Adult Sunday School - Going Public Part 6 (Chapter 6)

Father God we come before you in agreement on the name of Jesus Christ our

Savior to receive instruction this morning Particularly in the Lord's table and its significance and the blessing and the power

That you have vested in that ordinance For the good of your people for the glory of Christ and we pray

Lord that you would now give us your spirit Humble us to mold us to direct us in such a way that this information not be just clanging symbols

But Lord that this information that this doctrine that this teaching Would be rude in our hearts in such a way that it would be effective on to kingdom fruit

And we pray Lord that you would ready our hearts and our minds not just even now for the study but also

Lord for the services that are to To come before us this morning and later this afternoon

Father we bless those who are here bless those who are on their way Lord and father We bless those who are elsewhere father.

We pray God your blessing over all these things and more in Jesus name. Amen Well, we're gonna pick up where we left off.

That's in chapter 6 of our book on going public And we are going through today an ordinance so that the book has been really focused on the ordinance of baptism as a symbol of the new covenant

Entrance essentially, it's it's a new covenant mark And so what we're going to examine today is that other ordinance that other mark of Christian membership

Essentially, and that is communion now These are two hotly debated subjects baptism and communion and we

Often have passionate Discussions around them. One of the discussions that will be brought up today.

Now the leads and part of the subject of the book is the difference between a Closed communion and a closed community or an open community and all these, you know different I guess administrations of this ordinance

What I don't want us to be lost here. However, is that which is of most importance and it's what these ordinances

Symbolize and what I mean by symbolize I don't just mean in symbol but also in true meaning

What is the meaning purpose of these ordinances namely baptism in the

Lord's Supper So we're gonna examine these things today and and I'll start by kind of starting where Bobby Jameson Starts, which is a good phrase that you are what you eat

Okay You've heard this expression before you are what you eat. Oh, you're you're a donut

That's uh, I love that was like Gordon Ramsey he says you're a donut

And That phrase is to invoke basically that you're

What you put into the body is reflection of who you usually tend to be on the outside You know eat a lot.

We tend to be on the heavier set. We don't eat a lot We're tend to be in a thinner set. Sometimes it doesn't matter what we were either thinner or on the other side regardless But it usually is a telltale or a telling mark of who or what you do

Right, the things that go into your body is a reflection of of it and you know, Jesus points this out

But in a different way when he says it's not so important what goes into the body as much as what comes out Via the mouth, right?

So it's not what necessarily goes into the mouth but what comes out of it that is a truer reflection of Who you are and of your heart?

But it still rings true that you kind of are what you eat I'm not the healthiest eater.

I'm gonna just put that out there I might look a little bit thinner these days, but it's it's not for a lack of not trying

I eat, you know Poorly, you know my my my salad intake

Usually consists of an In -N -Out burger. Okay That I get yeah,

I get I make sure they put in my veggies in there But that's usually the extent of my veggie intake is what you can smash into a burger

I'm not the healthiest of eaters And that probably means that you know My life expectancy isn't gonna be maybe as what

I like or what it should unless I change my ways But if you eat garbage, you're gonna feel like garbage if you eat good, you're gonna feel good.

It's usually what happens And it's usually the way it goes We come here every

Sunday and we eat There's something that we partake in that that we eat that has a substance that has a meaning that has a purpose behind it

And that which we partake in every week here at the church is the Lord's table is the or is the

Lord's ordinance of the bread and the wine Symbolizing the body and blood of Jesus Christ Jesus says this this is my body which is given for you in reference to The bread now, there are three kind of major views on on What this means?

When Jesus says this is my body. This is my blood anyone know what those views are called

Basically, there's four views, but there's three major views that we're gonna focus on Yeah, I always

I always get a hang up when I say that as well Transubstantiation Which is that the doctrine that is found in what

Church? Catholicism and in that doctrine what they teach is that that the the body or that the emblems that the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus and that it it changes substance it only

Doesn't seem as if it changes substance, which is therefore the name trans basically a change of the elements

Then there's co substantiation, which is what you'll usually find within kind of Lutheranism and what does that one teach?

Yes Yeah yeah, so the line that Lutheran just say is that the is that the bot is that within the bread and the wine

Jesus Is in and around the substance, but then the substance itself doesn't change, but I guess it's added on to right

And so that's okay. That's that's one. That's another view and then yes Trans and then counts as amputation.

I'm trying to say that word, right? conscious cons Substantiation something like that.

Yeah. Okay. That's the second one. And then the third one is Essentially what our view would be which is there's not a real funny way of saying it

But it's just it's the spiritual presence of Christ in the elements And so we would say

Christ is truly present in the elements Similarly when we talk about church discipline, right when we look at Matthew 18, it says, you know

I will when there were two or more gathered I will be in their midst. There's a true Presence there, but is it physical is it carnal?

