The Lord's Supper

Amen. Let the nations be glad. Have you ever considered about Sundays? We just, we have such a narrow focus.

Sometimes it's okay, we're thinking about our church, thinking about being here, we're thinking about singing and the scripture that we're reading and the praying and the giving and all these things.

But every Sunday, all over the world, in different languages, different tribes, different tongues, different skin colors, our

God is being worshiped by his local churches. That's an amazing thing to think about.

The gospel, friends, no matter what you think you hear on the news or maybe believe in your theology, the gospel is going forth victorious.

Jesus Christ is building his church. We celebrate that tonight.

We celebrate that every Sunday. In my pocket here, I have my trusty companion, the

Baptist Confession of Faith and the Baptist Catechism. Now, I've said this before and I wanna reiterate this tonight, that the, we'll be in Matthew 26, if you wanna turn there.

The Baptist Confession of Faith and the Baptist Catechism, these things are not the

Bible. What they are, are us standing on the shoulders, as it were, of our

Baptist forefathers who have thought out the things that we have believed, passed down through the ages and have committed them to writing and summarized really what we believe.

But in the Baptist Catechism, the Baptist, I'm gonna read from is the reason I bring this up. The Baptist Catechism, they voted to produce a catechism in 1693 and that's because the

Westminster Confession of Faith Catechism that goes along with that, the Westminster Catechism was so popular.

You probably know the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and that is, what is the chief end of man?

And perhaps you know the answer. We've done it before here. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify

God and enjoy him forever. So the Baptist, not willing to be outdone by the

Presbyterians, came up with their own catechism and the idea was the catechism was to be read and studied in the churches and in homes and in families.

And what they were trying to do with the catechism is to just teach. Now if you say, well, I don't know if I like catechism.

Well, I want you to think about this. Baptist bookstores all over the US produce curriculum all the time.

Well, that's what the catechism is. It's a curriculum. It's a curriculum to help teach. And so we haven't gotten to it yet.

We're almost there. Do you guys realize that the catechism, let me just double check. I think it only has like 112 questions or something.

Let me see. No, I was wrong, 114. So we're almost through the catechism as a church, but where I wanna read from tonight is question 102.

So we're almost there, but we're not there yet. And the question 102 of the catechism says, what is the

Lord's supper? Answer, the Lord's supper is an ordinance of the New Testament instituted by Jesus Christ, wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to his appointment, his death is shown forth and the worthy receivers are not after corporal and carnal manner, but by faith made partakers of his body and blood with all his benefits to their spiritual nourishment and growth and grace.

Question 103, who are the proper subjects of this ordinance? Answer, they who have been baptized upon a personal profession of their faith in Jesus Christ and repentance from dead works.

Question 104, the last one I'll read. What is required to the worthy receiving of the

Lord's supper? Answer, it is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord's supper that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the

Lord's body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love and new obedience.

Lest coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves. And of course, with each one of these, they have the scripture citations.

And so this is what we come to tonight in Matthew 26. We look at the institution of the

Lord's supper. I invite you to stand with me. We'll just read a few verses here in Matthew 26.

We'll start in verse 26. Now, as they were eating,

Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat, this is my body.

And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you, for this is my body of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom.

And what a day that will be, let's pray. Father, we're grateful for this ordinance tonight. We pray your blessing over our partaking of it.

We pray, Lord, in this time of preaching that we'd prepare ourselves and think rightly about what it is you've given us in this ordinance.

And we pray, Lord, that you would bless this time together. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. The Baptist in the 1689 confession and in the catechism switched the language from sacrament to ordinance.

Now, probably maybe not as big a deal as we maybe wanna make it, but I will say this, sacrament, it just comes from the

Latin sacramentum, which means sacred. And so when we think about the sacraments, the

Lord's Supper and baptism, if by sacraments we mean these are sacred things given to us by God, that's okay.

The reality is, though, there are some traditions that understand the word sacrament as the idea of a salvific means of grace, meaning the sacrament of the

Lord's Supper brings about someone's salvation, or the sacrament of baptism brings about someone's regeneration.

Well, as Baptists, and not just because we're Baptists, but because we believe it's what the scriptures teach, as Baptists, we reject that understanding of the word sacrament.

And so the language that we have used traditionally for centuries is the word ordinance, and ordinance just means command, that the

Lord's Supper is a New Testament command. Well, Brother Quatro, where do you see that in the New Testament?

Well, right here in our text, I'm glad you asked, and that's what we're gonna look at tonight. Most are probably aware that this is the same night that Jesus was betrayed, and this is during the

Passover feast, not by accident, and immediately before preceding the crucifixion of our

Lord. So just three quick things that I want you to see from the text on the meaning of the

Lord's Supper, which we'll partake of at the end of this message. So three things about the

Lord's Supper I want you to see. Number one, the Lord's Supper is a look to the past.

