The Ordinance of the Lord's Supper

God has so orchestrated events for today that this evening we're taking part in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

! And it's very misunderstood.

And I'll be honest, it was three or four years into my Christian life, three or four years of participating in the Lord's Supper, before I really started to begin to understand what the meaning and the significance of it was.

I participated, and it was hard for me to know what I was supposed to be getting out of it. It was a mystery to me. And I don't think that's at all unusual.

It's not at all unusual. Two things helped me to come to a deeper understanding that were very helpful. The first was participating more in the Lord's Supper.

Just participating in the Lord's Supper more helped me to understand it better. And sometimes things are like that, and sometimes they're not. Sometimes just by doing something more, we understand it better.

And then sometimes we can get into the situation where we do the same thing over and over again, but we don't grow in our understanding. But I think communion is one of those things where the more you do it, the more you find your understanding of it to be growing.

My last two years in college, I went to the Kemp Road Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, and they had the Lord's Supper every month. And that seemed very frequent to me coming from this church.

But it was good every month to be faced again with the reality of the Lord's Supper. The second thing that I found to be very helpful was to just study it more.

Just to dig into it. I'm just like you. I'm a member, or most of you, I'm a member of Grace Fellowship Church. So I agreed to the confessional statement, which talks about the Lord's Supper.

I agreed to it. I didn't totally understand it. But it was helpful for me to dig into that chapter again. And maybe as part of your preparation for this evening, you could get out your confession again and read the chapter on the Lord's Supper.

And it would do you good to do that. The chapter contains some very deep theology. The people who wrote our confession sunk a lot of theology into that chapter.

And so as I started to read that more and study it, I began to appreciate and love the Lord's Supper more than I had ever before. And so it's the goal of this class for each of you to love the Lord's Supper more.

It is a precious time. It's precious because it's so full of Jesus Christ. And so we want to have our affection stirred for Jesus and we want to appreciate the Lord's Supper more.

So this morning we have two questions to answer and then some applications. The first question is, what is the Lord's Supper? That's the first question. So let me ask you, what is the Lord's Supper?

What do you have to say? It's a remembrance. It's a memorial. Anything even more basic than that? It's a command.

That's very good. The Lord commands us to do it. It's a time for self-examination. Yes. What else? Something very basic.

What is it called? A supper? That's, yep. That's even more basic than I had planned on. But actually we're going to get to that.

It is a spiritual supper. It's an ordinance. It's a sacrament. It's a sacrament or an ordinance.

Some people do not like to use the word sacrament. Our confession chooses the word ordinance. Neither word is in the Bible. You won't find sacrament in the Bible and you won't find the word ordinance in the Bible.

But they both convey biblical truth. And we want to first talk about the word sacrament. Just helping you to understand that word is a good way for you to help understand what the Lord's Supper is about.

The word sacrament comes to us from the Latin Bible. It's a Latin word. And they use the word sacramentum to translate the word mystery. So when the people were translating the Greek New Testament into Latin, they used the word sacrament when the word mystery was being talked about.

So in 1 Timothy 3.15, Paul writes, Beyond all question, the mystery, and that's our word, the mystery of godliness is great. He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.

Or in Ephesians chapter 5, Paul's talking about a man and a woman. Then they get married, they become one flesh. And he says, This is a profound mystery.

But I am talking about Christ and the church. So there's something very mysterious going on there. And so that word mystery, they used to label the Lord's Supper.

So there's several other places in the New Testament where this word mystery is used in our English language. And the Latin word that they use is sacrament.

So the word sacrament is a good explanation of what the Lord's Supper is because there is something very mysterious going on in the Lord's Supper.

Something that's not immediately accessible to our senses or to our eyes and our understanding. Something unexpected is happening.

Something that we know to be true only because it's revealed to be true. So, what's so mysterious about the Lord's Supper?

Well, we say that by eating and drinking the bread and the cup, we actually receive grace through faith. By eating and drinking, we feed upon Christ crucified.