No, but it's it's true. Nonetheless because the spiritual presence of Christ amongst his people when he exercised the keys of the kingdom similarly the

Lord's ordinance of the body and bread of the body and the blood of Jesus so to there you find the true spiritual presence of Christ and Then there is another view the fourth view is what's called a memorialist view

Which essentially says that the emblems are just a memorial symbol. There's no there's no a

Substantive or spiritual presence of Christ. It's just a picture. It's just an image.

It's just a memorial so that's the memorialist view of The Lord's table, but we would hold on to the spiritual presence of of of the emblems.

And so That's important and it's not just nuance because similarly to the importance of baptism and what that signifies

There are true doctrinal practical Implications to these things a memorialist view which is the mainline

Evangelical view of the Lord's table. You see that roof you see that Lackadaisical You know kind of practice of Lord's table and that do do those churches tend to practice communion weekly

Maybe once a month if that if you're lucky if you go to a church They usually like something the first Sunday of a month

Or maybe once a quarter or maybe once a year or maybe whenever the pastor remembers, you know

There is no consistency and why should there be it's just a picture. It's just an image.

It's just a memorial You know, it's not there's not there's nothing actually substantial

Happening in that Ordinance and they kind of take the same view oftentimes the baptism.

Well, you know, we baptize, you know, whatever, you know some so There's there's no there's no regularity to it.

There is no regulation behind it. There is no care behind it It's just something that they it's just there in the ether and you do it when you want to and you know

It's more of a convenience thing And then of course you have those who are more, you know

Catholic Lutheran or people like us Reformed Baptists where we do the Lord's Supper every week and we do

Take a substantial view of the ordinance, but we would differ in the nature of that ordinance.

And so any questions so far Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not sure if I can pinpoint that but I just know that within evangelicalism the Yeah, the

Lord's Supper is not substantial it's not Practiced with any type of regularity

And when I was a pastor in my law non -denominational church in Wisconsin That was kind of the mindset and I was challenged once by a brother.

He says, you know Because in the service we would take an offering This is why do we take an offering every week, but we don't do communion every week

That's a great question. That's totally a fair question, you know And and so obviously my views have straightened in that area where I believe that it is it should be a weekly ordinance and it should be a regular ordinance as You know as we see in the

New Testament, and so we're gonna go more into that Throughout this chapter, but any questions going forward?

Yeah, they tend to be and it's not it's not strictly so but it's my observation that most

Evangelicals hold to the moralist view of the of the Lord's Table and They are the ones who tend to be the most non -committal to the table in terms of any sense of regularity

Right, so they they don't they don't tend to practice it weekly and they tend to treat it very

Almost as an afterthought which we're gonna we're gonna examine in this chapter that really the Lord's Supper was kind of center of Early Christian worship

Lord the Lord's Table was that was the center point of of the Christian community and so You know so much so that you have you guys, you know

Evangelicals like Francis Chan and anyone ever heard of Francis Chan before I think he doesn't count from like San Francisco area

All right. I think he used to be like so so Cal now. He's somewhere up in the Yeah, I think now he's somewhere in You know

SF trying to do a home church movement or something like that and one of the things that moved him away from evangelicalism was kind of a weak view of of Lord's Supper and he became kind of maybe too close to a

Roman Catholic view of Lord's Supper because he saw the deficiency of a Evangelical memorialist view of the

Lord's Supper And so I would disagree with him on many things by I appreciate his desire to want to Incorporate the

Lord's Table more and also see the seriousness of it And so any other thoughts or questions?

So we are what we eat and the gospel is portrayed vividly in Not only the ordinance of baptism remember how baptism is a picture of the gospel namely the death burn resurrection of Christ So too is the

Lord's Supper and how is the Lord's Supper portrayal of the gospel? What is it that is being memorialized in the

Lord's Supper, that's right

So the atonement is really front and center in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper And the

Lord's Supper has an ancient precedent in the Old Covenant. Namely what what's the

Old Covenant precedent? Passover right and so Passover was was besides the

Sabbath Was the primary observance or the first Ordinance other than the

Sabbath To be memorialized by the ancient Israelites by the ancient people of God Because it was in that ordinance.

It was in that Memorial of the Passover. What were they memorializing in the

Passover? What event that's right

So the last plague to come upon Egypt was the death of the firstborn

This is all prefiguring. This is all foreshadowing Christ. Okay. I mean the Passover foreshadows

Christ Brilliantly, which is why the Lord's Supper is the fulfillment of the Passover okay, and we see that in 1st

Corinthians chapter 5 where Paul says that Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed and In the

Passover you have again the call By Moses to the people of Israel in Egypt in a foreign land to to slaughter the innocent blood of a lamb put that blood over the doorpost and And they were to you know be safe And so Christ being our lamb who takes away the sins of the world

We put his blood on the doorpost of our hearts. We receive forgiveness salvation the angel of death

God's wrath passes over us As it did the ancient Israelites and we get to have eternal life

But ours is one of eternal security Ours is one of eternal salvation not just a temporary salvation at what was seen in the original

Passover the celebration after that So the commemoration of that event the

Lord in Exodus and and Deuteronomy points out that the Passover after the initial

Passover was to be observed with the usage of Bread and Also What what else was to be eaten?

