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[0:00] Very good to see you all back with us here this morning. Please take out your copy of God's Word, which I hope you have with you.! Come this morning and enjoy each other's company and see Jesus Christ exalted you.

[0:36] Praise God for what has been happening amongst us in these past years. Also in that six-year time, there has never been a Sunday where Wes wakes up early that morning and is just too sick to be here and to sing.

[0:54] It's happened to me a number of times concerning preaching. It's never happened to Wes concerning music, but we've talked about what we would do if that ever were the case. You know, Wes vomiting on a Sunday morning. What would we do?

[1:05] And I said, my hope is an encouragement to a don't worry about it. If that ever happens, we've got a plan B. There's something we could do. And my solution is to do what all the preachers of old did, and I'd just get up and lead you a cappella in a couple of songs.

[1:20] I believe that Wes has taken that more as a threat than an encouragement to him. And so he always manages somehow to get here, and when he can't sing, to find somebody who can fill in for him.

[1:31] And so I appreciate you guys for filling in, Reese and Patrick this morning, and helping out. Phillip, excuse me, in that way. Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my brain on Sunday mornings.

[1:43] This morning we're going to look together at Mark chapter 14, verses 12 through 25. I'm going to read through 26, but we'll look at 12 through 25 together.

[1:53] So please join me in reading God's Word. And on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?

[2:07] And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. And wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, The teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

[2:22] And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready, there prepare for us. And the disciples set out and went to the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the twelve, and as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.

[2:42] They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, Is it I? He said to them, It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

[2:59] It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take, this is my body.

[3:09] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

[3:26] And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. This is God's word to us. It was written for his glory and for our good. We would all do well this morning to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

[3:41] Let's pray together. Father God, we do praise you this morning for the gathering of your church. I thank you for every soul that is in this room that you brought them here for a purpose this morning.

[3:56] And as we seek out the mystery of that purpose, as we long to know what it is you intend to do with us, we thank you for your word that speaks with might and authority, that has effect in our lives.

[4:12] It is profitable for so many things. And Father, there is no degree of preparation or study on my part which makes this sermon of any value to anyone.

[4:26] It is by your spirit that you work through my words as I speak from your word. So we would ask that you would do a miracle amongst us today, a miracle in my speaking and a miracle in all of our hearing, that you would take the activity of our minds and orient it properly, that our hearts might be guided, that we may be changed from one degree of glory to another, that we may look more like Jesus Christ, our hope and our Redeemer.

[4:54] It is the great desire of this congregation that he be exalted in all that we do this morning. We ask that you would help us, enable us, empower us to do this very thing.

[5:06] And we pray this in the precious and holy and high-lifted name of Christ. Amen. Amen. Well, let me say to you that we're going to primarily deal with verses 22 through 25 this morning, the institution of the Lord's Supper.

[5:24] But to make some comments for you in getting to that place, I don't want to entirely neglect the verses before that, but I believe that Mark is giving these things to us to move us along to the major point of what's before us today.

[5:38] And we see a number of prophecies. One that's made and fulfilled in verses 12 through 16. He tells the disciples how it is they are to find the room in which they're going to have this very last Passover feast and the very first Lord's Supper all at the same time.

[5:57] We see it come to pass. We see it come true. Again, Mark speaking of the authority and the power of Jesus Christ. And then in verses 17 through 21, again, another prophecy made.

[6:11] Not yet fulfilled, although we see a bit of a shadow of it as we look back in chapter 14, verses 10 through 11, that Judas has already gone and made plans to betray Jesus.

[6:22] He has yet to actually do so. But Jesus is very aware of the plan. He knows the person who will do this very thing. And this prophecy itself is soon to come to pass.

[6:36] And so we get more efficacy to who Jesus is in his person as we're led up to verse 22. Now, to remind you where we are in the Passion Week, it's this final week leading up to Jesus' crucifixion at approximately 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon.

[6:57] We have seen and continue to see this timeline of the Passion Week as a beautiful expression of God's providence. Many people celebrate and teach that Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Sunday of the week.

[7:16] And we have shown you, and I won't take the time to do so this morning, that it was, in fact, Monday that he did so. Just as the Passover lambs are being chosen and brought into Jerusalem, the lamb who takes away the sins of the world, who was chosen by God, enters into Jerusalem.

[7:33] On Tuesday, Jesus overturns the money changers' tables. On Wednesday, Jesus deals with confrontations from the religious leaders and makes predictions about what the disciples and we would encounter in future days.

[7:46] Wednesday evening, Jesus is anointed by the woman in Bethany and Judas plots to betray him. Thursday, the disciples celebrate the Passover meal with Jesus and he is later betrayed and arrested.

[8:00] This is the evening we find ourselves in our text today. Friday, as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered, Jesus is crucified so that one day we might join the chorus in heaven singing, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

[8:23] It's a picture that John sees in Revelation 5.12. Saturday is a day of mourning, but on Sunday, the tomb that Jesus was buried in is found empty and he has been raised from the dead.

