The Criteria of Communion Part 4

Let's pray and we will continue with the multi -week series that we've been doing

Looking at what makes a valid consecration. What are the requirements for communion?

According to scriptures and then as laid out in the Lutheran confessions and the solid declaration

Let's pray Lord Jesus again as we open up your word We pray for your Holy Spirit a right understanding of your words so that we believe confess do and hang on to the promises

That are given to us when we have the Lord's Supper together and feast on the body and blood of Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our

Sins, we ask all this in Jesus name Amen. All right by way of Reminder last week we talked about the fact that What what is it that makes a valid sacrament and we noted that it's

Christ not the pastor It's Christ his verba his words of institution that make it the

Lord's Supper Not the pastor's reciting of the verba. So when a pastor recites the words of institution they are

They are that is done as part of the do this and so we recognize that the

Lutheran confessions Put the emphasis on Christ He's the one who makes it the Lord's Supper not the pastor his word makes it the

Lord's Supper not the pastor's The pastor speaks the verba for a blessing in the wide sense

But in the narrow sense of now Christ's body and blood being present Given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins within the

Lord's Supper that is all done by Christ not the pastor So that's that's an important bit and then we noted that the do this

What Christ says do this that this is what is required a Christian assembly bread and wine

The speaking or reciting or the singing of the words of institution last week I took a crack at singing and it's been a while since I've heard it sung

I've only done it. I've only sung the words of institution maybe once or twice here at Kongsvinger. So Let's just say that when

I when I do not have confidence. I have I'm experiencing insecurities regarding the melody

My voice cracks and heads in bad directions So I figured that that wouldn't actually bless the

Lord's Supper it might actually curse it so I'm Just a little bit of note there, but No, my bad singing would be performative only in invoking a curse on the listeners

You know, but but so because the pastor's verba is not performative.

It can be spoken. It can be Sung it can be chanted These are options that are available and I'm not required to say it in Aramaic or in Hebrew which is also very helpful and Then you'll note that the bread and wine are distributed and that there there is no prescription on how or who distributes them

And then bread and wine are consumed. That's what makes a valid sacrament and that's all there is and so That being the case then we're gonna we're gonna focus then on some further theses that I wrote in this regard

And we're gonna emphasize the fact that Christ is present wherever Christians are present wherever they are present.

And again, we the internet is not a place. It's We do not live in the world of Wreck -It

Ralph and Tron As good as Wreck -It Ralph was as a movie. I really enjoyed that movie and Tron not so much but I had to go see

Tron when I was a kid because it was so cutting -edge with the CGI graphics and things like that, but It really wasn't that compelling of a story, but you guys do not live in cyberspace.

In fact As I'm looking at Stephen Elliott's, you know, always the background there.

I see that thing. He's I'm convinced He's he's got a torture device in his basement there, you know

He assures me that when he gets on that thing that you know He hangs upside down that he's able to not be stuck there, you know

And but you know that being the case you'll note that Stephen Elliott is joining us from a place

So are Louise and Bill you guys are in a place And and in a place where they don't root for the

Yankees, which is very good And of course the

Sylvester family great to see you guys and in New Mexico, we'll see you guys this week and And others that are joining us.

So it always and again, you'll note that y 'all are somewhere but you ain't in the internet So the question then comes up and this is and this is an important bit

Because when I originally wrote these theses, I didn't think I would have to actually defend this bit because it seems kind of self -evident that we all exist in in places that That the internet is a medium of communication

It is a medium if the technologies that are here that God has allowed for us to have are have been vital

Can you imagine if kovat had hit in 1979 Yeah, Josh, so they wouldn't have locked down our kid

Don't put it we're talking about politicians here. You don't put it past them. Don't tempt them like that, right?

But you know if they had been, you know lockdowns what what would have been the implications? Regarding church services and things like that.

We wouldn't have been able to move our services quote online and and I say that because You know

Don Matson, we're gonna have him actually speak in the in the near future on this talking about these things

That right now we talk about have you know, we have our meetings online, but in the future we won't talk about online meetings just like When the automobile first came out when the automobile first came out, what did they call those things?

Horseless carriages. All right. Do we even need to invoke horses nowadays? No, this is an automobile, right?

