Paul is writing to the church in Corinth to address some abuses of the Lord's Table and to correct those abuses.
There's a couple of things that I'd like to draw your attention to that sometimes are overlooked that seem very conspicuous to me. The first is that the Lord's Table is a local church ordinance. It's not something God has given for private worship, but it is an ordinance he's given to the church to be observed in corporate worship. Four times in this section that I read for you tonight, we find these words, when you come together, these are instructions for the church. Notice with me in verse 17, now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. Verse 18, for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you and in part I believe it. Verse 20, therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And then as he concludes this section in verse 33, therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. That seems pretty straightforward and obvious, but we need to recognize that and to administer the Lord's Table as he has prescribed it to be administered. It is a local church ordinance and this answers the question when people from time to time come and say, would you visit so and so in the nursing home or so and so in the rest home or so and so in the hospital, they desire to take communion with the pastor, go and do that.
And although the pastor may want to minister to that person, the answer to that inquiry is that's something that cannot be done because it is a local church ordinance. It's to be observed when the church comes together, not in private. So that observation.
And then a second observation. I find it interesting that our Lord did not leave it up to Paul the Apostle or any of the other apostles to institute the Lord's Supper after his departure. Christ regarded it as so important that by his own authority and while still present in the flesh, he instituted it in the most solemn time. Notice how we're told that in verse 23. Paul says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.
He authorized the Lord's Supper himself and did not delegate that to Paul or any of the other apostles. He instituted the Lord's Supper on that fateful night in which he was betrayed. As I've been preaching through the Gospel of Mark, the passage that was next, I took a look at it and I thought it doesn't lend itself well to the Lord's table participation and observation. So I chose to hit the pause on our Mark study and turn to this passage because it speaks so directly to the Lord's table. And we observe the Lord's table, at least try to, on the church calendar once a month. And so I thought this would be a good time just to pause and turn to this passage. It speaks so clearly to what we're interested in. So tonight I want us to take a look and consider the Lord's table and its meaning and draw our attention to four things.
There are four directions that I want to take you. Number one, I want you to see that the Lord's table is, number one, a reminder of Christ. Number two, that it is a helpful reminder of the past. Number three, it is an active participation in the present and it is an anticipatory hope of the future.
So we're looking past, present and future. But first, we cannot miss what Jesus himself said. He said, we are to do this. We are to observe this church ordinance in remembrance of him. What are we to remember about him? We to remember his teaching? Are we to remember his example that he set?
No. What are we to remember? Twice in this passage.
Notice what it says. When he gave thanks, verse 24, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. What are we to remember about him? Well, we are to remember his death. We're to remember his body that he suffered in, that he obeyed the law in, that he satisfied the demands of God's holy law in the place of believing sinners. We're to remember that. And then we're to remember the blood that he shed that sealed the covenant, the new covenant that we are have been made partakers of.
So it is his death as the atoning sacrifice for sins that we are to remember very clearly. Secondly, the Lord's table is helpful reminder of the past. The past. What do I mean about the past? Well, when a believer comes to the Lord's table, he's remembering Christ and his finished work on the cross. So we are we are being our attention is being drawn to objective soteriology. Something that happened in the person of Jesus Christ that will affect our eternal destiny, that happened outside of us more than two millennium ago. We're to remember the past. It is at the cross.
It is there. And in the body of Jesus Christ, that eternal redemption for his people was secured. You say, well, how how can we be certain of that? What does the Bible say? What does this passage tell us about the death of Christ?
Notice again, verse 24. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you.
Broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He died this awful death to benefit his own people.
Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. That proposition for whenever it's used in reference to Christ's death, it's expressing one or two things. It's expressing, number one, atonement, his death on behalf of his believing people, or it's communicating substitution, his death in our place.
So when you see this is my body, which is broken for you, I think both are applicable here. Atonement is in view and substitution is in view. He's dying for his people in the place of his people. I think one of the most beautiful summaries of the gospel is in Second Corinthians, chapter five, and verse twenty one that tells us that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's substitution. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Our sin was imputed to him, and in his death, he died the penalty that our sin demanded.
And what a glory that is. So the challenge here is we're thinking about the Lord's table. It is to cause us to look back. And if we're not careful, too many people don't look back far enough, because the ground of our hope, the ground of our assurance is not in something we've done. It's not when we pray to prayer.
