Come to the Alter
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We believe that the Lord‘s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ‘s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ‘s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ‘s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.
We believe that the Lord‘s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ‘s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ‘s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ‘s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.
12.4 We believe that the Lord‘s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ‘s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ‘s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ‘s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.
For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,
1 Cor 11:
for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
1 Cor 11:
Divisions Necessary
Abuse of the Supper
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
1 Cor
For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
So we don't Forget to Remember
We should look back
Christ’s saving work on the cross.
So the first and perhaps the most familiar aspect of the Lord’s table is that it is a remembering of the work of Christ on the cross. His sacrifice for sin and therefore our deliverance from sin … His payment for the penalty for sin and thus the forgiveness of our sins … His death for our life. It was the crushing of Satan and the divesting of hell for the souls of all who would ever believe. And perhaps that’s the most familiar feature of the Lord’s table, we remember the Lord’s death, in the bread we remember that He gave His body, in the cup we remember that He shed His blood. We remember His saving work on the cross, that unique and supreme and marvelous work by which our salvation was purchased. And what is the response to that? Thanks, praise, humility.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Seven Aspects of The Lord’s Table
Christ’s saving work on the cross.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.
We should remember that He died, and was buried because this is apart of the gospel message.
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
1 Cor 15:
We must also remember why He died: He died for our sins, He was our substitute , paying the debt that would cont pay.
We must also remember How He died, willing, meekly showing forth His love for us.
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
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?
1 Cor 10:
We thank God for fellowship and unity with us
Secondly, we see the common partaking of Christ’s presence
It is here that we celebrate our common union with Christ. There’s a real communion here. It is a real sharing in the blood of Christ and the sharing in the body of Christ. But there is in the sharing in the blood of Christ and in the sharing in the body of Christ a real communing with Christ.
What do I liken it to? I liken it to prayer. I liken it to worship. I liken it to the experience of singing praises to Christ, knowing that He embodies the praises of His people. This is where we celebrate shared life with Christ.
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Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.
We celebrate our oneness in Christ
Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread.” The Lord’s table is the reminder of the cross where we all are leveled to the same place, needy sinners at the foot of the cross. This is what identifies again and symbolizes and celebrates our oneness in the body, our common eternal life. At the foot of the cross we are all equally in need of grace, we are all equally recipients of a salvation that is unearned and undeserved. So while we come to the Lord’s table to remember His death for us, we also come to the Lord’s table to commune in sweet fellowship with Him for He gathers with His people and inhabits their praise, especially when they are in obedience to Him, doing what He told them to do. And then thirdly, we are actually communing with each other. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, we are one body, one bread, we possess one Spirit. Here’s where we celebrate our common eternal life, shared eternal life, oneness in the body of Christ. This is where we’re reminded of the importance of our spiritual unity of loving one another, of experiencing true fellowship with one another, ministering to one another, serving one another, seeking peace with one another.
`Secondly, we see the common partaking of Christ’s presence
Hardly! What I am saying is that these sacrifices which people make are made to demons and not to God. I don’t want you to be partners with demons.
We declare our allegiance to the things of God
A Separation I think there’s a sense in which we come to the Lord’s table to worship in the holiest of place When we come to the Lord’s table, we focus on the fact that our worship is singular.
You know, in the Corinthian situation, they had come out of this paganism, they had come out of false religion, they all these feasts and festivals and worship experiences tied to false gods and the worship of false gods is the worship of demons and the Apostle Paul is saying to them, “You cannot come to the table of the Lord and then turn around and go to a pagan feast. You cannot worship at the table of the Lord and the table of demons. You have to come apart, you have to separate yourself.”
There’s no place for mixed loyalty, that’s what this is saying to us. There is no place for hanging on to anything that is false, anything that is demonic, anything that is of the darkness. This is where you leave it all. Christ is Lord, His worship is singular, no place for mixed loyalties. And so there is here at the Lord’s table, I think a fresh commitment to His Lordship. We worship Christ and Christ alone, He is all.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Seven Aspects of The Lord’s Table
You know, in the Corinthian situation, they had come out of this paganism, they had come out of false religion, they all these feasts and festivals and worship experiences tied to false gods and the worship of false gods is the worship of demons and the Apostle Paul is saying to them, “You cannot come to the table of the Lord and then turn around and go to a pagan feast. You cannot worship at the table of the Lord and the table of demons. You have to come apart, you have to separate yourself.”
There’s no place for mixed loyalty, that’s what this is saying to us. There is no place for hanging on to anything that is false, anything that is demonic, anything that is of the darkness. This is where you leave it all. Christ is Lord, His worship is singular, no place for mixed loyalties. And so there is here at the Lord’s table, I think a fresh commitment to His Lordship. We worship Christ and Christ alone, He is all.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
We preach that He’s on the way back.
By this we proclaim the cross. That ought to be reason to do it even more often in the face of unbelievers, right? I can’t think of anything more powerful for an unbeliever to slip in on than a communion service that’s done biblically, where they see the reality of what the body of Christ really is, those who celebrate the cross of Christ, those who confront the sin in their own lives, those who in this symbolic act are happy to proclaim that Christ gave His body and His blood on the cross for us.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Cor
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.
1 Cor 11:
We look inwardly
Look inwardly Number five, and this is certainly an important one, it is coming to this table that brings us to the place of purification.
Why? “For him who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t judge the body rightly.” If you come to the Lord’s table in a haphazard, frivolous, superficial way without an honest evaluation of your own spiritual condition, without the kind of self-examination that brings out confession and repentance and a desire for purification, you will eat and drink judgment to yourself. You’ll bring down the chastening hand of God.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Cor 11:
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
1 Cor 11: