The Lord's Supper

Introduction

First time I took the Lord’s Supper was at Red Lane Baptist Church.

I was attending with my cousin Chris.

During the sermon he said, “After this part they give us these little pieces of white bread and grape juice. It is so good. You’ll love it.”

I took the Lord’s Supper with him.

I was 13. I was not a Christian.

I had no clue what it meant.

I was really hungry and the cut up Wonder Bread was amazing.

No pastor told me this was not appropriate.

None of this is good.

This is why we have to know what the Lord’s Supper is!

Two weeks ago we began looking at Article VII of the Baptist Faith and Message

We learned that there are two ordinances in the church:

Baptism

The Lord’s Supper

We spent that night studying baptism.

We learned:

Baptism is by immersion.

Baptism is a picture of the Gospel.

Baptism is a public confession.

Baptism is for believers.

Baptism is a means of grace.

The Lord’s Supper (Article VII, Paragraph 2)

In order for us to understand the Lord’s Supper, we will do the same thing as baptism—we will have five statements about the Lord’s Supper.

For the sake of keeping everyone engaged with the worksheet tonight, I won’t give you those statements now.

We will reveal them as we go.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII

1. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial of the body and blood of Christ.

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

Just like baptism, the Lord’s Supper is instituted by Christ.

This happens at the Last Supper that He has with His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion.

As He instituted the meal, He explained His atoning death through the lens of the bread and wine.

Luke 22:19–20 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

The hour that comes in Luke 22 is the hour of Passover.

Passover is the meal where Old Covenant believers would have a feast to commemorate God’s deliverance in Egypt.

They would eat:

Unleavened bread: symbolizing the haste at which they had to flee Egypt on the night when God’s judgment came to the land

The Passover Lamb: a reminder of how the only reason God’s wrath passed over Israel was that He recognized the blood of the Lamb and was merciful

Bitter herbs: symbolizing the bitterness of slavery under Pharaoh

As rabbinic tradition developed they would also drink from four different cups to remember how God redeems.

When Jesus and the disciples gathered for the feast, They would have been in a circle.

Heads on hands with feet behind them.

But this is different than any Passover meal they had participated in before.

Jesus distributes the bread, and says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Then He passes one of the cups around and says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Jesus thus transformed the last Passover into the first observance of the Lord’s Supper.

John MacArthur

The Symbols and What They Represent

The Passover meal was a representation of physical deliverance from physical slavery.

Now the Lord’s Supper meal is a representation of the spiritual deliverance from spiritual slavery.

In the Passover meal the elements had symbolic meaning.

In the Lord’s Supper meal the elements have symbolic meaning.

The Bread = Christ’s body, broken on the behalf of sinners

Communicates more than just His physical body

Also symbolizes the life He lived in that body

Jesus’ perfect life was laid down in His body—a perfect life that qualified Him to be the Savior we need

Passages like Isaiah 53 foretold that the Messiah would lay down His life in this way as a Suffering Servant

The Cup = Christ’s blood, poured out for sinners.

The theme of blood atonement runs like a thread throughout the Scriptures

Genesis 3: If Adam and Eve’s sin will be covered, an animal must die

Leviticus 17:11 (The Law): For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

The blood of the animal on the altar did not save the OT Jew

It symbolized the cost of the grace that forgives sin as they looked forward in faith to the coming Messiah

Hebrews 9:22 (NT): Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

The bad news is that blood must be shed if sin will be forgiven.

The Good News is that Jesus’ blood has already been shed so you be forgiven.

The Christian has staked the future of their soul on this news.

Jesus is the Great High Priest.

He has entered into the heavenly tabernacle and made atonement by His own blood.

His atoning death has been accepted by God the Father as offering for your sins.

You cannot affirm the Good News of Jesus Christ without affirming blood atonement.

Modern sensibilities may gag at the idea.

But it is central to the Gospel.

Jesus’ act of blood atonement is memorialized by believers each time we drink from the Cup.

We are confessing that the grace of the New Covenant has come to us by the blood that is symbolized.

