Adult Sunday School - The Lord's Supper Form and Practice

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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About the Lord's table last week. They wouldn't recall the important to some of the things of importance that we

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Derived from Scripture regarding the Lord's table last week What were some things of importance?

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We had a lot more folks last week. So if you weren't here, I understand What are some changes that we're doing?

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What was happening actually Just like when we examined several months ago and throughout the material the book that we went through that baptism is

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Is a ordinance that Christ gave and it should be followed exactly the way he gave it why because it's his ordinance.

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So Sprinkling Or patal baptism is not a valid baptism because it is something other than what the

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Lord established And so the same that same vigor that same Examination we have to also give to the other order ordinance that the

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Lord gave the church which is the ordinance of the Lord's table the Lord's sacrament and One of the things that we discovered is that?

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that Lord supper Developed from the Passover.

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So again back in Luke chapter 22 Let's look again at verse 7 and then the day of unleavened bread on which the

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Passover lamb had to be sacrificed So Jesus sent Peter and John saying go and prepare this

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Passover for us so that we may eat it. What were they observing? Passover what kind of bread would have been used in the

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Passover on leaven? What's the name of the festival? That's right, so any

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Controversy on that issue that what should be used is on leavened bread There should be no controversy right because it's pretty clear from Scripture that what was used is on leavened bread

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Right, so no confusion there That's right

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Yes, sir Yeah, which we briefly touched on last week

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What is kosher wine like made by the feet of rabbis or Pastor Connolly soon.

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He has an answer We was blessed by Jesus.

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I guess it's kosher. So I don't think so.

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I mean rabbinic Judaism is post You know destruction of the temple. It's Talmudic.

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And so that's hundreds of years after Christ So this idea of like kosher things would have been you know way past the time of Jesus Because again, that's that's that's to do with the

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Talmudic and rabbinic traditions, which is way after the destruction of the temple Instead of Again I think that we have to have a biblical mindset.

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So whose ordinance is it? It's not ours. It's the Lord's and it's our job.

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It's the church's responsibility to rightly administer Right, and so in order to really administer it you have to do with the

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Lord says the way he's required in that particular Ordinance that same would be true of baptism. That's why we would not affirm a sprinkling or pedo baptist

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Baptism because it is something other than Similarly to the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons who practice a form of communion, but what they're practicing is something other than In particular the

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Mormon Church. Well, both is theologically. It's virtually it's true for both obviously But practically for the Mormon Church because the

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Mormons they where they practice communion weekly So they have the right practice that it's a weekly ordinance but when they practice it they put water instead of wine or grape juice and they use leavened bread like wonder bread as as the bread for the congregation

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That is something other than Communion because it's not the bread that was instituted.

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It was not the cup that was instituted. You see Jesus instituted these you know this ordinance and These emblems to be such as they are

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For the Jehovah's Witnesses they have the right emblems they have the unleavened bread and they have the wine

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But they have the wrong theology Behind the communion and they only practice it once a year to coincide a

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Passover And so you have to do things rightly as the

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Lord has revealed it in his word and so are there churches that do it You know incorrectly wrongfully administer,

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I think there are and I think the you know the Seeker sensitive response would be well to each his own, you know, everyone kind of doing the best they can and there's some truth in everyone is

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Usually trying to do the best that they can with what they have but they usually Exalt preference

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Over scripture in this matter and I think that's where the danger is That's not to condemn our brothers and sisters who may practice communion a little bit differently

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But we shouldn't also be afraid of saying well No, we want to we just want to be close to the

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Bible We want to do what the Bible says and I don't think we should be ashamed of that I don't think we should that should be like like, oh you were being divisive because you know

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We're saying it's this way and they're saying it's that way Just I just reading scripture I just want to do what the Bible says and I want that mindset to permeate through every believer here that we just want to Do what

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God says in regard to? How he has established these ordinances and so that that would be my general responses

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Let's just do things the way God says to do them And and and if another church does it a different way let that be up to their conscience

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I would certainly encourage them to consider These things differently, but I like that's why

