Title: Understanding Communion
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, last week we had the opportunity to look at the ordinance of baptism and then to have the blessed opportunity to actually have a baptism where we baptize six new believers in their profession of faith. Just a wonderful opportunity to see that displayed. And we see that baptism is only one of two observances that the Lord Jesus Christ ordains for us.
The other one is, as it goes by several names, it's the Lord's table or the Lord's supper or other circles we call it communion. As a church we celebrate this ordinance every month, the first Sunday of the month in obedience to the Lord we celebrate this. But we always would do well to remember why we partake.
And I think the danger of ordinances, the danger of a repeated observance of these things is that they would become too common for us, that we would just take it for granted and forget why we do this. What does this ordinance mean, the Lord's table, communion, what does it mean, why do we do it? And so that's our purpose today before we observe the Lord's table a little bit later is to think through this. And I think in thinking through communion, I think it's helpful to begin considering first how God created us.
We are fundamentally needy creatures. In order to sustain our bodies, we need a regular intake of food and drink and without those things, these basic necessities, we perish. We can't survive.
But by God's grace, He provides us with the earth, with crops, with rain, with more than enough to sustain us. He cares, the Lord cares for our physical bodies. He loves us and He cares for us in that way.
In fact, one of the most amazing acts of human history was the miraculous provision of the manna for the Israelites during the wilderness wandering. If you remember that story, every day for 40 years, 40 years, every single day, God would rain down bread, manna, from heaven and the people would go out and they would pick it up and they would eat it and cook it and do all kinds of things with it, but they weren't allowed to save it because it would go bad, but every single day they were taught and trained to rely on the provision of God to sustain themselves. And so every single day He fed them manna from heaven.
Again, He cares for our physical well-being. But then what about our spiritual well-being? Beyond the bread from heaven being sent to sustain physical bodies, God would later send the bread of life from heaven to save spiritual souls. And so actually I want to invite you to turn with me to John chapter 6. We're going to be a few places today.
Last week was kind of more of a general look. We probably quoted, I don't know, 20 or 30 scriptures, didn't land on one specific passage, but I do want to work from a couple of core passages today as we understand this. If you were to sort of outline and label your Bible, John 6 could really be called the bread chapter, the bread chapter.
And for those of you who know the gospel of John well, you know that in verses 1-15, it's the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. John begins by talking about that specific miracle. It's reminiscent of when God fed the Israelites the manna in the wilderness.
Jesus reproduces that same kind of miracle for the people there on the side of the hill there. But after the miracle, Jesus, he seized the opportunity to then teach the crowds not about the physical nourishment they receive from the bread, but through the spiritual nourishment that comes only through him. And so John chapter 6, I want to look at verses 22 all the way to verse 60.
I just want to read this. Let's look at this together. You're going to see where all this kind of comes together.
So John 6, 22, this is after the feeding of the 5,000. The next day, the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberius near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father, God, has set his seal.
Therefore they said to him, What shall we do so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him who sent me. So they said to him, What then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread out of the heaven to eat.
Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread.
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. And they were saying, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said to them, do not grumble among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that the one who may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
And the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. My flesh is true food.
My blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living Father has sent me. And I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum, therefore many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a difficult statement, who can listen to it? Now, there is a lot in this chapter.
I think when I taught through this many years ago, we probably spent a month or so going through this chapter, but there's a couple things I really want to highlight in light of our teaching, and I hope you'll see where we're going with this. Again, this is in light of the feeding of the 5,000, which is, again, an allusion to the story of the manna in the wilderness coming down out of heaven. Jesus makes that reference several times.
He connects the two worlds here. Jesus says in several places that He is the bread of life. He's not talking about manna.
He's not talking about an actual bread. He says He is the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven. In the same way the bread sustains physical life, Christ, as the bread of life, He provides not just physical life, He provides eternal life.
Look again at verse 35. He says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.
So He's talking about these spiritual realities. He's claiming, here, Jesus Himself is claiming to be the singular source of life. You want life? You have to go through Christ.