And that's mysterious. So in some way, and we're going to talk about this more later, that the bread and the cup actually present to us Jesus Christ for our spiritual understanding.

We actually participate in the body of Christ, in the body of the Lord. So how do we know that that's true? It's not at all clear just by looking at the elements, but it's true and we know it to be true because the word of God reveals it.

It's a mystery that the word of God reveals. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16.

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one loaf. So there's something more going on in the Lord's Supper than bread and wine.

In the Lord's Supper, we participate in the Lord. We're somehow joined with Him. And it's a great spiritual mystery what's going on.

Somehow we are participating with Him as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. And as I said, we're going to explore that more. But just note for now that the Lord's Supper is a sacrament.

It's a mystery. And it's also ordinance. And by ordinance, we mean a ceremony. If you looked up the word ordinance in the dictionary, you'd find out that it's a ceremony. It's a visible ceremony that the Lord has given to us.

In the ceremony of marriage, there's these outward elements going on. People exchange vows. They exchange rings. And so through this action, through this ceremony, something spiritual is taking place.

Two people are becoming one. They're agreeing to become one. So the Lord's Supper is a ceremony such as that. It's a ceremony that has a spiritual dimension to it.

It's not just a regular ceremony. The Lord gave it to us. And there's something very spiritual about it. It's not a human idea. It's the Son of God's idea for the church.

So it's both ceremony and sacrament. And Jim said it's a memorial. The Lord's Supper is a memorial. So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

11. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23. 3. And can someone read verse 23 through verse 25?

For I have received from the Lord what I have also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body for which it is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

So do this in remembrance of me. The Lord's Supper is a memorial. Now if you were to go to Washington, D.C., there's memorials all over the place.

You can go to the Lincoln Memorial. You can go to the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial. So why? Why do we have memorials? It's because memorials remind us.

They're a physical reminder of something or someone in the past. So we see with our eyes. We remember with our minds something in the past.

And that's one of the chief aspects of the Lord's Supper. It is a memorial. We see the bread. We see the cup. We see it with our own eyes.

And we remember with our minds what the Lord has done for us. So we see the bread torn apart. And we remember that Jesus was torn apart for us.

And we see the cup. And we remember that his blood flowed for us. He was torn and pierced. And we remember in the memorial why.

Why he was torn and pierced for us. He was nailed to the cross. His body was torn to pieces. His blood flowed for me. And that's what we remember in the memorial of the Lord's Supper.

He loved me and gave himself for me. We also remember our sin when we go to the Lord's table. We say, what can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. In the Lord's Supper, we remember, we're reminded of the price of our justification.

We were guilty, guilty sinners. And we remember what it cost for us to be made right. So it cost me nothing.

But it cost Jesus everything. His soul was put on the rack, as it were, and tortured for me. So he was filled with every kind of misery so that I could have joy and I could have peace.

It reminds me of the cost of my forgiveness. It didn't cost me anything to be forgiven. But it cost Jesus everything. So I've never been to Arlington Cemetery or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or to the Vietnam Memorial.

But I can't imagine that they're very noisy places. They're very quiet. So when you come to the Lord's, well, when you go there, you go there for a reason.

And that's to remember, to honor the fallen dead of our country. You remember, as you see those places, that the freedom and the life that I enjoy, I did not pay with my blood.

Someone else paid for me. So you're on hallowed ground. Because when every name that you see etched on that wall, you're reminded that there's no greater love than this than for a man to lay down his life for his friend.

And so you go away from Arlington. You go away from these places change. Because you realize that the life that you live is not really your own.

It was bought at a price. It was bought with someone else's blood. Now, when you come to the Lord's Supper, you're taken to a more sacred memorial. Something more meaningful than any man-made memorial.

You don't come to a man, you don't come to a memorial with a man's name etched in stone. You come to a man who you find your name is etched on him.

And he owns you on the cross. You remember that your life is not your own. You have been bought at a price. And so you can't go away from a memorial like that unchanged when you see it for what it is.

