Pray with me before we begin. Heavenly Father, I ask for your blessing on all of us today as we seek your face, as we read your word, as we hear your truth, and as we come to worship you. We pray that you would be pleased with our heart attitude this morning, knowing that, Lord, it is Christ alone that makes us worthy to come to you. We pray, God, to exalt your name and that we would leave here today ready to continue to worship you throughout our week in our life for your glory in Jesus name we pray come Lord Jesus and bless us with the Holy Spirit now in your name amen okay a question for you as we begin what would happen hypothetically, not that this ever happens in our culture. What would happen if you had a family and in your family you had fun all the time? That was your priority. All you did was figure out how you could maximize your pleasure. What would happen? It would never be enough, would it? Plus you'd go broke. Right, and then you shouldn't enjoy the simple things. Okay, on the contrary, what happens in a family that only focuses on work. There can be no joy or no connection. People can get embittered, can't they? Okay. And we could give lots of other examples. So, you know, some people in their parenting go off the deep end one way or another. They either focus on discipline, and that's all it is. Or they focus on love, which they interpret to be being nice. And there's no discipline. You can go off the rails in a number of ways, can't you? Well, this morning, what I'd like to do is take us through the Scriptures on a topic that ought to be something you're familiar with and you are familiar with and in our church we're familiar with and that's the Lord's Supper. But I want to take kind of a as full of a view as we can of things this morning to help us understand the truth about it, and why we practice it, and why we practice the Lord's Supper the way we do, the roots behind it, and the place it should take in the church and in our life. Because we should not be discombobulated. We should not be out of balance. we should have proper balance in what the Lord's Supper is and how we practice it and what it means. I've been a Christian now for quite a while and I've seen people take this out of balance in many different ways. Churches take this out of balance, and individuals take this out of balance in the way they view it. And I think that will make more sense to you here at the end than maybe some of you are going, huh? OK, so let me start out where we're headed. before we get into the scriptures. This is important. This is a excerpt from what the document committee has been working on as our doctrinal statement. Now, this has not been tweaked. This is in original form, as it were, but it It may receive a tweak or two down the road, but this is not something we came up with. This is something that we're adopting and we may tweak a bit. But this is something we're adopting from what is known as the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. which came out in originally in 1833. And then there was a second addition to that as well. And there was certainly documents that preceded that, that they drew from. And then there were documents written after this that they used this as the platform for. Okay, that's a lot of words. Let me just read it to you. I want to read you two of the tenets in here. First one is on the church. We believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers joined together by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. A visible church observes the ordinances of Christ. governed by his laws and exercises the gifts rights and privileges invested in them by his word the only scriptural offices officers of the church are elders also called pastors and deacons whose qualifications and duties are defined in the epistles to Timothy and Titus okay that's first one on what is what is the church Second one is on the ordinances. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This demonstrates in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life. Baptism is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and the Lord's Supper. We likewise believe that the Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby the members of the church Following earnest self-examination, use bread and the cup to commemorate together the dying love of Christ. These two ordinances belong to the gathered church, serving to mark off believers from unbelievers and to make the church visible on earth. I'm sure you've heard some of that before. You've probably heard most of that before. understanding that there are two ordinances that Christ has left for the church. The first is baptism. We're not going to really deal with baptism today. The second is the Lord's Supper. Now it may surprise some. It shouldn't surprise anybody here. There is no command in scripture for the church to have a praise team. we are commanded to praise and have joy but not to have a praise team that doesn't make it wrong but it's not a command it's not a priority it's not number one there is no command in scripture I know this is going to just shake the foundation of many here to have a pastor of recreation There is no foundation in scripture or there is no at least those