[0:00] 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to take a break over the next two weeks, today and next week, from our exposition of John's Gospel account,!
[0:30] Participation in it to steady our souls in these types of times. So, if you are curious why, this is why.
[0:44] Yesterday morning, I woke up at 2 a.m. and could barely swallow. I had quite a sore throat. I thought, perhaps I had strep, which doesn't seem to be the case.
[0:56] I'm feeling much better now. Me and Ms. Susan were joking about needing to eat a Popsicle while I was up here talking with you. The sustaining grace of a Popsicle to get me through the sermon.
[1:08] Hopefully, that won't be a challenge, but do bear with me if I need to mute my mic and give a little cough here from time to time. We do this kind of sermon series.
[1:18] We kind of hop around, and bit by bit, we answer a question about why we do what we do. We're a little different as a church, and there's some things that are unique about us, perhaps to every other fellowship, although most typically, the thing that we're explaining is something that the church has done for centuries, and we just find ourselves a little bit odd in our day.
[1:46] Why we do what we do. And then it follows. Why do we do what we do the way that we do what we do?
[1:57] And this time, I want to speak to you about our members gathering. So we have two times that we gather on Sunday mornings, right?
[2:08] If you remember here, you should know this. Maybe you're being reminded that we do this. Presently, we are all participating in what we call the public gathering of the church.
[2:22] That word gathering is the word that we use because it's the most biblical word to speak about the church. The Greek word ekklesia, which is often translated to the word church, means gathering.
[2:38] So when we're communicating this, we're communicating to our church. This is when our church gets together. We do all kinds of other things, meetings of various kind, which no one's required to come to.
[2:53] They're just other great things that we do together. But when the church, the gathering of God's people comes, this is when we come together.
[3:04] So this public gathering, but you also may have noted on your bulletin that there is a time, if you've never been with us before, that we gather before this time that we call our members gathering.
[3:18] It is during this time, the primary thing that we're doing is taking the Lord's Supper together. We do this every single week.
[3:29] So to understand why we do this, why we do what we do, and why we do what we do the way we do what we do, that comes out of my mouth too easy. We need to do that.
[3:40] We need to begin with an understanding of what we believe the Lord's Supper pictures and what we believe about the nature of the church.
[3:52] So I have two texts for our reading, and I'll depart from them for a bit, but then we'll come back to them. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 16 and 17, and then 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 through 29.
[4:10] So I'll read them both now. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
[4:25] Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. And then chapter 11, beginning in verse 23.
[4:36] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
[4:49] Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
[5:03] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
[5:18] Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
[5:31] Join me in a word of prayer for our time. Father, we thank you for your word to us this morning. And as we consider this issue, we take up thinking about the Lord's Supper together and thinking about why we celebrate it the way we do as a church.
[5:48] I pray that you would lead us in the truth. We humbly recognize that we need your help to do so. Not one of us is going to be helped this day apart from the powerful working of your spirit in our lives.
[6:00] And so we ask that you would do that. That you would broaden our vision for the Bible and for the church and for your great mercy to us in Christ.
[6:12] We pray this in his name. Amen. Amen. We, as people, do a lot of eating. Eating is necessary to sustain our lives.
[6:24] Stop eating for very long, and you will not remain alive. It's ordinarily important to eat, but I bet you can't remember much of what you ate this past week.
[6:39] Maybe something that was particularly good or maybe that hurt a lot when you ate it, but you've probably forgotten most of the meals you've had, even recently.
[6:50] We don't eat mindfully, and frankly, that's okay. You don't have to remember what you ate for the food to do its job of nourishing your body.
[7:03] If you've ever prayed this, I have at times before. I just think it's funny that we pray that food would nourish our bodies because that's what it does, with or without prayer. Food nourishes our bodies.
[7:14] Some foods better than others. But there is a meal unlike any other meal, unique in every way, a meal that is meant to nourish our souls.
