The Ordinance of The Lord's Supper

Tonight we're on lesson number 16 in our 25-part series on ecclesiology, and we'll be looking at the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is one of the two ordinances that Christ set forth before us. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, an ordinance is simply a religious rite that Christ commanded the church to do perpetually. And these ordinances — what sets them apart from other things — is that they picture the gospel. Last week we looked at baptism and how baptism is a pictorial representation of the gospel. It's us being merged into the life of Christ and His death, burial, and His resurrection. Tonight we'll be looking at the Lord's Supper and how it's Christ in us. It's His life animating us, flowing through us, both not only saving us, but also sanctifying us and making us into His very image. So let's begin with Bible point number one.

The church is the great company of persons whom Christ has saved. Again, this is very familiar with you by now. We've been going over this definition, but I'm hoping that you'll have this memorized and in your sleep. The church is that great company of persons whom Christ has saved, He dwells, whom He's in union with, to whom and through whom He reveals God, and in whom He exercises spiritual dominion. He is our Lord and we follow Him. United to Christ, the church is a temple of God's indwelling.

The Lord's Supper both symbolizes and proclaims the church's participation in Christ's death and resurrection. It symbolizes Christ's life in ours. The Lord's Supper was commanded by Christ to be observed in remembrance. Remembrance is the first blank. In remembrance of His atoning work and in looking forward to His coming kingdom. It serves both purposes. It's a look back because we think about what Christ did for us on the cross. He laid down His precious, perfect life for us as vile sinners. Right? But it also points forward — we're now saved, but we are going to even be more saved in the sense that we will be glorified. Salvation is both past, present, and future. The past, because of Christ's atonement, we've been justified. Right? We have been declared righteous before God. Right now, God is continuing to save us in what we call sanctification, able to make us like Christ. But one day when we get to heaven, the struggle with sin will be over with. Right? And we will be perfectly conformed into the image of Christ. That's what we call glorification. Right? And that's what the Lord's Supper actually points forward to.

It is to be observed by an assembly. Assembly is the second blank — of believers. Believers is the third blank. We'll get into this in our later points as we unpack this, but it's not meant to be observed individually. It's meant to be observed corporately.

As the Passover was celebrated until Christ came, so the Lord's Supper is to continue until He comes again. Again is the fourth blank — with glory and power. It's a perpetual obligation. We are to continue to do it until that day He comes for His church. And what a glorious day that will be. And then we will partake of it new in His kingdom, and how glorious that'll be.

On the back — I'm not going to read it, but I want just for your own study, look on the back. You'll have under number one on the back there are four different passages: Mark, Luke, Matthew, and 1 Corinthians. These are the four places where the Lord's Supper is described as instituted by Christ. The Gospel of John does not cover this. It covers the upper room and this teaching — Jesus washes His disciples' feet and He gives us the upper room discourse — but it doesn't actually give the details of the Lord's Supper, of changing the Passover to be the Lord's Supper remembrance. And then you'll also see Acts 2:40 through 42, which I am going to read here. This is how the early church celebrated the Lord's Supper. It says, "And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers." Breaking of bread is shorthand, we believe, for the Lord's Supper. This was something they continued to do. We talked a few weeks ago about what we call the common means of grace — how do we grow spiritually? And it's simply through the Word of God read, the Word of God preached, the Word of God prayed, the Word of God fellowshiped over, the Word of God pictured in baptism, and the Word of God observed in the Lord's Supper, the Word of God sung. These are very common things, but they're all focused on the gospel. And that's the only way we'll ever grow spiritually, right? The only way that we'll ever be conformed to His image. Let's look back over on the front. The application for number one: how does the Lord's Supper look backward? Backward is the blank — and forward. How does it look backward?

Exactly right.

His body was broken for us — that's what the bread symbolizes, right?

The wine symbolizes His blood that was shed for us, right? It's His sacrifice. It's a commemoration of that sacrifice. And then it points forward, as we just mentioned, looking forward to His return in that time when we will have a new heavens and a new earth, and all things will be made new by Christ.