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I like framing it and saying this is the Lord's ordinance not ours Bread So that's one of the changes and so the reason we're studying this materials because we are producing some changes to the

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Lord's Supper This is we have evaluated as a church as pastors our understanding of baptism and administration of baptism so we're looking at communion and establishing a right a more biblical correct understanding of how we

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Practice that that sacred ordinance. And so the the goal is to move away from grape juice and to embrace wine and I know that that's

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That's that's difficult for a lot of folks And it's difficult for me I'll share with you

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You know, I was at Southern Baptist and a lot of Southern Baptists have an aversion to alcohol, you know, no dancing

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No drinking no cussing, you know, you know the whole Baptist culture and I had a mentor my mentor

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He's still my mentor who he'll he'll swear up and down that it wasn't wine like it wasn't alcoholic beverage that they were using and And I'm like them then why did they get so excited when

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Jesus turned water to wine? Why and as we examined last week when we look at the text of 1st

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Corinthians 11 Why is Paul condemning the Corinthian Church for getting drunk off communion?

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I've never gotten buzzed by you know, grape juice drink a lot of Welch's grape juice in my day Never got a buzz off of it.

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Okay, so clearly what they had in their possession was an alcoholic beverage was an alcoholic wine

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Another reason why I've struggled with this concept as well as because I was an addiction counselor for four years

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And I was in a context where I had administered alcoholics and I had a lot of alcoholics You know tell me swear up and down to me that if they had just one drop of alcohol it would relapse

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Right, and so to them this was a conscientious issue Like I can't take wine as communion because then it would you know, it's it's a thing to them

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They saw it as a as a thing of weaker faith, you know, how Paul talks about certain foods in the

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New Testament But I think we're if if we're Thinking biblically about these things.

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There's ways that we can address each one of these issues Some people might even have dietary restrictions because of alcohol that may were break down circuit all alcohol.

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Well, I Think there's a biblical answer to all this There are people who struggle her.

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Excuse me struggle with eating You know gluten materials, right? So I'll love and bread still has gluten in it

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What a lot of churches do is they'll have this I don't know what it is It's kind of a monstrosity of a little way for a little cracker or something.

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That's like gluten -free unleavened all these things and It's tastes terrible and I'm not sure if it would really

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Meet the requirement for it to be unleavened bread Or to be that which what

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Jesus, you know mentions should we be over accommodating in that regard?

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I don't think so a little piece of bread I do keto ketogenic diet often and And I still eat the communion right even though it's probably not enough to take kick me out of ketosis

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But I understand there's dietary restrictions. I don't think those are valid enough to change the

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Lord's ordinances So what do we do in a situation where? You have an alcoholic and they say

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I just can't drink alcohol. I'd say go ahead It's like what is

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Why do Yeah, so we're in Luke chapter 22, yeah verse 7 then came the day of unleavened bread

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On which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed So Jesus said Peter and John saying go prepare the

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Passover for us so that we may eat it So, what's the what's the what's the occurrence?

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What's the what's the celebration here? It's the path. It's the Passover celebration Another that that first day of Passover It's called the feast of unleavened bread.

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And so what was being eaten? Unleavened bread right so we've got that pretty solidified there

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He says the verse said he said to them behold when you have entered a city a man carrying a jar of water will meet you

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Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house The teacher says to you where is their guest room where I may eat the

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Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished prepare it there

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And then he went out and found it just as he had told them as they and they prepared the Passover Okay And when the hour came he reclined at the table the

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Apostles with him He said to my earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I tell you

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I would not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God He took a cup.

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We'd have given. Thanks. He said take this and divide it amongst yourselves Before I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes

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We took bread. You had given. Thanks. He broke it He gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you

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Do this in remembrance of me and likewise the cup after that Eden saying this cup is poured out for you

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Is the new covenant in my blood? So there Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper a couple of notes from that.

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Yeah Yeah And again, it just comes out to me in my mind, this is the

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Lord's ordinance that hours he's that much it he Has given us the instructions on how to administer it.