[7:31] This meal should always be eaten mindfully, and the whole point of the meal is that we would remember it and, more importantly, all that it means.
[7:44] As I walk throughout my week, I want to think back to the previous Lord's Day and that meal and everything that it signifies for us.
[7:56] Some treat the Lord's Supper as a private, mystical experience between them and God, or perhaps some sort of small, devotional time.
[8:07] But the Bible shows us something far richer about this meal. The Lord's Supper is a corporate, covenantal, gospel-proclaiming meal that marks off the church and strengthens our unity in Christ.
[8:27] It is significant. Today I want to show you why the Lord's Supper matters and why we dare not take it lightly, why we do not take it outside the context of a local church, or should not, and why we ought not neglect to gather to take it.
[8:50] We'll go back to our text in 1 Corinthians, but let's first look at the record of the institution of the Lord's Supper. You can find this in a number of places in the Gospel.
[9:01] Let's look at Luke chapter 22. This is verse 14 and following. Luke records, And when the hour came, Jesus reclined at table and the apostles with him.
[9:16] And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
[9:31] And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
[9:43] And he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
[10:00] All of that should sound familiar to you from our reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul is citing this information, the institution of the Lord's Supper.
[10:13] He has earnestly desired to eat this Passover, this last supper, before he would pay for the penalty of the sins of the world. So the institution of the Lord's Supper was the changing of the Passover meal, which was a meal meant to mark out God's peeper under the Old Covenant or Testament, and Jesus makes it into another kind of meal.
[10:42] So to understand all of this a bit further, we need to understand something of the Passover meal, the significance of that meal. The Passover originates in God's great act of redemption for the people under the Old Covenant, his deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
[11:03] I hope you're familiar with this, but just in case you're not, it's important for us to get this right. In Exodus 12, after nine devastating plagues, Pharaoh still refuses to release the Israelites.
[11:14] God announces a final act of judgment, the death of every firstborn in the land of Egypt. There's a judgment of death given.
[11:27] But he also provides a means of substitution and protection for his people. Each Israelite household is to take a lamb without blemish, a male a year old.
[11:42] Exodus 12, and verse 5. Kill it at twilight and apply its blood to the doorposts and lintel of their homes. So either side and above the door of their homes.
[11:54] Exodus chapter 12 and verse 7. God declares in Exodus 12, 13, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
[12:06] And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you. That night, the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, from Pharaoh's house to the slave in the dungeon.
[12:24] Exodus 12, 29, and 30. But he spared every Israelite home covered by the blood of that lamb. The Passover then was first and foremost an act of divine salvation through substitution.
[12:43] See, that lamb was killed in place of the firstborn and its blood marked out that reality. That lamb died in the firstborn's stead.
[12:56] God commanded that this meal, this meal that they had after they had done this, they hunkered inside, they ate a meal, there's some instructions given for the taking of that meal, was to be celebrated every year as a memorial of this redeeming work.
[13:14] Exodus 12, verse 14. This day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever.
[13:28] Each generation was to teach their children the meaning of the feast. Exodus 12, verse 26 and 27. When your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
[13:39] You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he has passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.
[13:51] So the Passover was not only an act of deliverance but also a defining identity marker for God's people. They ate it every single year after that first Passover meal was taken.
[14:08] It reminded Israel that they were a delivered people belonging to a delivering God. And that's this meal that Jesus is having with his apostles.
[14:23] Bobby Jameson wrote in his book Understanding the Lord's Supper quote, the Passover meal was a living reenactment of Israel's redemption. A memorial that shaped their identity as the people whom God saved by substitution.
[14:38] End quote. The Passover was to be celebrated in homes with family. It's the way it was originally done. The very first Passover was a meal eaten in haste.
[14:51] That's why the unleavened bread with readiness. They were supposed to be in their clothes because they were supposed to have deliverance in their minds as they took the meal.