Bible point number two: the Lord's Supper and baptism are symbols of the death and resurrection of Christ. Like baptism, the Lord's Supper doesn't give — give is the first blank — it does not give new life. There's nothing magical in the bread that we eat and the grape juice that we drink. They are symbols and symbols only, right? There's nothing salvific in partaking of them. You don't get more of Jesus when you eat the bread. You don't get more of the Spirit when you drink the wine, right? The very minute that you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you become spiritually one with Him. You're united to Christ at that very moment. You may grow in your apprehension and understanding and love and appreciation of Him, definitely. But you will never be more closely united to Him because you're already intertwined into Him. You're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. So eating and drinking is a commemoration. It is not any magic, so to speak, that bestows grace. It does not give us spiritual life.

But it celebrates — celebrates is the second blank — it celebrates it. It's more than just remembrance. It's a commemoration. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. It actually celebrates what Christ did for us, not just what He did for us, but who He is — that He is our Savior. He's the one who imparts life to us. He's the one that daily washes us with His word. He's the one who daily has new mercies for us prepared every morning, based upon what He did for us on the cross.

The Lord's Supper symbolizes the death of Christ for our sins. The new — the new is the third blank — the new covenant was established by Christ's own blood.

In ancient times, when they would have a covenant — we've talked before, earlier, actually, in our study of ecclesiology about covenants — when a covenant was established, normally they would take an animal. That animal would be separated, and there would be blood spilled as a way of inaugurating that covenant. And typically, the parties would walk between that separated animal. And if you were to break that covenant, the implication would be that what happened to that animal would happen to you, right? Well, Christ was the sacrifice that ratified the new covenant. His blood was poured out freely for us. Nothing we have to do. It's simply received — a free gift by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. So the new covenant was established by Christ's own blood. The new covenant that was long before prophesied by Jeremiah was ratified in Christ's sacrifice. Sacrifice is the fourth blank.

Because Christ was our spotless Lamb, God can say, "Their sin I will remember no more." Let's look here below in Luke 22:19 through 20. This is part of Luke's account of the Lord's Supper being established. It says, "And He," Jesus, "took bread and gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Saying, "This is my body" — He's not saying literally, "This is my body." I mean, Jesus is right there. You see His body, right? It'd be like me holding up a picture. I can pull out my phone, actually — if you can see it — this is one of my grandsons and my granddaughter. I can say this is them, but this isn't really them. They're in Texas, right? But this is a picture of them. When Christ says, "This is my body," He's saying, "This represents my body." "Then he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" It was given for you. It was the sacrifice that ratified the new covenant. "Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the' — " what?

"The new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you." Every Jewish ear would have perked up upon hearing that. Of course, His disciples were all Jewish, because they knew what He's referring to. Flip over on the back and let's read it.

In Jeremiah, God had predicted that He would establish a new covenant, because they had failed time and time again in breaking the old covenant. Man cannot keep the law. They cannot abide by it. Man needed a new heart. Man needed a new disposition, needed to be changed radically by God. And that cannot be produced by the law of Moses.

"But this is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they'll all know me." Everybody in the new covenant has a personal relationship with the Lord. We're all united to Christ. In the old covenant, you could be circumcised and act apart, dressed apart, but your heart could be far from the Lord. We all see that time and time again in the Old Testament. "For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," says the Lord. "For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more." See Ezekiel referencing this new covenant as well — 36:25 through 27: "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will keep my judgments and do them."

So when Jesus says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood," He's saying, "I am inaugurating the new covenant. And the sign of this new covenant is my blood here." Right? This is going to be what ratifies the new covenant, what brings it into effect. "I have fulfilled the old covenant by perfectly keeping it. I've satisfied the demands of God's holy law by dying the death of a sinner," even though Christ was not a sinner, but He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.

Flip back over on the front. Application for number two: who is the question. Who is the blank. Who should partake of the Lord's Supper? Seeing that the Lord's Supper represents the new covenant, represents our union with Christ, who should partake of the Lord's Supper?

Believers. Exactly right. Just like baptism, right? It is for believers. That's why when we do the Lord's Supper, normally Mr. Colson or one of the elders will say, "If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, let the cup pass." Right? Because it's not a symbol for you. It's a symbol recognizing that Christ's blood has been applied to your heart. Right? That you are one with Christ. It's in you.

