WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.360 But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:10.320 it is not for the better, but for the worse. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:16.559 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:22.679 among you, and I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you, in order that 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:27.219 those who are genuine among you may be recognised. 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:31.239 When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:35.399 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:38.640 One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:39.960 What? 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.320 Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.799 Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:50.879 What shall I say to you? 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:52.799 Shall I commend you in this? 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.679 No, I will not. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:01.880 For I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus Christ 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:07.079 on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:11.439 and said, This is my body which is for you. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.000 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:21.120 In the same way also, he took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:23.400 in my blood. 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:28.280 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:33.400 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:35.920 he comes. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:41.880 Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner 00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:46.640 will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:53.240 Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 00:01:53.239 --> 00:02:00.199 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 00:02:00.199 --> 00:02:05.599 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:10.400 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:17.479 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:19.479 along with the world. 00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:24.239 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 00:02:24.239 --> 00:02:29.239 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not 00:02:29.239 --> 00:02:31.359 be for judgment. 00:02:31.359 --> 00:02:34.799 About the other things, I will give you directions when I come. 00:02:34.799 --> 00:02:42.599 May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:47.959 We just finished a series on Genesis chapter 1 and 2, and if there was one big thing from 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.320 that series we talked about most. 00:02:50.320 --> 00:02:55.120 We learned that God made us for himself, and he made us because he wants to know us and 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:58.480 wants to have a deep and abiding relationship with us. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:00.080 And so we finished that last week. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:05.439 We'll come back to Genesis 3 in the new year, and next week Advent starts. 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:10.360 So we'll be looking from next week at Jesus, the wonderful counselor. 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:15.480 So we have one week, a standalone, and I wanted to come this week and talk about the fact 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:20.119 that we have increased the Lord's Supper here, so many of you will have noticed that we've 00:03:20.119 --> 00:03:23.560 gone from once a month to twice a month in the Lord's Supper. 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:24.560 And so why? 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:25.560 Why did we do that? 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.759 Why have the elders decided to do that? 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:31.120 Another reason for coming this week to talk about the Lord's Supper is because Genesis 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:35.879 1 and 2 says we were made for a relationship with God, and when it comes to the Lord's 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:39.120 Supper, we call it communion. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:44.199 So the Lord's Supper is this meal whereby we actually enter into a relationship with 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:45.199 God. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:47.759 And so we're in a communing meal with God. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:51.679 And so it's all about relationship from top to bottom. 00:03:51.679 --> 00:03:59.519 If you struggle with bringing the confession you may have intellectually, that you believe 00:03:59.519 --> 00:04:04.639 in God, that you believe in Christianity, in Jesus, that you follow Jesus, from your 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:08.079 head down into your heart. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:15.360 If you struggle, do any of you struggle with experiencing in your life the emotional change 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.000 that belief in Jesus should bring? 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.560 If Jesus really does have you everlastingly, then what are we afraid of? 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:26.360 Do you struggle to bring the knowledge of God in your head down into your heart? 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:31.520 Do you struggle to see the deep change in your life that you want to see and you think, 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:35.240 you know, I've been a Christian for ever long and I've not really changed very much. 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:37.360 I don't feel like I have. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.879 You need the Lord's Supper. 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:44.240 The Lord's Supper is the climactic event in Christian worship where you commune, you 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.840 have communion with the living God. 00:04:46.840 --> 00:04:51.600 And it's so important for Christian spiritual formation. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:57.639 It's one of the key pathways to change in your life from moving Christianity from the 00:04:57.639 --> 00:04:59.120 head down into the heart. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.400 And so we need it for all sorts of reasons. 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:08.359 In this passage that Donald read for us five times, the verb to come together is used. 00:05:08.359 --> 00:05:12.399 It's translated in a couple different ways, so it doesn't always look like that. 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:16.359 And from that, we learn that the Lord's Supper, there's a coming together in it. 00:05:16.359 --> 00:05:22.039 There's what other people have said is a union and a communion that takes place in the Lord's 00:05:22.039 --> 00:05:23.039 Supper. 00:05:23.039 --> 00:05:24.199 And so I want to think about that with you. 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:29.560 There are three ways that you have union and communion with God in the Lord's Supper. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:34.839 And there's one way that you have union and communion with each other in the Lord's Supper. 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:40.480 Now before I jump into it, it would be, maybe you've looked at the bulletin already, you've 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:42.000 seen what's ahead. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.639 And the answer is there is no Lord's Supper coming today. 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:52.319 Now it would have been incredibly sensible to have the Lord's Supper right after this. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:58.560 But alas, the way the schedule has landed was out of my control, sort of. 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.920 We can't have the Lord's Supper today, we will have it next week. 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:04.720 So there's an opportunity to think about this passage and what we're going to talk about 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.879 today and come back, come back next week for the Lord's Supper. 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:15.680 This passage tells us first that when you come to the Lord's Table, it is because you 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:20.959 are being told by Jesus that you are united to His past. 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.160 That's the first thing. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:29.040 Now Paul the apostle wrote this letter to the Corinthians and he was with the Corinthians 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:34.280 in the year 50 and 51 for 18 months, first century. 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:39.480 He's writing this in 54, a few years later, from the city of Ephesus. 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:44.720 And when he first went to Corinth, we learn in Acts, he was afraid of the Corinthians. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:48.360 When he writes this letter, he's angry at the Corinthians and he's afraid of them and 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.240 angry at them for pretty much the same reason. 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:59.400 And that's because in Corinth, this city in Greece on the coast, it was incredibly commercial 00:06:59.400 --> 00:07:02.519 in the first century, incredibly cosmopolitan. 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:08.639 And if you could describe it in one way, it would be today's stag do central. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:12.199 It would be today what we call Las Vegas in the United States. 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:17.000 Okay, this is the place that you go to forget about everything else in your life. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:18.439 It's a place to go and party. 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:23.079 It was absolute party central in the ancient world in the first century, Greco-Roman Empire. 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:27.959 There was a verb that was floating about in Greek, Corinth design, which means to live 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:29.040 like a Corinthian. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:30.800 So you would use it as an insult. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.079 You know, you would say, you're such a Corinth design. 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:34.480 It means you are not a saint. 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:35.680 That's what that verb means. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:39.199 You are living in a way that is the opposite of saintly. 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:45.839 At the same time, in Corinth, there was a hill with a pagan temple, a temple to Aphrodite 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:47.399 at the very top. 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:52.279 And that temple to Aphrodite was one of the pinnacle places of worship to the Pantheon 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:54.799 in the Greco-Roman Empire. 00:07:54.799 --> 00:07:58.839 And typically at that temple, we're told by tradition, extra biblical writers, that they 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:04.599 maintained 1000 cult prostitutes as part of the worship at that temple. 00:08:04.599 --> 00:08:07.359 This city was a place of free sexuality. 00:08:07.359 --> 00:08:12.879 And it would be what we would call today progressive, for lack of a better word, in every way. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:16.399 And so people came here to essentially party. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.479 It was a cosmopolitan center for the Greco-Roman Empire. 00:08:19.479 --> 00:08:25.779 Now Paul says in this letter, the Corinthian church looked like the Corinthians. 00:08:25.779 --> 00:08:27.359 That's what this letter is all about. 00:08:27.359 --> 00:08:33.959 He says, you've been called out by Jesus, and yet the Corinthians look like Corinthians. 00:08:33.959 --> 00:08:37.539 And in this letter, he says that they were pursuing idols. 00:08:37.539 --> 00:08:39.600 This is the church pursuing idols. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.759 There was public sexual scandals of all kinds within the bounds of God's people that weren't 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:46.000 being dealt with. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:47.240 There was factions. 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:51.639 There was all sorts of extreme mess in the life of the church. 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:58.159 And the shock of this letter, as you open it up to chapter one, and Paul says, to the 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:06.500 church of God in Corinth, and then he calls them saints, called by God saints. 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:09.919 And then he lists all the mess that they were a part of. 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.360 And the first thing that we learned from that, especially as it pertains to the Lord's Supper, 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:15.159 is this. 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:18.839 Paul is not writing this letter condoning scandalous behavior or something like that. 00:09:18.839 --> 00:09:23.600 No, he's writing to treat it and to deal with it in the context. 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:31.480 But the first thing we learned is that being a Christian, becoming a Christian, is not 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.279 merited by good behavior. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:43.639 And that means also that being a Christian is not de-merited by bad behavior. 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:47.559 And if it was, the first people who would no longer be Christians are these people in 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:48.559 Corinth. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:51.679 They were living current design lives. 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:53.120 And that's very important. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:58.559 You see, all that it means to be a Christian is to come humbly and confess that you need 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:00.080 Jesus, faith in Christ. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:01.319 That's it. 00:10:01.319 --> 00:10:02.519 It's not merited by good behavior. 