So the Lord's Supper is a memorial. But it's more than that. It's more than that. It's a covenant meal. It's a covenant meal.

In the ancient Near East, and I'm talking about ancient Canaan and ancient Babylon and ancient Israel, very often a covenant was established by two signs, two symbols.

One was blood. One was animals being sacrificed. And the second one was a meal. The two parties would eat together after the covenant was established.

In Exodus 24, when God established the old covenant with Israel, Moses took the blood of young bulls and he put some on the altar and then he put some on the people.

He sprinkled it on the people. And this is what Moses said. This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. And after he said this, something very interesting happens.

This is a little interesting paragraph. The two parties ate together. So who were the two parties in this covenant?

God and Israel. So God and Israel. Listen to Exodus 24, verse 9-11. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel.

Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against the leaders of the Israelites.

They saw God and they ate and they drank. So covenants were often sealed by two things. Blood and a meal.

So in Matthew 26, Jesus says of the cup, When we drink the cup of the Lord's Supper, he says, Drink from it, all of you. This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

So when we remember Christ's blood, the blood that we remember at the cross is the blood of the covenant. It's the blood that sealed the covenant between us and God.

So Jesus established the new covenant in his blood. He was the sacrifice. His death sealed God's favor.

His blood brought two parties together. Where there had been no relationship before, he made peace in his blood. And so his blood confirms to us all of the blessings of knowing and having a relationship with God.

And so the Lord's Supper confirms to us when we participate in it, we're reminded of everything that God is for us in the new covenant. Because we're united with Christ in his blood.

We have all the blessings of a relationship with God. We have a covenant relationship with God. And so we don't eat this meal.

We don't eat the covenant meal to remind God of what he's promised to us. God has established this meal to remind us and to assure us and to confirm us that he is really for us.

That he is really for us. All the blessings of the new covenant are really ours. So listen to the confession. It was instituted.

That's the Lord's Supper. It was instituted also to confirm saints in the belief that all the benefits stemming from Christ's sacrifice belong to them. So when we come to the Lord's table, we are to remember and we are to take heart that everything God has promised us is ours in Jesus Christ.

And it's really, really ours. And we, he has promised it to us. And part of what he has provided for us to help us to remember is the Lord's Supper.

So what does that mean as we celebrate the Lord's Supper? What should that mean? We don't only remember that the Lord was sacrificed for us. We don't only remember what happened in the past.

We remember what Christ has gained for us. What God has promised to us in the new covenant. So when we're having the Lord's Supper, we should also be thinking about what God has promised us in the new covenant.

We are promised that we will receive the forgiveness of sins. We are promised that God will never turn us away. He'll give us new hearts and he'll make us to walk faithfully with him.

So the new covenant, the Lord's Supper is a confirmation of the new covenant. So a covenant was made to bring two people together, two parties together.

So in the communion, we actually celebrate our relationship with God. We celebrate and confirm our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the Lord's Supper is a pledge to us that God is for us. I am his and he is mine. So we meet with Christ through faith and say again when we're participating in the Lord's Supper that you and I, we are together.

God and man are made friends through the cross. So remember, we're trying to answer the question, what is the Lord's Supper? We've said so far, it's a sacrament.

It's a mystery. It's an ordinance. It's a memorial. It's a covenant meal. And someone said it's a supper and that's true. It's a spiritual supper.

It's a spiritual meal. In the Lord's Supper, we feast on Christ crucified. We feast on Christ crucified. The bread and the cup represent the body and the blood of Christ.

But they're not symbols only. They're not just empty symbols. They're symbols that carry a reality as well. So listen as I read the part of our confession.

This is paragraph 7 of chapter 30. Those who, as worthy participants, outwardly eat and drink the visible bread and wine in this ordinance, at the same time receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and receive all the benefits accruing from his death.

This they do really and indeed, not as if feeding upon the actual flesh and blood of a person's body, but inwardly and by faith. In the supper, the body and the blood of Christ are present to the faith of believers, not in any actual physical way, but in a way of spiritual apprehension, just as the bread and wine themselves are present to the outward physical senses.

