|
“All
of You!”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Matthew 26:14-28
“Then he took a cup, and after
giving thanks he gave it to them, ‘Drink
from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS we are having the Lord’s Supper today.
And from the Scriptures we just read, right before Jesus even
explained why the wine was his blood, and what that meant, he said
“drink from it, all of you.”
He was actually sitting down, eating, and celebrating the Passover with
his twelve disciples, one of whom was Judas Iscariot, who had just sold
Jesus through a type of betrayal to the High Priests.
Jesus knew this. Jesus
knew his own death was coming by Friday, and he even said that for
someone to betray him, for that person, it would have been better for
him to have not been born. And yet he also said, “Drink from it, all
of you.” In other
words, “drink from it, Judas.”
According to Matthew’s Gospel, after Christ was crucified on the
cross, Judas felt so much
guilt over his betrayal of Jesus that he returned to the High Priest,
gave them back their 30 pieces of silver, and then he went and committed
suicide by hanging himself.
Is Judas in hell, or was he forgiven, so that now his soul is in heaven
with Christ? It may very
well be that most of us at first, think, “He must be in hell, because
he was a disciple of Jesus who turned him over to the people who wanted
to kill Christ, and he did it for money.
What could be more evil than that?”
But, Jesus did offer, and actually told Judas to drink of His blood of
the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
It seems to me that Jesus is offering to Judas, even with regards to all
he had done wrong, a time for Judas to be in his heart, one in union
with Jesus Christ.
In a church which I pastured in Louisiana, there was an elderly,
wonderful medical doctor in our congregation.
He was one of the favorite pediatricians in this small town. He had retired from his private practice and was now working
in a local state prison. He
had been in this Presbyterian Church for 40 years.
He was an Elder. He
had been the Moderator for Pines Presbytery at one time.
He had even been a commissioner to the Presbyterian General
Assembly.
And one time as an Elder, he went with me, in my car, to a Presbytery
meeting. And on the way
home, he told me a story. The
simple essence of his whole story was that he had never been baptized.
The reason that I just told that story is that one of the main issues
about the Lord’s Supper, that our denomination, the Presbyterian
Church, is debating, is whether we should offer the Lord’s Supper only
to those who have been baptized in the Christian Church, or to all who
are present, whether they have been baptized or not.
That elder whom I told the story about, didn’t his life testifying to
his devotion to Christian mission and membership in the church? I did not do anything to force him into being baptized.
Whether he literally did that in this life, he was, by God,
baptized in Christ.
One time I was out golfing, and I ran into a Presbyterian Minister
friend of mine. He had been
a very good minister. I had
this question on my mind, about this issue of whether to offer this
communion only to the baptized, or to all who are there.
When I asked him what he thought about this he said, “I
certainly don’t know the exact answer to this question, so if I am
going to make a mistake, I would rather be on the more gracious side
than the legalistic side.”
I love our ministry that we have had at Sunflower Park, where we have
provided a worship service of God, and within this, every time, we
participated in the Lord’s Supper, where I invited all who were being
called by Christ to participate.
This was the last meal Jesus was having with his closest friends before
his crucifixion on Friday. In
John’s Gospel, it is also recorded that Jesus told them that he was
leaving them through death and resurrection, but they would never be
left alone. Christ would
send them the Holy Spirit, and they would all know that Christ is in
their hearts, and they are with Christ in the heart of God the Father.
There are many styles of Churches that focus most of there teaching on
being saved in Jesus Christ the Son of God.
That is great. There
are many styles of Churches that focus most of their teaching on being
led through this life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That is great. However, I’m not sure I have ever seen a Church that focused
most of its teaching on the truth that God the Father loves you every
bit as much as He loves Jesus.
All of you come to this table, and the body and blood of Jesus Christ
will really take you into the love of God the Father, through God the
Holy Spirit. This is real.
Let us pray… Amen
|