Join me in prayer as we ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching and reception of that word, let’s pray. Our great heavenly Father, we thank you that you have come to us in the power of your Holy Spirit and enabled us to praise you and give ourselves to you. We pray now as we seek your face and your word and seek to listen to the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that your word as it goes forth, that you would send your spirit to us afresh, that we might not merely come as tasters, but as children who are hungry and long to feed upon every word that you have to say to us. We pray, Lord, for grace, that we may sit under your word, that we may listen to your voice, that it would break through our callous hearts, and by your gracious love and your passion, transform us into the likeness of Christ ever increasingly. And so we pray to you, Lord, that you would By this word, through your spirit, do us good as we come to you for counsel, to hear you, for your presence. Lord, minister to us according to our various and varied needs, but bring every one of us, we pray, to see that you have provided all that we need in Christ, that we may come to him and find our all in him. We pray all this for his glory and for our good in his name and all God’s people said together, amen, amen.

So I realized last week after we went into baptism that I’ve not preached on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in a while. And so I thought that it’d be good to examine the awesome wonder of the supper and what is going on there and the encouragement that we get from it and magnify God’s glory as we do so, as we understand better what is going on in the supper. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, the Lord’s Supper is the peak point of worship, right? It’s where worship reaches its culmination, its consummation in a meal of worship, of fellowship. And we need to be careful when we talk about this, that the supper is the peak, it’s not the priority of worship. The priority of worship is the Word of God, of course. The Word of God opens worship, it fills worship, it directs and controls and interprets and concludes our worship. But nonetheless, in the stages of worship, as we gather together, we come into the richness of the union and communion with Christ that is the Lord’s Supper as it administers that to us. And so today I wanted to look briefly at the meaning of the table, right? What benefits we draw from the supper, ordained by the Lord, commanded to be kept until he returns.

And so the first benefit, I want to look at it, I want to see what is communicated to us in the supper, what is communicated to us. How do we commune with Jesus there? And to start, the wine and the bread are, as we say weekly, or almost weekly, are signs and seals of the new covenant. The Lord’s Supper is a communion meal. It’s a communion meal of eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ, right? And that covenant relationship that believers in Christ are in brings about communion, right? Remember the Lord’s call for his people to promise, I will be your God and you will be my people and I will dwell in your midst. The covenant in Christ is one that brings us to Christ to draw near to him in union and communion. And so Jesus says, this is my body, eat, this is my blood, drink it. And that’s what he said, right? This is and this is. And so as we read in 1 Corinthians 10, we read that the cup is a participation in his blood and the bread is a participation in his body. And Jesus says in John chapter six, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. If you do not eat his flesh, he says, and drink his blood, Jesus tells us, you do not have eternal life. It’s that simple. Now at the time of the Protestant Reformation, one of the points they were protesting was what the Roman church taught concerning the supper. And what they would use, the Roman Catholic church, it was John six, to argue their view. They do the same thing today. They still teach this, it’s the same. And they insist that Christ says to you, you must eat his flesh, you must drink his blood for eternal life, right? And John six says this, you’ve got to eat and drink to have eternal life. And then he said, this is my body, this is my blood, eat and drink, right? And so the Roman church says, there it is, the physical, literal blood of Christ, that’s what he said, the actual physical flesh, actual physical blood served in the sacrament. And so they developed their view that the elements, the bread and wine, actually physically change into the body and blood of Christ, right? You all are probably familiar with this teaching. And they look at us Protestants and they say, don’t you believe what Jesus says? It’s right there in John six. He said it, this is what he meant. Why are you trying to deviate from what he said? But the problem is, John chapter six, verses 35 and 63, 35 and 63, right? That’s the problem with the view of the Roman church that the Protestants were protesting, that the elements are actually the physical blood, literal, and body of Jesus. And the problem are those two verses in John six, verse 35 and verse 63. And we need to know this and what these verses say and how they fit in, what they tell us. And when you talk to your friends that believe such things, you should know these two verses. Verse 35 of John 6 says this, I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger, he who comes to me shall not thirst. We talked about this, Elder Coughlin did a great job Wednesday night talking about this very verse, what we went over. And what’s he saying here? He’s saying that by believing you drink and by coming to him you eat. The eating and the drinking that Jesus says you must do to have eternal life are acts of faith, not acts of physicality, they’re acts of faith. And the position of Rome is defeated at this point, right, in verse 35. And then if you go down to verse 36, I’m sorry, 63, right after this discourse, after this discussion, Jesus says this. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The flesh profits nothing. You see that? And so Jesus himself is explaining to us what he means by this. The Jews that he was addressing didn’t get it, like the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t get it. They didn’t understand it. They thought Jesus was talking about his physical flesh and blood. Jesus clarifies that he’s talking about the work of faith in the realm of the spirit that occurs here. And that the flesh, the visible, tangible, physical things in that, that’s not where it’s at. That’s not the prophet. There’s no prophet there. He says, I’m speaking to you words that are spirit and life. And so therefore, the bread and the wine here on the table are signs and symbols. not transform substances into the body and blood of Jesus. They do not change from one to the other. And so therefore we ask the question, does this mean that the body and blood of Christ are not present, that they’re not communicated to us in the supper? That’s the big significant question that we have to answer. Does it mean that we have no communication, no fellowship with the body and blood of Christ in the table? And the answer to that is no. That’s not what that means. We do have fellowship, we do have communication in the body and blood of Christ, but not physically, right? The fellowship that we have is spiritual by the Holy Spirit, right? And eating and drink in faith, the bread and wine, these are means that the Holy Spirit uses to bring about this participation, communion, fellowship in his body and blood, right? And so remember that verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 10 is a key text. It’s a key text, and it says this, I’ll read it again. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we drink, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? And so again, that word participation, sharing, fellowship, it’s the word koinonia you probably are familiar with. It’s fellowship in the body, in the blood. It’s a partaking, a communion in. So that if you eat the elements in faith, you’re spiritually participating in, communing, fellowshipping in Christ’s body and blood. You’re fellowshipping in union and communion with Christ. Right, past, present, and future. All at the same time, right, you’re communing with his past body and blood in time this happened. With him presently in fellowship with the spirit in heaven, right, we talk about being drawn up into the heavenlies. as we worship him on his day between the salutation and the benediction, right? You’re communing with him also ahead of time in the marriage supper of the Lamb, right? A forecast of that, a taste of that by the Spirit, through the Spirit. And so for the Spirit brings us the realities to come into our world, right? for our benefit, for our good, for our growth, for our stability. And so this union, this is the covenantal oneness, is established by Christ, it’s given to us, so that when we sit down and we partake of the supper, these signs and symbols, by faith in Christ, we truly commune with Jesus. We truly do. Our souls are nourished. We are, as it is, one flesh with him. Think of this, think of Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, the end of that chapter, it’s all about marriage. Paul’s talking about marriage and there’s a connection he makes in Genesis 2. Genesis 2 says, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And so what did Paul say at the end of Ephesians 5 about marriage? He says that this is about Christ and his church. Christ and his church. And so when Adam says, Eve, you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, those are the words of Christ about his church. We are one. The covenant binds us together, the two become one. And so there’s a rich, spiritual, redemptive, covenantal bond that he’s talking about here. And that rich, spiritual, covenantal bond that we have in Christ is nurtured, strengthened, deepened. It is sweetened and refreshed when, by faith, we spiritually feast on the body and blood of Christ. when we partake of this table. We commune truly, really. Spiritually does not mean not real. We commune truly. And in this way, and in the communication of Christ in the supper is truly, really spiritually by faith. That’s what we hold to, that’s what scripture teaches. And so that’s why that’s communicated to us. That’s how we receive Christ, by faith, through the spirit, truly, really. All right, and so that’s the communication, that’s what’s communicated to us in the supper.