But so the idea then is is that as a technology Embeds itself in our culture, you know, you're always there's a there's an adoption curve when it comes to any technology you have your people who are first to use it and implement it and They're there you're kind of Innovative Entrepreneurial types and and we always thank

God for people like that because they got all the bugs worked out They're the ones who have to stay on tech support and and and have their hair pull out and stuff like that but after after a particular amount of time a large sizable amount of the population

Adopts them and then you'll know time passes time passes and What happens when time passes?

Nobody remembers what it was before You know, so in just a month and a

Week and a half. We're going to be observing the 20th anniversary of the 9 -eleven attack

Okay, 20 years. Okay, and I know some of the younger folks here at Kongsvinger they have no memory none whatsoever of the of the

Twin Towers of the World Trade Center none Their entire existence has been post 9 -eleven

They have no memory of what the country was like before that every time they get on an airplane

They just think it's normal for them to get a full body scan and have to go through that rigorous security check and all that Kind of stuff, right?

They have no memory of what it was like before none So that that being the case in the in the years ahead

The generation that's coming up they will there will not be a Moment of their lives where the internet has not played an integral role

You'll note that all the kids that are in grade school today all the kids that are in grade school today who last

You know school year spent in the majority of time in class on the internet

That that's normal for them that's normal and So in the in the in the years ahead

We can we can see where this is heading in fact I begin to wonder if one of the major long -term impacts not only of kovat and the technologies that we have is going to be the

Decentralization of work. So right now work is centralized among large cities, you know yeah, and here we are out in the middle of nowhere, you know sugar beet fields of Of Minnesota actually,

I think that's they were they just planted wheat that year So they're next to us, but all that being said we're out in the middle of nowhere

But the internet makes it possible for people to live anywhere to do their work anywhere

Yeah Yeah Right Right.

Yeah, right. And I mean Dwayne you you got two jobs that you do from Mayfield, you know,

Mayville, Mayville, North Dakota All the way up to Francis He works for a

Catholic health care system, so the Pope is involved Yeah exactly

So so it's it's not It is not crazy to think that you know here in you know

Where I live Grand Forks that we could be seeing an influx of people fleeing cities for the purpose of living somewhere smaller more local for the regaining of a sense of community and things like this and It and when people talk about meetings now in the future a meeting is just gonna

It's just gonna automatically take place on the internet and it's going to include disparate people people who are who are geographically disconnected

But we're only talking about geographically disconnected in hundreds and thousands of miles, but you know, we're not we're all still part of the same planet

Right, yeah And so, you know all of a sudden everybody's recognizing.

Wait a second This this is this is a valid medium for the purpose of and I would note this

Let's talk about the different ways in which you can use this technology So my wife she recently went to visit the doctor and the doctor doesn't even work here in Grand Forks.

She sat in an office Where there was a big teleprompter set up and he phoned it in He spoke with her about her meds talked to her about her medical conditions.

He diagnosed where she was We you know Redid her prescriptions and he wasn't physically in the room

All the tests that needed to be done were done locally by you know, a nurse practitioner or whatever But you know, my wife was never in the physical presence of her physician and yet her physician

Legally cared for her and is actually responsible for her and took care of all of that via the medium of what the internet

Emergency rooms, you know, so all you need is all you need is like a nurse practitioner to you know, hook up equipment

So when you come to these, you know, small rural hospitals, you're actually under the care of a physician

That is many miles of not thousands of miles away And the goal of those the electronic emergency rooms is to stabilize the patient so they can then transport to a larger facility

Okay, so that this is news to me. I'm not even familiar with how technology are being implemented, but those of Yeah, so we here in the in the rural middle of nowhere, which is where we are

We have electronic ERs now Emergency rooms and it's a CNA or a nurse practitioner who does all the work

But she's the orders are being called in via the Internet Video Yeah now let me ask you a question

So anybody whose whose life has been saved using an electronic emergency room Have they ever been told you weren't really saved that was it really medicine?

You weren't really cared for it because it doesn't count because that was on the Internet Okay, got it, okay, so it's plausible deniability now actually

I saw your hand up Tell a stroke Really Wow Yeah, so it's it's becomes the the

Internet has made it possible for us to leverage The skill of doctors that aren't even in our region and who we do not have enough of a population to afford such a skilled physician

Right All right, so that's one that's one use of the Internet The the other is is that I just kind of walk through some of the things here.

