The Lord's Supper: God's Sign & Seal of Continuation for a Believer's Strengthening
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Dear Congregation of our LORD Jesus Christ,
Professing the Church as an article of faith, after great descriptions of God being toward us in creation and providence, most stupendously in salvation in Christ, we are about to close how God continues to be towards His people in this world through His church, and how he uses baptism to initiate those coming into this assembly where the Holy Spirit and the Word will work - to show the life of forgiveness in Christ and new life in the Spirit. We saw not up to us to make this sentimental, traditional rite - or to make it our statement of commitment of faith. No, baptism is first of all God’s statement of His loyalty and faithfulness, His covenant promises sign and sealed - which individuals must carry with and lean into by personal faith and the gift of the Spirit - they will live in the inner grace pictured with the outer washing of water.
I hope you are using your baptism as God’s great gift - travels with you. But though baptism gives us nothing that is not in the pure and simple Gospel , the Word, it is more personally signed and sealed when joined with Faith, and does incredible work of confirming our faith, confirming God’s presence - Remember Luther - I am a baptized Christian.
But our great God in establishing His covenant, his partnership and relation ship with His people, he not only gave them a sign and seal, with sacramental action for those coming into His covenant community. He also says, I've got something else so tangible, and personal, but its not for entering into this community, it is for those who experiencing the inner spiritual reality of that baptism, born again, reconciled to me by all that was pictured there, now I don’t want you just to have a a one time past sign and seal covenant action. That would be like a husband and wife - exchanging vows and one of them saying, look 25 years ago I told you I loved you isn’t that good enough. Well a lot happens in 25 minutes, 25 days - and couples need on-going assurance, ongoing re-committal, ongoing delight in expression of love don’t they. Just think of the song from Fiddler on the Roof that David and Marje sang at our talents show when so many of you hit 25 years: Tevye’s patriarch of big Jewish family and social upheaval and kids marrying and moving out . Unsettled he turns to his wife Golde and sings: Do you Love Me? She sings back: Do I love you? For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, Cooked your meals, cleaned your house. Given you children, milked the cow; After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now? Eventually Tevye wins his wife over and the song draws to a close as they confess their love for one another: It doesn’t change a thing But even so, After twenty-five years It’s nice to know.
But God isn’t reluctant to talk about love now. The relationship he saved us into, isn’t just about something that happened 25 years ago, or 2000 years ago - just about the past. After saving us, the Lord as our Confession Art 33 on both sacraments puts it,
"We believe that our good God, mindful of our crudeness and weakness has ordained sacraments for us to seal his promises in us, to pledge his good will and grace toward us, and also to nourish and sustain our faith. Belgic Confession 33
Do you get that? God wants to tell us He loves us again and again, from eternity chose us in love Eph 1, demonstrated that love at the heart of it at the Cross, Jesus before the Cross said, you know what John 17:23-26 I am going to let you share in My Father’s love now and for all eternity. And so while not a means to imitate or evangelize, not first of all a tool for us to get all spiritual and express our commitment to God, communion this Lord’s Supper is a vital way that God has ordained for us to experience and be confirmed in God’s love and all the blessings, and indeed to have communion with the Risen, Ascended Lord Jesus.
Key Truth: The Lord’s Supper is God’s Appointed means to experience fellowship with the Resurrected Lord, through the simple means of the bread and wine of a covenant meal!
I don’t want to do what so often happens, and just fix in your mind what the Lord’s Supper isn’t, not just a bare memorial, not a way for us to get in a spiritual groove, not transubstantiation of late medieval church - Christ physically present as bread and wine become . No I want to tell the good news that God has a way of coming toward us in the Lord Supper when faith and Holy Spirit present in our eating and drinking of this meal - so that Christ spiritually really present and communication g His love for us.
A. Like Baptism, The Lord’s Supper didn’t come out of nowhere, but is the Sign and Seal of Covenant Promises Fulfilled Made to Us in the Old Covenant.
A. Like Baptism, The Lord’s Supper didn’t come out of nowhere, but is the Sign and Seal of Covenant Promises Fulfilled Made to Us in the Old Covenant.
Do you remember that about Baptism - all that circumcision signed and sealed fulfilled by Christ by his work on the Cross. Remember Colossians then says Christ’s fulfilling circumcision of our souls on the Cross - those realities are what Christian baptism inmates us into.