Number one, the Lord's Supper is a look to the past. Go back to verse 17 of Matthew 26.

Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the

Passover? So it's an important point here that Jesus institutes his supper during the

Passover. What is the Passover? You remember, it's God's major redemptive event in the

Old Testament, where they had the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs, and then most importantly, that sacrificial lamb, the roasted lamb.

But we could go even further back. Keep your spot there for a second and turn to Genesis chapter two.

And I wanted you to be reminded this morning that or this evening, we're looking backward as we partake of the

Lord's Supper. We're looking to the past is one of the ways that we're looking. And we're looking much further in one sense than the

Passover. So in Genesis chapter two, consider this. By the way, this is before the fall. Genesis chapter two.

I think that we miss this aspect of what God says in Genesis two.

And by the way, I think this is how Satan tried to deceive Eve as well. But in Genesis chapter two, verse 16, what does it say?

And the Lord God, that is Yahweh Elohim, commanded the man, this is a command, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden.

Now, oftentimes what we like to do is we like to go ahead and get into the next verse and we like to talk about what man can't do.

Okay, what he can't do is what? Eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Okay, but don't rush over verse 16 and get to what Adam can't do. First, understand what he can do.

And what is that? You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.

In essence, Yahweh, our God, tells Adam, come and dine, right?

Come and eat. A signification of the Lord's willingness to fellowship and desire to fellowship with man.

Isn't this an amazing thing? Friends, tonight I want to remind you of something. What we have in the

Lord's table is God's willingness to fellowship with man.

This is not my table and this is not the church's table.

We call it very importantly, the Lord's table. The host of this feast tonight is not your elders.

It's not Jacob and I will be standing here, but we're not the host, we're servants. The host is the

Lord. And one of the things that the Lord's supper reminds us is God's intention to fellowship with man as shown in the garden.

And tonight God invites his people to eat. God has made us for his glory and to enjoy him and glorify him and fellowship.

And so we have Genesis 2 in our mind, but we know the story, Adam and Eve fell. And so God's intention though, to have fellowship with man was not thwarted by the evil one.

And so not only as we look to the past, are we looking back to Genesis, but of course we also are looking not only to the

Passover, we're also looking to the cross. The 1689 chapter 30 is where this is discussed.

Chapter one says this, the supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him in the same night he was betrayed.

It is to be observed in his churches to the end of the age as a perpetual remembrance and display of the sacrifice of himself and his death.

It is given for the confirmation of the faith of believers and all the benefits of Christ's death, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him and their further engagement in and to all the duties they owe him.

This supper is to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Christ and each other.

So this is what Jesus says in verse 26. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

Now that has thrown some people for a loop in church history. Martin Luther couldn't get over this.

The Roman Catholics have come up with the strange doctrine of transubstantiation whereby the bread stays, outwardly it tastes like bread but it actually changes into the real body and the real blood of Jesus.

That's not what we're saying. And my argument for our position, the Baptist position is this text right here.

When Jesus hands him the bread and says, this is my body, they understood that as a metaphor.

They understood, we see you Jesus, we can touch you, we can talk to you, we understand as we eat this bread tonight, that it's not actually the body of Christ but what metaphorically symbolizes the body of Christ which he would lay down for his people.

The second person of the Trinity took on flesh. He lived a perfect life. As we talked about in Ephesians five, he loved the church.

I think last time Randall was here, we were in Ephesians five. So it makes me feel kind of sad that he's back a few months later.

We're still in Ephesians five. But the idea here is Jesus loved the church so much that he gave his life for her to bring glory to the

Godhead. He lived a perfect life, gave up his body to be nailed to a wooden cross, shed his blood so that all who would repent of their rebellion against God and lay hold of these truths by faith would be saved and commune with him, not only here, but for all eternity.

So as we partake tonight of the Lord's Supper, we're looking backward, we're looking to the past.

Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulder.

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffer.

It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished.

This is what we celebrate tonight when we look at the Lord's Supper. Secondly, not only is it a look to the past, number two, it is also a look to the future.

Friends, when you come and we partake tonight, we're not just looking backward, right? We're not just backward thinking people, no matter what the media says, right?

We're very progressive in the sense that we think very forward. Look at verse 29.

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when

I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. What uncertainty and confusion surrounded this night here in our text?

Talk of betrayal, a sleepless night, the disciples couldn't stay awake, the arrest of Jesus, and then the next day, of course, to see

Jesus crucified and Peter's denial and all these things. But what a promise, beloved, is given to us in verse 29.

