Easter Season - Sermon 1
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
(Holy Thursday)
by
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a retired Pastor with the Worldwide Church of God in South St. Louis, Missouri. He is currently an Elder in the Desoto Worldwide Church of God. Click the Affiliated Church Directory link below for information about this church.
You and I live in an age when things happen rather quickly. It is not unusual for a "soccer mom" to put a hundred miles on the family van within a day, just running kids here and there and handling the shopping and paying a few bills. The world itself has become smaller through the invention of satellite transmissions via television. We have been witnessing the war in Iraq at the very moment it is happening. Yet, it is so commonplace that we take it for granted.
That small group of men who gathered in the upper room that Thursday evening so many years ago, lived in a different world. Shepherds sat watching sheep on a hillside for an entire day. A occasional wolf might break the monotony, but that was about it.
When it was time for dinner, the entire family gathered around the table as it were. It was a time for sharing not only a common meal, but a common life. What had gone on in dad's life that day? What about mom? And what had all the kids been doing? What new thing was Rome doing?
But for the disciples, it had been a whirlwind week. It all began with an old friend of Jesus being raised from the dead after three days and nights. The disciples had witnessed many miracles by the Lord, but this topped them all!
This was followed quickly by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; the cursing of the fig tree and then the throwing out of the money changers and sellers of sacrifices right out of the Temple!
The disciples had seen the people gathered in Jerusalem turn from wanting to make Jesus king to now wanting to get rid of Him!
So, instead of a large group for Passover, it was going to be a small, intimate fare. Just Jesus and the twelve. They had no way of realizing it, but they were about to partake of the most important meal of all time. Something happened there that would change the world forever: God was about to make His LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT for all mankind.
Jesus began,
"Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world, and they have kept Thy word.
Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou has given Me, that they may be one, as we are. And now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one. As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou has sent me, and hast love them, as thou hast loved Me.
Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou has given Me. For Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou has sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: THAT THE LOVE WHEREWITH THOU HAS LOVED ME MAY BE IN THEM, AND I IN THEM."
It is this oneness with God that is pictured by the Last Supper and every time Christians celebrate communion. Jesus took bread and wine and blessed both and then said those words that changed far more than bread and wine.
"This is My body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me. This cup is the new testament in My blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come."
Christians have argued over the past five hundred years as to what exactly Jesus meant by these words. But it is obvious to all Christians that this bread and wine are the two most important objects in their life. For it is the one picture of Jesus that sums up His boundless love for us.
It is Jesus final gift to us to be one with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit and also with one another. What a precious gift this is! As you celebrate this most solemn, yet joyful meal this year, may our Lord stir up in you the excitement of knowing that He not only lives with us but IN us as only He can do! AMEN.
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