command in scripture to have a youth group Doesn't exist In fact, it says children obey your parents in the Lord, I don't know what Paul was thinking he missed youth pastors altogether there is no command in scripture to do many of the things that people place as the priority of the church today or what is you know this is what we're gonna invest a lot of our time our resources our money into fact if if you were you know that person that hypothetical person that was on an island and found a Bible and read it and said, yes I believe, and then somehow you were to locate other people on that island and share the gospel with them, I doubt you would come up with what many of the forms and functions of the modern church look like on your little island. My goal, and maybe I didn't communicate this very clearly in the beginning, my goal today is to help us to understand what is, in these two ordinances that Christ has left for the church, what is the priority of those? And how do they work? So, I think it's important, we're not going to spend a ton of time here, and this is not going to be exhaustive, but we're going to try to get through as much as we can. What is the root of the Lord's Supper? What is the root of the Lord's Supper? Why the Lord's Supper? Where did it begin? Did Jesus just pull it out of thin air? We know that he didn't. But where does it come from? Well, we need to go back to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 12, in fact. Exodus chapter 12 is the end of the battle, I'll call it, between God and Pharaoh. Now it really wasn't a battle for God. Pharaoh was opposing what God was telling Moses to do in leading the Israelites out of Egypt and we all know about the plagues so nine plagues came and went and Pharaoh was still obstinate and he said nope you can't go 12 plague is a altogether different type of plague because it involved absolute death. And so let me pick this up for you a little bit here, starting in Exodus 12, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Do not eat any of its raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. You shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I shall strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statute forever, and you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses. For if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from the land of Israel." I'm going to stop right there. And then I'm going to forward down here to the end. Let's go to verse 26. And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say, it is a sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshipped. Then the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did." So here's what happened. God, through Moses and Aaron, went to Pharaoh and said, let my people go. Pharaoh said, no way. Nine times, now the tenth time, he said, no way. He says, look, here's what's going to happen, Pharaoh. If you don't do this, the firstborn in every house is going to die. God provided a way for the Israelites to live. In that way was the Passover. Through the blood of the Lamb. Around the door. When the angel of the Lord came and destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, He passed over the houses that had that blood. So they would live. Now, we read about the Passover in the New Testament. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see Jesus doing something with that Passover that is different. John mentions the Passover. It doesn't really go into depth too much like Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. But what Jesus does is He takes that Passover meal and he makes it what we know as the Lord's Supper today. So understand the roots here. The roots are there is going to be death if there's not blood around the doorposts of your house. Okay? Now let's look here at the Gospels and see how Jesus takes this last meal that they're celebrating, this Passover meal, that they're celebrating together and what he does with it. So what I want to do, I'm going to mention all three and we're going to read all three accounts real quick because they're not real long. Go to Matthew chapter 26 to start. Matthew chapter 26 in verse 26. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Alright, let's look at Mark's account. Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 and verse 22, And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to them and said, Take this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Now let's look at Luke's account. