Word of Salvation – Vol. 34 No. 41 – November 1989

 

Who May Come To The Lord’s Table?

 

(Participation in the Lord’s Supper concerns the individual church member.)

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 30b (Q & A 81)

Reading: 1Corinthians 10:1-22

 

Congregation, beloved in Christ,

It can sometimes happen, as it did here last Sunday evening, that a stranger is in church when the Lord’s Supper is held.  As far as we could tell, no one of the church’s members knew the lady.  She seemed unfamiliar with the liturgy.  A Psalter Hymnal was kindly given to her but she appeared to be in two minds about joining in with the singing.  Maybe she was searching and she could have been in a troubled state of mind.  We could not tell.

After the Lord’s Supper form had been read, the congregation was invited to the table of the Lord.  In our customary way it was made clear that all communicant members were welcome to participate and also those visitors who had asked and received permission from the elders.  The lady did not know the rules, of course, and was probably very uncertain whether or not she was allowed to come to the table.  Whilst the second table, or it might have been the third, was in progress, she got up and walked out of church.  One of our members tried to catch up with her but she had already disappeared.

Later in the week some church members asked: what would you or the elders have done if she had come to the Lord’s Table?  Would you have allowed her to participate or would you have been required to refuse her?

In our church’s confession of faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, a lot has been said about the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  We have been taught and reminded again as to what the Lord’s Supper is all about.  All that remains is the question: Who may come to the Lord’s Table?

A lot of words have been spoken and written about that.  Has the local church any right ever to keep anyone from participating in the Lord’s Supper?  Should we not leave it to the individual person?

And during the last few years there has been much discussion about children taking part.

In connection with all this we have come to speak of the Lord’s Supper as being either “open” or “closed” or “close”.  Other words such as “restricted” and “supervised” are also used.  Even the expression “fencing the table” has been used.  And must the Lord’s Supper be celebrated only in the church building with the congregation present, or may it also be held with a few people at private gatherings, or at weekend retreats, and conferences?

Yes, these are the issues that are being talked about and can take up a lot of time.

So what does God’s Word have to say about it all?  We all want to let the Scriptures teach us.  The difficulty that we face, of course, is that there is not a text or a passage that specifically tells us what to do in each and every situation that we face.  So we have to be taught and guided by the overall teaching of the Word of God.

As we deal with the question: “Who may come to the Lord’s Table?”, we see firstly that it concerns the individual church member; and secondly it concerns the church as a whole.  But today we will deal only with the first point and next time the second.  So firstly then participation in the Lord’s Supper concerns the individual church member.

We sometimes tend to overlook this.  We can be so busy in trying to be clear on the responsibilities and task of the church that we fail to point out that participation in the Lord’s Supper is also very much a private matter.  It is, therefore, good for us to remember that participating and coming to the Lord’s table is first and foremost a personal confession of faith.

How true that is!  When you take part in the Lord’s Supper you are confessing that Christ is your Saviour and Lord.  God’s Word in 1Cor.10:16 speaks of our eating and drinking in the Lord’s Supper as a “participation in the blood of Christ”, and a “participation in the body of Christ”.

You know, of course, that the reference here to the body and blood of Christ has to do with Christ dying on the cross.  He gave His body over to death, and his blood was spilt, because our sins and guilt were upon Him.  He suffered the just punishment of God because of sin instead of us.  He died in our place.  He is therefore, our Saviour.

Now you are confessing very clearly when you come to the Lord’s Table, that you benefit from Christ’s body and blood.  Your participation says that you have a part in it.  It was for you that the Lord Jesus died and suffered the anguish of hell.  The broken bread and the poured-out wine in the Lord’s Supper point to all this in the clearest way possible.

So for you to eat the bread and drink from the cup is a positive confession on your part that you are Christ’s and that He has saved you from eternal death.

Furthermore, when you participate, you are confessing that Christ is your food and drink.  You are saying that He is the driving force of your life and that you cannot live without Him.  Moreover, you are saying when you take part in the Lord’s Supper, that that “you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1Cor.11:26).  That is, the death of Christ for you, a sinner, remains a most valuable act of salvation for you and for all Christians, right up to Jesus’ coming again.

Now all of that concerns you as an individual Christian very deeply.  If you have made the good confession before God, the church, and all people, that you belong to Christ, then each coming to the Lord’s Table is your continued personal confession of faith that Christ is and remains your Saviour and Lord.  Then as far as you are concerned personally, you have no choice but to come to the Lord’s Table, faithfully and regularly.  You do not only have the right to come as a communicant member, you must come.

