Sermon Tone Analysis

Made New Podcast Template

Introduction: 1 Minute

· Greeting: Welcome to Made New, I am [Name, Title, Church], I am [Name, Title, Church] and I am [Name, Title, Church].

We are three local pastors striving to teach you theology and help you apply it to your life.

· State Subject: Means of Grace, Lord’s Supper

· Transition:

The Doctrine Defined with Clarity: 5 Minutes

Definition: LBC 1689

The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by Him the same night wherein He was betrayed, to be observed in His churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and shewing forth the sacrifice of Himself in His death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment, and growth in Him, their further engagement in, and to all duties which they owe to Him; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him, and with each other.

(Each can give a demonstration of the points, either your own or what’s written).

#1.

A Sermon Preached

The Lord’s Supper is the second sermon preached on Sunday.

As we will cover later, to take the cup and take the bread is to eat and drink judgment to yourself or to experience afresh the covenant relationship between God and his people.

Therefore, it is a sermon.

A sermon that convicts the wayward Christian of their sin and disfellowship; it is used to bring about repentance.

To the faithful, it is a constant reminder of what our Lord has done.

To the unsaved, it is a plea to them, an invitation to come and be saved.

#2.

Confirmation of Faith/Spiritual Nourishment

As noted, the Lord’s Supper will either confirm the faith that you profess, or it will harden your heart.

If we take the cup and bread joyfully as we remember the sacrifice of Christ; if we take the cup and bread with sorrow knowing that it was our sin for which he died, if we take the cup and bread triumphantly knowing that one day we shall see Him face to face and with him we shall dine together; this brings confirmation that is satisfactory to the soul.

#3.

Growth in Him

As a result of this grace we grow in Christ.

We learn more of who He is and who we are.

We remember our sin and his sacrifice.

And we are reminded that we must put to death our flesh.

#4.

Unity with One Another

.

The Lord’s Supper is not only a sermon preached to ourselves, but a sermon that we preach to one another as we share in his sacrifice together.

We are reminded that we are one body.

We are reminded that Christ is our head and we are reminded what we are to be as a Church.

The love of Christ is what binds us together, and thus we should edify, encourage, and even sometimes in love, rebuke one another, so that we may grow into maturity and be found faithful when he returns.

Three Historical Views

· Lutheran View

Consubstantiation The Lutheran Church follows this understanding, which holds that Christ is present along with the unchanged reality of the bread and wine.

Luther believed that the words "This is my body, this is my blood" must be interpreted literally as teaching that Christ's body and blood were present in the sacrament "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine.

Furthermore, he viewed the sacrament as a means of grace by which the participant's faith is strengthened.

This still signifies a 'physical' presence of Christ in the Supper, but not in a 'bloody' way.

· Catholic View

Transubstantiation The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church follow this understanding.

This involves a 'real' (physical) presence of the 'flesh' and 'blood' of Christ in the bread and wine.

According to this position, the substance, or inner reality, of the bread and wine are changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, but the accidents, or external qualities known through the senses (color, weight, taste), remain unchanged.

Catholics believe this transformation occurs at the moment of the Priest's enunciating the words.

Orthodox believe that they must invoke the Holy Spirit to accomplish the transformation.

Catholics believe the Mass/Eucharist/Lord's Supper has a 'sacrificial' nature, where Christ is the SAME victim in the Eucharist as He was on the Cross.

· Reformed View

Calvin held that, while Christ is bodily in heaven, distance is overcome by the Holy Spirit, who vivifies believers with Christ's flesh.

Thus the Supper is a true communion with Christ, who feeds us with his body and blood.

"We must hold in regard to the mode, that it is not necessary that the essence of the flesh should descend from heaven in order to our being fed upon it, the virtue of the Spirit being sufficient to break through all impediments and surmount any distance of place.

The real difference between Luther and Calvin lay in the present existence of Christ's body.

Calvin held that it is in a place, Heaven, while Luther said that it has the same omnipresence as Christ's divine nature.

The Doctrine Demonstrated in Scripture: 11 minutes

The text that I think best illustrates that the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace is .

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

The point being made from this text is that the cup and the bread are signs that signify present participation or present communion in the present benefits procured by Christ’s blood and body.

Grace procured by what Christ did for us (i.e., redemption accomplished) becomes ours through the Lord’s Supper (i.e., redemption applied).

Communion of the blood and body of Christ means spiritual nourishment is brought to souls.

It is present participation in the present benefits of Christ’s death for those properly partaking.

In other words, the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace.

Paul brings up the nature of the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace in this text to argue against participating in pagan sacrificial meals (cf.

), which is idolatry (cf.

).

As Charles Hodge asserts in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, “It is here assumed that partaking of the Lord’s Supper brings us into communion with Christ.

If this be so, partaking of the table of demons must bring us into communion with demons.

This is the apostle’s argument.”

Any view of the Supper as only horizontal or memorial does not fit the context or prove the point of Paul’s argument.

Commercial/Coffee Break: 1 Minute

Doctrine Defended against Objections: 5 Minutes

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Doctrine Devoted in Life: 11 Minutes

#1.

Judgement or Blessing

Great things are at stake when the church gathers at the Table of her Lord.

Blessing and judgment are in the balance.

There is no neutral engagement.

Our gospel is “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” ().

So also, the “visible sermon” of the Supper leads from life to life, or death to death.

As with gospel preaching, the Table will not leave us unaffected, but either closer to our Savior, or more callous to him.

#2.

Looking Back

Like baptism, the Supper gives us a divinely authorized dramatization of the gospel, as the Christian receives spiritually — through physical taste, sight, smell, and touch — the broken body and spilled blood of Jesus for sinners.

The Table is an act of new-covenant renewal, a repeated rite of continuing fellowship and ongoing perseverance in our embrace of the gospel.

#3.

Proclaiming Now

“As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” ().

#4.

A Future Feast

“As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” ().

“We eat only little bits of bread and drink little cups of wine,” says John Frame (Systematic Theology, 1069), “for we know that our fellowship with Christ in this life cannot begin to compare with the glory that awaits us in him.”

Conclusion: 1 Minute

· Repeat definition:

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Until next time grace and peace.