The Lord's Supper Our Blessed Redeemer

Q: What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

The Bible describes the Lord's Supper as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's sacrifice, instituted by Jesus during the Passover meal. The Lord's Supper, also known as communion, was established by Jesus during the Last Supper with His disciples, as detailed in 1 Corinthians 11:23-30. Here, Paul relays that on the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and said, 'This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.' Similarly, He took the cup, declaring it as the 'new testament in my blood,' instructing His followers to partake in it as a lasting remembrance of His sacrificial death until He returns. This ordinance serves as a vivid representation of Christ's atoning work, reminding believers of their need for faith in Him for salvation.

Q: How do we know the Lord's Supper is important for Christians?

The Lord's Supper is vital for Christians as it serves as a command from Christ and a means of spiritual remembrance of His sacrifice. The importance of the Lord's Supper for Christians is underscored by its establishment by Christ as a tangible means of grace. In 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, Jesus commands His followers to partake in the bread and wine, stating, 'This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.' This command highlights not only the significance of the act itself but also the believer's need to remember and proclaim the Lord's death until He returns. Furthermore, the Lord's Supper acts as a unifying ordinance among believers, bringing them together in the remembrance of Christ's body and blood, and serves as an affirmation of their faith in Him alone for salvation.

Q: Who should observe the Lord's Supper according to the Bible?

The Lord's Supper is meant for all believers, commanded by Christ for His children to partake as a reaffirmation of their faith. In Paul’s teaching on the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, he emphasizes that this ordinance is intended for all believers who truly trust in Christ. It is not a table guarded by specific members of a church but rather 'the Lord’s table,' open to all who are His children. The scriptural basis shows that the early church came together to break bread and partake in the Lord's Supper, confirming that every believer is encouraged to observe this ordinance. As expressed in the text, 'Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup,' indicating the necessity of faith in him, rather than personal merit, to partake.

Q: Why does the Bible require self-examination before the Lord's Supper?

Self-examination is necessary to ensure that partakers discern the Lord's body and approach the table with faith, not presumption. Self-examination before participating in the Lord's Supper is essential, as highlighted in 1 Corinthians 11:28 which states that individuals should examine themselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. This practice serves to ensure that the participant understands the weight of what they are doing—acknowledging Christ's sacrifice and discerning His body. Paul warns that those who partake unworthily, without recognizing their need for Christ's redemptive work, bring condemnation upon themselves. Therefore, self-examination acts as a means of reflecting on one's faith and need for grace, reinforcing the understanding that right participation stems from genuine belief in Christ's atoning work.

Now, I realize it's getting real close to Sunday afternoon nap time and everybody had a big meal. And if you'll just give me your attention for just a few minutes, I promise not to preach quite as long as I normally do. I'll not commit myself to 30 minutes, but I'll be real close to 30 minutes. You give me 30 minutes of your time and I will try to wrap this up as quickly as possible. But I want you to listen carefully. because I have a subject that needs clear understanding. I want to pick up right where I left off last Sunday morning. You remember, you who were here, that I preached to you last Sunday on the privilege of believers' baptism and church membership.

And I left off with the Lord's Supper. Now, today, I want to talk to you about the Lord's Supper. our blessed remembrance of Christ. Our text will be 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23 through 30. The Apostle Paul is writing and giving us this word of inspired instruction concerning the Lord's Supper. I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, 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. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had sucked, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

Now, when we seek to understand and to obey the ordinances of the gospel in public worship, the basis of our faith, the basis of what we believe, and the basis of what we do, must be the Word of God alone. just as we derive our doctrine from the plain statements of Holy Scripture without allowing any other consideration to come into view. Now that's the only way you can understand doctrine. The doctrine of Scripture. Let's see what God says and let's ignore all other considerations.

Just what does God say? Somebody said, but what does that do with my mama and daddy? That's irrelevant. How does that affect my children? That's irrelevant. How does that affect me? That's irrelevant. The only thing of consideration is what does God say? What does God say? That's the basis of our faith. And the same thing is true with regard to the ordinances of the gospel.

