Sunday School - Lord Supper

Is that what it was, Alex?

OK.

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 have been from 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, wast 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 Assembly 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 would be

pleased, Father, with the worship that you receive, and that you, Lord, would be honored in this place, and that we would 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 if 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?

You do it once a month, or every week, or whatever.

Signifies the death of Christ, OK?

It's a remembrance, right?

Right.

It's a remembrance.

It signifies the death of Christ.

Sarah?

Displays to the world who is a believer.

It's an acknowledgment of our faith in Christ.

And I'd like to also say that it's sort of like baptism.

This ordinance is a living parable, if you will, of the gospel itself.

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 ordinances 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 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.

Confirmed by the apostle, and we'll get to that in 1 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 was betrayed took bread, and when he had 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 of 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

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 1 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 going to do.

This is what I want you to give to the church, OK?

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 again, please.

Oh, OK, well, they do it once a year.

What were you going to say?

Because technically, wasn't the Lord's Supper an actual meal?

Well, we'll get to that.

You got to hold that thought.

Manuel 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'd wait three Sundays, sometimes four Sundays, depending on 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 cite this anymore, but when Calvin

first became known in Geneva, they'd do it once a year.

And he wanted it to be something, or 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 as one out of one of our continuing ordinances, the participation in the Lord's table is something that'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 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, and that they're trying to eliminate the Mormon and 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 go through this, is not an option.

And it doesn't depend upon completely your relationship with others.

We often say that, that, OK, 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?

We said remembrance.

Go ahead.

It's a means of, like,

well, actually, if

someone is in sin, aren't they demanded a table?

Negative.

Guardedly.

Hang on.

But go on.

In the confession, you learned.

It was a way of confirming that this person is a Christian.

Mm -hmm.

OK.

So 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.

And we'll get some of 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 blood, 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 going to?

If you're in sin, you'll struggle with things.

I thought it was like you look, you analyze yourself and say, well, now is not the time for me

because I'm struggling with it, or is that correct or not?

Or even though you're in struggling, you're in sin, you're still in particular.

We're jumping ahead, but I don't mind.

Because I like the discussion rather than me just reading my notes to you.

So first of all, OK, 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.

If we have to be sinless to participate in the Lord's table, who could partake?

No one.

And let's say the pastor who helps out, whether 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 that he didn't resolve.

Is he 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.

Hopefully, we'll be able to bring this forth.

One of the important things about what we're saying here is you don't decide

in that sense whether or not you can partake, OK?

OK?

We talked about denying the Lord's table.

It's going to jump us way ahead, but that's OK, because we started late and I didn't do this.

Trying to 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?

I would say the

church.

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 were members.

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 of Matthew.

Be specific.

Call it out to everybody so that we've got it before us.

Talk to him again.

And if he refuses that, then you bring him to the church.

Good.

If he refuses the church, then you treat him as if he didn't expect the question.

Good.

Everybody get that?

It's a process of discipline.

Matthew 18, 15 to 22.

Emmanuel hit it right on the head.

You've been brought into membership.

Many of you waited to take the Lord's table until you were members.

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 it.

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 out.

We cannot longer confirm 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 1 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?

1 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 was betrayed, took bread, and when he had 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 a new covenant in 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, he eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with

the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.

About the other things, I will give directions when I come.

Now, I'm gonna make the case that that's an inclusio.

Ever heard the term inclusio?

An inclusio marks off a section, a thought, a single thought, if you will, and we call it

inclusio because it begins and ends with a single concept, usually found in a phrase or a word.

So what we had here is inclusio, and I don't have the screen going, so it's not really

fair to ask you to remember all those words I just read, but I'll give it to you.

In verse 17 and verse 34, an inclusio brackets a section and tells us that we have

a thought, okay?

First Corinthians 11, 17,

because when you come together, and then in verse 34,

if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.

One of the things we learn here right away is that's why many of you are sick, that's why many of you have died.