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:04.199 It's not de-merited by bad behavior. 00:10:04.199 --> 00:10:11.120 And when you come to the Lord's Supper, that means, by way of preface, do not let your 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:15.960 bad behavior, your struggles with sin, keep you from the Lord's table. 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:19.639 Come to the Lord's table, sinner, people struggling. 00:10:19.639 --> 00:10:23.440 And so you've got to understand 1 Corinthians 11 in the context of that reality. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:28.879 And so the first thing that Paul says to us here is the Lord's Supper is for anybody, 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:34.600 anybody who believes, rests, trusts in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:36.480 hope for eternal life. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.320 Anybody, no matter what you've done. 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:42.240 And that leads us to what he says in verse 23. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:50.080 So in verse 23, Jesus, Paul, I should say, says, I give to you what I first received, 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:51.240 what's of most importance. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:55.720 And then in verse 24, he says, on the night, it says on the night that Jesus was betrayed, 00:10:55.720 --> 00:11:01.720 he took bread, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples and said, this is my body. 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:07.120 And then verse 25, on the same night, he took the cup, he poured the wine, and he said, 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:12.840 this cup is the new covenant in my blood poured for the forgiveness of your sins. 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:19.720 Jesus says, I give to you in this table, this Lord's Supper, this meal, what I received. 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.320 And that means that Paul is coming, not inventing anything. 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:27.679 He's coming and giving a tradition that Jesus established. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.799 And that means that the first, one of the reasons we celebrate it more often and want 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:33.000 to is because Jesus gave this to us. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:34.480 And that means it's mission critical. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:36.159 It's ministry critical. 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:38.159 It's not something that the church created. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.799 It's what Jesus gave to the church. 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:45.679 And then Paul says, on that night, he broke the bread, he poured the cup, and he said, 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:48.439 this is my body, this is my blood. 00:11:48.439 --> 00:11:53.079 And so in that moment, when he says that, Jesus was connecting. 00:11:53.079 --> 00:11:56.439 If you're a believer today, Jesus was pronouncing something over you. 00:11:56.439 --> 00:12:02.519 When you come to the Lord's table, he is saying to you, you are connected, united to Jesus's 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:05.079 own past. 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:08.040 And you see what it says, he says, on the night he was betrayed, the night he was betrayed 00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:13.800 was the Passover meal, the night of celebrating the Jewish Passover from the Old Testament. 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:20.759 And in that meal, it's a memory, a memorial of the fact that Israel were slaves in Egypt 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:23.440 for 400 years. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:26.800 And God said to them, I am going to deliver you across the Red Sea. 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:29.640 I'm going to save you from your bondage. 00:12:29.640 --> 00:12:33.720 And the Passover night was the night where he said, the angel of death is coming into 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:38.960 Egypt to bring death to every single household that deserves it, every single person that 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:40.920 is rebelled against God. 00:12:40.920 --> 00:12:43.960 And that was everybody, Israel and Egypt both, everybody included. 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:49.759 And he said, and what you need to do to be saved is take the lamb, a lamb, and slay it 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:54.040 and pour the blood, cast the blood over the doorpost of your house. 00:12:54.040 --> 00:12:58.600 And if you do that, death will pass by you, you will be covered. 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:00.399 And so that night, they had a meal together. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:01.680 They broke bread. 00:13:01.680 --> 00:13:03.000 They ate lamb. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.360 Their doorposts were covered with the blood of the lamb. 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.320 And every single Israelite, that next day that passed through the Red Sea in the deliverance 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:16.759 that God brought would have said, last night I deserved death. 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:22.320 I'm a sinner deserving death, but I took shelter under the blood of the lamb. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:27.200 And because of that, I was able to pass through and I've been freed from my bondage. 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:28.200 That's what they would have said. 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.840 And so every year they commemorated that with the Passover meal. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:35.840 This moment that Jesus gave us was the Passover meal. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:40.200 But on this night, he does something in the first century, quite frankly, that was actually 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:45.240 scandalous because every single year since then they had taken the bread. 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:50.600 The host would take the bread and said, this is the bread of affliction that reminds us 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:56.200 of our ancestors' bodies broken under the yoke of slavery in Egypt. 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:59.300 And Jesus says, no, this is not the bread of affliction of your ancestors. 00:13:59.300 --> 00:14:01.160 This is my body. 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:04.360 And he took the cup and they would have said, and this is the cup, this wine, the cup of 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:09.000 festival joy because God has brought us across the Red Sea and delivered us. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.799 And that night he said, no, this is not the cup of the Red Sea, not only this is the cup 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:15.799 of my blood. 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:18.639 He did something. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:23.919 The third element in the Lord's Supper, the Passover meal, I should say, would be the 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:25.919 presenting of the lamb. 