[15:02] The next day the Israelites would march out of Egypt. So, Jesus at the Passover the last supper takes these symbols of the old covenant meal the bread and the cup and he shows them that he fulfills them in himself.
[15:24] It's his body and it's his blood. Just as Israel was redeemed by the blood of a spotless lamb so now God's people are redeemed by the blood of his spotless son.
[15:39] 1 Peter 1 verse 18 and 19 The Passover celebration pointed forward it's typological it points forward to a greater deliverance.
[15:52] It points to Jesus Christ the true and better Passover lamb. When John the Baptist sees Jesus you may remember this in our study of John he declares John 1 verse 29 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
[16:14] And the Apostle Paul explicitly identifies Christ with the Passover sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7 For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
[16:30] And finally at this last supper the Passover meal we read about in Luke chapter 22 Jesus reinterprets the bread and cup to reveal their ultimate meaning and he redefines the familial nature of the meal.
[16:50] You cannot miss this. He is not having this meal back with his biological family. The very last one where he institutes the Lord's Supper he's having with the apostles.
[17:03] He's having this meal with his followers. So this is the background and substance of what we are set to consider today.
[17:14] So to further our thinking I'm going to make five statements about the Lord's Supper. And this will be back in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and chapter 11.
[17:26] Five statements about the Lord's Supper. Number one the Lord's Supper proclaims the gospel. We've said a bit about that already.
[17:38] Look with me at 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 26. There Paul says for us often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[17:54] Every time we take the Lord's Supper we're putting on a bit of a play. It's some pageantry. It's a visible representation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[18:08] I'll add it's a Bible commanded play. We don't do other kinds of plays. This we're supposed to do when we come together. We proclaim but what is it that we proclaim?
[18:21] The Lord's death? Until he comes is what Paul says here and that's certainly true but it's not only that. We proclaim his death but there's some implicit proclamation happening here as well.
[18:36] We proclaim his sacrificial work but also his life. Thoughts of his death cannot and should not be separated from thoughts of his perfect law-keeping life.
[18:51] And we proclaim his resurrection. He's coming again so he must be alive and we proclaim his second coming because we are proclaiming his death until he comes.
[19:08] All of those things life, death, resurrection, return. The supper practiced properly is a visible sermon.
[19:22] It's a visible sermon. proclamation of the gospel. And notice that Paul says, you proclaim. And we do individually.
[19:35] But more importantly, much more importantly, it includes the corporate body. Remember that Paul is writing these words to a church.
[19:46] He's referring to the church when he says you. If you are part of a church, you're part of that as an individual. But he's talking corporately here. Clue to that, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 17, he says, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
[20:10] He's talking about us gathered together, breaking something that pictures Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. If a little further proof will help you at this point, you can look at the language of the beginning halfway through the chapter of Leaven.
[20:27] Note the phrase, when you come together. He's talking about this meal. When you come together, he repeats that phrase in verse 17, verse 18, and then finally in verse 20.
[20:41] So, we proclaim together, as a local church, when we take the Lord's Supper, by faith, Jesus' perfect life grants us righteousness.
[20:57] By faith, Jesus' death is sufficient for our forgiveness. By faith, Jesus' resurrection is the sure foundation of our hope, and by faith, Jesus' return is the future that we long for.
[21:15] Now, we are not given explicit instruction about how often to do this. We just really like to do it every week because of all of that that I've just said.
[21:26] What a good thing to proclaim the gospel in this way and the many other ways that the gospel can be proclaimed as often as we possibly can.
[21:38] The Lord's Supper proclaims the gospel. Number two, the Lord's Supper marks off the church. Marks off the church.
[21:51] 1 Corinthians 10, 16 and 17. I'm reading this before. The cup that we bless, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not participation in the body of Christ?
[22:03] Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The supper is not only vertical between you and Christ, it is that, but it is also horizontal, binding us together as one body.