Well in the same way we are to see in the context of our passage, of the institution by our Lord of this sign and seal of a covenant meal, that it is about something from the OT that Christ has fulfilled? What is it? It’s the Passover at the heart of the OT Exodus. You and I eating this meal isn’t the fulfillment of great Exodus that God did in Christ setting us free from the slavery of sin and death and hell, our over Satan. No. Christ’s work on the Cross and Rising again - He is the fulfillment of that Exodus. But just like back in the OT God made away for all those who had been initiated and joined His assembly of Israel, to experience His love and saving benefits in the Passover Meal - repeated again and gain - Children present - asking What make this night different than all others. Answer We were in slavery, God delivered us by Passover Lamb, delivered us through Re Sea, we even living 1000 years after we were there in Israel God did that for us.
Well, we read so clearly in Mark 14:12 the Lord’s Supper is on that day of commemoration, but also participation - they were sacrificing the Passover Lamb at that time, Jesus was hosting a banquet, in which He would signal the OT fulfilled, and now a new meal - deliver what the OT one did in shadowy form -
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
take basic nourishment of staple diet of all - bread and wine and those will become the emblems by which you can have - these picture my once for all sacrifice of myself for you, they communicate if take hold in faith - my covenant with you and all its benefits: Remember what he said lifting the cup? Mark 14:24
And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Dor Christ, he was fulfilling God’s covenant with us, taking upon himself the punishment for being covenant breakers, becoming the curse, he would die the ultimate plague - the plague of the death of the firstborn in the household. And remember those bitter herbs, and the dry dense bread with no yeast, yeast of sin completely removed from the households of Isreal, commemorates how God delivered them, Now Mark records as Christ is becoming the ultimate sacrifice he takes bread and wine - and no more bread or ritual matza needs to be used:
Hendricks explains: “A few more hours and the old symbol, being bloody—for it required the slaying of the lamb—will have served its purpose forever, having reached its fulfillment in the blood served its purpose forever, having reached its fulfillment in the blood shed on Calvary. It was time, therefore, that a new and unbloody symbol replace the old.”
That’s certainly what we remember and believe - that Christ is our Lamb that takes away the sin for the world,. We remember and believe what Paul says in 1 Cor 5:7
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
This meal is given for us to live into the life and death issue of the gospel We are to celebrate our freedom in Christ in a serious celebration. More serious than a a Jew not honouring Passover, if trample and treat lightly the blood fo the Lamb, the precious blood of our LORD.
SO I hope you see their is the active and ongoing celebration of Christ fulfilling Passover for you and me,
B. but its also Christ hosting a meal in which He not only would have you presently participate, but He would come spiritually for You to participate Him in a heightened way.
B. but its also Christ hosting a meal in which He not only would have you presently participate, but He would come spiritually for You to participate Him in a heightened way.
Do you get that? This is not just a memorial of Christ fulling this sacrifice on the Cross. It is not less than that, but it is certainly more. This too can be seen in the covenant sign in the Exodus in shadow form. Remember God makes the Old Covenant, and the mediators Moses, Nadab Abihu, Aaron, 70 elders Exodus 24.
- remember God says I want to ratify this covenant with you - come up - not only saw rainbow presence of the Lord, but what did they do with the Lord, Like Abraham - they ate and feasted.
Do you know what the meal represented and still does in Eastern cultures. Intimate friendship and fellowship. There is no mistaking the picture in the mini miracle, of homeless Jesus getting a large upper room in the capital city during Passover. All the Air BNB booked for weeks. But look: Mark 14:14
and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’
Jesus as God’s representative , God incarnate - He who would accomplish this salvation He is the host of that meal - big time responsibility in the hospitality codes of the ANE. You are under my protection, I will provide for you.
Jesus looked at them all, in Luke 22:15 and said:
And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
This is no carnal vendor, promiscuously handing out samples. The Upperoom He draws those His dear disciples close to Him. And when I lift up these elements and offer them to you God’s people, what do I say: Take, east remember and believe that this is body given FOR YOU.” Ultimate intimacy.
Do you remember the big scandal of Jesus day with the Pharisees, he goes and he east with tax collectors and sinners. Not a table for self-righteousness, those know themselves sinners but who in repentance and faith gather ed by Christ - experience table fellowship with Him. And you who deep down know you struggle with Does He love me? Does He love me still?- sees flaws no one else does. He knows how many times and deeply failed. He knows how cold my love seems. But he offers Himself a new to me - yes, its exactly because of your sin your weaknesses,s that I offered my body and blood for you.
