God has given us bread and wine, but not so that we would be distracted by the bread and wine. Remember that we dwell in a universe created by the Word of God who both was God and was with God. The Word of God is the exact representation of the image and nature of …
Confessing the Other Guy’s Sins
Living in community as we do, and living in the kind of community we live in, it is necessary that offenses will come. We provoke them, we commit them, we endure them, and frequently we will do one of these, thinking that we are doing another. We provoke offenses while thinking that we are enduring …
A Great Deal Worse
As we look back over the passage we have been considering, a few reminders are necessary. This is the Lord’s Table, and it does not belong to you. This means you are not in charge of the invitations and place cards, and have no authority to decline an invitation that has been graciously extended to …
The Sound of Splintering
Come before the Father now, and do so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we worship the Lord according to His Word, we reflect His glory into the world. But in the Bible the word glory is more than just a simple matter of brightness; it also carries the idea of weight. …
A Table, Not a Trophy
In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul sets a number of disorders concerning the Lord’s Supper straight, presumably addressing the more significant disorders. But there were other disorders, as indicated by his closing words on the subject, where he said “the rest will I set in order when I come.” So we do not come …
Laid Out On The Altar
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Father of all, we come before You in order to be laid bare before You. We know that Your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, and will cut us apart, as the priestly knife used to cut apart the sacrifical animals …
Partaking Together
Jesus tells us to do certain things in order to commune with Him. These things are not only to be done, they are to be done in a certain way. The service of the Passover was the time when He instituted the fellowship of the Lord’s Supper, and we are to begin where we are …
Pietism and Piety
As we grow in our knowledge of biblical doctrine, and as we expand the boundaries of what we know under the heading of a “biblical world view,” we have to be careful about one of the oldest traps in Christendom. Knowledge puffs up, St. Paul tells us, but love builds up. Graduate school is not …
The New Synagogue
INTRODUCTION: As we are considering some changes in how we elect and establish the elders of our church, the session has asked me to lay out the scriptural case for the principles we are seeking to honor and observe in this. THE TEXT: And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to …
God Throws Down the Proud
We cannot have an assembly like this without collecting together great sin and sinfulness. But this is not a function of the size of our church. The same thing would happen if any one of us were to assemble, all by ourselves, in a closet. We are all sinners, and God is in the process …