I had a fellow, a friend of mine, I have become acquainted with by correspondence recently, who is a pedo-Baptist. That is to say, he is Presbyterian in theology, They believe in the family covenant and they baptize babies, you know, all of that. And he wrote to me just this week and asked where then I would differ concerning what they had to say concerning baptism. And they sent a pamphlet and I wrote him back as kindly as I could because I want to maintain the friendship. And I told him, I said, I know I'm not gifted at diplomacy, so I hope you don't take offense. But the reason I can't accept what you're saying is because I don't see one word in the scriptures to give foundation to it. Not one word. We must base our faith and our practice in our observation of the ordinances of worship upon the Word of God, and two things in the Word of God alone are to be considered. First, the precepts of the Word. Second, the precedents of the Word. In other words, we want to know what does God say, and then we want to observe how God, through his prophets and apostles, by example, showed us to implement what he said in his Word.

So as we look at the scriptures this afternoon concerning this matter of the Lord's Supper, we recognize that the Word of God has given us plain instructions telling us how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God. That's what Paul wrote to Timothy. He said, now I've written these things to you so that you'd know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God.

We're not We're not up in the air concerning this, this thing of how the Church ought to do business, how we ought to behave, and how we ought to conduct our worship services, while I recognize the Scriptures give a great deal of latitude in when we sing and when we pray and all of those things. There are certain things laid down in the Word of God, and this is how we're to behave in the house of God.

And we're not to add to it or take anything from it. And these things are given to us so that we recognize our duty to worship God after the due order. And we must do so if we hope for our worship to be accepted of him. Let me give you an example. Somebody said, well, if you just come to worship God, as long as you're sincere, that's all that really matters. You don't have to pay any attention to the details.

Do you remember when David brought the ark of God up out of the house of Obed-Edom? He was leaping and dancing, and he was bringing the ark of God up to his place. David recognized in the ark of God the sacrifice of Christ. He recognized in the ark of God the covenant of mercy. He recognized in the ark of God, this is the place where God meets with man, and this is the place where God's worshiped. He saw all of that in the ark. And as he brought it up, David was doing a very noble thing. He was seeking to worship God. He was going to build a place for the worship of God. He was bringing the ark of God to its proper place.

But he disregarded the commandment of God. He didn't bring the ark of God up the way God said do it. He didn't bring the priest out going before the ark. And he caused the ark to be set on a cart that men had made rather than carry it on the shoulders of God's priest. And as they crossed the chasm, the ark began to slip off of that cart. And one of those men just reached to support the ark. He just put his hand to it. That's all he was doing. What for? To keep the ark from falling in the mud. You don't want the ark of God to fall in the mud. But God said, don't touch it. God said, don't touch it. Because if you put your hand to God's ark, that symbolizes man putting his hand to the business of salvation.

And when Uzzah touched the ark, you remember what happened? God killed it, just like that. And David said, boys, let's stop what we're doing. And he went back. And sometime later, he consulted with the Lord and not with the people. And he found the ordinance of God, what God said in his word about transporting that ark. And he said, now, fellas, the Lord brought a breach upon us, and these are the words he used, because we sought him not after the due order. So any time you think, well, now, Brother Don, he's being a little bit touchy here. He's being a little sensitive here. He's pressing this thing too much. Please understand.

The necessity is, if we're going to worship God, we must worship Him as He says for us to worship Him, or our worship's unacceptable, no matter how sincere it is. So I want us this evening, or this afternoon, to look at this matter of the Lord's Supper, this great privilege God has given us, and I want to answer five questions concerning it from the Scriptures. I want to address questions that are I hope on your mind as you come together, we come here every Sunday, Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening, whenever we meet for evening service, and we have the Lord's Supper. And I'm sure some of you young people particularly, you think, why do you do that? And perhaps you even think, well, this is one of the rituals we go through at our church. I hope that you know better than that, but I want you to listen carefully and let me answer four or five questions concerning the Lord's Supper.

First, why was it given? Why was the Lord's Supper instituted to begin with? You'll recall the night before our Lord was crucified, he gathered his disciples into a large upper room, and they were keeping the Feast of the Passover, but as they kept the Feast of the Passover, the Passover was sitting in front of them. The Passover sacrifice was the one whom they had come to worship. And he takes the bread and the wine of the Passover feast and he established his supper and said, now you take this and you eat this bread and drink this wine as a memorial in remembrance of me until I come again. It was established first as a symbolic remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us. It's a picture. Now, the picture is not the real thing, but the picture's precious to those who love him.