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And so that's the way it should be done. It's it to me It's it's pretty clear cut in that regard

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When you consider it as a covenant, it's not a covenant. It's not a covenant As well the changes that we spoke of last week One of the changes that we're introducing to the

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Lord's Supper is praying for the emblems or the the bread and the wine Separately right now we pray for it on all in one prayer and then we pass it

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But we will be praying for the elements Separately, so the bread first that we passed we will consume and then we will pray for the cup

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The cup will be passed we will consume and so that is the order that the

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Lord Practice it's the order that Paul affirms in 1st Corinthians 11 And if you recall last week's discussion on 1st

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Corinthians 11, we may have to recap that a little bit The criticisms there is that they were not rightly administering communion

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Everyone was was eating separately. They're out of sync They were they were they were showing that this so the

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Corinthians if you know anything about 1st Corinthians This is a church that has a lot of disunity And one of the first thing that Paul tells him is that you must be united Because you're you're becoming sectarian.

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So we're saying that you know, I follow Paul. I follow Paul as I follow Christ I thought you know, they're a very sectarian

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Church and when it came to communion, they were very disunited in their administration of community

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He condemns them for those two things one that there's their disunity Really three things or disunity

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Looking down upon their poor brothers who did not have the means to bring their own communion

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And then also they were condemned for Drinking and excess and becoming drunk off of the communion wine

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Okay So those are the three main criticisms of Paul to the Corinthian Church in 1st Corinthians chapter 11

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And so again establishing that it is actually wine that is used in that setting

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So if so, you have an alcoholic who is participating It's very likely based upon the

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The Behavior of the Corinthians that there were some people there that were alcoholics and they were drinking to excess

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I mean, I would take quite a bit for a quite a bit of shame for you to be in a church context and over drink over consume wine and And and so that that that speaks to you know, tendencies of someone who may have alcoholic traits is the answer to remove the alcohol or To rightly disciple a person to have a healthy relationship with the ordinance that God has given the church

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Because the hard work the easy work would be just to remove the alcohol and Substitute it with something else.

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That's called being practical and a lot of churches desire practicality over obedience,

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I think the hard work is Helping someone Discipling someone to have a healthy view of the elements having a healthy view of the wine

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So that they may partake of it joyfully and not to their own detriment

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So those who say that they're alcoholics or they're addicts and if they drink, you know, it you know, they will relapse they are subscribing to a theory of Mental health and addiction

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That denies the power of the new birth and the regenerating work of the

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Holy Ghost If you are truly in Christ, you're truly a new creation You can truly overcome these things and have a right relationship

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With it doesn't mean that you will that you shouldn't watch yourself In fact scripture says to watch yourself lest you fall, right?

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But it's again, it's the hard work of discipleship of helping people develop a healthy view

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Of these things, right? And so that's the hard work of discipleship. Yeah They're serving love and bread.

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Yeah, would you abstain it's a great question I was a

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Jehovah when I was right out of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I Went to the memorial service, which is their yearly communion service

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And I thought it'd be a great statement if I partook And so I partook so they pass the emblems usually

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Jehovah's Witnesses don't partake participate because you're not part of the 144 ,000 So unless they're going to heaven only those people can partake

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So I thought it'd be a great idea if I partook because it would make us a strong statement that I'm going to have it I don't have that view anymore.

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I think it's really stupid to do that because this is not the Lord's Supper This is something other than in fact, it's kind of Satanic Satanic the way that Jehovah's Witnesses do it

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Now I'm not going to go to the extreme to say that that's how other churches are practicing it But if it's something other than the

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Lord's Supper, I would have a hard time Accepting that this is the

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Lord's Supper Because it's something other than it's like if I go to the church and you know, they're sprinkling

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Yeah, it's not baptism and so it's something other than If I'm not aware of it, it comes by and I take it

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You know to me. That's probably a snack not a sacrament. So Yeah, that's that's my knee jerk reaction

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That's a loaded question because you're not as a pastor, you're not you're not discipling someone into sin

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You're cycling them away from sin if they sin, you know, it's not necessarily your your fault your responsibility in that regard

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That's sense. Every person has the responsibility for God in regards to their sin And so I think it's important to be aware of that.