Again, verse 48, I am the bread of life. There's a metaphor here. I'm the bread of life, and then He goes back.
Your fathers ate the manna and the wilderness, and they died. He goes, that's physical bread. They ate physical bread, which came down from heaven, and they eventually died.
But then He says, this is the bread which came down out of heaven, that the one may eat of it and not die. He's not talking about physical bread. He says, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.
Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He's going to give up His body. He tells them if they are to have eternal life, they must eat of the bread of life, which is His flesh.
Now, at this point, He's talking about eating flesh and drinking blood, and the Jews are mortified. They're disgusted. They're offended.
Why? Well, because this is abhorrent. I mean, the Bible very clearly says that we're not to be cannibals, certainly, and we're not to partake in any kind of blood. I mean, that's offensive.
But here's the thing. They missed the metaphor completely. Jesus is not talking about cannibalism.
He's not talking about literally drinking His blood. He's talking about belief. He's talking about a spiritual engagement with Him to believe on Him for life.
Verse 54, He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day. He says, my flesh is true food, not the food that just takes care of your body. It's truly what nourishes you, and my blood is true drink.
So He's drawing the connection, but He's going beyond the parallel here. He's going beyond He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me. Spiritual realities here.
In verse 29, 36, 47, they all talk about belief, which ultimately leads to life. Belief leading to life, faith leading to life, and yet the crowd couldn't accept it. They couldn't receive it.
Even some of the disciples couldn't receive it. At the end of verse 66, it says, many of His disciples withdrew and were not following Him anymore. He lost disciples because of this teaching.
It was hard. They said, we can't do this. This is way too much.
Number one, I don't know what you're talking about. Number two, even if I do it, I can't do this. The words were hard to understand, even harder to accept.
But then the events of the following year, they would begin to give clarity to all of this. Go over to Luke chapter 22 here. Luke 22, just a couple of pages back.
The gospel before John is the gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 22, Luke 22 records the events of what's known as the Last Supper. That's the meal that takes place during Passover.
It is the Passover meal. It's at the beginning of what's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There were six major feasts in Israel's history.
And Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, even though they were considered to be separate, they were celebrated at the same time. So a lot of times they were seen as one. So this is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but also the Passover.
All four gospels record the events of the evening. And we were able to take all four gospels and sort of harmonize the account. But it's on this night specifically that Jesus would set the stage for the next 24 hours in a sobering context.
Luke 22, verse 4, again we're going to drop into the evening here right at the middle of this point. Verse 14, when the hour had come, He, Jesus, reclined at the table, and the apostles were with Him. And He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when He had taken the cup and given thanks, He said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.
Verse 19, and when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, He took the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
So if you were to look at all these accounts together, so Matthew 26, which we looked at sometime last year or so, Mark 14, and even 1 Corinthians chapter 11, which is the passage we oftentimes will read on the morning we have communion, they all work together. They fill in the gaps here. But what's very, very clear is that when you look at this account, this is not just another Passover dinner.
This is not like any other dinner they've ever had. Because from that point moving forward, if you look at the clock moving forward, say they're eating dinner right between 6 and 9 p.m., which is normally, it's like a four-hour dinner. So from that point within 24 hours, Jesus is going to be betrayed by His friend, which is what He talks about in verse 21.
He's going to be arrested. He's going to be tried. He's going to be condemned.
He's going to be beaten and scourged. He's going to be crucified, and He's going to be killed. And then we know that He's buried, and then the third day He rises again.
But His brutal death is preeminently what's on His mind here. That's all He can think about right in front of Him is the hour of His crucifixion. And He wants to communicate that to the disciples because even though He'd been telling them for months and months and months that, hey, we're going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to be handed over to the elders, I'm going to be crucified, buried and rise again.
He's been telling them that all along. But I can tell you just because of the stubbornness of the human heart, they probably didn't really understand the magnanimity of what was going on. But now what He's going to do, even though He's been saying the words for a long time, now He's going to portray His death in a very visible act, a graphic representation of what is about to happen to Him.
