In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of Jesus' final moments before his crucifixion. Jesus prioritized spending time with his disciples and discussing important matters. The speaker highlights the significance of the Lord's Supper, where Jesus broke bread and shared wine with his disciples, symbolizing his body and blood. The speaker also emphasizes the need for Christians to refresh and support each other in their faith, rather than being influenced by the world. The sermon concludes by emphasizing that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of sins, and that Christians should remember and honor this sacrifice through the Lord's Supper.

He's at A, last one, fourth subject. My name is Jacob Pratt. I'm an evangelist to people of other faiths, beginning with the Jews, and my family are Israeli Jewish believers. Drawing on this background, I'd like to highlight a few points to do with the Lord's Supper that most Christians, unfortunately, fail to grasp, and therefore, they're not properly understanding the Lord's Supper, the blessing of God in it, or the way in which it should be practiced. You know, we have to understand something. That because the founders of Protestantism, watched the dissidents themselves in Roman Catholicism, who thought that Jesus died again and again and again in the past, downplayed the significance and the importance of the Lord's Supper, some of them only taking the Lord's Supper at specific times. I myself am utterly convinced that when we understand the Lord's Supper in its original Jewish perspective, we see it as a memorial, what we say in Hebrew, a zikaron. And as a memorial, we see it is not a replay or even a recapitulation of Calvary, but a memorial of it. A Jewish understanding of the Lord's Supper would not allow such doctrines as transubstantiation. It is only when you take a Jewish Passover meal, which is what the Last Supper was, a Jewish Passover Seder, and take it out of its Jewish context, that you can arrive at such doctrines as transubstantiation or the idea that Jesus dies again sacramentally. Nonetheless, the Reformers and the founders of Protestantism went to the other extreme, not wanting to have a mass every day, every day, every day, or anything resembling it. Some of these only took the Lord's Supper periodically, usually four times a year. This is simply not scriptural either. Jesus said, as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. The early church called the Lord's Supper agape, Love's Feast, and they did it once a week, normally on Sunday. In any event, let's begin to look at some of these aspects of the Lord's Supper not covered by most Christian thinking. First of all, the Jewish Passover happens in the month of Nisan, when the Lord Jesus himself came to die with the same time of year, the same date, in which the season of Israel was by Moses, out of Egypt. To a Jewish Passover family, being celebrated now in their family environment, they would look upon the Passover, which they would call Pesach, this way. They look back and they look forward. They look back to what God did when he delivered them from Egypt in the month of Nisan, but they in turn also look forward to what God would do when the Messiah came. So, Christians, when we take the Lord's Supper, we should be looking back and looking forward. As we are told in the New Testament, in Romans, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, St. Paul tells us in verse 26, Jewish people look back and look forward, and when we take the Lord's Supper, we are looking back and looking forward. To this day, observant Jewish families have a miniature Passover every Friday night, which they call Kiddush Shabbat, Blessings for Sabbath. And so too, Christians should have a regular, weekly Passover celebration, as the early Christians did, the Lord's Supper. Nonetheless, let's look at how Passover begins. Passover began with something called HaBedikah HaMevch, the search for heaven. Our tradition of spring cleaning dates back to this time. A Jewish wife cleans all of the leaven from the house, so the Passover can be celebrated. And you play a game with your children when they're small. You leave a little bit of leaven, usually a bit of bread or biscuit, something containing yeast. And the children find it in a game, and they receive a reward. You then take this bit of leaven outside of the house with your whole family, and you stand around it, and you burn it. And as you burn it, you pray a prayer of repentance of the family. May this leaven and all the leaven we've not found be considered null and void. There could be no leaven to celebrate the Passover. What is this leaven? To understand this, we again go to 1 Corinthians. It is the book of the Bible that explains the most about Passover and the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, Rabbi Shaul of Parsis, known as Paul the Apostle, tells us this in verse 6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the entire lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been saved twice. Let us therefore celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice, the leaven of wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Clean out the old leaven, your boasting is not good. Leaven puffs up. Leaven, first of all, has to do with pride. Pride is the kind of sin which undergirds other sins. The first sin was pride. Satan wanting to be God. We read about this, of course, in the prophet Isaiah, Yisra'yahu Hanavi, chapter 14, where, as a metaphor for Satan, he uses the king of Babylon. And he says, How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to earth, you who have weakened the nation. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise myself from above the stars of God and sit on the mount of Assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and make myself like the most high. Satan wanted to be God. So when he tempted man, Adam and Eve, he said, You will be like God. He deceives us into thinking we can be like God. Now, in fact, through abiding in Jesus, we shall be as he is. But despite the errors of dominion theology, now heresy, it's future. We are being changed from glory to glory in the north. Jesus will always be the first, foremost, and preeminent, even though we shall be as he is. We're all priests, but he's our priest. And indeed, we're all kings, but he is the king of kings. Now, let's understand this. Satan's first sin is pride. Hence, we see Paul connecting pride, with yeast, leaven. It puffs up. Hametz, again, is the Hebrew term. But then, in the Middle East, women can make You'll see Sephardic Jewish women, Yemenite Jewish women, who we call who we call Arab women, Jewish women. They make bread by a sourdough method. That is, before they bake the loaf of bread, they take a lump of dough from it, roll it up, and put it into the batter of the next loaf. And before that is baked, they take a lump from that, roll it up, and insert it into the batter of the next loaf. And before that one is baked, they take a lump from that, and put it into the next one. Biologically, yeast spores multiply very quickly. So sin goes from generation to generation. As King David, David HaMelech, wrote, In sin did my mother conceive me. We're born with a fallen nature. Hence, the leaven is a symbol of sin. But pride, first of all, because it's the sin that gives rise to other sins. When you see a person who has a problem with uncontrollable anger, underneath that sin of anger is pride. When you see a person who has a problem with uncontrollable lust, underneath that lust is pride. When you see a person who has a problem with greed, underneath that greed is pride. Pride is the kind of sin that gives rise to other sins. Now, we're told in the Talmudic literature, the same thing the New Testament tells us, that the unleavened bread of Passover that Jesus used to celebrate the first Lord's Supper at that Passover Seder we call the Last Supper, is a symbol of the flesh of the Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God. In Latin, on Yisra'ik, we're told to say Katamundi. All the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. Yet, matzah bread is what we call unleavened bread in Hebrew. And the rabbis tell us that matzah, unleavened bread, bread that we eat at Passover, must be striped and pierced. If you see matzah, it is striped and pierced. Because the Messiah, according to the predictions of the prophet Isaiah again, and also King David in the 22nd Psalm, the Messiah would be pierced for our transgressions. And by his stripes, we are healed of our sins. Hence, the Messiah would be striped and pierced, so the matzah had to be striped and pierced. Now, in the beginning of the Passover meal, you take one piece of matzah, and you break it. Then you wrap it in a napkin and bury it under the tablecloth. And it's actually called Katamundi. At the end of the meal, it's rediscovered. We call this the Afokomim. It's actually a Greek term. Jesus then was striped, pierced, broken, buried, and then resurrected. And it was this Afokomim, striped, pierced, broken, buried, and resurrected, that he used for the Lord's Supper. Nonetheless, let's press on, looking at leaven. The only person with something to be proud of was Jesus. He was God who became a man. As Paul tells us, we have nothing that we haven't received. Whether we're wealthy, intelligent, educated, good-looking, these are things God has allowed us to have or be. But Jesus himself was God who became a man. We have nothing to be proud of. Indeed, because of our sin, we have nothing but disgrace surrounding us because of our fallen nature. The only one with something to be proud of was Jesus. Yet, he was not proud. If you think of it, the only man who could have chosen the circumstances surrounding his birth, the only one who could have chosen where he was born, when he was born, etc., etc., chose to be born in a stable of a poor family in an occupied country and a member of a despised race. Jesus is the only one with anything to be proud of, but he identified with the humble. Nonetheless, let's continue with the leaven. So, leaven, therefore, is a symbol of sin, particularly pride, which gives rise to other sins, and the sin that has passed from generation to generation. Jesus had no leaven. Hence, the bread, which is a type of the flesh of the Lamb of God that he was, could have no leaven. But there's more to leaven. Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Leaven is also false doctrine, and false doctrine will always involve pride and sin. When we see people persisting in teaching doctrines contrary to the Word of God, this is leaven. Jesus warned to be remitted. Hence, the Lord Jesus, he had no sin, he had no pride, but neither did he have any false doctrine. And again, this unleavened bread, masa, corresponds in figure to the flesh of the Lamb. You see, the Sanhedrin would have to inspect a lamb for up to 73 or 74 different blemishes. If they could find nothing wrong with the lamb that passed over, they would take it out and sacrifice it. The very day, however, that the Passover was being prepared and the Sanhedrin were inspecting the lamb for blemishes or spot or defect, is when they put Jesus on trial. And the same Sanhedrin, finding no sin in Jesus, took him out and sacrificed him, the Lamb of God which was acceptable. Absolutely amazing. Nonetheless, let's continue pushing on. On Palm Sunday, when Jesus came for the Passover, they were singing something to him we call the Halel Rabbah, from Psalm 118. It was part of the Passover liturgy called the Makhzor. And today it is still in the Passover liturgy, the main Passover liturgy now we call the Haggadah. And they were singing to Jesus from Psalm 113 to 118. Hoshana, Hoshana. And