I spent a year, the year Shelby and I were engaged, I was in Springfield, Missouri. She was in Western Southern North Carolina, a thousand miles away. And I had a picture. It's hanging on my office wall back there. I still had it. I took that picture with me, set it on my desk. And I've always been big enough, fellas didn't fool with things I didn't want to fool with, and I let the fellas in the dorm know you don't fool with that. We're not going to have any jokes about it, and you're not going to go hide it.

That's where it sits. That's precious to me because it represented someone who was precious to me. And this picture here represents him who's precious to our souls. Why I have the picture? Because the Lord has left us for a little while. His visible bodily presence is no longer here. He's with us, but his manifest bodily presence has taken from us for a little while.

So he said, I'm giving you this, the bread and wine, to remember me, to remember who I am. to remember how that I came into this world in human flesh, and how that I poured out my life's blood in the atonement of your sins, and now I'm lifted up into heaven." One of these days I'm coming for you again.

This vivid pictorial proclamation of the gospel shows sinners how it is that men and women are saved by faith in Christ. Turn to John, hold your hands here in 1 Corinthians, and turn to John chapter 6. Now, before I read this passage in John 6, let me make a statement that I hope you grasp. John 6 doesn't have a thing on earth to do with the Lord's Supper. What this passage is talking about is faith in Christ. But faith in Christ is pictured when we eat and drink the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.

Our Lord says in John 6, verse 53, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, I will raise him up at the last day. For 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."

Now what on earth does that mean? How does a sinner eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God? Obviously, not literally. And when we eat the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, this bread is not literally our Lord's body. And we don't, with some mumbo-jumbo proclamation of religious voodoo, transform it into the body and blood of our Lord. But what is it then?

By faith, the sinner takes Christ's life. his life of perfect righteousness, and his death, his death as the sinner's substitute upon the cursed tree 2,000 years ago, and believing Christ, he takes it for himself, as he is. It's his. Do you trust Jesus Christ right now? Do you trust him right now? If you do, you eat his flesh, and you drink his blood, It's yours, as really yours as it is his. As really yours as it is his. Now, here's the picture. Each one of these brethren and sisters will take this bread and take this wine and eat it and drink it for himself. If you will be saved, you must, by faith, personally take Christ for yourself. Oh, God help you, so to take him.

Secondly, what are the elements to be used in the Lord's Supper? Now, I know this is a matter of controversy among many, but it would not be controversial at all if folks simply knew the meaning of the Lord's Supper and knew what was written in the scriptures. The only way the Lord's Supper can be observed, now I stress that, The only way the Lord's Supper can be observed is by eating unleavened bread and drinking wine. Why not soda crackers and grape juice? Why not light bread and soda pop?

I'll give you three reasons. First, You can jot this down, we won't look at it, but in Genesis 14, when Melchizedek, who was a type of Christ, met Abraham, he brought forth bread and wine as symbols of God's blessing on his servant through a sacrifice.

Melchizedek came and he sent before Abraham a feast of bread and wine, symbol of God's blessing through a sacrifice. Secondly, in the original institution of the Lord's Supper, and in all the New Testament churches, the Lord's Supper was observed by the use of unleavened bread and wine. When our Lord sat down with his disciples in the upper room, they had bread, unleavened bread, and wine.

That's how the Jews kept the Passover. And so he took the bread and the wine, he said, take this, eat it, and drink it. This is my body, this is my blood, do it in remembrance of me. And in the New Testament churches, that's the way they always observed it.

I recall when I was in college, I never was terribly reluctant about asking questions that would embarrass professors who were contrary to the scriptures. Anyway, one of the professors was giving a real stern talk about not using wine in the observance of the Lord's Supper, and I raised my hand asking a question. I said, if you don't mind, answer me this question.

