Lord’s Supper

Good morning. My name is Doug. I'm also one of the pastors here.

We're glad you're here. Happy Labor Day weekend to each one of you.

It is good to be gathered with the church this morning.

Church Unpacked. This is our current teaching series that we're working through.

It's a series about what the church is and what the church does.

Whether you've been at Good News Church all of your life or you've attended

many different churches over the years or you're sort of brand new to the church

now, church and church stuff can be.

Complicated and confusing at times. So one of the aims of teaching a series

like this is for people to better understand the church and church stuff,

and for people to understand more about the church and church stuff.

Like when people better understand and understand more, that's a win.

That's a big win for the church.

So today we come to the part of the Lord's Supper.

We've already unpacked that the church, as taught in the Bible,

it has nothing to do with buildings and drywall, steeples, and sound systems.

This physical structure right here, just like millions of others that are sort

of designed just like it, that are found all throughout the world, this is not the church.

It's a building where the church meets.

It's a wonderful building. Nice seats, bright lights, clean restrooms,

right? Thank goodness for AC.

But it is the people who are the church.

And it's extremely important to clarify, as Mario actually did in his welcome

this morning, that it's a certain kind of people that make up the church.

It's people who trust and believe the gospel. They are the only people who are

the church, only those who profess Jesus as Savior and Lord.

And when these kinds of people come together, when they assemble together,

just like what we're doing now.

They make this membership. They make this partnership with each other to faithfully

live loving God, loving each other, and loving people who don't know God yet.

Last week, we were unpacking baptism. And I thought it might be the first time

in the series where things got a little dicey, a little spicy even maybe. Why?

Because it turns out the church, Christians don't always agree about this stuff, stuff like baptism.

Do you know the church has a long, long history of debating and differing on

many doctrines and topics?

Throughout, there are endless amount of debates, free will, church government,

end times, heaven, hell, spiritual gifts, marriage, divorce,

lifestyle patterns, and right at the top of the list,

are baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Bring them up and let the debating begin.

A quick look back into church history, and you will find not only intense debating

over these topics, you're going to find fisticuffs.

Fighting, and worse, swords, guillotines, and bonfire executions over the meaning

of baptism in the Lord's Supper.

The history books are not short. There are some gruesome recorded documents. Here's one.

I'm going to take you back to 1555. That's some 470 years ago.

From 1555 to 1558, 288 Protestant reformers were burned at the stake.

Of these, one was an archbishop, four were bishops, 21 were clergymen,

55 were women, and four were children.

Now, I guess the 203 were just other regular guys, but why were they burned?

There was one central issue, the meaning of the Lord's Supper.

There was once a time when the Lord's Supper carried meaning so passionately

held that for some, they thought it was worth dying for.

And for some, worth killing for.

So I want to say, as we unpack the Lord's Supper here, two things I want to

say. One, it is totally okay to have these debates.

It is totally okay to have differences on these topics.

Having different beliefs outside of the gospel that is protected but other beliefs

based on scripture prayed over with the help of the holy spirit that is different

than someone else who by the way this differing person,

has probably also had the same approach probably has been praying probably has

studied asked for the holy spirit's help and you come to two different spots,

it's totally fine to disagree.

For example in my own life there have been times there have been a handful of

doctrines that in theology that I once to believe one way and now I believe

them to be completely different.

Like I hope that I have moved from believing something incorrectly to believing

something correctly. Like that's the goal.

No one who is serious about understanding God and his word wants to be wrong on purpose.

But here's the thing, just as I

express those beliefs with my dear fellow Christian brothers and sisters,

I can almost immediately be preaching to the choir and find lots of people saying,

that's right, go brother, amen, I agree with all that.

And I can almost also immediately find those dear Christian brothers and sisters

who say, They wag their finger and say, that's trash.

That's a bunch of malarkey. Well, okay.

But what isn't fine is for anyone to respond sinfully because of differing beliefs.

