“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). Knowing and understanding are certainly important, but knowledge is built upon doing, not the other way around. In the verse I just read …
A Prepared Meal
At this Table, God delights to feed us. But God does not just feed us, He prepares us to be fed. He undertakes the feeding, and He undertakes the preparation for feeding. Of course, the preparations began before the foundation of the world, when God the Father elected a people for Himself. And the preparations …
Enjoying His Pleasure
As we come to this Table, it is natural for us to think about what we are doing. We want to understand the meaning of the sacrament, we want to reflect on it as we come, we want to have departed from all known sin, and we want to look around so that we might …
Maybe the Other Person Is Not the Difficult One
Meals together are to be a time of harmony. We are all of us companions here. The Latin word for companion comes from two words meaning “one who shares bread together with you.” As companions, we should want to be companions on more than just one level. We are growing together, being knit together as …
Christ in Mouth of Friend and Stranger
This is not a moment for morbid introspection. There are times when we should examine ourselves, and there are times when we must confess our sins. But this moment is not designed or intended to be one of those moments. This is a moment to love and adore Your God, and to worship Jesus Christ, …
How Much More
The New Covenant is not a covenant that altered the fundamental nature of covenants. Throughout the Old Testament, covenants always had attendant blessings and curses. Some have wanted to imagine that the New Covenant was a covenant of automatic blessings, and that by its very nature, curses were impossible. But Paul tells us here that …
The Table Fences Us
Paul tells us that we must not eat and drink from the table of the new testament unworthily. He uses the word several times, but remember the context of his warning. The Corinthians were guilty of divisions in the church, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and greed. Paul tells them that such sins, unrepented, were inconsistent with …
Fighting With the Supper, Not Over It
As I have noted before, there is another complaint that has been brought against us—in our observance of the Lord’s Supper, we serve alcohol to minors. There are many principles involved in all this, but we need to focus on just one of them right now, and bring this wisdom with us as we come …
Jesus Gives Alcohol to Minors
I wanted to remind you of an incident from some years ago. At that time, we held one of our church services in the Kibbie Dome, just before the Trinity Fest. Predictably enough, some of our local adversaries filed an official complaint about that worship service—the complaint centered on the fact that we intended to …
Judas at the Table
The apostle Paul tells us that our Lord instituted the Supper on the night He was betrayed. The indications from the gospels are that He served the elements of that Supper to his betrayer, Judas, who was already under the influence of Satan himself. And Jesus knew this. At the first celebration of this Supper—and …