or not again, it was good morning this morning, it's good evening now, and good evening to everyone, it's good to see all of you in the house of the Lord. We noted this morning that we would look tonight at the theology of the Lord's Supper as we find it in the text here in 1 Corinthians 11 and also elsewhere as we examine the Bible and ask the question, what does it tell us with regards to the Lord's Supper? Perhaps not exhaustively, but what can we find in the text to lead us elsewhere to examine this particular doctrine? For those of you who weren't here this morning, the fact that in the Lord's Supper we have an obligation as Christians to obey Christ when he says, do this in remembrance of me.
We have the call to remember Christ in the observance of the Lord's Supper, and we have a call to proclaim Christ in participating in the Lord's Supper. That particular act of worship is done in joyful obedience to the risen Christ, it's done in a remembrance of him, and it's done in the fashion of a proclamation concerning him. Well, tonight we're going to look at some theology that undergirds the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and hopefully As we move towards the next instance where we'll gather together as a church to observe the Lord's Supper, these will be some helps that will help our minds to be tuned to right as we engage in that particular ordinance, and hopefully we'll be, to a measure, all the better informed with a fresh appreciation of that particular element of worship. I'm simply going to read verses 23 to 26. of 1 Corinthians 11, and then we'll have a look, as we said, at the theology of the Lord's Supper. that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. 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. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this second occasion on this, your Lord's Day, to gather together for worship. We pray that you would help us to worship you aright in this act of preaching. We pray, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you would be the blessed recipient, or that we would be the blessed worshipers of you, our blessed God, and that you would receive all honor and glory and worship in this place.
And we would ask that you attend to our our hearts and minds as we reflect upon Holy Scripture. Fill us with the knowledge of God, with the knowledge of Christ. Help us to be all the more well-instructed in this particular doctrine that we might gather together the next time for the Lord's Supper and have an increased appreciation for what you call us to obey, to remember, and to proclaim in that in that act of worship. And we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, we noted the first set of words from this particular text this morning under the topic of obedience. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. We want to recognize that this morning in our first point with regards to the theological foundation for the importance of the Lord's Supper, we want to recognize that language in the context of the doctrine of Scripture. When we come to the Lord's Supper, we have a number of doctrines that are undergirding it, and
Scripture and Divine Inspiration
the first that we see leaping off the text is the doctrine of Scripture, or we might even say the doctrine of divine, special divine inspiration. Because before the Bible was inscripturated, we had the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, given amongst the gathered churches. We had the observance of the Lord's Supper taking place amongst the churches, and that came by divine inspiration. This language, for I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, is the language of God equipping and inspiring men to go about by the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim truth.
I want you to turn with me to 1st Peter for a moment for some language or 2nd Peter rather for some language that That we ought to see connected to our receiving of the Lord's Supper as that ordinance given by God For the good of his people and for that blessed remembrance of Christ 2nd Peter in 2nd Peter chapter 1 at verse 16, we have beginning a wonderful text that speaks to divine inspiration and it speaks to the veracity that simply means the certain truthfulness of the message of Christ. Notice as it begins here in verse 16 and continues, for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
And now, specific to our point, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I think we have a number of things there that we could bring out, but we probably don't have time because we're just focusing in on one initial point here. But notice first off, as we've already said, the certain truthfulness of the story of Christ. We, as Christians, have not a fable that we follow, not a fairy tale that we follow, as we've observed before.
The Bible doesn't come to us in the manner and in the matter of once upon a time in the land of Palestine. No, we have this given to us, we have truth given to us, and it comes to us with the certain truthfulness of the divine magistrate, and it comes to us in this flavor, for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming. of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessed deposit of divine and certain truth we have in the Holy Scriptures. And to our point with regards to the Lord's Supper, if we would bring up again the fact of the authority of God in inspiration in the observance of the Lord's Supper, we read here in Peter recounting the voice from the excellent glory, the voice from God with regards to the Beloved Son.
This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Gospel narratives include the additional language that God spoke, hear him. there is this hear him declaration given by God. And this brings us back to the fact that the Lord's Supper is an act of obedience, joyful obedience with respect to Christ. We hear the voice of Christ in the language, do this in remembrance of me.
But then we have this specific connection to Holy Scripture. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved moved by the Holy Spirit. So coming back to 1 Corinthians 11, that's what we have in the background when Paul writes, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. Our observance of the Lord's Supper rests upon divine inspiration.
It rests upon God speaking through, by the Holy Spirit, through holy men of old, delivering to us the truth God and I want to just rehearse one more one more point that we that we only briefly noticed this morning we ought to We ought to be continually grateful that we have full Bibles in our hands. Throughout much opposition, throughout great struggles and strivings throughout the history of the Church, the Bible comes to us. And here, 2,000 years removed from its inscripturation, at least from the New Testament. so far removed from the life and times of the Lord Jesus Christ, we still have the very Word of God. And it is through God's divine and providential protection of His Word throughout the ages that we can, just like these Corinthian Christians, be the recipients of the truth of the Lord delivered to us.
What a blessed thing we have as Christians before us in the truth of God. So the doctrine of the Lord's Supper rests upon divine inspiration and divine authority that comes with the scriptures. One of the One of the things we didn't really note this morning to much of a length was the blessed consent of the parts that we have connected to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Now, we have this with everything in our Bibles.
That is, that Exodus, for example, the observance of the Passover, connects with Matthew 26 and Christ's observance of that very Passover with his disciples on the night before his sacrifice upon the cross. And then, of course, the narrative concerning the cross, and then this institution, rehearsal of the institution by the Apostle Paul. We have this blessed consent of all of these parts in Holy Scripture. And it causes us to reflect upon the genius, the brilliance, the surpassing wisdom of the Bible. as opposed, of course, to any other document under God's good son.
We have in the Bible the only book, if you will, that bears these divine marks of the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, to quote our confession of faith. And this blessed document brings forth the blessed observance of the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of Jesus Christ.
The Doctrine of God
Secondly, we have the doctrine of God. The simple language again from verse 23, for I received from the Lord. We ought to be Our minds ought to be drawn in a remembrance, in an observance of the Lord's Supper, to the God who gives us the supper I received from the Lord. There is, in the background there, sovereignty and authority.
The Lord Jesus Christ, being very God, and yes, very man, delivers the Lord's Supper to his disciples to be observed. in his churches unto the end of the world. And it comes to us as a blessed, divine master and lord, a sovereign king who gives good things to his people. If you think about that in the context of a divine command, what a blessed command to joyfully observe. that God gives us heavenly invitations to that blessed banquet of the table, and we can come together as a church to eat of the bread, to drink of the wine, and in so doing, remember the dying of the Son of God. What a blessed thing we have in the biblical witness to the ordinance, and as well the doctrine of God that is in the background.
We have his authority, his power, his sovereignty. We have the subsequent obedience that comes from that. And we ought to rehearse the fact that we have the divine perfections in view when we engage in the Lord's Supper. What do we mean by that?
Well, in doing this in remembrance of Christ, remember in the words of institution, Christ rehearses that twice, do this in remembrance of me, do this in remembrance of me, that remembrance is a remembrance of the cross. And at the cross, there are a number of So, streams of divine perfections that come to a blessed confluence. We have the holiness of God, we have the justice of God, we have the love of God, we have the goodness of God all coming together at the cross of Calvary where we see Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of men. So as we gather together for the Lord's Supper, or as we simply consider the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, know that it is a reflection upon and an exploration of the divine perfections, because at Calvary's cross, justice is satisfied.
Divine justice is satisfied. Divine holiness is satisfied. Divine love is ratified and confirmed, if you will, by the work of Christ on the cross. And goodness, divine goodness, comes to us by the perfection of Christ's work.
We have in the Lord's Supper, in the observance of the Lord's Supper and a consideration of it, hopefully our minds drawn to reflections upon our blessed God. You know, there are so many boons to the Christian soul that come to us in simply that 15 minutes that we have when we're observing the Lord's Supper. Never think of it as simply a rite to go through, as simply and merely and emptily. Is that a word?