That's when attitudes and actions become like luggage on a plane. They need to be checked.

And two, oh, you got that. That was good. And two, now it's probably a good time to say it.

It's highly likely everyone is wrong somewhere about something in the Bible, including me and you.

Might as well just throw it out there. Get that acknowledged right now.

Let's burst in the all-knowing, I-know-everything-about-God pride that we might have.

Okay that's off my chest now let's unpack the lord's supper,

the lord's supper is one of two ordinances baptism being the other commanded

by jesus that are uniquely and distinctly christian,

no other religion observes them however as i've been trying to stress they are

also two of the most violently debated and divisive topics within the church

especially hundreds of years ago,

like I am thankful the days of 1555 don't exist anymore.

Like thou shalt not kill includes not killing people who think differently about the Lord's Supper.

And perhaps that's too strong of an example to use for the days that we're living in.

As a matter of fact, perhaps the Lord's Supper pendulum has swung from being

a passionately held doctrine to now an indifferently held doctrine.

I think a strong argument probably could be made that the Lord's Supper,

which was once this hotly, strongly debated topic, is now mostly a theological,

oh, home, indifferent to the church, where the Lord's Supper is seen as quaint,

but somewhat of an inconvenience, like slapping an extra 15 minutes on the end of the service,

for some small, useless little piece of bread and just a small little cup.

Like, what's that all about? The guy up front says, this is your supper?

We're gonna starve.

Like it is possible people are living in the indifference ditch when it comes

to the Lord's Supper, which I suppose is better than living in the killing ditch

of the Lord's Supper, but both are really bad. Both are no good.

So what is the Lord's Supper and what is the fuss all about?

There are nine things that I want to share with you today. Nine,

that's like being an overachiever. Nine.

So let's go to the Bible because that is what determines the Lord's Supper. And I want us to see that.

The importance of the Lord's Supper is so obvious in Scripture,

so obvious, that the church cannot be indifferent about it.

First, the Lord's Supper, it

gets its name from the Bible. That's a good start. 1 Corinthians 11, 20.

Therefore, when you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord's Supper.

Now, I'm not going to explain the verse. I just want to point out that the Lord's

Supper gets its name from the Bible.

Paul is the author. He mentions it here. He names it as the Lord's Supper.

And there are other places in the Bible that are used, and it's referring to

the Lord's Supper. Acts chapter 2, 42.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship,

to the breaking of bread. Breaking of bread is another name for the Lord's Supper.

And to the prayers, 1 Corinthians 10, 16.

The cup of blessing that we give thanks for.

Is it not the communion in the blood of Christ, the bread that we break?

Is it not the communion in the body of Christ? Communion is another word for the Lord's Supper.

1 Corinthians 10, 21.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the demons.

You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons.

The Lord's Supper is also called the Lord's table. It gets its name from the Bible.

Second, the Lord's Supper, it is instituted and taught by Jesus in three of the four Gospels.

He is named as the founder of it. If you look at Matthew 26,

Mark 14, and Luke 22, each of them give about the same exact account all the way through it.

Jesus took and said, Jesus took and said, he took and said, he took and gave.

Jesus is the one who instituted the Lord's Supper and taught it.

Now, John 6, I put a little asterisk up here. John doesn't talk about eating

the bread and drinking from the cup, but he has strong language that is so closely,

related to the Lord's Supper.

Matter of fact, you remember those 288 people that were burned at the stake?

John 6 probably has a lot of the reasons, the highly debated passage of how

people interpret that as to what was going on right there.

I'm going to talk about that a little bit more later. Third,

the Lord's Supper, it's an ongoing meal, not a one-time thing.

1 Corinthians 11, 26, for as often as, for as often as you eat this bread and

drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

For as often means it's a regular happening, but it also means there's a lot of flexibility to it.

It doesn't give an exact hard rule about how often it has to be done, but as often as you do it.

And then again, in Acts 42, 42, we've looked at this verse, and they devoted

themselves to the apostles' teaching.

