Tonight we are going to observe the New Covenant counterpart of the
Old Covenant Passover. We are going to celebrate the Lord's Supper. This
morning I want to answer the question, "What does this mean?"
by William Smith
You may have heard the story of the little Catholic boy who accompanied
his
Protestant friend to church. He was very interested in what was going
on
and kept leaning over to his friend and whispering, "What does that
mean?"
When it came time for the sermon, he watched the minister take off his
wristwatch and place it on the pulpit. He whispered, "What does that
mean?"
and the little Protestant boy whispered back, "It doesn't mean a
thing."
We should expect that people are going to want to know why we do what
we do
in worship and what these things mean. Perhaps we ourselves need to ask
these questions and get answers before we are ready to answer the questions
of others.
There is Biblical precedent for asking questions and getting answers
about
what we do in church. When the LORD instituted the Passover for Israel,
He
told the people they need to be ready for the question from their children'
"What do you mean by this service?" "Why do eat this unleavened
bread for
seven days and then have a meal of lamb?" The LORD told the parents
to say,
"It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed
over the houses
of the people of Israel, when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our
houses" (Exodus 12:26,27).
Tonight we are going to observe the New Covenant counterpart of the
Old
Covenant Passover. We are going to celebrate the Lord's Supper.
This
morning I want to answer the question, "What does this mean?"
Let's consult
the Apostle Paul to understand the significance of the Supper. We can
summarize the significance with eight participles.
I. OBEYING
When we celebrate the Supper, we are obeying our Lord who instituted
the
Supper at His last Passover observance with His disciples on the night
of
His betrayal. Paul uses the language of Biblical tradition. "I received
from the Lord what I also delivered to you" - Christ instituted this
service by giving it to His apostles; they in turn passed it on to the
whole church and to all subsequent generations. It is a Jesus-authorized
tradition that He should be remembered in this way by the church through
the ages. Our celebration is an act of obedience to our Lord.
In the church we have no right to introduce into our worship traditions,
ceremonies, or services which are not authorized by Christ. This is one
of
the differences between Protestants and Catholics. Protestants observe
only
two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, for we find that these
are
the only two that Jesus commanded to be observed. On the matter of
sacraments all Protestants agree - only those instituted by Christ. But
the
Reformed churches also apply this principle to the whole of worship. While
we do not believe that the Bible gives us an order of worship, we believe
that it gives us all the elements of worship and that we may include in
worship services only those things which are authorized in the Bible.
If we observe the Lord's Supper as an act of obedience, then it surely
follows that we will not be unnecessarily absent when it is celebrated.
We
will take the invitation to come and celebrate the Supper as a command
appearance, because it is Jesus who has instituted the Supper and
authorized His church to call us together to remember Him in this way.
II. REMEMBERING
When we celebrate the Supper we are remembering. Twice Jesus said, "Do
this
in remembrance of me." When we hear the word "remember"
we may think it
means no more than to call to mind the facts that Jesus lived, and died,
and instituted this Supper just before He died.
But in the Bible remembering is more than mental recollection of facts.
When the Jewish people observed the Passover, they did more than call
to
remembrance the original Passover observance and the fact that God acted
to
deliver their forefathers from slavery in Egypt. They put themselves back
in the situation in which Passover was instituted. They put themselves
in
the place of their forefathers and the sense of ominous anticipation their
forefathers felt on the evening of the first Passover as they waited to
see
what God would do. They remembered the mighty miracles God had done in
Egypt and especially the slaying of the firstborn by the death angel not
just as the events which led to freedom for their forefathers. They entered
into it all as something that, though they were not there, they were
involved in and participate in. When God acted in Egypt He not only
redeemed and set free their forefathers; he redeemed them and set them
free.
When we come to the Lord's Table we put ourselves in the Upper Room
at the
first celebration, and we enter into the nervous excitement of that
atmosphere in which the disciples sensed that Jesus was about to do
something momentous. We go to the cross and we see what is happening there
as God acting in Christ to deliver us from enslavement to the devil and
to
save us from our sins. We see Him raised and ascended to the Father's
right
hand, and we know that He is our living Savior who makes continual
intercession for us. In the Lord's Supper, as we remember Christ, we
participate in all He did for us.
III. COMMUNING
When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we are communing with Christ,
specifically with His crucified body and blood and all the benefits that
come from His sacrifice. Jesus takes the bread and says, "This is
my body."
He takes the cup and says, "This is the new covenant in my blood."
Now we
must ask: "In what sense do we eat the body of Christ and drink the
blood
of the new covenant?"
Many evangelical Christians today would say, "Well, this is figurative
language, and, therefore, it really means nothing more than that when
we
eat and drink at the Supper, we remember that Christ's body was sacrificed
and His blood poured out for us. The Supper can stir up spiritual thoughts,
but it is not really a means by which we receive Christ."
