The meal where this sacrament was instituted is commonly called the Last Supper. It is called last because it was the last meal that Jesus ate before His arrest, and of course this attribution makes sense at that level. But there is also a real sense in which we ought to think of it as …
A Table for Friends
One of our great privileges in this congregation is the privilege of coming to the Lord’s Table weekly. When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are coming to the Lord Himself, and why wouldn’t we? We are evangelicals; we believe in coming to Jesus. In the midst of the great Reformation, the great John …
Received and Rendered
One of the concerns expressed about bringing young children to the Table, as we do, is the concern that we are neglecting the important element of having every communicant make a profession of faith. Are we not minimizing the importance of personal faith by doing this? Now it is possible for bad things to come …
Everlasting Waybread
When cultural observers fret over the disintegration of once-intact families in our culture, one of the things they point to is how often people eat their meals separately, or eat them in haste, having breakfast over the sink. This concern is well-grounded—there is something to it. We should focus on table fellowship, both here and …
Corporate Sanctification
There are two import things we have to remember about this meal, and if we do, we will better understanding the place of this memorial in the history of the church. The first thing is that this is the Lord’s Supper, not our own. The meal belongs to Him. He instituted it, and He sits …
Still Here
Word and sacrament are offered to us together. In what we are offered, we do have a glorious repetition, but we do not have redundancy. Never think that you are offered something in the sacrament that the Word has already completely supplied. The Word prepares us for the sacrament; it does not displace it. The …
Truly Finished
When Christians come to this Table, in faith they are partaking of the very same thing that the Jews partook of in the Passover meal. We are taught explicitly that Christ was the Passover Lamb, slain for us. He was executed on the cross at the same time as Passover. The blood of the lambs …
A Musical Meal
As we come to this meal, there are a number of things we do together. We sit, we reflect, we observe, we take and eat, we take and drink, and we love one another. This is a meal of covenant partaking, and the Greek word that sums up that partaking, that sharing, that blending, is …
The Identity of the Victim
We come to this Table in order remember certain things, and to remember them by means of an enacted memorial. The two principal things we are to remember have to do with the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. His work is more obvious to us because of the nature of this meal. …
Until He Comes
We are told that as often as we partake of this meal, we proclaim (katangello) the Lord’s death, and we are also told that this reality will be in force until He comes again. In this sense, the entire Christian church is a herald, an ambassador, a preacher. We announce, we declare, we proclaim. What …