There's a couple things that need to be eaten Bit or bitter herbs are part of it. Yeah What else?

Yeah, they had to cook a lamb and not one piece of lamb could be left over. Okay, which was a picture of the complete

Sacrifice of Jesus that Jesus's sacrifice is to the other most and so for instance in the ancient

Passover Memorial you had to eat the whole lamb It had to be roasted in fire and you could not leave not even you couldn't have leftovers basically

And so you had to eat it all And you couldn't put leaven in the bread.

Why? Why was it unleavened bread? It's a picture of sin.

That's right. But there was also a practical reason for the That's right, that's right

So they were in a hurry so they couldn't put leaven because leaven takes time for it to rise and all that stuff So they had to not put leaven so they had to be in a rush in a hurry

And so you see how we get this ancient practice. So the bitter herbs wine is a bitter

Drink, okay. I don't like wine personally. It's always I'm not I'm not a person who likes alcohol for me.

All alcohol is kind of bitter and doesn't taste good doesn't add anything to my life and so You know, there's a bitterness to to the wine again.

This is all picture. You see how this this beautiful Symphony of Scripture just all kind of coat becomes cohesive and finds its climax in Jesus Christ And so the old covenant precedent is the

Passover the Passover is now fulfilled in The Lord's Supper does that make sense?

Okay and So it says in in Scripture that in 1st

Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26 First often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes And so the Lord's Supper is where we proclaim the gospel and participate in the gospel, okay, similarly again to Baptism Baptism is our entrance, but also our participation now our

Lord's Supper is a weekly participation in the Lord's Gospel Okay, does that make sense?

So you have one sign that is an entrance and then one that is a constant

I'm not sure if maintenance would be the term would be the word correct term here, but is our weekly

Participation I think participation is a better term In that gospel activity and so in one we don't you know

We don't believe in being baptized multiple times like if you've had a legitimate baptism And you were truly, you know regenerate it and convert it.

We don't believe that you should be baptized again Why would that be inappropriate? Yeah, yeah

So any other reasons why it may be inappropriate? Yeah, you know what it does in essence that's that's that's partially true

I think doesn't necessarily negate it as it makes the first one known void but it's it's understanding really the the the meaning of baptism if Baptism truly is entrance into membership in the local church, right?

Then if we do it again it puts into Doubt that first Entry right.

It's like saying well that wasn't good enough. I got to do it again or you know and the We typically see people wanting to get baptized again because they felt something was off or wrong about their first baptism

And so and it could be that they weren't saved or that maybe it was administered by a false church, you know

You know like of Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses or something and and so there are appropriate Instances in which one should be baptized again.

Yeah Yeah, I don't think that and it depends like if it's

Presbyterian and or they were, you know baptized as infants or sprinkled I think that's not baptism So it's not like it's like we're not asking to be re -baptized we're just asking to be baptized

Yeah, so because that initial baptism isn't a biblical baptism and so So that's that's where I would come in from that But I don't think that someone who's had a legitimate baptism should be baptized again again legitimate meaning that they were baptized by a

Bible -believing church baptized by you know being born again prior to to to that baptism and then obviously

You know having a right understanding of it So if those those criteria's are met there that person shouldn't be re -baptized now sometimes we feel the need let's say a

Christian Falls away. So he's a true born -again Christian But let's say he falls into a season of sin and he falls into a season of backsliding and then he comes back

Should he be baptized again? I don't know if I was a believer the first time

So I wasn't sure so I just did it again Yeah, but I mean when somebody's baptized they're baptized into the body of Christ.

That's right And I think if you just say they're baptized into a particular church then you would feel the need to get re -baptized

So it's into the body of Christ, right? Yeah, when we mean the body of Christ, there's also the

There's clearly the local and the universal sense in which that is true, right?

And in a sense the local church is the guardian of the universal church, right?

And so because it starts locally and so when we say when we come together we affirm someone's testimony What we're saying is this person is truly part of the universal church, right?

And we affirm this testimony. Therefore we baptize them in the name of the Triune God Okay, so that's that that's the purpose there

The reason why it would also be inappropriate is because it would also conflate the importance between the entry ordinance

Which is baptism and the maintenance ordinance which is communion

And so communion is a reaffirming also of our baptism So when we partake, remember what we say here in our church is you should only partake if you are a believer in Christ If you've been baptized by full immersion upon profession of that faith in Christ And if you're a member of a church in good standing

Because communion is that reaffirming, is that reaffirming of that initial sign, of that initial oath, right?

And so baptism is an oath, remember? If we get baptized over and over again it's like you already did the oath

So you don't need to do it again It's one oath and then that oath is maintained in a sense, remembered

You know those vows are retaken in a sense in the communion table, right?