That's not just once. To the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

Like, doing something one time is not very devoted, right? Devoted.

There's a regular pattern of this.

Acts 27. On the first day of the week, we assemble to break bread, have the Lord's Supper.

Like, that's going on 52 times in a year.

That's an ongoing meal. The Lord's Supper is ongoing and God willing,

as we announced earlier, we're going to do that here later today.

Fourth, the Lord's Supper consists of bread, wine, or juice in a cup.

Again, if you check out the gospel books, Matthew, Mark, and Luke,

all of them give this same idea.

Bread, wine, cup details.

These are the elements that are used. So the question comes up,

can you use different kinds of bread and wine and juice?

I think so. I also think it's a good idea to keep it simple.

Using Oreos and Coke, that would be a stretch and even concerning.

Just very simply, the Lord's Supper consists of bread and wine in a cup.

Fifth, the Lord's Supper is a meal within a meal. Now look at these verses. 1 Corinthians 12.

Um chapter 11 yes 11 17 18 and 20 right,

now in giving the following instructions I do not praise you since when you

come together for the for the better but not for the worse for to begin with

I hear that when you come together as the what church and who's the church.

What kind of people Christians people when you come together it's for the church

there's divisions among you and I partly believe it.

Just pointing out that the Lord's Supper is given to and is for the church.

And then later it says, therefore, when you come together, who's the you coming together?

It is the church. It's in one place.

It is not really to eat the Lord's Supper. And then building on the idea that

it's a meal within a meal, we have other verses like Mark 14, 22.

As they were eating, he took the bread, blessed it, and broke it,

gave it to them and said, take it, this is my body. Well, what was the big meal that they were eating?

This would be the Passover meal.

Down here, again, the church is coming together in 1 Corinthians 11, 20.

Therefore, when you come together in one place, it's not really to eat the Lord's supper.

For at the meal, each one eats his own supper ahead of others,

so that one person is hungry while another person gets drunk.

Again, I'm going to refer back to the tiny objects that we have here.

This is not what you're going to get drunk on.

This is not going to fill you up. This was a meal within a meal.

Sharing a meal together has always been a shorthand way of saying you belong to the table.

There's unity here. There's community, love, peace, joy, safety.

Like Jesus spent so much of his time with others eating meals.

And when it was time for him to leave his followers, you don't find him rushing

around giving final details.

He doesn't hold one last board meeting with marketing strategies.

He sat down for a meal.

Well, someone might ask, well, how come we don't? Where's the big meal?

Well, honestly, I think it would be great if we could.

Maybe even best. Like, wouldn't it be amazing to have a big barbecue smoker

out front with all the trimmings going on?

And then we could all take the Lord's Supper together?

Not the way the Corinthians were doing it in a drunken way, but caring for one another.

So I do think it's a missing part, but still not impossible to partake of the Lord's Supper.

The early church they met in homes in numbers were much smaller.

That's not the case for our situation. It is a bummer. I will say it.

It's a bummer. Maybe we can work on it. Maybe we can have personal pan pizzas on every chair.

Maybe we can have crock pots spread out in the back. I don't know.

Maybe it's something we can work on.

But it was a meal within a meal. Sixth.

The Lord's Supper fulfills the Passover. Now, the Passover is found in the Old

Testament, in the book of Exodus.

If you aren't familiar with it, even if you are familiar with it,

it would be good for you to read later.

2,000 years before Christ, God delivered Israel from slavery by using the blood

of a goat or a lamb and placing it on the doorpost of their homes.

Here's what Exodus 12, 13 says. the blood on the houses where you are staying

will be a distinguishing mark for you.

When I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's the Passover.

No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land in Egypt.

And now we have Jesus in the New Testament taking the Passover bread and says,

this is my body, and taking the Passover cup and says, this is my blood.

And what he is declaring is that he is the true lamb, the true Passover.