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I think it's important to be aware of that If I was somehow negligent in that and insensitive maybe that there could be a case there

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That's not my style Fairly understanding individual it would work with an individual who struggles in that regard and be intentional in that regard as well

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But again, I want us to think rightly about these issues of a person is an alcoholic and they struggle with alcohol

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The issue is not the alcohol the issue is the heart right The city here doesn't come from the alcohol comes from the individual's heart

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So that's what needs to be addressed. Is that person's heart and is it not true that in Christ we receive a new heart?

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Is it not true that in Christ? We have a wellspring of life that helps us avoid the pitfalls of sin

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I think those are all all those things are true. And so God is faithful. He has given us the ability to overcome these things

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And so yeah, I don't I don't necessarily buy into the premise But but I of course would

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Would want to shepherd that person rightly and make sure that they have the support they need In order to overcome it and one of the things that it may be is is that maybe they need to take, you know

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The community cups are not very large, right? They're very small Maybe requires that person to take it even less right, and so having certain cups that are filled even less and that'd be the cup that'd be appropriate for them to partakes participate of and and help in building a healthy relationship with wine in this regard is important because Why is it wine

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I think that's part of your question as well earlier it's like why why is it wine why the wine Well pastor

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Conley said rightly is that in the Bible? Wine is associated with many things And among the things that one is associated with is is a heart of gladness

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It's a cup of gladness. It makes the heart glad right? It makes a person feel

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Good, right? When when you drink of this cup, there's also bitterness

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That is associated with one as well. I don't like I don't particularly like alcohol of any sort.

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I Think it's just it's just like bitter that you know I don't like the way it tastes And that's part of it.

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Is that this is both a sweet thing and a bitter thing the symbolism that that that that cups represents of the sweetness of God the bitterness of God through the sufferings of Christ and his blood was spilled for us all those things

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Have significance and so when we participate in the Lord's Supper You notice that it's quiet We don't have soft music playing in the background

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You know, we don't have the preacher saying some words or preaching the word it why because we want you to contemplate

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The significance of what it is that you're participating in to consider

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The the bitterness and the the brittleness of the bread that Christ was body was broken on our behalf

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It is just dryness sometimes after I eat this I have to like regroup myself before I give the benediction because my throat is just you know dried up from the bread and the wine and The same is true of the cup that that cup has a powerful significance.

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So should we move away from those things and just Readjust the Lord's Supper to our 21st century sensibilities

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I think we're doing a great disservice to the table and to the significance of the of what these things represent

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Does that kind of help put things in a right perspective so far? Okay Another thing

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I want us to consider. Okay, go ahead What inspired this? So probably like last year around this time we started considering Looking into the

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Lord's ordinances starting with baptism. It's so a question it kind of arose where We we have a confession.

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We have individuals coming into the church You know, we were seeing some really phenomenal growth but one of the problems that we have people coming to the church who had a background of being baptized by either a false group or a

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You know Pato Baptist or Sprinkler and so the question was okay. Well, do we have to re -baptize these individuals?

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Back and forth and we came to a strong conclusion after studying consideration and we taught that over the summer that we taught it through the book that we just Jameson so Then the next one was when we looked at baptism.

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Should we re -examine Lord's Supper? That's what we did and so we looked at the two ordinances of the church and we've come to these conclusions by an analysis of the text and analysis of church history and And these are what we're presented to you now

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Because we're going to be practicing communion a little bit differently in the coming weeks and months and years

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I haven't smoked since June 23rd, 1994. If I took a puff of a cigarette today,

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I'd smoke two packs. I think So I had that same concern that Emmanuel did, but as we discuss this thing as we've seen how important it is

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To follow the ordinances of Jesus because Jesus didn't say do this the way you like Whenever you like.