You can come together for judgment, tells us what about the Lord's table.

It tells us that the Lord takes it pretty seriously, okay?

Miguel, were you gonna?

Mm -hmm.

Well, that has to do with the discerning, okay?

Let me put my finger on it, give me just a second.

Yeah, verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Now, discerning is the word diacrino, diacrino.

Crino means judgment, diacrino means to judge between things, to understand the difference

amongst things.

Okay?

So Paul says that you need to eat and drink discerning the body and blood of the Lord.

You need to make a judgment about this.

Can anybody pick up from the context of what I read what Paul wants us to judge and discern properly?

Remember, we're talking about worthy participation.

We're talking about whether we can take ourselves out of it.

What does Paul want us to determine just from what I read?

What's the judgment?

Significance, okay?

The significance of the Lord's table is that, as I think it was Sarah who said, it's our declaration of our faith

in Christ, his sacrifice for me, his return, which implies his resurrection, it's all of

that.

Part of the problem that was happening in Corinth is that they were treating the Lord's table like

a meal.

Who asked if it was a meal?

Yeah, it was being treated like a meal.

In other words, it's the Lord's table, it's the Lord's supper, man, let's go eat.

Man, let's have a feast here.

This is gonna be fun.

Let's have some merriment about it.

So all the sobriety of the occasion is gone.

All the dignity, if you will, was gone, and they had more problems.

We don't wanna go into all the Corinthian stuff because we'll never get out of it.

But elbowing each other out of the way, the rich people lording it over the poor people, that sort of thing.

There's a whole lot going on there.

I would argue that what Paul wants us to discern, wanted them to

discern, remember diacrino, is to judge between things, to see the difference

of things, is that it's not a meal.

It's called the Lord's supper, but it's not supper.

It's not steak and eggs breakfast, or potatoes grotten for dinner.

The Lord's supper is a special occasion.

It's called the supper, and that's a perfectly good name for it.

It's called the communion.

It's called the Lord's table.

Those are all proper names for it.

What is it not?

What's he asking them to judge?

I just said it.

It's not a meal.

It's not a meal.

It's not dinner.

It's a special commemoration of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

It is a section that is really our instruction there, not just because it's obvious, which it sort of

is, but I want you to understand that the reason we know that 11 .17 to 34

is our instruction on the Lord's table is because it's when you come together in verse 17, and when you come together in verse 34,

that marks it out as a single unit of thought.

It would be a pretty good preacher who could preach all that in one sermon, even though it's one thought.

I think I want to break it up into five or six messages, but that is really that subject.

It's one subject.

It's one thought.

Paul is saying, I do not commend you.

I don't commend you because you come together not discerning what you're doing here.

You're not judging rightly because you're treating it as a meal.

I want to ask you, do we fail in this regard?

Do we mistreat the Lord's table and present it to you as a meal?

No.

No, I would say not.

I think, and I don't mean to be self -congratulatory here, but I think we do a good job with that.

I think this church always has done a good job with the dignity of the occasion, whether it was

on first Sundays, as we did for a very long time, or now every Sunday.

I think we maintain the sobriety and the spiritual importance

of what we're doing.

Any questions or comments yet?

Please.

If you look at verse 29, well, let's go up a little bit, starting verse 27.

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.

Now, that's a little scary sounding, to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Does that mean, okay, I don't have him?

I'm not gonna be saved?

We have to go on and keep the whole context in mind.

Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Okay?

So, unworthy manner, no.

How do we cure that?

Examine yourself.

Verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks, without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on

himself.

So, what Paul's saying here is, you're to discern that this is not a meal.

You're to discern, you're to judge, you're to think carefully about what is being represented here, the

body and blood of the Lord.

Okay?

So, it's not dinner.

It's a special commemoration given to us through Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, through the

apostles, is a better way to say that.

Okay?

Did I answer your question?

What was your question again?