But this coming is a most joyful act.  In all our debates about the Lord’s Supper and the problems we may face, we must not lose sight of the beauty and joy that comes with participation in the Lord’s Supper.  In our coming to the Lord’s Table we are eating and drinking with our Lord.  We are having a precious, good time with Him.  In the Lord’s Supper it is so visible and so plain that the Lord and His saved children are in the closest fellowship imaginable.

But it is right at this point that we should pay attention to God’s Word when He says that you cannot drink the cup of Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons.” (1Cor.10:21).

The background of that admonition is the Corinthian church situation.  Its members were familiar with feasts where pagans sacrificed food to idols before they ate it.  Some Christians were of the opinion that it did not matter if as a Christian you took of that food which had been dedicated to false gods.  But God did not approve of it.  By participating in such pagan feasts you identify yourself with idolatrous practices.  There is an involvement, a fellowship with other gods and other spiritual lords.  God says that you cannot do that and then also come to the table of the Lord.

This sin of the Corinthian church members was a repeat of Israel’s sin.  In 1Cor.10 the apostle Paul holds up the Israelites as example of a wrong thing.  Israel was saved by God.  She had been taken out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  Because of all that Israel enjoyed close fellowship with God.  He guided them with that special cloud, and protected them from their enemy.  God was spiritual food and drink to them.

But while Moses was away up on the mountain receiving the tablets, with the commandments of God, the people began to make idols and worshipped them.  As they were busy doing that, they failed to restrain their religious fervour and their excitement spilled over into uncontrollable behaviour and they committed acts of sexual immorality.  God punished the Israelites for their sin.  One cannot serve God and idols.

The Corinthians were warned with this lesson from history.  And so are we of course.  There must be no other spiritual lords.  The relationship and fellowship between God and His people is like a marriage.  Husband and wife are very close.  If either partner has relations with a third party then the fellowship is broken.  So both husband and wife must not let that happen.

Now God has saved you through Christ.  You belong to Him.  God protects you and watches over you.  You confess all this when you come to the Lord’s Table.  Therefore, you cannot serve other gods.

So how then will Christ know that you continue to confess Him as your only Lord?  How will your Lord know that you want to serve Him only, that He is your most precious possession, and that you don’t want anything to come in between you and Him?

You can show your Lord by hating sin.  The catechism puts it this way: when you are displeased with yourself because of your sin.  That’s very personal isn’t it?  When the Lord’s Supper is going to be held then you do not in the first place look around in the congregation to see who should or should not come to the table.  You look at yourself first of all.  How are things with me?  Am I still fighting sin and Satan in my own life?  Am I looking to the Lord to help me see where the temptations are that could lead to a break in my fellowship with Him?

Do you know that a Christian can only hate sin when He loves His Lord more?  We sin, not because we hate it, but because we are in different stages of being in love with sin.

Let’s admit to this.  We’re not giving away any secrets when we say that we sin because we are drawn to it.  A person may have a thorough dislike for tripe.  He positively hates it and the thought of eating it makes him sick already.  You can put as many plates as you like in front of him, but he will not be tempted by it.  He will certainly not go out of his way to be near it.

But there are many things in life we are drawn to in a sinful way.  It can be love for money, for power, sex outside of marriage, and thus the other woman, that other man.  If we find that we are developing a taste for any of these things, yes, falling in love with them, then we are tempted to gamble if it’s money, to manipulate other people if its power, to be promiscuous and adulterous if it’s sex.  Sin, of course, has a thousand and more variations.

May I go to the Lord’s Table if I love sin more and the Lord less?  Of course not!  If I do, I am inviting the Lord’s judgement on me.  God will not be mocked.  There must be no other gods.  But how can a love I have for a certain sin be turned around into a hating it and thus leaving it alone, like some people will do with tripe?  The answer is by loving Christ more!

So you have to consider again what God has done for you in Christ.  Count the blessings you have received.  Come to the water of life and drink from the wells of salvation.  Experience the love of God and the guidance of His Spirit.  Put your hand in the Lord’s and walk with Him.

Some people are introduced to basketball and they like it.  And the more they find about it the more they like it.  God and His Word are full of meaning and beauty.  The more you find out about them the more you like it and the more you want to know.  The psalmist knew what he meant when he said: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (34:8).

So the Christian will be disgusted with himself when he flirts with sin and does it, for he knows that God can do much more good to him than sin will.  Sin, in fact, destroys and kills.

Now, if that is the way it is with you, then you may come to the Lord’s Table.

But fighting sin is not easy.  It’s the most powerful enemy there is.  We are up against none other than Satan and he is a terrible liar and a most crafty customer.  Unfortunately, there will be times when we are a “bunch of weakies”.  Guilt overtakes us and we feel so unworthy of God.