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He says as often as you do this. And so the pattern is very clear. It's this and the other thing

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As we consider this, it says in James that God cannot be tempted with evil and The Lord's table is only good

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It's only for our good. So in a very strong spiritual sense We have to understand that as we partake of it rightly

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God is going to work good through it so Like Brian was saying there's a matter of trust.

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I just wanted to acknowledge though that what Emmanuel verbalized I kind of stymied things for a couple of weeks on that because I was really concerned about that But as we studied and studied it, we came to this conclusion that Brian's giving to you, but just so you know that we did consider that that was really important Yeah, and I think that's a good word from pastor.

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Yeah, I think it's important you realize our heart behind it We're not these cold legalistic. We're gonna do it this way because we really think it should be done this way

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It's like no we really approach these things in a way that was comprehensive and we we want to make sure that That these concerns that we knew people would bring up would be addressed

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Why could unfermented wine so again part of the Of The importance here is a symbolism and as I just addressed there's a particular symbolism in the wine throughout scripture it's not just a little a little bit of the bubbly is where you know, it's it's it is it is a

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Drink That has the power to To get someone intoxicated.

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It's a powerful thing. So, you know again, we want it. We don't want to move away from the symbolism

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Wine is both bitter and sweet What does that represent it's the sweetness of the fragrant offering that Christ made on the cross, but the bitterness because when you look at the the both the spiritual and historical

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Narratives of the cross You see that on one hand how Paul describes it Paul describes it as a as an offering as a free

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Christ Has been sacrificed that fragrant offering was pleasing to Yahweh that aroma that comes from the from a sacrifice is pleasing

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There's a sweetness to it But there's a bitterness to it says Zechariah chapter 12 that there's there's a bitterness and a woe to the crucifixion

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Right, so you have these two realities that are at play here with the blood of Jesus And so it is truly sweet in a bitter thing

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And that's why when we consider the Lord stable we participate in it We should consider oh what joy what power is in this cup that it is it

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Symbolizes my everlasting salvation, but whoa, because it costs God son his life

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To grant me to give me this what like what beauty is in that and power that's in the spiritual presence of the

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Lord's Supper so I think that it has to be wine one because it's what the scripture says and Two because it fits the biblical narrative of the symbolism behind the cup and the bread and so We'll go to 1st

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Corinthians chapter 11 to make this point a little bit more clearer as well And so 1st

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Corinthians chapter 11 And I want to bring up to you a few things So last week we discussed how the

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Lord's Supper one of the things that we're going to do differently is that we're praying for the The emblems separately the bread the cup that this bread will be from one sheet of Matzah and so the preacher will go and he will present the bread and of course

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We'll have hand sanitizer there to clean our hands. Make sure you don't get the preachers sweating and Spit on it

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Then we'll break it Symbolizing what Jesus did when he took the bread He blessed it and he then passed it

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And so we want to follow the biblical model as closely as we can in order to honor Christ Along that line.

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Let's notice what it says here in verse 23 Actually, let's go before that.

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Let's go to verse Let's go to verse 17 What are the following instructions

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I do not commend you because when you come together it is not for the better But for the worse he's talking about communion here.

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He's talking about the church service For the first place when you come together as a church I hear that there are divisions among you and I believe it in part

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For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized

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When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat Okay, that's that was a major point in last week's discussion

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Paul saying hey, you might have all the right elements. You might have the bread You might have the wine, but you're not celebrating the

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Lord's Supper You are not celebrating the Lord's table why For it eating each one goes ahead of his own meal.

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What goes hungry another gets drunk Again question is can you get drunk off of grape juice?

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No, clearly. This is wine that is being spoken of here What's it? What's the interest here in the sex as well is they were not rightly administering?

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Communion therefore Paul says it invalidated it. He said this is not communion. This is not the

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Lord's Supper This is something other than why because you're not doing it the way Jesus said to do it.