A rote religious exercise. It is rich and it is filled with the truth of God. Not simply reflections, though it's a glorious reflection upon the death of Christ, but also expanding our minds to consider the doctrine of inspiration and the doctrine of the blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that we have communion with at the Lord's Supper. One of the most blessed sentences in our confession of faith comes in chapter 2 and paragraph 3.
After a lot of technical language concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, where it uses lots of big words there in elucidating the doctrine of the Trinity, the Baptists write, which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation for all our comfortable dependence and communion with God? We have blessed communion with God that we'll notice at the end of the sermon tonight. We have a vertical communion or fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. At the Lord's Supper, the doctrine of God is rich for our contemplations when we observe the Lord's Supper.
Of course, moving forward then,
The Person of Christ
we see from the text that we have the doctrine of Christ set forth before us, and we noted a bit of that this morning, but just a little bit more as we rehearse the theology of the Lord's Supper. Notice again, in verse 24, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And again, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Spurgeon writes this connected to the doctrine of Christ and the Lord's Supper. I would have you earnest students of all the deeds of the conquering Messiah. I would have you conversant with the life of our beloved.
But oh, forget not his person, for the text says, this do in remembrance of me. It is Christ's glorious person, which ought to be the object of our remembrance. So as we do, as we noted this morning, as our hearts do rise in mutiny against our human languor and coldness, to not observe the Lord's Supper aright, we are to find our minds, to find our hearts, to find our Christian souls mounting up to reflections about the glorious person of Christ. Do this in remembrance of me.
He is the object of our blessed faith. He is the namesake of our high and holy religion. We are Christians, after all. And so at the Lord's Supper, we are called to remember this blessed one.
And maybe just drawing a connection to, for those of you who come to the Lord's Supper and you've come, you know, repeatedly and you've heard Pastor Butler up at the pulpit, issuing some qualifications and a little bit of preamble with regards to what we're doing at the Lord's Supper, or we might say also, what we're not doing. And one of the things that Pastor Butler says is he says that this bread and this wine remain bread and wine. And he goes on to say that they do not change into the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he'll say again that we repudiate as Protestants the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is a big word, kids and adults.
It simply sets forth the reality in the Catholic Church where they believe that though the bread and the wine remain such to the outward senses, they are really and actually changed into the very body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, such that the communicants are eating Christ's flesh and drinking Christ's blood. not symbolically and metaphorically as in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, a la John 6, but really and actually and physically consuming the body and blood of Christ, which of course is contrary not only to Scripture, but also to common sense, and is a blasphemy of blasphemies. Well, the doctrine of the person of Christ is in the background there, because we believe, or we reject the idea that the Catholics uphold where the deity and the humanity of Christ are in some measure mingled or confused, such that the property of omnipresence can be communicated from the divine to the human, as if everywhere in every Catholic Church where the words of consecration are spoken, that Christ can actually be physically present in the bread and in the wine. The doctrine of the person of Christ comes into clear view there. And we would want to note that because Christ is very God and very man, those two natures never confused, there can never be anything whereby we have the bread actually being the physical person of Christ, nor the wine being the very blood of Christ.
So the doctrine of the person of Christ is very important here. But setting aside some of those technicalities of the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, The remembrance that we have in view is to be the remembrance of so glorious a Christ. Remember, as we only noted briefly this morning, who in the glory of his deity, in the glory of his surpassing equality with the Father, in the glory of His pre-incarnate majesty, he, in the fullness of the times, took upon himself our humanity. I don't think we really, you know, maybe appreciate that condescension, or at least we can say we can never fully explore the condescension that we have in the incarnation.
What one man has said with regards to, I believe it was a Christmas sermon that he preached, and I'm pretty sure it was A.N. Martin. He was preaching a sermon around Christmas time on the incarnation, and talking about the mystery of God becoming man, the mystery of the second person of the Trinity taking upon himself our nature. And he said, if we could somehow solve the mystery, if we could somehow take our, I think the way that he described it, and only the way A.N.
