The following mp3 sermon was preached by Dr. Patrick Ramsey, prior to the taking of the Lord’s Supper on 9-13-20.
I thought it to be in the top 10 of all the sermons I have ever heard; it thoroughly explains the meaning of this sacrament and how it benefits believers.
Furthermore, it gives encouragement for experiencing heaven; and courage for facing death; it also provides strength to continue the fight against sin which will end at the time of your own death.
The following points are sermon highlights; scripture text, Mark 15:33-47:
- In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (LS), we remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, we recall His death; think about why He died; and consider the meaning of His death; we trust in His death; and we proclaim His death as in 1 Cor. 11
- As God’s redeemed people, when we come to the table—by what we do, we are saying: Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, He descended into hell
- To come to the table, is to profess the reality of Christ’s death in history, to trust in His death, to bring us to God for fellowship with Him at His table
- When observing the LS, we profess our faith together by reciting the Apostles Creed, then we proclaim the Lord’s death in word and in deed
- Today I will expound upon the Lord’s death, particularly His death, burial and descent into hell
- Then we will consider how, what Christ experienced in His death, 2000 years ago, benefits us today, and when we die
- He experienced the wrath of God in our place when He was on the cross; He suffered hell when He was still alive
- Why then did He have to die? Because death in scripture has more than one meaning
- Death can refer to separation from God; experiencing the wrath of God
- Death also refers to what happens physically: cessation of bodily functions; separation of soul from body
- So, Why did Jesus have to die physically too? Because death in all of its forms constitutes the wages of sin
- Justice demanded it; our salvation required it
- So, when He died, He gave up His spirit, His soul departed from His body and He entered into the realm of the dead
- The gospel accounts of Christs death specifically stress that he truly died, recording specific details about how it was determined His physical death had occurred
- What does the Apostle’s Creed mean that He descended into hell? (other references given also)
- Difficulties that the English Bible translations cause, explained
- Differences between the words Hades and Gehenna and relevance to the meaning of the Apostle’s Creed, also reference to the Westminster Confession of Faith
- Bible is clear the descent into hell meant that Christ’s body went into hell and his soul went to heaven
- Biblical words that indicate this was the end of Jesus’ suffering, that is, that He did not have to continue suffering in hell
- Other views regarding what is meant by Jesus descending into hell
- The most significant thing to remember about this discussion is that Jesus experienced true and total death that humans experience, because His death is tied to our salvation; He had to be like us in every respect that His death might be able to rescue us from death: He had to suffer the wages of sin for us and to experience death in all its forms
- BENEFITS: that we receive because of His death: Two now; Two when we die
- One: We NOW have fellowship with God: Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
- We had been estranged; cast from the Garden; out of the presence of God because of sin…
- Now, because His death atones for sin, we have been reconciled to God and have fellowship: that is, we can know God, love Him, experience His saving love because of Jesus’ death
- Two: Sin shall no longer have dominion over us: Romans 6 – even though we struggle with sin, it is not our master, we can do all things through Christ…
- Now, we can know God and more and more put sin to death
- BENEFITS: at the time of our own deaths
- Death has now lost its sting; it is still part of the wages of sin, but God uses it for our good in that He uses it to put an end to all that is bad in our lives: all mortality, pollution, misery, suffering…
- Puritan Thomas Watson said that death is the funeral of all our sorrows
- Our struggle against sin, that has persisted since our being born from above will end
- We will be able to truly love God, our neighbor, and ourselves; REMEMBER that in your battle against sin
- Because of Christ’s death, our own death becomes a means by which God puts everything bad in us to death
- Our death becomes the doorway to heaven: “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”
- Thomas Brooks said: our last day in this life is our coronation day; our marriage day; the day we exchange earth for heaven; a wilderness for Canaan; Egypt for the land of Goshen; we enter into Abraham’s bosom; Paradise; New Jerusalem; the joy of the Lord
- That does not mean death will be pleasant, it is still part of the wages of sin; but since we know it is taking us home, it won’t be as bad as it might have been otherwise
- Christ went through this doorway before us; His soul was torn from His body…
- He is more than able to lead us through that same dark doorway
To hear other sermons by Dr. Ramsey in this blog, see: Archives:
- July 8, 2020 — The Christian’s Most Important Question, part 2
- July 7, 2020 — The Christian’s Most Important Question, part 1
- June 9, 2020 The Holy Spirit
- June 7, 2020, Ascension of Christ
- May 24, 2020, Faith is NOT
- May 3, 2020 – Dealing with Fear;
- April 26, 2020 – Godly Instruction for Dealing with Sin and Guilt;
- October 2019: The Lord’s Supper; and
- July 8, 2019, Saving Faith.
Dr. Ramsey can be heard at sermonaudio by clicking the following link:
https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=nashuaopc