It's not when we made a decision. It's not when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The ground of our profession is Jesus and his blood. So we're to look back, but look back to the cross.
Look back to Calvary. And as we're accustomed here in this church, looking back even to the words of scripture that point us back to the decrees of God before the foundations of the world that determined the death of Christ and the application of it. So the Lord's table is more than a look backwards. It is a look backwards to Christ and his redemptive work on the cross.
Number three, we're moving quickly here. The Lord's table is an active participation in the present. It is an active participation in the present. Notice verse 26 and these inspired instructions through the human penmanship of Paul. He says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Now we're not accustomed to thinking about preaching in a corporate context.
Usually we think of preaching as the pastor's responsibility. The one who stands here is the one who preaches, the one who proclaims. But this passage is telling us, For as often as you, not singular but plural, eat this bread and drink this cup, this is instruction to the church, you, church, proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. The Lord's table is a proclamation. It is something that is done every time we gather and observe this ordinance.
When we partake of these elements, what are we doing? We are reenacting the gospel. We are preaching the gospel afresh to ourselves and to one another. We're reminding ourselves corporately on what basis we are reconciled to God.
How is it that a man who is estranged from God, an enemy of God, under the wrath of God, under the condemnation of God, can be made at peace with God? Well, we never want to minimize the importance of preaching the gospel. And we do that regularly here from this pulpit.
But the Lord's table, this church ordinance, is a corporate proclamation where we are preaching to each other the vital necessity of the work of Christ and reconciling us to God. It's a vivid reminder. It's not something we just hear, but it's something that we see. It's something we hold in our hand.
It is a memorial. It's something that God has given to remind us. It is a vivid representation of the gospel.
Of what? Of God coming to us in Christ and redeeming us by Christ's sacrificial death. Augustine and Calvin referred to the Lord's table as the Word made visible.
The Word made visible. It is the place, as we've sung already tonight, where God's perfect holiness and His inflexible justice are satisfied. Where God can remain just and forgive sinners and maintain His holiness.
And it's the only way. So this church ordinance, the Lord's table, it is an aid to us in proclaiming the gospel. William Lumpkin says this, quote, The sacraments speak a language independent of the language of the pastor. I don't know if you've thought about it before tonight, but as we partake corporately of these elements, we are preaching the gospel. We are proclaiming the gospel. Not primarily to the world, but we are proclaiming the gospel to one another. We're reminding one another on what basis are we reconciled to God, made right with God, justified before Almighty God. One of the things I like about the Lord's table is that it moves the worshiper from a state of passivity to a state of activity. We're not just sitting and listening and hearing, but we are participating. We are involving ourselves in this proclamation, in participation in this Lord's table. So as we're considering the Lord's table being an active participation in the present, there's two aspects to this.
There is a vertical aspect to it, and then there is a horizontal aspect. Listen to... This was very arresting to me. I came across this. It says the Lord's supper is not for you. It is for us.
It sounds so simple, but it's arresting. The Lord's supper is not for you. It is for us. It's not a private meal that an individual will share with Jesus. It is a common meal, a communal meal for all of Christ's people to worship together. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 25 makes it plain, again, in our text, in the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. It's reminding us again of the death of Christ. It's a communal meal where all those who are in covenant with Christ worship Him for what He has done, where all those in covenant with Christ worship Him not for just what He's done, but worship Him together as the fact that we've been made brothers and sisters in Christ. So there's this vertical dimension that we've been reconciled to God, but there is this horizontal aspect that focuses on the community of reconciliation that God has created by Christ's death and resurrection.
And I think because so often the individual aspect, the vertical aspect is so emphasized in the text, and I'm not opposed to that, but it tends to cause us to miss the horizontal aspect because what is the context here of these instructions that Paul is giving? There are offenses in the church. Brothers and sisters have sinned against one another. Relationships have been ruptured.
Offenses have taken place. And Paul is writing to address these abuses and to correct these abuses. So as much as our focus needs to be on Christ, we're to remember Him, there's also this horizontal aspect. And I think when it talks about, let's see, observing, trying to find the word here, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. I won't die on this hill, but I think in the context there's more going on here than what we typically give thought to. Yes, there is this aspect of participation in the Lord's table without self-examination, but I think what seems to me to be in the context here, eating and drinking in an unworthy manner, is eating and drinking in a manner that is being addressed by these violations, not considering our brothers and our sisters in a selfish manner. These attitudes that have disrupted the relationships between brothers and sisters.