they wanted Jesus to put on a miracle display. Instead, he went into the Temple and drove out the money changers and those who were engaging in religious corruption. What were they doing? They were saying, listen, you need a lamb without blemish, you go to my cousin, the kosher butcher, he'll give you a 10% discount. This kind of thing. They were profiteering on the blood of the lamb, financially exploiting God's people. And Jesus drove them out of his Father's house. They wanted Jesus to come and get rid of the Romans from Fortress Antonio. Instead, what Jesus did was got rid of them. God is always much more concerned with the sin among his own people than he is those who are not called by his name. He wasn't worried about the Roman Gentiles, he was worried about his own people, Israel. Judgment begins in the house of God. But what is today? Why have these big money-oriented creatures in America been caught and gone to jail? Judgment begins in the house of God. They are profiteering on the blood of the lamb. We need another Bebihat HaMetz, a search for leaven, a purging of pride, sin, and false doctrine from the church. God is always much more concerned with the sin in our lives as believers than he is with the sin in the lives of the unsaved. Hence, the Passover begins with the search for leaven. Before we come to the Lord's table and break bread, when we become one body, remembering his death, we also need to purge the leaven. A repentance of sin. The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians 11 that people who take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner can become physically ill and even die. We dare not let people who are not born again take the Lord's Supper. We dare not let believers who have irrepentant sin in their lives take the Lord's Supper. Indeed, I would strongly argue that we should not allow people who have not been baptized as believers to take the Lord's Supper because baptism is the first step in Christian discipleship upon salvation. In fact, it is a natural follow-up to a commitment to Jesus. If people are not walking in faith and obedience, they cannot truly be one body. But let's push on. Do this so you will never forget me, the scripture says. Amnesis in Greek. We get the word amnesia. That you may never forget me. We do it in remembrance of him. It is a zikaron. Some people become confused with transubstantiation because of a verse taken out of context in John chapter 6. The Roman Catholic saint, Bernard, denied transubstantiation. He was right. Saint Bernard of the Roman Church understood that transubstantiation was not what the scriptures teach. We read in John chapter 1, the word, Greek, the logos, became fresh. Fox. Hence, when we get to John chapter 6, Jesus said, He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise him up. Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life for yourselves. The word became flesh. The early church understood this as his teaching. His doctrine. Transubstantiation did not become a doctrine until it was formalized in terms of Aristotelian philosophy by Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages. But let's continue. What it's trying to show in John 6 is Jesus is the antitype of the dreaded devil in the wilderness. That's what it says. That's all it says. It's a memorial offering. To this day in the Sephardic Haggadah, the Passover liturgy, which is an Aramaic, we read, Ki lachmanah. This is like the bread our fathers ate in the wilderness. And because it's an Aramaic prayer, we know it was used in the Second Temple period, the time of Jesus. Again, the language of memorial and analogy. Only when you take the Lord's Supper, that is, the Last Supper, out of its Jewish context, can you arrive at such doctrines as transubstantiation. To say that the bread and wine becomes Jesus incarnate, and you worship bread and wine? If the early church never did this, they would have seen it as idolatry. Jesus himself calls this eating food sacrifice to idols. And then to eat the bread and wine, literally believing it's his flesh incarnate? We don't have to go too far into Central Africa to find that people who practice cannibalism don't eat people simply for food. They eat them to get a spiritual, religious benefit from it. This is a cannibalistic doctrine. It was in no way believed by the early Christians, and it is certainly nothing whatsoever to do with the Jewish understanding of the Passover and where the Lord's Supper comes. But let's pass on, then, the search for leaven. We need to take the Lord's Supper much more seriously. Now, let's look at John, chapter 13. We read something else that happens. Jesus rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself about. He poured water in a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. And he came to Simon, and Peter said, Lord, do you wash my feet? And Jesus said, What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter. Nevertheless, Peter said, You shall not wash my feet. Wash all of me. If I do not wash you, you have no part of me, Jesus said. Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and head. And Jesus said, He who has bathed needs only to be washed of his feet. He is completely clean. Let's understand what's happening here of washing feet. When we've bathed, we've been saved. We've been cleansed of sins, of which baptism is an emblem. In fact, the main emblem. We're already clean. But outside of the church, we are in the world. Our feet are the members of our physical anatomy that come in contact with the fallen world. Christians need to wash each other's feet before they take the Lord's Supper. That is, refresh each other from our contact with the world. Remember, it's not only a looking back, but a looking forward. We proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. In other words, the Lord's Supper is an appetizer of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that we read about in the Song of Solomon and in the Book of Revelation, chapter 19. When we meet together, breaking bread should be central to our worship and fellowship. It is an appetizer of the Marriage Supper, a hint of where we're going. Outside is the world. It's what we're leaving. We wash each other's feet. We refresh each other from our contact with the world. Through the new birth, we're already clean. We've been baptized as Christians. But we still need to wash each other's feet. What kind of a week did you have this week, Fred? I had a terrible week. Satan was dragging me down and I was stuck into the things of the world. Well, the Lord is here now. How about you, Dorothy? What kind of a week did you have? I had a good week, praise the Lord. Christians refreshing each other from our contact with the world. You see, what most churches will do is have some kind of a fellowship hall where they'll set up some coffee urns or tea kettles for after the meeting. They'll wash each other's feet after they've eaten. The time to wash each other's feet is before we eat. We should refresh each other from our contact with the world. Wash each other's feet before we break bread. Before we come to the Lord's table. But let's push on. Let's look at one final aspect of the Lord's Supper that's being ignored. And again, there's much more we could say. Let's look at St. Matthew's account of this in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew reveals something to us. And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take and eat, this is my body. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood, the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many as forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father. And the Hebrew, if he used Hebrew, would have been very beautiful. V'gufim sh'nishpah barchem, zot asu lezikroni. Hakos hazot hi yavrit hahadashah. Lezami sh'nishpach badchem, zot asu lezikroni. Do this in remembrance, memorial of me. Not repeat the same sacrifice. We're told four places in the book of Hebrews Jesus died once and for all. St. Peter says the same thing. His death was sufficient once and for all. This is continually reiterated in the teachings of the apostles in the New Testament. When we say that we have to have a priest who continues to make the same sacrifice over and over and over again, what we are in fact doing is denying Calvary. Let's read what the New Testament teaches. In Hebrews chapter 9, we read this. In verse 12, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once and for all and obtained eternal redemption. It was a once and for all sacrifice. In Hebrews chapter 9 also, we read in verse 28, Though the Messiah also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly wait for him. Once. In Hebrews it's the same thing. The epistles of the Hebrews, chapter 10, we continue reading that Jesus died once. For by one offering he is perfected for all time those who are sacrificed, in verse 14. And so it goes on and on and on. He dies once and for all. Hebrews goes on to tell us that every priest stands daily in verse 11 of Hebrews 10, ministering and offering time and time again the same sacrifice that can never take away sin. But he, having offered one sacrifice for all sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. You have it plainly stated. We no longer need a priest to offer sacrifice daily, time after time after time. Jesus died once and for all. Any doctrine which says that powerfully has to be repeated through sacraments directly contradicts the teachings of the New Testament and the apostles. And says that the death of Jesus on the cross was not sufficient once and for all. This is wrong. Now I say this not to attack anyone, but I do say it so people will know the truth that Jesus, our Passover lamb, has been slain once and for all. Now we go on reading in Matthew 26. I drink of the fruit of the vine, but will not do so until I drink it with you anew in my Father's kingdom. Remember, Passover is not just a memorial of what Jesus did. It is an appetizer of the marriage supper. It is what He is going to do in the future. Let us look and let us consider this along the following lines. Jesus was going to die. And when someone is going to die, they talk about the things that are most important. Not the pop charts, or the latest film, or the rugby scores. They talk about things which are most important. And they spend their time with the people who are most important to them. And that is what Jesus did when He knew He was going to die for our sins. And what does He say? I long to eat the Passover with you, but I will not drink this cup again until I do it with you anew in the kingdom of my Father. Again, it looks forward. This is the way that Jesus has given us to deal with intending physical death of a believer. If there is a true born again believer who is walking in faith and obedience to Jesus, death has no power over him. What you do is call your pastor and the friends and family of the person who is sick and dying if it is not the purpose of the Lord to heal them for the Lord's Supper. And you do what Jesus did. I will drink it with you again in the kingdom of my Father. What we say is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection, the same as we break this bread and drink this cup now, whether I die or you die, the same as we break the bread and drink the cup now, we will break the bread and drink the cup again in the kingdom of heaven with Jesus. Nothing can separate us from each other because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We look back, but we look forward. When we take the Lord's Supper, we remember what He did for us on the cross. But when we look forward, we look forward to that day, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. God bless you and thank you.