And so to then be baptized numerous times it kind of negates the purpose of the

Lord's table Because that's the Lord's table's job is to affirm and reaffirm and reaffirm that initial oath

Does that make sense? Okay, perfect And so the

Lord's Supper is an important subject on this because again we have to rightly understand the oath that we initially took in baptism

And how the Lord's Supper is that reaffirming oath that we take weekly as we come together in the church

And so in the page 109, at the end of that there's like the second to last paragraph there

He talks about the ecclesial, the four foundations of the ecclesial shape of the Lord's table He says, number one, the

Lord's Supper is a transformation of the Passover As I like to say it's the fulfillment of the

Passover The Lord's Supper is a communal participation in the benefits of Jesus' death

And so while there is some truth to baptism also being communal because there is one who is administering it

Which is usually the preacher or the minister And then it is also being watched by witnesses so there is a communal aspect to it

Similarly to marriage, right? So marriage is communal in a sense too But it's ultimately really between a party of two

It's husband and wife Baptism really is primarily an audience of two as well

The believer, the baptizee, and the one to whom we are being dedicated to, the

Lord Jesus So there is still that primary two -party participation

Whereas the Lord's Supper is a communal participation Where we are all on equal footing, partaking, participating in the

Lord's Supper You had your hand up, Emmanuel? Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily the case

It is a sign, so your membership is that sign to the community that you've been baptized

So you say I'm a member of this church meaning that you've been baptized by this church It is public in that sense

I don't think that the going public part necessitates you actually being in a public fountain

In the middle of town square being baptized there I don't think that's the intention or the purpose or the meaning of that phraseology

And so ultimately what we mean by going public in the sense that you're baptized being a public event

It means now you are publicly a member of this local community of believers And so that in itself is the public aspect of it

Is the fact that you're a member of a church now Does that make sense? Yeah, and I think that's evident by your membership into a church

So you tell people, hey, I'm a member of this church Or someone asks you, hey, I'm a member of this church

That is that public display of baptism And the Lord's Supper is a continuation of that And so, yeah, what do you do?

Do you go down knocking on doors in your street and say, Hear ye, hear ye, I'm being baptized today Come see me, be public

It's like, yeah, that's not necessarily Yeah, I think it's a misunderstanding of a very basic fundamental meaning of what it means to go public

It doesn't mean, you know, to You know, when we use this term, going public is used by the world

More so to talk about someone maybe coming out the closet of their sexuality, right? Becoming homosexual

Does that mean that person goes knocking on doors and say, hey, I'm a homosexual No, but they make a public declaration maybe on Facebook Maybe just by the way they're living their lives that, hey, you know,

I'm a homosexual Similarly, Christians, you know, we make that public declaration by the way that we live

Similar to how a homosexual will come out of the closet When we come out of the closet and we say, I'm a Christian And it's evident, my baptism is now evident

It's now public by means of the way I'm living, right? So I think that's a better way of understanding that Does that kind of help,

Emmanuel? Yeah Again, I don't see where What the demand is in terms of, okay

What would satisfy that demand? Do we have to go to If we go to a lake but there's no one there, is that public?

I mean, it's in the public, but No one in the public actually saw it, so does that count?

Exactly, exactly And so I don't think that that's, yeah

Say again?

Yeah, exactly I mean, and this is a public service, right? So our church service is an open service

Anyone can come and attend And so again, it's public I mean, if we did it outside, would it be any more public?

But if it was the same audience Would it be any more public? Not really You think the angels don't see what we're doing behind closed doors?

You know, it's, you know So I think it's a I think it's an issue of semantics

I don't think there's anything substantive to the demands there And so the

Lord's Supper is a communal participation in the benefits of Jesus' death Now, it's also analogous to what we discovered about baptism in chapter 4

Namely, that the Lord's Supper is the renewing oath sign of the new covenant So remember, there's the initial oath sign in baptism

And there's the renewing oath sign in the Lord's Supper And fourthly, the

Lord's Supper is celebrated by the church As a church, and entails responsibility for the church

That's why Paul spends an entire chapter Talking about the importance of the Lord's Supper in 1

Corinthians chapter 11 Clearly laying out regulations And, you know, the responsibility that comes along with participating in the

Lord's Supper And so building So his argument here is that the

Lord's Supper plays a role in making a church a church And I think that is absolutely right

So what makes a Christian a Christian is what? Faith in Christ and then baptism

You can't separate the two The Apostolic Declaration in Acts chapter 2

By the first preacher of the New Testament church, the Apostle Peter He says, repent

He says, believe, repent and be baptized That's the sign of a Christian Someone who believes, repents and is baptized

And so what makes a church a church Is not only that initial oath -seeking sign of the baptism

But also the continuation of that oath -keeping in the Lord's Supper So both ordinances of the

Lord Jesus Christ Are a sign of the oath and the oath -keeping

Okay? Yes Say that part again

I think that that's a fair assessment I mean, you know, there's more details in between But generally

I think that's true Obviously I think that a church needs to proclaim the gospel

And a church should have a pastor, a preacher But there are seasons in which a church doesn't have a preacher

Does that mean the church is any less legitimate? Not necessarily so There's a time in which a church can be

In its infancy, they're building up elders and preachers And so, but I think that's generally true, yeah

What's of interest as well is again So one, the analogy of marriage comes to mind

Greatly when it comes to these two ordinances Obviously I always say that You know, baptism, when

I preach on baptism It's kind of like the ring on the finger It is that initial sign to an outside world, right?