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22 verse 14. He says this, And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him, and he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I tell you, I will not eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. So we have three accounts there. They're all nearly identical, but there's a little nuance in each one. So Matthew's account, we learn about this is the covenant, and there's a blessing with this, that Jesus blessed this cup, right? And then in Mark, he's very clear. He says something different in Mark. He says, drink you all of it. And in Luke, he said that this is the blood poured out for the forgiveness of many. And he calls it the New Covenant. The New Covenant. We know in the book of John, when Jesus was walking, he was identified as this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Right? Christ is identified in 1 Corinthians as the Passover Lamb. This symbolism behind the Passover has great significance in the Lord's Supper. Jesus takes this meal that the Israelites had been doing from the time they left Egypt until Jesus was around, this thing they did every year, and He takes the symbolism out of that and He makes it new. Now, hold on just a minute. Now we need to talk a little bit about some of the other things that are surrounding the Passover meal. Now, this is important to understand. In the Passover meal, there are four cups that are drank during the Passover meal. Four cups of wine that are poured out for everybody participating. Okay? Not going to go into this today, but it actually was real wine. Okay? The first cup is known as the cup of sanctification. The second cup is the cup known as the cup of plagues. Why would you drink a cup of plagues? So they remembered what happened in Egypt. Because again, this is not supposed to be a discombobulated or disconnected ceremony for religious purposes. The purpose of the Passover is that people would remember God's rescue. that the Israelites would remember for all time God's salvation, His redemption of them, how He passed over them and He saved them and then He brought them out of Egypt. Okay? So, the second cup was the cup of plagues. The third cup is known either as the cup of redemption or the cup of blessing. It can go by either name. This is the cup that Jesus used during this time. He took the cup. He blessed it. This was the third cup in the meal. The final cup in the meal is known as the cup of praise, the Hallel, which is where we get the term Hallelujah from. So there's four cups. It's important to know that. And they used specifically red wine. And they used red wine. Why? To remind them of the blood of the Passover lamb. That was the purpose. All these symbols have meaning. They're not just there by accident. Okay? Now, Jesus takes this cup of salvation, this cup of redemption, this cup of blessing, and he blesses it. Throughout the Bible, there are many times, and we've talked about this before, where the cup is used as a symbol of something. We see in Psalm 116, it's a cup of blessing. but we also see that in scripture that this cup is also known as a that a cup can be a symbol for a cup of wrath okay why is that important well here's why it's important when Jesus is in the garden right so Passover was done now he goes out any praise in the garden He's in the garden praying and he says, Father, if it's possible to have this cup taken from me, right? So did he have a real cup on him? No, he did not have a real cup on him. I don't think he did. But what he was praying was symbolic for what he had to do. Everybody has to drink a cup. Symbolic cup. What that cup is, is either a cup of blessing, a cup of redemption, which is what we celebrate when we take the Lord's Supper, or a cup of wrath. Jesus Christ took the cup of wrath, and he drank it for you, believer. Let me say that one more time. He took the cup of wrath that God had intended for you and he consumed it. And as Mark said, drink it all, Jesus drank it all. He didn't leave you a little. Okay, I'll drink 90% and then what I want you to do is just take the three drops that are left. No, that would kill you. spiritually Jesus took the cup of wrath and he drank it on your behalf but he did not drink this cup for everybody he drank this cup for believers for believers then for believers of all time those that will die or do die apart from Jesus Christ have to drink that cup that cup of wrath, of God's wrath. It's the wrath that they are due. It's the wrath that you were due. But Jesus drank it in your place, so you did not have to drink it. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is where we largely learn our teaching about the Lord's Supper. But I want to look at 1 Corinthians 10 first. Now, context means everything, right? It's very important. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is about idolatry. and the effects of idolatry. And it is a warning to the Corinthian church to not be involved in idolatry. And he says this in verse 14, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? Now he's talking about the Lord's Supper here. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, who we are many, our one body, For we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons, and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Okay, I read that whole section because I wanted you to understand this really is about the Lord's Supper. What he's saying here about the bread and the cup. And he's saying it's a participation What does he say? It's a participation in the body of Christ. He's contrasting that with idols or an idolatry. In that day, there was open idolatry in that there was actual temples in Corinth to other gods. It seems clear what some believers were doing is they were going to these temples to get food and eating it. And Paul says, no, you can't do that. Because if you're getting that food from that temple, that food has been sacrificed to that God, which is no God at