Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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We talked last week of the Mission of Christ. His mission is to seek and to save the lost. And we can all benefit from His mission, because we have all been lost. We’ve been lost physically, emotionally, relationally, but most urgently, spiritually. But because of Christ’s mission, we can be found.

But can we have something for nothing? We know from most of life that the answer is no. I’m not sure if they’re still doing it, but a Nissan dealership in Texas annually held a contest to give away a free truck. Twenty-four people stand around a $15,000 pickup truck, and each person puts one hand on the truck. And they stand there, and stand there, until one by one, people get tired and either purposely or accidentally let their hand slip off the truck. And then when one person is left standing with their hand on the truck, that person gets to keep the truck. I’m not sure how long these contests have lasted, but the one in 1995 lasted 77 hours! Now, do you think the winner got something for nothing? No way! They worked hard for that truck!

But what about in our faith? Can we have something for nothing there? It’s a complicated question, isn’t it? We know that we don’t earn our salvation. Yet we are to live according to God’s commands. Yet living that way isn’t what makes us Christian. Yet if we don’t live that way, or at least work to live that way, that’s a strong indication that we haven’t truly humbled ourselves before God and embraced Christ as Savior.

So is salvation truly free? The truth is, our faith does come at a cost. But we’re not the ones who have paid the price.

Read Matthew 26:26-29

We find in this passage the institution of what we call the Lord’s Supper. It is one of only two ordinances that we observe as a church, the other being baptism. We call them ordinances because Jesus ordained that we observe them. In them we’re reminded of such important spiritual truth. In Luke, we read that Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” So the Lord’s Supper is something we should do to remember Christ. But what does eating bread and drinking the fruit of the vine have to do with Jesus?

The bread is a symbol of His body (v. 26). It doesn’t become the body of Christ. But when we eat the Lord’s Supper, we are to remember His body. It was broken for us. His body was beaten and bruised. On it was placed a crown of thorns, which dug into His flesh. And His body was nailed to the cross, and hung there, until He died. His body was truly broken for us.

Notice, in this text, who broke the bread. Christ broke the bread. Christ offered Himself up as a sacrifice for our sin. He wasn’t compelled. He wasn’t forced. He gave Himself up for us.

The fruit of the vine is a symbol of His blood (v. 27-28). Once again, the juice doesn’t become the blood of Jesus. Rather, we are to remember Christ’s blood shed for us whenever we do this. Christ’s blood was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. This is where it’s important that we have a strong understanding of the Old Testament. The Old Covenant required a lot of blood to be shed. It was forbidden for Jews to eat any blood whatsoever. So they had a sense of respect for blood.

I read a story of a Canadian woman named Vera who’s life was changed forever in 1989. She received a phone call on what started out as a very normal Thursday morning. The person on the phone told her, “There’s been an accident…” It involved her son Ben. As they approached the intersection near the high school, they could see the flashing lights of the police cars and ambulance units. Vera noticed a photographer and followed the direction of his camera lens to the largest pool of blood she had ever seen. Her first reaction was to jump out of the car, somehow collect the blood and put it back into her son. She thought, “That blood, for me, at that moment, became the most precious thing in the world because it was life. It was life-giving blood and it belonged in my son, my only son, the one I loved so much.” The road was dirty and the blood just didn’t belong there. Then Vera understood for the first time in her life, one of God’s greatest and most beautiful truths: that Christ had to shed His blood because it was the strongest illustration God could have used. It was the most precious thing He could give– the highest price He could pay.

Like the Jews, to really appreciate what Christ did for us, we need to have a sense of respect for blood. And then Jesus comes along and says, “This is my blood. Drink it.” Now, as we said, it didn’t turn into blood at that point, but it should cause all of us to realize just how important Christ’s blood is. Christ’s blood is the blood of the covenant. Our blood is not the blood of the covenant. Our actions are not what the covenant is sealed by. Christ’s blood guarantees our forgiveness.

Then Jesus says something quite interesting (v. 29). What’s Jesus talking about? When does this happen? Even while explaining the first Lord’s Supper to His disciples, Jesus shared that He wouldn’t share in it again for a long time. It would be when He drinks it new with us in the Father’s Kingdom. There’s a fellowship that happens as we observe the Lord’s Supper. In it, we remember Christ. We look back upon His death. But we also look forward to His return, and to our resurrection and glorification. Jesus ate the first Lord’s Supper with His disciples just before He was crucified. And He will eat it again with us when all believers together go to be with Him. And in the mean time, we eat it together, to remind ourselves of what Jesus did for us on the cross, so that we would go to be with Him forever.

Can we have something for nothing? The Lord’s Supper is a reminder that we can. Salvation costs us nothing, because there’s nothing we can do to earn it. But it cost Christ His body and His blood, so we do this in remembrance of Him.