The Heidelberg Catechism, which would be page 885, page 885, in the back of your Trinity Psalter hymnals. Lord's Day 29, we'll read responsively together. It asks some specific questions. Remember, we're talking here about the sacraments, particularly about the Lord's Table, it says in question 78, Lord's Day 29, do the bread and wine become the real body and blood of Christ? No, just as the water of baptism is not changed into Christ's blood and does not itself wash away sins, but is simply a divine sign and assurance of these things, so too the holy bread of the Lord's Supper does not become the body of Christ itself, even though it is called the body of Christ in keeping with the nature and language of the sacraments. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood? And Paul used the words, a participation in Christ's body and blood. Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that just as bread and wine nourish the temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured out blood are the true food and drink of our souls for eternal life. But more important, He wants to assure us by this visible sign and pledge that we, through the Holy Spirit's work, share in his true body and blood, as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and made satisfaction for our sins. Well, let's turn now to Romans chapter six, which is a particularly direct illustration of that thought, the reality of our participation with Jesus. Romans 6, beginning at verse 5, reading there to verse 11. It says there, Romans 6 verse 5, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is God's holy word. Dear congregation of Lord Jesus Christ, the sacraments have been added by God to the robust preaching of the gospel as a gift for real people, real flesh and blood believers. God created our senses and he wraps them all, as it were, he enfolds them all into the practice of our faith. to give us a body and soul assurance about the cross of Christ, what he does for us, how it helps us. So the sacraments help regular bread-eating people, wine-drinking people know that salvation is not for the super spiritual only, but it is for sinful men and sinful women, real people, whom God has now justified by his sacrificial work. They have died with Christ, and now they live with him, and this is the sign of that powerful work. So the simple sacraments, they assure us that Jesus unites with believers for eternal, intimate life through the Spirit's work. The simple sacraments assure us that Jesus unites with believers for eternal, intimate life through the work of His Holy Spirit. And we want to talk about the assuring signs and the Spirit's work and this sort of intimate, eternal union. And this is very fitting even with John 17, what we read today already. The language of the sacraments is strong for a reason. You can hear in the reasoning of the catechism, but why such strong language is included there? The scripture helps us not to over-inflate things or to leave significant things sort of untouched. We want to have things in their proper balance. So on the one hand, the table is meant to be just a table. And when I was a child, I was like, I don't even know if I'm allowed to get near that table. And touching communion, I thought I would get punished. I thought there would be an explosion or something if anybody else touched the things on the table. Anyone except the pastor. On the one hand, The table really is just a table, and we could set up a card table, and that's all it would be. You know, at a family party, it's not unusual for us to set up extra, you know, kinda even sometimes rickety tables for the, you know, like the dessert table, and the, you know, here's the dinner table, you know, everything's all set up, and here's tables for the other stuff. It's about a meal, it's about God feeding his people, so there's nothing mystical about it. The bread is just bread, the wine is just wine, and that doesn't take away from God's purpose. In fact, it strengthens it because our senses comprehend the simple things, but they now are gonna help us attach, as it were, our faith where it really belongs to Jesus, right, who is our food and drink. And so the reasoning of the catechism here is helpful. The bread doesn't turn into Jesus' actual physical flesh of his body, neither does the wine turn into his physical blood. In the same way, it's not asked of people, you know, hey, does the water in the baptismal font, I realize we're sitting down here and the fountain is up there. If you went up the stairs and looked in, would it be full of blood? No, and we don't expect that water The water of baptism, which just as much as about the cross and shows his blood, we don't expect it to turn into blood as it's sprinkled on the forehead. We don't expect this. There's no mysticism or superstition involved with some kind of magical change or mystical change of substance in the sacraments. And this is a rather Reformation theme. It's very, you know, it was a very serious change and a significant change at the time of the Reformation