Bible point number three: the believer's union — that's the first blank for number three — the believer's union with Christ is the very meaning. Meaning is the second blank. It's the very meaning of the Lord's Supper. It's what it means — union with Christ. Just as baptism pictures that we are in Christ, so the Lord's Supper pictures that Christ is in — in is the third blank — in us.

The Lord's Supper symbolizes Christ's life in ours. To partake of Christ is to participate or share. Share is the fourth blank. So the first blank is union, second blank is meaning, third blank is in, the fourth blank is share. It's to share in Christ's life. This does not mean mere association or fellowship, but real, concrete, eternal participation. It's the word koinonia. It means intimate fellowship. And when talking about Christ's life being merged with ours, there are various pictures of our union with Christ we've talked about, such as a building and its foundation. Can you remove a building from its foundation without destroying it? No, it's part and parcel of its foundation, right? Christ is our chief cornerstone. The Bible also talks about our union with Christ as being a vine and the branches, right? So intertwined — when you look at a grapevine, you can't really figure out where the vine begins and the branch ends. It's all merged into one plant, right? It's grown together. It uses a picture of a wedding where the two become one flesh, right? That's another picture of our union with Christ. Another picture of our union with Christ is Christ being the head of new humanity. Just as Adam was a progenitor of the human race, Christ is the progenitor of the redeemed, right? All who are in Adam die. All who are in Christ find new life. There are many such analogies in Scripture that point to this intertwining of our life with Christ. And that is what the Lord's Supper pictures.

Intimate and eternal participation in the very life of Christ, as if His very blood is coursing through our veins. And it is, in a sense — it is His life in us that animates us and keeps us spiritually alive as the life of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:16 through 17: "The cup of blessing that we bless — is it not a participation?" Again, this is a word of sharing, koinonia. A participation in the blood of Christ — saying we share the very blood of Christ. "The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the very body of Christ?" We're so closely identified with Christ that what He did on the cross — His death, His flesh being torn, His blood being spilled — is accounted to our account. As if we died and paid the price for sin, because Christ did it for us, right? And in His resurrection, He is the firstfruit of the resurrection. So just as He was quickened and came out of the grave, so too one day shall we. Flip over on the back.

I want to read to you from John 6. John 6 is not about communion, but communion is all about John 6.

What John 6 is talking about is the very life of Christ being shared with us — it's talking about union with Christ. And the context here is that Christ has made bread for the multitudes.

And they don't want to let Him go, because this is good stuff, right? And Jesus is very blunt with them. He says Moses gave you bread in the wilderness and they ate of it and they died, right? But the bread that I give you, it's My very body. It's the true bread. Just as Jesus is the true vine, He says, "I am the true bread," right? That gives life. And if you eat of Me, you'll never have to eat again.

Let me read this to you. Verse 47 through 58: "Most surely I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life." That's how we are united to Christ — through faith in Him, right? We believe into Him and we have everlasting life. "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his own flesh to eat?" Never taken literally, right? He's using partaking of His flesh as a figure for belief in Him, for trusting in Him, of receiving Him into your heart.

"Then Jesus said to them, 'Most surely I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at that last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me.'"

What Jesus is saying here is incredible. He's saying, "I and the Father share the same underived life." We have — the deity, the principle of life within us — God does, and God alone. He's the author of life. And He says, "I live because of my Father. We share the same life." He says, "In the same way, if you'll believe in me, you'll have my life. My life will guarantee yours." "This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." If you put your trust in Christ, you live forever. That means here and now too. We have a principle of new life already at work within us the very minute that we trust in Jesus. We are a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new in Christ Jesus. And that just gets better and better, right? That last day when our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Flip back over on the front.

Application for number three: what does it mean when we say that Christ lives — lives is the blank — in us? What does that mean when we say that Christ lives in us?

How is that different from, say, I loved my grandmother? She was the best grandmother ever. She's been dead for 20-some-odd years now. Lived to be 103, just a wonderful lady. Grew up in Texas riding in a covered wagon. She was a cowgirl. Had all kinds of colorful stories to tell. And in one way I can say that she lives on in my heart, right? Because I have those memories. Is that the way that Christ lives in the heart, or is it something different? Yeah, it's His very Spirit that lives within us, right? His blood has bought us. And because of that, His Spirit comes and dwells within us, right? We can't see it. It's not a tangible thing, but you can definitely see its effects. Can't you tell when a person has been animated by Christ? They're no longer a dead man walking. You see the fruit of the Spirit within them, right? You see that now they turn the other cheek. You see that now they're kind when others would have cursed. Now they have joy when others would have only had sorrow. Now you see that they tell the truth when others would turn around and lie to get out of trouble, right? That can only be explained by His Spirit being put within us. And that's what the new covenant promised, right? That He'll put His Spirit within us. And the seal of that, so to speak, was His blood, right? His blood and His body given for us. And that's what our Lord's table represents.

