Sermon - Maundy Thursday Service

[00:00:04] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. From God our father and from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:12] We're going to focus on the epistle reading from one corinthians ten. I'm going to read it again. It's just a couple verses. [00:00:21] The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? [00:00:28] The bread that we break? Is it not a participation in the body of Christ? [00:00:34] Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. [00:00:43] Okay, so let's focus on that last part first. All right? [00:00:48] Because there is one bread. We who are many are one body. [00:00:53] Because we all partake of the one bread. Okay, so let's talk about a body. [00:01:00] I have a body. We've talked about this before, right? What does my body do? [00:01:08] All kinds of things, right? Depends on what part of my body it is, right? My toes, they kind of squeeze a little bit to keep me balanced, right? And my arms, they can grab things and they can. Okay, and what's controlling all of this? [00:01:29] Brain? Or you could just say head, right? [00:01:34] Okay, we all agree. [00:01:36] All right, so I've got a head and I've got a body, and my body usually listens to my head. It's good if it does, right? Because if it doesn't, who knows what's going to happen, right? I could be talking, and then just all of a sudden, you know, if my body turned against me, whoo, that would be bad. [00:01:56] Be really bad. [00:01:58] If I were really strong, it'd be really bad. [00:02:01] Okay, so my body, it listens to me, right? Listens to the head, and everything can. Everything can work together really well. I can walk, right? So it's not just my legs moving, but it's my feet and my toes and my arms are keeping balance, right? It's like everything's working together really well because it's all following one head. [00:02:25] All right, so let me use this word, okay? [00:02:31] My hand is participating in the life of my head, okay? It's just like this. If you were doing pe, if you were at PE and your teacher's telling you, okay, now run that way and everybody runs, right? And now run that way and everybody's running, right? But you decide, I don't want to run. [00:03:02] Are you participating? No. No. You're not participating in Penn, which would be crazy. Cause pe's fun, right? I don't know why anybody would do that. But you're deciding I'm not gonna participate. [00:03:15] You understand that word? Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, so if my hand decides, uh uh. I'm not participating in that. It's not participating. You see that? But if you're running in PE and doing exactly what the teacher said, then you're participating in pepper. Okay? All right? And if my hand decides I'm going to listen to my head, then it's participating, okay? So that's kind of what we mean by participation, okay? Now, by participating in your class, you're part of something bigger than yourself, right? All the members of your class, by listening to your teacher, they're all, all of you are kind of taken up into this bigger thing called your class or called school or called Greeley or called the United States of America, or called church, right? Or called your family. [00:04:17] You participate in all those things. [00:04:22] Which ones don't you participate in? I'm just kidding. Yeah, you do, right? You participate in all kinds of things and that makes you a part of something bigger. [00:04:33] And all of those things actually change your life. [00:04:38] You know that? Like since you participate in PE, you run around and you get stronger and you're part of, you see what I mean? Since you participate in school, well, that makes you a student and then that makes you a learner. Like you're listening to your teacher and it actually changes the way you think. Now, you understand about the revolutionary war or about the body or things like that because you've been listening to your teacher and participating and that participating has transformed you. Right? Now, you're a student, you're a brother or a sister, you're a son or a daughter. You see what I mean? You're a citizen of the United States. [00:05:18] Yeah, yeah. Or uncle. Yeah. You're not an uncle yet though, are you, Maverick? You are. That is so cool. I'm gonna give you a high five for that. That's awesome. Good for you. I'm an uncle too. [00:05:33] All right, so, so you participate in all these things and all these things pull you up, okay? Like you participate in a family, well, that family. Like you're part of that family. [00:05:51] See what I mean? Like you're a student in this school, alright? So you participate and then you receive identity. You become something. [00:06:01] See what I mean? Okay? So participation, this just happens all the time in all kinds of ways in life. So let's just listen to this again, because there is one bread. We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread, okay? Or participate, receive the one bread. [00:06:25] So it's talking about Christ, right? Christ said, this is my body, okay? And by eating his body. We participate in him. Now, I want to expand it, okay? There are, well, other ways of participating in Christ, okay? You've heard it said that we are Christ's body, right? We all together, like all the people who believe in Jesus, we together are Christ's body. We participate in Christ. [00:06:58] Just like you're a part of a school. Like you are the school's body, okay? Just like I have a bunch of parts that are all part of me, the school has a bunch of parts, and you're all part of the school. Your family has a bunch of parts, and. And they're all part of the family, okay? They're all the family's body. This is the kind of language that's being used here, okay? So we are all Christ's body because we participate in him, all right? Now, you participate in your class by listening to your teacher, right? [00:07:29] Okay? Because your teacher is like the head. Your teacher is guiding you all so that you run there or run there, right? [00:07:39] Okay? Now, if we are Christ's body, Christ is our head, okay? And listening to him, then we participate in something bigger than us. We participate in him, okay? And that's by faith. Like looking to Jesus and listening to him, that's faith. That's faith in Jesus. [00:08:01] All right? Here's another example of that from the Old Testament reading. [00:08:12] Then Moses took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Do you hear that? [00:08:25] Okay, all that the Lord has spoken we will do. Just like if you all listen to everything your teacher speaks, you become sort of the body of the class. Are you following me? It's