So that's the mystery of the Lord's Supper, that it is symbolic, but somehow it's presenting to us spiritually the reality that they represent.

It's the great mystery of the Lord's Supper. Somehow when we receive the emblems of Christ's body and blood, we, by faith, receive Christ himself and feed upon Christ.

So we're not saying, the confession doesn't say, and I'm not saying, that there's any way that the body, or the bread and the cup, actually become Christ's body.

Do you know what that's called? It's a five million dollar word where they say, the cup and the bread actually become Christ's body and blood. Mike? Transubstantiation.

So we're not saying that. The substances of the bread and the cup don't somehow change. It's not that Christ's body and blood are in disguise. They're not somehow hiding under the elements.

I'm only saying what our confession says, and it seems to be the biblical evidence, that Christ is really spiritually present in the Lord's table, and present in the elements.

And believers really do feed upon him spiritually. So let's turn to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27 and 29. Because Christ is really present spiritually, that is why it is such a sin to eat and drink in an unworthy manner.

Because we're sinning against the Lord's body and blood. 1 Corinthians 11, 27. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

A man ought to examine himself before he eats the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

So Christ is really spiritually present in the Lord's Supper. And that's why the confession says, Furthermore, it is meant to promote their spiritual nourishment and growth in Christ.

We spiritually feed on him in the Lord's Supper, and we really grow in Christ. So how do we do that? How do we spiritually feed on Christ in the Lord's Supper?

Or the confession gave the answer. Is it physically? It's not physically. By faith. We do it by faith.

We, by faith, take Christ into ourselves and we say, His life is my life. He needs to be broken and I need to feed upon him if I'm going to live. And so as I contemplate him broken for me, I am fed.

We don't make him present by our faith. We don't make it happen by our faith. But it is by faith that Christ becomes to us food.

So it's a mystery. The Lord's Supper is a mystery. And so we say it's a spiritual feast for the faithful. The people of God really feed on Christ, and they grow and are strengthened by the Lord's Supper.

So what is the Lord's Supper? Lastly, it's a proclamation. It's a proclamation. The Apostle Paul says, For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So we are proclaiming something. We are preaching something as we participate in the Lord's Supper. The sacrament, the ordinance, is a visible word. We're actually saying something as we participate.

As the bread is broken, and as the cup is passed around, we are proclaiming, The Lord died for me. His body was broken for me. His blood was shed for me.

The Lord's Supper is not an empty ceremony that you just go through. It has meaning. And it's real revelation from God as we participate in it.

We see and we take into our minds that God has loved me. He has sent His Son to die for me.

And He was broken for me. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And God knows that. That sometimes we are not so spiritual that a picture won't help us.

And this is God's picture for us. So we see in that picture that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. It conveys real truth to our mind.

It conveys truth to other people. It conveys truth to the unbelievers in our presence. It teaches them something about the gospel. So the Lord's Supper, it's a sacrament.

It's an ordinance. It's a memorial. It's a covenant meal. It's a spiritual meal. It's a proclamation of the Lord's death. So that was the longest point.

Does anyone have any questions? And I'll do my best to answer them. Clear as mud. Thank you. I really don't get the mystery. If it's not hand substantiation, but I don't get why it's a mystery.

Is it just the mystery of how Christ could die for? I just have that possibility. I don't get why it's a mystery. If we're speaking on what we know is true.

It's mysterious. Because I think what is most mysterious about it, as our confession says, is that Christ is somehow spiritually present in the elements.

In the breath and in the mind. But it's not him. His blood is not his body. Right. It's not physically, but spiritually present. Pastor Aaron, you want to help?

That, I mean, if you're reading 1 Corinthians, and you see, okay, it says, you don't participate in the idols, the feasts of the idols, because you're participating with Satan.

You're participating with demons. So you're not just eating, and it's not an empty meal. Somehow demons are actually present. And you're participating. You're doing something with him.

