Turn in God's Word this morning to John chapter 6, the Gospel according to John chapter 6. We'll be reading verses 32 through 59. John 6, beginning at verse 32. And Jesus said unto them, that is unto the scribes and to the Pharisees who spoke to him about the manna, the bread that came down from heaven. Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believed not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it, then, that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Move not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. So eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever." We've read God's word thus far. May God bless unto us the reading of His holy and inspired word. It's on the basis of that passage and many like passages. reality on the basis of all of Scripture that the Heidelberg Catechism instructs us in Lords Day 29 concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, questions 78 and 79. 78. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? Not at all, but as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself, being only the sign and confirmation thereof appointed of God. So the bread in the Lord's supper is not changed into the very body of Christ, though agreeably to the nature and properties of sacraments, it is called the body of Jesus Christ. Why then doth Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood, and call the communion of the body and blood of Christ? Christ speaks thus not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so his crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed eternal life, but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true Body and Blood by the operation of the Holy Ghost as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of Him. and that all his sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours as if we had in our own person suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God. The Heidelberg Catechism, beloved, is very detailed, as you know, concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper This Lord's Day, along with the next Lord's Day, specifically question and answer 80 in the next Lord's Day, which addresses the Roman Catholic era of the mass, which is touched on already in the Lord's Day that we're looking at, Lord's Day 29. These Lord's Days indicate why the catechism is detailed about the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And the reason is that there was a need at the time of the Reformation to criticize and to correct, especially for the sake of new Reformed believers who had come out of Roman Catholicism, to criticize and to correct the serious errors of the Roman Catholic Church concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. What the Catechism teaches is still relevant for us today. It's still relevant for us today, all of this detail concerning the Lord's Supper, first of all because the eras of Roman Catholicism still exist today. The Roman Catholic Church is still influential today. And their views have not changed, they still teach the same things. And there are also other errors that exist in the church today concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Other views concerning how Christ is present when the sacrament is administered, and other views concerning how the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. We are profited by what the Catechism teaches us in detail concerning the Lord's Supper. The errors show us what we must avoid. If we are ignorant of these errors, then we could be persuaded by them, and the errors are helpful to us and the detail is also helpful to us so that with our knowledge of what is incorrect, what is not biblical, what the Word of God does not teach concerning the Lord's Supper, in addition to our knowledge of what it does teach concerning the Lord's Supper, we are equipped to witness to those whom we come across whom we are acquainted with and who in some instances are even our relatives, we are equipped to witness to them and to seek to correct them concerning these errors. But in the second place, this instruction, this detailed instruction concerning the Lord's Supper is beneficial to us and relevant to us today because the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. It has been given to us to be a means of grace in addition to the preaching of the Word, which is the chief means of grace. The Lord's Supper, along with baptism, has been added to the preaching. And it has been added to the preaching as a means of grace in the sense that it is a means of faith, a means for the strengthening of our faith. And the better we understand the sacrament itself, the better we are able to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper properly and to benefit through partaking of this sacrament. With those things in mind, beloved, let's consider together then this Lord's Day under the theme, The Spiritual Supper of Our Lord. And we notice three things concerning that, Christ's spiritual presence, our spiritual partaking, and the spiritual blessing. The Lord's Day has in view, along with question and answer 80 of the next Lord's Day, the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic view concerning the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is tied to their belief that the bread and the wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, when the sacrament is administered, change into the body and the blood of Christ. The priest, during the Mass, speaks certain words that consecrate the bread and the wine for use in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And that brings about a transformation, supposedly, in the bread and the wine. They are transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Transubstantiation