I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you new in my father's kingdom.

His promise to his disciples was, no matter what confusion you may have that's coming up, no matter what difficulty you may have that's coming up, this is not the end.

And friends, this is our promise tonight. As we partake of the Lord's Supper tonight, we are reminded no matter what it is that you may be facing in your life as a believer, this is not the end.

We looked at the first book of the Bible. It's only appropriate we look at the last book of the Bible. So we'll come right back here, but look at Revelation 19.

We look not only to Genesis when we partake of the Lord's Supper, we look also to Revelation, Revelation 19, beginning in verse six,

Revelation 19, verse six. John writes, then

I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of many peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah, the

Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with the fine linen, bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Listen to verse nine. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Friends, what I'm trying to say to you tonight is that when we partake of the

Lord's Supper, we're not only looking to the past, we're not only thinking about that God desires to have fellowship with us, we're not only thinking about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

In other words, this isn't merely like a funeral type sort of service. We're not just looking backwards and sad

No, no, we're looking forward. The church wins, Christ wins, the gospel wins, and we're going to stop with him again at the marriage supper of the lamb.

This is just a foretaste, right? And in fact, it's one reason that I think this is not necessarily a meal altogether, but just pointing us forward to that meal that we are going to have.

The 1689 chapter 30 verse 7 says, worthy recipients who outwardly partake of the visible elements in this ordinance, also by faith inwardly, receive and feed on Christ's crucify and all the benefits of his death.

They do so really and truly, yet not physically and bodily, but spiritually.

The body and blood of Christ are not present bodily or physically in the ordinance, but spiritually to the faith of believers, just as the elements themselves are present to their outward senses.

In other words, when we partake of the Lord's supper, we deny the physical presence of Christ in this supper.

We deny that the bread becomes the body. We deny that the blood becomes, or that the fruit of the vine becomes the blood.

That's not happening. Yet what is happening though, is by faith, God's people really are by faith, symbolizing their feeding on Christ.

By faith, they're really trusting and believing the promises of Christ. And part of the promises of Christ have yet to be fulfilled.

So we look backward to the promises that have been fulfilled, but we also look forward to the promises of God that remain, including feasting again with the

Lord, seeing him again face to face. So since we have a share in all the benefits of the death of Christ, this includes our resurrection.

So as we feast tonight, we think about both the past and the future. Well, it probably doesn't take a scholar to figure out my third point.

If the Lord's supper points us to the past, and if the Lord's supper also points us to the future, well, where else does the supper point us to?

Well, it also points us, of course, to the here and now. It also points us to the present.

We rightly ought to look at the past as we partake. We rightly ought to look at the future when we partake, but let us also tonight look at the here and now.

Partaking of this ordinance does not save us, but along with baptism, it is an important sign of the new covenant.

It symbolizes the fact that right here, right now, tonight, May 21st, 2023, we have fellowship with Jesus.

When you partake of the Lord's supper, you are saying, I am in fellowship with Christ and with his body.

Because these outward elements are symbolic of the body and blood of Christ. And so as you feast on these, you show, don't miss the symbolism.

You're showing forth a symbolic feasting on Christ. We are saying that by faith, we are in union with Christ right now.

Think of the great grace shown to this body tonight. Think of the fact that God has invited us to this table.

Not because you're worthy, not because you live in Perry County or because you're in color or whatever the case may be, none of those things.

He has invited us only in his great grace to come and die.

Think of the great grace that Christ is present with us with his people.

When the church gathers here, we have Christ with us spiritually in this room with his people.

And so we partake of the bread and the cup this evening with reverence and humility and a heart of thankfulness for the broken body and shed blood of our

Lord. And as we partake, we are proclaiming his death. We're preaching.

You didn't know you're coming to preach tonight, did you? You're preaching tonight. You're proclaiming tonight. As you eat the bread and drink of the fruit of the vine, you are proclaiming the gospel.

You are saying this is the only way. I have nothing in and of myself to stand on, not even my act of partaking of this.

The only thing I have to stand on is what these elements point to, namely the gospel. Christ.

But let me say this about a look here and now. Not only is this pointing to our fellowship with Christ, but listen very carefully to this.

Another aspect of the Lord's Supper is a pointing to gospel unity.

Let me read verse 27. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you.

Friends, as we partake of the Lord's Supper, let me say something. It may offend you, but I want you to think through, and I want you to talk with me about this if you have an issue with it.

But the Lord's Supper is not a cute thing that you do at your wedding. It's not something that you just say, you know, we're gonna have family worship tonight.

Let's take the Lord's Supper. I've heard people doing that. It's not something, listen, that you can do over Zoom, right?

