The sermon opens by announcing that the church is in a season of many weddings — ten couples marrying within the year, an unprecedented number in the congregation's history. The preacher uses this to introduce the idea of covenant: Christian marriage, he argues, is not a contract or "a piece of paper" but a covenant, a solemn pledge of lifelong faithfulness modeled on the covenant between Christ and his church (Ephesians 5). This sets up the sermon's real subject: the Lord's Supper as covenant, explored through two passages, Exodus 24:1-8 and Mark 14:22-25.

The sermon first establishes the context. At Sinai, Moses reads the "book of the covenant" to Israel, the people respond, "all that the LORD has said we will do, and we will be obedient," and Moses sprinkles them with the blood of oxen, declaring, "this is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you." When Jesus later takes the cup and says, "this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mark 14:24), he consciously invokes this Sinai ceremony while transforming its scope — no longer for Israel alone but for many, for people from every nation. The sermon then traces this back further to the Passover in Exodus, where the blood of the lamb, painted on the doorposts, caused the LORD to "pass over" households and spared the firstborn from the tenth plague. Jesus, the sermon argues, is that true Passover Lamb, whose blood and broken body free his people not from Egyptian slavery but from the slavery of sin, Satan, and death, gathering not one nation but every believing nation under Christ.

Having established the Passover and Sinai background, the sermon draws out three things the Lord's Supper renews. First, it is a covenant meterai (seal) — a "renewal of the covenant" in which believers reaffirm that they belong to God and that Christ is their King, echoing Israel's response, "all that you have said we will do." The sermon quotes the Puritan Edmund Calamy's Lord's Supper vow to live "as Christ's faithful servants, subjects, and soldiers," and uses the image of realigning a piano or a car's wheel alignment: coming to the Table realigns a life that has drifted out of tune with God's will, even as it also brings assurance of forgiveness for that unfaithfulness. The sermon incorporates an illustration recently heard from a visiting preacher (Pastor Jack Kawira) about the Israelites circling Jericho seven times, obedient to a command that made no sense to onlookers and might have felt foolish even to Israel itself — a picture of covenant obedience that the world will not understand and may even despise, since, as Jesus says, "the world will hate you" because believers do not belong to the world.

Second, the Supper is the meal of the Kingdom, and Paul's words are cited: "as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Christ's kingship, secured through his death and resurrection ("all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me... therefore go"), is already inaugurated but not yet fully manifest, so the Table also carries a missionary charge. This mission dimension is the sermon's third and final point. The Table is open to all baptized believers of any church, gathered from many places, and yet the preacher stresses the empty chairs — a picture borrowed from a family dinner missing an absent daughter — representing the "other sheep" who are not yet gathered into the fold. Coming to the Table without remembering those still outside risks turning Communion into a "narrow, selfish enjoyment," which the sermon notes is precisely the danger Luke 22 records: right after Jesus institutes the Supper, the disciples begin arguing over who is greatest, prompting Jesus's rebuke that greatness means serving as he served in washing their feet. The sermon closes with Miroslav Volf's boyhood memory of a stranger who joined his family's table every month after the Lord's Supper, and his father's answer to his complaint: "Christ has given his body and blood for us, undeserving sinners... a stranger was let in." The congregation is urged to let the Table's circle likewise widen, inviting lapsed and unbelieving friends to the church's upcoming Christmas outreach (November 17) and to remember the new church plant beginning in Springvale, so that the empty chairs may one day be filled.

Bible Verses Used

• Exodus 24:1-8: the Sinai covenant ceremony — Moses reads the book of the covenant and sprinkles the people with blood — providing the Old Testament pattern the Lord's Supper renews.

• Mark 14:22-25: Christ's institution of the Supper, "this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many," the sermon's central refrain tying covenant, Passover, and kingdom together.

• Exodus 11-12 (Passover background): the blood on the doorposts that caused the LORD to pass over Israel's firstborn, the type fulfilled in Christ as the true Passover Lamb.

• Ephesians 5: cited for Christ's self-giving love for the church as the pattern and ground of covenantal faithfulness, applied first to marriage and then to the Lord's Table.

• 1 Corinthians 11:26: "you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes," grounding the Supper's missionary and kingdom-proclaiming dimension.

• Matthew 28:18-19: Christ's post-resurrection claim to all authority and the Great Commission, showing the kingdom is inaugurated but its mission unfinished.

• Luke 22 (dispute over greatness): the disciples' quarrel immediately after the Supper's institution, used as a warning against a self-centered, inward-only view of Communion.

• John 15/17 (world's hatred; other sheep): referenced for Jesus's warning that the world will hate those who are not of it, and his mention of "other sheep" not yet gathered into the fold.