takes place. The result is that now Christ is physically present in the bread and the wine, physically present in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because the bread is Christ and the wine is Christ. And therefore, the bread and the wine, according to the Roman Catholic understanding and belief, ought to be worshipped as well. They ought to be worshipped as they are in the Mass because the bread is Christ and the wine is Christ. That's very different from the Reformed view of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Roman Catholic Church is in error concerning what it believes regarding the presence of Christ, namely that he is physically present. The Roman Catholic Church is in error also, as Question and Answer 80 spells out in more detail, concerning the worship of the elements of bread and wine. Christ, according to them, is to be worshipped in the bread and the wine because they are Christ now. And they are especially in error because they deny that Christ's death on the cross was sufficient as payment for sin. According to them, Christ needs in the mass to be sacrificed and offered up to God again and again and again for sin. His sacrifice on the cross is not enough. And so the catechism sharply condemns those errors and refers to the mass, the Roman Catholic form of the Lord's Supper as an accursed idolatry because they worship bread and they worship wine. And they attack the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. But they say Christ is physically present. The Roman Catholic Church claims also to have solid biblical basis for their view. One of the places in Scripture that they appeal to is the passage that we read, John 6. Specifically the words of Christ, for example, in verse 51 of John 6, where he said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And then repeated by Christ in verses 53 and following, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. They say Christ tells us we must eat Christ, literally eat Christ. They say Christ tells us unless we eat literally, that is physically of Christ, then we cannot be saved and we will not live forever. We will perish. And so they believe it must be necessary for the bread and the wine to be transformed into the physical body and blood of Jesus Christ. We do well to note, beloved, that our response to that, our answer to that view of the Roman Catholics is provided right here in this same passage. In John chapter 6, the passage itself refutes the Roman Catholic interpretation of the passage. Christ, who speaks this, himself refutes their interpretation of these verses when he says For example, in verse 35, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And then again in verses 47 and 48, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. And Christ makes clear that to eat of Christ, as he speaks of eating of him here in John chapter six, refers to believing in him. Not eating of him physically, but spiritually, by faith. Believing and trusting in Christ are the means for salvation and for life eternal. The Roman Catholic Church also appeals, and the catechism touches especially on that in question and answer 79, appeals to the words that Christ used when he instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. When he said at the time that he instituted it and gave it to his disciples, and gave them a piece of bread and said concerning that bread, this is my body, and gave them some wine and said as he gave them that wine, this is my blood. That's reflected in question 79. Why then doth Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood? The Roman Catholic Church takes those words literally. But when you think of it, when the disciples were there with Christ, did Christ give them literally a piece of His flesh and some drink of His blood? What they received from Christ was bread, not His flesh. What they received from Christ was wine, not his blood. And that same is true when we have the sacrament of the Lord's Supper here. What do we see? What is distributed? What do we receive? What do we take into our mouths? What do we taste? Physical bread. and physical why, not someone's flesh and someone's blood. So what did Christ mean when he said, this is my flesh, this is my body, and this is my blood? When Christ said that, he simply meant what we do when we use that same kind of expression, for example, when we're showing someone a picture of someone. I might show you a picture of my parents, or I might show you a picture of one of my siblings, and as you're looking at that picture, I'll say, this is my brother, this is my father. But it's not literally him or them. But it's a picture and it shows them, it represents them, it points to them. And so likewise with the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper. Christ is saying, this is my body because this represents my body. This is a picture of, this points to my body. And this is my blood because this is a sign and a picture of my blood. That's, as the Catechism says, according to the nature of a sacrament. There is something physical in the sacrament that represents, that pictures something spiritual. And the same is true of everything that is done to the bread and wine. The breaking of the bread is a picture of the breaking of Christ's body. The pouring of the wine is a picture of the pouring out of Christ's blood, his giving his life's blood as part of his sacrifice for our sin. The same with the taking and the eating and the drinking. They represent receiving Christ. We don't physically receive Him, but we have a picture of receiving Him and of eating and drinking of Christ. So what about Christ's presence in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? Since the bread and the