[22:27] When we share one loaf, and hear me at this point, I don't think that the instruction must be, a church can be a size that it just doesn't make sense. We make gluten-free bread, Katie Dome does this for us, and for it to cook properly, it has to be done in small loaves, so we have more than one loaf on any given Lord's Day, even when there's not that many of us here.
[22:53] That's not the point being made, right? We are together at a meal, is the point. When we do that, we declare that we belong to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one people.
[23:07] This is why the Lord's Supper is not a private devotional act. You could have some juice or some wine and some bread by yourself and it not be the Lord's Supper.
[23:19] It's not how you're supposed to do it, but it is a church act. It's a responsibility given to the church. In the New Testament, the supper is always tied to the gathered church.
[23:35] We don't have nearly enough time this morning to unpack everything that could be said about church membership, but I posit to you in just a few brief moments that local churches as a whole, we're congregational, are meant to do the careful work of exercising the authority of the keys given in Matthew chapter 16 and in chapter 18.
[24:01] we are to examine professing Christians professions and affirm or deny those professions for the good of those people making the professions and for the glory of God.
[24:17] So hear me carefully. This is a work given to the church. If a church says something like anybody who calls X home belongs here, this kind of thinking has to fall apart at some point.
[24:36] If somebody showed up on your front door, knocked on the door, you open it, and they said, this is my home, you'd go, hmm, who are you? You might want to assess to see if they're actually part of your family or not before you welcome them in and give them a bed.
[24:54] There may need to be, some kind of a process by which that would take place. Not because we're unkind, but because we care about the souls of people.
[25:07] We want people who are professing faith in Christ to have confidence of that profession. And so we come together as Christians with trembling and much begging for grace to help to see if professions are in fact credible.
[25:24] careful, careful examination for the good of those people and for the glory of God that the church would not be full of people who say they're Christians and act like devils.
[25:39] Baptism is the admitting sign. Welcoming people into the church. We believe as far as we can that you are in fact a professing Christian.
[25:51] You are in the faith. It's the admitting sign or the welcoming sign. The Lord's Supper is the renewing sign or the keeping sign.
[26:02] Yes, you belong. We welcome people in through the ordinance of baptism. We keep them and in some sad and unfortunate cases dismiss them through the family meal we call the Lord's Supper.
[26:20] We like the term ordinance when referring to baptism and Lord's Supper as it's from a Latin verb ordinare which means to put in order.
[26:32] What are we ordering? We're marking off the local church's boundaries. Who belongs and who doesn't belong.
[26:43] Right? In a caring way. Right? Not trying to be exclusive but the claims of the gospel are exclusive. Right? You are either in Christ or you are not and we want to be careful about who we believe is and isn't.
[27:01] The Lord's Supper then is about individual assurance but also others assurance. It's about church membership.
[27:15] it is the meal that marks off the people who belong to the new covenant the visible church. As an anecdote my sweet wife's family has always spent Friday evenings together.
[27:31] When her grandparents were alive it was over at her grandparents' house. They continue to do this. I think that this is going to be a tradition that continues on. And everybody in the family is expected to be at this family meal.
[27:43] Are we always there? No. Sometimes things come up that can't be avoided. But you should be there if you can be there. And if you can't be, everyone's going to know why.
[27:55] The answer can't just be because I didn't feel like it this time. I'm a good son-in-law. There's a reason given to my mother-in-law why I'm not there.
[28:06] She's very kind about the whole thing. If I just need some rest she gets it. But it can't be because I just don't want to this time. It's a good and healthy expectation.
[28:17] And I'm grateful for the way we grow as a family as I go and participate in these meals on Friday evenings. It's analogous. Not perfect, but it's analogous.
[28:28] it's a faith family meal. That's why if you've been with us in our members gathering, we invite baptized believers, members of Christ's church to partake.
[28:45] Whether it's this church or you're a guest and you're a member of a gospel preaching church. It's not about, the point is not exclusion, it's about clarity.