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He makes that very clear He says in verse 22 What do you not have houses to eat and drink it or he despised the

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Church of God to humiliate those who have nothing What should I say to you should I commend you this? No, I will not

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For and then he gives the right instruction the right administration of communion This is what he says for I receive from the

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Lord what I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the night When he was betrayed took bread

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When he had given thanks he broke it. So here's the right administration Okay, pray taking the elements breaking it passing it and he says

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This is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me The same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood

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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me? First off as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes So you see a right administration of the ordinance is of utmost importance

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Because even though the Corinthian Church may have had the right Elements they had the wrong administration

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He says because of that you're doing something other than the Lord's up So he tells us this is how you have to do it.

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I received this from the Lord Jesus This is how you do communion

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So then all we've done as pastors is we've taken this text It's logical conclusion and we want to do this as it was laid out for us here in this text

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Does that make sense? Among the changes that we're gonna be introducing as well in this regard

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Is you notice that we celebrate the Lord's Supper every Sunday morning? Now there might be a little bit of contradiction there because what did

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I just call it the Lord's Supper what is supper usually served

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Yeah the evening afternoon Certainly not the morning and so By God's grace in Providence.

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We have a evening service or afternoon service And so we're gonna be changing communion from morning to the afternoon service

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And that's actually a return to an older practice of this church before many of us were here

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It's my understanding right pastor that the church Celebrate the Lord's Supper in the evening

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Originally, and then it was moved to the mornings This is a interesting and significant change

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One because again, we want to follow the the biblical order both

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Jesus and Luke 22 and Paul in first Corinthians 11 refers to as the Lord is referred to as the

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Lord's Supper and it Was done in the evening Right, and so we too want to follow in that sacred

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Tradition and a sacred ordinance and following this ordinance in the afternoon or evening hours

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So that will be done in our second service So our first service will no longer be serving communion that will be reserved for our second service now

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There's some what's interesting about that as well is that our evening service tends to be less full

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And it tends to be less full for you know a couple reasons obviously our our main service is typically in the morning and that's where the the main preaching is and the communion in the singing

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But we've also noticed that a lot of guests in that time Feel as if they are left out when we serve communion because we have

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Kind of a fence around the communion table. That's not the reason we're doing this change.

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I just want to make that clear We're not changing it to better accommodate people's sensibilities

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We are changing this again in order to more closely fit the biblical model and precedent that's set before us in Scripture Now it just so happens to be that less guests do participate and come to our second service.

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So that may be less of an issue as people have wrongfully

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Taking offense at our position on the Lord's table and so that may become less of a problem

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Of course, we want visitors that are here at 11 to be here also at 2 o 'clock And so we still want to encourage people to be here for that.

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And so we're not we're not trying to Accommodate this issue by changing this time frame.

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I just want to make that clear as well We're not one to shy from a fight so Any thoughts or questions on that aspect of the change between the

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Lord's Supper being in the morning to the evening service now? What's that?

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It will start next week We will treat we will be doing communion differently starting next week and So as I've mentioned before Some of the changes last week and then this week's teaching is that one communion will now be served in the evening

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It will be prayed over the elements separately and the wine and the bread will come from You know one sheet and one vessel

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It'll still be poured in the cups. It'll still be broken in pieces But that but we will follow the biblical model that was given to us by Christ That this shall come from you as a display of the unity of the church

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That one becomes many the many becomes one that we're all participating in the same role in the same bread in the same wine representing our unity in Christ Anything you want to add pastors on this?

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They have a bustling Correct and so this is the you know, among the the bigger changes and Is a change from the morning to the evening

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And so practically it doesn't change much It just means that our morning service may be a little bit shorter because communion takes about 10 minutes for us to administer

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And the afternoon service may be just a little bit shorter And so I also like the fact in the evening service there's a focus on prayer

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All right, so it's a called prayer service. I don't I don't really think we need to be calling it a prayer service I think it's a service and Again the primary focus is on prayer and that's a perfect way to usher in that time of communion is

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As we're focused on prayer as we're focused on the word What a wonderful opportunity is then to transition that into a time of communion?

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And so that is the way we're going to start administering it starting next week. And so next week is my last

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Weekend as your preacher. And so this would be my last Blessing to you and how we now hand down this sacred tradition down to you.