for the reformers to say, you know, it's really not a, it's not a biblical priority or biblically sound or founded. What is taught in the mass? That there's a change of substance in the physical bread and wine. and all of the accompanying sort of superstitions that go along with it, of which there are many. But the scripture is clear that Jesus died once for all and he's not re-sacrificed. The scripture is clear, he ascended bodily and his body is in heaven and we are on earth. And so he does not, we don't think of the sacrament as cutting up the flesh of Jesus physically or pieces of him here at the table while his body is in heaven. This is not necessary, neither is it appropriate based on the way the scripture teaches about him. So while the language of the scripture calls the bread his body and the wine his blood, we're talking about a spiritual reality, a spirit work reality deeper in us than just at the level of our flesh and the outward and the physical. So very real, but spiritually perceived. And spiritual things are real, not physical, but real. So we can speak this way about his body and blood with no contradiction and no worry and no consternation. Spiritual things are very real, but not all of them physical. So things that are closely connected spiritually speaking Um, you know, our, our, the bread to his body and the wine to his blood sacrificed on the cross. And that language is maybe confusing, taken out of context, but the nature and the language of the sacrament is meant to teach spiritual believing people, faithful people about their close bond with Jesus. If there is anything mysterious or miraculous about the sacraments, It is not that Jesus physically becomes the bread or wine in some odd way. The wondrous thing is how sinners gain sure forgiveness and eternal life and a close relationship with God. So as closely bonded as if he is the head and we are the body. That's the mysterious thing, our close relationship with God so that we are counted as feeding on him and growing, feeding on him and truly alive. And that's an incredible thought, that our spirit is nourished in him. You know, if I was thinking about a relationship to Him as a sinner, I would think, if anything, I'm not the proper body of Jesus, I'm a cancer, I'm a tumor on Him, rather than a right member of Him. The wonder is about how God has made us properly to be so close to Jesus. that he talks about us as vine and branches, but the temple of the living God, we are living stones in that temple, but so beautifully related to the sacrament that we are truly his living body and he is our head. This is amazing. The cross is the way that God has made us participants with Jesus in this spiritual life and taking the bread and wine that are signs and seals of that very real and spiritual truth. The catechism Next is working with a concept that I think is so important for every Christian to grapple with. What is a simple meal for you? Whatever that might be, whatever you're good at making. For a college student, it's just ramen noodles, and hopefully you get better at making something as time goes on. What is a normal meal? And maybe there's a food that you never get sick of. I could eat this forever. Every day I could have the same thing and I would be happy. Some of us maybe are that way. This would be my meal. And that's been for years and it's never stopped. Well, the sacrament aims at the ordinary. A table with bread and wine, that's the simple table of Jesus' time. That's the simple meal in the ancient world. And the sacrament aims at the ordinary to help us understand something extraordinary in Jesus, his salvation that nourishes for eternal life. Bread and wine to the ancient believer are the daily staples no one should go without. They are food and drink. almost boring food and drink, bread and watered down wine for sanitary purposes. So it wasn't like a strong glass of wine. It was wine that quenched thirst. It's really water with wine. But bread and wine, that's the staple. That's the normal food and drink. And food and drink is so ordinary. It's such a part of life. And all this stuff with my stomach or whatever in these recent weeks, I'm like, man, I have to think about food. And food was something that should just be automatic. And now I've got to put way too much thought into it. But food is so regular and so often that having to think about it, I find a burden. I'm like, oh, I've got to be careful about what I eat because I am eating a lot now. I have to focus on it. And I'm like, oh, man, this is kind of This is too much to think about because it's so often and so regular. To live, I need fuel. You need fuel. That's very human at its core. God made us this way. We're people that have to eat daily bread. In fact, we have to pray about daily bread. Well, God also designed our salvation. What do you know? He designed our physiology and our appetite, so he also designed our salvation. And those who do not eat spiritually, they will spiritually starve. And there's plenty of people who are in denial about this, but