wine are simply signs, pictures that represent Christ, we know He is not physically present, but He is nevertheless present. And He is not merely present in our thoughts, in our memories. This Lord's Supper is not simply, not merely a memorial feast. but He is truly present. If the Lord Jesus Christ were not present when we have the Lord's Supper administered, then we would be having a Lord's Supper without the Lord, a Supper of Christ without Christ, and then it would not be a means of grace. It would be simply a human and earthly activity of eating some bread and drinking some wine. There would be no value to it as a means of grace. If Christ were not truly present when the Lord's Supper is administered, then we would simply end up with what is condemned by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 that they came to the supper to eat and to drink physically because they were hungry and they hoped through partaking of the Lord's supper together to go away with their bellies filled with food and drink merely. Christ needs to be present. Otherwise the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is vain and empty and pointless. If he is not physically present, then obviously his presence is a spiritual presence. He is present in a special way when the Lord's Supper is administered. And he is present in that special way by means of and through his Holy Spirit. not simply present around us, therefore, not simply present in the sense that he's in the same room as we are when the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered, but because he is spiritually present by means of his Holy Spirit, he is present inside us. We don't have to receive the bread and the wine, as the Roman Catholic Church says, for Christ to be inside us at that time. He is. He is by his Spirit inside us. And the Spirit is in us at the time that the sacrament is administered, is in us. by his power to cause the sacrament to have a spiritual effect upon those who partake properly. The bread and the wine don't do anything. The bread and the wine cannot make any spiritual changes in us. The bread and the wine cannot do a thing for our hearts and souls, for our faith and for our spiritual life. The bread is bread, the wine is wine. It is the Spirit in us that uses it as a means of grace and who alone can use it as a means of grace so that the sacrament is beneficial to the soul. of the proper partaker of the sacrament. So we partake, and we partake spiritually. Although the elements are physical, the partaking is spiritual. The Lord's Supper is not for our physical life, as we already mentioned, Scripture condemns that. It condemns those who come to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, who come to the sacrament in order to satisfy their physical hunger or thirst. The Apostle says there, if any man hunger, let him eat at home. The Lord's Supper is for our spiritual lives, and that's because we have a spiritual life as regenerated children of God. We have been made spiritually alive in our souls, and that spiritual life that God has implanted in our souls by the Spirit needs to be fed and needs to receive food, needs to receive the right food. Physical food won't help it. The soul needs to receive spiritual food. Just like our physical bodies need physical food, So our spiritual souls need spiritual food. Our spiritual souls become spiritually hungry. They need the proper, the correct food for the soul, spiritual food. We all know from experience that spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst at times, if not frequently, characterizes our souls. Our souls become spiritually hungry. Our souls experience hunger, spiritual hunger, because our souls become disturbed by life's troubles. Our souls are spiritually hungry because our souls are distressed on account of sin, our sin, and the sins of others against us. Our souls are at times distressed and spiritually hungry because they are filled with worry, worry concerning our children, anxious concerning our health, afraid concerning the future. To use the language of David in Psalms 42 and 43, Our souls are often cast down and disquieted within us because of the heavy hand of God, because God can seem to be far away from us. Then our souls need spiritual food, and the spiritual food that our souls need Most of all is forgiveness, forgiveness. We need forgiveness for our sin in Adam. We need forgiveness for our daily falls into sin. We need forgiveness because we carry with us the guilt of sin and our souls are greatly troubled because we have offended God by our sin. The spiritual need we have is pardon, and we need that spiritual food of forgiveness so that we can know that we are right with God and sure, therefore, that God is not against us on account of our sins when He sends with His heavy hand all those things that we experience. Another food that we need for our souls in close connection with what we've just mentioned is the spiritual food of knowing the love of God. Sometimes we doubt the love of God. We wonder if He does love us. And we say, if He does love us, then why so many troubles? Our souls need the food of being reassured of the love of God and reassured that God's hand upon us is always a loving hand that does all things well. We need to be comforted and to have it reaffirmed to our souls and in our souls that we belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. And He is our faithful Savior, and the Almighty God is our Father for the sake of Christ. Our souls need to know that. Another food in close connection with those is that our souls need spiritual strength. There are many things, of course, that can make the soul of a child of God spiritually weak. Things that we have mentioned. Things such as