[28:56] clarity. It's about clarity. The supper is a sign of belonging. It says, these are the people, as far as we can, fraily, right, we don't do it perfectly, but these are the people who belong to Jesus.
[29:14] The Lord's Supper marks off the church. Thirdly, very briefly, the Lord's Supper nourishes the faith of believers.
[29:25] We could talk on and on about this, but I think most people have some understanding of this already. I've read to you before, 1 Corinthians 10, 16, and 17, you can look at it there if you would like to once again.
[29:40] The bread and the cup don't change substance, but they are signs that strengthen faith, just like a wedding ring reminds a spouse of the covenant that they have made.
[29:56] It's a symbol. I'm wearing a silicone one right now because the one that my wife gave me on our wedding day got lost in the bottom of a lake in a desk drawer, and I wear a silicone ring.
[30:09] It's a different ring, but it means the same thing, and it reminds me of the commitment that I've made to her. In that same way, they're symbolic for us.
[30:22] When you eat the bread, you are reminded Christ's body was broken for me, more importantly, for us. When you drink the cup, you are reminded Christ's blood was shed for me, more importantly, for us.
[30:40] When you take it with your brothers and sisters, you are reminded Christ's salvation has united us as a divine reality, we are united because of what Christ has accomplished.
[30:54] This meal is meant to feed our faith, to re-anchor us in grace, to strengthen our assurance that Jesus truly is enough.
[31:07] The Lord's Supper nourishes the faith of believers. Fourth, the Lord's Supper calls us to self- examination. Look in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians 27, 28, and 29.
[31:24] Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
[31:37] For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. I reject altogether that what Paul is calling us to in these verses is self-scrutiny concerning the failing of the previous week or months.
[31:59] Some churches take the Lord's Supper once a year or year. If we were capable, if, and we're not, if we were capable of sorting through every detail of the week, we would still fail to realize every action, every misplaced emotion, every solid intention.
[32:16] It's just not possible. You are more sinful than you realize. You can't take an honest assessment of it all and repent of every little minutia.
[32:26] It's not possible. Should we repent when taking the supper? Of course. Because there is plentiful mercy for sinners found in the completed work of Jesus Christ.
[32:39] We should be moved to repentance as we think about the gospel and its benefits to us. You should be repenting all the time. Repentance and faith, repentance and faith.
[32:51] It's an opportunity, another one, to do that very thing. But Paul is not saying that you are meant to determine whether your performance warrants the reward of the supper.
[33:05] That is not what's being communicated here. And sadly, that's what's been taught. there is a particular issue he is speaking to and I say to you that the call for self examination is more stark when the actual context is considered.
[33:23] This self examination thing, I am not dismissing it. It's important. We should be self examining, but is it a work when we realize the context of what Paul is talking about here.
[33:35] So what's happening in this church? We need to go up a little bit in the text of verse 17. He says, But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse.
[33:53] For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
[34:05] When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, one goes hungry, another gets drunk.
[34:16] What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you?
[34:27] Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. It's on the heels of that, that he is talking about this self-examination.
[34:40] So, to our best guess what's going on here is that slaves who are getting off of their work later than others are not being waited for. People are going ahead without them.
[34:50] They're eating the meal. They're drunk and others are having to do without. And he's saying to them, that is not the Lord's Supper because it's not being done in unification with others.
[35:04] And his words are strong, strong words. So, it's in that context that he then says, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
[35:22] So, what's the worthiness that's supposed to be going on here? It's a mindfulness, it's a proper orientation toward the church, the people, the local church, those people that you know that were bought by the body and blood of Christ.
[35:41] So, let's examine ourselves and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks, verse 29, without discerning the body, whose body?
[35:53] Not your body, he's talking about that body, the body and blood of Christ that purchased the church. drinks judgment on himself.
[36:04] And there's a temporal judgment going on in this day, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30, that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. This kind of carelessness for the church.