no one should be absent from this table who wants to live spiritually. We should not be absent from it. When it's offered here, you should be here. When it's offered here, you should be hungry to participate in every way, because no one can live spiritually who does not feed on Christ. and who does not have their life oriented around the regular meditation on his word and feeding at his table, this is really critical for us. Those who do not eat spiritually will starve. Those who do not fuel their spiritual life They can't, if you switch the analogy to fire, they can't burn with the power of the spirit the way that the apostles spoke. They rather sort of, they burn out or they come to a halt. To live, we need Jesus as our spiritual food and drink. He is our spiritual bread and wine. This is also true humanity at its core. We were made. to know Him. We were made to feed on Him. And there is something dysfunctional and, you know, sort of starvation-oriented when we're apart from His Word, when we're weak in prayer, when we're not ready and willing at His table, because God made us this way. True humanity and humanity that lives forever lives by feeding on Jesus. Is your life in position to feed at Christ's table? You know, think of how a toddler, you know, can't sit still at dinner or, you know, kids who can't sit very long and they won't even sit to eat. You know, they have like the opposite side of the magnet when it comes to sitting still just to finish a meal and they leave, you know, half of the food on the plate or all of it on the plate as it were. You know, they can't be in position. Well, this strange phenomenon extends to many in the church. We need to feed regularly and dependably and without fail on Jesus every single day and every single week and every month and every year of our lives, and we will feed on him for eternity. And we have to start now and not be Christians at random, you know, spotty in our spiritual life. at whatever level. We want to be well fed and nourished and have that be the regular feature of our spiritual life. We want it to grow. And so our spiritual life has to be disciplined for that purpose. For that purpose, we're disciplined in the word. For that purpose, we're disciplined in prayer. For that purpose, all together, as it were, underneath the preaching of the gospel and at the table, for that purpose, we are constantly feeding. I'm guessing that, that we have maybe some unrealistic expectations about how much we're going to eat at the holidays. Oh, I'll keep it under control. But then when the food is out, chili cook-off, I'll just sample a little of everything. When we get bonus opportunities to eat, we really shine when it comes to the holidays, when it comes to a special opportunity like this. During the normal times of the year, the regular times, it's unlikely that we would purposefully go through a 24-hour day without eating or drinking anything. That's rather unusual for most of us, I would say. It's very unusual for me, almost impossible for me. I know when I don't eat. Maybe you know, I know profoundly, I know when I don't eat. One 24-hour period not to eat or drink anything, that would be rather unusual. In fact, as a child, we would say after just a few hours, like drama to the man, I'm starving, I'm famished. After just like an hour or two, I'm starving. How is our appetite in our spiritual life? Is it very random? Is it very spotty, speckled as it were? Or is it regular and craving the things of the Lord? It should be just as regular, it should be just as urgent that even in one day, even in a single day, not to have the word of God, not to have prayer, leaves us a little shaken up leaves us a little empty. Jesus is the one who readily nourishes our souls and he encourages us to feed on him. The table and a seal of that fact, of the cost, of the truth, of the glory of the cross for our spiritual nourishment. It's a high point of our worship, the word and the sacraments. Very critical, very central to our worship. Communion is a part of a whole spiritual life that is connected to a real congregation where the true gospel is thriving. It's not theoretical. It's not a drawing and a design on paper. It's a real spiritual life. And this is where it is different to be a part of a church in a way that really matters Our communion life as a body has to do with the idea of being a healthy member and participant in good standing in a church. where the gospel is at work, where the gospel is thriving, and where that's not just what we say about ourselves, but what is the common confession and the unified sort of life and message of the church is not just me talking about my spiritual life and saying, yeah, I know Jesus and I'm right with God, but the actual practice of it, And not in the abstract, but next to and with other believers who would say, yeah, they belong here, and so do I, and all of us together with Jesus. It's very wrapped together with what we were talking about this morning in John 17, that we have the love of Christ, and Christ has the love of the