You can turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We'll be focusing our attention on verses 24 and 25, and in fact, we're gonna narrow our focus and focus our attention on the word remembrance, really, in these two verses, and what it means to remember the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ when we partake of the Lord's Supper together. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're going to begin our reading at verse 17. We'll read down to the end of the chapter. And again, we'll be focusing our attention on verses 24 and 25, although, as usual, we'll be branching out and developing that theme. Here, once again, God's wholly inspired and inerrant word. Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. We have a great and wonderful privilege once again of partaking of the Lord's Supper together one week from today, this coming Lord's Day. It is something that we should always look forward to with great anticipation, with great delight. For this is a time, this is an opportunity for us to receive God-saving benefits by means of these sacramental symbols, by the bread and wine which he has appointed to bless us and to strengthen us in our faith. And as usual, today we will hear a sermon that I hope will help us to prepare better to partake of that sacred meal with greater benefit to our souls, for it is in our understanding of what this sacrament represents and is all about, that we are richly blessed by it. Many churches, I fear, partake of this sacrament with very little understanding of what they are doing, with very little reflection, with little to no self-examination or preparation. But as I have mentioned before, much of the blessing and benefit comes from our active participation in this sacred meal. And we actively participate in accordance with what the scripture teaches when our minds and our hearts are prepared beforehand. We've heard several sermons already on the nature of the Lord's Supper. We've considered what it means to examine ourselves, what it means to discern the Lord's body, what it means to partake in a worthy manner, what it means to proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. And I hope that these are sermons, like the sermon this morning, that even in the future that you can go back to and remind yourselves of and will help you to think about what the nature of the sacrament is and how it's a blessing to us. But this morning, I want us to turn our attention to a new theme, and that is what it means to remember Christ's death in the sacrament. In 1 Corinthians 11, 24, and 25, we find this important word being used, don't we? This idea being conveyed to us of remembering what Christ suffered for us on the cross, of remembering at what great cost our salvation was purchased. Again, verses 24 and 25 of 1 Corinthians 11 says this. And when he had given thanks, He broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. We will not look at these verses as a whole, as I mentioned, but we'll focus on this one word, this one idea of remembering when partaking of the Lord's Supper. And notice how part and parcel is this remembering to a proper observance of this sacrament. It's clearly emphasized in this text. Twice we are told to remember. After the breaking of the bread, we are told to partake of it in remembrance of Christ. And then again, after the giving of the cup, we are told to drink it in remembrance Christ. This act of remembering, we could say, is of the essence of the Lord's Supper. Charles Hodge said this of the act of remembering in the Lord's Supper and of our intentionality in commemorating Christ's sacrificial death, that, quote, if this idea be kept out of you, the sacrament loses all its significance and power. If this idea be kept out of you, the sacrament loses all its significance and power. Thus, not to remember is to not commune at all. And so, let us give our careful attention to what God's Word has to say about what it means for us to remember Christ's death in this sacrament, and how the Lord's Supper is indeed a memorial of His atoning sacrifice. We will consider first, the important place of remembering in the Old Testament sacrament of the Passover meal. And we will then consider secondly, the important place of remembering in the New Testament sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And then finally, we'll conclude with some further comments and application of this doctrine to our lives. So first, let us consider the important role, the important place of remembering in the Old Testament sacramental meal of the Passover. I would remind you that the Passover was the prototype of the Lord's Supper and finds its ultimate fulfillment there. Matthew Henry saw it that way so much that he called the Lord's Supper our Gospel Passover. I love that phrase. Matthew Henry was great at that kind of thing. Our Gospel Passover, he called the Lord's Supper. The apostle Paul clearly made this connection in 1 Corinthians 5, which we read a moment ago, when he calls Christ our Passover sacrifice. In that context, Paul told the Corinthian believers that they needed to excommunicate a man from the congregation for gross sin and remove him from the communion table. And he says in verses six through eight, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, in other words, a little bit of sin leavens and permeates the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." So he's connecting Christ's death on the cross, his sacrifice, with the Passover. Therefore, what does he say next? Let us keep the feast. Well, what's the feast? It's the Lord's Supper. Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Just as circumcision was a prototype of baptism and finds its fulfillment there, so the same is true with regard to the Passover and the Lord's Supper. These Old and New Testament sacraments correspond to one another. They are related to one another. They symbolize and signify the same work of redemption. However, under the new covenant, With the fuller revelation that has been given to us now, the meaning of baptism and the Lord's Supper are much fuller and much richer and come to us with greater clarity. but in the same way that the sacraments and baptism of baptism in the Lord's Supper are a means of grace to us now by faith, so it was with regard to circumcision and Passover in the Old Testament as well. Our own Westminster Confession of Faith reflects this understanding when it says in chapter 27 on the sacraments, paragraph five, it says this, the sacraments of the Old Testament the sacraments of the Old Testament, a lot of times we just think about just the New Testament sacraments, the sacraments of the Old Testament in regard to the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited were for substance, as to the substance of what they were all about, the same with those of the New. for substance the same with those of the new." We see how this kind of view ties together the Old and New Testaments and unifies them. And so Passover, as that Old Testament sacrament, signified and sealed the same benefits that are conveyed to us in the Lord's Supper. However, now we partake of bread and wine, which illustrate for us with far greater clarity and light and far more powerfully what Christ, the incarnate Son of God, suffered for our redemption. Just think about what a great privilege we have on this side of the cross. Our poor fellow believers in the Old Testament were blind and ignorant to so much. How much clearer is our understanding of redemption than was theirs? The reality of the Lord's Supper far outdoes the Old Testament type in that regard. And yet, as I said, the Passover was a sacrament, was a means of grace to those who partook of it in faith. And as it signified and sealed the same benefits, the Passover is very instructive for us even now in the New Covenant era as well. We develop a lot of our doctrine of baptism from circumcision in the Old Testament. In fact, John Murray says that our doctrine of baptism starts in the Old Testament with circumcision and with Abraham. And the same is true with regard to our understanding of the Lord's Supper. We go back to the Passover to begin to develop our understanding of what the Lord's Supper is all about. And one of the first things that we need to take note of here with regard to the Passover is that it was given, it was instituted as a memorial for the people of God. It was symbolical, quite clearly, of something that they were to remember. And here we see the great similarity between the Passover and the Lord's Supper. We were told to remember in the case of both of these sacraments. what we read earlier from Exodus 12, but allow me to remind you of what we read in verse 14. In fact, I think it would be great if you wanted to turn back to Exodus 12 for just a moment, because we're gonna camp out here for just a second, and we're gonna turn to Exodus 13 also. But in verse 14, it says, so this day shall be to you a memorial. and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, you shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance." Incidentally, it's interesting to think about how it says this is to be an everlasting ordinance, and yet it ended with the Old Testament. or did it, right? It's fulfilled in the new covenant sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And then even the Lord's Supper is a type of what? Of the marriage supper of the lamb, right? When we will sit down with Christ forever. So do you see how it makes a lot of sense that it would say it's an everlasting ordinance? You see, it is an everlasting ordinance. Because it continues on in the history of the church and even into the eternal state. But notice the wording there in Exodus 12, the Passover was to be a memorial. The word there for memorial is zikaron, and it basically means a memento. That is something that brings to one's remembrance a significant event from the past. We might think of a memento that we have, right? have various antiques or we go on a trip and we want to get a souvenir, right, and we bring it home and when we see it on our table or on our dresser or wherever we have it, it's a memento. It reminds us of what happened and when we got this thing and the things that we did and the people we were with. You see? And that's the idea. This word, zikaron, is a noun. It can also be translated as a record, because when you keep a written record, you're bringing to memory things that happened in the past. Or it can be translated as remembrance. Exact same idea, exactly the same with what we read in 1 Corinthians 11. The unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and the roasted lamb all were to bring to their remembrance their redemption out of Egypt. And