Yeah, I would argue that examining yourself is tied to the discernment of realizing

what it is that's being served and what it is that we're participating in.

And see, when we take that wrongly, or take that too far, the self -examination, then we get

into the subjective, where we say, okay, I examine myself, and I've decided I'm not worthy, and I would say,

time out.

The church, and this is what Emmanuel was saying before, the church is the one who decides you're not worthy.

And I think that would be a failure of discernment.

Yes.

Is that what you're saying, Charles?

Okay.

And again, you're examining, and this, you know, this sounds, to some people, this must

sound overly simple.

It's like, well, who wouldn't know that this little cracker and this teeny little bit of wine, though it was probably more than that

back then, but who wouldn't know that that's not a meal?

Goodness, pastor, that's not gonna sustain me through the morning, much less, you know, be dinner.

I mean, who wouldn't know that?

Well, they didn't seem to know it.

You gonna?

Sure?

Okay.

Well, I'm not sure I understand your question.

Are you asking, did the Corinthians just serve lots of bread and wine?

I blame the congregation.

Couldn't be the pastors.

No, that's a good question.

I hadn't thought about that, sir.

I think the leadership of the church obviously has the higher

responsibility to serve it correctly and in a dignified way, but the church also has a very high responsibility

to receive it that way.

Hang on, Sue, you, James?

How Corinthians far?

They're very rich and plenty full.

I think it drives to the meaning of the Lord's Supper back then, to

lose it.

So it's not the blaming game.

It's more on really bringing back the essence of the true Lord's Supper.

So it's that.

When you say checking ourselves, it's really more

on how we really look at the Lord's Supper and check

ourselves in the Lord's Supper if we are

acceptable in the church.

Now, remember, there's a sin in the church wherein more so it became more

tested in terms of the Lord's Supper.

And just because of the sin in Corinthians back then, then

it loses the sin it was covered by,.

Okay, let's make it just a big feast.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

Yeah, so it's almost ignore my spiritual condition.

Exactly.

And just looking forward to the celebration.

So now we're looking at the Lord's Supper

with, we don't care if you say you just partake with us.

So it's like if you

say, if you hear the pastor during the Lord's Supper, check

yourself, that's where you know that you're

sick and then you're partaking.

And he's also partaking.

That in itself loses the essence.

And myself, am I doing it the proper way?

How can I say to him?

Well, even that's

kind of the blame where

he or the person is sinning, I will, and then now we're

partaking at the same time.

That loses the essence.

Yeah, I see what you're saying, James.

I would still, in a cautionary way,

say the Lord's Table is of such importance and is such a privilege of membership that

we have to be very careful about.

We cannot recuse ourselves.

It's commanded to you.

So taking ourselves out.

Yeah,

the grace of God

that brought

you here, that brought you to take the Lord's Supper, then that

actually is the meaning of Lord's Supper, meaning we understand the grace of God.

Yeah, that's good.

And one thing you're bringing out here, too, is Paul says, let a man examine himself, which of course

means let a woman examine herself as well.

It's the generic sense.

It does not say, let a man examine his neighbor, okay?

Now, anything can be taken to the point of ridiculousness.

So if a husband and wife comes in and the wife's got a swollen nose and a black eye and is limping,

we're gonna say, no, wait a second, time out here, obviously.

So we can always take things to the point of absurdity.

We're not gonna do that, okay?

And Paul even says, I got this from Alistair Begg and you're probably gonna find out that Paul says it.

He says in this section, I speak as to sensible people.

So we can make examples that would blow anything out of the water.

We just have to stay reasonable about it.

Back to this idea of taking ourselves out of the table.

Who can do this?

An actual thing that happened here, actual person, not here anymore, I'm not gonna give any names, but it

actually happened where one brother was talking to another brother and that brother decided that the

brother he was talking to was in sin and was unrepentant about it.

He decided this.

Now, a lot of details, we can really dig down into it, but he came to me

and said, this brother's living in sin and cannot take the table anymore.