Father, and now we have the love of the Father, and the Spirit that they sent to us, and all of us together in that love are striving to be one. and we feed on the same Christ and on the same word, the same message of his death and resurrection, and we are truly one, not theoretically one, not as an idea, acute idea, but we're really together feeding on him. That's so important. Meaningful communion with other believers where we find that the Holy Spirit is truly there delivering the substance of Jesus to us and sanctifying us together. Parting from that is madness in the view of the apostles. Where does the Bible ever praise spiritual anorexia? I'm very distant from the things of the Lord and from God's people, and how much is the least that I can be connected to the things of the Lord but not die, not starve? That's never praised in God's word, yet many live a spiritual life like that. They're very on the fringe, of a church, if in a church at all, or they have a spiritual life, but it's not clear to anyone and there's no connection or accountability, certainly not perfect unity with anyone. And many are surviving that way. I don't want to be too deep into a church. I don't want to care that much. I don't want people to ask me about my problems. I don't want to admit my problems to others. The obligations are too many. The time commitment is too much. My life is busy. It takes so much of my free time, my family time, my me time. None of those attitudes track with the scripture at all, if anybody cared to ask. If we cared to evaluate ourselves in any realistic way, none of those attitudes are proper. When Jesus is saying, cling to the foot of the cross, feed on my word and be fed at my table. And we're asking about the opposite, you know, about being distant from God and from his people and having our love, you know, really on life support. It's just the opposite in God's word. We want the Holy Spirit to work through this sacrament to give us no doubt that we are sharing in Christ and all his benefits. We're first in line for the table. God delivers us a gift, a visible sign and seal, and a pledge that we can taste, and a promise that we know is from him, and we are there to receive it. We are determined to receive it. For the world, that's unimpressive. It's too simple. There isn't enough glamor. You know, it's not mystical enough or, you know, magical enough, I guess, to be real. But the Christian should know, as we take this sacrament, that the very God, even the Son of God himself, who has all authority over all flesh and gives eternal life, that he took on our humanity. And he appeared, you know, the Bible says, as a man, who didn't have any beauty to attract us to him. It wasn't that he was so special or glamorous or had any of the things that we would say like, well, this is somebody important. Outwardly and in terms of his appearance and his presence, he was not the most compelling person. It was not so much about any of that. He was very normal in that way or very unimpressive. and frankly from an unimpressive man born in unimpressive circumstances to unimpressive parents in a very unimpressive place. So that even the disciples were like, Nazareth, that's a nowhere town. There was question, how can anything good come from Nazareth? The sacraments are like Jesus in that way also. There's nothing special about water or bread or wine. But it does show us in no uncertain terms that God does not think like a man, that God does not, his wisdom is not like our wisdom. And he uses simplicity and even weakness to accomplish his excellent purposes. And the sacraments are this way. We don't get hung up on the bread and the wine or the water because that's not where the power is. We are hung up on the idea that the very God of heaven reaches out in the person of his son, Jesus, and only through him is there power for eternal life, authority for eternal life, atonement against the power of sin and death. and the sacraments are there signing and sealing that spiritual truth to our hearts, to our souls. The Holy Spirit uses the believing practice of the sacrament to assure us about the real benefits of Jesus to each one who eats and drinks of him. And the spirit helps convict us of our sins, remembering that it took his death to atone for them, And he also aids us to move closer to Jesus knowing that he willingly and truly died for me. He shows us that his ways are light while the world's ways are more darkness. The spirit shows us that Christ truly fills us while the world is scraping us empty. All of these are things that God teaches us and that we are convicted of as we live in the power of the Spirit. And our regular participation in the sacrament shapes our lives and reminds us often, it's meant to be a regular feeding, reminds us that we live no longer the life we had before, but the life that comes from God, a spiritual life. We have the mind of the Spirit, not a mind anymore that's shared with this world. And with that backdrop, Romans six is particularly helpful to us. Paul reasons out the gospel