So we got telemedicine Tell them, you know, we got the virtual ERs and then virtual stroke places and you know

The medical world is using these things How about the business world as far as like not merely like work groups, but do you think of like, you know different?

Board of Directors meetings and things like this and in the high -end, you know Fortune 500 corporations, they're not using zoom.

They're using super high -end technologies and very very large Television screens high -def, you know 4k screens

So, you know that so that the person who is not physically in the room is you know

For all intents and purposes is in the room and the way that the sensors and the cameras are working

They can see all the subtleties they can see all the subtleties and people's Body language and stuff like that.

Our politicians gather via these these these technologies, right and they can make decisions

Using the medium of the Internet that impacts every one of us You know, yeah

Really And it counted

Okay, and I'm just asking I mean and then also think about the courtroom courtrooms nowadays

People can actually be brought into a courtroom using internet technologies sworn in using internet technologies and give

Depositions that are then recorded into court records for both civil and criminal cases and their and their testimony counts

It's considered valid So You can get okay, this is news to me

I am learning more about All right, so you can you can perform you can perform a actually legally binding wedding ceremonies for two people that are

Geographically disconnected from each other using an internet technology. They're companies that do that It's that is crazy and then you think about this remember remember all the news reports after we're all locked down Where were the where were the news reporters working from?

their homes, of course, I really enjoyed watching some of the some of the bloopers that happened because like, you know

Some some people their kids were like hiding in the background and like popping their heads around The quarter and stuff like that, this is great, right, you know, so the idea then is is that okay we have clearly leveraged the medium of the internet for the purpose of really conducting all types of business of Doing all kinds of things and so my immediate question is well if we can use the internet for purposes like this

Why have we blocked Christ from doing it? We can use it

Jesus, but you can't It doesn't make any sense it just it absolutely makes it no sense and you're going to note that those who are against the use of internet technologies for the purpose of of making disciples fulfilling the church's

Commission of You know of Word and Sacrament ministry. They are arrogating to themselves the ability to use the internet for whatever will they deem?

Necessary but they've blocked Christ from it without any biblical prohibition

Against the use of the internet for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission So I come back to that Romans 4 passage that says where there is no law.

There is no transgression Jesus didn't say go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the

Father Son and Holy Spirit teaching them all that I have commanded you and lo I'm with you always even to the end of the age but Asterisk, you know then six inch

Helvetica six -point Helvetica type. You can't use the internet as part of fulfilling the

Great Commission There is there is no prohibition whatsoever And I come back to the fact that's that that the the do this you need a

Christian Assembly need bread and wine You need a speaking in the words of institution and that's not performative the bread and wine have to be distributed

It doesn't say who or how and the bread and wine are then consumed All that being the case then we recognize as we were pointing out

That all of you who are present with us right now via the medium of the internet You are present in your homes and the medium of the internet makes it possible for us to be joined together into a bigger

Assembly, but that Christ is present with you. This is most certainly true

So coming back then to to my theses here Thesis 7 when these things are done the fight, you know

The things that are required as Christ is commanded wherever they are done in all places that they are done

We can confidently believe that Christ attaches his verba and his work to the pastors

Recitation of the verba and the end the elements so that what is received then is the true body and blood of Christ again

Here's the quote from the solid declaration Wherever what Christ is instituted is observed in his words are spoken over the bread and cup wherever the consecrated cup

Bread and cup are distributed Christ himself exercises his power through the spoken words which are still his word by virtue of the power of the first institution as Christos them says in his sermon on the passion

Christ prepares this table himself and Blesses it for no human being makes the bread and wine which are set before us the body and blood of Christ rather Christ himself

Who was crucified he does that and so our core text then in this emphasis is again,

Matthew 18 This makes it possible for Christians to assemble at an internet meeting place and note, but I'm saying this

I'm not saying that the Internet's a place I'm saying that an internet meeting meeting place is the medium by which we are able to gather together this fits then within the definition of wherever and all places a

Congregation has then the freedom and that's the important word freedom Where there is no law there is no sin

And so where there is no commandment we understand that there are there's freedom in this regard a curse

A congregation has the freedom to gather together for the purpose of holding the divine service

Again in an internet meeting place And I think I have to rework this because you know clearly people seem to think that by saying that I'm saying that the

Internet's a place I'm not again the media the Internet is the medium by which that makes it possible for this the service then begins with the

Invocation of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit Therefore as Christ has promised he himself then is truly present.