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So yes Yeah, I wouldn't bring your own

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Well, let me let me just make it simple I don't know that it's right for if you're a member of a church and you are

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Visiting another church for you to even participate in that communion Because again, what what does the communion represent represents the the fellowship the unity of the local church, right?

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If you're not part of that local church, I'm not so sure that one should You know, that's true.

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That's something we've ever even touched on But but it would be my property would be probably my perspective that I'm not entirely sure

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It's appropriate for you to participate in another Lord's table when you're not a member of that of that church

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I'm not legalistic in that I'm not making it definitive, but that would be my

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Yeah, kind of my knee -jerk reaction to that. Yeah Historically Members of the present

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I think it was called like a medallion. So there's some kind of Sounds cool.

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I think we should look at What's your reaction colleague just need your reaction to what do

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I do I said, oh no, I yeah Yeah Previously I would guess preacher, right?

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You should be somebody who's qualified as a preacher Yeah And We we did go through quite a bit of this last week as well

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So it's not a lot of things are not shocked to you and we did have a lot more questions last week

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I feel but Yeah, those are the major Changes to the

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Lord's Supper that we're gonna be introducing again to recap We're gonna be praying for the elements individually the bread and the wine these are these elements are all going to come from one

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Vessel one cup one one, you know one bread these also will be

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Administered of course by the pastor breaking the bread handing them out through the deacons

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And then we will be changing the grape juice into just Wine so there'll be no more accommodation for the grape juice.

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It will be wine and then we will be Changing this sacred ordinance to the afternoon to better fit the

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Lord's timing as it's called the Lord's Supper It's not you know, what's interesting is Jehovah Witnesses are about this

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Sunday or about celebrate their yearly communion service the memorial And one thing I do like about it is that their service is always

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At you know at sunset, right and so we're not necessarily going that far, but I've always liked that that you know,

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Jesus when he started Passover that first time It was on nice and 14 as the Sun was, you know going down.

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And so I think that's there's some significance there Yes No, so we thought about that and you know, obviously there'd be some practicality issues there, but we we are what we're saying is that They will come in those vessels already, but it'll come from one cup

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It'll come from one vessel of one of wine for instance, and so that would be administered beforehand

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But then the breaking of the bread will be done Corporately there because what it does say in that text is that Jesus took the bread and he broke it

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So the breaking of the bread happens there The cup that they usually that they likely shared was one literally one cup and so we don't think it's necessarily a

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Requirement to have like a one chalice like in the Roman Catholic Church and then everyone comes and participates with the one cup

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Rather that it comes from the one vessel and that we're all participating of that one vessel

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Does that make sense? And your thoughts or questions on the changes to communion

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Anyone mad anyone sad anyone happy Okay We should be happy.

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This is a you know, again, we want to just draw closer to Scripture and right, so so the problem like a lot of people take that verse to mean like the first Corinthians like Let a person examine himself in it

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So eat the bread and drink this cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body Eats and drinks judgment on himself as well

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How I've seen this apply to many evangelical churches is that they'll say, you know They'll make this from a church ordinance to a individual ordinance

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So if you feel like you're not worth that's not what this text is referring to.

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In fact, it's kind of the opposite What what is he rebuking in verses 17 through?

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22 he's rebuking that they have turned it into a personal ordinance because everyone's eating out of sync

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Everyone's bringing their own stuff. I wasn't seeing a summer getting drunk So they did Overpersonalize it and what

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Jesus in the instruction that he gives Trump Christ in verse 23 onward is that no you're to do this corporately, this is a

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Corporate ordinance that you're to participate together in this manner. So that glorifies

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God. So in fact, yeah the verses 27 onward it's not Individualizing the ordinance.

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In fact, it's actually letting you Bring it to your memory that this is a corporate

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You know ordinance here, yeah Sure, yeah,

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I also think My own personal feeling as well as that maybe we haven't gone far enough in this because I still think that It's called the

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Lord's Supper and Lord's evening meal Not the Lord snack, so maybe in the future we should look at making it more of a meal

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But that's just another time. Yeah Yeah, I could see that I think that's probably a fair criticism

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There's something that we did consider it's something that we did kind of debate amongst ourselves pastor Kelly Is there anything you want to add to that?

