Through the course of church history, some have wanted to treat the communion of the Lord’s Table as a penitential discipline, instead of what the New Testament sets it out to be, which is that of a Eucharistic celebration. We are not here to get forgiven; we are here because we have been forgiven. This …
Songs or Snarls
This Table is a table of love and fellowship. God has set it so that we may sit around it and willingly (that is, lovingly) partake of it. In partaking of it in faith, we are partaking of Christ, partaking of one another, and partaking of the bread and wine. When we are done, Christ …
What Grace Is Made From
This Table represents to us the death of Jesus Christ. Because the death of Jesus was the death of all accusation, and the peculiar kind of envy that fuels so much accusation, this means that the sins that betrayed Jesus to the cross were actually sins that were being themselves led to the cross, there …
A Eucharistic Commonwealth
This is the place where we glory in Christ, and we glory in what He has given us. We do not glory in the fact that He has everything and we have nothing. Rather, we glory in the fact that we had nothing, He had everything, He came and sacrificed everything, so that He might …
Where Suffering Makes Sense
This is the Table where suffering makes sense. We are not just being nourished—we are also being nourished through a broken body and shed blood. This sacrifice, which we are privileged to partake of here, was not pointless. If it had been pointless, it could not have been a sacrifice. This whole gospel endeavor is …
Provisions
The doctrine of God’s providence is a doctrine of a Father’s love, care, mercy, and protection. God looks down the course of our journey and anticipates on our behalf. At every stop along that journey we find provisions waiting for us. This is one of the stops, and here are the provisions. We are cared …
A Monkey With a Crayon
The Lord has prepared a table for us here, in the presence of our enemies. This means that we dine while they rage. The Lord has taken us into His pavilion, while outside is the strife of tongues. There was this thing called the strife of tongues, even before the Internet. The strife of tongues …
The Return of Love
We come here as Christians, which means that we come as those who are followers of Jesus Christ. We do not follow Him because we happened to be a crowd that happens to be going that way. We follow Him because He has called each of us, individually. We have heard His voice, according to …
Spiritual Eyes, Hands, Mouth
Although your soul is not a body, it nevertheless has eyes, hands, and mouth. I am speaking here of more than the eyes, hands and mouth that it possesses through possessing your actual physical body. No, the Bible teaches that you can see without physical eyes, hold without physical hands, and eat apart from a …
Now You Have Tasted
When we come to this Table, we are doing as we have been instructed. We observe communion because the Lord established the meal, and instructed us to observe it. This is one reason for coming, and of course it is the foundational one. Partaking of this meal is an act of glad obedience. But part …