How to Share the Gospel in 60 Seconds

How is communion the body and blood of Christ? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

We'd love to hear from you. Our phone lines are open right now, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number. Jot this down.

833-THECORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites. In fact, you can watch Adriel on YouTube every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time, and send him a question through our YouTube channel. And you're always welcome to email us. Here's our email address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Susan, calling in from New York.

Susan, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Sanchez and Bill. Thank you so much for your ministry. I'm new to the Reformed faith and really appreciate your kind and biblical answers to questions. I'm currently applying for membership at a church, and the church requires that you're a member to partake in the Lord's Supper. I have no issue with that.

I appreciate that. But a friend of mine who is visiting, she has issues about needing to be a member. It's not just of that church. It's of any evangelical church, so that you're accountable. So I'd like to get your opinion on that.

Thank you. I think that the general understanding of a church, we're called to be a part of the body of Christ. And ordinarily, as Christians, we're called to seek out true churches, churches where the word of God is faithfully proclaimed. And so that practice, I would say, is common, I think, in solid churches. Tragically, today, I think there's been a minimizing of what we sometimes refer to as the means of grace, the preaching of God's word, baptism, the Lord's Supper. People oftentimes think of baptism as being the means of grace.

But I think it's important for people to be aware of that. and the Lord's Supper is these sort of empty rituals. And so, you know, what's the big deal? You know, whether I'm a member of a church or not, or, you know, have gone to church in a long time, can I just participate in this?

What's the big deal? Well, no, these are means of grace for the community of faith, for the people of God. And I think it's important that we stress the fact that if you are a Christian, or if you claim to believe in Jesus Christ, you need to be plugged into a solid church where the word of God is faithfully taught. And you hear us on this broadcast all the time emphasizing that, you know, I have the privilege of getting to serve in this capacity and encourage people answering questions about the Christian faith every day, right? But I'm not your pastor.

You need to have your own pastor. And that should be the primary place where you're getting fed, where you're getting encouraged in your relationship with the Lord, and where you're growing together with other believers and indeed partaking of the Lord's Supper. And so I think one of the reasons, Susan, that many today have issue or take issue with that practice that says, hey, you need to be a member of a church if you're gonna be taking the Lord's Supper is because we've minimized the importance of the means of grace. And we've also minimized the importance of church membership. Now, are there instances, you know, extraordinary circumstances where someone is maybe in between churches or something like that and their membership is not in any particular place? And, you know, does that mean that they're not allowed to take the Lord's Supper?

No, I think that there's some flexibility there, but emphasizing the importance of church membership is key. And so I'm grateful to hear that you're plugged in and may the Lord continue to bless you as you seek to grow in your faith in Christ. Thanks. Susan, thanks so much for your call and for listening to Core Christianity.

We really do appreciate you. Let's go to Roger calling in from California. Roger, what's your question for Adriel?

Well, my question, Pastor, has to do with the Book of John versus 27 through 29. So I'm a first-time caller and I'm really not used to speaking on the radio, so please bear with me, if you would. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, I can hear you okay, Roger. No problem, no worries.

Okay, great, thanks. Okay, I don't want to go ahead. I take up a lot of time and go into a lot of detail, but basically I'm on this Christian website and we have a lot of debates going on. I basically represent the position where I have to represent the Reform Calvinistic person I'm debating with is not. So his point, I always use verse 29 to indicate that it's God's work that we believe, that belief is a gift, basically, from God to those whom he has chosen for salvation.

Would you agree with that so far? I mean, the theological point that faith is a gift that's given to us by God is something I do agree with. And certainly one of the things that you have highlighted here in John chapter six is the sovereign grace of God in drawing people to himself. I think that there are other passages that you could go that maybe would more clearly spell that out, this idea of faith being a gift, Ephesians chapter two being one of them, 2 Peter chapter one as well. But I think I am tracking with you so far, so go ahead, continue.

Great, thanks. Okay, so the problem I'm having is that this person is, I guess, very fluent in Greek because he keeps reverting back to the Greek. And I have no knowledge of Greek other than what little bit I can find in the online Bible that I look at. So he is saying that verse 29 doesn't say it's the gift of God. He is saying that when looked at in conjunction with 27, that it's that, well, let me read it here. Jesus answered and said that T-O-U-T-O is the work of God in order that instead of that. So in other words, it's up to the person to get, God will take you up to a certain point and then it's up to the person, I guess, he's saying, to get the faith. Yeah.

So I don't know how to refuse. First, I'm not really, to be honest, I'm not sure what in order that means in this context as opposed to that. To me, from a layman's standpoint, it sounds like they're saying the same thing, but he's making the distinction. And the in order that is H-I-N-A, but that is H-O-T-I, and the verse does have H-I-N-A. So, yeah, so what you're referring to there, H-I-N-A, it's a specific kind of clause, a purpose clause in the Greek New Testament.

That's oftentimes how it's used. And so it seems like he's saying, and again, sometimes I think we can think of the mysterious things that are hidden behind the original Greek translation. Fortunately, our English Bibles are pretty good, but here specifically, I think, the debate it sounds like, Roger, is the work here that's being described, God's work in granting us the gift of faith. And in the context, it seems like there's, obviously there's this discussion that's taking place between Jesus and the crowd, and they ask him, what must we do that, or what must we do to be doing the works of God?