He first takes the unleavened bread, which is a standard fixture at the Passover dinner. Every Jew in Israel, even to this day who practice this, they all partake in the same thing. And this unleavened bread, this is a symbol of Israel's provision in the wilderness.
It was to remind them of the provision that God gave them, providing food in the wilderness every single day for 40 years, that was to remind them of God's care, His love for them. And so He takes this unleavened bread, you could even maybe call it the manna, if you would. He takes this bread, He gives thanks, and He breaks it.
He breaks it in front of them. What is the significance of this? Why would He take the Passover, the bread? Why would He break it? Well this broken bread here, it pictures the brokenness of His own body that's going to happen through the lacerations and through the beatings and ultimately through the piercings. Now prophecy says that not a single bone was broken, none of His bones were broken, but His flesh certainly was.
I mean, if you read the accounts of the history of crucifixion, it is absolutely brutal. I get squeamish when I have to preach on it, honestly. It is difficult to hear about.
I can't even imagine trying to witness what they did to Jesus on the cross. And so, yes, His body was broken, was lacerated, was destroyed. He says, and this is my body which is given for you.
And then He takes a cup of wine. There were four cups of wine served at the Passover dinner. According to 1 Corinthians 10, 16, we think that this third cup, which is called the cup of blessing, is the cup that He was going to offer at that point.
But He takes this cup, and it would have been this cup of red, warm wine, and it pictured Jesus' own blood. He would have swirled it around and seen it's the same kind of viscous substance as the blood that was going to be poured out. And this is the blood that would be coming from His head, from the crown of thorns, from His hands, from His feet.
And Matthew records that Jesus tells them as He's holding this cup, and He sees the red inside the cup. He says that this is, He says this is the cup of the new covenant, but He says, and Matthew records that He says it is shed for the remission of sins. He's essentially telling them this is the blood for atonement.
Atonement is payment for sin. That's what this is telling them. This is what's showing them is this shedding of blood.
In the Old Testament, that's what they would do. They would shed the blood of an animal, a spotless and innocent animal. They would confess their sins, the blood would be shed, and then according to that ritual, God would be satisfied in the moment.
They were offering a payment for sin, even though Hebrews tells us later on that those sacrifices never actually accomplished anything in terms of atonement for sin. They were illustrations to point to a greater reality. All of those sacrifices for 1,500 years were all ultimately to point to the one sacrifice of Christ that's happening on the very next day.
So this is the very lifeblood of Jesus offered on the cross, Matthew records, for the remission of sins. But then Luke records that Jesus adds here, He says, this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, the new covenant. That's not just random words, the new covenant is something very specific.
We looked at this last week, if you were here, Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31, they both record this new covenant, and this new covenant was promised to Israel. While they're in this process of being exiled out of their homes, both Jeremiah who's ministering to the Jews that are in Israel, and Ezekiel who's ministering to the Jews that are in the Babylonian captivity, they both come to the people of God at that time, and they say God is offering a new covenant. It's not like the other ones, it's not like the one you had with Moses.
This is very different. This is a covenant of new life, a covenant of regeneration. And in fact, Ezekiel 36, 25 says that God is going to cleanse His people from all their filthiness and their idols.
They're going to be cleansed, and this is going to happen now through the sacrifice of Christ. Through His sacrifice on the cross, our sins are being paid for, and in doing so, they're being cleansed. He's not just saying, okay, here's all your sins.
You know what? It's okay. In overlooking, no, there's an actual payment. Our sins cost something.
We don't oftentimes think on those terms. If you go steal a million dollars, what does it take to cleanse, so to speak, from that transgression? Well, you have to pay it back, don't you? But even in our court system, we don't just say pay back what you've taken. Now there's emotional damage and there's other collateral damage accompanying our transgressions.
But what do you do for a sin against a holy God? What do you do for a sin against another person? How do you quantify the cost of sin? Well, God has done so, and He says that sin will result in death, and so the only way to atone for sin is life for life. And in the Old Testament economy, they would take the lifeblood of an innocent animal and they would offer it life for life. Sin is my death, and so therefore I'm offering up the life of another living creature, even though that doesn't do anything.