temptations and the attraction to worldliness. Even the busyness of life can make our souls spiritually weak, so that we're so wrapped up with the busyness of our earthly lives that we have little time for spiritual things. And even the weight and the responsibility of the callings that God has given us in life can make our souls spiritually weak. We need to be spiritually strengthened in our souls. to fight the good fight of faith, to persevere in the callings that God has set before us in life, and to battle on in face of all of the difficulties of life with hope, hope in our hearts. In one word, the food that the soul of the child of God needs is Christ. As he himself said in John 6.53, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. He is the source of life, that is, the source of our spiritual life, and he alone, Christ, can give to our souls the spiritual food and strength and courage and comfort that our souls need. God provides that for us in addition to providing it through the preaching, which is the chief means of grace, also through the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. When the Lord's Supper is administered, the Spirit is at work. When the Lord's Supper is before us, we see a picture of all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and that He has done for us, breaking His body and shedding His blood on the cross for us. When the Lord's Supper is before us, we see that the cross of Christ was awful for him. The wrath of God came upon him so that his body was broken and his blood was shed. We see what God had to do to his own son. in order to make a payment for our sins and to deliver us from them. And we see that God has done it. The work has been completed. The work was finished by Christ. And that God has done it for us. The Spirit causes us to partake then in faith. That's what it means to partake spiritually, partake in faith. Partake by believing what is pictured concerning Christ, and partake by believing in faith that He has done it for you, for you. And that way we are spiritually fed and nourished. Lord's Supper a means to remove the doubts and the fears, the anxiety, the worry, the dread, the uncertainty, how distressed and troubled and cast down souls lifted up and comforted by this means of grace as it is applied to us by the Holy Spirit. Their souls are blessed. And the specific blessing that our souls receive by means of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is assurance. Notice how the catechism speaks of that in Answers 78. It says concerning the sacraments, concerning the sacrament of baptism and also therefore concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that it is a sign and confirmation thereof. And then it says in answer 79 that God, more especially by these visible signs and pledges, assures us that we are as really partakers of His true Body and Blood. Assurance. Confidence. The Catechism says that Christ speaks to us by means of the sacrament of the Lord's The Catechism adds at the beginning of answer 79 when it states that Christ speaks to us through this sacrament with good reason. He knows that his people need to be assured. And so He speaks to us words to comfort and to assure His people and uses the sacrament to speak that to us as well as to work that in our hearts by His Spirit. The message that He proclaims to us through the sacrament is, The Son of God, Jesus Christ, your Savior, died the accursed death under the heavy hand of God's wrath against sin. I broke my body and I shed my blood for you, and I attained by that every spiritual blessing and treasure that you need, I attained by my death on the cross all the spiritual food that you need for your souls. Partake, therefore, of the bread and the wine, and partake of them by faith. And in doing so, you can be assured that you receive me and all those riches of salvation that I have earned as food for your soul. You can be as sure of receiving those things as you receive the bread and the wine. And the Spirit thereby assures us that all the suffering and obedience of Christ are ours, ours. And so we are righteous in Him, and we are forgiven, and we are covered, and we are spiritually cleansed from sin. We are assured that we belong to Christ. We are assured as we partake of the sacrament and after we have partaken of the sacrament that we have in Jesus Christ everything that we need for our soul. Spiritually minded, Believer, therefore, is thankful for the Lord's Supper as a means of grace, and makes good use of this sacrament, knowing and experiencing Believing what we have considered concerning the sacrament, beloved, may that be true of us, that we make good use of the Lord's Supper. Young people, too. You also need the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. because you also need spiritual food for your soul, you also need the blessing of assurance. And it is to that end, as young people, that you work toward and you are glad to make public confession of your faith so that you can partake and benefit from partaking of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. May the Spirit of Christ bless us when we partake of this sacrament. May He feed our souls. And may He strengthen our faith, the assurance of faith that we belong to Christ and have in Him everything that we need for our souls. Amen. God and Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word to us, for Thy work of grace in us, for the means of grace that Thou dost provide, the preaching and the sacraments. We're thankful for the blessings that we receive through them. We pray Thou wilt ever keep us strong in faith and continue to strengthen our faith. So that we believe and trust that in Christ is everything that we need for our souls. In His name, amen.