Like the Old Testament, the old Passover, it protected physically.

The new Passover protects spiritually. Jesus is the Passover.

He is the distinguishing mark.

Look at these verses, 1 Corinthians 5, 7, clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch.

You are indeed unleavened for Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed.

John 1, 29, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and he said,

here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And then in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, For you know that you were redeemed from your

empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like

silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb,

without defect or blemish.

When we eat the bread and drink from the cup, we celebrate the ultimate rescue.

Not physical, from physical slavery, but from spiritual slavery of sin.

Seventh, the Lord's Supper requires the church to self-examine herself.

Look at 1 Corinthians 11, 27 through 32.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy

way will be guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. So a man should what?

Examine himself. In this way, he should eat the bread and drink from the cup.

For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

That's a nice way of saying many have died.

If we were properly evaluating ourselves, we would not be judged.

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

condemned with the world.

No passivity, no indifference, because taking the Lord's Supper is literally

a life or death experience.

I have never heard a coroner's report state that taking the Lord's Supper in

an unworthy manner as a cause of death.

Have you ever heard that? I haven't.

I've never heard of being at a funeral where people, you know how sometimes

when people get together, they huddle together and they'll quietly discuss how a person died.

Like I have never heard someone say, poor Florence, she died from not taking

the Lord's Supper the right way.

Oh, she did? I didn't know that.

Like, I've never seen that happen.

But is there a place in your understanding of the Lord's Supper that it is to

be taken that seriously?

That the unity of the church is to be taken that seriously? That the body and

blood of the church is to be taken that seriously?

So seriously that God would cause his followers to become sick and even some

of them die as a form of temporal discipline.

The church must always be in the business of self-examining,

especially at the Lord's Supper.

Eighth, the Lord's Supper is used to remember and proclaim his death.

1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 26.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. Paul is talking to

the Corinthian believers.

On the night when he was betrayed, that the Lord Jesus took bread,

gave thanks, broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in what?

Remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he also took the cup and said,

this cup is the new covenant established by my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in what?

Remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,

you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So we remember that Jesus, his body, was a physical sacrifice.

We remember that it was broken and battered and bruised we remember that blood was poured out,

and we proclaim that his death paid the price of sin completely like paid in full.

Every time we come to the Lord's Supper, we are preaching a gospel sermon without words.

These tables across the front, they tell the gospel.

They are good news tables. I suppose literally and figuratively.

They are good news tables.

And ninth, the Lord's Supper reminds us to be looking for his return.

Same verse, 1 Corinthians 11, 26. but with our attention on the last three words, until he comes.

The Lord's Supper is a rehearsal dinner until Jesus comes back.

And then he will lead this celebration, and it ends happily ever after for those who are the church.

But really, it is just no ending at all. It is just continuing eternity with Jesus.

I wanted you to see, and I hope that you have seen it, Scripture makes it super

obvious that the Lord's Supper is a dynamic part of what the church does.

But wait, Doug, you said there's been a lot of debating and arguing and fighting

and even killing because of the Lord's Supper. When we get into that,

that's right, that is true.

And here's why, here's what I think it is. This can be debated, shocker.

The division over the Lord's Supper can be summed up in one word,

one small word, one small two-letter word, and it is the word is.

This is my body. This is my blood.

How Christians define this teeny tiny little word is determines often how they

understand these verses about the Lord's Supper.

And usually, people fall into one of four understandings.

So I'm going to lead you through the four, I think, four most popular views

of the Lord's Supper. Here's number one.

It's a big word. It's called transubstantiation, right? Now, transubstantiation.

If is means literal, then the bread and wine literally actually become Jesus's

physical body and blood.

That is the idea that when you eat that, it becomes Jesus's body and blood when you drink that.

Meaning the substance of the bread and the wine changes while the outward appearance

stays the same. There's a lot of Latin prefix and word roots going on right here.

It is a common view held by the Roman Catholic Church.