He's present with you. He's present with me He's present with all of those who are gathered together

You know wherever they are he is truly present for where two or three are gathered in my name there

I am among them just straight up the words of Christ and if this is not true, then Christ is a liar

You know, and I'm gonna go with the Jesus doesn't lie, you know way of approaching it now

Let me check questions because I know that they're coming in and let's take a look here.

So Stephen Elliott says Facebook employs Employs people who work remotely have similar virtual workplace meeting devices and displays.

Yeah, exactly And yet people don't say walls Facebook's isn't really a business, you know

They're not really doing work, right? All right, Victor says the major political parties used virtual conventions to select their presidential candidates

That's a great point Victor That is an absolutely outstanding point and it was certainly valid that they were nominated and that they were nominated rightly.

That's correct Okay And the Sylvester family Hannah says my husband attended all of his court cases virtually this past year and a half

It was kind of nice for him. Actually, I can't bet that that's good, you know

So yeah, he's in law enforcement and law enforcement guys. They have to show up to court all the time that's the standard part of their of their work and it's got to be nice to not have to travel to wherever the courthouse is and and You know and just kind of knock those things down but no one's sitting well his his testimony doesn't count

It's invalid because he wasn't physically in the room with us, you know, that that's this nobody talks this way except for when it comes to things related to the church and And I think that it's absolutely foolish to talk that way.

I really do. All right, so we've got thesis Thesis eight knockdown and here's one that I want to throw in here that I think is a little bit of a mind -bender and Kind of challenges the concept of you know, the the requirement of physical presence 1st

Corinthians chapter 5 the Apostle Paul writes these words Actually, let me let me read the thesis and then we'll read the words

It says this this this passage challenges the narrow definition of a

Christian assembly that restricts Someone's presence unless they are physically present

Paul writes it is actually reported that there are sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans a

Man has his father's wife and you are arrogant ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

So the presenting issue You'll note that 1st Corinthians is a is an epistle that addresses some pretty egregious

Abuses that are taking place in a Christian congregation You know, I always like reading 1st

Corinthians because it makes me feel like you know Things are not that bad at Kongsvinger, you know Thank I know what

Right, you know, so I mean you had the rich keeping the poor from having the Lord's Supper You had people abusing the spiritual gifts and behaving like crazy

NAR types You had a guy who was sleeping sexually with his father's wife stepmother and the church rather than being horrified mortified calling this fellow to repent and of his sin they

They were arrogant about it. Well, isn't the grace of Jesus wonderful, man, you know

And so Paul is like no and he says let him who has done this be removed from among you

I mean watch these words for though absent in body. I am present in spirit and As present

I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing So when you are assembled in the name of the

Lord Jesus and my spirit is present With the power of our Lord Jesus You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh

So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord This is even before there was an internet connection

This is before there was even a computer in the truest sense There wasn't there weren't even phones

I mean They didn't even figure out that you can take two kin tin cans and put a string between them because they didn't have tin cans right and What does

Paul say that he is present with them? Now this this actually gets to one of the things that we confess in the creeds

We believe in the quote communion of the saints

So those of you who've spent time in the Missouri Synod know exactly what I'm talking about It when you're catechized into a

Missouri Synod Church and you get to the part where it talks about the communion of the Saints Missouri Synod guys are very faithful to point out that one of the proper ways of understanding the communion of the

Saints is what we hear in the liturgy that we are Worshiping with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven who law to magnify your glorious name, right?

And I remember when I was being catechized at st. John's Lutheran Church in Orange, California That's where my wife and I were initially catechized

They had this beautiful 18th century 1900 so yeah 19th century

Beautiful beautiful a -frame Cathedral, I mean just huge high

Gothic ceilings and During that part of our catechesis as we were being taught the faith there the pastor took us into the sanctuary and He points up at you know, like, you know one part of the a -frame, you know

Which is like towering above us and he says a good way to think of it Is this is every time we have the divine service.