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:30.879 This is the lamb that was slain over the doorpost so that we could pass through death, that 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.679 we could pass through the waters of judgment. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:39.639 But in this scenario when Jesus celebrated this meal, there was no lamb because the host 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:45.279 himself, Jesus Christ, standing there holding the bread, holding the wine, he was the lamb. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.000 And he was saying that tomorrow when I go to the cross, my body will be broken. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.799 My body will become the afflicted one, the lamb slain. 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:57.720 My blood will be poured to cover over what you deserve. 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:58.960 I am the lamb. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:00.440 He is the fulfillment of the Passover. 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:02.480 He is the new Passover. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:07.960 His very body became the lamb and his sacrifice were covered. 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.600 And so that means for you today, when you come to the Lord's table, what is the Lord's 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.000 table? 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.840 Very important. 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:20.520 The Lord's Supper is not first, is not first your pronouncement to God. 00:15:20.520 --> 00:15:25.160 It's not first your pronouncement to God that you are worthy to come. 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:30.480 The Lord's Supper is not you coming and saying, because I have really, really, really, really 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:33.199 repented, and I really meant it. 00:15:33.199 --> 00:15:34.199 I'm able to come today. 00:15:34.199 --> 00:15:37.079 No, the Lord's Supper is God's meal. 00:15:37.079 --> 00:15:44.519 He's the host where he pronounces over you, I have connected you to my past. 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:48.839 I have included you under the shelter of the blood of the lamb. 00:15:48.839 --> 00:15:55.000 You see, the Lord's Supper is God's pronouncement over you, of what he's already done for you. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:00.720 And so that means that if you follow Jesus, don't stay away wondering if you really, really, 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.639 really, really meant your repentance. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:05.120 No, not at all. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:06.120 Why more often? 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:11.480 Here's one reason why more often and I've got to move on. 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:16.399 We come every week and we pray, we sing, we read scripture, somebody gets up and talks 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:20.799 about it, usually me. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:25.559 God speaks to us through his word, through hearing, but you're a human and you've got 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:29.799 four other senses, maybe more, I don't know. 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:34.559 And you not only need to hear the gospel preach, you need to see it, you need to taste it, 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.599 you need to touch it, you need to smell it. 00:16:37.599 --> 00:16:41.719 And God says in the Lord's Supper, I want to give your entire body the experience of 00:16:41.719 --> 00:16:43.759 the gospel. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.559 And you say, when you come, think about the wine. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:51.519 When you drink the wine in the Lord's Supper, at first it's bitter. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.839 And the first touch at the taste, you know, I'm a real wine connoisseur. 00:16:54.839 --> 00:16:57.159 I'm kidding, I'm not at all. 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:00.959 But I know that when we drink the wine here, some wine connoisseur will tell me I'm wrong 00:17:00.959 --> 00:17:01.959 about this. 00:17:01.959 --> 00:17:03.119 At first it's bitter. 00:17:03.119 --> 00:17:08.720 And then it's because it's that you would taste the weight of your sin, but then it 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:16.240 becomes sweet so that you taste the victory that's been pronounced over you and Jesus. 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:21.400 Through spiritual formation, deep change, you need a full body experience of the Lord's 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.519 Supper, of the gospel. 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:25.960 And that's why we need the Lord's Supper more often. 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:31.640 Secondly, and I have to be fast today, not only are you united to Jesus in the past, 00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:36.880 but you also, we're being told here, get to commune with Jesus in the present. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:40.920 So when you come to the Lord's table, there's a promise here that you actually are meeting 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.440 with Jesus Christ in the present. 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:45.440 What does he say? 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.000 He says, this is my body. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.960 Let me just camp out on that phrase for a moment. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:54.640 There are different views about what that sentence means. 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:56.960 This is my body. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:00.000 And there's really a spectrum with two extremes. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.960 On the one side of the spectrum, the Roman Catholic Church comes and says that when the 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:10.000 minister, the priest in the church says this is my body and holds it up and breaks it, 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:15.279 the bread actually becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ broken. 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:17.759 Very literally the physical body of Jesus Christ. 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:23.359 And the question here is all about where's the power in the Lord's Supper? 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:27.839 And so for Roman Catholicism, the power is found in you actually eating the flesh of 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:31.599 Jesus Christ. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:38.440 The book of Hebrews says that when Jesus Christ in the past went to the cross, he died the 00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:43.240 once for all sacrifice for the forgiveness of all sins. 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:48.200 And that means that when you come to the Lord's table, Jesus does not need to be re-sacrificed 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:50.720 over and over again. 