Well, have you gone to him, shown him his fault between the two of you, gotten two or three witnesses, brought it to the

church?

No, no, no.

He's in sin, you need to deny him the table.

If you don't deny him the table, you're in sin.

This actually happened.

And it got to be a very intense controversy.

And my point was, and it was then, and the point is now, that a pastor,

as much authority as God gives a pastor in the church, I always say it's a deep authority, but it's not

wide.

Okay, we don't have authority over every aspect of people's lives, but where the church has authority, pastors have deep

authority.

That's just what the scriptures teach us.

But I refused then, and I refuse today, to believe that a pastor on his

sole authority can take someone off the table.

And say, hey, I've decided this, I've heard all the cases, I'm the arbiter.

No, back to Emmanuel's point.

It's Matthew 18, 15 to 22, and we're all pastors and congregation accountable to

that passage.

And that's the passage.

That's the authority of the church.

What did you say before?

Keys to the kingdom.

That's part of the keys to the kingdom that Emmanuel was referring to.

That the church then says, yes, this person's acting as an unbeliever, and should be denied the

privilege of membership, which includes the Lord's table.

This other idea about being in sin.

I'm gonna argue that, again, remember, we can always draw together an illustration

that makes this incorrect.

You can always take it too far, but we're not gonna do that.

If you, in examining yourself, this self -examination, which begins with,

this is meant as a remembrance, a memorial of the Lord Jesus

Christ and his sacrifice for me.

That's the first discernment.

It's not a meal.

It's that special commemoration.

If you find yourself in sin, you do this self -examination, you just can't get that off your mind.

I would argue that the place for you to be is at the Lord's table.

And I would argue that the place for you to reconcile that disturbance in your conscience is by

taking the bread and the wine.

In faith, remembering that Jesus Christ died for whatever it is that's stirring up your conscience.

You got that?

In other words, rather than taking myself away for the means of grace, I would argue

that not just, well, it is commanded by Jesus Christ and through the Apostle Paul is commanded to

you.

I would argue that the place to be when the Lord puts that on your spirit

is at the Lord's table.

And as you're dealing with that sin, as you're dealing with that thing that you didn't reconcile with the brother or sister,

as the Lord is disturbing you about it, and you take the bread, remember Jesus Christ died for this sin,

and you drink the wine, remember this is the new covenant in my blood where I have forgiveness.

I would argue you're then strengthened in your spirit to go to your brother, perhaps before we have lunch because we have

the meal afterwards, and take care of things.

Did everybody get in this?

Does this make sense?

Is there any question about that?

It's a little bit new, okay?

It's a little bit different way for most of us to see the Lord's table.

And I'm not saying gross sin.

Okay, remember, we can always weave together an illustration that won't be answerable.

We're not gonna go that far with it.

You find yourself disturbing your conscience because of sin, whether it's lack of relationship or

unity with a brother, sister, whatever it is.

I'm still arguing, and I'd really like some feedback if anybody has a question here.

The place to be is taking the Lord's table in obedience to Jesus's command.

Amen.

Good.

Yeah.

And it could be taken care of.

The Lord put it on your heart.

The Lord's table will remind you that you have in Christ the strength to go to your

brother, sister, and be resolved.

That Jesus Christ says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

That's at the end of Matthew 18, 15 to 22.

What's that context?

That context is a brother or a sister trying to reconcile.

That's when we really need Jesus especially.

And that's exactly when he promises his special presence among us.

The Heidelberg Catechism number 75 says this way.

Just what is the Lord's table?

It says, and I quote, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me

and the cup given to me, so surely was his body offered for me and his blood poured out for me

on the cross.

Now when I read this, honestly, I like our catechism a little better than the Heidelberg, but this really gets to the

point in a lot of ways.

It gets to the heart of the matter.

So when I see the bread coming to me and I'm thinking this is Jesus Christ,

and what's his body broken for me?