Symbolic, Not Literal OR Spiritual

Not Literal (Transubstantiation)

The reason we use memorial or symbolic language when talking about the Lord’s Supper is because Jesus did.

When He said, “This is my body,” and, “This is my blood,” the disciples all knew He was using symbolic language.

He was sitting right there.

It is hard to imagine they thought He was talking literally.

If I hold up a picture of myself right now and say, “This is me,” no one thinks I am saying the picture is literally me.

It is a representation of me.

Roman Catholics disagree and take the words with extreme literalness

But the literalness violates the laws of reason we use everyday

Roman Catholics believe in Transubstantiation.

Transubstantiation: the substance of the elements is transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ, while the external qualities retain the characteristics of bread and wine

Catholics do not believe that Christ is being re-sacrificed during the Mass.

Instead they believe that in the transubstantiated elements, Christ’s sacrifice is re-presented in an unbloody manner

As the Mass is re-presented, Christ’s sacrifice is transcending time

As the Roman Catholic takes the Mass, the grace of Christ’s sacrifice is applied to them

As Protestant and Baptist Christians, we differ in a major way on this subject (Mutually Exclusive Understanding)

We believe the atoning work of Christ is finished and completed in the past.

It is effective and sufficient and applied by God to every believer in the Old Covenant or New Covenant

It does not need to be repeated or even re-presented

Christ’s state of humiliation has given way to His state of exaltation

This is why Protestants don’t wear crucifixes

Jesus is not on the Cross

He is seated at the right hand of the Father

The work is done and effective to save to the uttermost

The same person who died on Calvary two thousand years ago is not sacrificed for our sins during the eucharistic celebration. The Lord’s Supper is a meal, not a sacrifice.

Kevin DeYoung

This is why we don’t gather around an altar, but a Table.

Like Passover before it, it is a memorial meal.

This is why Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,”...

...NOT “Do this in a re-presentation of me”

Not Spiritual (Consubstantiation)

We also disagree with Lutherans who believe in consubstantiation.

Consubstantiation: The bread and wine remain unchanged, but Christ dwell in, under and with the elements.

Martin Luther taught that Christ dwelt spiritually with the elements, even though they do not transubstantiate into body and blood.

Luther famously refused to partner with fellow Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, who rejected Luther’s view and said, “It is just bread and wine.”

We would certainly line up more with Zwingli than Luther.

Just as the elements in Passover were merely physical signs of spiritual realities, so are the elements in the Lord’s Supper

Jesus’ Spirit does not somehow dwell in, with and under the bread

Instead, we agree with the Baptist Faith and Message, which says:

The bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII

The Supper is a memorial meal.

2. The Lord’s Supper is a meal for believers who are walking with Jesus.

Passover was a meal for God’s covenant people

It’s no different with the Lord’s Supper

The Prerequisite for Coming to the Table

Those who eat at the Lord’s Table should be members of the Lord’s household

This is where we left off last time with the final sentence of Article VII, Paragraph 1:

Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII, Paragraph 1

Baptism before Lord’s Supper is the biblical pattern

Acts 2:41–42 ESV

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The order makes sense:

How can you say you want to be obedient to Christ in the Lord’s Supper if you have not yet been obedient in the baptism?

Baptism is the believer’s public entrance into the local church

How can you eat the Family Meal if you haven’t come through the front door of the House?

The Lord’s Supper implies accountability to the church

Each time we take it, the pastors fence the table in the same manner as Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:27-28

1 Corinthians 11:27–28 ESV

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.

How can the pastors be expected to be accountable to fence the Table with sheep they have no authority over?

In light of these things, our confession says that only baptized believers should take the Lord’s Supper

The Issue of Self-Examination

The person who takes the Lord’s Supper should also examine themselves (1 Cor. 11:28)

We have already said that unbelievers should not take the Lord’s Supper

But even believers should examine themselves...

Has habitual rebellion snuck into the believer’s heart?

Have they stopped walking with Jesus?

Are they grieving the Spirit?