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:54.759 You know, if you're saying that the bread is his physical body broken every single time, 00:18:54.759 --> 00:19:00.680 then all you're saying is that we actually kill Jesus over and over and over again. 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:04.960 But Hebrews says, no, Jesus was sacrificed once for all in the middle of history. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.880 Where's the power in the Lord's Supper? 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:10.000 It's in what Jesus already did in the past. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.559 It doesn't have to be done again here today. 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:14.559 Just think about it. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:19.359 The night he was betrayed, Jesus stood up and he said, this is my body. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:22.559 Did he mean that the bread was his literal physical body? 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:24.920 Where was his body that night? 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:26.640 It was standing right there. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:28.759 Jesus physical body was in the room. 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:32.039 How could he have possibly meant that the bread was his physical body? 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:33.119 No, of course. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:38.319 You see, if you locate the power in the physicality of the bread, then all you've done is said 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:43.519 that you need to sacrifice Jesus over and over again and you've turned the gospel into 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:46.399 the Old Testament Levitical system. 00:19:46.399 --> 00:19:51.559 But on the flip side, some come and it says, do this in remembrance of me. 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:56.039 And they say, well, when Jesus says this is my body, do it in remembrance of me. 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.439 He's saying this is just about your memory. 00:19:58.439 --> 00:20:00.000 It's just a memorial. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.439 So this is an event where all we do is call you to remember the past through the bread 00:20:04.439 --> 00:20:05.679 and the wine. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:09.960 And if that's the case, if that's all it is, a mere memorial, let me ask you, where now 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.200 is the power of the Lord's Supper? 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:14.640 If you say that, where's the power? 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:18.200 It's in your ability to remember. 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:22.480 So if you're going to experience power in the Lord's Supper, then I just, it would simply 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:28.160 be to ask, did you really, really, really, really remember what Jesus is to you that 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:29.160 day? 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:32.600 See, instead you've located entirely in you. 00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:36.439 And that means that neither of those options can be true. 00:20:36.439 --> 00:20:37.439 It is a memory. 00:20:37.439 --> 00:20:38.839 It is a memorial. 00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:45.240 But in the chapter just before this, 1 Corinthians 10, 16, Paul says, when you come to the Lord's 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:49.199 Table, it is a participation in the body and blood of Jesus. 00:20:49.199 --> 00:20:52.199 And that word there means communion. 00:20:52.199 --> 00:21:00.719 And the church for centuries has said something that to our modern ears might sound extreme, 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:05.880 that when you come to the Lord's Supper and you come by faith in Jesus, you feed upon 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:07.240 Christ's body and blood. 00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:09.120 That's what the Westminster Confession says. 00:21:09.120 --> 00:21:10.120 How? 00:21:10.120 --> 00:21:16.000 Not physically, no, not at all, but spiritually, because Jesus promises to be present here 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:21.240 in this place, in the act of the Lord's Supper, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:22.240 omnipresent. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:27.360 There's a unique, in other words, meeting with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit in 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:28.360 the Lord's Supper. 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:33.799 And we really do come and commune with God in a unique way in the moment that we celebrate 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:35.519 the Lord's Supper. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:41.079 Now that means just a couple things, and we'll move to the third thing. 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:44.919 That means that the reason we need the Lord's Supper more often is because it trains us 00:21:44.919 --> 00:21:48.439 to not be functional naturalists. 00:21:48.439 --> 00:21:52.799 You know, if you're a Christian today, you come and you believe in the ubiquitous, the 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:57.799 omnipresent power of God, God everywhere. 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:02.119 God with you, the Holy Spirit with you, God's ability to come and meet with you uniquely 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:03.599 at worship. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:07.799 But I think most of the time we function as functional naturalists. 00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:11.240 We don't, do we really believe that? 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:14.799 That when you come to the Lord's table, you actually meet with God uniquely. 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:20.319 And so we could ask, if it's true that you have the opportunity in that climactic moment 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:24.759 of worship to meet with the living God, why wouldn't we do it more often? 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.759 What reason, what good reason could there be for not celebrating the Lord's Supper more 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:29.200 often? 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:34.279 So much of the New Testament scholars will say that when you come to this passage or 00:22:34.279 --> 00:22:38.960 Acts chapter two, when it says in Acts two that the Christians, the first church were 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:44.200 meeting weekly and they were experiencing the breaking of bread, it means that they were 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:46.720 celebrating the Lord's Supper weekly at that time. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:52.440 And we know from church history studies that celebrating less frequently did not happen 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:56.000 until after the year approximately about 300 AD. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:00.960 The first several hundred years, it was almost definitely a weekly celebration. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:07.279 And in that, John Calvin, one of the great reformers in his famous book, The Institutes, 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:12.759 in book four, he said at the end of the Reformation, it is time to recover the weekly practice 00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:14.599 of the Lord's Supper. 00:23:14.599 --> 00:23:18.720 And the only reason that the church in Geneva in France where he was, in Switzerland where 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:25.480 he was, did not celebrate it weekly was because the city council barred him from doing it, 00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:27.319 the government actually told him he couldn't. 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:32.519 And so at the end of his life, he writes this, I hope those who come after me recover what 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:33.839 we've missed out on. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:34.839 That's what he said. 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:39.920 Now, there's no chapter and verse prescription at all in the Bible for how often we celebrate 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:40.960 the Lord's Supper. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:46.960 And so we've simply decided here to increase it monthly so that because we can commune 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.759 with the living God. 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:55.400 Thirdly, not only do we have union with Jesus in the past, communion with Jesus in the present, 00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:59.360 but we're told here that we have union and communion with one another when we come to 00:23:59.360 --> 00:24:00.880 the Lord's table. 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:08.160 So in context, 1 Corinthians 11, if you back up to verse 19 and 20, it says here, there 00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:11.040 are factions among you, verse 20. 00:24:11.040 --> 00:24:14.280 And when you come together because of those factions, it's not even the Lord's Supper 00:24:14.280 --> 00:24:15.280 that you're eating. 00:24:15.280 --> 00:24:17.920 Now, what's going on here is this. 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:23.840 Verse 18 uses the word in Greek schisma, that when they gather together, there is schism, 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:27.279 there's schismatics, they're divided between them. 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:31.879 They are eating the Lord's Supper clearly here weekly. 00:24:31.879 --> 00:24:35.119 They're doing it in the context of a whole meal. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:39.720 They're doing it in somebody's home, a patron who's clearly supporting the church somehow 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:41.959 and somebody that's wealthy. 00:24:41.959 --> 00:24:50.119 And in the 1980s, archeologists went and uncovered a number of first century villas in Corinth, 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:53.799 in present day Corinth, and helped us understand a little bit more of what's going on here. 00:24:53.799 --> 00:25:00.159 And that's in a first century villa in the Roman Empire, the dining room could typically 00:25:00.159 --> 00:25:02.200 seat about nine to 12 people. 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:08.319 The table would have been low to the ground, 12, maybe a foot from the ground. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.720 There would have been pillows all around. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:13.200 So you reclined at the table. 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:17.359 If you can only get 12 people around the table, and the Lord's Supper was being celebrated 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:23.240 in a whole meal, what's happening here is the patron of the house is inviting the wealthiest 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:29.120 Christians in the church to come early to get a seat at the table. 00:25:29.120 --> 00:25:33.839 And when the rest of the church comes, they come later, they are pushed out into the margins 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:35.160 of the house. 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:38.920 So they're in other rooms, not even getting to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.640 And he says here, what's happening is the wealthy Christians are getting there, the 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:44.519 patron supplying the food, they're getting drunk. 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:50.319 And so by the time church starts, everybody's drunk already, Corinth design, living like Corinthians. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:55.319 And he says, there is such faction and schism among you that some of you wealthy people 00:25:55.319 --> 00:26:01.159 are suppressing and oppressing the poor amongst you by pushing them to the margins in the 00:26:01.159 --> 00:26:05.119 Lord's Supper, not even inviting them to the Lord's table. 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:10.039 There's a lawyer, a first century lawyer named Pliny the Younger. 00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:14.879 And this is what he writes, he did a study on eating in the first century in Greco-Roman 00:26:14.879 --> 00:26:15.879 households. 00:26:15.879 --> 00:26:17.039 And this is what he writes. 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:21.000 He says, the best dishes are set in front of the host first. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:25.279 And then a select few get the best dish with the host. 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:29.519 The cheap scraps of food are then put before the rest of the company. 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:36.480 The host even puts the wine into very small flask, divides the wine into three categories, 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.720 grades those categories and the people. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:43.480 The top category for himself, the middle tier for the middle class, and the lesser for the 00:26:43.480 --> 00:26:44.639 poor. 00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:50.800 All of his friends would be graded prior to the event and the third is reserved sometimes 00:26:50.800 --> 00:26:53.240 for the freed slaves. 00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:54.440 Now this is what's happening. 00:26:54.440 --> 00:26:58.960 They're taking the practices of the Greco-Roman Empire, grading people that comes to the Lord's 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:03.160 table and not giving any of it to the poorest people. 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:09.040 And in the midst of an honor and shame culture, they've turned the Lord's Supper into a status 00:27:09.040 --> 00:27:10.040 symbol. 00:27:10.040 --> 00:27:12.880 If you get to come sit at the table, it's because you deserve it. 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:15.520 It's because you're full of honor and respect. 00:27:15.520 --> 00:27:18.920 And Paul comes and says, that is not the Lord's Supper you're eating. 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:20.680 It is evil. 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:23.320 You have desecrated the Lord's Supper. 00:27:23.320 --> 00:27:27.340 And it's in that context that he comes and gives these warnings about judgment. 00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:29.240 This is why some of you have even died. 