Bible point number four: the believer's union with Christ, symbolized in the Lord's Supper, consequently pictures our union with the church. Church is the blank.

We think about it as our union with Christ, but it's also our union with the church. In our union with Christ as individuals, we become united to one another as Christ indwells every believer. The very moment you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, not only are you united to Him, but guess what? You got family now. You got brothers and sisters in whom the Spirit of Christ indwells, right?

And that's a blessing that you can't even fathom. You may not have any family left — the older we get, that's kind of what happens, right? But we have a spiritual family, right? We have brothers and sisters who are filled with the Spirit of Christ. When we're individually united with Christ, we're also corporately united with Christ, right? And we are therefore united to one another. We can truly call one another brothers and sisters and truly love one another as brothers and sisters because Christ is in you. Okay.

Christ indwells every believer — that's the second blank, indwells. This understanding helps us to discern — discern is the third blank — the Lord's body, by seeing others as belonging. Belonging is the fourth blank — belonging to Him. In other words, because Christ indwells every believer, this helps us to see or discern the Lord's body because others belong to Him as well. And let me explain that. In the institution of the Lord's Supper by Paul in the Corinthian church, Paul gives them a warning about not eating of the table greedily, not eating of the table without discerning the Lord's body. Now, many scholars think that, because of the context, it means understanding what the blood and the body of Christ are represented by — both the bread and the wine. Take the Lord's Supper seriously. Don't take it as just a rote, routine thing that you go through. But it's more than that. When you look at the context, flip over on the back.

Proceeding — immediately preceding where Paul says, "This I give to you what I received from the Lord" — it says on that night the Lord took the bread and the wine, and he explains communion. Immediately preceding that, we find it in reference number four here.

"Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it." He says they are a divided body. They're not recognizing that you're my sister in Christ and you're my brother in Christ. So we should have unity, right? But they're coming selfishly. "For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper." He says, "You're not really coming to celebrate the Lord's Supper. You're all about yourself here." "For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others. And one is hungry and another is drunk." So some people are feasting to the point of drunkenness and there are poor people in the congregation who don't even have enough food to eat at the meal, and so they're hungry. "What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?" He says, "It's not about filling your own belly. Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you." Again, you had wealthy people who were indulging and not even sharing their food with the poor people in the congregation who didn't have anything to eat.

Look at 1 Corinthians 11:27 through 34. This is immediately after Paul recounts the institution of the Lord's Supper. He says, "Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." He's saying, "Examine your life." So he's not talking about morbid introspection and whether I am worthy enough to partake of the Lord's Supper, because none of us are worthy enough, right? If we're repentant, we recognize, "I'm a vile sinner and I'm partaking of this supper by grace and grace alone." And that's what it actually represents. But look what it says here — verse 29: "For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." I believe what he's talking about here is not discerning the Lord's body — not realizing that everyone in this congregation is your brother and sister. And if you are doing them wrong, if you're oppressing them, if you're not sharing with them, if you have vindictiveness towards someone, if you have a grudge towards someone, you're not recognizing that they are a blood-bought brother or sister in Christ. You're not discerning the Lord's body, that they are part of the Lord's body. "For this reason, many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another." Saying, show deference to one another. "For if anyone is hungry, let them eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the rest I will set in order when I come." The context is clear. He's talking about the unity of the church. And that's only because we are one in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Flip back over on the front.

Application for number four: do you have a celebratory feast by yourself? That's the blank — yourself.