If the answer is yes, then the believer should also let the cup and the bread go by

As the church observes the Lord’s Supper and they feel the sting of missing out on it, they should confess their sins to God and turn to Him again

We have to take self-examination and our personal handling of the ordinance seriously because of the Word’s warning:

1 Corinthians 11:29–30 ESV

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Spurgeon’s Example

Baptized believers received Lord’s Supper tickets for the year

You turned them in at the Sunday night service to take the Lord’s Supper

If they stopped getting your tickets they knew you weren’t coming anymore

They would go to you to find out what is wrong

Spiritual backsliding?

Physical ailment?

Serious depression?

But if the member simply refused to repent and come back to the Lord’s Table out of rebellion and laziness, they would remove them from the roll

The Members’ Meeting Minutes would read:

The Howard Family was removed from the church roll for forsaking their place at the Lord’s Supper Table.

You can see how as Baptists, we recognize that if Baptism is how we know who has come through the front door of the church, the Lord’s Supper Table is how we know who remains.

Close, Not Closed

One word before moving on...

I am not saying that if you are not a church member baptized into this local body that you could never take the Lord’s Supper here

Some churches would say that.

They practice Closed Communion. Members only.

We practice close Communion, but not closed.

We say that if you are a baptized believer in good standing with this local church or another.

This keeps the door open for the visitor passing through or the attender considering membership.

We do not practice open Communion, which says, “Come one, come all,” regardless of:

baptismal status

membership status

denominational status

Sadly even spiritual status in some cases.

3. The Lord’s Supper is a congregational act of remembrance.

The Lord’s Supper is Meant for the Assembly of the Church

The Lord’s Supper is not just something that YOU do

While it is personal between you and God (self-examination), It is something that WE do all together

Even in the Institution of the Lord’s Supper, the disciples all shared in the cup together.

Jesus does not send them away to separate corners to take the Supper as individuals

He speaks to them with the “collective you”

This is by body, which is for YOU

Do this, as often as YOU drink it

For as often as YOU eat this bread and drink this cup

He speaks to them as one and they observe the ordinance together

Throughout the NT, the consistent pattern and prescription is that the Lord’s Supper is for the church body, not the individual.

You see the whole church doing it together

Acts 2:42: THEY devoted themselves to...the breaking of bread

Acts 20:7: On the first Day of the Week, WE came together to break bread

1 Corinthians 11: When you come together (17), When you come together as a church (18), When you come together (20), When you come together to eat (33)

In fact, in 1 Corinthians 11, one of the reasons Paul indicts the church for misusing Communion is that...

... they are not waiting for each other and breaking off separately

This is why the Faith and Message speaks of the Lord’s Supper as something partaken of by the “members of the church.”

TOGETHER

Keeping the Supper in the Assembly

What this means is that normatively, we should strive to keep the Lord’s Supper in the worship services of the gathered church

This is the proper setting:

Because it can be done TOGETHER as Christ modeled and intended

Because it can be overseen by the church’s pastors—those charged with spiritual care for the body

One time I was at a summer camp as a teen and we split up into our church groups and took the Lord’s Supper.

We used Coca-Cola and Saltine crackers, if I remember correctly.

There were no pastors/elders/overseers there to fence the Table.

This is not good.

The Lord’s Supper truly isn’t for:

The Men’s Retreat

The Small Group Bible Study

The Student Ministry Event

The Pastor’s Retreat

The Wedding Ceremony (Don’t feel bad—I HAD IT IN MINE!)

The Lord’s Supper is for the gathered assembly of the Lord’s Church...

...being overseen by the pastors He has put in charge through the authority of the congregation.

4. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of Christ’s death until He returns.

Memorializing and Proclaiming

Passover didn’t just look back.

It was also a feast that looked forward to the banquet to come in God’s Kingdom.

Isaiah 25:6 ESV

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

The Lord’s Supper is the same way

It memorializes what Christ as done:

He lived a perfect life and laid it down on the Cross

He poured out His blood in an atoning death

But it also looks forward and proclaims that the King who died is the King who is coming.

