For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Isaiah, hundreds of years before the cross, gave a description of a suffering Savior. He said, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our inequities; and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

You see, the strategy of Satan amid the uproar outside the Roman court was designed to draw Christ into the category of a criminal. It would be relatively simple for demonical emissaries to proceed with their evil desires because they concertedly cried out ‘We have a law and by our law He ought to die’. Now these words struck with heavy impact upon the listening ear of the compassionate Christ, and fell with even greater force upon His innocent and loving heart. It was clear that He was unwanted. The world to which he had descended with His announcement of love and peace, the world of men whom He had come to redeem, had found a law whereby He was to be violently impugned, mercilessly killed. It was the heart of depravity speaking both in word and in action.

The world did not want His message nor His salvation, and by vigorous manifestation proved that it would not desire Him personally either. For here is what they said, away with Him. Now there was coming the notable day of Jewish celebration known as the Feast of Unleaven Bread, and devout pilgrims from many nations would be entering Jerusalem in great numbers. Preparation must be completed for the feast, and as in a rush against time, Jesus was hurried to the Sanhedrin where there was put to Him the most rigid oath of the mosaic code, the oath of testimony. He, the very embodiment of truth, is required of erring men to be accurate in His assertions.

Feverishly they sought false witnesses and with not little difficulty produced two feebly stated without convincing force. This fellow said that He's able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. Then there's Caiaphas. In a quick move to compensate for weakness of testimony and lack of evidence, demanded in a straightforward manner, I abjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God. When Jesus calmly answered the high priest, thou has said, He was neither rude nor evasive. You see it was a common idiom meaning in the parlance of the time, Sir, I would not presume to contradict you. But the thing which riled the Jewish leaders so noticeably was Jesus’ comment about His ascension and power, and His coming in great glory, and thus the priests began to render their clothing. A gesture of controlled irritation.

It was stated that there was no need for further witnesses. The fact is none were available. Then turning to the scribes and the elders there assembled he asked, what do you think? And these intolerant religious bigots required no time to formulate their opinion; they were of one mind and one heart, He's guilty of death. Number Him with the criminals.

I have often read through the Gospels and I am amazed at the categories to which they subjected Him, the classification of my Christ. In the eighth chapter of John Jesus is having a heated confrontation with the religious leaders of His day and they accused Him of being demon possessed. And they went so far as to say that He was a child of fornication. They were implying that there was a story around that Mary his mother had had an affair with a Roman soldier up at the garrison in Nazareth, and therefore Jesus was the byproduct of an illicit love affair. Son of fornication, demon possessed, criminal.

I don't know about you, but I don't like to be called names. In recent days in the fulfilling of my duties as a pastor trying to do the best I could, by someone outside our church family and our congregation who wanted to read it wrongly, called me and told me I was a liar. That hurt then and it hurts now. I don't like to be categorized as a liar, but honestly I try with everything inside me to do things right. And Jesus, my Savior, called a criminal? Called a child of fornication. Called demon possessed.

Ah, He doesn't fit into those categories. For my Christ is the advocate, He is the almighty, He is the Alpha and Omega, He is the apostle of our profession, He is the arm of the Lord, He is the author and the finisher of our faith, He is the source of the eternal salvation, He is the beloved Son, He is the branch, He is the bread of life, He is author of salvation, He is the chief Shepherd, He is King of kings, and He is Lord of the lords. He's not a criminal! He's my Savior. He's the glory of the Lord. He is God. He's the good Shepherd. He's the head of the church. He's the heir of all things. He is the Holy One of Israel. He's the horn of salvation. He's the great I AM. He is King the eternal. He is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is not a criminal, and I want you today to bow with me and to tell Him how much you love Him. Would you do that with me?

Jesus others may think ill of You, call You all kinds of names, but we call You Lord, matchless Redeemer, wonderful Savior, precious Master. We bow in adoration and love and in worship. We tell You dear Jesus we love You. You're everything to us. You are the lily in our deepest valley. You are the Rose of Sharron in our darkest moments. You're the Lord of glory in our times of weakness, and You’re our coming King in times of doubt. You're everything to us dear Jesus. We love You, and these emblems we hold tell us how much You love us. He said the bread is Your body, the cup Your blood. You gave Your life, You died, so we could live. Thank you Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Wonderful Jesus, wonderful Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?