then this idea of remembering is emphasized again in Exodus chapter 13 at the beginning of verse 3. Look at Exodus 13 at the beginning of verse 3. And Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand of the Lord by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out of this place. No unleavened bread shall be eaten." But notice it there, it says, remember, once again, that's the verb form of the same word, is zakar. Now, if you skip down to verse eight, it says this, and you shall tell your son in that day saying, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. Verse nine, it shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial. between your eyes there that same word is used again and so what you find if you do a careful study of this idea of remembering and especially of memorials in the Old Testament and the Old Testament that it was really the Passover meal that was the most significant thing for the Israelites to keep before them as a memorial. Now, there were other memorials, like for example, you remember when Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River and they gathered those 12 stones and they set them up as a memorial. But the Passover ordinance was front and center. It was by far the most important. Again, Matthew Henry says this, no ordinance of the Jewish church was more imminent than the Passover and none more frequently mentioned in the New Testament. None more imminent, none more frequently mentioned in the New Testament than this Passover. Now the other feasts were called memorials as well, but almost in a kind of a brief way. We read a kind of summary statement with regard to all of the feasts in general in Numbers chapter 10, verse 10, which says this, "...also in the day of your gladness in your appointed feasts and at the beginning of your months," notice, "...at your appointed feasts you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and they shall be a memorial for you before God. I am the Lord your God." So there is this token reference of all the feasts of being a memorial. And in all of the feasts, including the Passover, the trumpets, the silver trumpets that Moses was to make, those two trumpets were blown. And it was a reminder to everybody that we're gathering together at this unique time to remember the sacrifices that are being offered up, to remember, especially at Passover, the redemption out of Egypt. And isn't it interesting that at these feasts, at the Passover, at this memorial feast, trumpets were always blown, and you tie this together with the New Testament sacramental meal of the Lord's Supper, where it says we are to proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. There's this idea, this connection of the blowing of the trumpets and the proclamation, you see, that's taking place. And interestingly enough, the other times where memorial is used is specifically in the grain offerings, bread we think of, and in the table of presents, the table of the bread of presents in the tabernacle. Leviticus 24 verse 7 says this, and you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that is on each row of the bread, of the loaves of bread, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. So we have a general reference to memorials with regard to the various feasts. Then it's mentioned with regard to bread in the Old Testament, and it's especially mentioned over and over again with regard to the Passover meal. And so the other feasts were memorials as well, but they do not at all get the attention that the Passover does in this regard. None of the other feasts are singled out like the Passover is, nor are they called memorials on their own, nor is there this emphasis on remembering them like the Passover. The Passover is the memorial meal par excellence in the Old Testament. In that meal, the redemption of God's people is to especially be remembered because Passover typified the redemptive work of Christ in a way that the other feasts did not. And so you see here also in Exodus 12 and 13, the instruction that goes into preparing the sons for partaking of this sacred meal, which is unique when compared to the other feasts. Remember what it says in Exodus 12, verses 26 and 27, if you turn back to those verses, and it shall be when your children, you could also be translated sons, but I don't have a problem translating it children, And it shall be when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? That you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians and delivered our households. There is this emphasis, as I've mentioned on previous occasions, of instruction of this time of having questions and answers of what we would call catechizing before the boys were allowed to partake of the Passover meal. Because what he says is, what the son says is, what do you mean by this service? Not do we who are partaking, what do you mean by this service? Then if you turn over to Exodus 13 and verse eight again, it says this, and you shall tell your son in that day saying, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. When your son asks you, you tell him this is done because of what the Lord did for me. Now, why would it say just for me? Why wouldn't it say what the Lord did for us? Because you see, it's the adult who is mature enough to know what happened, who is able to remember. The emphasis is upon those who are partaking