And so they're wanting, what do we need to do to do God's work? Now, what Jesus is, in the context here, attempting to get across is that what God wants from them is to believe in him, and he's gonna go further in this text to say, belief looks like feeding on him, trusting in him, receiving his body and blood, but this is what they're being called to, and that's why Jesus says in verse 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. This is what God is calling you to, that's how I read that passage in particular.

Now, if you're getting into this discussion or this debate about the sovereignty of God, it's really interesting that you're in John chapter six, because just a little bit later in verse 37, Jesus says, all that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, I will never cast out, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, and then he says in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. In other words, the ones who come to Jesus are those who are drawn by the father, and they are kept raised up on the last day, so you do have this sense of God's grace and salvation being this gift, God being the one who initiates it from the very beginning, drawing us to himself. Now, whether this is the best passage to go to to think about faith itself being a gift, I'm not sure, Roger, I think I would go to another text, and I mentioned one of them in 2 Peter chapter one, and let me just highlight this passage briefly for you as you continue to have these discussions. Peter begins his second epistle with these words, Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, if you wanna talk about the Greek language, that word obtained there, those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours, it's often used in the New Testament in the context of casting lots, the lot falling on this particular thing.

It's receiving something by lot, by divine appointment, we might say. Again, the idea being that faith is something that has been given to us. We've obtained it not by our own righteousness or something that we do, but we've obtained it by the grace and providence of God and through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In other words, it's all of grace.

And what's the big picture here, what's the takeaway? It's that we're humbled before the Lord, that salvation is this pure gift. Lord, were it not for your grace, for your Holy Spirit drawing me, I wouldn't even have believed, I couldn't have believed.

And so you have to reckon with these verses, which emphasize the grace and the sovereignty of God in coming to Christ. And so, Roger, thanks for reaching out to us and getting us into that text in John chapter six. May the Lord bless you as you continue to serve Him and to seek Him. Roger, thanks so much for your call. Appreciate you listening to Core Christianity.

We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life doctrine, theology, maybe some concern about something happening at your church and you're a little bit confused about it, hey, feel free to give us a call. Here's the number, it's 833-THE-CORE. That's 833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for the next 10 minutes or so.

So now is the time to call at 833-THE-CORE. Well, we do receive a lot of calls here at Core Christianity from Christians who say, gosh, I was talking to a friend or a work associate and they asked me a really tough question about the Christian faith and I really didn't feel adequate or ready to respond to them and I kinda was stumped. And because of that, we actually have created a wonderful resource that we think will help you in those conversations.

Yeah, brothers and sisters, get ahold of this resource. It's a short booklet that I think will really encourage you in your faith. It's called Tough Questions Answered. And we dive into the relationship between faith and science. A lot of the moral issues that are coming up again and again today, maybe you've had conversations about some of those things over the past holiday with family members. I mean, these are important subjects, especially for those who are thinking about the Christian faith and wondering, what is the relationship, again, between faith and science and some of these other things? And so get ahold of this resource, Tough Questions Answered, and you can access it or get ahold of it over at corechristianity.com. You know, we believe when you have this little booklet, it will help you feel more confident in the faith and maybe even defend your Christianity when it's being attacked by others.

Again, it's called Tough Questions Answered. You can find it at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. And while you're at our website, feel free to browse around and look at some of the other great resources we have, including our core Bible studies. We have several of them. And if you are the leader of a small group or you teach a Sunday school class, this would be a great curriculum for you, one of our core studies.

Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core, and we had one that came in from one of our listeners earlier this week about the view of the Last Supper. Yeah, my question is, why did the Catholics say that the body and blood, the bread and the wine are the body of Christ, the blood of Christ? And all the other Protestants say, no, it's not. It's descriptive, and it's just a representation. But God doesn't say it's a representation. He says, this is my body, and this is my blood. Not a representation.

Okay, thank you. I mean, one of the most controversial things in the history, subjects in the history of the Church, and it wasn't just debated during the time of the Protestant Reformation. It was also debated throughout churches in the medieval age as well. I mean, there were debates about what that means. What does it mean when Jesus says, this is my body? Is this a symbol?

Are we talking literally there? I mean, now, today, the Catholic Church has embraced or dogmatized the idea of transubstantiation, that the bread and the wine, even though they look like bread and wine, and at least in terms of their appearance, that's what they are. Substantially, they've changed into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the priest, that this sacrifice is being done. And a lot of times, Roman Catholic friends will point to places like John chapter six, where we just were, where Jesus says, you have to feed on my flesh and drink my blood. But the question is, that language, the language that Jesus used, this is my body, this is my blood in the context of the institution of the Lord's Supper, it's covenantal language. I like to refer to it as sacramental language, and that's not a new idea, but it's just the fact that in the context of these signs and symbols of God's covenant, you often have the thing, right, the bread, and that which it signifies, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we can't confuse those two things, even though there's a close association between them. And so I would say, through the bread and the wine, by faith, we receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Not that the bread and wine are transformed into something new, because even Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he still talks about eating the bread and drinking the wine.