At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans,
and the
Calvinists (or Reformed) would have all disagreed with the prevailing
evangelical view of our day, and would all have agreed that in some way
Christ is present, and we are partake of His body in the Supper. The
Catholics said that the bread and wine are transformed into the literal
body and blood of the Lord. The Lutherans said that the bread and wine
remain what they are, but that the body and blood of the Lord permeate
and
surround them so that the literal body and blood of Christ are present.
The
Roman Catholics and Lutherans also agreed that to take the elements is
to
receive Christ.
Now the Calvinists agreed that Christ is present and that He is received
in
the Supper. But they insisted on two things: First, they insisted that
the
glorified and ascended body of Christ remains in heaven. Second, they
insisted that Christ is received, not automatically in the Supper, but
only
where there is faith to receive Him. But they also insisted that, where
there is faith, we really do receive Christ, and commune with His
sacrificed body and shed blood.
How does this work? It works "spiritually" - that is, by the
work of the
Holy Spirit whom Christ has given to us. The Spirit gives and stirs faith,
and by faith we are lifted up to heaven, where Christ is, and we commune
with Him. We are united to Him and our souls are nourished by His body
and
blood given for our salvation. The important thing here is that the Supper
is the means by which this happens. The Spirit uses the Supper as a means
of uniting us the crucified, risen Savior, of drawing us into communion
with Him, of bestowing upon us the blessing of His death for us.
If you miss the Lord's Supper, do you miss anything? Yes, you miss an
opportunity to receive Christ.
IV. FELLOWSHIPPING
As we are celebrating the Supper we are also fellowshipping. Communing
with
Christ inevitably means fellowshipping with one another. In fact is was
a
colossal failure of fellowship that lies behind the rebukes and warnings
that the Apostle issues to the Corinthian church in giving this teaching
about the Lord's Supper.
We cannot be sure of the exact circumstances of the observance of the
Lord's Supper in Corinth. But they would assemble as we do on the first
day
of the week for worship and, frequently, if not every Lord's Day, they
would celebrate the sacrament. It may be that on the occasions they
celebrated the Lord's Supper they also had something called a love feast,
which would be something like a fellowship dinner. Or, it may be that
they
had a more substantial meal than we do when they met at the Lord's Table.
Whatever the nature of the meal, it seems that each brought food and drink.
The rich would bring an abundance while the poor would bring very little.
Those who would arrive first, again probably the rich, would go ahead
and
eat without waiting for those who came later. Some were hungry while some
drank to the point of intoxication.
What Paul saw was a breach of Christian fellowship so serious that he
said
there assemblies for worship did more harm than good. He refused to call
the meal they ate the Lord's Supper. He accused them of despising the
church of God. And he interpreted at least some of the physical maladies
and deaths among them as God's disciplinary judgment on them. They were
not
showing love and experiencing unity at the Supper. Hence, they denied
that
all who partake of Christ are made one by partaking of Him, the one Lord.
All this serves to teach us that, when we come to the Table, we must
come
in fellowship with each other and we should find that our unity is
deepened. We come with love, forgiveness, and forbearance and we come
as
one people. This also warns us of the importance of maintaining our unity
and repairing it diligently. Withdrawing from one another is not an option.
The Lord calls us to draw near to each other as we draw near to Him.
V. PROCLAIMING
Paul says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you
proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." We proclaim or preach
the Lord's
death as we celebrate the Supper.
This statement reveals a very important aspect of the Supper, which
is the
connection between the Word and the sacrament. What we proclaim orally
in
reading the Word and preaching, we proclaim visually in the Lord's Supper.
Long ago Saint Augustine gave us a helpful brief definition of a sacrament
when he called a sacrament "a visible word".
The Word and sacraments always go together. The Word preached is first
in
priority because the sacraments would be meaningless apart from the Word.
Simply to come into a service where bread and wine are given and received
without any words would be at best confusing and at worst misleading.
We
are compelled to ask, "What is the significance of this eating and
drinking?" In Reformed churches we never celebrate the Lord's Supper
without a sermon and without the reading of the Words of Institution from
Paul or one of the three Gospels which record the institution of the
Supper. The Word read and preached comes first in order and first in
importance.
But the sacraments come along and after the Word to picture and to confirm
what the Word says. The whole gospel is in the Lord's Supper if we rightly
understand it. The bread and wine are symbols of the work of Christ on
the
cross, saving us by the sacrifice of His body and blood. The offering
and
distribution of the bread and wine tell us that Christ is freely offered
to
all who will receive Him. Our receiving the elements, eating, and drinking
are symbols of faith receiving Christ and being nourished by Him unto
eternal life. The tangible signs of bread and wine tell us that Christ
is a
truly and really present to our faith as these sings are to our sight,
touch, smell, and taste.
It is not some other grace we receive in the Lord's Supper than we receive
in the reading and preaching of the Word, but the same grace confirmed
and
received by a second means.
VI. DISCERNING
When we celebrate the Supper we are also discerning. Paul warns the
Corinthians that if they eat and drink in an unworthy manner, they will
be
guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. He goes on to say
that
if one eats and drinks without "discerning the body" he will
eat and drink
judgment on Himself.
