Sunday School - Lord Supper

Is that what it was? Alex? Okay. Good morning.

Well, we are going to go ahead and start. I was hoping more people would be here this morning. We're going to study the

Lord's Table, just a one Sunday school study of the Lord's Table. The communion,

Lord's Supper, all the different names we have for it. I want to be sure that we have ourselves a biblical understanding of what it is, what we are doing when we participate, and importantly, whether participation is even an option.

And there's some miscommunications that have occurred. That's been for me. I've been saying there's something

I'll say and I'll get to it a little bit later. And I mean one thing and then I thought about that. Oh, I wonder if this is taken another way.

So we're going to go through 1 Corinthians 11. We're going to study what the Lord's Table is about and make sure we really understand what it is that we're engaging when we take the

Lord's Supper every Sunday. But let's start with hymn number 286,

We Gather Together. And we'll open in prayer and then we'll get started.

So please stand when you have that. Number 286. We gather together to ask the

Lord's blessing. He chastens and hastens his will to make known.

The wicked oppressing shall cease from distressing.

Sing praises to his name he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine.

So from the beginning the fight we were winning.

Thou Lord was at our side all glory be thine.

We all do extol thee thou leader triumphant and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.

Let thy congregation escape tribulation.

Thy name be ever praised. O Lord make us free.

Be seated. Your heavenly father we come to you for another day of worship for which we give you the thanks and we pray that you would hear the praises that we will call out to your name in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ this day that you will be pleased father with the worship that you receive and that you Lord will be honored in his place and that we will be transformed more and more into the image of Christ our savior in his name we pray amen.

So the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, the communion is our subject here this morning.

We're going to take it largely from 1 Corinthians 11 verses 17 to 34 the core of which is what we read every

Sunday when we take the Lord's Table. But why study the

Lord's Table? Why would we take a Sunday out? Now everybody's been to Confession Club. Raise your hand you've been through Confession.

You've been through 1689. So you're experts in the Lord's Table right? There's a whole paragraph about it.

We got it right? Now there's a lot to be understood about it. Not that the Confession says anything incorrect about it.

It doesn't. It says things that are correct but there's a lot to be understood. What's the importance of the

Lord's Table? Somebody tell me why is the Lord's Table even important? Why is there any controversy with you do it once a month or every week or whatever?

Signifies the death of Christ okay? Right? It's a remembrance.

It signifies the death of Christ. Displays to the world who's believer.

It's an acknowledgement of our faith in Christ and I like to also say that it's sort of like baptism.

This ordinance is a living parable if you will of the self. As we acknowledge his death on our behalf and we proclaim his death until he comes which signifies and implies the resurrection.

How many continuing ordinances does the church have? Continuing ordinance that we do again and again.

One. So there's two ordinances that the church has. One is baptism which is done once when you make confession to the church.

You're baptized. That's a one -time act and it's an ordinance given to the church. The only continuing ordinance we have that we do as long as the

Lord does not is tarrying in his return I should say is the

Lord's Table. It's the only continuing ordinance. So I like to say it's one out of one of the continuing ordinances instituted by whom?

And the class said Jesus Christ okay. Confirmed by the apostle and we'll get to that in first Corinthians 11.

We do have to admit that as we look at the three synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke we're not going to take a lot of time in those this morning.

Jesus never says explicitly to the disciples now we're doing this tonight.

This is the day before my death on your behalf and you're to teach the church to do this regularly.

So how do we know that it's a regular ordinance from Jesus Christ to the church?

How do we know this? It's really important before we dig into the text. The epistles specifically.

Yeah Paul's epistle. For I received from the Lord also delivered to you that the

Lord Jesus on the night when he's betrayed took bread and we given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you.

In the same also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Now if you look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke of course this is not recorded at all in John though John 13 to 17 is the same time frame but we don't have the same the same incidents as recorded by John.

