Title: The New Covenant of Life
Contents
Last Sunday, during the worship service, the initiation and baptism rites were held. And for those who participated in the rite of baptism for the first time, he preached a sermon explaining what baptism is.
Today, we will also hold the sacrament service during the worship service. So, again, I would like to give a sermon explaining what the sacrament is for those who are participating in the communion service for the first time.
As we have already said last week, the Eucharist is one of two sacraments of the Church instituted by Jesus Christ along with Baptism.
We all know that Baptism is a highly symbolic sacrament. In baptism, water is used, and water symbolizes the washing away of sins and the death and burial of the old man, that is, the body of sin. In a word, it symbolizes our salvation.
In Jesus Christ we have forgiveness of our sins, that we die to sin and rise to life to God.
When we are baptized with that faith, we are united into Christ Jesus and live eternally in a glorious new life.
The sacrament is as deeply symbolic as baptism.
If water is used in baptism, then bread and wine are used in the Eucharist.
In verse 22, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said,
“Take it. This is my body.” You did. The bread symbolizes the body of Jesus. Jesus gave the bread the symbolism of his body and broke it and gave it to his disciples. And the disciples took the bread and ate it.
What does this act of sharing the bread symbolizing the body of Jesus Christ mean?
Jesus referred to Himself as “the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48).
Bread refers to our daily food for living. It is a food that no one can help but starve to death if they don't eat it.
Giving bread the symbolism of the body of Jesus Christ and sharing the bread is a symbolic act of believing and confessing that we can only live by Jesus Christ. Jesus symbolically confirmed the truth of salvation and life by using bread at a meal with his disciples.
Just as a person dies from starvation, He clearly taught that if we do not believe in and accept Jesus Christ, who is the food of our spirit, we cannot but die.
Jesus compared Himself to bread, but there is a big difference between the bread we eat every day and Jesus.
If you eat bread, you will be full for a while and then you will be hungry again, but Jesus is the food that will keep you from hunger forever.
Listen to Jesus himself. Here are the words from John 6:35:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. ... My Father's will is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise it up on the last day. ... Verily, verily, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life, and I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that no one can eat it and die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. ... This is the bread that came down from heaven, and it is not as the ancestors ate and died; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:35, 40, 47-51, 58).
Another highly symbolic substance used in the Eucharist is wine.
In verse 24 of today's text, Jesus took the cup and, after giving thanks, gave it to the disciples to drink and said, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many." He did it (Mark 14:24).
Wine symbolizes the blood of Jesus. Then, what does it mean to give wine the symbolism of the blood of Jesus Christ and share the wine? This is also a confession of faith that if it is not for Jesus Christ, we will die, and that our mortal life has come to be lived because of Jesus Christ.
Blood means life.
If a person bleeds and spills all of it, he dies. You need a blood transfusion quickly. The blood of Jesus Christ is the true blood of life that everyone should receive. It is the blood of eternal life. Because it is the blood of the covenant established by God. All the unclean blood in us must be drained and filled with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Only the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross is the blood that cleanses us and enables us to become God's people and live a blessed life forever. When we believe in it, confess it, and partake of the Lord's Supper, Jesus Christ mysteriously abides in us, and a wonderful event of grace takes place.
Listen to Jesus again. John 6:53-57 says:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.”
What is Passover? The last of the ten plagues that came upon Egypt to free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt where they were subjected to hard labor and lived as slaves, was to kill all living beings born in the land of Egypt.
It is the act of receiving the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper to confess our faith that we are set free and saved from death, despair, and sin because of his torn flesh and shed blood on the cross. God made a covenant with the people of Israel who came out of Egypt through the blood of the cattle Moses sprinkled on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1-8).
God has renewed that covenant. This is the new covenant that was made not only with the people of Israel but also with all the people of the world, not on Mount Sinai but on Mount Zion on Calvary Hill, not with the blood of cattle, but with the blood of your Son Jesus Christ on the cross. Through faith in Jesus Christ and his saving grace, God becomes our Father and we become God's beloved children and enjoy eternally blessed lives. That is the new covenant of life given in Jesus Christ.
Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Receive.” You did.
The bread we receive is the bread that the Lord Himself blessed for us. It is a cake that will surely follow you.
There is nothing so stupid and pitiful as rejecting this. The Lord wants all of us to receive the offer of salvation and true life that He has reached out with His hand.
As with baptism, the Lord's Supper has no meaning or effect by merely mechanically receiving bread and wine, eating and drinking.
When we receive the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper with the faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us to set us free from sin, death, and despair, and to live a blessed life forever, we become one with Christ. You will enjoy the wonderful grace of the union of
Someone who came out of the sacrament meeting looked upset and said, “No matter how hard I try to believe that the bread and wine are the flesh and blood of the Lord, I cannot believe it. I must have no faith.” I think there will be more like that.
But you guys, that's a mistake. It goes without saying that the bread and wine we hold in our hands are not considered the flesh and blood of the Lord. The reason is simple. For bread is always bread and wine is always wine. This is because the events of the bread turning into the Lord's flesh and the wine into the Lord's blood never happen.
The bread and wine we hold in our hands are still the same as bread and wine, but knowing that it symbolizes the torn flesh and shed blood of Jesus on the cross, we turn our thoughts to Jesus, meditate on his death on the cross, and meditate on his death on the cross. All we need to do is to believe in our Atonement and salvation, to thank God for His grace, and to strive to live a life that responds to His grace.
May all of us today participate in the wonderful place of grace with firm faith in Jesus Christ and his saving grace.