That's eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. And that's what Paul is writing to address. That's how the passage begins, that's how the passage ends. Notice again, verse 17, Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse.
There is a problem that he's writing to address. He addresses that, speaks to them about participation in the Lord's table, and then he gets to the end and he says in verse 33, Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another, but if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the rest I will set in order when I come. So those bookends tell me that we must not exclude the context that necessitates Paul speaking about the Lord's table here.
That was kind of a new, well not new, I mean I'd considered it before, thought about it, but never really gave it the weight that I think that it demands. So when we do come together, again in being consistent with the context here, I think self-examination is not just examining our lives in terms of our sins against the Lord, which I'm not diminishing that, that's the vertical dimension, but there's this horizontal dimension. Is there any brother or sister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this local assembly that I am at odds with, that I've sinned against, that I am in violation with? And Lord, make me aware of that, help me, give me grace to go and address that so that we are in union and in harmony with one another.
I think that's part of what self-examination demands. So as we actively participate in the present, this is an act of participation. We're participating in proclamation, we are participating in communion, we're remembering his present ongoing ministry.
What is that? What is his present ongoing ministry? So when I say that, I don't know where your mind goes. Does your mind go, well, where is Jesus at this time? Well, he's seated at the right hand of God the Father, what's he doing there? Well, he's representing me there. He ever liveth to intercede and intercede for his people there?
Well, that's true, but I think there's something else here. We're to be reminded of his continuing present high priestly function that by, the writer of Hebrews has told us this, by his once for all offering of himself, he has by one offering perfected forever them that are presently being sanctified. So when we gather around the Lord's table and take these elements and ingest the bread and ingest the cup, we're reminded that we are feeding upon Christ, that there is a fresh application of the merits of Christ to my soul, that there's this present ongoing sanctifying purpose that God has for his church. He who has begun a good work in us is continuing to work in us, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.
So there is an ongoing sanctifying work. There is a fresh application of the blood of Christ to our lives because we are sinners still in need of cleansing and forgiveness, not to be right with God, we've been reconciled to God, but for the renewal and the continuing fellowship that believers enjoy with Christ. So, the Lord's table, it reminds us of where to remember him.
Number one, it calls us to reflective remembrance of the past, of our active participation in the present, and then there is this anticipatory hope of the future. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. How long? How long are we to do this? We proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Till he comes, there is this anticipatory hope of the future, of his second coming that is set before us in the Lord's table.
How long do we observe the Lord's table? Till he comes. The clear implication is that he is coming again, and that should be something that every saint of God is longing for, anticipating the return of his bodily presence and the reign of Christ established on this earth. We are to occupy till he comes. And as we are occupying, we are to have an eye and a thought toward his second coming. We're to be faithful to proclaim his death until he comes. So in a moment, we are going to be gathering around the Lord's table.
And my question, well, several questions for you as we conclude. Who is it for? Who is the Lord's table for? What is for those who have been made partakers of Christ and have followed the Lord in baptism, who have publicly testified of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? There are only two church ordinances. There is believer's baptism.
It's a one-time event, not to be repeated. And then there is the Lord's table, that second ordinance that is continual. And the first qualifies you for the second. It's been a puzzle to me through the years for people who have made inquiry to be welcome at the table, and yet have never identified themselves as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wondered, well, why would you want to obey one ordinance and disobey the other?
It would seem if you want to obey the second ordinance that you would first give attention to the first. So who is it for? It's for those who have been made partakers of Christ and have followed the Lord in believer's baptism, have publicly testified. And again, how do we know if we're rightly related to God?
Well, a good way to know is, where are you looking? What are you trusting? If you're trusting the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, that's a good sign. Alistair Begg tells the story in a very colorful way. He recounts the story of the thief on the cross, the two thieves on the cross, and the thief that was converted at the last hour, the last few moments of his life. And then he uses some sanctified imagination of this man getting to heaven, and the angels going to him and say, well, how did you get here? Well, the man didn't seem to know too much theology, didn't know too much about Jesus, and everybody's scratching their head, and they finally go to the man and finally pin him down and say, well, tell us how you got here. And he said, the man on the center cross said I could come.
