is telling them the Lord’s supper is not some traditional feast of human origins, the Apostles did not say to themselves, “ remembered the Lord with a meal?” Paul does that to add a necessary solem- nity to the meal. This isn’t a dinner party, this is the Lord’s command- ment, and Paul adds Jesus gave us the Lord’s Supper on the night when He was betrayed to point out that Christ so loved us that even on the advent of His darkest moment, He was providing a blessing of incalculable worth. It also shows the Corinthians that Jesus was betrayed by his closest followers on the night of the institu- tion of the Supper, and were they not in a sense repeating that betrayal by acting more like the people who cru- Paul records that on that night of the Last Passover Jesus took bread and broke it and gave it to his dis- ciples saying “this is my body which is ” Now these words have been used historically as a support for beliefs such as the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, which teaches that the bread of the Lord’s Supper Christ and the Wine literally becomes his blood, even though the elements still appear to be bread and wine. That simply cannot be the case; Jesus was standing before the Apos- tles, and at that moment and he did not suddenly start bleeding as part of his body became bread and was consumed. Neither did the Apostles appear to understand His words that way, Jesus had frequently said things like “I am the door” and “I am the true vine” and at no point did they think he was saying I am a plant or I am made . Now the fact that the words are symbolic does not remove the spiritual reality behind the words in
May/June 2024
any way. As an example, the church really is the but we do not get dressed in wedding dresses in order to come to church. The Apostles no doubt understood that Christ was speaking symbolically.
to cleanse them from their sins. Also, Christ here doesn’t say that the wine is literally his blood, but that it is the New Covenant in His blood. Advocates of Christ here.
Visable Sermon He also instructed them to do this (actually in the Greek it is present continu-
ous, keep doing this) . The Lord’s Supper was instituted to be an ongoing regularly held event in the life of the church. It is a “visible ser- mon” reminding the church of the price of their salvation as well as an abiding reminder of their union with Christ. It is also something that is to be done, until the Lord comes again. The Lord’s Supper is a meal that will go on until Jesus returns and the Church enters into the marriage supper of the Lamb at which point, we will no longer have need of it, because our spiritual communion with Him will be forever replaced with actual communion with Him in His presence. As you come to the table though, you should not do so in a passive or un- thinking way. Every year or so the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were re- quired to burn a pinch of incense before an image of Caesar and declare that they believed “Caesar is Lord.” Many citizens did this in a perfunctory and unthinking way similar to the way that some people say the pledge of alle- giance without meaning any of it, but Christians could not perform the ritual, because they believed that only Jesus is Lord and Savior. Time after time those Christians had come to His Table professing before the entire World their belief that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. If Baptism is the sacrament where the promises of God are displayed to the believer, then the to God. At the Supper we are confessing that we believe the Gospel, that we are commandments and await His return. It is for that reason that Christians do not actually need to keep “walking the aisle” to recommit themselves at the front of the church. Properly understood, you renew your covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ every time you come and commune with Him at the table. That is why if someone cannot yet profess their faith in the Lord, and enter into covenant with Him for themselves, they should not come to the table. To do so would be to come in an unworthy manner, and for that reason bible believ- ing churches do not invite the unbelieving or children who have not yet been examined by the Elders and admitted to the Supper to come to the table. To come to the Supper without knowing the Lord, believing in Him, and having joined yourself to His Body the church, would be to eat and drink in an unworthy manner. Similarly, as Paul has already made manifest, to eat and drink as if it was your own Supper acting in a profane manner is also to come in an unworthy fashion. The way the Corinthians were coming, even though they were adult members of the church, was a repudiation of the supper and seriously called into question whether they were believers.
27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