But I will tell you what does do everything is the sacrifice of Christ, His perfect life to cover our sins. So He's offering up life for life. He's giving His perfect life for our imperfect lives.
And so now by doing this, He's offering this cup. He says this cup is the new covenant in my blood. He's making a declaration now.
He's announcing that He's inaugurating the new covenant. He's inaugurating it. From that night forward, everyone who is united to Him through the cross is a partaker of the blessings of the new covenant, the new covenant of life, the new covenant of forgiveness and cleansing and regeneration, the new covenant of the Spirit indwelling us and causing us to walk in God's ways.
These are all blessings of the new covenant. And so by eating of the bread and drinking of the cup of wine here as Jesus is talking about it, the disciples are partaking in Jesus's inauguration of this new covenant. Now at this point, we might ask here, well, what is actually taking place during this occurrence? Because there's been a lot of debates over the years about what the Lord's table really means.
And there's several different views. There are four major views. I want to look at probably three of them today.
But traditionally and even today, there is the view that the Roman Catholic Church holds, which is the view called transubstantiation. If any of you were raised Catholic, I'm sure you know all about this. But the idea behind transubstantiation is that the elements of the bread and the wine, which are called accidents, those, the bread and the wine, are through the mediation of the priest are transformed spiritually into the body and the blood of Jesus.
According to their catechism, what they call the Eucharist, it represents Christ's death, which is made, they say, present when the priest administers the sacrament. They believe that this becomes part of Jesus's original sacrifice on the cross. It unites their action here with what took place on the cross.
This is a quote from the catechism here. They say, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained, end quote. And so by this magical power that the priest seems to have, he's able to transform these elements, which are just bread and wine, into the body and blood of Christ, and this sacrifice, this representation of this is joined then.
But is it true then that the elements of the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ? We would say no. And the argument that we hear all the time is that, well, Jesus says though, this is my body, this is my blood. But just like in John 6, they missed the metaphor.
Jesus is not telling them that He's transforming, they're not cannibalistic here, they're not eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It's metaphor. It's the same thing as when Jesus says, I am the door.
Nobody takes a door and magically transforms it into Jesus, right? I am the door, I am the shepherd, I am the light of the world, I am the true vine, I am the bread of life. These are metaphors used to teach about grander realities that we can't possibly comprehend on our own. These are realities about who Christ is and what He's doing.
And so we would reject that interpretation. In his refutation of the Roman Catholic dogma, Martin Luther, 500 years ago, he posited a slightly different view of the Lord's Table, not that Christ is in the elements, that they're transformed into the elements, but his contention is that, well, Christ is somehow with the elements, and that was the view called consubstantiation. Con means with, consubstantiation.
This is also known as the real presence view, that somehow as soon as you partake, that the Lord joins together with you in a real present way and is with the elements. But again, I also believe and contend, and many in the Reformation have as well, that this is not the symbolism intended here. There's something else going on.
And it's interesting because at that same time, there was another Swiss Reformer named Ulrich Zwingli who debated Luther on this very topic, and they went to blows. They could not agree at the end. It was a terrible thing.
Zwingli was in tears over it because he just wanted to have unity with Luther on this point so they could understand together. But Zwingli posited a view that we now call the memorial view. What is that? Well, it's literally seizing on the words that Jesus uses in the passage because when you partake of the Lord's Supper, we are to do so, as Jesus says, in remembrance of me.
Memorial. It's a remembrance observance. Luke records that, so does 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
And we recite this almost every time we do it. We do this in remembrance. We bring to mind what this is referring to.
And by doing so, it's encapsulating a vivid, repeatable picture of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And when we observe this together, it's meant to serve as a reminder of the cost of our salvation because we're creatures of habit, and we're creatures of the mundane, frankly. We just go about our lives and we just say, well, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, and it's easy for us to forget what Jesus actually did for us to redeem us.