We are not alone That the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven worships with us

And he says we don't know how that works but a good way to think of it is is that they're sitting in the rafters up there on the a -frame and I Remember, you know for like weeks that you know

We I'd hear the part of the liturgy where it says angels and archangels and all the company of heaven I'd look up to see if I'd see anything right?

Okay, but I'm gonna note this that the belief in the communion of the

Saints is a is a belief that we are united in one body

Christ and That when we worship we never worship alone So we're gonna note this then that because we believe in the communion of the

Saints That's really part of what's instrumentally at at work here in this text that although Paul is physically

Absent from the Corinthian Church and it would take him a long long long long time

To get there because you got to get there by road or by boat He is present with them in spirit

The same way every time we worship we are never alone in the divine service

We always worship with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven and so I would argue then based upon this passage that those who would argue against the use of the

Internet for the purpose of Serving Saints like we do who are disconnected geographically from being able to get to faithful congregations that Failing to use the

Internet been saying you can't do this. This doesn't count It is an overt attack against something that we confess and that is the communion of the

Saints if when we worship The dead are with us and here at Kongsvinger We have a cemetery and I think people here can attest to this

We can even find it in the audio archives from time to time I've made a point especially on All Saints Day that every time we worship here at Kongsvinger The folks in the cemetery are worshiping with us also

Right if we can believe that the people in the cemetery can be with us But the people who are joining us via an internet connection or not

What are we saying? This is absolutely inconsistent biblically with the concept of the communion of the

Saints and what Paul here is talking about and that is is that That Paul can actually be physically present not physically absent

But spiritually present for the purpose of excommunicating an impenitent sinner

Well, it didn't count the Apostle Paul wasn't here. Yeah, he was Well, I didn't see him. Well, you weren't looking

The text says he's here You see the idea So though absent in body

I am present in spirit and as present I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing So when you are assembled in the name of the

Lord Jesus, so they assemble there's an invocation and my spirit is present with you

How is he doing that by virtue of the communion of the Saints? With the power of our

Lord Jesus you were to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh So the spirit may be saved in the day of the

Lord So note the Apostle Paul was present with the currency and assembly even though he was not

Physically present and see it is a passage like this that I think speaks directly to many of the really bad arguments about the

Using the internet for the purpose of serving the Saints that that if the challenge is is it?

Clearly now in their court will prove to me that Paul wasn't present even though he was physically absent

He wasn't even there via zoom He was just there in spirit How much more so People who are with us not only in spirit

But joining with us via the medium of the internet. So you see what

I'm saying? I don't even think they would allow for that The those who are being consistent

I have noted that they are arguing against using the internet period for anything to do with the church

Right, yeah You know, in fact, let's kind of talk about this here, you know so one of the things

I want to talk about are some of the really bad arguments that are being put forward and You can tell that there's super bad arguments because when when you just apply a little bit

Of reductio ad absurdum to them the whole things fall apart Okay, so, you know

So you were talking about you know via mail, but that that's that's not a good argument Yeah Right.

It's absurd but one of the claims again one of the claims that some are out there are making is number one that people who are

Gathering in their homes and then connecting to a church via the internet that they're lazy That they're lazy, that's an absolute argument that they're lazy and I would note that making a claim like that assumes that you understand the motive for everybody who is attending an online service and That all the only motive that could possibly exist is a sinful motive

If they were lazy they wouldn't attend at all, that's a good point That's a good point, but one of the arguments is is that they're lazy which this is just this is a ridiculous argument another argument that has been put forward

Is that that the the pastor must actually physically hold the elements?

otherwise and he must be the one who physically distributes the elements and the reason why is because Because That's because Jesus he physically handed out the elements as well

But we'll note that in the things that are required. There is no prescribed Distribution, there is no prescribed distribution and we don't know exactly how the disciples received the

First Communion We do know that they were in an upper room We do know that they had dining couches they were probably reclining at the table and we don't know if whether or not

Jesus took the bread and then Distributed, you know one to one guy and his right and the other guy on his left and it went around the room

We have no idea if that's how it happened or if Jesus himself physically got up and handed them each Some of the bread and some of the wine.