What did Jesus say, as he poured the wine out and bid you drink the cup? Mark 14:24
And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Do you know how much blood spilled every day in the temple, at its dedication 142000 animals. Year after year. And Hebrews 10:4 says just a picture but that can’t actually do it:
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
But we lift up the cup that represents the blood of Christ spilled for us and look what the New Testament says about what that blood does for those who believe: Col 1:20
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
This blood not only cleanses us, not only purchases and busy us out of slavery and despair of belonging to Stan and death and kingdom of darkness, it brings us into delightful fellowship with God!
So our confession, says because Jesus is toward you in your salvation in this way, and because of the weakness of your faith until Christ comes again, because of your short comings, Jesus comes towards you Risen and Ascended in Heaven, not physically, but spiritually by His Spirit i- and he uses bread and wine and says - when eat this not with mouth, but with souls - trusting in what my body and blood represent, I actively and in real way will nourish and support you. This is a sacrament not of initiation, but of continuation, of ongoing nourishment. Spiritual nutrition essential for ongoing Christian health and strength after you are born again.
The very same faith that God grants by the Word through the Holy Spirit, in you, He nourishes and sustains that faith in this meal. Kind of like this wedding ring. It didn’t make my marriage … but because the sign, and the thing it signifies (priceless faithfulness, and unending love) because the sign and the ting are so united put together. I touch this ring, I wear it, and I am caught up to experience and live out the married state. So too, you eat this bread and drink this wine, if you’ve got the thing signified, the forgiveness, the new life in Spirit of Christ - then you are not eating and drinking His body and blood - like physical food,
But by your soul being lifted up to all the promises and benefits in Christ - you are in a very real way participating even feasting on the blessing that are in Christ. This is why our confession makes that point we often read before the sacrament:
As Christ re-presents and His work to us in the bread and wine, as truly as we take and hold and eat and drink,
“so truly we receive in to our souls for our spiritual life, the true body and true blood Christ, our only Saviour. We receive these by faith, which is the and and mouth of our souls… This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates himself to us with all his benefits.”
Do you get that a born again believer eating and drinking by faith - Christ bodily in heaven, actually works in us all that He represents to us in the bread and wine! This is the covenantal action of eating, communing with, delighting in fellowship of our Lord and Saviour. The sacrament is not empty and bare remembering on my part. Nor is the effectiveness and action in the physical elements themselves nor the church re-sacrficing Christ. But it is in Christ conning toward us with His very body and His very blood in heaven, and by these tokens he really united us to His body in heaven, united in His human-nature in God’s very presence! Do you get it the bread and wine don’t become Christ’s body and blood in magical way. Nor does this bread taken, held, partaken in by faith, they don’t just represent or symbolize Christ’s body. That’s not what he says: Mark 14:22,24 is my body. is my blood!
Like what happens when I touch my wedding ring, the sign and the thing it signifies so closely identified together - they can be though and experienced as one and the same thing. DO you get it the essence of the Super what we do here, isn’t just reflecting on what Christ did 2000 years ago, but it is feeding upon him in our heart through faith, its actively presently receiving all Christ promises in his body and blood!
Guido de Bres trying to explain biblical position of the church, not heretics throwing out real Lord’s Supper, nor giving into unscriptural RC, no like way back at the Council of Nicea. It is the Spirit’s work at this table lifting us up to the real Christ!
Let us not childishly cleave to the bread and the wine set before us, but let us, lifting our minds to heaven by faith, consider that on the holy table is placed the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world, who offered himself as a sacrifice without being slain by the priests. Canons of the Council of Nicea
And if you aren’t coming with Faith in that Christ, not discerning the body of Christ as Paul puts it, all you get here is condemnation. And if you don’t come because trusting n merits of your own, think not worthy - also not getting what this meal delivers. A table for sinners who humbly obey the command, take hold of great privilege! I need the open hose of mercy Christ offers for my sustaining and ongoing nourishment! Simple and mysterious Christ has promised to feed us, the Holy Spirit to ilft us up and unites us to Christ by faith alone through the means of this meal of meals! The Lord’s Supper is for us sustenance in the new reality Christ has brought us into! So much in our world draws us away form who we are in Christ, from this new reality. But Christ comes to us in the bread and wine - and this is one of the ways He is with us always to the end of the age. The Supper as Calvin put it is how, drawn into communion with Christ, we partake of his true humanity!
C. And that present participation in Christ, brings us to the closing point. What benefits does partaking in communion by faith bring to us?
C. And that present participation in Christ, brings us to the closing point. What benefits does partaking in communion by faith bring to us?
i. We remember Christ, All this is not to say that partaking in faith is not a memorial. If a church faithfully prepares and administers, examining ourselves, and frequently - we will think more often and more richly of Christ and the greatest battle of all time when he conquered sin & death for us. This is no small blessing especially in the times we live in.