What part of his life does that refer to?

Somebody.

The cross?

I would argue, yeah, the cross.

I actually go a little before the cross.

I go to the flogging, to the thorns pressed into his eyes, to the beating he could, they just took that scepter and they beat him with

it.

When he was arrested, they bound his hands.

What did they have to bound his hands for?

He wasn't resisting.

And they beat him along the way.

His body just broken and bruised and tortured for us.

We take that bread and discern that.

I'm gonna still argue that this is going to strengthen us against sin.

This is going to remind us of the sins where we need forgiveness.

I think it was, Sarah was saying just a second ago that we remember that in him,

we do have that forgiveness because his body was broken for me.

And then the wine, his blood was poured out for me.

So we see with our eyes, the bread of the Lord broken for me, the cup given to

me.

So surely was his body offered for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross.

So it is that declaration.

It's that reminder to us, to our spirit as a declaration.

Remember what we said at the beginning too, that the Lord's table is a means of grace.

A means of grace is a means of transformation.

We talk about transformation, we're not talking about just being better.

Five ways to be a more submissive wife or a more loving husband.

But we all should do that.

But,

I'm sorry, I lost my thought.

Somebody tell me what I just said a second ago.

It's a means of grace.

Yeah, it's a means of grace.

And so it's a means of grace is a means of transforming us into the very image of Jesus Christ.

Little piece of matzo, unleavened bread, doesn't even taste good, right?

And sometimes if we don't get it fresh enough, it turns into glue in your mouth, right?

Y 'all had that?

So, but what does it mean?

What does it signify?

It's Christ's body and all the torture that he endured on my behalf.

And that grows us into the Lord.

It's a means of transformation.

It's a means of making us more like Jesus Christ.

It's a silly little piece of bread.

And yet the Spirit of God uses it to grow us in sanctification.

The same with the cup.

Again, this I think supports what I was saying before.

That's why when the Lord reminds us of our sin or puts in mind a

brother or sister with whom we need to reconcile, it's the Lord's table that strengthens us and

determines us to go and take care of it, okay?

Okay, the Heidelberg goes on and says later, as surely as I receive from the hand of the

minister and taste with my mouth the bread and the cup of the Lord as sure signs of Christ's

body and blood, so surely does he himself nourish and refresh my soul to everlasting

life with his crucified body and shed blood.

Everybody get that?

So surely does he himself, that's Jesus Christ himself, nourish and refresh my soul to

everlasting life.

This is transformation.

This is sanctification.

This is growing into his image, okay?

Any questions, any thoughts, please?

No?

You say, okay, so you're walking along and you see something that reminds you of Jesus Christ.

I would say that they're perhaps of the same type but one of

greater intensity.

So right, so we plan and we try our best to serve the elements in a way that

reminds you of what we're doing and reminds you that Jesus Christ's body was broken for you and we need to think

about these things as we partake.

But if you're walking along, okay, just a second.

If you're walking along, by the way, and you see a stick, and let's just say, okay, so we're gonna be allegorical.

You see, you say, this is like the reed that the Romans picked up and beat him with.

My goodness, what he went through for me.

That would be an internal strengthening as well.

But as a direct means of grace, no, I would say that's the Lord's Table, as a direct means of grace.

Direct meaning, one that the Bible would specifically, explicitly give us.

So, and means of grace, actually, is another one of those terms like trinity, which we have to use to categorize

things for ourselves.

But the Lord's Table's a means of grace.

Preaching is a means of grace.

Reading the Bible is a means of grace.

By means of grace, we mean things that grow us into Christ's image.

Who again?

There's like three different views of the Lord's Supper.

There's a Catholic view, and then there's Zingley's view, where it's just purely symbolic for them.

Isn't there our view, where there's an actual special presence?

Yes.

Yeah.

Something that, basically, a stick wouldn't have.

Yes, I think that's what I meant when I was saying it's a direct means of grace.