Therefore, there is another reason why we come to the Lord’s Table, besides that of fighting sin.  It is a trusting in God!  The catechism puts it like this: a trusting nevertheless that your sins are pardoned and that your continuing weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ.  That word “nevertheless” is very important because all Christians have experienced falling into sin and later came to feel terribly ashamed about it.

Think here of David the king and Peter the disciple.  They sinned terribly as children of God but by God’s grace they were brought to repentance.

When we have truly repented and from the heart have confessed, “Lord, I am sorry..!”, then we must look to Christ’s death for sinners on the cross and trust God that for the sake of Christ we will again be cleansed and forgiven.

So it’s hating sin and fleeing it, and nevertheless trusting that God will pardon us for Christ’s sake.  Such should be our frame of mind when coming to the Lord’s Table.

But there is one more thing.  A wanting to do God’s will.  The Catechism says: desiring more and more to have your faith strengthened and to lead a better life.

Yes, which Christian, having drunk deeply and refreshingly from God’s forgiveness and grace, will not want to be a better Christian than before?  When the Spirit of God has opened our eyes to the riches of Christ and all His benefits, then we hear Him speak to us as we read and hear the Word of God: Go on Christian, serve the Lord even more.  You have seen what God can be for you and you for God.  Let your faith discover even more the wonderful things of God and His salvation.  Come, let me lead you to other treasures.

Anyone who loves his job wants to become better at it.  It’s the same with loving God.  You want to believe in Him more and more and lead a life that is better than the day before.

Who then may come to the Lord’s Table?  Those who hate sin and fight it; who nevertheless trust God that He will pardon them in Christ, and who long to do Christian things better and with a stronger faith.

Are we now describing some sort of super- Christian?  Not at all!  We’re talking about ordinary Christians, about saved sinners who must fight sin and stop doing it but who, when they fail, must go to God to seek forgiveness and go on in His grace, and who do not take all this for granted but in true thankfulness desire to love and serve God better and be more obedient to His good and perfect will.  And all this is very personal.  It concerns every church member individually.  For you alone know what lives deep in your heart.

The person who does not have any of this, but pretends he has, is a hypocrite.  But unless you know a person very well, you cannot tell if he or she is a hypocrite.  In fact, even if we know the person well, we still should not judge.  Are you present when that person in the privacy of his bedroom cries out to God for deliverance from his sinful ways?  Do you always know when a person sees his own sins and hates himself for not being able to break with them?  Leave them to God.  It’s not our task to flush them out into the open.  The real hypocrites are known to God and He will judge them.

The same with the unrepentant.  The people the Catechism has in mind here are not those who openly hold to unscriptural teachings and ungodly living.  They are spoken about in Q&A 82.  The unrepentant mentioned along with the hypocrites are those who say they will break with sin but don’t.  They go on just as before even though they have indicated they will make a better job of their Christianity.  They are the church members who are visited by the elders and admonished to come to church more often and partake of the means of grace regularly so that they are not in danger of being lost forever.

Hearing such warnings they readily admit that, spiritually speaking, things are not good with them.  They promise better things.  I’ll be in church next Sunday, sort of thing.  And yes, they will start reading the Bible again and begin praying more sincerely and not just out of routine.  So they promise better things and therefore need not be disciplined.  For the church does not discipline those who say they want to return to God.  The church rejoices in that.  But then nothing happens.  The good things that were to happen never do.  It’s the same as before.

They are the unrepentant that are mentioned alongside the hypocrites.  And what should such people do?  Stay away from the Lord’s Table?  Yes, that is what they must do.  They should decide by themselves, as individuals, not to come to the Lord’s Table if they continue in their sinful ways.  If they, in their unrepentant way were to participate then they will eat and drink judgement from God on themselves.

What that judgement will be is not for us to say.  We must leave that to God too.  It’s not a judgement through the church but directly from God.  They have aroused His jealousy and to have God against you when He is in a jealous state is to be in a fearful predicament.

But will it do the hypocrites and the unrepentant any good to be absent continually from the Lord’s Table?  Of course not!  They are missing out on the means of grace.  They are not growing spiritually.  They remain in a stagnant state and will deteriorate even more.

What to do then?  To come to the Lord’s Table is sin; to stay away is sin.  Well, there is only one thing left to do: to repent.  Yes, to break with their sin of indifference, apathy and stubbornness.  God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  So turn to Him, and live.  The coming to the Lord’s Table then is of much concern to the individual church member.  But it also concerns the church as a whole and we will look at that next time.

AMEN