Charles Taylor, probably Canada’s greatest contemporary philosopher - written a book called our Secular Age. In it, as Roman Catholic and one who understands how much we’ve lost in leaving a worldview where God was transcendent and yet also involved in - he says modern people in secular age, left behind a regulative narrative, over arching story with God in it. Meta narrative. Our neighbours live in a disenchanted world inhabited by buffered selves. Their world has become flat where everything revolves around the present, and what we have in our hands now. All horizontal - there is no vertical. Sense some neighbours missing that. And New Age, or even spirituality without Christ type of Christianity comes and says there is so much more, but its all about your self, getting touch with inner nature. Man in sin is man turn inward. It s the old paganism with a new face, that leaves God and His especially God as manifest in His Son out!
But the Lord’s Supper means we have a God who is involved in our world historically and personally. He turns to us, but He turns to us in His Son Jesus Christ. He turns to us in that kind of love, and the Supper testifies we are freed from slavery to self, to stuff, to darkness, and Christ our Liberator - engage us . He did 2000 years ago, but he Does now in the Present as Emmanuel - God iwth us, and we lifted up and united in His human nature in heaven. He choses us as His place to dwell on earth spritual. But did you catch what Jesus said at the very end of our Mark text: Mark 14:25
Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
This meal points to a past, present and future that God is toward us and for us in Christ. And as we are joined to Christ, we are joined together with each other at this table - and its not just that we are individual relive and renewed - no look as you see the future and the kingdom in Christ, as you long for the new reality to come in fullness, look what our confession says will happen:
In short, by the use of this holy sacrament we are moved to a fervent love of God and our neighbours! Belgic Confession 33
Not introverted church, not introverted Chieftains, not looking only at self in baptism or Lord Supper - but new reality broken forth in Christ. We are not pure, He is. We don’t have to be pure to come to the table, we need to be rightly orientated - we come as community recognizing our sin, turning to Christ in it. We comes and a true love for God and for our neighbour, and especially this body of Christ we are part of is stirred! We come united to Christ, but also feeling His absence, and by His Spirit until Christ comes again, we living in His Spirit, strengthened by our Communion with Christ in Heaven, we fill in the gap on earth for people. We live life, not for ourselves,but unite to Christ pointing to his kingdom, a community of discipleship in joy of Christ. Proclaiming His saving death, His presence in this world by Word and Spirit through the Church - to be toward us, restoring us.
Christians are not isolated believers seeking a fulfilling relationship with God alone. We share Christ’ true and restored humanity - and its co-humanity meant to be lived in love that thrust us out from the table with fervent love of our neighbour as well. And so we go out imitating Christ, and anticipating His Coming!
And so our participation in Christ at this table proves Christ’s point in John 6 - I give myself - for the life of the World, He is the manna that comes down from heaven, - and our celebration in public worship is a testimony that this new reality of Christ’s kingdom is dawning!
Conclusion: Our confession doesn’t confess the Sacraments. No we confess that in the God-ordained sacraments God has done something he wants signed and sealed to us, but also that God is doing something today. One of the best contemporaneity examples of this is Babette’s Feast - picture 19th century village by sea, Danish Lutheran - generation real spiritual awakening, but like often happens in church in crusty tradition, dry ruts. And so two brother's living together, kind of ruling village with cold legalism. And Babetete just won lottery in France, but political situation changing she gets out. She was a famous culinary expert high society chef in Paris. Movie starts with her being hired to cook - simple bland meals of fish and bread. She sees well meaning people stifled, consumed by forgiveness, no living and laughing and loving as a community. And you know what happens? She decides to knock their socks off. Spends all her money order food lots of it, most exquisite and exotic ingredients. Arriving by boat loads - they are perplexed, She blows it all on one incredible feast, And you know what the old members of the sect, who had forgotten what it mean to live in grave, they are transformed by the meal itself. Forgiveness emerges and love, new life and hope and that little Danish village becomes renewed and life giving. You know what happens, those gathered at the table are drawn into communion. And in the deepest way - what this meal points to the new reality in Christ called to participate in, strengthen our faith nourish our union with Christ and also his body, galvanize the love with which we are sent to the world from the table!
I will preach the benefits more specifically in our Communion services, but for now do you see - what Jesus calls us and invites us into isn’t a regular celebration of his funeral and memorial just of his death, and past events. John Calvin explained his view that the sacrament is not a sacrifice, but rather a meal in which God nourishes our faith.And its a meal at which we are joined by his Spirit to Christ Himself and and to one snatcher in this outward not introverted love!