at the time. And at that time, the boys were not partaking. Because at that time, they're being instructed in the faith. It's very significant. What the Lord did for me, not for us. It's true, it was done for them as well, but they're learning about it at that time. You see, they cannot remember what they do not know they are supposed to remember. They must be taught about it first. And our children need to be instructed in the faith before they partake of the Lord's Supper so that they can actually know what it is they are to remember. You know, sometimes I think about when our children are really young, and things happen, and as they get older, we might say to them, and parents, you probably remember this, or some of you children, when your parent says, do you remember when this happened? You were really young, you may not remember, you know, maybe you were three, or four, or five, and maybe sometimes the child remembers, and a lot of times they're saying, I just don't remember. Or maybe they think they remember, but it's because you told them what happened at that time, at that age. You see, they're not ready to remember yet. They need to be instructed. Infants, little toddlers, young children can't remember what they do not know and do not understand. And this is reflected also with regard to the foreigner who was not to eat of the Passover meal. In that same chapter, Exodus 12, verse 43, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat it. Why? Because he's passing through. He's not united himself with Israel. He has nothing to remember because he doesn't know about the history. A sojourner, verse 45 of Exodus 12. Exodus 12, 45, a sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it for the same reason. Now, when the adult male was circumcised, at that moment, he would be instructed because that's what we hear happened with Abraham. When Abraham was told to give circumcision to his family, he instructed his family in the meaning of it and in the meaning of God's covenant. And so, just like today, when an adult becomes baptized and enters the faith, and they're instructed in the faith, they partake of the Lord's Supper shortly after that, you see. But you see, that's why such a huge deal is made out of Jesus's own instruction that he received before he partook of the Passover meal. You remember in Luke chapter two, there was Jesus and he was asking questions and he was giving answers with the teachers at the temple. And it says specifically that he did not go up until he was 12 years old. And God providentially allowed that to happen to show us how important it was for the youths to be instructed and to be catechized before they partook of the Passover meal. And think of this, Jesus was there for three days, nonstop, going through this instruction. And the only reason that ended short was because his parents got him. And that's why we make a big deal about catechizing our children and instructing our children and taking time to do that with our children before they partake of the Lord's Supper, you see. So our Lord Jesus was establishing a pattern that would last, that would take us even through to the new covenant fulfillment, to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper as well. And that brings us secondly to the remembering that is to take place at the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11, 24, and 25, the Apostle Paul, as we have already noted, emphasizes this central component of rightful observing of the sacrament. The Greek word he uses for remembrance is anamnesis. It is a noun. And this particular noun is only used four times in the New Testament. Twice, it's used here in our passage in verses 24 and 25. It's used once in Luke 22, 19, where we find the institution of the Lord's Supper by Jesus himself, where these same words are used, do this in remembrance of me. And then once in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 3. This word remembrance is only used four times. It can be translated, obviously, as remembrance or as memorial, just like with the Passover. It is obvious reference to recalling something or bringing something to memory. This word is the equivalent Greek word to the Hebrew word we consider from the Old Testament, especially in the book of Exodus, chapters 12 and 13. therefore we have the same idea here, only here it is a remembering of the passion of Christ and of all that Christ suffered in his humiliation, his arrest, his betrayal, his mocking and scourging in his crucifixion. That is what we are to remember when we partake of the Lord's Supper. Now some who try to argue in favor of paedo-communion, that is that infants and little children can partake of communion, try to say that what is going on here, at least in part, is that God is the one who is doing the remembering at the Lord's table. It is God who is remembering his covenant with us. Now, it's true that there are places in the Old Testament where we are told that God does remember, and that when sacrifices are offered up, God does remember his covenant. We could think, for example, even of Hebrews 8, verse 12, quoting the Old Testament, where God says this, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. In fact, the first time that the word remember is used in the Bible, the Hebrew word zakar, is in reference to God remembering His covenant. In Genesis 8, verse 1, it