all. And it's idolatry. Paul goes on to say, if you go to the market and buy food, that's fine. Do that. Even if the seller is a pagan, that's fine. Do that. Because that food has not been sacrificed to a foreign god. You can eat it with a clear conscience. He goes on to say that if you are invited to somebody's home, eat what's presented before you. Unless they say, oh, by the way, we want you to know that this meat that you're going to eat has been consecrated by Diana. or by some other foreign idol, by some foreign god. Right? Eat with a clear conscience. Because it's just food. And who made food? Not these foreign gods. God did. Okay. There's a reason I'm sharing all this. But I want you to understand the context here in that Paul calls this the cup of blessing, and he calls this a participation in the blood of Christ. And he calls the bread participation in the body of Christ. Now, fast forward with me to the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 11, and let's look at this together, beginning in verse 17. I hope you're hanging on with me. Okay. 1 Corinthians 11, 17. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat, For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not." Okay, let me just stop there. We so much focus on the section after this that most people don't even know that this exists. So let me give you a little background in the church, right? So they would have get-togethers, feasts, and they would take the Lord's Supper. But they were making an abomination out of it because The Lord's Supper is supposed to be participatory for the church. For the church. This is important. It's for the church. Right? And he said, here's what people would do. You got a rich family over here. They bring out their own, you know, they bring their SUV and they open it up and they have a grill. They pop out and they're making lobster on the grill. Meanwhile, the guy over here that had to walk, they actually all probably walked, he is going hungry. You're not sharing your lobster with him. By the way, they didn't probably eat lobster because most of them had backgrounds that were Jewish and they didn't eat shellfish, even though by this time God had opened it up and said it's okay to eat anything you want. I digress. The point was they weren't sharing. They weren't together. Then you got guy over here and he thinks, oh, this is a party. I'm going to whoop it up and I'm going to get drunk here. And as he does that, he is completely not focused on what is supposed to be happening. celebrating the Lord's Supper. And Paul says, this is not what it is. This is not what it's supposed to be. You can't function like this. Verse 23, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." What is the focus? The bread? No. It's the remembrance of Me, Jesus. In the same way, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now I'm going to stop there for a second. The focus is the coming together and it's the remembering. And it's understanding rightly the symbolism behind the bread, behind the cup. Those are the three important elements of the Lord's Supper. The coming together, the remembering Jesus Christ and what He's done, and rightly pouring into the meaning of the bread and the cup. Okay, then he goes on to say here, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. It's like pouring that cup of wrath on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come." I'm going to say a few short comments here. There is a movement among some churches, and I don't think it's altogether wrong, that when they take the Lord's Supper, they eat a meal together. The whole church eats a meal together. I don't think that this prohibits that. Okay? I don't think that prohibits that. But I also don't believe it's necessary. Because Paul says, you can eat and drink at home. But when you come together for the Lord's Supper, make sure it's about the Lord Himself. Right? So whether we as a church ever have a meal connected with the Lord's Supper or don't have a meal connected with the Lord's Supper, that is less important. What is important is as we take the Lord's Supper, we're actually doing the three things that I had mentioned earlier. One, is we're coming together. Two, that we're focusing on the remembering of Jesus. And three, we're rightly understanding the symbolism behind it. Okay? Now, let me back up just a little bit more in here. This is super-duper important. And when I said off-balance earlier, this is one of those definite off-balance points that people can get into, is this idea of examining yourself. Perhaps I'm talking to you, I am not pointing anyone out by the way. I'm not specifically pointing anyone out here. I don't remember here anybody saying anything to me specifically. But I know over the years I have had people come to me and say, I'm not going to take the Lord's Supper today. They may say it beforehand or they may say it afterwards. I didn't take the Lord's Supper today. And if I have an opportunity I say, why not and they say something like this well I'm having conflict with so-and-so so I'm not going to take it what they're really saying is I'm angry I'm not going to repent or Some people I know have not taken the Lord's Supper because they know they have committed