It's something that the Bible actually commands.

Though, I'm not going to deny that when you're walking by the way, and you see a stick, and it reminds you of something of Christ, that that would fail to

strengthen you, or give you some, that would be.

But it doesn't have that same presence.

I wouldn't think so.

No, where two or three gather, my name, there I am in the midst of them.

And again, that context is during reconciliation.

Okay.

Okay.

I wanted to read, we've got time, John 6, 41, how

far do I have to go?

Yeah, 59, that's quite a ways.

We'll do it anyway.

I want us to understand this idea of participation in Christ.

That when we take the Lord's table, you are making this declaration of your participation in Christ.

And that is not unlike your baptism, where you give testimony before you go under the water.

You give testimony of your participation in Christ.

Here's what Jesus Christ did for me.

Here's how I know he saved me, that sort of thing.

In John 6, beginning of chapter, verse 41, so the Jews

grumbled about him, that's Jesus, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I've come down from heaven?

Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

No one can come to me, unless the father who sent me draws him.

And I'll raise him up on the last day.

It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God.

Everyone that has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

Not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God, he has seen the father.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate man in the wilderness and they died.

This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,

you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I'll raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

As the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of

me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.

Now, there is some controversy about whether Jesus Christ here is talking about the Lord's table, about communion,

about the bread and the wine that is in 1 Corinthians 11.

I would argue this is very much anticipatory of that.

I mean, what else could it mean?

Again, you can always make a ridiculous illustration as they tried to do.

Oh, we're supposed to eat him, we're cannibals?

No, I mean, it's just taking it to the silly point.

There's a meaning that is deeper than that, that Jesus Christ is getting a cross and by

making it into silliness, they completely took themselves away from the teaching.

It's about participation.

So Jesus Christ is saying, you need to feed on me.

This is the spiritual nourishment.

If we're correct that this is anticipatory of the Lord's table, then that's exactly what the Heidelberg Catechism is saying.

There's a spiritual nourishment for us.

And again, this idea that, well, okay, I've decided I'm in sin.

Well, now you're taking the authority of the church upon yourself.

But importantly, you are also removing yourself

from one of the strengthening means of grace in dealing with that sin, whatever it is that

is put on your conscience.

Now, at the time that you're taking the Lord's table, you're discerning, okay, this is what the table is.

It's not a meal.

It's a special commemoration.

It's reminding me that Jesus Christ really was broken for me.

He really did die for me.

It's that declaration that strengthens us.

But then I'm not going to deny that the Lord could put something else on your heart during that time.

I will deny that if he does, that says, okay, well, so I don't partake?

No, you especially partake and use that strengthening to resolve whatever

it was that the Lord put on your mind or your heart, okay?

Questions, comments?

Ashik, yep.

Yeah, I think I would just say in regards to comment, that in regards to that passage, how I've always interpreted it,

it was primarily that Jesus was talking about like a spiritual partaking of himself because he's

saying that no one can come to the Son unless the Father has said he draws him.

And he goes on to explicate more about what that means.

It's about coming to faith in Christ, in order to come to Christ, and that's a job of the Holy Spirit.

I can say as well, perhaps, like in regards to the foreground that it is talking perhaps in part about

the physical partaking of the Lord's Supper.

But I think primarily it's talking about coming to faith in Christ, and in that, there's a partaking of the spiritual sense

of your feasting upon Christ.

Because it was just like, if the primary sense isn't talking about partaking at the Lord's table, then it's like, okay, you're getting into

some other areas of like you have to take this, have eternal life, and all these other things, or it just gets

more murky and weird, and all that, but I think that would be primary in the understudy of the

passage.

Yeah, and it can get murky, and you're exactly right.

Does anywhere say that if you don't take the Lord's table, you're not saved?

But it's like baptism.

We get baptized in obedience to the Lord's command.

We take the Lord's table in obedience to his command.

We should desire it.