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:32.640 You've experienced the discipline of God because you've taken what is good and you've turned 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:37.040 it into a status symbol and you've suppressed the poor in the midst of it. 00:27:37.040 --> 00:27:39.480 And it's not the Lord's Supper at all that you eat. 00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:46.599 Now look, if the Lord's Supper ever becomes a clique, a space where some are honored and 00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:54.160 others shamed, a space where some people are told to come sit in special seating around 00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:59.079 the table, the truly honored guest, then we've taken the Lord's Supper and we've turned 00:27:59.079 --> 00:28:02.279 it into a merit, not a gospel. 00:28:02.279 --> 00:28:06.160 We've taken it and we've said, the only way you can come to this meal is if you've earned 00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:07.160 it. 00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:09.319 If you're wealthy enough, if you're pretty enough, if you've got the status 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:12.119 enough, and he says it should never be that way. 00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:15.079 If you've done that, it's not the Lord's Supper that you come and eat. 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:20.119 And he says instead we all need, sometimes when we celebrate the Lord's Supper in our 00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:24.960 culture, everybody, I have a vantage point, I can see it. 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:28.679 Everybody tends to look down at their feet. 00:28:28.679 --> 00:28:32.079 There's sort of this introspection happening that says, don't look at anybody. 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:33.359 Don't look at anybody. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:35.200 Don't smile. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.559 And actually what Paul is saying is that the Lord's Supper was originally celebrated in 00:28:39.559 --> 00:28:44.039 a whole meal and you need to lift up your head and look around and see the people that 00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:47.080 you're eating it with because you need them. 00:28:47.080 --> 00:28:49.720 The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich. 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:51.600 Different races need one another. 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:53.680 We need people of different kinds all around us. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:55.279 We need it at the Lord's Supper. 00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:02.120 And so I've got to move to the close, but when it comes then therefore, when Paul says, 00:29:02.120 --> 00:29:04.840 therefore examine yourself, what is he saying? 00:29:04.839 --> 00:29:08.759 In the context, examine yourself lest you eat and drink judgment. 00:29:08.759 --> 00:29:10.000 Let me say it like this. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:16.199 If you are struggling with sin in your life, come to the Lord's table. 00:29:16.199 --> 00:29:21.279 If you are struggling with doubt in your life, you need to come and eat and drink at the 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:24.679 Lord's table. 00:29:24.679 --> 00:29:29.319 The Lord's table is for sinners who know they need the gospel. 00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:35.720 The only time you don't come to the Lord's table is if as a Christian you are unrepentant 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:42.200 in a persistent lifestyle that is scandalizing the message of the gospel, that has turned 00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:46.679 the message of the gospel into something that's meritorious. 00:29:46.679 --> 00:29:54.000 If you are struggling, in other words, the Lord's Supper is not a reward for good behavior. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.839 The Lord's Supper is not a reward for those who are really, really, really repentant and 00:29:57.839 --> 00:29:59.240 really mean it. 00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:00.240 Not at all. 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:06.400 The Lord's Supper is God's pronouncement over you, that you are united to the blood of the 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:10.319 Lamb, that you've taken shelter under the blood of the Lamb. 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:11.880 Think about it like this. 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:13.839 Look, this is not your meal. 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:15.920 It's the meal of Jesus. 00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:22.279 And so if Jesus says to you, you are my son, you are my daughter, I have redeemed you, 00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:24.400 who are you to refuse him? 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:25.920 Come to the table. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:28.599 Don't let your culture stop you. 00:30:28.599 --> 00:30:31.000 Come to the table. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:33.199 Don't be so introspective, in other words. 00:30:33.199 --> 00:30:39.439 Don't be so introspective that you treat the Lord's Supper as a meritorious work, or by 00:30:39.439 --> 00:30:43.679 the only way you can come and eat is if you've truly become worthy. 00:30:43.679 --> 00:30:45.759 You can never be worthy. 00:30:45.759 --> 00:30:47.879 It's the pronouncement of the gospel over you. 00:30:47.879 --> 00:30:49.879 Lastly, and we'll close to this. 00:30:49.879 --> 00:30:54.719 We're told here very briefly that in verse 26, we celebrate the Lord's Supper until he 00:30:54.719 --> 00:30:56.759 comes again. 00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:00.680 And that means that not only in the Lord's Supper are we united to the Jesus of the past, 00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:01.680 to his cross. 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:06.599 Do we commune with Christ in the present, but also that we're being pronounced united 00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:10.200 to Jesus in the future too? 00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:11.200 I can say this very quickly. 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:16.879 The Lord's Supper is part of a meal, and meals are fun. 00:31:16.879 --> 00:31:18.879 Meals are celebratory. 00:31:18.879 --> 00:31:22.839 In the Old Testament, the sacrifice would take place, and then there would be a celebratory 00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:25.000 meal, a festival. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.400 And the Lord's Supper is not an altar, it's not a sacrifice, it's not a funeral. 00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:31.519 It's a celebration meal. 00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:33.880 It's a pronouncement that God has already done it. 00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:36.480 The work is already finished. 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:38.759 And that means that it's a shadow of Revelation 19. 00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:44.119 So in Revelation 19, at the end of human history, we read these words, blessed are those who 00:31:44.119 --> 00:31:46.759 are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. 