrying the burden and judgment of sin away from us. We see Jesus bearing a penalty far greater than we can imagine for us. Yet we also see our Savior showing us by example how we who are under Grace are to live our lives. Jesus shows us a Biblical truth in the Passover, a truth foreign to many - even many Christians - in this Church Age. The Bible says:

1 John 3:16 (KJV) "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

There is a Divine Order in the Lord's Table, a deeper truth perceived by few. Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it. This is a Biblical principle, a Divine principle, a principle that, if we understood it, if we who claim to be Christian understood it, the Church of Christ would be far more imposing in our world today.

I recently read an article in Charisma magazine that said the megachurches of today are run like large corporations. That the most effective, the most far reaching, and the fastest growing churches are those that are run where the pastor is president, the deacons vice presidents, and the board of directors control the big business that has become the church. Yet this is not what God demanded of His Church. This is not the example that Jesus shows us in the order of breaking bread. God has an order in life that He wants us to follow, and that order is shown in the Lord's Table.

Jesus took bread ... took His own life in His own hands. He did not act selfishly, for God cannot be selfish, nor can God bless the Christian who is selfish. Just as Jesus took His own life in His own hands, we are to take our lives in our own hands.

and blessed it .... Jesus knew what was coming, knew the agony that He was going to suffer. Yet He blessed the bread, His life, the giving of His life anyway. As the Scripture says:

Heb 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

It is easy for us to give if we keep something in reserve. It is easy for us to give a little if we know that we have a lot left. Our churches today are literally overflowing with people who wallow in selfishness, who hop from church to church, who, as the Scripture says:

2 Timothy 3:7 (KJV) "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Selfishness never prospers. When you store up your treasures in this life, when you approach everything with a "what's in it for me" attitude, you will never be blessed. God cannot and does not bless selfishness, but God can and does bless the broken surrendered life. Jesus knew exactly what He was getting into. Jesus knew that He would suffer great physical pain, great spiritual pain, and that the choice was His. His life, just like that bread, was in His hands, and He chose how to surrender it.

I, like many prophets and preachers before me, have seen so many involved in their own self satisfaction. I myself have been guilty of the same thing, refusing to surrender my all to God. But unless we, like Jesus, take bread - our lives - and bless it - surrender it with thankful hearts to God - and break it - then we shall never be blessed. If you wish to be exalted, if you wish to prosper, you must surrender your life to God in all things. The God surrendered life is the God Blessed life. God blessed the surrendered life. God prospers the surrendered life. But God turns away from the selfish life.

We are all familiar with the story of the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:34-44). Though Jesus' disciples counselled our Lord to send the multitude away, though they felt that the crowd ought to go home and get their own lunch, Jesus refused such a thing. The Bible says:

Mark 6:41 (KJV) "And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all."

That Jesus took the five loaves, and blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the multitude - and there was enough left over when the five thousand were fed to fill twelves baskets. This is God's divine order for the Christian. We take our lives, ask God to bless our lives, allow our lives to be broken, and give our lives to others. The life held in selfishness is an unblessed and miserable life, but the life surrendered, as Christ surrendered, is a blessed though broken life. This miracle was repeated at the feeding of the four thousand:

Matthew 15:36 (KJV) "And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude."

Jesus took the loaves, and blessed them, and brake them, and gave them, and there was a super abundance for all. Again, you see God's Divine principle of surrender and giving. God will not bless the selfish life. God will not bless the non-surrendered life. The Pharisees and the religious crowd followed the Law ritually perfect, yet were cursed for they had no relationship with God. You cannot merely follow the ritual of the Lord's Table and expect to be blessed. You must surrender to God's Plan, God's Will, God's Order, God's Way. You must, as our Lord and Savior did, take your life in hand, bless it, allow God to break it give it - then you shall be blessed. If the Church of Jesus Christ is to be run like a corporation, then run it like a corporation of love. Do as our Lord commanded us to do:

John 13:34-35 (KJV) "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. {35} By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

3. The Table Reminds Us Of Our Destiny

Matthew 26:29 "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

Jesus made a promise to every Christian on the day He instituted the first Lord's Table. He promised that He would not share that Table with us again until we meet with Him in God's Heavenly Kingdom. The Lord's Table that we take today is a memorial or a remembrance that we will one day be with Jesus in eternity. On that wonderful and eternal day we will step out of this life and into a life that we cannot now, with our dim human minds, comprehend.

That future promised table belongs only to those who have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Savior. Listen Beloved: a Christian is not a perfect person, but a Christian is a redeemed person. Unless you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, unless you recognize Him as the One Who died for you, then you will not be at that future promised Table. As the Scripture says:

Ephesians 2:12-17 (KJV) "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: {13} But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. {14} For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; {15} Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; {16} And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: {17} And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh."

Before we partake of the Lord's Table I ask that you examine your lives. Examine your lives, first of all, to insure that you know Jesus Christ as your Savior. The Lord's Table is for Christians, not non-believers. Second, examine your lives to insure that you are in fellowship with God. If you have active sin in your life, confess that sin before God:

1 John 1:8-9 (KJV) "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. {9} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The Lord's Table is a time of refreshing for every believer, a time to refoicus, a time to get back in fellowship with God. If you take the table lightly or blasphemously then you endanger your own life - for our God reverences the Table He has given us. Repent, if need be, and turn fully to Jesus. Surrender to Him, and be fully blessed.