Martin can, is that if we pulled out the neurons in our brains as a string, and we were able to wrap them around the doctrine of the Incarnation such that we fully comprehended it, he said we might congratulate ourselves for our genius and our brilliance, but we won't worship. We might congratulate ourselves that we have figured out this great mystery, but we would never worship. All of that to exalt to its proper place the doctrine of the incarnation, where the creator of all things, where the maker of all, the upholder of all, and the redeemer of a multitude came down and took upon himself our humanity to redeem us. In our remembering Christ, we are to reflect upon so glorious a condescension. so blessed a stoop that he would come down to redeem guilty sinners.
We also have, fourthly, the doctrine of covenant theology. And when you hear that, the doctrine of covenant theology, hopefully you don't roll your eyes or hopefully you don't sort of consign yourself to the thought, well, I can tune out now because, you know, we're just going to enter into the ivory towers of of Protestant considerations of theology. No, not at all. When we say covenant theology, we simply mean the architecture of the Bible.
We simply mean that God has condescended such in the way of covenant to communicate to his creatures. In fact, that's the way that he engages in communication with us. He condescends by way of covenant to bless his creatures, and we have that in the text here. Notice at verse 25, with respect to the wine, 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. So Jesus Christ understood that there is an intimate link, of course, between his oblation, his sacrifice, his giving himself up upon Calvary's cross with covenant. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. We we say that the lord jesus christ in his death.
We glory in the fact that the lord jesus christ in his death ratified that is secured completed and confirmed the Announcement of or the reality of the covenant of grace the announced new covenant and you can turn with me back to jeremiah 31 a passage that you should well be familiar with if you've been coming here for any measure of months and years. Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34 is the announcement of the new covenant. And in this, we have a very obvious and explicit connection to what we just read in the words of Christ. This is the new covenant in my blood.
Notice Jeremiah 31 at verse 31, where we have this announcement by God concerning this forthcoming covenant. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. for they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. We get the language of new covenant from this text where God says I will make a new covenant. with the house of Israel. And this covenant is starkly different to the old covenant. It is an unbreakable covenant.
And why is it an unbreakable covenant? Because it is Christ who ratifies it. It is Christ who is the covenant champion. It is Christ who perfects the new covenant, the covenant of grace, that covenant which was first announced to Adam and Eve in the garden, with that threatening to the serpent, that the hero born of woman will crush the serpent with his heel, that time had come in this one Christ who gives these words of institution, do this in remembrance of me, and on the eve in which he was betrayed, or on the night in which he was betrayed, he gives this announcement, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
That language, the stuff of scripture, the stuff of God, the stuff of the person of Christ, the doctrine of covenant theology are all these streams of blessed truth that come to a confluence at the Lord's Supper and bring it forth as something that isn't simply a small thing in the pages of scripture, not simply some right that we must go through through 15 minutes every, you know, every first Sunday of the month, but a blessed observance, a blessed sacrament that God has given to us, wherein we remember so glorious a Savior, wherein we remember the very central act that we noted this morning, the very central event of all of human history, Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of men. The act of Christ's oblation or sacrifice upon Calvary's cross is the ratification of the new covenant. Fifthly, and we have one more after this and then we'll have a few words and then we'll close.
The Doctrine of the Cross
Fifthly before us, again obviously and explicitly, is the doctrine of the cross. The doctrine of the cross is richly central to the Lord's Supper. We see it, of course, in the words of institution, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. And then this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
So the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ is central to the Lord's Supper. His body broken for us and his blood shed for us. Those are the things that the very elements we use represent. The bread representing the body broken, the wine representing the blood shed.
So in the remembrance that we have at the Lord's Supper, the doctrine of the cross is to come flying to our minds. When we say the cross and when we say the death of Christ, those are two words that come up often, or the blood of Christ. So there are three terms that very often come up in the New Testament. What do we mean when we say the cross?
What do we mean when we say the death of Jesus Christ? One man has said that those words are theological shorthand for the substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ.