a sin that they think is a big sin. You all sin. Right? You are not sinners. You are saints if you're in Jesus Christ. But you still, time to time, you will sin. In God's economy, Well, the effects of different sin do affect things majorly different. Sexual sin is something that Paul points out is something that affects differently. All sin separates from God. Okay? He says examine yourself. What does that mean? Well, here's what I've seen played out in lots of churches actually. this examining yourself, what you're doing is you're going, I wonder if I'm okay to take this, if I'm worthy. If I haven't committed murder, if I haven't had committed a sexual sin, if I have been a pretty nice person this week, then I should take. But if I know that God knows and others might know that I did something wrong, then I should probably not take it. Here's why that is majorly problematic. Majorly problematic. When you judge yourself to say, I am worthy to take this, your focus is not on remembering what the Lord Jesus has done. It's on you being a good person. Jesus doesn't forgive you because you're a good person. Jesus doesn't love you because of your perfection. Jesus died for you to save you from the wrath to come. So when you come together and examine yourself, that is also something you can't take away. He says it. He says examining yourself. So what are you to examine? What are you to examine? This is really important. You are to examine how you're believing in Jesus Christ to be your sufficient Savior. Now, if you go out and you commit adultery, rob a bank, come to church and take the Lord's Supper, thirty minutes later, there's a problem. I believe Jesus will forgive me of all that. There's a problem. That's expecting the grace of God to cover your sins on purpose. We are not, as believers, supposed to be purposing to sin. This is not a religious ritual where it glazes over everything. That's also a wrong view. But if you're in Christ, you're trusting Christ, your faith is firm in Christ, and that is what you're examining. Is Jesus Christ my Savior? Not that, not is He okay, not is He able to save me. You should be beyond that church. You shouldn't have been baptized if you didn't believe that. But am I trusting in Him alone for that? That is what the examination is about. It's not whether you're good. It's not whether you had a good week or a good attitude. And if you're here this morning, or any Sunday, Understand why we take this every week. One of the reasons we take this every week is it should serve, because it's a reminder of what Jesus did, it should serve as a light to you throughout your week and a reminder to you throughout your week that, boy, I better be ready, which means I should stay trusting Christ. Because I shouldn't come to this table full of filth. Should we sin more that grace should abound? Absolutely not. This is God's grace. Now this isn't a special mysterious grace, but it is God's grace in reminding us what Jesus Christ has done. Right? Can I get an Amen on that one? Alright. So he says that we ought to examine ourselves. We should not eat and drink in an unworthy manner. The unworthiness is whether you're believing or not. Whether you're hoping or not. If you've sinned against somebody, should you make it right? Absolutely. Repent where you're at and go do what's right as fast as you can. Okay, so remember I talked about the balance. We're going back here to the balance. Some people take that the Lord's Supper can be their private thing to do. I'm not okay with that. I don't believe it's an opinion. This is biblical teaching when you come together. Sometimes when people get married, they'll take the Lord's Supper in the wedding ceremony and nobody else gets it. That's not what the intention of this was to be. or to do. Sometimes families in their homes will take the Lord's Supper together. Now, God's the judge, not me. But I don't see that when Jesus took this and He transformed it from familial, because the Passover was familial. You ate in your home. But he transformed that to the church. He also transformed from just you and your family perhaps to the body you're part of. So when we come together, that's when we partake of the Lord's Supper. Now that doesn't mean everybody has to be here. That if somebody's gone that week, I think that blows the intention. But also the intention is not supposed to be, this is my private thing. Just like baptism, I've had several people throughout the years approach me and say, could you baptize me in private? No. No. You know why? Now, it may happen to be just you and a few. That could happen, right? Especially if it's happening at a strange time. But it's not because others aren't welcome there. Why do you want to keep your faith a secret? Why do you not want to join the church in the celebration of what you're doing? Because this is your entrance into the body. It's you saying, bye world, hello church, Jesus Christ is my Savior. Amen. So, it isn't for private. That answers the question of the when. Right? When we come together. And we take this every week here, because it doesn't say, when you come together, Once in a while. It says when you come together. Right? Now, what about the where? It doesn't really talk about the