[36:20] You cannot feast on the grace of Christ and refuse to extend grace to others. Christ, the Lord's supper ought to be bringing us together, helping us to recognize the unity that is ours in Jesus.
[36:38] This is a unity that we must work to maintain, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4. So the context of the Corinthian church is far removed from us. I don't really doubt anybody in the room is guilty of what was going on in the life of the Corinthian church.
[36:55] So what are we to consider in our self-examination? Are you rightly thinking about the church when you come together to take this meal?
[37:07] Blood-bought people of Christ. Are you unified with the body? Do you harbor any unresolved conflict? I'll say right now to you, you don't have to like everybody who's a member of the church, but you have to love them.
[37:23] We cannot avoid those commands in the scripture. We have to work through hard issues together. Next week I told you that we're taking a break from John's gospel, and we're going to talk about reasons to and reasons to not leave a church, and then the right and wrong way to go about doing it.
[37:47] And you better believe I'm going to talk about relationship as a major part of what we have to say do you harbor unresolved conflict when you come and take the Lord's Supper?
[38:01] Is the truth of the gospel orienting you toward others the way that it ought to orient you to them? Right? Beloved, we shouldn't consider each other anymore by the flesh, by the spirit, precious people, bought by the blood of Christ.
[38:23] We should have such humility towards one another. And then let me ask you lastly, do you even come to the family meal?
[38:35] Do you come and participate in this meal? Now I know that a car is not going to start some mornings, a diaper is inevitably going to blow out, there are some reasons not to be here.
[38:51] take a family vacation from time to time. But we had a busy Saturday, it's not a good reason not to show up at 10 o'clock.
[39:02] Beloved, it's not that early. It's not that early. You can make it. And hear this with a great deal of kindness, I'm just not a person who's late to things, I don't like being late to things.
[39:14] It's not a pet peeve of mine when people are late to things, so don't hear me being unkind towards you, but if you have a hard time getting here by 10, then we start at 930. Set that time on your clock, that's when you're supposed to be here, and then you'll show up on time, and it'll be so great, because there's a group of people, we can't wait forever, time has to start, but who loves you, and wants you at the family meal.
[39:40] We want you to come and proclaim with us all that Christ has done on our behalf. It's an important time, for us to be together. The supper is not just a look back to the cross, but also a look around you to your fellow believers, and it's a look ahead to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[40:04] This will be the fifth and final point. The Lord's supper points us to the future. Again, verse 26 of chapter 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[40:21] The supper looks forward. It's a foretaste of the feast to come, the day when faith becomes sight, when we sit with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[40:34] Every Lord's supper whispers, he's coming back, he's coming back. Every broken piece of bread and poured cup declares, this story, it isn't over.
[40:47] Hold on, hope, he will accomplish all that he has promised. In that sense, every time we come to the table, we are training our appetites for eternity.
[41:01] We are reminding our hearts that this world's pleasures are temporary, but that Christ's kingdom is forever. Revelation chapter 19, verse 6 and following, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sounds of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Alleluia for the Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns.
[41:26] Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper.
[41:42] of the Lamb. The Lord's Supper points us and we need to be pointed to the future. So why do we do what we do and why do we do what we do the way that we do what we do?
[41:56] It is commanded for our good and God's glory that we would remind one another of the gospel. We remember together Christ's life, death, resurrection, and return.
[42:10] Who belongs? church. We declare together who belongs to Christ. And I'll say to you, if you're a guest, we would love for you to become a member of this church and join us at this meal.
[42:27] We remind one another of God's abundant grace. We are nourished and strengthened together in faith. We remind one another of our unity in Christ.
[42:41] We examine and we reconcile. And we remind one another of our future glory. We long together for his return.
[42:55] So if you are in Christ and part of a local church, join your faith family at the table with great joy. Do not come privately but corporately.
[43:08] Come not in despair but in faith because the supper tells you that the cross still speaks, grace still reigns, and the king is coming again.
[43:22] Let's pray together.