We don't know it. It doesn't say and So that means that there's freedom and distribution in the past.

I've had people assist me during Distribution and since we're small enough congregation,

I don't really need that that kind of help but in large congregations You will you will have deacons assist in some places

They have deacon and deaconesses and some people I have people set up at stations and they do the distribution

Are we to assume that these are sinful because the pastor hasn't physically handled any of these things?

No but one of the one of the more more bizarre arguments that I've recently read and I hate to say it this way is a bizarre argument is

That the words of institution themselves would have to change From where Christ says, this is my body that the pastor would have to change the words to that is my body.

I Want you to think about this for a second here This and this is this is considered to be an extremely strong argument on their part

But the thing is is that why do I as a pastor say the words of institution?

Because it's required it's part of the do this and here's the thing The verba the words of institution are a third -person

Singular Aorist so in an aorist in Greek that's past tense past tense for third -person singular aorist past tense historical narrative

So watch the words Here are the words of institution Our Lord Jesus Christ on the night that he was betrayed he took bread and When he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to the disciples and he said

Take eat. This is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also

After supper he took the cup and when he had blessed it He gave it to them saying drink of this all of you

This cup is New Testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me now note

Their claim is is that if you use the internet for the purpose of administering the

Lord's Supper? You would have to change the words from this is my body to that is my body because I'm not physically holding the elements

But I would also note not only is this a third -person past tense Historical narrative if we're being consistent

I can't say the words this is my body and this is my blood

Because it's not my body and it's not my blood. It's the blood of Jesus and His body so I would have to not only say that is

I wouldn't say that is my body I would say that is Jesus's body

Rather than my body You see what I'm saying here So when you put forward an argument as as poorly thought out as that Claiming that well internet communion means we have to change the words of institution.

You haven't really thought through this You haven't really thought through this because I assure you that when

I serve you the Lord's Supper my blood and my Flesh are not present in the elements if they are then we're dealing with an extremely dangerous biohazard

Okay, and it's time for me to wear latex gloves when distributing the Lord's Supper so You know you get you get what

I'm saying. So you're gonna note here. Is this that? rather than sticking with the simplicity of What is required a

Christian assembly? Bread and wine the verba is spoken. There's distribution and consumption.

Those are the only things necessary By deep by somehow creating additional

Requirements the pastor has to physically hold them if we do if we use the internet for the purpose of you know

The medium of the Internet then well, then we have to change the words of the of institution. No, we don't

We don't have to change it from this to that and nowhere in Scripture doesn't say the pastor has to physically Touch the elements.

It doesn't say that anywhere and I would again point out during the first round of I hate to say it that way because boy, it sure does look like we're gonna have a second round coming up During the first round of kovat.

I didn't touch nothing. Yeah, you have to speak

English Yep Boy that's a great question

That that's not a bad question Okay, so the those of you online in case you didn't hear the question was

Like in the airline industry everybody has to speak English in order to be an airline pilot and the question is do

I foresee in the future there being You know kind of a common language use so the people who are gathered via the internet can

Can understand things so let me answer your question kind of looking backwards first and then looking forward second so looking backwards first one of the beautiful things about the liturgy is

That it doesn't matter what language the liturgy is in if you follow the same liturgy, you know exactly what's being said

Okay So if we if I were to take you all next summer to Germany, right and we decided that we were going to attend

The church service held at the mark the kirka in in Wiesbaden, right if they followed the liturgy

We'd all know exactly where we were and we could probably even kind of low -key sing the different parts of the liturgy

In English and know exactly what's going on And that was one of the beautiful things about that about the liturgy, which is kind of a travesty that it's fallen into such disuse

So you can listen to it in Polish or in Latin or in Germany in German.