How on this earth did the Corinthians get drunk if they were using grape juice at the Lord's Supper? Their abuse was not that they used wine. Their abuse was that they used the wine in excess and they threw a party when they ate the Lord's Supper. But these Corinthians here in 1 Corinthians 11 had a problem. They came together and made a love feast and a gophe feast and they had a party whenever they came to the Lord's Supper. And Paul said, that's not right. But he didn't tell them not to use the wine and not to use the bread.

That's the way it was always done in the New Testament. And thirdly, It is only by the use of these two elements that we properly represent our Savior and his redemptive work. The unleavened bread, let me tell you one more time, the unleavened bread represents the holy humanity of Jesus Christ. God the Son came into this world through the womb of a virgin without the aid of a man, the seed of the woman, and his body In that body he worked out perfect righteousness for us. Therefore the bread must be unleavened so that it has no taint of any representation of evil about it. The wine represents the pure, holy, sinless blood of Immanuel, the blood of a man who is himself God, by which the justice of God was satisfied, and our sins were washed away, and the covenant of grace was ratified, put into effect on our behalf.

And the two separated, here's the bread, here's the wine, separated, represent clearly that death has taken place, by violence. The blood separated from the body demonstrates death by a violent stroke, and the Lord Jesus Christ, by the violence of God's wrath, was slain as our substitute, though he himself poured out his life's blood even unto death.

Thirdly, who should observe the Lord's Supper? Who? Again, this is a matter of controversy with some. I know a good many Baptists and others who say the Lord's Supper is to be observed only by those who are members of this particular local church, because we must guard our table. Well, it's not our table. It's the Lord's table. It is not something that we must guard. It's the Lord's table. He takes care of that.

You may have read in Henry's Bulletin last week or the week before, Roland Hill was once preaching for another congregation, and over in England for years, most of the churches have observed the Lord's Supper every Sunday morning, and when the deacons started to pass the Lord's table, he was sitting right on the front row, and he reached to take the bread, and the fellow said, I'm sorry, you can't eat at our table. You can come preach to us, but you can't eat at our table. He said, excuse me, I didn't know it was your table. I thought you said it was the Lord's table. And he was exactly right. It's the Lord's table.

That means it's open to all the Lord's children. And we have no right to set up restrictions against any of the Lord's children receiving it. In Acts chapter 20, you read the first seven verses of that chapter, and you'll see that the saints of God came from here and there and everywhere. They would all come together on the Lord's Day, and they broke bread together. If that's the way they did it in the New Testament, that's the way we ought to do it today. Not only is the Lord one who has set his table open to all his children, But all of his children are commanded by him to receive it. Notice what it says up here in 1 Corinthians 11.

Is it verse... Let me see here, verse 24. Take, eat, this is my body. Verse 25, at the same minute took the cup. And when he sucked, he said, This is a new testament in my blood, this do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. In verse 28, he says, Let a man examine himself, and see whether or not he is going to eat. That's not what the text says. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. So let him eat.

So the Lord not only has given this as a thing that's open to all his children, it's commanded by the Lord to all his children, so that this is not an optional thing. It is just as incumbent upon us as believers to eat and drink the Lord's table, often in remembrance of him, as it is for us as believers to confess him in believers' baptism. This is not an optional thing then. Who should eat the Lord's supper? Every believer. When? When are we to come together to observe the Lord's Supper?

Now here, much is left to the discretion of each local church, as far as the Scriptures are concerned, because the Word of God doesn't give us a fixed time or a fixed day and say, now observe the Lord's Supper at 10 o'clock in the morning or 7 o'clock in the evening, every Sunday or every 4th Sunday or every 5th Sunday or every 100th Sunday.

It just says, do this often. These clues we have. In the New Testament, they observed the Lord's Table on the Lord's Day. They observed it every Lord's Day, and they observed it in the evening. It was called the Lord's Supper, not the Lord's Breakfast. They came together in the evening to observe the Lord's Table.

Now here, that's the way we do it, but we're nowhere commanded, saying, observe the Lord's Supper every Sunday evening. Therefore, we make no command and say, this must be done every Sunday evening. Only this, do it often. Do it often. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he come.