down to the deepest living heart connection between us and the crucified Christ. We participate in his broken body and his shed blood in the sacrament. And if we participate in his death, then we certainly will participate in his life, and that's what we read. It is meant to be one-to-one, to know him and own him in his death, and everything that comes with it is to know him and own him in his resurrected life. And this is how God sees each believer. as if we had personally suffered with him and died with him and rose with him. We are so bonded to Jesus. And that has to be the testimony of our faith. Our faith bonds us to him. We are so knitted together with him that it is a natural connection. And I want my head to be very much naturally connected to my body, not questionable connection. It has to be natural. It has to be living. It has to be that real that we're truly bonded to him. Maybe you've heard people say, maybe you've said it to your, you know, to your kids, you know, you are what you eat. And so you're careful, you know, careful about what you eat. Don't eat too much, you know, processed food or whatever chemicals that's in your, you know, all these things. Well, spiritually speaking, this is all so helpful and all so true, that our faith feeds on Jesus, and when we feed on him, we become like him. When we feed on him, we become a real and true part of his body. Our faith feeds on Jesus, and in oneness with him, in unity with him, all of his suffering and all of his obedience are ours also. This is how the apostle reasons here in Romans 6. We take in all of Christ and that's both his sufferings as well as his benefits. We take in those qualities just as truly as we eat the bread and drink the wine and we consume all of the nutrients that nourish our bodily life. God considers us as having died with Jesus, having been buried with him, rising with him, and we have a life made out of this, what comes from Jesus. The association is total, it's complete. Where Christ is, we are with him. So Romans six, this is so closely related to both sacraments. He speaks about baptism, he speaks in this language of life and death that points to the cross. It's so close, the meaning of the sacraments applied with direct emphasis. Participating in Jesus is for our life now. One who has died is already set free from sin. We are set free by thinking this way, and we have to keep that mentality. And the table keeps putting it in front of us to consider, not only to consider, but even to eat and drink this reality. We have died with Jesus, and we are free now to live with him. Maybe some of you know this week, some stores burned right in Savell Town. And a lot of different thoughts come with that, but one of them that came to my mind, of course, is I wonder if they'll stay the same thing. They're burned. A restaurant is dead. A barbershop is dead. These stores are burned out. and smoked out, and will they be the same thing when they return? Or is it going to be a new kind of life for that space? No longer a restaurant or whatever. Now it's going to be something else. Whatever it is, that time has ended for the one, and something else is going to come. Whatever it may be, we're supposed to think this way. When we focus and when we think about the sacrament, I have died and now I have a new life. I lived one way and the purpose of my existence was for the things of this world no longer. And every time I eat and drink, I have to confront myself again with this same reality. I'm something new, a death, has turned the page, we've ended one kind of life and now a new life has begun. And it's being fed constantly by God. Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. We have to remember this every time we eat and drink. The old ways are gone, they're finished. My new pattern of life has begun. This is our testimony to everyone. I don't want those things anymore. I don't want to think that way anymore. I'm not interested in talking that way anymore. In the Holy Spirit, I have a new life. My bond with Jesus, right, is growing. My life with him is growing. We followed him in death, and we follow him in new life. And we will live with him in glory. This is the testimony of his table. It's better than what we can see and feel and taste. It's no less than that, but it's so much more. And we're feeding on Christ now and forever. Amen, let's pray. Lord, we are so grateful for the benefits and the blessings of your table. And we ask that according to your power and wisdom, and according to the love that you poured out in Christ, that we would have this confidence ever growing that we have died with him in a death like his, and now we will certainly live with him in a new and glorious life. This is our mentality, the mentality of the entire church. Make us one mind in this critical way and use your sacrament to cement and to secure that way of thinking so that all the benefits of Jesus will only grow and our spiritual life will only grow until we reach perfection. All these things we pray in Jesus' holy and righteous name, amen.