Substitutionary Sacrifice Defined
That Christ upon the cross isn't simply engaging in an exercise of love to serve as some sort of an example for the height of human sacrifice for others. In other words, it's not simply an example that we have at the cross, that Christ is giving the best example of self-sacrifice, and we are, as human beings, to imitate Christ. That's the extent of the cross, some will say. It's much more than that.
The first word that we noted is that it's a substitutionary sacrifice. That means Christ went in the place of, in the stead of, in the room of all of those whom the Father had given to him. Think about this for a second, because one of the One of the acts of remembrances that we noted this morning is that we are to have our minds, if only for a moment, and it should only be for a moment, reflect upon the fact that we have sinned against God. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul, remember that you, once Gentiles according to the flesh, walked in all manner of iniquity, but God has brought you forth.
So we reflect with our minds, we remember for a moment the sin that necessitated the very cross of Calvary. There is that remembrance that we are to do, but our remembrance, our action of remembrance is immediately to turn to that blessed remembrance, which is looking back upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world, sinners to save. And that saving act is seen with the remembrance of the Lord's Supper in view and the fact that he went to the cross in the place of his people, in the stead of his people. You know, that language that we see in the Bible where it says Christ died for us, for example, perhaps in the book of Galatians where Paul rehearses it, with regards to himself, Christ died for me, but whenever we say Christ died for me, for us, when the Bible says Christ died for us, there is something very rich in that for us language.
It's not simply that Christ died to give us a gift, you know, as if this gift is for us, though we might emphasize that it is a blessed gift. But this for us carries the language of instead of us. And you can turn with me to 1 Peter for a moment. 1 Peter. Just to see this language that we have with regards to for us. and emphasizing the fact that the cross is a substitutionary or vicarious act of Christ.
He did it in our place. Notice that this is in the context of Peter exhorting submission to masters in the context of the church. And he's giving the example of the Lord Jesus Christ as one who committed himself to God in the act of submission, not according to his deity, but according to his assumed humanity. And notice in verse 21 of 1 Peter 2, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, there's that language again, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
Now notice, who himself bore our sins, His own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness By whose stripes you were healed what what an amazing thing we have here by the Apostle Peter because again, this is simply in the context of exhortation to slaves how they are to to act with reference to their masters and he brings forth Isaiah 53 that wonderful proto-gospel language of what the cross is all about, given 700 years before the cross, where it speaks of Christ being our substitutionary sacrifice. This wonderful language speaking of Christ, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Reflect upon this for a moment. We often think of the suffering of Christ, and we think of Those physical sufferings, the beatings and the whippings and the lashings and the bruisings before the crucifixion, we think of the nails going into the hands, the nails going into the feet, the horror of the cross as it took its physical toll upon Christ, and we should never not consider the fact that there is a real physical reality to the cross, a gruesome and a bloody death upon Calvary's cross.
But when our minds are drawn to remembrance, our minds ought to, yes, consider that, but to move beyond it to the very soul travail, the spirit travail, the spiritual suffering of the Son of God who died on Calvary's cross for us. If you think only for a moment about your own sins, whether it's prior to you coming to Christ or after you have come to Christ, your remaining corruption. So in our stint as those totally depraved and as our subsequent walk with Christ is marked by remaining corruption, reflect upon your own sins for a moment, realizing that any sin, any transgression merits punishment and the wrath of God, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. and then multiply that by those millions of people who are God's elect from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and now think about the one who bore all those sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed. The physical travail, yes, but the soulish travail, the bearing of the wrath of God in our place, What a terrible thing to think of, but what a terrible thing not to think of, to channel Melito of Sardis.
As we look with eyes of faith upon a crucified cross, we note that it's a terrible thing to declare, but a terrible thing not to declare, because it is the very salvation that we have there upon Calvary's cross.
The Curse Borne by Christ
Another text that you can look at is in the book of Galatians. You can turn with me to Galatians 3. In Galatians 3, we have this wonderful statement with regards to the bearing of the curse that Jesus Christ underwent in his substitutionary sacrificial work upon the cross. Notice in Galatians 3 at verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Let's just stop there for a moment. before we get to where we wanted to go originally.