Now, the question that most every believer struggles with from time to time is what makes us worthy or unworthy to observe this ordinance. What makes us worthy? Most of us have had religious experiences in our backgrounds that we've had the influence of Puritan theology, and Puritan theology by and large is excellent theology, but there are some real problems. We've had the influence of the kind of theology that causes us to give a great deal of introspection to see whether or not we are worthy to do something, whether or not we're worthy to pray, or worthy to eat the Lord's Supper, or worthy to be baptized, or worthy to be church members, or worthy to preach the gospel. Now listen carefully to me. Listen carefully.

Our worthiness to call God our Father, what is it? What gives you the right to call God your father? His Jesus Christ. That's all. His blood, His righteousness. Without that you don't dare call God your father. Our worthiness to come to God in prayer is in the name of His soul. Our worthiness to confess Christ and believe His baptism is the fact that we believe Him. Our worthiness to come and join ourselves to the people of God in public worship as an assembly of believers is the fact that we've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, robed in His righteousness, accepted in Him. And our worthiness to eat this bread and drink this wine has nothing to do with whether or not there's sin in our lives, If you think there's not sin in your life, you're a liar. That's what John said, isn't it?

There is sin in your life. Our worthiness is not how good a control we have over our passions. If you think you're controlling your passions, you're a liar. You don't have any idea what your passions are. Our worthiness is not our goodness. Our worthiness is not how much we pray. Our worthiness is not how thoroughly we obey the law of God. Our worthiness is Christ.

That's all. We come to the table confessing our sin, our utter unworthiness in ourselves, but believing Christ. And here I stand before God Almighty. You understand what I'm saying now, don't you? This man talking to you is a vile wretch of a man. This man talking to you is a sinner keenly aware of his sin. But here in the sight of God, with Christ's spotless garments on, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, I'm as holy as God's own son. And therefore, I'm worthy.

Worthy to eat this bread, drink this wine. But what about those of whom it says they're not worthy? Eating and drinking unworthily, they eat and drink damnation to themselves. Those who are not worthy are those who do not discern the Lord's body. Do you see that in the text? Not discerning the Lord's body. You who are yet without faith, are without faith for one reason. You don't see your need of Christ. If you knew your need of Him, you'd trust Him. That means you don't discern the Lord's body. You don't understand the necessity of you having a substitute. You don't understand the necessity of God coming into the world in human flesh and suffering and dying for your sins to bring you unto God in heaven.

You don't understand how that Jesus Christ, by his obedience, has established righteousness for sinners which we could never establish for ourselves, and by his death has obtained eternal redemption which we could never obtain for ourselves. And if you eat this bread and drink this wine, You eat and drink damnation to yourself by trying to convince yourself that you have a refuge before God when you have no refuge before God. When a person is baptized without faith, they look to their baptism and say, I'm saved. When a person joins the church and professes faith in Christ without faith, they look to that event and say, I'm saved. I remember I was there. When I was about seven years old, I made my profession. Yes, sir, I remember that. I cried a lot and things changed. I remember that distinctly. I'm saved. Without faith in Christ, you come to the Lord's Supper and you participate in the ordinances of worship reserved for God's saints. And you convince yourself that you have Christ when you don't even know Christ.

That's what it is to eat and drink unworthily. And that's the reason we don't press upon men the performance of religious duties. We press men to believe on Christ and believe in Christ, to obey him in worship. Now, you who believe, eat this bread and drink this wine, remembering him. and looking for it. And you who are yet without faith, oh God give you faith now. But watch, just watch and listen.

This is how you take Christ. God, a guilty sinner, in need of righteousness. I trust Jesus Christ is the Lord my righteousness. A guilty sinner in need of atonement, I trust the death of Jesus Christ, the blood of your dear son, for the pardon of all my sins. Just as we eat this bread and drink this wine by faith, take it now. Take it now for yourself, trusting the Son of God. Amen.

The Lord's Supper Our Blessed Redeemer

What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

How do we know the Lord's Supper is important for Christians?

Who should observe the Lord's Supper according to the Bible?

Why does the Bible require self-examination before the Lord's Supper?

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The Lord's Supper Our Blessed Redeemer

What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

How do we know the Lord's Supper is important for Christians?

Who should observe the Lord's Supper according to the Bible?

Why does the Bible require self-examination before the Lord's Supper?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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