It doesn't matter Everybody following the liturgy You're pretty sure where things are and you're gonna pick up if you're not sure you pick up words that you say

Oh, that sounds like holy and that sounds like this, you know exactly where you're at and you can participate But in the future though,

I've read articles that make the case that within the next 50 years

That if you know one of four languages, then you're able to communicate to pretty much everybody on the planet

And English is one of them and Mandarin Chinese is the other Those are the two primary if you if you know if you know

English and Mandarin You can communicate with almost all the population as it is. There are a couple of other languages there's two other ones in the four and I can't remember what they are, but where the world is moving towards and the internet is actually helping to facilitate the speed at which this is happening is you're seeing kind of the reversal the internet is facilitating the reversal of the

Tower of Babel and and humans really moving towards Towards being able to communicate with each other and you can talk to anybody at Spanish is the other one and I can't remember what the fourth is, but just imagine so if you if you were to focus on your on Learning other languages learn

Mandarin Chinese learn Spanish and you can talk to almost anybody Because you already know

English so but yeah, it'd be interesting to see where this is all heading and And I always like to point this out that we

Americans. I don't know what's wrong with us But there's a joke that goes around.

What do you call somebody who only knows one language? Yeah an

American so somebody knows two bilingual three languages trilingual one language

American, okay Yeah, that yeah, so you get the idea so learning other languages is a vital thing

Alright coming back then here So we note then thesis 9 relies on The thing that we one of the things we confess in the creeds and that is the communion of the

Saints this is the the under underpinning doctrine here for the Apostle Paul who though Physically absent is present in spirit for the purpose of excommunicating a fellow

So that's that's quite a vital thing But the more important thing is is that wherever two or more gathered

Christ is present and then you'll note then in thesis 10 When the

Lutheran confessions describe the work of those in the pastoral office as speaking the verba publicly or speaking over You know talk speaking over the elements

These are descriptive phrases rather than prescriptive and they do not constitute an additional item That must be done in order to fulfill

Christ's command to do this This was one of the arguments that was running around the internet early on was this claim that the the pastor cannot speak the verba over the communion elements because he's physically disconnected and over is a spatial thing the way they would argue and That's actually not true when we talk about speaking over Something like the internet or over the telephone.

That's just an idiomatic phrase that is describing something so you can speak over somebody or you you can

Speak over the internet or you can speak over a telephone you get the idea here it's not spatially and then

I again pointed out that nobody ever considers of The Lord's Supper to be invalid if the if the pastor is consecrating elements

Speaking the verba and some of the elements are in the choir loft while he's speaking the verba and you'll note that when

When a church has a choir loft and they've set up a station with the elements up there

That those elements are spatially under the pastor So we would have to say he spoke them under the elements

All right, if you're gonna be just kind of wooden in and how you're using idiomatic phrases There is no command that the pastor be six feet tall or that the altar be only so high so that the spatially his

Words are spoken above that's not the point. Okay? Let's see here.

Let me How would withholding communion from people online work? This is a great question. Let me let me come back to that though I'm gonna back up to the list of questions.

This is some great questions Maybe it could be changed to holding a divine service utilizing an internet meeting provider

Not a bad that not a bad edit Steven I clearly I'm gonna have to edit these there's just no way around it.

That's I would consider that to be a good edit McDonald family, so XO have some community volunteering to do bless you and all

Heather, right? Okay, I'm sorry that they had to leave. Okay. So yes us homeschoolers do nothing all day.

We don't even leave the house Yeah, so if you're you homeschoolers if you're tea

Oh Well glad you finally realized that Hannah sir. I'm joking.

I'm joking Okay, how would withholding communion from people online work? I'll tell you how it works. Okay on zoom

I have this wonderful thing and let me explain here You can't see this but what

I can do is I have the ability if I go to the participants list What I can do here is

I can say all right Carlos. Let's you know what Carlos. I'm gonna put Carlos in a waiting room

All right I can put any of you in a waiting room and I would note that is that using internet technologies?

I have more power to control the table than I do physically and it

Kongsvinger It's real simple those who should not be receiving the Lord's Supper You put them in a waiting room and you say we'll let you guys back into the congregation when we're done

Okay at Kongsvinger. What do we do? You know during the Lord's Supper? We turn the stream off and there's a real simple reason why we do that and that is is because I have no control over who would be taking the

Lord's Supper if I just kept the stream on and so That being the case

That there's I have to rightly handle the keys here and make sure that those who shouldn't be receiving the

Lord's Supper don't And that's gonna be your impenitent who are under church discipline or those who are not baptized or those who who do not rightly

Understand what it is that they're receiving in the Lord's Supper And so the idea then it's real simple you control the table by putting them in a waiting room and letting them know

