Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 38 – June 1980

 

The Meaning Of The Lord’s Supper

 

Sermon by Rev. Keith Vethaak on 1Corinthians 11:23-32

Hymns: P/H 448; 451; 422; 304; 135

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

This Sunday is one of those days that really comes around too rarely in our Church, as today we celebrate together the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion. But now let me ask you a question. Why do we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? What is really the point of this whole business? Sitting around (the table), eating the bread and drinking the wine? Is it just an age-old tradition without much meaning? Is it just a memorial service to remind us of what Jesus has done, or what?

This morning I would like to share with you four aspects of the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Four things that the Lord’s Supper does for us.

In the first place the Lord’s Supper points to the most marvellous and wonderful thing that ever happened in the history of the world. The Lord’s Supper reminds us of the best thing in the world and the greatest thing that can ever happen to you or to me.

The Bible tells me that I am a sinner, and that I’ve got no hope of saving myself. According to the Bible I was born in sin ― all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But then God sent His Son into our world. God the Son became a man, and lived among us, and He was put to death on the cross, His body was broken, and his blood was poured out on the cross, and when that happened a marvellous transaction took place.

According to the Bible I have sinned and I have to be punished for my sin. And the punishment for sin is death ― eternal death.

But when Jesus died on the Cross, He took my place; He was my substitute; He was punished for the crimes that I committed. Praise God!

You know in the Old Testament God had already taught His people to expect this to happen. God said that there will be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. And He got his Old Testament people to take an innocent and pure lamb, and they had to sacrifice that lamb before God would forgive them their sins.

Now when Jesus came into our world, one of the first things that John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus was, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

You see, God got his Old Testament people to sacrifice an innocent lamb, not because that lamb had the power to take away sin, but because He wanted to prepare them for the coming of the Lamb of God, Jesus, whose death is able to take away the sins of everyone who believes in Him.

And now as we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the wine can’t take away our sins, any more than the lamb could, but by doing this we are being pointed to what Jesus did when He died on the cross. The Lord’s Supper reminds us of the wonderful truth that when we transfer all our trust to Jesus, then he takes away all our sins and he gives us the gift of eternal life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life.”

And now secondly, the Lord’s Supper gives us the opportunity for house cleaning. I want you to turn to 1Cor.11:27-31.

Have you ever seen what happens to a plant that is cut off from the light? It becomes yellow and sick and very very weak absolutely useless for fruit bearing.

Now the Christians described here were weak and sick. Why? Because they were cut off from the light. And how did they get cut off from the light? Have a look at 1John 1: 5-10. (Read it).

Walking in the darkness is to live with unconfessed sin in your life. And the Scriptures are warning you right now that if you come to the Lord’s Table, and God has convicted you of sin, and you have deliberately refused to confess your sin and to ask for cleansing and forgiveness, then you eat and drink condemnation to yourself.

Now let me just ask you to turn to Galatians 5:19. (Read through works of the flesh).

Is God convicting you of any of these things? Then before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper you confess these things and ask for the cleansing available through the blood of Jesus.

To come to the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin is like coming to dinner with dirty feet. And in the time when Jesus was on earth that was the greatest of insults.

Do you remember the time that Jesus was about to sit down and have a meal with His disciples? And He himself took a basin of water and a towel and began washing the feet of his disciples. And Peter objected and said: “Lord you aren’t going to wash my feet!” And Jesus said, “Peter if I don’t wash your feet then you have no part in Me.” And Peter said, “Well then Lord, wash me all over.” “No Peter, you have been washed and you are clean, it’s only your feet that need washing.”

Jesus shows us that He isn’t talking about salvation. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, His sins are washed away once and for all, and He has eternal life, and no one can take that away.

But if you want to be in fellowship with God, if you want the power of Jesus to be in you rather than being weak and sickly and fruitless, then you need to have your feet washed by Jesus, you need to allow Jesus to deal with all the wrong things in your life. You need to let Him convict you of sin through His word and Spirit and then to confess those sins.

I wonder how many of us this morning have done that? How many of us have taken the time to allow the word of God and God’s Spirit to convict us of sins and then confessed them and allowed Jesus to wash them away.

If we have judged ourselves truly we would not be judged this morning.

In the third place now the Lord’s Supper reminds us that Jesus is coming again. Turn with me to 1Cor.11:24-26 (read).

As we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper we are celebrating it with eager expectation and longing for His return. Jesus is coming back.

Just as He went to heaven on Ascension day He is coming back, coming back in glory, coming back with power, coming back to take us to Himself, coming back to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is coming again! Hallelujah!

And now, fourthly, the Lord’s Supper is visible evidence of His real presence today. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we do so with bread and with wine. And the bread and the wine are just that nothing more, just as in baptism the water is just water, and in the Old Testament the sacrificial lamb was just a lamb.

But….. and here’s the exciting bit – because Jesus has commanded us to do this, and because Jesus himself has promised that He is present in and through the bread and the wine, the Lord’s Supper is full of the power and the glory and the presence of Jesus Himself.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat it.” He didn’t say, “Let this bread remind you of my body.” He said, “This is my body”.

Now obviously the disciples weren’t eating the physical body of Jesus, but through the power of the Word and the Spirit of Jesus they were truly receiving Him.

Now this is surely the most marvellous and wonderful thing, and if you understand it you’ll be coming to the table this morning with the greatest sense of expectation.

The Belgic Confession puts it this way, and let me just paraphrase for you. It says, “Jesus wouldn’t have told us to do this for nothing, just as an empty reminder, therefore by His power He works in us all that is represented by the bread and the wine.”

Now we can’t understand this, but through the Holy Spirit we are actually receiving the real body and the real blood of Christ, not through our mouths but into our spirits through faith.

Now let me quote. “This feast is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates Himself with all His benefits to us, and gives us there to enjoy both Himself and the merits of His suffering and death: nourishing, strengthening and comforting our poor comfortless souls by the eating of His flesh, quickening and refreshing them by the drinking of His blood.”

Wow!

As we come to receive the bread and the wine this morning we are receiving Jesus Christ and all His benefits.

Christ and all his benefits…!

Let’s get ready to receive the Lord.

Amen.