We should be wanting it.

It's one of the things, and we don't hold it over your head for membership.

It's a privilege of membership, and that's why we hold it that way.

Yeah, there's a lot we could talk about, like fencing the table and such like that, but.

Some people are afraid of the Lord's supper.

Yeah.

I think that's

the fear of getting

sick after taking the Lord's supper, and dying, because Paul did mention that,

that Judas died.

Yeah.

I was gonna say, Judas died.

Yes.

Yeah, you're right, but I don't wanna touch that.

He was unsaved.

Yeah.

He was unsaved.

Judas is one of those, it's just too controversial to dig into with what we have

right now.

I was gonna respond to Charles, but give me a second.

What'd you say, Charles?

Some people are like.

Oh, afraid, afraid, yeah.

They're in terror of taking the Lord's supper.

Yeah, that's right.

Let me just point out that, it's a very difficult thing to draw a whole

lot of church practice and doctrine out of Corinthians.

The reason is because that church was just a mess, and if you read the commentators, even the best commentators,

there's so many different opinions on what was really going on there.

So why was the Lord killing them because of the way they took the table?

Well, if we take, just stay myopic, and just on this very context, it's because they took it as a meal,

and they didn't show respect for the Lord.

They didn't show respect for each other because they didn't show respect for the Lord.

They weren't discerning that it was a special meal, that it wasn't a dinner.

There was nothing, and the Lord was so angry with them that, yeah, it sounds like he put some of them to death or made them very

sick.

If we think of that in the context of Corinthians, well, I'm sorry, but the Corinthians were a weird church, and we haven't

figured it out after all these many centuries.

There's a whole lot of things that just haven't been decided about what was really going on there.

Also, we could argue that as the scripture was being completed, but it wasn't yet complete, that

the Spirit was working in a particular way that he doesn't now.

Like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter five, for lying

about how much they were going to contribute.

The Lord put them both to death right then and there.

Does he still do that sort of thing?

Not regularly, we could say.

So it could even be the special way that the Lord was working then in that place.

Yeah.

Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up.

The Lord's table is for your spiritual nourishment.

It's for your growth in the Lord.

It's a means of grace that is commanded by the Lord and provided by the Lord.

Do not look at yourself and decide for yourself that you're not worthy.

Because if you're not worthy, if you feel that unworth, the table's the place to be.

And let it be only then the church that maintains the authority, the keys to the kingdom

that would take someone out by removing them from membership.

And only the church at large has the authority to do that.

Not you and not me.

Okay?

Any final thoughts or questions?

Yes.

Yes.

Unleavened bread tastes bad and it keeps us in an ascetic frame of

mind.

And so we don't feel any...

You know, again, that's actually, I don't mean to make fun here.

No, I did make fun.

That's a big question.

I know my friend Mike Kelly, his church serves leavened bread, which tastes really good,

and regular wine, which tastes really awful.

But they feel like because Christ is our Passover and he's fulfilled it all, we no longer follow the Jewish way of

unleavened bread and what we call kosher wine.

I would say, no, there's not a huge significance to it.

I prefer the way we do it.

Mm -hmm.

I was talking to my friend, Pastor Phillips, who's the best red man, literally the best red man I know.

And he told me that in Iceland, they take, instead of bread and wine, they take dried

fish and water, something like that, because they have no grapes in Iceland.

And they have no grain crops.

So those elements don't exist there.

And so they take the Lord's table another way.

So I would argue that if they take it in faith, then they're doing it correctly.

Okay, we're just a couple minutes late, so we're fine.

Let us pray and move on with worship.

If anybody has any thoughts that come to them later, you can talk to me afterwards.

Our Heavenly Father, thank you again for this day that you've given us, and I pray that you continue with us as we continue with Jesus Christ

in worship.

Father, bless us by hearing us and attending with us by your Spirit.

And in all things, may you receive all the glory, and may we become more like your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

Thank you all.