How often do we actually sit down and contemplate the cross, the work of the cross, the cost of salvation, of saving me from my sins, of paying for my sins? How often do we do that? Well, I would contend with you, we should do it a lot more than we probably do. But that's what Jesus is saying, at least for the church, at least as often as we do this. And there's a lot, some churches do this once a month, some churches do it every other week, some churches do it weekly, some churches do it quarterly.
There's no verse that says how often you must observe, but the Bible says as often as you do do this, you are to remember that your salvation costs the perfect sacrifice, the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus command that we do this? Why does He tell us? And if you think about this with me, Jesus could have given us a portrait of the cross and He could say, stare at this picture and remember me, right? He could do that. I mean, we use, you know, symbols and things like that.
Our cross does not have a picture of Jesus on it because He's risen, but Jesus did not give us an image and say, stare at the image and remember. He says, eat and drink. Why is eating and drinking a continual observance? Well, I pondered this this week and was thinking about all the different places in the Bible where eating and drinking are used here, and there's something about it, isn't there? There's something personal.
Eating and drinking are intimate things. They're personal things. They're really vulnerable things.
Just off the cuff, when someone says, here, try this, and you don't know what it is, ever had that experience? They say, oh, it's good, I promise. And you take it and you look at it. You always examine your food, don't you? You look at it and you're like, all right, and this is an act of faith here.
Our friendship's at stake. I'm going to go put this in my mouth and I'm going to trust that this is not going to kill me, right, or I'm not going to hate it. And then when you have someone who has different tastes than you, they love spice and you don't, and oh, it's great, and then it kills you, you know? Eating and drinking is personal.
Eating and drinking, it's a leap of faith every time you're eating and drinking something. What you eat and drink can be life-giving to you. Eating and drinking can kill you.
It's personal. It's vulnerable. And it's interesting because in Ezekiel 3, God commands the prophet, Ezekiel, He says, I want you to eat this scroll.
It's a rolled-up scroll. I want you to eat this scroll, which is the Word of God. And this physical action was meant to signify a grander reality.
It's the intaking of the Word of God. Now, Ezekiel was commanded to do this actually, but by doing this, it's meant to send a picture to the mind, a tangible reminder that we are to be reading the Word of God and meditating and memorizing and reciting and obeying the Word of God. We're called to eat the Word of God.
I have a book that's literally called How to Eat Your Bible. I had somebody on Amazon say, oh, where'd you get that idea? I'm like, it's from the Bible. God tells us to intake, to eat of His Word.
It's that personal for us. And it's interesting because as soon as Ezekiel does this, he eats the scroll and he declares, it was as sweet as honey to my mouth. For Ezekiel, this was pleasant.
This was wonderful. God did something in that moment for Ezekiel that he recognized, Lord, Your words are sweet to me. They're a treasure to me.
They are enjoyable. But not all commands in Scripture to eat are pleasant. If you remember back to the wilderness wandering, which we've already been talking about this morning, in Exodus 32, Moses, he goes up into the mountain to receive more commands from God.
He's communing with God. He's up there for a long time. And while he's up there, the Israelites that are back at the camp, they become impatient.
Remember this? They become impatient. And then what they do is they construct, they build a golden camp. To bow down and worship.
And as they do it, they begin to engage in gross immorality and idolatry. It's abhorrent. Moses comes down from the mountain.
He sees everything that's happening and he becomes enraged, incensed with anger because of their immorality. And he takes the engraved tablets that he's holding in his hands and he throws them down and shatters them before the people. And then, if you remember, he takes the golden calf.
He burns it. He takes this object of their sinful idolatry. He burns it.
He grinds up the ashes into a powder. He scatters it over all the waters and he forces Israel to drink the water. Remember this? They have to drink this tainted, ashen water and it is going to make them sick.
Now, scholars are divided about whether this actually made them sick, but there's a connection from Numbers chapter 5 that this is the bitter water. This bitter water would have made them sick. In fact, there's later a plague that breaks out in Israel in the wilderness wandering and many of them die.