You say, "Oh, you know what? I'm going to get in the kitchen and cook a bunch of stuff, and I'm going to celebrate my birthday by myself." That'd be kind of sad, wouldn't it? Right? The reason why we have celebration meals is to enjoy the community, right? In fact, a covenant meal in the Old Testament — remember when Moses received the law, what did he do? He took the elders of Israel, and they had a feast on the mountaintop, right? Covenants were often ratified not only by a sacrifice, but by a covenant meal. That's what the Lord's Supper is. It's to be partaken of as the whole body, right? There are times when it's okay to do it apart from the body. For example, many of us elders went to Miss Sarah when she was in the hospital, and we brought her the Lord's Supper because she couldn't come here. So we brought it to her. We had a mini church, right there in her room. But it's not meant to be done in abstraction from the congregation. It's meant to be celebrated with the body, because the body together pictures the body of Christ, right? Not just a toe, not just a finger, but His whole body.

Bible point number five: the believer's union with Christ, symbolized in the Lord's Supper, consequently pictures our personal appropriation. Appropriation is the first blank. Appropriation means to make your own — appropriation of the saving benefits of Christ's death. We're saying that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is ours in partaking of the Lord's Supper. As Israel's celebration of the Passover clearly set forth their deliverance from Egypt — Egypt is the second blank — so the Christian observance of the Lord's Supper clearly sets forth our deliverance from the bondage. Bondage is the third blank — bondage of sin and death through Christ's shed blood. Just as the Passover was marked by taking the lamb and sacrificing it and putting the blood on the doorpost so the death angel passed over, and that was key to their deliverance from bondage, so too Christ delivers us from our sins by His blood. We were in bondage to sin, to death, the world, the flesh, the devil. But Christ has set us free.

1 Corinthians 11:24 — Jesus says, "Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you." You hear that? He says, "Take." That means we must appropriate it. Eat. That's something that we physically do when we do the Lord's Supper. It's our way of pledging our allegiance to Christ and saying, "Your sacrifice is mine. I'm internalizing this. I am one with Christ." He says, "This body is broken for you."

Christ sacrifices for every believer. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So the Lord's Supper is for everyone. It's for appropriating the finished, salvific work of Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." The Passover was a type — in other words, it pointed forward to something greater. And the antitype that it pointed to is Christ. He is our Passover. So He takes the Passover supper that He's celebrating with His disciples, and He gives it new meaning. He transforms it to the Lord's Supper to commemorate His body, His death, His burial, and resurrection to deliver us from our sins. And that's a far greater deliverance than delivering Israel from Egypt.

The application for number five.

Has Christ's atoning work been applied — applied is the blank — applied to you?

Has Christ's atoning work been applied to you, and how so?

Is His atoning work something that you can earn?

Is it something that you can buy? Is it something that you can merit?

No. It's a gift. It's freely offered, freely given through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we receive it through faith — that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Bible point number six: in the Lord's Supper, we see Christ's death as a sustaining power of our new life. Just as we need to eat food and we need to drink water in order for our physical bodies to live, so spiritually we must feed on Christ to live spiritually. The church eats bread broken and drinks wine poured forth as a token of our constant dependence. Dependence is the first blank — dependence on the once-crucified and now-risen Savior as the source of its new and abundant life.

You go without food for a meal — you may be a little bit hungry. You go without food for a day — you'll really be hungry. You go maybe two days — you'll begin to get weak, right? Your body needs food and it needs water for sustenance. So too we need Christ for life. We depend on Him. As broken bread sustains our life, Christ's broken body nourishes our soul. What else could nourish our soul? It's not the circus. It's not amusement. It is simply the life of Christ poured out for you and His body broken for you.

The wine is indeed a symbol of Christ's death, but it symbolizes Christ's death by which we live. Live is the second blank.

Christ drank the cup of suffering in order that we might drink the wine of joy. Joy is the third blank. Yes, it's a memorial of Christ's death, but it is through our union with Christ — in which the supper symbolizes Christ in us, the hope of glory — that we live and that we have joy because of Christ.

"Gloom and sadness are foreign to the spirit of the Lord's Supper." Acts 2:46 — we read that earlier. They went house to house drinking and eating and giving thanks. It was a celebratory act, and it's not to be a funeral. It is to be a celebration of the victory of Christ over sin and death, which is our victory. It declares the glorious life of Christ that sustains us. Hebrews 7:16 speaks of Christ having the power of an indestructible life. That's the very life that courses through your veins when you're united to Christ. You are one with Him.