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The Faith and Message says that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act whereby we anticipate His second coming.

On one hand, the Lord’s Supper is a congregational act of post-resurrection celebration and commemoration...

...On the other hand, it is a congregational act of Gospel proclamation.

The God who died has conquered and will come again.

Then His disciples will drink with Him again once more.

Luke 22:18 ESV

For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

There is a Wedding Feast coming:

Revelation 19:9 ESV

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

The Lord’s Supper is a preview meal every time we take it.

And every time we take it, we are one moment closer to His coming.

Full Picture of the Gospel

Last time we saw how baptism gives us a full picture of the Gospel:

The one being baptized was dead in sin

Now They profess that they are united to Christ by faith

They demonstrate this spiritual reality by:

Being buried with Christ (under the water)

Being resurrected with Christ (coming up out of the water)

Leaving the water to walk in the newness of life (never to go under the water again—no 2nd death for the believer!)

In this way, Baptism pictures the whole counsel of the Gospel

What we are seeing tonight is that the Lord’s Supper does the same:

The bread and cup picture the life of Christ laid down to atone for sin

But the bread and cup picture the coming reality after Christ’s return

Christ’s first Advent and Second Advent are illustrated by the Lord’s Supper

When the church practices the two ordinances faithfully, they will find that they are not just being obedient...

...They will find that are publicly testifying to the whole Gospel of Christ regularly.

5. The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace.

Means of Grace Review

Tonight we have called Baptism and the Lord’s Supper ordinances.

The Baptist Faith and Message uses this language exclusively

Last time we were together we talked about how early Baptists also called them sacraments.

Ordinance means decree or command.

Sacrament means an act that conveys grace to the believer.

Ordinance refers to what Christ has commanded

Sacrament is what the ordinance becomes when blessed by the Spirit of Christ

In light of this, we should not feel weird using the terms ordinance and sacrament interchangeably like our Baptist forefathers.

How the Lord’s Supper is a Means of Grace

Last time we saw how baptism is a means of grace to the one being baptized and the congregation

How does it work with the Lord’s Supper?

Well consider 1 Corinthians 10:16

1 Corinthians 10:16 ESV

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

The KJV uses the word “communion.”

The Greek word is koinonia—the same word used in the NT to describe the common fellowship shared by the church

What Paul is saying is that there is a sense in which we commune or participate in the body and blood of Christ when the Lord’s Supper is observed.

But what does that actually mean?

Koinonia of the blood and body of Christ means spiritual nourishment is brought to souls. It is the present participation in the present benefits of Christ’s death for those properly partaking.

Richard Barcellos

This makes sense...

In this same passage Paul argues that eating food sacrificed to idols is participating with the demonic.

He is making the opposite argument about the Lord’s Supper—it is a participation with Christ.

When we take the Lord’s Supper:

Christ is not physically present there

But He is spiritually present there

His Spirit dwells with us

He promises to be with us when we gather in His name

As we remember His death in the past and anticipate His return in the future, He is presently with us and we participate in the benefits of His death:

We are reminded we are forgiven

We are reminded that our biggest problems are solved

We are reminded that Christ will return, giving us future hope

We are reminded that we are not alone because we take the ordinance together as the body of Christ

We are reminded that we have no hope but the life and death of Christ, illustrated by the Table

So as you come to the Table, understand that we call it Communion for a reason.

You commune with Christ there presently.

WE commune with Christ there presently.

And that Table is a vehicle of God’s sustaining, strengthening and sanctifying grace to His people

Conclusion

The next time we take the Lord’s Supper will be Sunday, March 1st.

May it mean more to us.

We are always in danger of it becoming mere ritual.

It is more than that:

It is a holy, God-ordained symbol of His grace.

It tells us of the fact of the Cross that has saved us.

It tells us of the favor we have with God through Christ in the here and now.

It tells us of the future, when clouds roll back like a scroll and Christ returns

Approach it with a humble zeal and enjoy the grace of Christ that waits for you there.