When Jesus established the Lord’s Supper, Judas was there. And because Satan had entered into Judas, Satan was also there. The sacrament here is not a reward for the already arrived. Not only so, but it is also used in driving away those who will never arrive. We don’t need to drive anyone away. We …
Not in the Grain or Grapes
Jesus taught us that we should not labor for the meat that perishes, but rather for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, and this meat is the food which the Lord Jesus gives to us now. He is authorized to do this because God the Father has sealed us in Him. We do not …
One Provision of His Will
God has brought us together into the household of faith, and, like all households, we share a table together. But one common feature of most household tables going back into antiquity, is the feature of sibling rivalry. At the first Lord’s Supper, there were two sets of physical brothers—Peter and Andrew (Matt. 4:18), and James …
The Future Failure of Peter
As the Lord established the sacrament of the Supper, He did a very interesting thing – He predicted the future failure of Peter. And yet He still administered it to him. We would tend to think that the blessing was wasted on Peter, when we should really be thinking that without it he might have …
Enacting Our Agreement
We have said before that in this meal we are being knit together into the body of Christ, muscle and bone, sinew and tendon, joint and marrow. But too many Christians have reversed the order in this, wanting doctrinal assent or understanding to be the thing that knits us together, so that we may then …
It Is Not So
After the Lord Jesus established the sacrament of the Supper, He asked His disciples if they had lacked anything when He sent them out. They had been commissioned to go without purse, money, or shoes. When He had done this, He asked, had they come to lack for anything? They had lacked for nothing was …
From Torquemada to Stalin
At this table, we remember Christ and Him crucified. In the death of Jesus, it was not sufficient for Him simply to die—He could not have died in His sleep for our sins. It was necessary for Him to be betrayed by the chief priests, and to be run through a kangaroo trial. It was …
Away From Alien Tables
We know, in coming to this Table, that we are solemnly and joyfully renewing our vows, and those vows include a deep commitment to stay far away from all alien tables. We cannot commune here, and at the table of demons, as St. Paul teaches. We are also committing ourselves to stay far away from …
Open Heart Surgery
We now observe the Supper of the Lord at the conclusion of every worship service. Do not drift into the sin of thinking that this is a mere routine. What is actually happening is that God is performing the spiritual equivalent of open-heart surgery on you, and He is doing it now on a weekly …
Loved and Shaped in the Supper
Christians are accustomed to think that a worldview consists of the things that you think. What are your “views” about the world? What are your opinions about this and that? I am afraid that this is a very truncated view of what it means to have a worldview. We need to develop this at length …