It declares the glorious life of Christ that sustains us. Therefore, the Lord's Supper is to be a jubilant celebration of thanksgiving. It is the fourth blank — like the Passover celebration.

Many churches and denominations refer to the Lord's Supper as the Holy Eucharist. You know what Eucharist means? It means thanksgiving. We call it thanksgiving because it is a celebration of thanks for what Christ has done for us.

When they had the Passover supper, they always finished with a hymn, and that hymn actually came from the great Hallel, which means the great praise. We find that in Psalms 114 through 118.

And in it, it's the Psalms of thanksgiving, praising God for His deliverance. He is the cornerstone that the builders rejected, who became the chief cornerstone. And what a glorious thing it is. "This is the day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Matthew 26:30 says, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." This hymn again was the great Hallel that they sang. Flip over on the back.

Look at Acts 2:46 through 47. This is the early church on the day of Pentecost — Christ has saved and added 3,000 or so to His church. Look at their actions: "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness." Notice this breaking of bread is what we believe was symbolizing or pertaining to the Lord's Supper. And they did it with gladness, not with sorrow. Again, it's not a funeral dirge. It's not a solemn thing where we can't crack a smile. It is a glorious thing, a jubilant thing, just like the Passover — a celebration. "They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." I believe that one of the reasons why the early church was so triumphant and God blessed it — He was adding daily to the church — was because of their spirit of joy, their spirit of thanksgiving. That's contagious. People saw that. These were changed people who, before Pentecost, were confused because of the Lord's death. But when they realized — and they'd seen the resurrected Lord, and now they were filled with the Spirit — they were speaking joy and singing songs of gladness. Look back over on the front.

The application for number six: do you think of the Lord's Supper as a funeral or a celebration? Celebration is the blank. I encourage you, the next time we partake of the Lord's Supper, be thinking about this — that it is a joyous occasion. A celebration should be filled with joy and mirth and thanksgiving.

Bible point number seven: in the Lord's Supper, we see Christ's death and resurrection as His sanctifying — sanctifying is the blank — His sanctifying power outworked within us. Sanctifying means to set apart, to be made holy. We discussed this when we discussed soteriology, and His sanctifying power outworked within us. Christ has saved us. He's justified us in His death on the cross. He is saving us. He's sanctifying us through His Spirit and His word, making us like Christ. And He will save us in that final day too, in our glorification, when we are made perfectly conformed into the image of Christ. So salvation is both past, present, and future. And the present aspect of that is sanctifying. And in the Lord's Supper, we see Christ's death and resurrection as a sanctifying power outworked within us. United to Christ, the believer experiences a spiritual reproduction — that's the blank, reproduction. Christ is the third blank.

In other words, our life is so closely aligned with His that just as in baptism we are pictured as dying with Him and raising with Him, so too in the Lord's Supper we are internalizing Christ, so to speak. We are appropriating His work spiritually. And we say that His death was for us, and so too is His resurrection. And our life is to model the Savior's life. Remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 2. He says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Just as Christ humbled Himself and He suffered on our behalf and He rose again — the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 8 that if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him. Suffering leads to glory. We should expect that just as Christ suffered, so too should we endure suffering in this life — suffering for the very name of Christ and for the gospel's sake, if nothing else. We should expect to follow in Christ's pattern, knowing that He is with us in our suffering, He is sustaining us through His own death, burial, and resurrection, and that is proof for us and hope for us that no matter what we face, we shall overcome through Christ, because Christ overcame the grave, and so shall we. The true bread not only nourishes us but also transforms us — that's the fourth blank for Bible point number seven. It transforms us when we partake of the Lord's Supper, when we meditate on Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It's not just something that Christ has done for us in the past. It's something that Christ is doing now in our life. He is sanctifying us. He is making us holy. He is conforming us to the very image of Christ, and what spurs us on in that transformation is looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

Philippians 3:10 through 11 — Paul writes, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." He wants to know Christ and the fellowship of His sufferings and even be conformed to His death — that he may know Him in the power of His resurrection. That is what we are, is our hope as Christians — just as Christ died and rose again, so too we one day will be perfectly conformed and resurrected in His likeness.

The application for number seven.

