Holy Thursday Sermon: Dining with the Lord

Preached on Exodus 24:3-11
Maundy Thursday, One Year Lectionary
24 March AD 2016

Title: Dining with the Lord (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Imagine their surprise. After the warnings, the rumblings, and the flashings, the Lord now invited the elders of Israel to join Moses and Aaron in His holy presence. First, they heard God’s unequivocal command to stay off of His mountain. Now they hear His invitation to come up to dinner.

He who cannot tolerate any sin or corruption in His presence invites sinners to eat and drink and while they are there, He doesn’t “lay his hand” on any of “the chief men of the people of Israel.” Instead, covered by the blood of the Covenant and trusting in the Word of the Lord, they come to Him in trust.

Now we, sinners all, are also invited to eat and drink in the presence of the Lord, trusting that we are not only covered in the blood of the New Covenant but that we will actually consume this holy blood, along with the body of the sacrificial Lamb, in Christ’s Supper. We come to the altar knowing that God will not only withhold His hand of judgment but will extend His hand of mercy, not ending our miserable lives but transforming them.

Text: Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.

He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. Exodus 24:3-11

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Dining with the Lord, preached to the saints of God at Faith Lutheran Church, Knob Noster, Missouri.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 116:12-19; Exodus 12:1-141 Corinthians 11:23-32; JOhn 13:1-15 (34-35)