And so, in the Lord's Supper, in the same way, we're participating with the Lord. He is really present. And he's present in a way that he's not normally present.

There. How is that different than prayer? When we know the Lord in prayer, he's present, he hears it, he answers, we don't see him, and we don't feel him.

It's a mystery. In a way. I... Mike? Is the difference the fact that there are such immediate symbols involved in one cell?

Right. I guess that would be a good way. Somehow the symbols themselves are carrying the reality spiritually. So we're actually...

When we're eating and drinking, it's saying we're eating and drinking the body and blood. They're not empty symbols because we can actually sin against them. If we mistreat the symbols, we're mistreating Christ himself.

It doesn't make a difference that God said there were symbols. It's not something we chose. He said... Right. Aaron?

Aaron? You seem like you wanted to say something. I was just agreeing with Mike that they are the symbols that God chose.

And part of the mystery is that... Or part of the glory of it is that God has given us a picture that reminds us of the body and blood of Christ. And he is spiritually present to the faith of believers as we partake of those elements.

And that... I think the fact that we have all of these questions indicates something in the mystery of it that we can't fully comprehend it. And two, that it is the bread and the cup.

It's not... You hear people communing with whatever they have available in it. And that, I think, is a violation of the Lord's Supper to try to commune with whatever chips and coke, I've heard people say.

Those aren't the things that God has instituted. Roger. Is it not a mystery how the God of the universe could be man?

How He left the glory of the heavens as a spiritual being and put on the form of man and became man. And now that man is crucified on the cross from our place.

And that spiritual and physical are brought together and yet separate. I mean, the whole thing is a huge mystery.

To me, just the fact that God could be man in the first place and then that man would die in my place. And now as we participate in the Lord's Supper, we're seeing both Christ as man and also God spiritually dying for us.

When He died on the cross, it was not just a physical death, but it was a spiritual death also. A spiritual separation from His Father. The whole bringing together of God and man seems to be just a mystery that could be placed in the cross.

And I think that's why 1 Timothy 3.15 it says, you know, behold the mystery of godliness is great. And it doesn't give something about what we do that makes us godly.

It talks about Jesus Christ becoming man. Or the Son of God becoming man. And He's crucified. And how that all can be. How can God how can that happen to God?

Dave. God has used means to communicate with us, to allow us to know Him. We cannot know God unless He shows Himself to us both because of the deadness of our hearts and the fact that He is infinitely above us.

And so any of those means that He uses are spiritual in that sense and are mysterious in that sense. The very fact that Dair said that we can come to Him and pray is mysterious in the sense that He actually can hear us when we whisper in our minds to Him.

And it's spiritual because He has ordained that as a means by which we can approach Him. And therefore, we use it sacredly because it is His means. The Word of God, people come to Christ through it.

It's not the words themselves that are spoken that are somehow... I want to be careful with my words too. I mean, they are spiritual but they are not spiritual in the sense that unless God comes and attends them, nothing is going to come into effect of them.

And yet, God has said He will use that Word and it won't be turned away. And therefore, that's mysterious. And His Word is powerful because He has chosen to use that Word to bring people to Christ.

And He's chosen to use the elements for the purposes that He's laid out for us coming to Christ. And that makes it mysterious because it's His choice and we have to abide by His choice.

We can't do it our way. Bruce? There's always been a mystery here for me in that otherwise, when we're going to break juice or if we're choosing to use for the bread.

And yet, when we get into this ordinance, when we get into this ceremony, when we get to this point of a service, they become extraordinary in a way that not too many things in the New Testament only want to think of where the Lord says that how you use this time may cause you to be sick, weak, and even sleep better.

That's just not normal in our regular life. What we do in this process becomes a physical reality that they're very under this time.

So there's something there that's not important elsewhere for us as we do. Right. I think that's a better way of saying what I was trying to say about the feast with the demon.

I mean, there's something more going on there than just going to your neighbor's house and eating food with him. There's something spiritual going on. And so there's something spiritual that's going on in the Lord's Supper.