We do have to understand that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke when Jesus institutes the

Lord's Supper which is what we celebrate every Sunday and God willing will again today what

Paul tells us in first Corinthians 11 is different than what we have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

The words are different. We know that they're the inspired word of God. We know that it's from Jesus Christ to the church through the apostle because he says so I received from the

Lord. We can tie this back to Galatians and perhaps there was some training that Paul went through one -on -one with Jesus by his spirit if you will there's a lot of different controversy and theories about that but we understand that Jesus Christ at some point personally taught

Paul about the Lord's table which Paul wasn't there he wasn't converted yet and said this is what you're this is what

I want you to give to the church okay so the Lord's table by apostolic command through the

Lord Jesus Christ is given to us so the authority of the table is as high as it can be we need to understand that so it's one out of one of our continuing ordinances we take it every

Sunday we used to take it every first Sunday many churches still do first Sundays a lot of churches do every

Sunday anything wrong with either one of those anything advantageous with either one of those what do you think say say again please oh okay well they do it once they do it once a year what are you going to say well we'll get to that you got to hold that thought

Emmanuel is saying wasn't the Lord's Supper an actual meal we'll get to that in 1

Corinthians 11. I would make the case go ahead exactly there's some leeway the point is you do it regularly you plan to do it you can prepare yourself for the

Lord's table because you know when it's coming we used to do it first Sundays so some

Sundays you'd wait three Sundays or some months you wait three Sundays sometimes four Sundays depending whether it's a four or five month big deal you know it's coming and you're able to prepare yourself for it here we do it each week and I would argue the same thing you're able to prepare yourself because you know what we're going to do and we do it the same way each time the point here is as often as you do it means regularly now

I would say once a year is not often enough I believe I can't I can't cite this anymore but when

Calvin first became known in Geneva they do it once a year and he wanted it to be something maybe it was once a quarter do you know sir yeah anyway it was not as often as we do and it was because he wanted people to prepare for it he wanted you to consider it and to let it build up in your spirit so that by the time you took it you really were ready for the table so it tells you it's of high importance so it's one out of one of our continuing ordinances the participation in the

Lord's table something's often misunderstood we sometimes think of it as an option the individual meaning you me we decide for ourselves whether we're going to partake today depending upon our assessment of our spirit our relationship with others how

I feel about things today all these different things that could come in and this is something that I have perhaps inadvertently perpetuated by saying from the pope and I stopped doing this

I don't know if anybody noticed it I'm going to say please don't partake if you don't fulfill these three requirements that we lay out or for any matter of conscience

I say for any matter of conscience what

I meant by that is you know if you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God who never didn't exist you know they're trying to eliminate the

Mormon the Jehovah's Witness think about this for a second don't partake that's a conscience issue I may have implied that we each get to look at ourselves subjectively and decide for ourselves if we're going to partake which is not what

I intended to communicate so I've stopped saying it that way Lord's table

God willing we'll see when we look through this is not an option and it doesn't depend upon completely your relationship with others we often say that that okay well

I have an issue with this person or that person I haven't resolved it therefore I cannot partake I'm in sin over this or that issue therefore

I shouldn't partake we have all kinds of different things I'm going to try and dissuade you of those this morning what's the table meant for have you ever thought about this what is the table meant to do now we said remembrance go ahead maybe

I'm jumping ahead a little bit well remembrance but also means of well actually if someone is in sin aren't they demanded people negative guardedly hang on um but go on you during the confession you learned it was it was a way of confirming that this person is a

Christian okay so it's our it's a testimony that we make and we'll get to that it's our personal testimony that yes

I'm participating in Christ Jesus we'll get some of this the texts that prove that out for us the table is meant for our spiritual nourishment the table is meant to build us up in Christ the bread and the wine which represent the body and remaining just what they are are used by the spirit of God to grow us into his image that makes it somewhat of a miracle if you think about it that way it's a means of sanctification it's a means of grace we're eating just bread we're drinking just wine chemically we can decide we can analyze and say what they are we can give all kinds of technical definitions of these things and yet by our participation by faith by remembering the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ on my behalf we're built up into his image it's something the spirit of God uses just these regular ordinary things and does a remarkable work in us

Miguel you're gonna oh yeah I was gonna ask yes as if you're a believer you partake in the