where so much. It's when you come together. And so that could be in a building. It could be in a home. It could be in a barn. It could be in a park. It's when you come together, when the church is gathered, and the church is not a building. The church is the body. Why do we take the Lord's Supper? To remember Jesus Christ. And we examine ourselves for two reasons. One, we need to make sure we're in the faith. Right? The second reason is to make sure we're in the faith. The first reason is to make sure you are right with God. The second reason is to make sure, if you're in the faith, that means God is right with you. They both work together. Right? So that's the when, the where, the why. The how doesn't prescribe what kind of cup we're to use. Are we supposed to use wood cups? Metal cups? Plastic cups biodegradable cups Right the first church. I don't think had plastic cups. I don't know They probably used a common cup and they drank out of it together But then we also see divide among yourselves, so maybe they each had a little one I But I can tell you this, one thing that you're not to do is to be irreverent about the symbolism. And here's what I mean by that. There are churches, I've seen this, I've seen clips of this, churches that have had services online that say, Go ahead. We're going to take the Lord's Supper today online. So get yourself things to take the Lord's Supper with. If you don't have wine or juice, it's okay. Just take Coke and some Cheetos. No. No, this isn't about the Coke and the Cheetos. And it's really not even about the taste. I don't think we should try to make the bread nasty. But we use unleavened bread here. Why? Because it's symbolic. Leaven, which is yeast, is a symbol for sin. Now there's not a prohibition against the church eating yeast, eating leaven. But when we come together to celebrate the Lord's Supper, we're pointing back to the rescue that God did of the Israelites. And we're pointing forward, also back for us, to what Christ did on the cross in shedding His blood and His body being broken for us. Right? There's a definite connection between those two. They're both redemptive. They're both salvific. Now our ultimate salvation lies in Jesus Christ. And so we want to honor Him by using unleavened bread. Currently we don't use wine in our church, but we actually use grapes. We use grape juice that comes from the vine, the same as wine would. And so we use that as a symbol also for His blood. That's the how. Now the what? 1 Corinthians 10, we already looked at that. Acts chapter 2, you're probably familiar with that, but let's point back there. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. And they devoted themselves. This is about the first Christians, the first church, right in the beginning. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. I said something about the youth group earlier. It doesn't say that here. I don't think a youth group is inherently sinful. Scripture doesn't address it. But it's not the priority. But priority are these things. The Apostles' teaching. That's the Bible. Fellowship. Enjoying the Spirit together. The breaking of bread. That is the sharing of the Lord's Supper. And prayer. That's the foundation of what we do as Christians. That's the foundation of what we do as the church. Those hungry, drunk, selfish people that were mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10, we don't want to be like that. That doesn't honor Jesus Christ. It despises the church. It humiliates. That is not what we're here for. Now, I want to address a couple more things. One of them is going back to that 1 Corinthians 11 section. Sometimes in our modernity, we can think some things that happened a long time ago, even if they're in the Bible, are weird and not for us. We have to understand that God's Word is eternal and all Scripture is profitable for teaching. I know that people can distort. I've seen it. People can distort the idea of spiritual warfare, and there's a demon behind every door. I know people call things demons that aren't. Right? They'll say, well you have the demon of alcohol, or you have the demon of this, or you have the demon... That's not a demon. That's just a thing. Right? So we can elevate spiritual warfare or make it, turn it into something that it isn't, but we can also sometimes ignore what it is. Look here back at this 1 Corinthians 11 section in verse 30. Let's go to 29 actually. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Now listen here very closely. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. Was that just for the first century? Now I'm not saying because somebody is weak that means they're sinning. Because somebody is ill that means they're sinning. Correlation doesn't make causation. But understand this, if you're living a lie, and that's what Paul is addressing here, if you're participating in the church, but Christ is not your sufficient Savior, you are looking to yourself or something else, you're going to be judged. Not just later, now. And actually, it's God's mercy. Paul goes on to say that. It's God's mercy that you're being judged if you're being judged that way because he says that, verse 32, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. God disciplines all that He loves. If you've been faking it or pretending or half-hearted, it's time to repent. Paul was serious. He said, this is why some of you are actually ill. Some of you are weak. Some people have even died. Why? Because they don't take this seriously. They don't take the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord and that you are to examine yourself to see if you're in Him. Can't play. So let's put this in its proper place, not out of balance, not saying, oh, because it's spiritual warfare, it doesn't matter, it's wacko, or this just happened in the first century. We also don't want to elevate it to a place it's not and look for a demon behind every corner, if you know what I mean. Okay. Let's talk about a couple more things as we wrap up. I want to mention This isn't going to be exhaustive, but I want to mention the major views of the Lord's Supper. You have what I will call the Catholic view, which is a view of the Lord's Supper that they would call transubstantiation. Now, I've actually had talks with people that call themselves Catholic, and they say, no, the church doesn't teach that. I can point to their documents. I can show you this is what they believe. This is what they affirm. Transubstantiation. What they believe is that Jesus Christ is actually being turned into, hocus-pocus, being turned into that bread and that cup. And that when you eat that bread and when you eat that cup, you're actually eating Jesus. That view takes Jesus' words out of context. Jesus does say, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. He actually says that. They're not making that up. It says that. But He also says to the disciples in real time while He is still alive, this is my body. This is my blood. Well, how can that be? He's here. So, the context, understanding rightly, is the symbolism. Not his actual flesh. Not his actual blood. It's symbolic. It's spiritual. Your food should be Him. your drink, the cup you're taking, that should be Him. But it's not literal. You can't do a DNA test and say, oh, this has got Jesus' DNA in it. That doesn't happen. Now, in many Catholic churches, and especially originally, They would only give the bread out to the people and not the wine. That still happens in a lot of Catholic churches. Why is that? Well, the priests like to drink the wine. And it's expensive. And so they came up with a new doctrine to get around that. Do you know that? Here's what they call that. They call that concomitance. Concomitance. Look it up. You know what concomitance is? it's they believe that even in that bread is his blood and even in the wine is his body they just both have both that way we don't have to give you both we can only give you one but you've taken both seems I don't even know how that makes sense in anybody's world but okay but they believe that this is a propitiatory sacrifice, that they're actually sacrificing Jesus all over again. Which, if you go into a Catholic church, that is why He's still on the cross. Because it's not finished. Jesus said, it is finished. Jesus sacrificed for sins. He died. He was buried. He rose again on the third day. doesn't need to be sacrificed again. It is finished. They believe that if there's leftovers, they can use them again. However, they also believe that those leftovers contain Jesus himself and so they are to be worshipped. That's Catholic view. Catholic view didn't start in Acts 2.42. It developed over time starting in probably about the 3rd century early development and then going on through about the 9th century to what it is today. Lutheran view is very similar. I'm not going to go in great depth about that. They call that consubstantiation. So transubstantiation is everything's changed into Jesus. Consubstantiation means that Jesus is in the elements, around the elements, through the elements, but his body is actually not transformed into it. Both of these views lead people to wrongly think about the Lord's Supper, thinking that this fixes their sin problem. Jesus Christ died for your sin. He's the only one who can forgive you. Taking this doesn't forgive you. Taking this reminds us of Jesus, and draws us around Jesus, it doesn't forgive us. It's our confession that we need Him as our Savior. Okay, then there is a view by a man named Ulrich Zwingli. Ulrich Zwingli, his view has been adopted by most, I would say, most Baptists. And that would be called the memorial view. The memorial view is a view in which you believe that this is only symbolic. The final view, which I would lean closer toward, these are all developed by men, right? So none of them are perfect. But the last view was made known by John Calvin. And he believes in a spiritual view of this, which yes, these are memorial, and I fully affirm that, that this is memorial, it's not salvific. But he also would say this does spiritually feed us in a way. And how does it spiritually feed us? It's not the food, not the bread, it's not the cup, it's Christ. And it is His grace that we take this together. Right? Now, is it a special, like, mysterious thing? It's not. But it's the regular coming together in the eating of it. I know I'm going long, but I'm almost done. I'm almost done. I want to give you a couple warnings before we finish. Okay? This has to do with the balance. Okay. So, danger number one. We are no longer guilty of this here, I don't think. And that's failure to observe the Lord's Supper. Why do people fail to observe it? I'm telling you why some churches will fail to observe the Lord's Supper. They'll say, we don't have enough time. Our service goes too long. If we tack that on, we'd have to cut 10 minutes of singing out. We don't want to do that. And you think I'm kidding? I'm not kidding. People don't observe it because they say it takes too much time. That is why Paul calls us to do this when we come together. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. So another reason that people don't take the Lord's Supper on a regular basis, church, they say, well, it can become too routine. Right? We don't want it. We want it to be special. Well, here's the problem with that. How come we sing every week? How come we do other things every week? Are you not worried about those things being special? It's okay for those things to be routine, right? Without being graphic, you know? How would you like it if your partner said to you if you're married, hey, this is a once a year thing for us to get together romantically because we want this to be special. That doesn't make any sense, right? We draw near to Christ when we do things to remember Christ more and more. Let me break this down in another simple way for you. If you read your Bible every day, it doesn't become less special. It becomes important. And it becomes not routine. While it may be a routine, it's not routine because you treasure it. We take the Lord's Supper regularly because we treasure Christ and we want to make sure we remember. But that can be a danger. Failure to observe. Superstition around the Lord's Supper. Or mysticism around it. Like, it's going to fix me. It's going to save me. Like, Jesus isn't enough? What he did for you on the cross isn't enough? That little piece of bread is going to save you? I don't think so. Idolatry. Putting this into too high of a position, which is kind of the same thing as superstition. Like, there's, ooh, the Communions this week. Ooh, big deal. I really should be at church because Communions this week. No. We come to church together because we're the body. Not because it's a special event. The Lord's Supper ought not be a special event. Okay. Privacy can be a danger as well. We can take this too private. This is personal. No. This is what we do when we come together. Already addressed. Ritual. The Scripture we talked about already addressed. Irreverence. We should not have an irreverent spirit around what we're doing. And finally, I want to just drive home the point that the biggest danger of taking the Lord's Supper is to take it in an unworthy manner, which is taking it in a way where you're not examining yourself to see if you are in Christ. Are you trusting Christ? If you sin this week, trust Christ. Repent. Right now. If you're feeling guilty, take it to Christ right now. Repent. Don't not take it because you are trusting in somehow your brain to work this out or karma to come around. No. Christ is your sufficient Savior. Period. I want to wrap up with Romans 5 verse 9. Romans 5. Actually start in verse 6. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God chose His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath to come." When we take the bread, we're celebrating and remembering Jesus' body broken for us, for me, for you. When we take the cup, we are remembering Jesus' blood poured out for the redemption of many, for the forgiveness of sins, for you, for us. That's what this is all about. That's why it's important. That's why we regularly practice it. Not as a religious ritual, but because we need Christ. We need to remember Christ. And this helps us. And it's what God told the church to do. He said, baptize believers. And then when you come together, take the Lord's Supper. I'll mention one more thing. Why isn't there a big table here front and center in our church? Some places call that the altar. Churches will call that the altar. We don't need an altar anymore. Christ was already sacrificed once for all. There is no more altar. Christ is our Savior. And we have this front and center in our church, the pulpit. So we preach the word. So we're reminded. So we're equipped to help us to grow and to help us to glorify God. Amen? Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time in your Word. Thank you for helping us think through the Lord's Supper. Lord, I pray for balance in my life, in each one here's life, in the life of our church, in the life of your church around the world, that we would not degrade things to a point where they ought not to be. We pray not to elevate things to a place that they're not supposed to be. That we rightly view Christ. That we rightly view the things that you left for us as the church. And that we would remember Him always, publicly and in our hearts. That He is our sufficient Savior. And that you, Father, are our God. And that the Holy Spirit is with us as our deposit. And we pray, God, to honor you in all these things. In Jesus' name. Amen. I would invite all of you who are trusting Christ as your sufficient Savior to join me in taking the Lord's Supper.