So, you know, our membership is that ring It's that public display that I was mentioning to you earlier

Just like, you know, I don't have to go around Proclaiming I'm married, it's evident by the ring So I don't have to just go around saying it all the time

What's also true, however Is that the Lord's Supper Excuse my example

I think it's a right example, I think it's a good example But the

Lord's Supper is kind of like the consummation It's like sexual relations in the marriage Sexual relations is a way of renewing that intimacy

Renewing that commitment And it's a reminder of that initial commitment that was made

Which is why sex is sacred And why it is to be enjoyed in the bonds of holy matrimony

Because it is that sacred renewal within the relationship Of that covenant, in a sense

Similarly, we enjoy this intimacy in the Lord's Supper In the Lord's Table I'm partaking spiritually in the body and blood of Jesus And what happens in sexual relations

Again, I'm sorry for the crude example But there is that intimacy that is

You don't get that by shaking hands with someone I've heard a joke about that once That sex is like shaking hands

But it's totally different There's an intimacy there That cannot be replicated elsewhere

The Lord's Table is that intimacy In which we are renewing that oath that we initially took

So, analogy of the wedding ring and the consummation It's the same thing Marriage or church

You're being a Christian You have that initial oath, the baptism And the renewing of that intimacy

That is shared in the Lord's Table That's right

So that's a great example, right? So the Bible says that your husband and wife Are two persons, or two beings, or two flesh

But according to Scripture, they become what? One flesh The church, though many, is one body

It's that intimacy Again, this is not, you know Man, there's such a richness here

And that's why even the Bible uses these terms Of like consummation In regard to what's to come in the future

Between the intimacy between Christ and the church Right? And so the body of Christ, the church, is his body

Similarly to a husband's wife That's, in a sense, an extension of him

That's his body That's his person That's a person he shares intimacy with Christ shares intimacy with his people

And we see that in the spiritual presence Of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Lord's Table But that will actually one day be truly consummated

In the new heavens and new earth And that language of consummation is very much

Sexual, in a sense There's a sexual connotation I know people get uncomfortable with that But it's exactly what's happening there

There's a sexual connotation there But in the most holiest and godliest of ways In which

God literally enters into his people And his people enter into him There's this sacred union that happens

That is mimicked in earthly marriage Which is why the

Bible time and time again Throughout the Old and New Testament Pictures the relationship between Christ and the church

As a husband and his wife Okay? That's right You know, even in Isaiah 54

The Bible says that Jehovah is our husbandly owner It uses that term, husbandly owner

To refer to God's covenant arrangement With his covenant people Yeah, that's right

Doesn't it make it less legitimate?

Yeah That's a great question I'm not sure if it changes the legitimacy of it

I don't think it does It certainly doesn't change the legitimacy of it What I love is that Like with most things of the

Bible It's almost like an onion that needs to be peeled And the more I learn about God The more

I learn about the gospel The more I learn about scripture The greater appreciation I can have For the things that I have already done or experienced

So, for instance, you know, I got baptized in April of 2009 Okay?

And that was my Christian baptism Did I understand everything that I understand today? Well, clearly not

I was 17 years old I did not have a full concept of what it was that I was entering

I knew enough But now, looking back Learning about these things in scripture I have a greater appreciation now for what that event meant

And for what it means for me today And so, it certainly doesn't change the legitimacy Of the initial oath keeping

And it's similar to marriage, right? When you get married, do you know what Do you really know what you're getting yourself into?

Gosh, yeah No, you don't That's the answer You don't I don't care if you get married at 19 like I did

Or at 40 You do not know exactly what you're getting yourself into But over time

You grow into greater levels of appreciation For that initial oath

And so That's a good question And so, in pages 110 -111 We kind of went over some of this already

But again, the Lord's Supper is a transformation Or I would say a fulfillment of the Passover The Passover being again that ancient commitment

That God gave to his people to listen, to obey Should the Israelites have listened They would have lived

And they would have had the angel of death pass over them And that's exactly what the

Lord's Supper is a picture of today Is that we are an oath covenant keeping people

And the wrath of God does not abide on us But passes over because of the blood of Jesus Right?

And so there is the perfect work of Christ That by our faith and our recognition of that perfect sacrifice

Christ, our Passover lamb Our ransom sacrifice We can have eternal life

And that deliverance of sin and of death Is also remembered in the Lord's Table Why?