So back during COVID, there were people like, what do we do about the Lord's Supper? And people were like, you know what? We'll just take it together over Zoom.

No, that misses the entire purpose and point of what Jesus is doing when he institutes the

Lord's Supper. Take and drink, all of you. In other words, we come together and we partake of the

Lord's Supper together, signifying our unity in the gospel of Christ.

This is for believers who have been baptized. It is for the old. It is for the young.

It is for the rich. It is for the poor. The same way in is true for everyone, and it's only

Christ. What everyone needs is the gospel. And so when we partake of the Lord's Supper together, we are telling one another, we are unified together in this gospel message, and we're unified together as a church.

The confession warns in chapter 30, verse 8. You can read chapter 30. I haven't read all of it, but just a few things.

But listen to the warning of the confession. All ignorant and ungodly people are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ and are thus unworthy of the

Lord's table. As long as they remain in this condition, they cannot partake of these holy mysteries or be admitted to the

Lord's table without committing a great sin against Christ. All those who receive the supper unworthily are guilty of the body and blood of the

Lord, eating and drinking judgment on themselves. So understand this clearly tonight.

The Lord's Supper is an invitation to sinners, but it's only an invitation to repentant sinners.

It's only an invitation to those who have trusted Christ and made that trust of Christ public in their obedience of baptism.

This is a family affair. This is for those in the body of Christ and who have received proper baptism.

This supper has been given to the local church to be duly administered by her elders for the benefit of all members and officers of the church.

And our policy here has remained, which I think is biblical, what we call close communion. So there's open communion, close communion, and close communion.

Open communion is it doesn't matter, everybody take it. Unbeliever, believer, doesn't matter. Y 'all come up and you take it.

Close communion is only our local church takes it. But we practice close, close communion, which is we invite those of like faith and practice who are not trying to avoid the discipline of the church who are visiting to partake with us.

So we establish, therefore, as we come to the table here that we come with a clear conscience.

We come understanding that my only way to God is through this sacrifice of Christ.

Jesus is not being re -sacrificed here. This is pointing us to a sacrifice once for all that has already been made.

And we acknowledge tonight as we take the supper, that's my only way to God, not my good works, not my participation in the ordinances, not my being here tonight.

My only way to God is the finished work of Christ, his life, death, burial, and resurrection for my sins.

Further, we come tonight acknowledging that we do not hold a grudge or ill will towards others in our congregation.

And we affirm others in this congregation their right to come to the table with us.

So let me end with a word of introspection. Look at our Texas evening.

Look at these first disciples, poor and scared, helpless, unlearned in many areas.

Listen, friends, the requirement tonight is that you love the Lord Jesus, you understand your sins and have turned from them and desire to follow him in obedience.

What I'm saying is you don't have to be a scholar tonight. You don't have to live in a convent.

In fact, that would be problematic. But you must not take this ordinance unworthily as though it's a mere ritual.

You just go through and it's not a big deal. You gotta get it out of the way. You don't go to the table tonight with a flippant attitude towards your sin.

Beloved, let me just say this. If you're hiding tonight secret, unrepentant sin, I say you don't come unless you repent.

Don't come secretly knowing that you're going to do this act that you've already got planned tonight or tomorrow and you're unwilling to repent or turn from it.

If you come and you partake of this tonight with a willingness to continue on in sin, you eat and drink unworthily and the judgment of God rightly befalls upon you.

Repent, repent. You must not take this ordinance with animosity in your heart towards your pastors or toward one another in the church.

Better to first be reconciled to your brother than to take the supper unworthily.

The Lord delights in obedience more than sacrifice. Now what we're gonna do then is we'll sing.

And as we sing, we'll have a moment of reflection. Is there someone tonight that you need to make reconciliation with?

Is there a repentance tonight that you need to make to God? Let's search our hearts this evening and prepare ourselves to take of this blessed ordinance.

Now there'll be some of you that won't partake tonight and that's mainly I'm thinking of the children in here. And as you think about your parents and the members of this church partaking of this ordinance, what

I wanna say to you, what I wanna say to you, Adeline, Amelia, Piper, Ella, Caleb, other

Piper, Jack, what I wanna say to our kids, the

Chronister children, as members of this church partake of the

Lord's supper, you watch them and you think that Christ has given his life so that you can come and partake of all the blessings that are in him so that you can repent of your sins and believe the gospel.

Let this ordinance serve as a reminder of what Christ has done. And then you dear child, your way into the kingdom is the same way your parents went in and that's by grace through faith.

Repent, repent dear ones and believe what Christ has done and you too can have the promise of eternal life.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this night. We thank you for the ordinance of the Lord's supper. We pray that you would bless our time as we think through these things.