We only have five minutes. Does anyone have anything else to add? It's been all very good. Jackie, does that help? I just want to clarify that.

It's more than just remembering because I know that it's mysterious that Christ can become a man again, who is God, but it's more than just remembering those mysterious facts that happen to me.

Because of when I go to eat bread today that much, it's not going to kill me. Because of a certain presence that is at the table of the evening.

is that what you're trying to say? That's saying it much better than I ever could. Thank you. Does that make sense to everyone?

Or is that a little clearer? So it's not an empty symbol. There's actually something very spiritual.

And Christ is spiritually present to us in an extraordinary way. Okay. Four benefits.

This is the second point. Four benefits to the Lord's Supper, and we'll do this very quickly. The first one is, by participating in the Lord's Supper, we should have a clearer view of Christ's love for us.

We should have a clearer view of Christ's love. So in many senses, the Lord's Supper is a reenactment of Calvary. we see the bread broken.

We see the cup, the juice poured out. And as we go through that ceremony and as we participate in it, we're visibly brought to Calvary, so to speak.

Christ is not sacrificed again. That's definitely not what we're saying. But rather, this is a moving, active, living memorial. And so we are brought to the cross again through the Lord's Supper.

And when we are brought to the cross, it should remind us of how much Jesus has loved us. The second benefit is that it should have a cheering effect on you. It should have a cheering effect.

Ryle says this, the sight of the bread broken and the wine poured out reminds us how full, perfect, and complete is our salvation. They press on us the mighty truth that believing on Christ, we have nothing to fear because a sufficient payment has been made for our debt.

So, the Lord's Supper should make us happy. It's a time for seriousness, but that solemnity should not be mistaken for moroseness, or where we're examining ourselves to the point where we're condemning ourselves without having an eye on Christ and what Jesus has done for us.

We are forgiven sinners. We are as righteous as God himself is, and that's what God reminds us of in the Lord's Supper. And so, we should be happy.

The Lord's Supper should make us happy. It's a serious, it's a holy time, but it should be a happy time. The third, the Lord's Supper should restrain us. I can't imagine that you could sit under the cross and watch Christ crucified and go away and sin very easily.

so communion takes us to the cross again, and it reminds us of what Jesus has done for us to make us holy, how serious he was about our holiness.

And so, will we deny him and say, you died for me to make me holy, but I'm going to go on sinning. So, if we participate intelligently and faithfully, we should find it harder and harder to keep sinning.

The Lord's Supper should restrain us from sinning. The fourth benefit is this, we should feel closer to Jesus. We should feel closer to Jesus and to one another.

So, this is a covenant meal. This reminds us that God and man are together, that we have a relationship with God, and Jesus is for me. But you know what?

Jesus isn't just for me. He's for all my brothers and sisters, too. And so, we should feel closer to them. I'm not alone in the new covenant. I have lots of brothers and sisters who share in the same promises that I do.

They've been to the cross, and I've been to the cross. They know they're sinners, and I know I'm a sinner. Christ is my life. Christ is their life. And so, that's why there's one loaf, because we're one body, and we're all together, and the Lord's Supper should remind us of that.

That's all the time we have. If you have any other questions, you can ask me and I'll do my best. John Calvin said this is a mystery that he couldn't understand, begin to understand.

And so, don't feel like you have to know all the answers. You don't. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us insight, where we can have insight.

And we know that these things are mysterious, but they're for our good. Will you help us to remember tonight the Lord's death for us? Will you help us draw close to him and to one another?

And as we share this life, this life that comes by your son's death, will you help us to love one another more and to love Jesus more?

Father, I pray that you would take us deeper into where you want us to be. Will you help us to understand the things that you have given to us? And the places where we will never understand, will you help us to not venture boldly and sinfully?

Thank you that we are your children and you are our father. We don't have to have all the answers and you are taking care of us. So will you do us good?

Will you do us good for your name's sake and for Jesus' sake? Amen.