says, then God remembered Noah. God remembered Noah. But here in our text, it is very sloppy exegesis and a terrible misrepresentation of the passage to say that God is the one who is doing the remembering. Because it doesn't say here that God does the remembering at all, or that this is a memorial for him to remember. Rather, it states quite clearly and explicitly that we, who are the ones communing and partaking, we are the ones who are to be doing the remembering. Pater Communionists want to get away from this idea that we are to remember because they know that the little children can't, you see. And that's why they interpret it that way, at least some of them do. But in Greek, the word do, as in do this in remembrance of me, is in the imperative. It is a command and it is in the second person plural. In other words, you all. It is a command given to God's people who have been invited to the table. You all do this in remembrance of me, exclamation point. you could translate it, you all do this as a memorial of me, exclamation point. And actually the reason why the Apostle Paul brings up this whole idea of remembering in the first place here is because that is exactly what the Corinthian believers were failing to do. They were not remembering Christ, and I won't go into all those details, you know the context. Now Paul could have used different wording, because not all the gospel accounts relate the same information or use the same words. I don't know if you realize this or not, but in Matthew and Mark's account, when Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, these words about remembering are not used at all. you read Matthew and you read Mark, you won't find the words, do this in remembrance of me. Nothing of the sort. It's not there. Only in Luke's account are the same words, do this in remembrance of me, used. And so, as Simon Kistemacher points out, Paul here repeats these exact words of Jesus that Luke uses as a reminder to the Corinthians that the Lord's Supper is an act of remembrance. Now, whether Paul got the words from Luke or from the other apostles in conversation or directly from the Lord, we can't say for sure, but Paul uses these exact words, or should I say this exact word, remembrance, and he uses it twice. after the breaking of the bread and after the giving of the cup, which Luke doesn't even do. Only in Paul's writing in 1 Corinthians 11 do we find remembrance used twice after both elements are given to those who partake of it. And this remembering is not just simply bringing something to our memory. but it is to cause us to be spiritually mindful and thoughtful, to be moved by such remembering, to be impacted by such remembering. The elements of bread and wine are meant to be a picture for us of the sacrifice of Christ for us. And like many other pictures that we see, they evoke a certain response, a certain feeling, certain emotions. Some pictures can really stir us up, can't they? And they can even motivate us to do things, right? You know, we might be looking through some old pictures and we see an old relative or an old friend and we're like, oh man, I haven't talked to them in so long. I should reach out to them. I should give them a call. Like, those pictures can move us and motivate us. And a lot of times in life, we forget things, don't we? And the moment we remember it, right, we've got those things we need to do, and oh, lo and behold, I forgot two weeks ago, I was supposed to talk to this person, or I was supposed to accomplish this. And it stirs us up to action. And we see an illustration of that, actually, in that situation involving King Ahasuerus and Mordecai. Do you remember when King Ahasuerus couldn't go to sleep that one night and he woke up and he asked for the Chronicles, the book of the Chronicles, to be brought to him? And he remembers something that happened back in Esther chapter 2. where Mordecai was at the gate and he overheard Big Than and Teresh, these two men, these two doorkeepers, who became furious with King Ahasuerus and were planning to kill him. And Mordecai told Esther and then Esther told Ahasuerus. And it says that Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. So Ahasuerus knew that it was Mordecai who did this. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed. And those two men were hanged on the gallows. And it was written in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. And so when you get to Esther chapter six, and King Ahasuerus can't sleep, he commands one of his servants to bring him the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told that these two men, Bigtha and Teresh, these two eunuchs, these doorkeepers, had tried to kill King Ahasuerus. And Mordecai is the one who informed him that this was going to happen. But he had forgotten about it. But now he's reminded, right? He didn't do anything about it then, even though he knew Mordecai did it. He had too much else on his mind. But now he reads it in the middle of the night and he says, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And then we know what happens, right? Wicked Haman has to lead Mordecai on a horse around the town in the king's royal robe, et cetera. But you see, King Ahasuerus remembered something so momentously important that he was motivated to do something about it. He was moved to action. And that is what the Lord's Supper is to do for