We are made Christlike by the word, through His indwelling Spirit. Spirit is the blank. Jesus said, "Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth." We know that the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into all truth — never the word without the Spirit, never the Spirit without the word. Christ sent His Spirit — the same Spirit who inspired the writers of His holy word — to be within our hearts, to illumine our minds, to point us to Christ, to take the things of Christ and apply them to us, so we can be conformed to His very image. That is sanctification, and that's what the Lord's Supper does. It's part of our transformation into the image of Christ.

Bible point number eight: in the Lord's Supper, we do not simply bring Christ to passive — passive is the blank — passive remembrance. It's not just simply looking back and saying, "That's nice that Christ died for us."

But we actively — actively is the second blank — we actively proclaim Christ to the world.

When we partake of the Lord's Supper, every single one of us becomes a preacher. We proclaim and herald Christ — His death for sinners, His burial for my shame and my guilt, and His resurrection, that He is holy, that He is justified before God, that death has no power over the holy, perfect one. And therefore we are in Christ. Death has no power over us because Christ paid our price. He took our shame, our guilt, and He gave us His righteousness.

As the Passover commemorates the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and as Independence Day commemorates our birth as a nation, so the Lord's Supper commemorates the birth of the church in Christ's death and resurrection.

In other words, there's a difference between remembrance and commemoration. Commemoration is where we take an active part in what we are doing in the Lord's Supper — by taking and eating and believing, appropriating that Christ's body is broken for us and His blood was spilled for us, that we are identifying ourselves with Christ and He is identifying us as His body. His body was birthed in the deep sleep of His death and in His resurrection. We are now considered members of Christ because of His death, burial, and His resurrection that unites us to Him.

The church exists to testify of Christ and bring Him glory. That's her purpose — to glorify God and to testify of Him throughout this world. In the Lord's Supper, we confess Christ as we testify of our trust in the Savior and publish the good news to the world. In the Lord's Supper, we testify. Testify is the fourth blank. We testify of God's grace and mercy found only in Jesus Christ. When we take of the bread and we take of the cup, we're saying that there is salvation nowhere else. There is hope nowhere else. There is forgiveness nowhere else. There is transformation nowhere else. There is life only in the life of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:25 through 26 says this: "This do" — in other words, this is our commemoration, or active participation — "this do in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes." Until Christ comes, we are to continually partake of the Lord's Supper as a testimony, as a witness to His death, burial, and resurrection, and our union with Christ — our faith union with Him that makes us one with Him, that we can call Him our older brother and call God our Father.

The application for number eight.

How can you proclaim — proclaim is the blank — Jesus Christ through the Lord's Supper?

You proclaim it simply by partaking of it, by faithfully observing it. And not only does that transform you in His sanctifying work, but it empowers you to be His witness. When you leave here after having celebrated the Lord's Supper, that should compel you to tell others about His death, burial, and resurrection. And it's actually softball evangelism. You can say, "Do you know what I participated in this past Sunday? I participated in the commemoration of the death, burial, and resurrection. Christ died for sinners like me and you. If you will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection will be appropriated and given to you, as Christ died in your place, and you'll receive His new life." That is what we do when we partake of the Lord's Supper.

Bible point number nine: in the Lord's Supper, we celebrate the coming joy — coming is the first blank — and perfection of the kingdom of God. It's not just a commemoration that looks back; it looks forward to who Christ is and what He's going to do. Just as baptism points forward to the resurrection, so too does the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is anticipatory — that's the second blank, anticipatory. We anticipate something. We anticipate Christ coming again for His church. The Lord's Supper is anticipatory in nature. It brings before us not simply death but life. Not simply past sacrifice, but future glory. It points to the great marriage — marriage is the third blank — marriage festival of the Lamb. Find that in Revelation 19:9, it's here on our sheet. It says, "Then he said to me, 'Write: blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are the true sayings of God.'" One day our faith will be made sight. One day we will see Christ's face, and in the face of Christ we'll see the entire glorious visage of God Almighty.

He's the perfect image, the express image of God, and that will be at that wedding feast. What a glorious day that will be. That's what the Lord's Supper anticipates. It's not just looking back, but it's looking forward to that great day of communion with our beloved Groom.

The application for number nine: how does Scripture describe the new — new is the blank — new heavens and earth?