It's not something other than bread and wine, but through them, by faith and the work of the Holy Spirit, we receive the reality which they signify, namely, Jesus and all of his benefits. But again, this has been a controversial thing in the history of the church. In fact, it might surprise you to know that in the 13th century, there was actually, basically, a rule that was made that people had to commune at least once a year, because the faithful were so afraid to commune. I mean, really, they had this sense of, man, this is the literal body and blood of Jesus.

I'm just not worthy. And so, instead of actually partaking and participating in the Lord's Supper, they would adore the bread and the wine, they would worship it, but they wouldn't consume it like the Bible talks about. And so, you had this issue in the medieval church where people weren't communing to the point where church leadership had to say, and did say, in fact, yeah, at least once a year, you need to do this. And so, sometimes, people make it sound like, ever since Protestants came around, that's when we've had these debates about the Lord's Supper.

But no, throughout the history of the church, there have been abuses and issues, and confusion on this very topic. And so, I think, though, where we can say that there is a great level of agreement, and what I would want to emphasize is that there is something substantial that we're receiving in the Lord's Supper. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that the bread that we break, that we're participating in, it's a participation in the body of Christ. We have this special fellowship and communion with Christ at the Lord's table, and we never want to minimize that.

And we also want to be careful that we don't try to explain it all away. No, it's by the mysterious working of the Holy Spirit, and we receive that by faith. And so, God help us to come reverently in repentance, as Paul talks about there in 1 Corinthians as well, and in faith, eager to receive the gifts of God for his people.

God bless. It's interesting you mentioned that passage in 1 Corinthians, because I'd never thought about it. Paul does indeed refer to it as the bread and the wine, and not as the body and blood of Christ at that point.

Yeah, that's right. That was one of the arguments that was made by the Protestant Reformers in their discussions, back and forth with the Roman Catholic Church. And so, again, something that's gonna continue to be debated, but let's go to the Scriptures, let's humble ourselves before the Lord, and let's make sure that we're coming to the Lord's table in faith.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can leave us a voicemail, 24 hours a day at this number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. We'd love to hear from you and know what's on your mind. Let's go to Bob calling in from Missouri. Bob, what's your question for Adriel? Hello.

Hey, Bob. Hi, I enjoy listening to your program and I just had a question about bishops. Is it a gift of the Holy Spirit, like an apostle or a prophet or something like that, that the church has part of their clergy or something?

Okay. Well, the word bishop in the New Testament, I think that it's used interchangeably with the office of elder, and so elders or pastors, bishops, you see those New Testament words used interchangeably. I think to highlight different things that church leadership are supposed to be doing, the bishop is this sort of overseer, keeping a watch on the flock of God, the shepherd, pastoring the church, nourishing, feeding, defending the church from wolves, elders, ruling over the church with wisdom, caring for the church.

And so these are gifts that the Lord gives. Now there's a debate about whether or not we should distinguish between these different offices. Is the bishop different from an elder?

Is there kind of this hierarchical structure or is it like what you see, I think, generally in the New Testament that they're used interchangeably? But to answer your question, at least in the New Testament, yeah, this is a gift that God gives by the grace of the Holy Spirit, or a calling, we might say. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul talks about those who desire or aspire to these offices, the office of overseer or bishop, elder, and he says that's a good thing. And so this is one of the ways that the Lord is ordinarily at work in the life of his church and raising up church officers for the nourishing of the flock, for the oversight of the flock, for the care of the flock. And we would distinguish those ordinary offices that we see in the church today, like the office of elder or deacon, from some of the extraordinary offices that you find in scripture, like the prophets of the Old Testament.

I didn't think that there are prophets today like there were back then, and so I think it's good to distinguish between some of those as well. Bob, thanks for listening, and thanks for reaching out to us. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Judy in Oklahoma. Judy, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, actually, in thinking about it, I'm wanting to change my question, but I know you already have an idea of what I'm gonna say, so I'll go with that. Judy, you ask whatever you want, sister. Okay, I have a dear friend who is, I think that she feels she has the calling of being a prophet, which, you know, I don't know, maybe she does, maybe she doesn't, but I do know that when I have asked her, well, she's a friend, but she's also my relative, and she says that, I've asked her maybe for some spiritual guidance in some things.

Well, how do I gain this from doing this? You know, we talk about, well, not often, but we were talking about that. She said that when you have this spiritual calling to be what she is, then they cannot advise family. Okay, Judy, well, I mean, these situations are always tough, especially with family members. Disagreeing with family is hard enough, and disagreeing with family about the things of the Lord, I think, is even more difficult. And so here you have a family member who claims to, we were just talking about these different offices, claims to be or have this office or gift of prophecy, and then is saying, well, you know, in that particular role, you're not supposed to advise family. Well, that's just not biblical.

There's nothing in scripture that teaches that, and I think it's also important to emphasize the fact that the office of prophet was associated with the Old Testament kings and theocracy. It's not something that's just floating around today. And so we need to go back to the Word and what the Word of God clearly teaches, and that's what I would encourage her to do. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833 the CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.