But this idea here that they're drinking the results, the physical results of their idolatry. They have to take this golden calf into their bodies as a judgment, as a punishment. Remember my uncle telling me a story years ago about the time that his father, my grandfather, caught him smoking when he was a kid.
You know what his punishment was? He had to eat the whole pack of cigarettes. And he told me, he says, when I did that, it made me sick to my stomach. There's something about having to ingest the consequences of our sinfulness that are both disgusting and sorrowful.
When you have to face the consequences of your actions, how difficult that is, how sickening that can be. When you have to look at your own sin and see it and then ingest it, it's awful. But here's the thing, at the Last Supper, Jesus instructed his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
These are symbols of his impending death. And here's the kicker. They're doing this while he's sitting right there.
Now these are only symbols, right? But he's telling them, I'm going to go and die, and my blood's going to be shed, and my body's going to be broken, and I want you to eat this. While he's sitting in front of them. Because their sin was the reason he had to die.
Our sin is the reason he had to die on the cross. And by eating the bread of his flesh and drinking the cup of his blood, we are intaking the consequences of our sin, which is the death of the sinless Son of God. I want you to imagine sitting at the table with the disciples.
It's the night before his death, it's the night of his betrayal, and you're knowing that you're eating and drinking the symbols, the elements of the Jesus who's about to be murdered for your sin. And this is a shock, isn't it? This is a horror. I don't want to partake in eating the symbols of your death, Lord.
I love you. I don't want to see you go. I don't want to see you die.
And I have to partake in this? You want me to eat this? And as they're drinking the wine, they're feeling the warmness of the wine go down the back of their throat, and they know it's a symbol of his blood? I don't want to do this. But what is awful is also beautiful. And what is grotesque is also gracious.
And what is poison is also medicine, because Jesus said, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. He wants us to do this. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
And so what ought to be bitter because of our sin is made sweet because of his salvation. Even though our sin is the reason he died, our sin murdered our Christ, even though that happened, the cross is an act of love. The cross is an act of mercy.
And by eating and drinking, we're acknowledging both the consequences of our sin, but also the receiving of eternal life. That's why Paul declared in Galatians 2.20, he loved me and gave himself for me. Don't gloss over verses like that.
He loved me and he gave himself for me. And so what would otherwise be horrible, the death of the one you love, is actually eminently humbling. Lord, you would give yourself for me? You would pay for all of my sins? Yes, he did.
And this is also why in 1 Corinthians 11.27, we're warned, therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks of the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Well, what's an unworthy manner? Well, first of all, it would be in an unbelieving manner. That's why we discourage people who are not Christians, who are not believers.
We don't want them to partake. It's not because we're some kind of an exclusive group where, oh, we don't want you to partake of our thing. That's not it.
It's because when you do this, you're partaking in the body and blood of the Lord. But if you reject his salvation, you're only eating and drinking judgment on yourself. You're drinking poison when you do this.
Because you've rejected his salvation, you've rejected his sacrifice, you won't acknowledge your sin before him, you're only taking in his death. Whereas those who believe in the Lord, when we receive the sacrifice, we're eating and we're drinking. This is medicine, spiritually speaking.
When I take this into my body, I'm remembering, yes, this is the cost of death, but this is also the gift of life. In the same way the manna sustained the people, this spiritual manna, God saves me, he sustains me, he's my daily bread. His blood is my blood.
So folks, this is serious, which is why we ought to examine ourselves and be reverent as we do this. First Corinthians 11, 28, examine yourself. Take a good hard look inside.
Don't just waltz into the upper room, sit down, grab a bunch of stuff and just start munching. Don't do that. We have to come with reverence, with humility, with brokenness, with contrition, with thankfulness.
Thomas Watson writes, a broken Christ is to be received into a broken heart. The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ. The more you realize how awful your sin is, the more grateful you are for grace.
That he gave himself for you. And you're grateful because who else could give their life for your life? Nobody. All of us are sinners.
