Luke 22:19 “19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.””

1Corinthians 11:23 -26 “23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Some things are worth remembering. Our national holidays are filled with dates that a majority of people believe are dates worth remembering. Not everyone celebrates all the holidays. For some, these days are just vacation days. But when we take a vacation, we remember the 4th of July, Veteran’s Day, Columbus Day. Why? These days are worth remembering.

Some of you have certain death days memorized. My mother died on March 15th, my step-father on December 1st. These people were important to me. They were so special that I remember their death dates.

Communion is a remembrance of a death date, the death of Jesus Christ. Some people make more of it, believing that the bread and juice that we will serve in some way, either physically or spiritually, turn into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. We do not believe that. We believe that the bread and juice are symbols that help us remember the death of Jesus Christ.

So why is the death of Jesus so important? Why is his death something that we should remember?

The answer to this is important. Some Christians think that communion is optional. If communion comes at a convenient time or in a convenient place, they will partake. But to make a special effort, to give it a place of importance, is not something that comes natural.

So why is the death so important? Why should we remember his death?

Our first clue comes from the context of the first communion service. This is outlined in Luke 22:19.

Luke 22:19 “19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.””

What is happening in Luke 22? Luke 22:8 “8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.””

Luke 22 is the account of Jesus and the disciples eating the Passover. And here in the Passover, we find the first clue as to the importance of this meal. The first mention of the Passover is in Exdus 12.

Exodus 12:1 -14 “1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door-frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance.”

The Passover was a celebration of the passing over. When this last plague came to Egypt, God was going to take the oldest son from every family. When the angel came to a house it would find the oldest son and the oldest son would die. This was a rough way that God chose to have Pharaoh release the children of Israel from their captivity. Nothing else would work.

There were exceptions, however. Every household that had lamb’s blood applied to the top and sides of the door would be passed over, hence the word Passover.

This required faith. If someone came to you and said, “Your children will die if you do not put blood over the door”, what would you do? You would have to have real faith to do it. Precious lambs would be lost if you were wrong. You would be a laughingstock to your Egyptian neighbors if nothing happened. It took real faith to apply the blood to the door.

But for those who did, for those whose faith responded in obedience, they would be passed over.

Pharaoh’s home suffered. He did not have the blood applied to his home. His eldest son died. But the Jewish people believed. They killed the lamb, applied the blood and were passed over.

God wanted them to remember this point. Because of the blood they were passed over. This was a turning point for the nation of Israel. The next morning, Pharaoh let them go. They left immediately. This event started the march for the promise land. God never wanted them to forget the night that the death angel passed over them.

And they didn’t. We see Jesus and his disciples celebrating Passover, remembering the time the death angel passed over Israel and brought them out of slavery, out of Egypt.

The message that Jesus gives is even more significant than the Passover. He takes the bread, he takes the cup and he says in effect, “This is me. This is my body and this is my blood. I am the Passover lamb.”

John the Baptist said it well. He said to his disciples when Jesus came walking over, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” And then John the Baptist said this in John 3:36 “36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.””

Just as God was angry at Egypt for not letting the children of Israel go, so he also is angry at us for our sin against Him.

One person wrote these words. “God is a force in every being, deciding if it’s a higher entity or part of your own consciousness is up to you.” That is like saying to someone about you, “So-and so is a human being. Whether or not he is real or imaginary is up to you.” You would be insulted. Yet this kind of thinking permeates our world.

God is real. He created us. He formed us in our mother’s womb. He loved us and sent Jesus to die for us. We reject his position, we reject his admonition, we reject his Son and yet we expect that God is going to treat us well. It doesn’t happen that way.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. There is none righteous, no not one. The wages of sin is death.

This describes me and it describes you. As a result, God’s wrath rests or abides on us…unless…

Unless on the door of our heart is sprinkled the blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus is that lamb. On the cross he took our sin. On the cross he took our punishment. On the cross, his blood was shed for us. For, as the Bible tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.”

This is the message of John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

And one day we realized that Jesus died for us. And by faith, we trusted that his death would bring us forgiveness of sin. His blood, applied to our lives, would give us life. So we came to the lamb of God. He died for us. We took his blood and by faith applied it to us. Jesus became our Passover lamb.

Now we believe that when death comes, we will be passed over because Jesus died for us. For the Christian, it is the most significant event in our lives. It is greater than our marriage. It is greater than the birth of our children. It is greater than any award or prize that the world might give. For the day we trusted Christ was the day we passed from death to life.

So we remember the Lord’s death until he comes. His death brings us back to reality. We were sinners, but now, by his grace, we are forgiven people. We are lost without him, but now, we are accepted by the most High God.

This morning we come to remember his death for us. There are some questions I want to answer for those of you who are new to this church or new to the faith.

Question 1: Who can take part in communion?

The answer is clear. Every person who has applied the blood of Jesus to the doorpost of their lives, every person who has everlasting life because of Jesus, every person who puts their trust in Jesus Christ, may partake of communion.

You don’t have to be a member of this church to take communion, but you do need to trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

You don’t need to be over eighteen to take communion. Any person, man, woman or child, who has put their trust in Jesus, make take communion. We encourage children to do so with their parent’s permission, as this is a holy ordinance.

If you are deliberately sinning, you are living in a sinful situation, if you are unforgiving, if you have stolen or are knowingly hurting other people, we encourage you not to take communion. Christ died to free you from sin. To knowingly and purposefully continue in sin when you know that Christ wants you to change is an affront to the meaning of the cross. You need to get that situation corrected with God’s help and then partake of this remembrance.

Question 2: How will communion be served and why do you do it the way you do?

We will start by passing out the bread. The bread symbolized the body of Christ, which hung on the cross for us. We will pass out the bread. The people passing out the bread will be serving you. When you see them, think of Jesus who washed the feet of the disciples and served them. We ask that you wait until everyone is served before eating the bread. During that time music will be playing. This is a time of meditation. I usually choose to think about the cross, about where my relationship with Christ is, to confess sin and to thank God for Jesus.

When the bread is passed out to everyone, I will serve the servers. As the spokesperson for the church, the one God has called to pastor you, this will be a reminder to me that I am only here as a servant of God and your servant. I need that reminder.

I will then say a few words and when I take the bread, you will all join me at that moment.

We will repeat the same procedure for the cup. Whereas the bread symbolizes the body of Christ, the cup symbolizes the blood of Jesus. He is our Passover lamb. His blood, which was shed for us, is applied to the door of our hearts. We will not perish, but have everlasting life because of Jesus. We use the cup to remember his death until he comes.

Let’s remember.