The second view is consubstantiation. If is means a literal presence comes alongside the bread, with the,

bread, in the bread, and the wine, then Jesus's true body and blood are present in the bread and wine.

Like it doesn't change into it, but they're there.

Meaning the bread doesn't change to flesh or the wine changed to blood,

but Jesus is truly present physically with the bread and the wine.

This view commonly held by the Lutheran church. Here's the third view.

It is spiritual presence. If is means spiritual reality,

not physical reality, then the bread and wine remain physical objects,

meaning believers receive real spiritual nourishment,

from the bread and the wine through the Holy Spirit when partaking in the Lord's Supper.

Common view held by Reformed church, Calvinist.

And then the last view is what is known as the symbolic view.

If is, means, represents, or symbolizes, then the bread and the wine act as

reminders and symbols of Jesus's death, meaning,

the Lord's Supper is an act of memory and proclamation with no physical or mystical

change to the bread and wine.

Common view held by the Baptist or Zwinglian. Zwingli was a Swiss Protestant reformer.

So there are the four popular views of the Lord's Supper. Now,

who's ready to duke it out?

Like maybe we should just make this building go, all right, all you transubstantiation over here.

And you symbolic over here. The other two go over here. And when the bell rings, let's get after it.

That would be a mistake.

I don't know.

Let's do this instead. And this is our application for us for the Lord's Supper.

Regardless of the lens that you use for is, whether it is literal,

transformational, mystical, or memorial, one truth remains unshakable.

The table belongs to Jesus, and he invites all believers to it.

He is gracious. He is the gracious host because no one is deserving to have

earned an invitation from him.

Like the bread was broken so that broken people could be made whole.

The cup was poured out so that empty people could be filled.

The Lord's Supper is his to give. And every believer who comes in faith kneels

before the same cross, trusts the same blood, and awaits the same coming king.

So let's take the lord's supper together fixed on the grace of god and giving us the gift of jesus,

so i'm going to invite you to come to the table with gratitude for the passover

fulfilled come with humility in your heart love for his church come with joy

proclaiming his victory,

and come longing waiting for his return.

So here's how we come at good news. We are going to come row by row,

starting in the front. And so literally, we've started this new pattern. Ready for it?

Everyone, when I ask you to come, you're going to make your way to the left,

your left aisle. These guys, you're going to that aisle. These guys,

you're going to this aisle. These guys and girls, you're coming to this aisle.

And as you come, you're going to circle around. So everyone here,

you're going to partake of this table. Here, here, here, here. Got that?

Once you come, you come and grab your cup of juice and your bread.

There are gluten options available at all three stations right there take your

supplies go back to your seat circle around all right so it's one-way traffic all the way around,

and when you get back to your seat when everyone has it we are going to partake

of the lord's supper together,

i think that's enough options for now,

The Lord's Supper is for the church, people who profess Jesus Christ to be their Lord Savior.

I would encourage you to examine yourself and then come and let's celebrate,

the greatest gift given to humanity, Jesus. Let's pray.

Father, we cannot say thank you enough for Jesus. And the work that he did,

especially on the cross.

To think that his death on that cross put every one of my nasty,

disgusting sins upon him.

And he bore all of that shame with joy,

because of his love for the Father and his love for his believers and his followers.

I do pray that we would have unity when it comes to Jesus.

Let the debates happen, not murder, not persecution like that.

Father, I ask that we'd be serious about studying the Bible and serious about,

leaning into the Holy Spirit to help us understand these things correctly,

and yet give enough grace to our brothers and sisters when we just don't align the same way.

Father, we come now,

thankful for this bread and this juice in the cup.

We remember the death of Jesus,

and all that he went through.

His love for us.

So we ask your blessing on it and we come with an attitude of celebration.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We end with these good words from God's word from the highly debated John 6.

I am the bread of life, Jesus told them. No one who comes to me will ever be

hungry and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

I assure you, anyone who believes has eternal life. That's good news.