What sinner could die for a sinner? It doesn't work. And so we must not come brazenly to the table. We must not come lightly.
But what should we be considering as we go to the Lord's table? I want to close with just a couple of exhortations to you. Just things to ponder, things to consider. I'm going to give you five.
And whichever of these are helpful to you as you consider, my hope is it will be encouraging to you as we prepare for communion. Number one, practice going to Christ. Go to him.
John 6.35, on the bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. So there's forgiveness here. There's love.
There's grace. There's help. There's life for you.
All of this, all that you need for eternity is found in Christ. But you have to go to him. Even as believers.
Because we can be very stubborn, can't we? Week to week. We hold ourselves aloof. Ah, I didn't pray today.
Ah, yeah, maybe I'll do it tomorrow. I got busy. I didn't have a chance to read the Bible.
Ah, yeah, I got some sins and they're not as bad as my other sins, but I just, I haven't talked to him about it. We refrain from going to him. And the longer that goes, and maybe you've experienced this, the longer you go without communing with him, intake of the word, fellowship, prayer, confession, you hold yourself aloof.
And is it easier or harder to come back to him? It's harder, right? We withhold. We become estranged spiritually in our hearts and minds. But the Lord's table, this is an opportunity to go to him.
You come in, you sit down, you say, you know what, no, I'm not running anymore. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to face the consequences of this.
Lord, I have sinned. And I recognize that these elements I'm partaking in right now, this is the symbol of your sacrifice for me. So I confess.
I confess my sins to you, and Lord, I want to be close to you. I want to know you. I want to experience communion with you, Lord.
And so practice, my friends, going to Christ. Number two, this is a memorial, a remembrance of this, so number two is remember his sacrifice for your sins. Again, both Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11, Christ tells the disciples to partake in food and drink in remembrance of me.
We are to remember the promise of the new covenant. Remember that you have new life. Remember that you have a new heart.
He's given you a new heart. He's forgiven you of your sins. He's cleansed you spiritually.
You have the spirit of God indwelling in you if you belong to him. Remember that. Don't let yourself forget.
Remember his shedding of blood for your sins, dying in your place, and remember, my friends, this is so important. Remember that because of the cross, Romans 8, 1 is true, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Remember that.
Number three, examine yourself and repent of sins. Examine yourself. That's Paul's exhortation in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 28 to 32.
He says you are to judge rightly so that you may be disciplined by the Lord. What does that mean? Again, Thomas Watson tells us, he says, I love this quote here, the musician first puts his instrument in tune before he plays. The heart must be prepared, put in tune, before it goes to meet with God in this solemn ordinance of the sacrament.
It means how you come to the Lord. Do you acknowledge? Do you prepare yourself? Do you examine yourself? I want to just ask you a rhetorical question. Do you prepare your heart even before you get to church on Sunday? When you're in the car the night before, I'm going to go and I'm going to have fellowship with God's people.
I'm going to hear God's word. We're going to pray. We're going to sing.
We're going to examine ourselves. Do you prepare your heart or is this just another day for you? Are there sins you haven't confessed? What about the sins or grievances that you have with other brothers and sisters in Christ? That's a hindrance as well. We're reminded of the principle given to us in Matthew 5, 23 and 24.
Jesus tells the disciples, if therefore you're presenting your offering at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, he doesn't just say, well, just keep on going. He says, no, leave your offering there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and them come and present your offering.
There might be times in communion before we observe together that you're at odds with someone even in the congregation. Maybe you're at odds with your spouse or with your kids and there's a way that you could reconcile it, but you haven't. And you're just going to come in and you're going to sit down, you're going to partake of the elements and your conscience knows that you're not right with somebody else or you're not right with him.
Don't partake. Leave it there. It'll be here next time.
Leave it here. Go get right with the person you've offended or get right with God in repentance and then come back and partake. Examine yourself before the Lord.
Number four, nurture ongoing abiding life in Christ. John 6, Jesus reiterates the importance of going to Him in belief. Again, once again, John 6.35, on the bread of life, he who comes to me will not hunger.