00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:52.279 You can think about the wedding at Cana in the gospel, what a feast, what a time of joy. 00:31:52.279 --> 00:32:00.279 You can think about, when the prodigal son came home, his father threw a feast for him, 00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:05.359 and he turned to his elder brother and said, don't sulk in the corner all night. 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:07.339 Come and celebrate, come to the feast. 00:32:07.339 --> 00:32:09.480 This is a time of joy and celebration. 00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:15.079 The Lord's Supper looks forward to the moment where we will eat and feast and drink in the 00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:19.160 marriage supper of the Lamb with Jesus Christ at the final banquet. 00:32:19.160 --> 00:32:21.720 And that means that it is an act of celebration. 00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:23.160 Jesus is not dead. 00:32:23.160 --> 00:32:25.160 He's alive. 00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:30.000 And so one writer puts it like this, when that day comes, the marriage supper of the 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:35.799 Lamb, the deepest longings of your heart, whatever they are, they will be completely satisfied. 00:32:35.799 --> 00:32:40.240 And so what is this that we celebrate the Lord's Supper today? 00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:44.559 He says, this is the hors d'oeuvres of your future bliss. 00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:49.559 When you take the Lord's Supper, God is whispering to you, he is saying to you, I am unconditionally 00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:54.480 committed to getting you from right now to there to the end. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:58.079 So when you come to the Lord's Supper, it's the hors d'oeuvres of the marriage supper 00:32:58.079 --> 00:33:02.200 of the Lamb that is to come, the entree one day. 00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:05.839 And that means reverence, of course, yes. 00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:10.960 But being overly introspective with funeral vibes, no. 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:12.720 Because this is the meal of resurrection. 00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:14.399 This is the meal of celebration. 00:33:14.399 --> 00:33:15.399 You can look up. 00:33:15.399 --> 00:33:16.399 You can look at other people. 00:33:16.399 --> 00:33:17.399 You can smile. 00:33:17.400 --> 00:33:20.280 You can take joy in what God has done. 00:33:20.280 --> 00:33:24.640 The prodigal son came home and he threw a feast. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:28.759 And I'll close with this, just two thoughts and we'll finish. 00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:30.640 A question may come up here. 00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.960 I know it does quite often. 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:38.320 Does increasing the Lord's Supper then diminish the specialness of that meal, the celebration 00:33:38.320 --> 00:33:39.320 of that meal? 00:33:39.320 --> 00:33:41.080 Does it diminish that at all? 00:33:41.080 --> 00:33:45.560 I would just simply say this, that the same could be said of the fact that we preach every 00:33:45.560 --> 00:33:46.560 week. 00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:47.960 We sing every week. 00:33:47.960 --> 00:33:48.960 We pray every week. 00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:54.519 But we never wonder if there's a diminishment in that of preaching or praying or singing 00:33:54.519 --> 00:33:55.879 or anything like that. 00:33:55.879 --> 00:33:59.919 But think about it like this is my favorite example that I heard in seminary. 00:33:59.919 --> 00:34:04.919 If you're married, there are all sorts of covenant signs of love that you can show to 00:34:04.919 --> 00:34:09.279 your spouse that reminds them, I love you and I'm for you. 00:34:09.279 --> 00:34:15.000 One of those is you give your spouse a kiss when you leave the house in the morning to 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:16.360 go to work. 00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:19.079 When you say, I love you. 00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:26.599 Now if you say, you know, honey, I'm gonna, I've decided I'm gonna give you a kiss once 00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:29.680 a year and tell you I love you once a year. 00:34:29.680 --> 00:34:34.120 I'm gonna give you a kiss quarterly, you know, and tell you I love you to quarterly because 00:34:34.120 --> 00:34:36.039 it will increase the specialness. 00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:39.480 Try that and then you come back and you let me know. 00:34:39.480 --> 00:34:40.480 No. 00:34:40.480 --> 00:34:45.240 Look, there's no prescription in the Bible for how often to have the Lord's Supper. 00:34:45.239 --> 00:34:49.479 But having the Lord's Supper more often doesn't diminish the specialness because it's God's 00:34:49.479 --> 00:34:50.479 kiss. 00:34:50.479 --> 00:34:51.479 It's the pronouncement. 00:34:51.479 --> 00:34:54.759 I love you, I'm for you. 00:34:54.759 --> 00:34:58.599 And just like with your spouse, your bride, your husband, it becomes greater the more 00:34:58.599 --> 00:35:00.799 often. 00:35:00.799 --> 00:35:04.039 And so we need to come and eat and drink at the table of Jesus. 00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:05.239 And here's why. 00:35:05.239 --> 00:35:11.639 Eating, eating was the pathway to life or death in the beginning of human history. 00:35:11.639 --> 00:35:16.239 And Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden, they were told, eat from the tree of 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:20.799 life but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:35:20.799 --> 00:35:28.239 But when they took and they ate, eating became the path of death, sin, disaster for us all. 00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:35.799 And so it is no surprise, it is no surprise that taking, eating, and drinking have now 00:35:35.799 --> 00:35:39.599 become the verbs of salvation to us. 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:42.599 But once were verbs of death have now become the verbs of life. 00:35:42.599 --> 00:35:49.880 And in between, Jesus Christ had to taste, take, eat, and drink the poverty of utter death. 00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:56.559 So that take, eat, and drink to you now are verbs of festival joy and salvation. 00:35:56.559 --> 00:35:57.559 Let us pray. 00:35:57.559 --> 00:36:01.839 Father, we thank you for the Lord's Supper and we ask, Lord, the next time we take it 00:36:01.839 --> 00:36:06.599 and eat and drink that you would bring joy to our lives that we would hear the beautiful 00:36:06.599 --> 00:36:09.679 pronouncement that we are your sons and daughters. 00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:16.360 And so I pray also for those today who are not yet able to come and take the Lord's Supper 00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:19.759 because they have not yet looked unto Christ for hope. 00:36:19.759 --> 00:36:24.599 And I pray, Father, that you would reveal yourself, that you would show up, that you 00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:30.599 would speak to all of us wherever we might be today and bring us ultimately into the 00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:34.039 family of God to gather around the table of our Lord. 00:36:34.039 --> 00:36:36.719 And we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:36:36.719 --> 00:37:05.719 Amen.