Because it says in scripture That the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Table The bread and the wine

We do this as a memorial of his death But also until he comes

And he comes and brings final deliverance And so this is a temporary ordinance

This is an ordinance that is only in application Until the

Lord returns Which is also why, side note Why the heresy of Preterism Preterism, that's right

Preterism is so dangerous because If preterism is true

Then there shouldn't be baptism or the Lord's Supper Right? Because we're already in the eternal state

We've already reached the consummation So what purpose is there in being baptized? What purpose is there in keeping the

Lord's Table? And so it truly undoes any type of biblical ecclesiology in this age

Which is again why preterism is a full heresy And should be rejected because of the connotations that it has

Also for the organization of the local church Right? And so that's a dangerous precedent to set

Any thoughts or questions so far? Yes So preterism says that Jesus has already come

That all prophecy has been fulfilled And that we're essentially already in the eternal state Most preterists would say that we enter into that eternal state upon death

But if Jesus has indeed come back So they say that he came back in 70 AD Then what purpose is there in baptism?

If baptism is an ordinance for the local church But if we already received the consummation

Then there's no need for it Similarly also there would be no need for the Lord's Table Because it says in scripture that we do so until he comes

But if he came already You know there's no reason to keep it And actually it's interesting because a lot of preterists

They'll get around that by saying Well we observe the Lord's Table just simply as a memorial

So that initial significance that I had in the first century No longer applies But we'll participate merely as a memorial of that which already happened

Which again, I don't know where they get the scriptural backing for that But that's their argument

So, alright The Lord's Supper is a communion participation that benefits of Jesus' death

Notice what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 16 It says the cup of blessing that we bless

Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break

Is it not a participation in the body of Christ? So Paul is making an important argument here

First for the regularity of the Lord's Supper Because Paul is presupposing that this is a weekly event

And that's pretty clear from the use of the language that he uses in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 That this is a weekly occurrence

And he also makes the argument that when we come together We should treat it as solemn

We should treat it as holy Why? Because we are truly participating in the body and blood of Jesus To participate in something, in this connotation

There is a communal aspect Usually to participate in an activity

You need more than one person Can you play football? Can you truly play football by yourself?

No, you can throw a ball Can you truly play baseball by yourself?

No, you can hit a ball But you are not truly playing, participating in it Unless there are others participating with you

It is communal Similarly to the Lord's Supper The Lord's Supper is a communal activity There is a participation in it

And it also presupposes others participating in with you

Which is why Paul gives the church the warning That hey, some of you guys are getting drunk Before everyone even comes together

Some of you guys are bringing your own food Meaning that some of you guys are isolating from the others

And some of you are misusing the Lord's Supper And the whole purpose of the

Lord's Supper is that it is communal That we take it together Which is why in our church tradition, what do we do?

We say, please hold the emblems in your hands Until we bless it and we participate together

It is communal So we are all sharing in the same moment In the blessings of the

Lord's Supper Is that pretty well understood? Yes Nothing earth -shattering here

Nothing too crazy And so the Lord's Supper is the renewing oath sign of the

New Covenant We have also gone in lengths on this subject as well How, of course, baptism signifies

There is a picture of the first initial oath covenant Keeping that we make as Christians That grants us, essentially, entrance into the local church

And then you have the Lord's Supper Which is kind of a recommitment

It is a renewing of that covenant -keeping oath That we made initially in baptism

There was a whole chapter, essentially, that we spent on this subject And so I don't think there should be too much confusion

But if there are any questions, I would sure be glad to take them Any thoughts or questions on that aspect?

We all affirm that to be the case That we understand the significance of the first sign

Which is baptism being the initial entrance Or the initial oath And then the

Lord's Supper is the renewing of that oath Yes I like,

Jonathan Edwards, for example, said this That God, in this ordinance, seals His covenant to us

So this is a beautiful language And he says how by the actions of breaking the bread

And pouring out the wine And giving them to the people Are, as it were, a visible promise

That upon our accepting the things signified by them At the hands of Christ, we shall enjoy them

And the actions and signs signify the same to the eye As the promises do to the ear

I love that It's very good And so we have, again, a physical representation of this promise

The last being, the Lord's Supper is celebrated by the church

As a church And it entails responsibility for the church

So the Bible regulates the

Lord's Supper We've received criticism as a church Because we regulate the

Lord's Supper I've had people come in here and tell me That was a wonderful service

I loved your message But I don't like how you guys did communion I said, okay, that's all right

Let's talk about that a little bit And they seem to get upset Because, again, what are some of the major ecclesiological practices of communion

One is open and one is closed And one is kind of in between Where do we fall?

In between To the dismay of some, I think, right? Some may not like how open we are or how closed we are

I think we have a pretty good balance I think our balance as a church Fits the biblical requirements of the

Lord's Supper We're actually, we've gone through a book recently The pastors, we usually go through a book reading

Every time we meet on Wednesday And we're examining the subject of the

Lord's Supper Pretty intently Because I think we're pretty close to making some ecclesiological changes

To how we do this And the reason why is because we want to be closer to the

Bible You know, just to give you a little bit of insight Of what might come from the pulpit soon

In regard to some of the things, how we administer the Lord's Supper This is all a reference of administration

Not doctrine, our doctrinal stance hasn't changed on the Lord's Supper But rather our administration of it

It might change in the future For instance, in the Bible, it's very clear Both by the Apostle Paul and by the

Lord Jesus Christ himself That when they took the elements, he blessed each individually We, right now, just bless once And then we participate