The next few benefits that we see, that we derive from the supper, the next one is sanctification, right? It’s a means of sanctification for us. And that is the quickening and killing, right? The vivification of our life and the putting to death of our sin, right? Food and drink sustains life, right? And by food and drink, life grows. If you stop eating, what happens? Well, you’ll stop growing, you’ll grow weak, and eventually you’ll die. Food and drink are necessary for sustaining life and for growing life. And so, too, the food and drink of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper gives you sustenance, the sustenance and nourishment and strength in your soul to sustain you and to fellowship and grow in Christ Jesus. Every time we come to this table, The covenantal truth should come home to us. It’s not just mechanistic, it’s not performative. We should remember every time we come to the table, I’m justified by faith. He died in my place. He was my substitute. I am clothed in righteousness that’s not my own by the work of Jesus. And when we come, what do we think? That oftentimes we come thinking I can come to the table because I’ve had a good week, or I’ve tried really hard, or I did a good deed, or I finally stopped indulging in whatever sin has been plaguing me, so now I can come to the table, now I’m free and worthy to come. But that’s not how we come, right? That’s covenant of works stuff. We come to the table with what the old hymn says, I don’t remember the name, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. That’s justification. We come because of what he did, not because of what we haven’t done or what we have done. It remains a foundation for my life, for my faith, for my growth, the gospel, for my standing before God, and for my living and growing in holiness. Believe the gospel. for every moment of your life. Believe, trust, accept what he says again and again and always. This is how you’re justified and this is how you’re grown in holiness. Sanctify, right? And also through this table, we receive spiritual life. It’s life-giving. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians and he says in Colossians, to put off the old and to put on the new. Put off the old, put on the new. Crucify the old man. Put to death the elements of that old man in your life and vivify that which is new in Christ. And what does the table do? It brings us into closer recognition and understanding and fellowship, closer and stronger stimulation of faith and experience of the cross and the resurrection of Christ. 2 Corinthians 3 tells us that as you look upon Christ, it has a transformative power, transforming power in your life as you look to Christ in faith and trust. It has a sin-killing power as you do so, right? And how is sin killed in your life? by bringing the cross into closer proximity to your faith and to your soul and to your life, right? And how are these virtues stimulated and fed and vivified? Again, by bringing Christ into closer, fuller nearness to your faith and your soul so that you put off what is old and you put on what is new. And the elements of the table. bring you into the spiritual reality. The Lord ordained them to do so, to be so. And these are why the elements feed, and nourish, and sustain, and strengthen the soul. It’s why we do this, because we are in need week by week. So there’s what is communicated to us, and then sanctification, and then there’s the benefit of identification that we find in the supper. And it’s the benefit of being planted or grounded in the body of Christ, right? We’re saved into a body, into his body, that is the church, right? It’s the benefit that comes therefore. When we come to the elements of the table, we have an overwhelming sense of the love of God. We should, anyway, when we realize what has been done. and the gospel and the sacrifice of Christ and all that he did for us. God’s love is perceived in Christ’s death, most preeminently, in his dying upon the cross on our behalf. So it’s been said that the supper should never be anything less than the substitutionary atonement, the recognition of that and the remembrance of that. And how do we know that this is true? How do we know that God loves sinners? Romans 5, 8 tells us this. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We know because Christ died for sinners like you and like me. And the Lord’s table brings us. brings this home, it brings this motive of God’s love, the act of God’s love in Jesus Christ. The Spirit then brings home to my soul, as Romans 5.5 says, that most beautiful verse, that the Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, right? Isn’t that a glorious picture? His love has been poured into your heart by the Spirit. And that’s an awesome truth and something that we shouldn’t just pass over. The love of God poured into our hearts by the Spirit of God. And so how does he do that? How does this happen? How does he pour the love of God into our hearts? Has he perhaps ordained means to do so? This of course is what we call the means of grace, that’s why we call them that, right? The sacraments, he does this thereby. And the very love with which we have been loved is not just for us alone. God fills you with his love as you feed on the bread and wine, and it’s not just so you can walk around full, filled with the love of Christ. He fills you with his love so that it might flow out of you to others in your life as a witness, not just with your words, but with your life, being Christ to your neighbor. This loving and filling, he doesn’t do it just for us individually, but he loves his body. He loves his body and he wants the love of his body to be reciprocally realized in real life, put on display, felt, shared with one another. And so this table grounds us in the body and the love of Christ so that we might share it with others. That’s an amazing thing, brothers and sisters, that we have, the love of Christ in the body of Christ. And then when we come each week to the table, this is what God is telling us. He’s telling you, I love you, I love my body. I gave my life for it to redeem it. All of it’s ugly and gross sins, I’ve dealt with. Even though my body has acted in rebellion against me, it’s flawed weak love has sought and gone after other loves. It’s indulging other things, but still, I will have victory. I love my body. It’s sin will not break my love. for that body, and when we come to the table, we should be amazed at these things. My sins, my sins nailed Christ there, and he took those nails of my sins so that by taking them, he might cleanse me of those very things, the guilt and power of sin. He dealt with what keeps us apart, right, that he might bring us into rich fellowship with himself and with one another thereby. This is the power of the sacrament, right? We have to understand what’s going on here, identification of Christ’s love and Christ’s body. It grounds us in these things, which is to be shared by the body. What an amazing, loving Lord that we have. How overwhelming is the gospel, right? Cause for praise indeed.