us. It is to move us. It is to have a profound impact upon us. When we think about what Christ has done for us, when we remember what he suffered for us, it's to move us to action. It is to cause us to want to live for him more faithfully. It is to cause us to want to repent of our sins more sincerely. It is to cause us to want to commune with him more consistently. That is the blessing of the sacrament, but it comes as we remember. Christ's suffering through this memorial of giving and receiving bread and wine, through these emblems which are a picture of Christ's broken body and his blood shed for us. Thus it is in this remembering by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper really becomes a means of grace to us. That is when we see in the sacrament the truth that is taught by it. I'm going to make just a small excursus here, but this is where, for example, the Swiss reformer at the time of the Protestant Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli, or you could say in the original, Huldrych Zwingli, but Ulrich Zwingli, this is where he was spot on. Zwingli. I will freely confess to you because I've had the opportunity to read a fair amount of him and I've written papers on him, Zwingli gets a bad rap for being the guy who didn't think that the Lord's Supper was a means of grace at all, but just merely a memorial, only symbolical, and that the bread and wine were just empty symbols and nothing more. But this is decidedly untrue. If you read Zwingli carefully enough in his own words, you will see that that was not the case. But of all the early reformers, he was actually the one who most consistently avoided any kind of mystical view of the Lord's Supper. Now, he did emphasize the Lord's Supper as a memorial, and he is well known for that. But that is precisely because that is exactly what the scriptures teach. And he also did it vehemently in opposition to the sacrilegious view of the Roman Catholic mass. The Roman Catholic church taught and continues to teach that the elements of bread and wine, by virtue of the fact that they are literally changed in their essence into the physical body and blood of Christ, that is, that's how they become a means of grace. And Martin Luther also could not get fully away from that understanding. Now, he formally rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but he still believed that the glorified Christ was physically present in the bread and in the wine. Therefore, on the matter of the Lord's Supper, the reformers like Zwingli and Calvin on the one hand, and the Lutherans, like Luther on the other hand, could not agree. But Zwingli argued that the elements remain quite simply bread and wine, and are only a means of grace by faith, a faith which is rooted and grounded in the truth of God's word. And that's why the remembering with our mind was such an important aspect of partaking of the Lord's supper for him. And in this, he was thoroughly correct. Others before him were more focused on what the bread and wine become for us now. Zwingli was more focused on the bread and wine representing what Christ did in the past for us once and for all on the cross. As one church historian Needham says, with this past reference view of the signs, Zwingli did not see the bread and wine as somehow mystically conveying Christ's body and blood in the present so much as rather it was directed faith back to the once for all event in history when Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate. And so congregation, remember what I've mentioned to you on other occasions, what Jonathan Edwards said, which is so important. I need to put this on like a plaque and just plaster it, but he said, no means of grace can be of any benefit whatsoever, but by knowledge. And that's how the Lord's Supper is a benefit to us. W.G.T. Shedd. If you ever get a chance to read his Systematic Theology sometime, I highly commend it to you. It's called Dogmatic Theology. But he demonstrates in that book in several pages that Zwingli actually had an excellently faithful view of the Lord's Supper. I'm rising up in defense of Zwingli, as you can tell. And he summarizes what Zwingli brought out in his teaching with these words. Shedd said this, standing on the shoulders of Zwingli. It's a longer quote, but it's great. Listen. There is no efficacy in the symbols of bread and wine as such, but only in the truth taught by it. It is the truth taught by the symbols and not the symbols themselves that strengthens the faith of the participant, deepens his gratitude, enlivens his hope, and sanctifies his heart. As mere bread and wine, the symbols produce no spiritual effect in the soul of the believer. But when the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind of the participant to perceive the gospel truth, which these emblems exhibit and signify and seal, then and only then do they become a means of sanctification. He goes on a couple more sentences. Listen. It is not because the glorified body of Christ is conjoined with them, as the Lutheran asserts, or because they are converted into the glorified body of Christ, as the Romanist asserts, that they are effectual. It is rather, now listen, it is rather because of the spiritual presence of Christ in the soul of the participant. and the spiritual perception of the truth signified and sealed by the emblems. That is a proper, biblical, rational