But it's very clear from the scriptures That both elements were blessed distinctively

So the bread first, and then the wine So there's a prayer for that, he blessed it He broke the bread, he blessed it

And then he passed, same with the cup He took the cup, he blessed it And then he also administered it to the people

And so I think that might be a change That we might see in the future of our churches How we administer the symbols of the bread and the wine

But it is just to bring into mind That there is a responsibility of the church

To administer these ordinances And to do so rightly Probably the person that was objecting to the communion

Was probably that last one Being a member of a church in good standing That's probably, because I can't imagine them

Objecting to the first two requirements Yeah, yeah And you know, let's So in regard to like a closed communion

And closed communion, and open communion You know, the What really,

I guess People like the appearance of openness

Right? And I think people focus more on appearances Than substance That's so true of our culture

We much more care about what things appear Than what they actually are

Okay? If anyone ever saw Seen like that famous viral interview

With Elon Musk recently Where he says some pretty nasty words But I think probably under the guise of the right spirit

At least in terms of the context of what he was referring to He says he's sick and tired

Of people appearing to do what is right But actually doing evil Okay? And he was talking about these big corporations

You know, like Disney and stuff And they have this appearance of doing what is right Oh, we love trans people We're inclusive, we're open

But in reality, what they're actually doing is evil And so he's like fed up with this appearance game

And I think that's what a lot of people get hanged up on People like the appearance of good Like the appearance of openness

But they don't really look at the substance of it And so when people look at a church That has a closed or closed communion

They say, well that just isn't welcoming That just isn't warm It doesn't make me feel good

Because there are going to be those Inevitably they're going to be excluded Okay? And actually that's exactly what baptism

And the Lord's Supper are about It is to an extent about exclusion And about being able to mark

Between a Christian and a non -Christian Someone who is right with God Someone who is wrong with God It is meant to distinguish between goats and sheep

It is distinguishing James White uses the term the dividing line

Right? He uses that term for his podcast and stuff He uses this term a lot in other areas too And he says that true doctrine divides

Right? And I think that true doctrine divides Also in this instance Where we have a closed or closed communion

These are meant for such division Not in a biblical sense where we want division

But it is supposed to help us mark Between someone who is a non -Christian You had your hand up?

Well the same can be true of Someone who we interview I mean certainly there are those who

We have to understand that even with our best attempts With our best attempts of discernment There are going to be those who are in our midst

Who are probably you know They're confessing believers But may not be truly born again or regenerated

And so even the best of vetting Doesn't completely guard The ordinances of the

Lord's table There's always going to be human error There's always going to be an element of Uncertainty to some degree

And so the question is From what I'm hearing is Is how do we lessen the degree

Of uncertainty of someone Making sure that that person who's participating

Either in baptism or in the Lord's Supper Is legitimately a Christian I think that's the heart of the question

If I'm hearing you right And ultimately is We cannot guard it perfectly

The Lord does though The Lord guards it perfectly The Lord knows those who are His own

According to 2 Timothy 2 verse 24 The Lord knows those who are His Verse 18 actually And so we don't have to You know

I think we can go on Really big extremes here And I think where we are at currently

Is a good middle ground I know sometimes we don't like middle ground Because compromise or this or that But there are so many things

That we do need to find a middle ground to Instead of just flocking to an extreme On too open or too closed

But it is an interesting question right I mean another thing to consider Is that it's called the Lord's Supper Not the

Lord's Snack And what do we do? We take a little snack size Another thing that is said about the

Lord's Table It's also called the Lord's Supper And that which Supper time is usually afternoon

Right or you know in the evening So should we participate in the evening In order to make it more right

These are all questions that we are considering as elders How closed, how open should it actually be? These are things that we are working through And we are trying to consider

And when we do come to conclusions We will make them all at once Because we are trying to examine all these subjects You know kind of one by one

And then just instead of implementing changes Little by little We are going to implement them all at once So that it's just easier that way

Should we make those decisions As we are trying to be closer to the scriptures But one thing that is clear from this part

Is that there is a responsibility of the church To regulate this Which is why

Paul regulates it in 1 Corinthians 11 When you come together And it's not for the better but for the worse

When you come together as a church I hear that there are divisions among you He's all these lines about basically you know

Protecting the table He says when you come together It's not the Lord's Supper that you eat Why? Because they were bringing their own food

They were eating out of unison They were not Some of them were getting drunk And so he says therefore

So that when you come together It would not be for judgment Same because they were not well regulated in the table

They were drinking judgment upon themselves Because they were misusing, abusing the table

And so again these are sacred ordinances To me 1 Corinthians is a case study

Of a kind of an ancient evangelical church That had just become so lax

And so open That the Lord's table began to be A place of judgment and not blessing

Right? And so Just to wrap this all up We want to go over You know the last couple things here

So the Lord's table makes us one Similarly to how our baptism makes us one in Christ Right?