And then lastly, we have what is communed in the supper, the benefits thereby are identified in the body, and then the orientation of the body, right? It reorients us, it writes a new story for your life. The Lord’s Suffering gives us a new story for our lives. God wants the redemptive historical drama to be your drama, as He draws you in to that drama. Not your drama to be your drama, right? But the Lord in His redemptive work in history. We so easily identify ourselves by our drama, by our story, or what we do and think about ourselves, or what the world tells us about ourselves. God tells us that we are His, that we are part of what He has done for His people. And you know, there’s that beautiful verse in Galatians 2, verse 20, that should be memorized by every believer, every follower of Jesus Christ. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, and there’s no longer I who live, right? I’m dead in Christ. There’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, that’s the life we now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered me, himself up for me. What a beautiful thing, I, the life I live is not my own, I’ve been crucified in Christ. He loved me and delivered me. That’s the new story, that’s who you are. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. I take from Christ, I feed upon Christ in the table, I die unto myself in Christ, and I walk out from this fellowship, and you walk out from this fellowship, from this table, with him in the table, to now live anew a life of faith in Christ. And whatever you do, wherever you live, you’re trusting in Christ that you might please him, right? And this needs to be especially so in those hard, suffering moments of life. Those painful moments of life, someone refers to them as the cross moments of life. What are the cross moments of life? It’s when the pain that you’re going through drives you to plead with God for escape, to plead with the Lord for a pass. Can I get out of this? Let it be done, Lord. Jesus had a moment like this, a cross moment. He pled for a pass. We all have them, they hurt, they’re awful, they’re discouraging. I don’t deserve this, right, we think. This is the pain that moves us to beg the Lord for a pass. And when we come out of the Lord’s Supper into our lives and we face these moments, we have an opportunity to face them by faith in Christ anew. opportunities to face these moments by faith in Christ. Because in the communion and fellowship of the table with the body and blood of Jesus, we communion with him in his death and in his suffering, right? And we now come out into the world to continue that communion. Paul said in Philippians 3 that he wanted to know the fellowship of his sufferings. The fellowship of his sufferings. The apostle Peter says the same thing in regard to the Christian’s life, 1 Peter 4, where it says this, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. And notice the order there, it’s suffering and then glory, suffering and glory. It will not be any other way. And you see what Peter’s saying here. Going out from the table and worship into the world is to continue that drama, that redemptive historical drama of sharing in the sufferings and in the glory of Christ in life. And so that Peter says, even though, even though these sufferings are upon you, and you wanna say, Lord, give me a pass on this one, please, it’s gonna be done. And he says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. And we receive even now a taste of glory. And we look forward to that day of glory when all the sufferings will be swallowed up in the accomplished work of Christ in his church. And when you eat and drink of the body and blood of Christ, you are taking onto yourself, you’re adopting a new story for your life, a new orientation, being reminded again of these things, that they’re true and he’s changing you by them. You’re adopting a new life. You’ve been crucified and you have a new life. The old life is over. You’re taking on a new life and a new story that you carry out from here into the world. It’s called union and communion with the suffering and glory of Christ, your Savior. And you know, we have to remember as well, brothers and sisters, whenever believers experience these moments, these pain, this suffering, you have to be Be aware, we have to remember that there are two hands at work in these things that we go through, right? There’s the hand that seeks to drive you to despair. There’s the hand that seeks to make you say, there’s just no way I can ever serve Christ. I cannot serve Christ as long as I’m going through this. But there’s another hand, right? There’s another hand. And that hand has been stretched out to you in sovereign control over every detail of that suffering. And that hand is at work to use that suffering to make you more and more like your wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, even as he suffered. And our reflex is to say, this is impossible. But if that’s impossible, brothers