Folks, that's it. Jesus is the door. And if you're going to get to heaven, you're going to have to go through the door, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. So I trust tonight that you're trusting in the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not trusting yourself. You're not trusting in anything you've done. You're not looking within. You're not looking at something you've said or done or prayed. No, you're trusting the person and work of Jesus Christ. And to look any other place is fatal.
It's fatal. Make sure that the object of your faith is the person and work of Jesus Christ and His alone. Who is it for? It is for those who delight in active participation, who understand that it is a proclamation. It is a time of communion. It is receiving the ongoing benefits of Christ's death on our behalf.
Who is it for? It's for those who love His appearing. It's for those who are looking and anticipating and expecting His return. We have these words that ought to thrill our hearts. Henceforth there is laid up for me, Paul says, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. God has called some dear, precious saints away from us that are enjoying the glories of heaven that we can only long and anticipate for. But as I think about one man in particular, or two men in particular, they were constantly reminding us of the necessity of anticipating the return of our Savior, Maranatha, even so come, Lord Jesus.
Often you would hear those words coming from their lips. We need God to raise up a chorus of people who not only think that way, but talk that way and live that way, right? This world's a trap. This world is a trap. There's so many good things to enjoy in this life that if we're not careful, we can become distracted and have our priorities misplaced and be living for the wrong reasons. We've been redeemed.
We've been purchased at great cost. Our lives do not belong to us. Our lives have been purchased by Him. Our lives are His. And He has every right to direct our lives as He deems fit.
It's not for us to determine how we're going to live our life. It's to submit to His will and live the life that He has ordained for us, whatever that is, whatever that looks like. He's made us ambassadors. He's made us kingdom agents. We're to live for Him who died for us. How careful we must be. It's easy, so easy to have our priorities misplaced. That's why there's such warnings in the scriptures. Not only verbal warnings, but examples of people who've shipwrecked their lives because they made professions. They seem to be followers of the Lord Jesus and yet proved later on to be counterfeit.
We don't want to be a counterfeit. And it's challenging. So it's easy for you. You're a preacher.
Your whole life is given to study and ministry of the Word. Yes, but I live the way you live. I live in a home.
I have a home to take care of. And the allurements of this world are just as attractive and appealing to me as they are to you. And we have to say no to the wrong things and yes to the right things on a continual basis. So I'm thankful for this ordinance that God has given to His church where we come and rejoice afresh in our Savior and think upon Him, remember Him at the great cost that He paid to purchase our redemption and what that means.
You know, if we just... So many people have a misunderstanding of what salvation is. You talk to a person, what does salvation mean to you? Well, Jesus died for me. Well, what does that mean to you?
Well, He died for my sins. Well, so what does that mean to you? Then you begin to talk to them about the language of the Bible, about redemption and reconciliation and justification and propitiation. And eight out of ten Christians just will stare back at you.
They don't know what you're talking about. And if we just understood the concept of redemption, we sing about it, I am redeemed. What does that mean, to be redeemed?
It means to be purchased. You've been purchased by the precious blood of Christ, if you're a Christian. You were on the slave market of sin and He came and bought you, freed you from your sin and your shackles and He made you a follower of Him.
And if people just knew that, that in itself is a pretty good self-evaluation. And if people have no concept of that, well, I'm on my way to heaven because I did what the preacher told me to do. I came to the front of the altar, I prayed a prayer, I know I was sincere. You ever prayed that prayer before?
Well, yes, I prayed it many times. Well, were you not sincere before? Well, I thought I was. Well, how do you know you were sincere enough this time?
I mean, if it's all on sincerity, that's a bunch of nonsense, right? But I've talked to people. Well, I don't think I was sincere as I should have been. I was a young person. I don't think I said the right words.
No. We're talking about a supernatural work of the Spirit of God, where He regenerates men who are dead in their trespasses and sins, imparts a divine nature to them, gives them new desires. That's what we're talking about. Well, let me pray as we prepare our hearts for participation around the Lord's Table. Father, we thank you tonight for your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you for this church ordinance that He has given to us, whereby we are to remember Him, remember His broken body and remember His shed blood, body that was broken in the place of sinners, bloody shed to redeem the people that the Father gave to Him. Father, draw near to us now in these moments as we participate in these elements, and may they not just be elements, but may they speak to us of the reality of Christ as we feed upon Him afresh tonight, we pray now in Jesus' name. Amen.