He who believes in me will never thirst. Verse 47, he who believes has eternal life. And then it's connecting, believing and abiding.
He says, verse 56, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. When you're in communion with the triune God, you're abiding, you're walking, you're living your life. He's talking about spiritual communion.
And so when you partake in the Lord's table, you're reminding yourself of your need to stay close to Him, not just this morning, but every day. I mean, really, for every believer, every day should be an observance of communion. Every day.
That's why do we pray over meals? It's not just a tradition that our grandparents gave us. Why do you pray? Why do you thank God for food? Because you recognize without His provision, you starve to death. That's why we read our Bibles.
That's why we pray. That's why we're in fellowship. That's why we rejoice.
That's why we find comfort in Him, to commune, to abide, to stay close to Him and walk and step with the Spirit, to nurture an ongoing, believing, abiding life in Him. And then lastly, number five, as we partake in this communion, we also should be anticipating the coming kingdom. Anticipate the coming kingdom.
At the last supper, Jesus declared, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, but I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. In many ways, the Lord's table is an appetizer to the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. All of this will ultimately point to the Lord's return.
And before He returns, the Bible tells us about this supper that we all engage in. It's not just the bread and the juice here. There's coming a day when we're all going to be together in heaven, in glory, at the table with Him, enjoying sweet fellowship with our Lord.
And so that's why Paul says, when we do this, when we eat, when we drink, we're proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. There's an end goal of this. And the end goal, as we remember His death, as we remember His burial, as we remember His resurrection and ascension, we're looking forward to the day when we're going to see Him in glory.
He's going to come again, and we're not going to need to do this because we'll be with Him forever. We're longing for the day when He returns. We're longing for the coming of His kingdom, the coming to bring justice, the coming to bring peace, the coming to earth to reconcile all things to Himself.
And we marvel at this wonderful vision. And John actually gives us a vision. Let me just, as I'm closing the sermon here, let me just read these verses to you from Revelation chapter 5, 11 through 13.
John sees a vision and he says, And I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And then every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. That's our goal, believers.
We're going to be in that chorus singing and proclaiming those very words. That our Lamb that was slain for us is also our king and sovereign who is blessed over all and in all and through all and to him is all glory. There's an end to this.
There's a goal to this. One day we're not going to have to see him by faith alone. One day we're going to see him by sight.
Every eye will see him. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If you're sitting here this morning.
And you've never confessed your sins to God. If you've been living your life on your own, on your own terms, in your own way, you've rejected him. Stop running.
Confess your sins right now, whether you do it here in the seat on your car ride home, when you go wherever and however you do that to go to God and say, Lord, I confess my sins. The Bible tells us if you confess your sins, he'll forgive you. Well, how can he forgive you? Because Jesus paid for it, all of it.
And as we sang earlier, it's not the labor of your hands. It's not your tears, not anything you're going to offer to him to appease him. He's the one who saves and he alone is the one who saves.
But you must believe. You must confess your sins and you must believe. And you will have life.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we. We come to you, Lord, in humility.
We come to you recognizing that we are weak, we are feeble, O Lord, we recognize that without you in the same way that we need food and drink without you, O Lord. We will surely perish. Our bodies are finite.
They will one day pass away. But our souls are eternal. And there's coming a day, Lord, that you will judge and every single soul will be standing before you.
Everything will be open. The books will be open. You will see and examine every single thing.
And when we stand before you. What will you see? The Lord, will you see only our sin with no payment, or will you see your people robed in the righteous robes of Christ? Lord, we want to stand before you wrapped in the sacrifice, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. We want to stand before you with his righteousness credited to us, our sins forgiven, new life in us.
Lord, we want to go home. We want to see you. So, Lord, as we partake in the bread and the juice here, these symbols of your body and blood.
Lord, help us to examine ourselves and to consider that you loved us and you gave yourself for us. And so, Lord, as we prepare our hearts, as we partake, Lord, would you draw near to us that we might draw near to you. We pray and ask all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.