Isn't it described as Christ will wipe away every tear from their eyes? There will be no more suffering, no more dying, no evil will enter it. Christ will make all things new, and in that place no darkness will prevail at all. We'll even be allowed in. We'll have the river of life flowing through the very presence of God. Christ will be its light that illuminates us, and it'll be a glorious time of unbroken fellowship with God.

The comfort, joy, and fellowship we receive in celebrating the Lord's Supper is but a faint foretaste of the heavenly. Heavenly is the fourth blank for number nine. Heavenly celebration when Christ will sup with us anew, constantly, and forever.

Bible point number 10: two erroneous views of the Lord's Supper are transubstantiation, which is the Roman Catholic view, and consubstantiation, which is the Lutheran view.

Let's deal with transubstantiation first. Transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine are changed by the priestly consecration into the actual — actual is the first blank — body and blood of Christ. In the Mass, which is what the Catholic Church calls the Lord's Supper and the worship service there, they don't have the Lord's Table. They have the altar, because they believe that Christ's body is broken or sacrificed anew. It's a continual sacrifice. And when the priest blesses the bread, it was said in Latin: "Hoc est enim corpus meum." They'd say it fast, of course, and it was in Latin. When they heard that "hoc est," they thought it was "hocus pocus." That's where we actually get "hocus pocus" from — because they were supposedly, in this consecration, this priestly blessing, actually transforming the elements into the actual flesh of Christ and the actual blood of Christ. This consecration is a new offering — offering is the second blank — of Christ's sacrifice. This flies in the face of the book of Hebrews. It says that Christ's sacrifice was offered once and for all, never again to be repeated, because it was accepted by the Lord. It was a perfect sacrifice. It does not need to be continually offered for sin evermore.

By physically partaking of the elements, the communicant receives saving grace from God. It's one of the horrible things of the Catholic Church, is that they believe that all their sacraments — that we talked about a couple weeks ago — that those sacraments are physically uniting us to Christ. So we must partake of the Holy Eucharist in the Catholic Church continually in order to maintain our salvation, to be able to maintain our state of grace.

Consubstantiation — this is the Lutheran view — teaches that the bread and wine elements remain, but that Christ's physical — physical is the third blank — physical presence is also there in, with, and under the elements. Con means "with" — if you've ever had chili con carne, it's chili with beef, or with meat.

"With" is what con stands for, and consubstantiation means that His actual physical presence is in, with, and under the elements. In contrast to the Catholic Church, they don't believe it actually turns when the priest blesses it, but nevertheless it is physically there, in, with, and underneath the bread and the wine. How that works, I don't know, and I don't think they can explain that either. The idea for this comes, of course, from philosophy. Roman Catholics got their idea of transubstantiation from a Platonic view of matter, and the Lutherans get consubstantiation from William of Ockham, who was a 14th-century philosopher and theologian, and that's kind of the basis behind that "in, with, and under" language.

So the communicant in the Lutheran Church is said to truly — truly is the fourth blank — eat and drink the actual body of Christ, which has been made ubiquitous in His glorification.

Now we celebrate the exact opposite. We believe that Christ's bodily presence is not here because it is in heaven. When Christ rose from the dead, He maintained His incarnation, and so He rose from the dead — His physical body, His humanity joined to deity, is now seated at the right hand of God Almighty. Humanity — glorified humanity — has attained the throne of the universe, and that is hope for us that one day we will be too with Christ. As Christ's people, we will sit on His throne, and we will reign with Him. How glorious, how incredible that is. And so when we celebrate communion, we know that He is with us through His Spirit, but one day we will be with Him in physical person in glory. Hebrews 9:28 says, "So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation." He was offered once for our salvation, and He's coming a second time to deliver us totally from this body of death that we dwell in.

Application for number 10: worship Christ in spirit and in truth. Worship is the blank. I have John 4:24 for the reference here, and you know that reference where Jesus is talking to the woman at the well in Samaria, and she says, "We heard that we should worship on this mountain, but the Jews say you should worship in Jerusalem." Which is it? Jesus says the hour is coming, and now is, when you will not worship there, on that mountain, or in Jerusalem, but you will worship Him in spirit and in truth. We worship God as He has commanded us and as He has revealed Himself to us in the Lord's Supper. God bless you. Have a good evening.