and sisters, then there’s no hope for your salvation. Because that’s what happened on the cross. Remember when Jesus, what he said within hours of his crucifixion, This is happening to me because it’s the time that the power of darkness and all hell is let loose to destroy me. And at the same time, he knew. He fully knew. Even though he pled with the father for it not to happen, he knew that he was going to the cross because his father was sending him there to accomplish. his will, and the most wicked thing that the devil ever did was the very thing that God in his sovereignty would use for your salvation and for mine. Consider Paul. Remember, he was given this mysterious, this thorn in the flesh. And you know, some of us don’t have just cross moments, but cross lives, right, where all of life seems to be suffering one day after the other. In this thorn that plagued Paul, he suffered and pled with the Lord about it, to take it away, for it to be removed. But Paul was learning that all the glory would be Christ’s through this, when he said to him, I’m not taking the thorn away, Paul, I’m not. And we don’t learn this otherwise. And for some of you, that thorn may have been there for years, and you’ve longed that it be taken away. I know I have. And some of them cannot be taken away in this world, in this life. So what are we to do? We are to learn, says Paul, that his grace is sufficient for you, even in that life. And his strength is made perfect in our weakness. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. And we say, but I want my strength to be made perfect in my strength so that I might serve you better and best, right? This is what we think. And the Lord Jesus says, if your strength is made perfect in your own strength, then you will never be able to serve me. Because then people will say, isn’t he great? Rather than, isn’t Christ glorious? Isn’t Jesus glorious? And then we discover that as Paul said in this event, He said, for the sake of Christ then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. I learn contentment because I know in the midst of it, in the midst of my aching soul and my thorn in the flesh, my life of thorn, my thorny life, I learn that Jesus has promised that his grace will be sufficient for me, for me. And that is in my weakness that he will dwell with power and show his power in me, in my weakness. That’s what Paul learned, that’s what we must learn as well. To be made the dwelling place, right, Paul says, of the power of Christ where he reveals his glory in the place from which to rejoice in suffering, right, rejoice in suffering. That’s something that’s physically in the flesh impossible to do. Because it’s through those sufferings, though, that Christ’s presence and power is shown forth in you to the world.

Most of us have a hard time merely enduring suffering, but to rejoice in our affliction because that’s how Christ is glorified is impossible in the flesh. It’s more than we can handle. I know that it’s more than I can handle. We must know in these times that God is sovereign over all. He works all things for good, and Christ’s power is magnifying and shown brightly in our weaknesses. And therefore, we not only endure, but truly, as Paul says, we rejoice in our weakness. We rejoice through sufferings because Christ is all-sufficient for us who claim his name, who’ve entrusted our lives to him. That’s why Paul says, when I’m weak, then I am strong. when I’m weak that I am strong, right? When I’m weak that I’m strong, this is like salvation, right? When you realize you can’t work to earn it, you realize and you admit, I don’t deserve it. When you acknowledge your brokenness and weakness and you through your helpless self, at the feet of Christ, then His power bursts forth in your life, in your weak life, and His strength is revealed in giving you new, full life, secure for eternity, for glory in Him forever. When you are weak, then you were strong in Him. Do you have a thorn in the flesh? You have a thorn in the flesh, suffering, weakness, calamities that beat upon you, that beat you down. Remember, brothers and sisters, that God reigns, the Father works, and that Jesus Christ is all-sufficient, always for you. He is powerful for you. What a Savior that you have if you belong to him. He gave his life for yours, all of his life for you in totality, for all of your life. What a Savior indeed we have. And so we remember and we partake of this Savior and we are grown and filled and enabled to rejoice and make it through this life with all of its cross moments, all of its thorns and thistles by the means that he gave us to do so in the table of the Lord. May we remember. brothers and sisters, and grow in our faith and understanding, Lord’s day by Lord’s day as we do so, as we hear his word, as we pray, and indeed when we commune with him in the supper. Let us trust him for all of our lives, for everything, for his love and his mercy and sovereignty today and every day and always, amen.