We'll let you back into Into the main meeting as soon as we're finished with the

Lord's Supper. It's it's it's it's actually quite simple Okay, it

Tony says German question mark, I don't think Germans the fourth language I don't I Just now

I got to think about because I know there's four But I know Mandarin English and Spanish or three of them and I can't remember the fourth

It's not Russian Yeah, yet yet. Okay. It's not that all right

Let's see here Let's see so Stevenle Stevenle who knows a thing or two about coding

He's the guy who's been working on our prophecy bingo Re -edit, so he says it's highly likely that meeting software will have real -time translation at some point

It's already present for some languages in Skype. Are you kidding me? Wow Wow, so the babble fish of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy now exists in Skype, that's amazing

Yeah All right All right. So the Bennett so when

I read the Bible, how do I determine if the text is descriptive or prescriptive great question?

Prescriptions always are a command Descriptions are just telling you what's happening So the so the idea then here is is that the the the prescription is you will have no other gods

The descriptive text give us an example of what God did to those who didn't know obey the prescription

All right So the prescription in the Lord's Supper is do this and the five things required you need an assembly you need bread and wine

Clearly you need you need somebody to speak the verba the words of Christ spoke there needs to be distribution and consumption

That's that's the do this, but the rest of it is all description. All right, the dining couches

Them reclining at the table. That's all description So, you know what, you know and this is one of those things where I don't think there's really a lot of quibbling when when you understand the difference between descriptive and prescriptive

You know So for instance you have one of the major reasons why Stephen Furtick is a false teacher

Aside from the thousand other things I've talked about I'm fighting for the faith over the past decade and a half

One of the things that he did remember his first book son stand still all right, he took the text from Joshua chapter 10 of the account of Joshua saying to the son to stand still and it did and saying and turn that into a

Prescription that says that our prayers have to be audacious and he asked the question. Are you praying son stand still prayers?

Okay you know, I was praying Stephen shut up prayers after that, but that didn't work either but The point is is that that's a description not a

Prescription and so over and again Bible twisters are gonna take clearly descriptive passages and turn them into prescriptions and nonsensical at that You know because when you think about it

Over and again when somebody takes a description and turns it into a prescription they have a very high probability that their prescription is going to run afoul of Legitimately real prescriptions in Scripture.

So this idea that God is he's unimpressed and he's unenthused by your small prayers

So you have better pray audacious son stand still prayers. Well that flies in the face of what

Christ said when you pray say You know our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and watch this audacious prayer. Give us this day our daily bread

So what am I praying for for food for today? What about tomorrow? I'll have to pray for that when it arrives

Right, give us this day our daily bread forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

Lead us not into temptation deliver us from the evil one Nothing there about Sun standstill stuff and some of the things we're praying for are as mundane as a loaf of bread

In fact not even a loaf a loaf would be like a week in our house No, we're talking maybe two slices of bread.

We're just praying for you know enough bread for today That doesn't seem very audacious Right, you get the idea

Okay All right, so I like declaring I like declaring God's salvation by his word.

It's not you it's the reading of God's proclamation declaration Absolutely, that that's a great point

So, you know and so, you know, no, I have the authority to speak in absolution, but Christ is doing the forgiving.

I'm just the one I'm just the guy who gets to open the prison doors, you know, he's the judge so Uh Carlos so that would make speaking over be borderline territorial decreeing.

Yeah, funny that you would say that Carlos That's a that is a great point absolutely, okay is

Hindu stani, I've never even heard of that language. The fourth language is hidden do stand.

I'm assuming that's an Indian language. So Yeah. All right. I think it used to be a collective name for Hindu and Urdu Hindi and Urdu got it

Okay, that makes sense because there's almost a billion people in India. So 1 .4.

There's more than a billion 1 .4 billion almost 2 billion That's a lot of people in a small space like that.

So, all right Now this is where we're going to jump off for today We will pick up with the the remaining theses over the next couple weeks next week

I plan to finish out the theses and then the following week Don has not volunteered for net that following week

But I'm volunteering him the Don Mastin is going to be teaching a little bit on on paradigm shifts and how

I think how people have understood things historically so But that's so me next week

Don Mastin in two weeks. So, all right, Lord's Willie Lord willing We'll see you all next time.