Think about the curse of the law upon all of us prior to believing in Christ. Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. What a horrible place it is for any pseudo-Christian or professing Christian to think that they can, in some measure, by the law's obedience, satisfy God's demands and be be accepted by God based upon their performance. If such a one submits themselves to such an economy of salvation, we have the reality that they are cursed.
The fact that they are to live according to the rule that they must do exact, perpetual, personal, and entire obedience to every jot and tittle of the law of God. That is, as Pastor Butler has said, to renounce Christ and hold up yourself as that which is the meritorious glory in salvation. but we have the reality that the law is not of faith, the man who does those laws shall live by them, but the one who lives by faith is the blessed recipient of what we now find in verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. There's that language again, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
Our blessed salvation rests upon the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only his active obedience unto the whole law rendered in our place, he in his those 33 years observed every jot and tittle of the law of God perfectly and that in our place. But with respect to the Lord's Supper, peculiarly, His passive obedience in His death upon the cross. He bore our sins in His own body.
He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Notice that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Notice that the blessing of Abraham is connected not to familial ties.
The blessing of Abraham is connected to the perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ appropriated through faith. And that's why we only baptize believers is because the covenant that we have in view in the ratification wrought by Christ on the cross is not Abrahamicentric, it's Christocentric, and the Abrahamic blessing is that which is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ receiving the promise of the Spirit of Truth. So, we have the doctrine of the cross as central in the observance of the Lord's Supper, of course, because Christ Jesus says, this is my body which is broken, this is the cup of the New Testament, in my blood, the new covenant in my blood. If you've ever asked yourselves, maybe you haven't, but now I'll give you the question that you can ask yourselves.
With this language of my body which is broken for you, one of the things that we read in the gospel accounts is a confirmation or a note of fulfillment that in the crucifixion of Christ, not a bone in his body was broken as a fulfillment of Psalm 22. Well actually, and we might even say a fulfillment of the Passover instructions, that not a bone in the lamb slain is to be broken in the observance of the Passover. Another intimate connection. between our Lord as the sacrificial lamb, our Passover sacrifice. But we see here, my body which is broken, so is this contradictory then?
Well, no. And what it has to do with is what I believe Henry is getting at here, Matthew Henry, when he writes, though a bone of him was not broken, for all this breaking did not weaken him, yet his flesh was broken with breach upon breach, and his wounds were multiplied, and that pained him. God complains that he is broken with the whorish heart of sinners, his law broken, our covenants with him broken. Now justice requires breach for breach, and Christ was broken to satisfy that demand.
So when we remember the Lord Jesus Christ, and when Pastor Butler gives these words of institution as we take this bread, this is my body which is broken, in that act of remembrance, think about that, that we as sinners, breach upon breach, broke the law of God, broke the law of our creator, broke the law of our sustainer, but our champion, the Lord Jesus Christ, with answer, breach upon breach, brought us to God by taking the wrath of God, taking the punishment due us, bearing the guilt, bearing the curse in our place. He took breach upon breach that we might be exonerated for our breach upon breach, forgiven for our breach upon breach of the law of God. What a blessed thing we have in the Lord's Supper.
Communion with God: Means of Grace
And lastly, we have communion with God. We have communion with God, the doctrine of communion with God, or we may say the doctrine of the means of grace. There are means that God has ordained for us to receive strength of soul and faith. We noted them in perhaps just passing a couple times this morning where we talked about prayer. the reading of the scriptures, the preaching of the word, singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper is given as a means of grace, divinely appointed means by which our faith is increased and strengthened. We could say also the mechanisms employed by God to feed our needy souls. Richard Barcelos describes it this way, the delivery system, that is these divinely appointed means of grace or these means wherein we have a vertical communion with God, they are the delivery systems God has instituted to bring grace, spiritual help, and fortitude to our souls. So if you can turn back to 1 Corinthians, but this time go to 1 Corinthians 10 for a moment, and we'll close with this. as we recognize that the Lord's Supper, at the Lord's Supper, while we yes, do have communion one with each other, we also have first and primarily communion with the very God of our salvation.