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So it's bread that gives you promise the wine's important for what comments talk about the bread is the higher symbols

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That's right. That's right Any other thoughts or questions on?

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Today's teaching Yes, sir It certainly was

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Yeah Yeah You know when it comes to ordinance

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Clearly we want to make sure the all the right elements are there and I think that's what these changes reflect Is it all the right?

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Things are in place If you were to get a time machine and go back to the first century and see how the early church did it

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There's no doubt that it would have been a more comprehensive meal and it probably would Churches Churches actually looked more

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You have a synagogue was set up in a synagogue You actually have like almost like a long table in the middle and they have seating around and so it's not like we have here

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You know, everyone's pointing that way and they would use that table where the scrolls were

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It was a long field because they would bring the scrolls out and they would roll it And that became the place for where the word was

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It's kind of a proto pulpit and then it also became the place of prominence for the

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Lord's Supper see and so You know Francis Chan who I have a lot of criticism of him, but one of the things that he's interestingly

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Has commented On the Lord's Supper is that and I think he's wrong on certain things in Lord's Supper One of the things

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I'd like though is that he he says that the early church Certainly like the worship of God was around the table

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Right. And so if you were to look at the first century church Certainly, it was more than just a little piece of bread a little piece of wine

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And again, it was enough for some people to get drunk off and also other places scripture

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Paul rebukes him because they were becoming gluttonous in the Lord's table as well. So Clearly it was more of a meal how we address that today's context.

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I think that's that's for another round of discussions And I won't be here to contribute to that But I think that you're absolutely right.

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It was certainly a meal not a snack In the opening we close up the addiction the word is presented to you we go have a meal we come back for You said it's another worship service

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So we actually had the word of God we've had a meal a supper real food we come back together

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So it's after supper though. Not immediately because there's a couple hours in between where we have

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You know worship service. Are we being a little bit practical?

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He has he explained about the wine, you know we're trying to follow the greater symbolisms and But I would argue

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Yeah, I think Some of that's fair I also think that part of it is

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So, what are we highlighting in these changes again that all the right elements are there it may not be as comprehensive as maybe

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You know, you get that time machine you see how Jesus did it or how the early church did it? You look at axed clearly, you know

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It was it was a big deal because that's why they had to get deacons they get deacons think it's at the tables so they can

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You know break the bread afterwards and so Clearly it was more comprehensive than what most churches do today

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But I like that we have the elements all correct and there so it's there so you can't say it's not communion

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Because all the right elements administration is there Versus you know, the only thing we might be lacking is that it's not a huge comprehensive meal.

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Yeah Where you know

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Historically, you've got Yeah, so I think

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I think he's got more of an agenda He's certainly got some Eastern influence there. Yeah This word supper is getting overloaded

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When he's describing the actual ceremony As in verse 23 for I receive the

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Lord when I also go over to you the Lord's etc in the same way

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Also, he took the cup after supper Okay, so the ceremony is happening after supper, but then they're calling this other thing, you know the

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Lord's supper So we we have the ceremony that is happening after the supper, right?

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And so the Yeah, I think that's the All good stuff to consider so any last thoughts or question before we close in prayer

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Well next week would be excited We're gonna be celebrating the Lord's Day the resurrection of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and in the afternoon. We will be doing this New administration of communion so praise be on him.

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Let's pray Father we thank you Lord that you've given us your word in such a clear and direct way

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That by opening it seeking your truth We may find all truth by means of your spirit who you promised to us as a good deposit of faith

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The promise of our inheritance the spirit of truth who said who of whom it is said

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That he shall lead us into all truth Lord Thank you for your spirit who pray God that the spirit of unity would be demonstrated in this place in this church

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Even this new and a right to administration of communion It's the Lord may you be with us as we endeavor to do all things to your glory and for your name's sake in Jesus Name we do pray.