Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2350
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26.
WE are all agreed upon this one point, that the Lord’s Supper is an emblem of the death of Jesus Christ and of the way by which we receive benefit from Him. The bread sets forth His broken body and the cup His shed blood. These, separated from each other, show forth His death. The way by which we receive this bread and this wine is by eating and drinking— and this sets forth the way by which we receive the merit and the virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ—by a faith which is like eating, by a trust which is like drinking, by the reception of Christ spiritually into our hearts, even as we naturally receive the bread and the fruit of the vine into our bodies.
These two words, then, “Take, eat,” are the practical directions concerning the Lord’s Supper and, spiritually understood, they are the Gospel of the Grace of God. Every disciple of the Lord Jesus may hear a spiritual voice saying to him, concerning Christ, “Take, eat.” And you who fear that you are not His disciples, if you wish to be, if there is a craving in your heart to possess Him, if you are beginning to feel after Him, I venture to say to you, also, “Take, eat.” This is the way to have Christ—take Him—partake of Him and He is yours.
You probably remember the extraordinary story of the conversion of Augustine, who, after a life of sin, was stricken with compunction of conscience. His sorrow of heart was very great and he could not find peace till he heard a voice, which may possibly have been that of a child on the other side of the wall—I cannot tell—but such a voice he heard, saying over and over again, “Tolle, lege; tolle, lege; tolle, lege,” that is, “Take and read; take and read.” And he took the Book and read it, studied it believingly, and found peace with God. I have prayed that there may be some young Augustine here tonight. If present, his name may be, “disgusting,” for he is living in sin and iniquity. I pray that he may be troubled in his conscience and that he may be led to Christ by these words of the text, “Take, eat.” May this command come home to you and may you catch at it, and put it in practice, and may my Master make a great saint out of some great sinner, even an Augustine, who shall valiantly defend the Gospel of God’s Grace though now he sins desperately against Almighty Love! Oh, that it may be so!
With that end in view, I come to my text. We cannot have many divisions to it, can we? There are but two words on which I wish, especially, to speak, so they shall be the divisions of my subject. First, “take,” and secondly, “eat.” I. The first word I want you to notice is, “TAKE.”
Just as a doctor might write at the beginning of a prescription, “Take such and such things,” so the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Take.” The word is often translated in our New Testament, “Receive.” Jesus holds out the bread in His hand and says, “Receive it; let it come into your hand.” “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it,” and then, holding it out to His disciples, He said, “Take, take, take,” and they took it, and the bread became theirs. This is the way that saints get blessings—they take them. This is the way that sinners also get blessings, by the Grace of God—they take them. They do not make them, nor earn them, nor deserve them, but they take them. Jesus Christ says to them, “Take,” and they obey His voice and take.
Nobody at the table said, “Lord, I dare not take.” But when Jesus said, “Take,” they took. Nobody said, though perhaps everybody felt, “I am not worthy to take,” but as Jesus said, “Take,” they took. It is always the best plan to accept any good thing that is offered to you. If you are a very poor man and someone offers you a shilling, I venture to give you
this piece of advice—take it! Do not stand and say to him, “My dear Sir, I think that indiscriminate charity is wrong. You have never enquired into my character. You do not know whether I really am one of the unemployed.” If there is a shilling held out to you, my Friend, you had better take it. If you are very hungry and there is bread about, you had better eat it if it is given to you. If it is freely presented to you, freely take it! If that were my case, I would ask no questions, not only for conscience’s sake, but for my necessity’s sake, and especially would I do so when, by the Grace of God, the gift is presented to me by the Lord Jesus Christ! If He says, “Take,” I will take! There is nothing freer than a gift, surely, except that perhaps I should be freer to take than I might be to give, for our poor natures are contracted and we may not always be free in giving, but, surely, even selfishness might make us free in taking. A holy desire for your own good and your own salvation might prompt you to say, “Yes, Lord, if You freely give, I without question will freely take!”