Summary of Matthew 26:26-29

Eat the the bread and drink from the cup, for Christ was sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins

God in his mercy has given the church means of grace, by which we grow and mature in the faith. These means are ordinarily the word of God and prayer. By reading and listening to and meditating on the word of God and listening to preaching, our faith is strengthened. This occurs also when we pray; we pray because we need God’s help and love and grace day by day. Prayer and the Bible are daily means of grace. And so is fellowship with other Christians. We need other Christians in the church. We need each other’s encouragement and prayer and sometimes also correction. But with these means of grace, God has also given us two sacraments, or ordinances, or we can say symbols, by which our faith is strengthened. Humans are accustomed to using symbols to remind each other of events and/or each other’s love. Take for example Valentine’s Day. During this time of the year, spouses give each other roses and gifts, to let one another know that they love one another. The chocolate or flowers are symbols or representations of our love. So, it was when we got married. Your husband or wife gave you a ring. The ring is a symbol of unending or enduring love. At Christmas we give each other gifts to remind us of the gift God gave us in Christ, and we give each other gifts because we view each other as special. Gifts are emblems or tokens or symbols of love. And so, in the church, God wanted to leave us with symbols, two visible symbols of his love for us. The first is baptism, and this symbolises the Christian’s union with Christ, that as Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, so at conversion, and by faith, we died with Christ to sin, to our old life, and now we live with him in newness of life. Baptism is a symbol that the old has died and the new has come because of the gospel.

And so, the Lord’s Supper that Christ instituted the night he was betrayed was instituted, and the elements were given for us to be visible reminders, symbols, of Christ’s love for us; they are tokens, emblems of his love. And whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, there is sadness with joy mixed together. Sadness because of the costly price Christ had to pay to redeem us but also joy because of the redemption he achieved. It is a solemn and serious institution and should never be taken lightly.

God didn’t command us to hang crosses around our necks, or to make statues of Jesus, or to have a crucifix on our wall. Although a cross is a reminder of the death of Christ. But God didn’t command us to have other symbols when we worship him. These two ordinances are enough and sufficient with the other means of grace, singing, prayer, the Bible, and preaching to establish us in the faith.

Today we are reminded of the significance of the new covenant and the covenant God made in eternity past, and that without this covenant, without Jesus giving his life and dying as a substitute, paying for our sins, heaven would have none. The redemption of those fallen in sin depended on Christ going to the cross and him shedding his blood.

We are also reminded not to neglect this means of grace. God commanded his disciples to take and eat and to drink, signifying that we need to internalise and appropriate Christ by faith. God seeks communion with us, and we need to not skim over the means of grace but make use of them so our souls may be satiated by grace.