view of the Lord's Supper and how it is a means of grace to us. And that is why the reformers like John Calvin argued that the sacraments should never stand alone. We don't just get together and just have the sacrament. We don't have, even as a congregation, just have the sacrament. It must be attended and accompanied by the preaching of the word as the primary means of grace, which give meaning and significance to the sacraments. It reminds me of what Philip asked that Ethiopian eunuch. And he came, he runs up to his chariot. He says, do you understand what you're reading? And he says, how can I unless someone guides me? And we need the word of God to guide us to our understanding of the benefits of the Lord's supper and how those benefits are conveyed. John Calvin said this, there is no true administration of the sacrament without the word. For whatever advantage accrues to us from the sacred supper requires the word. Whether we are to be confirmed in faith, exercised in confession, or excited to duty, there is need of preaching. Nothing more preposterous, therefore, can be done with respect to the supper than to convert it into a mute action, as we have seen done under the tyranny of the Pope. Therefore, it is the truth of God's word. And in particular, I think the gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, that give us the doctrinal content, the doctrinal truths that are represented by the bread and the wine. And that's why I have encouraged us before to meditate on Christ's death and sufferings in the scriptures beforehand. Some of the Psalms are excellent to think on, like Psalm 22 or Psalm 69. Meditate on those parts of the Gospels that speak of Christ's suffering and death. What an excellent time for us to partake of the Lord's Supper after these last several weeks focusing on the crucifixion of Christ. What a blessing it's going to be for us to partake with all that I've been preaching on before us. But the Apostle Peter has this idea in mind when he says in 2 Peter 3 verses 1 and 2 this, Beloved, I now write to you in this second epistle, in both of which, both epistles, I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder. that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he's talking about how we have to be stirred up in our minds and we have to think back and we have to be mindful to the word of God, we have to be mindful of the scriptures, you see. In congregation, we are to prepare our hearts to remember. We don't just come to the table and say, oh, now what am I supposed to do? Oh yeah, I need to examine myself and I need to discern the Lord's body, I need to remember. No, we stir ourselves up to remember ahead of time, in conjunction with examining our hearts, repenting of sins, seeking the Lord's blessing. Sometimes I fear that we come to the Lord's table in a way that we would show up to the grocery store without having prepared that list of the things that we need to get. How often do I go to the grocery store without that list and I'm unprepared and I'm trying to think about, oh yeah, what is it that I need to get now? I can't remember that well on the fly. And neither can you when you partake of the Lord's supper. God calls us to remember ahead of, to prepare ourselves to remember Christ in the sacrament. How much more important is it to be prepared to remember Christ's death on the cross? His giving himself up for you and for me. We come to remember him as it were, as if he were like a dear friend from long ago who's now far removed from us in his body. Christ is not with us physically, in person, but he has left us this picture of himself in bread and wine to remind us of the greatness of his love for us. Think about if there's somebody that you care about so much and that you love, maybe a spouse, maybe a friend, maybe somebody who's passed away, and let's say you have no pictures of them at all. but another person does. And you find out about it and you say, oh, I would just love to have that picture. I would love to be able to see that person again. That's what the Lord's Supper's about. We are loving to see Christ crucified in the bread and the wine. How much more should we desire to see that picture than any other you see? Don't let the sacrament become trite. Don't let it become trivial. Don't let it ever become routine. Don't let it ever become an empty ceremony where you just go through the motions. Such an action is worthless and meaningless, but rather may we all be stirred up to remember. Therefore, as you come to the Lord's table this coming Lord's Day, may you come preparing your hearts to remember Christ's sacrifice for you. Do this in remembrance of Him. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word that you have brought to us this morning. We thank you so much for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and for the wonderful picture that it is of Christ's sacrificial death on our behalf. Lord, be with us this coming week as we anticipate it. Lord, help us to set aside that time to examine ourselves, to meditate upon your word, to think upon the suffering of Christ that's conveyed to us in the scriptures, that we might partake of the Lord's Supper with blessing. that we might truly remember what Christ did for us. Oh Lord, bless that sacrament to us and bless us as we prepare. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.