We are entering into this covenant relationship Covenant community And again there's a communal aspect to the

Lord's Supper And so the five conclusions that should be drawn From this subject From this study

Is that you must be baptized In order to participate in the Lord's Supper Why? That's right

That's right And so again One is a renewing One is the initial

So baptism must precede the Lord's table Right? So similarly to how

Sex should Or you know Or marriage Should precede sex Right? Because If not you're doing things in reverse

And it breaks the order You know of it And again this is why some

People Denominations Like to do Infant baptism

Is because they Check that mark And say well okay they've been baptized already So they can We can just administer the

Lord's Supper But obviously You know that Takes us down another rabbit hole

Two The Lord's Supper is an effective sign Of church membership Okay so again This is why we

Take the stance of saying that You should be a member of a church Of our church Or a member of another church in good standing

And so That's why we take that stance Obviously I don't think there's Going to be any disagreement there

But it is an effective sign Because it's That reaffirming of that initial oath

This also means that The It is not The Lord's Supper is not individualistic

So there were some churches during COVID Maybe you heard some of these stories Or maybe saw it

Where a lot of churches were kind of like saying Well you can just do communion in your house Right? And And there are a lot of people

Who do that Who They feel You know I feel like doing communion today And they'll whip out the You know that Yiddish bread

And the wine or grape juice And they'll just self administer that Is that right? No No It's not an individual ordinance

It's a church ordinance Right? So I'm just looking at the one Because I was I was

I had I was a caregiver And the woman was unable To leave the hospital And it was like the past And I don't see what the harm is in that Yeah that's an interesting scenario

I don't I'd have to consider that That could be right That could be a good administration of it But But The purpose of it is

Ultimately to recognize So we're like We're not like Catholics Where we do last rites And we You know

Have that last communion Rather We understand that this is a communal Responsibility of the church

So we participate together In the life of the church But there could be instances like that Where it may be appropriate

Yeah Yeah I would have to look at that In a case -by -case Basis And so three

The Lord's Supper Normally entails membership In That local church So again If the second is true

Then the third one has to follow Right? So it is It is again That responsibility of the church

To administer those things rightly And of course There's a lot of information there You should have read it

Fourth The Lord's Supper Should only be celebrated By local churches So again That brings up the The point

This is a church ordinance Not an individual ordinance And so we're to do this together

There's no There's not one instance in Scripture Where this is an individual Exercise Okay So that's important And five

A church A gathering That regularly celebrates The Lord's Supper together Is A church

Okay So this is a vital In Ingredient To a

Bible -believing church Is Regular Participation Administration Of the

Lord's Supper Okay If you have no baptism There's no church membership

If there's no Lord's Supper There's no church Okay These are things that go

Hand in hand Together They are They are They are necessary Outflows of one another

And so Any thoughts or questions On The subject that we Examine today Yes sir

Yeah I mean just What you would expect That They didn't feel welcomed

How? Because We guarded the table A little bit too much And so it felt like It would be wrong for me to participate

Even though I want to participate You know And I think it's a good thing That people maybe feel that Because first I want people to participate

I want you I want people to participate In the Lord's Supper This is a good thing There's true spiritual power

And presence In this ordinance And so I want people To participate in it But I also want you to Be careful because of what

Scripture warns us First Corinthians 11 26 So that we should examine ourselves That's exactly why we put Those parameters

Because there should be An examination You know Am I truly a Christian? Have I been baptized?

Am I a member of a church In good standing? All these things are Good for reflection Examination And if you don't meet

Those conditions And I think It is inappropriate For you to participate And it's not Because we don't

Want you Or love you Or welcome you But it's actually For your own good Right And so that's what

Sometimes people Have a hard time Understanding Or grasping Or accepting Yes Yes Yes And even if They do meet the requirements

Sometimes people Are still offended Because they don't They want A kind of this Hippy You know

Just In that direction

Of drawing conclusions I don't think The scripture Usually When it comes to Important matters

Leaves it open ended For you to come To your own conclusion It usually Lays down enough information

For us to come To a right conclusion And so yes I think that there are Some conclusions That have to be made In terms of how we

How open How closed We have to be In regard to This ordinance

But ultimately I think that These things are For our good For our protection

And for The glory of Christ So Any other thoughts Or questions Before we close?

All right Let's pray Well Father We do thank you

That again We can come together In full agreement On this subject That you have

Ordained for your church A sign of the covenant Of the oath That we make

When we confess Jesus Christ As Lord and Savior And that in baptism That time That sign

Is confirmed In water As you Yourself The Lord Jesus Said That this

Sign of The new birth Will be by water And spirit The spirit dwelling

In us And the water sealing Us Over Our baptism And so Fourth Lord You've also laid out

The renewing sign Of the new covenant The renewing sign Of that oath Of the lordship

Of Christ Over your people In the Lord In the Lord's table In the Lord's supper Father Now as we

Examine ourselves Even To see if these things Be true To see if We truly are

In Christ We ask Lord that That same spirit Would lead us to A jubilant Response Even later

This afternoon When we participate Together In the Lord's supper Father we pray That you would help us

Lord to be in agreement On these things And more For the glory Of your name For advancement Of your kingdom