Ex. 12:25-27 25“When you enter the land which the LORD
will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite.
26“And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean
to you?’ 27you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to
the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt
when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’” And the people
bowed low and worshiped.
Many New Year's Eve observances
include the singing of Auld Lang Syne. Auld lang syne is Scotch for
old long since, hence long ago. Perhaps you sang it on New Year's
Eve.
Should Old
Acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought
to mind,
should old
acquaintance be forgot,
in days of auld
lang syne.
For auld lang syne,
my dear,
for auld lang syne.
We'll take a cup
O' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And here's a hand,
my trusty friend,
and gie's a hand
O' thine,
We'll take a cup
of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
It is supposed to be a time of
remembering friends, acquaintances and pleasant times in their company
in times past, perhaps long ago, as the old year-ends and a new year
begins.
I. The Passover Auld Lang Syne
A. The Lord instituted a time of
remembrance for the Israelites when he instituted the Passover. The
Passover was to mark the beginning of the New Year and a new life of
freedom out of the bondage of Egypt.
The Lord gave explicit instructions
on how this memorial feast was to be celebrated. On the tenth day of
the New Year they were to take an unblemished year-old male lamb from
among the sheep or goats. They were to keep it alive until the 14th
day of the month and then at twilight they were to kill the lamb. The
blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the two doorposts and the
lintel of the houses in which they would eat it. They were to roast
the lamb and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were
to eat all of it, not saving any of it. Whatever was left over was to
be burned in the fire.
They were to eat it with their loins
girded and sandals on their feet and a staff in their hand. They were
to eat it hurriedly. Why? The Lord tells them why in Exodus 12:12:
26“And
when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’
27you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who
passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote
the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’”
The Egyptians would send them out
after God had executed his judgments on them. So it was a feast to
celebrate redemption. The Israelites were spared the judgment of the
Lord on their household by having smeared the blood of the sacrificial
lamb on their doorposts and overhead lintel of their houses. Only
those houses that had the mark of the sacrificial lamb's blood would
be spared. Not only were they spared; they were to leave Egypt forever
behind them and commence a new life of freedom as God's people. They
were to have a destiny of victory and head for the Promised Land.
B. How does this have anything to do
with us? We do not celebrate the Passover. That is a Jewish
observance. We aren't Jewish.
Ah, but the Lord Jesus Christ
ordained at the last Passover he observed with the disciples that the
Passover observance was to be changed to a remembrance of his
sacrificial death.
For all disciples since that time we
are told that we are to take bread, give thanks and eat it in
remembrance of his body given for us. We are to take the cup
representing his blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.
It is the New Covenant auld lang syne.
We remember what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us and we eat the bread
and drink the cup. As our Confession of Faith states in Chapter 29.
Turn with me in the hymnal to page 865. Let us read together from
paragraphs I and II.
Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein
He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His body and blood called
the Lord's Supper, to be observed in His Church, unto the end of the
world, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of Himself in
His death; sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers, their
spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their further engagement in
and to all duties which they owe unto Him; and, to be a bond and
pledge of their communion with Him, and with each other, as member of
His mystical body.
In this sacrament, Christ is not
offered up to His Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all, for
remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a commemoration of
that one offering up of Himself, by Himself, upon the cross, once for
all: and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God, for the
same; so that the popish sacrifice of the mass (as they call it) is
most abominably injurious to Christ's one, only sacrifice, the alone
propitiation for all the sins of His elect.
II. IT IS A TIME OF OBLIGATORY
REPENTANCE, RENEWAL AND COMMITMENT
A. The Apostle Paul saw the Christian
life to be a life of repentance. When the Hebrews got instructions
from the Lord on how to observe the Passover they were to eat it with
bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
The bitter herbs speak of the remorse of conscience for sins committed,
and they were to eat unleavened bread as a sacramental way of saying
they would be separate from the world and holy unto the Lord. They were
to be a separated and dedicated people.
This sacramental aspect is carried over
in the New Testament. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 5:6 -8
6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7Clean out the old
leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact
unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8Therefore
let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of
malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.
When a person becomes a Christian he
becomes a new creature in Christ and he is to be separated unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. We belong to the Lord. We are not our own but we are
bought with a price. And repentance is a way of life, meaning that we
put away anything that is offensive to the Lord. We put away evil
speaking, bitterness and wrath, all slander and malice. As the Lord
says:
Eph. 4:22-32 that, in reference to your
former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23and that you be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24and put on the new self, which in
the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of
the truth.
25Therefore, laying aside falsehood,
SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE OF YOU WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one
another. 26BE ANGRY, AND YET DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on
your anger, 27and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28He who steals
must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own
hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who
has need. 29Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only
such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the
moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30Do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. 31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also
has forgiven you.
So repentance and renewal should be
included in our remembrance of our Savior's sacrifice of himself as we
come to the table of the Lord.
We come with thankful hearts that the
Lord has redeemed us from the slavery of sin and of Satan's power. We
have left behind Egypt and its idolatries and lusts. We have embarked on
a new adventure of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound for the
Promised Land. We leave behind that old life and we commence a new life
in Christ.
We purge out the old leaven of sin and
wickedness and we commit ourselves to a life of love for Christ and love
for one another. We are to be tenderhearted, forgiving one another if we
have been offended, just as Christ forgave us our sins through the
sacrifice of himself on the cross.
Beloved in the Lord, hear what gracious
words our Savior Jesus Christ says to all who truly turn to Him:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn
of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls. I am the bread of life: He that cometh to Me shall never
hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. Him that cometh
to Me I will in no wise cast out. Blessed are they, which do hunger, and
thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that
believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eats of
this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
We invite all who repent of their sins
and who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and desire to live
as becometh followers of Christ; also all communicants in good standing
in any evangelical church to participate. We also invite all
non-communicants to remain as well.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
1st Corinthians 11:23-34
Hear the Words of Institution of the
Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle Paul delivers them:
1 Cor. 11:23-33 For I received from the
Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the
night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24and when He had given
thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do
this in remembrance of Me.” 25In the same way He took the cup also after
supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He
comes.
27Therefore whoever eats the bread or
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the
body and the blood of the Lord. 28But a man must examine himself, and in
so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For he who
eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not
judge the body rightly. 30For this reason many among you are weak and
sick, and a number sleep. 31But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would
not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord
so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
33So then, my brethren, when you come
together to eat, wait for one another.
LET US PRAY
We give Thee thanks, O Lord, for thy
great goodness to us and to all men, for Thy faithfulness which never
faileth, for Thy mercies which are more than we can number, and for Thy
Fatherly hand ever upon us, in health and sickness, in joy and sorrow,
in life and death.
Above all, with Thy whole Church
throughout the world, we adore Thee for Thy love in the redemption of
mankind by our Lord Jesus Christ.
We bless Thee for Thy gift of the Holy
Spirit; for the Church filled with Thy presence; for our baptism and
nurture in the faith; and for Thy blessed assurance of everlasting life.
For these and all Thy gifts, glory be to Thee, O Lord God Almighty.
Amen