Notice in 1 Corinthians 10 at verse 14. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh. are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" So, in the context of Paul exhorting these to flee from idolatry, to not participate in meals wherein the Gentiles are offering up these sacrifices to demons or partaking of a meal for communion with demons.
In contrast, the Apostle Paul is setting the Lord's Supper before them as that which is the blessed antithesis, fellowship with God and not fellowship with demons. The truth is that these Gentiles truly do have fellowship with demons, in their satanic right of participating and engaging in this meal? Well, blessedly and conversely, we have a real communion with God at the Lord's Supper. This cup of blessing which we bless, it is not the communion of the blood of Christ.
And this bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? We want to have fellowship with God and not with demons, Paul is saying. all of that to assert this, that at the Lord's Supper, while we do have a remembrance of that once-for-all sacrifice given upon Calvary's cross, we also have this means whereby our blessed God feeds our souls by the risen and exalted Christ in giving us measures of his spirit. This is the language of our confession. In the chapter on saving faith, paragraph one, It reads, the grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word, by which also and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened.
So to apply a measure of brevity to that, by the Lord's Supper our faith is increased and strengthened by the work of the Spirit of Christ. So it is not simply a remembrance, a blessed remembrance as it is, it is also an occasion that God has instituted whereby our souls are fed in that observance. So it is certainly something that ought not to be slighted or neglected by the people of God. Because of its very rich nature, because of the richness of what it is with all of these theological streams coming to a blessed confluence, the doctrine of inspiration or scripture, the doctrine of God, the person of Christ, the very work of Christ upon Calvary's cross, the doctrine of the covenant, and this blessed reality of communion with God.
All of these things come together to exalt, if you will, the Lord's Supper as something that is not simply a religious exercise, but something wherein we reflect with great joyful obedience upon the doing and the dying and the rising again of the Son of God, and whereby God, the risen and exalted Christ, by His Spirit, feeds our souls and strengthens our faith. What a blessed thing we have in the Lord's Supper. Let us never forget the Lord's Supper, let us always remember the Lord's Supper, let us always gather together for the Lord's Supper, knowing that God calls us with these heavenly invitations to that blessed banquet at his table.
Application to the Unbeliever
If you're here this evening and you're asking, perhaps you're an unbeliever and you're wondering, what does this have to do with me? Well, hopefully you heard a little bit of Christ there. A little bit of the reality of sin. the fact that God demands perfection, God demands the perfection of obedience to his law, and we as his creatures, as his human creatures, have fallen in at him, and every second of every day we violate the law of God and are opposed to God. But that blessed God has set forth the blessed answer in Jesus Christ.
We're dead in our trespasses and sins, but the blessed champion of God's elect has come down from heaven, assumed our humanity, endured the wicked opposition of our lower sphere of shame and ignominy that he might lift us up to heaven, that he might save us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and you'll be the blessed recipient of the truth of that crosswork, that yes, you have sinned, but he bore in his own body the sins of his people on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness. By his blessed stripes, we are healed. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We rejoice in the goodness of it. We rejoice in what you have declared to us with regards to the Lord's Supper. We pray that we would count it a high blessing as Christians, a high and heavy honor to gather together for so glorious an ordinance.
We do pray, Lord God, that you would fill our hearts with joyful obedience as we gather together to partake of the Lord's Supper. Might we realize that it is not a remembrance of anything else save for a remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ and the perfection of His sacrifice and all of those blessed doctrines that have an intimate connection to it. to it. We pray as we engage and partake of the Lord's Supper that you would, by your spirit, fill our minds with the blessed knowledge of Christ, that we might commune, have fellowship with you, and Lord God, that you would strengthen us in our faith in this lower world as we go about our days, that we would be enlivened and invigorated by the risen Christ, by blessed measures of His Spirit. We pray that you would go with us now into this week, help us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that we have been saved by amazing and victorious grace, by faith, in Christ alone.
And we pray in His precious name. Amen. Well, we'll have a brief time of prayer. When the piano's finished, you're dismissed.