a little complicated, but it's kind of simple, too, isn't it? Okay, so they say all the Lord has said, we will do. They're becoming his body, right? By participating in him. In their head. He's their head, okay? [00:08:54] It's the same kind of thing with Jesus. We are his body by listening to him, by looking to him in faith, right? By following him, right? We all together now. So we get that by faith. Another way we get it is in baptism, which is also related to faith, okay? In baptism, we're united to Jesus in his death and resurrection. That is to say, we participate in his death and resurrection. We've talked about this before, like, in Jesus we die, in Jesus we live, okay? We're all wrapped up into Jesus life through baptism and by faith. [00:09:35] Now, there's another way, okay? And that's in the Lord's supper. We're gonna receive the Lord's supper this morning, okay? But Jesus said on the night when he was betrayed, at the last supper that we just read about, he said, he said, take, eat. This is my body, okay? [00:09:55] Take, eat. This is my body. And by, well, when we eat something, we make it a part of us, and then we become it, okay? So Jesus is saying, this is my body, and he's making us his body. Listen to this. He said of the bread, this is my body, right? [00:10:16] Because there is one bread. We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. [00:10:26] So when you see the bread up here, okay, we're receiving bread. Now, this is happening all over the world. You know that on Maundy Thursday, people all over the world are doing what we're doing, doing right now, okay? Christians all over the world are doing it, okay? And when they receive the bread and the wine, they're receiving Jesus body and blood as well. [00:10:52] It says, there's one bread. [00:10:56] There's one. Well, there's kind of lots of breads in a sense, right? If it's happening all over the world. But those breads are all. [00:11:04] They're all one bread because it's Jesus body, right? His one body. And we all, with christians around the world and throughout time, okay? I mean, throughout time, all God's people, we're all one body, right? Jesus just has one body, but by receiving his body, we're participating in his body, and we become his body, okay? Just like when you're a part of the body of a school, you get taken up into the life of the school. Like, now you're a student, right? That kind of thing. Or in a family. Now you're a son or a daughter, okay? It's the same thing. Now we are God's children now we are, well, we die and we rise with Jesus, right? We participate in his life. He pulls us up into his life, okay? That's what it means to participate, okay? So the whole thing again, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ, the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread. We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. [00:12:24] Now, the Lord's supper, not all of us are going to be receiving it. But as you get older, when you're in 7th and 8th grade, it was fifth and 6th grade. Now we're moving it to 7th and 8th grade. But when you're going into 7th grade, you could be in what we call confirmation class. [00:12:44] And that's where you learn more. [00:12:47] You learn more about the Bible, you learn more about church, you learn more about the Lord's supper and baptism and all kinds of things, okay? But then through confirmation, you become prepared to receive communion. And now, by believing in Jesus and by being baptized, you're already participating in Christ. And he's pulled you up into his life so that in him you've died and you live with him, right? So that in him you have the promise of the resurrection, so that in him, your sins are forgiven. But the Lord's supper is just another way to receive that holy communion. It's just another way to participate in Jesus body, right, and to be brought up into his life. [00:13:35] Okay? So today when we have communion, if you're not receiving communion, you can thank God for being. For participating in Jesus in his death and resurrection in his life, for having your sins forgiven by faith and through baptism. And you can look forward to a day when you can receive his body and blood in the Lord's supper. [00:14:04] But remember this, okay? Today we are. [00:14:10] We're focusing on the last supper of Jesus when he said, this is my body, this is my blood. But after the supper, do you know what happened? [00:14:22] Anybody know what happened after the supper? [00:14:27] Hannah? [00:14:30] Sorry. Say that again? [00:14:33] Yes, yes. He got. He was arrested after dinner, okay? He was arrested, and then all night he was under trial, and then the next day he was crucified. So the next day is tomorrow. [00:14:47] Tomorrow we'll have church. You're not going to be at school, but if you want, you can come to church at 10:00 and at 06:00 we'll have a service that's focused on Jesus crucifixion. [00:15:00] And then on Sunday. [00:15:02] What day is Sunday? [00:15:05] It's Easter, and Easter is a celebration of Jesus resurrection from the dead. So we've got. Tonight we've got his arrest, and then tomorrow we have his crucifixion. And then on Sunday, we have his resurrection from the dead, which is one of the. It's the most exciting Sunday in the year, okay? Because we're celebrating his resurrection. You can come at 06:00 a.m. And at 830 and 1030, we'll have services to celebrate Jesus resurrection. But here we are still on Maundy Thursday. [00:15:39] All right, and the end of this service. [00:15:42] At the end of this service, I'm going to chant. It's kind of a special way of singing psalm 22. [00:15:49] Okay. Psalm 22 is about Jesus crucifixion. And then when that's over, we're going to leave in silence, okay? Because we're going to be thinking about Jesus crucifixion, which is coming tomorrow. Okay? We're going to be thinking about how he was arrested and crucified, and it's kind of a serious thing. So we're going to leave. We're going to leave at the end of the service in silence after I chant psalm 22. Okay? [00:16:11] But here's the key. Remember. [00:16:13] Remember that by faith and through baptism and in the Lord's supper, you participate in Jesus death and resurrection. That means the. The next few days, as we think about him dying on the cross and rising from the dead, see yourself in him. That Jesus died for you and that he rose from the dead for you, and that he's drawn you up into his life so that he could take you through death to life, so that nothing could hurt you, so that your sins are forgiven, so that you have life and the promise of resurrection from the dead in him, so that you participate in him. Right? [00:16:51] In Jesus name. Amen.