Communion Meditation – 1 Peter 2:24

The point: Fix all the attention of your minds and devotion of your hearts upon Christ alone when coming to the Lord's table.

The angel strengthened Christ but did not co-labor in redemption, illustrating that Christ's work was exclusively personal.

Now we read in the Gospel of Luke, that in the midst of the agony of Gethsemane, God sent an angel to strengthen Christ in the garden. But you see, the angel came to strengthen Christ, to perform the work which only He could do. The angel did not come to be a co-worker with Him in that work of redemption. So whatever the heart of the message of the cross is, it is a work which points to something utterly unique, something in which Christ personally and exclusively engaged Himself for the salvation of sinners. And it is not without reason that when we come to the Lord's table, we come in obedie...

7:38 - 9:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Fix all the attention of your minds and devotion of your hearts upon Christ alone when coming to the Lord's table.

Christ's command 'this do in remembrance of me' (alone) emphasizes the exclusively personal nature of His redemptive work, excluding Mary, apostles, or saints.

Now we read in the Gospel of Luke, that in the midst of the agony of Gethsemane, God sent an angel to strengthen Christ in the garden. But you see, the angel came to strengthen Christ, to perform the work which only He could do. The angel did not come to be a co-worker with Him in that work of redemption. So whatever the heart of the message of the cross is, it is a work which points to something utterly unique, something in which Christ personally and exclusively engaged Himself for the salvation of sinners. And it is not without reason that when we come to the Lord's table, we come in obedie...

7:38 - 9:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Secondly, Martin explains that Christ's death was 'strictly sacrificial,' using the language 'bear our sins in His body' to connect to Old Testament sacrificial rituals and the…

The body of the sacrificial victim being consumed on the altar after blood draining illustrates why Peter emphasizes Christ's 'body' in bearing sins, connecting to sacrificial imagery.

But the emphasis is placed upon the body because of the sacrificial imagery that is here in the text. For you remember in the Old Testament, when the blood had been drained from the sacrificial victim, then the victim himself was placed upon the altar and the body, was consumed in the fire upon that altar. And just as we are exhorted to offer ourselves living sacrifices with reference to our bodies, Romans 12, 1, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, that is, the entirety of your persons in the concreteness of all that you are. So the text says that our Lord's death...

11:50 - 13:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The committing of sin was the act of the creature. The guilt of sin was the liability of the creature. But the punishment for sin became the experience of the sin-bearer himself.

The public display of a hanged corpse in ancient Israel, signifying being 'accursed of God,' illustrates the penal nature of Christ's death on the tree.

He that is hanged, not hanged anyway, but he that is hanged in the context, hanged upon a tree, upon wood. He that is hanged is accursed of God. And to be hung up to public display after execution was the ultimate expression that this person was executed under the anathema of God. And to be hung up to public display was the ultimate expression of God.

16:09 - 16:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think of sin lightly; view its nature rightly by considering Christ's penal death.

Understanding the cross requires seeing beyond external circumstances (mob, soldiers, disciples' cowardice) to the supreme reality of God the Father bringing His curse upon God the Son for our sins.

But the punishment for sin became the experience of the sin-bearer himself. And as we think of the cross of Christ, we will never begin to understand the ABCs of its message until we see beyond the angry mob, beyond the taunting soldiers, beyond the blasphemous jeers of the scribes and the Pharisees, see beyond the tragedy of the cowardice of disciples who flee hither and yon in the hour of our Lord's deepest need. We will never understand the ABCs of the cross until we see that the cross is supremely this. It is God the Father bringing upon God the Son, the accursedness which you are your sin...

18:09 - 19:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think of sin lightly; view its nature rightly by considering Christ's penal death.

A hymn is quoted to express the profound truth that the deepest stroke piercing Christ was 'the stroke that justice gave,' underscoring the penal nature of His suffering.

He experienced nothing less than the anger of the Almighty. He took nothing less than that forsakenness which sin deserves and which the judgment of God inevitably brings. It is this reality that caused our hymn writer to say in words that express this far more profoundly than I can express it. A hymn we've often sung as we've come to the Lord's table.

20:41 - 21:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Embrace the free pardon offered in Christ's death to break the dominion of sin and begin to live to righteousness.

Luther's struggle to become holy by working his way up to the cross illustrates that holiness is not achieved through self-discipline but through embracing full and free pardon in Christ's death.

How do people become holy? Not by saying, if I undergo this discipline and that discipline and fix myself up here and fix myself up there, then eventually I'll become a holy man. No, no. You see, that was Martin Luther's painful experience for years.

27:45 - 28:02 Read in full sermon