Lord's if you're in sin if you are you know struggling with things that is like you look you analyze yourself and say well not now is not the time for me because I'm struggling a bit or you know is that correct or not even though you're in struggling you're in sin we're jumping ahead but I don't mind because I like I like the

I like the discussion rather than me just reading my notes to you so first of all okay we get this idea that I've got to be in such and such a pure condition without sin without known sin in relationship with my brothers or sisters we get these ideas going in our head that this is what it's about excuse me if we have to be sinless to participate in the

Lord's table who can partake no one and let's say the pastor who helps out whether I'm standing at the pulpit and reading the scripture or one of the guys who's serving the elements let's say one of the pastors had an argument with his wife they didn't resolve they supposed to stop and say well

I'm not living in proper unity with my mate therefore I can't that's not what the

Lord's table is about okay hopefully we'll be able to bring this forth one of the important things about what we're saying here though is you don't decide in that sense whether or not you can partake okay we talked about denying the

Lord's table it's going to jump us way ahead but that's okay because we started late and I can do this

I think how to say this so who has the authority to deny someone the

Lord's table we haven't even jumped into the text yet who has the authority to deny you the

Lord's table good you're going to say the church how many say the church raise your hand if you didn't raise your hand raise your hand now the church the church who has accepted you the church who heard your testimony and said yes this one's a

Christian we've heard their testimony we've seen their life we accept them as a believer and you are now a member with us and what do we do what's one of the privileges that comes with membership many of you waited for this until you remember what's one of the privileges that the church holds to members the

Lord's table so who can deny you the Lord's table the church and how does the church then deny you the

Lord's table what's the process that ends up in that determination process and Matthew be specific call it out to everybody so that we we've got it before us process of Matthew oh or basically if you're if someone's sitting you go to your one -on -one with your brother and if your brother refuses then great you're one -on -one but we're a sinner and you bring forth your witnesses and you talk to him again and if he refuses that then you bring him to the church and if he refuses the church then you treat him as if he didn't affect the question good everybody get that it's a process of discipline

Matthew 18 15 to 22 and then you'll hit it right on the head okay you've been brought into membership many of you waited to take the

Lord's table until you remember and one of the joys you had in becoming members was taking the Lord's table with us and making that declaration of the gospel and your participation in Christ and his sacrifice your faith in him that's what we do on Sundays so the church determines that this person has sinned we heard the two or three witnesses maybe the church is going to say you know we're not quite on board with this we don't think it was sin we need to let love cover

I'm just throwing out that as a theoretical possibility the church might not agree but it is the church if they agree so this person is a tax collector an unbeliever and is to be put we cannot longer confirm their their testimony of Christ and then denied the

Lord's table so the question then given that and again we haven't even jumped into the text yet can you deny yourself the

Lord's table is it that much of an option is it up to you the class should already say no it's not it's up to Christ and Christ says that you partake as often as you do this and I'm not saying we treat sin lightly and I'm not saying you come and say well

I don't care what condition I'm in I'm just going to take the Lord's table because Pastor Josh said I should we're not trying to minimize in that way what

I'm trying to do is take the subjectivity out of it this declaration of our participation in Jesus and his sacrifice so that's kind of a little bit of a precursor so you know where we're going to go with this open your bibles to first Corinthians 11

I'm going to read 17 to 34 as I read this

I want you to hear and we're going to talk about how we know for sure that this is the section that tells us about the

Lord's table okay now it seems pretty obvious to you but there's some clues in here that I want to bring out and make sure we understand them so that it's really locked into our minds that this is really the place to go okay first Corinthians 11 17 but in the following instructions

I do not commend you because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse for in the first place when you come together as a church

I hear that there are divisions among you and I believe it in part for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized when you come together it is not the

Lord's supper that you eat for in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal one goes hungry another gets drunk what do you not have houses to eat or drink in or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing what shall

I say to you shall I commend you in this no I will not for I received from the

Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he's betrayed took bread and when he given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the

Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died but if we judge ourselves truly we would not be judged but when we are judged by the