The question is what does it mean to "discern the body"? Some
today say,
that in light of the issue at Corinth being the breaches of fellowship
and
unity at the Table, Paul must be saying something like. "He who eats
and
drinks without discerning that the church is the body of Christ, and who,
therefore, conducts himself in a way that disrupts the unity of the body,
will eat and drink judgment on Himself."
But I think the ancient view, the view adopted by our PCA doctrinal
standards, and what remains the majority view among commentators is
correct. This view interprets verse 29 in connection with verse 27. In
verse 27 the one who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner will guilty
of
the body and blood of the Lord. There can be no doubt that this verse
speaks of Jesus' body and blood. It makes sense that, while still speaking
of the importance of the manner in which we participate in the Lord's
Supper, in verse 29 he uses briefer description " the body"
in the same
sense. He is referring to the body of Jesus.
The point that Paul is making is that we must be able to discern Christ's
body and blood in the sacrament. This is not ordinary meal. It is a sacred
meal in which the minister consecrates the elements by asking God to set
them apart from their normal and common uses. The bread of the Lord's
Supper is a sign of the crucified body of Jesus, and we, by eating it
with
faith, are united with that body and all its saving effects.
This teaching gives us a strong reason to stick with the traditional
Reformed practice of not giving the sacrament to baptized children who
have
not yet made their own professions of faith. Right participation in the
Lord's Supper requires a person to discern the Lord's body in the
sacrament. That discernment requires a personal and conscious appropriation
of the Gospel.
VII. EXAMINING
When we celebrate the Supper, we are also examining ourselves. Let a
person
examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. We
are
to examine ourselves so that we will not eat and drink in an unworthy
manner, and so expose ourselves to the Lord's disciplining judgment. But
what are we to examine?
Some think that we need to go through a long and torturous process of
introspection in which we seek to discover every sin, look at every
contradiction of thought, word, and behavior which might call into question
the sincerity of our profession of faith, and hope that we might find
some
indications of genuine faith. There are some Christians who are very
hesitant to come to the Table for fear that they will eat and drink
judgment on themselves. Others, who may not go to such lengths of
examination, wonder if it would be right to partake, if they come to a
service not knowing or having forgotten the sacrament will be celebrated,
and not having gone through any preparation.
But I do not think this is what Paul intends. John Calvin is very helpful
here: "If you want to derive the proper benefit from this gift of
Christ,
you must bring faith and repentance." He goes on to point out that
under
repentance he includes brotherly love. Then he says, "Indeed it is
not
perfect repentance that is asked for...the Lord does not keep you out,
even
if in other respects you are not all you ought to be. For faith, even
if
imperfect, makes the unworthy worthy" (1 Corinthians commentary,
p. 253).
Anyone who lacks faith in Christ, anyone who is not sorry for his sins,
anyone who does not seek unity of the brothers, should not come to the
Table. But those who can discern the Lord's body in the Supper and who
comes sorrowing for sin and seeking grace are welcome at the feast.
If you are ready to come to church and to hear the preaching of the
Word
with faith, then you are prepared to come to the Table. This is the
examining to which the Lord calls us.
VIII. ANTICIPATING
When we celebrate the Supper, we are anticipating. Paul writes that
when we
eat the bread and drink the cup we "proclaim the Lord's death until
he
comes." The Lord's Supper will not be observed forever. It will come
to an
end when the Lord comes, for then the communion we now enjoy with Him
at
the Table will be replaced by face to face communion. That does not in
any
way demean the Lord's Supper. The communion we have now with Christ in
the
worshiping congregation as we receive the Word and the bread and wine
is as
good as it gets in this life in this world.
But there is a longing at the Table for more. Not just for the renewal
of
our communion with Him at the Table, but for a closer, more intimate,
unhindered communion we will enjoy with Him when He comes, and we sit
down
with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then we will be freed of
sin
and all its consequences. The we will be holy in soul and whole in body.
And we wills see Him as He is and we will know Him as He now knows us.
Jesus too is looking forward to that great occasion. He told His disciples
when He instituted the Lord's Supper in the Upper Room, "I have earnestly
desired to eat this Passover with before I suffer. For I tell you I will
not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15,16).
When He gave them the cup He said, "Take this and divide it among
yourselves. For I tell you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:17,18). Jesus is looking toward,
as we
are, to the time when together we will eat and drink in the kingdom. And
so, when we celebrate the Supper, we think to ourselves, "Maybe next
time
in the kingdom" and we pray as did the ancient church at the Supper,
"Marantha" - "Our Lord, come."
Sometimes people ask, "What does your church have to offer me?"
Of course,
we want our church to be a well-rounded church with effective ministries
of
all sorts. But what we have to offer always comes down to something very
simple. What we have are words - the Word of God read and preached. And
what we have is some bread and wine - consecrated by the Word and prayer
to
be to us the body and blood of our Lord. By these things we have communion
on earth with Christ who is in heaven. I think that's pretty significant,
and if the church can give me that, I am satisfied.
WILLIAM SMITH
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