[8:35] He is alive so that we may have life. Now, there becomes a bit of a question about the day of the week and as you get into this, chapter 14, it gets a little bit complex in trying to understand the very timeline that Mark records for us.

[8:54] Now, I spent a lot of time sorting out and being sure of what I'm going to tell you, the timeline that I spoke to you already and what I'm about to say. And let me just say that I'm going to leave the cooking in the kitchen and just tell you what it means.

[9:10] If you'd like to talk about it further later, I'd be happy to do so. But for the sake of time this morning, it's just really not that important to get into it. But you'll note, as I'm saying, that the disciples are going to celebrate the Passover meal on Thursday evening.

[9:27] The rest of Jerusalem is going to celebrate it on Friday evening. And why is that? Why is there seem to be a discrepancy here in this case? Some would say that Jesus just really wanted to get that Passover meal in.

[9:40] He knew he'd be dead by the time other people were celebrating it. But I've come to discover that the disciples, being Galilean Jews, they celebrated Passover meal on Thursday evening, which for them was Friday.

[9:55] So it would have been Friday for them rather than Saturday when it was typically celebrated by so many other Jews, particularly the Jews that would have resided in and around Jerusalem.

[10:07] Right? So this is the discrepancy settled in that way. This is, for Jesus and the disciples, the last Passover and the first Lord's Supper.

[10:22] And it should be observed by us as well as the last Passover and the first Lord's Supper. The Passover meal was to serve as a reminder of God's protection as the angel of death inflicted the Egyptian people and the Israelites' subsequent delivery from bondage to the Egyptians.

[10:42] Do you recall the story at the forefront of the book of Exodus? And Moses goes back and asks that God's people be set free from bondage, which is meant to symbolize the bondage that we are under to sin.

[10:54] And Pharaoh refuses to do so. And so God brings upon him these ten different plagues. And this is the tenth and final that the angel of death came and killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians.

[11:05] But the Israelites were commanded to kill a spotless lamb, to take its blood, to spread it over the doorposts, over the top of the door, so that the angel would pass over.

[11:17] They were later told in Exodus chapter 12 to observe the Passover meal in remembrance of this thing that God had done for them.

[11:28] And I want you to see this with me. So turn to Exodus 12, verse 21. Genesis, Exodus, the second book in your Bible, beginning in verse 21.

[11:51] Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in blood that is in the basin and touch the lentil and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.

[12:07] None of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

[12:20] Verse 24, if you need to catch up. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land the Lord will give you as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

[12:32] And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he passed over the house of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.

[12:46] And the people bowed their heads and worshipped. So not only were they to do this act, but they were to continue to celebrate the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in times to come that they might remind their children and themselves what it was that the Lord had done on their behalf.

[13:05] But we now, with fuller revelation, having now the scriptures in their entirety, see that it was ultimately meant to serve as a shadow of a thing yet to come.

[13:19] I've talked to you extensively about types. The Passover lamb is a type for Christ meant to show us the greater thing, what would be called the anti-type.

[13:32] The greater realization of the thing, the symbol that's meant to show us the greater thing. It's a shadow of the reality that is to come. The Christ, the final Passover lamb.

[13:46] This is told to us a number of places in the New Testament. Peter expresses this reality in 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

[14:12] Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God in John 1, 29, and verse 36.

[14:27] It's implicitly taught in John's Gospel account in John 19, 32-36, because we find in Exodus 12, 46 that when the lamb was roasted and eaten, none of its bones were to be broken.

[14:42] This is a commandment given to the Israelite people. They were not meant to break the bones of the Passover lamb. It was customary during execution by crucifixion to break the legs of the prisoners.

[14:56] They were given a little block of wood to stand on and they could push up on that and slow down asphyxiation by the weight of their own body and often to speed along the process, their legs would be broken so they could no longer push up.

[15:11] In fact, both of the prisoners that were hanging on Jesus' left and right legs were broken, but his were not. He was already dead. It's implicitly taught there to us in John.

[15:24] Jesus is the Passover lamb. So this we find is the final Passover. We don't celebrate the Passover meal any longer as those who are followers of Christ.

[15:39] Certainly we can celebrate the event of the Passover, the deliverance of God's people, what it means and its final and full fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But we no longer sit down and have the Passover meal.

[15:52] But we do have the First Lord's Supper. We have that and we continue that and we celebrate that because it is the fulfillment of what the Passover meal was meant to teach us.

[16:05] So let's read together verses 22 through 25 once again. And as they were eating, He took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, Take, this is my body.

[16:19] And He took a cup and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them and they all drank of it. And He said to them, This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.

[16:31] Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And so this ordinance of the Lord's Supper or an ordinance as an authoritative order or a decree began and is continued in our congregational gatherings because of what it means now for us.

[16:56] The hope would have been for all of the spectators, all of the people that saw what happened on the cross that day that they would have understood Jesus to be the Passover Lamb.

[17:09] He is our Passover Lamb. He is the ultimate and final sacrifice. And this is to be the focus of the Lord's Supper. It's the object that we set our attention and our affection on when we take the Lord's Supper together.

[17:26] It's that remembering the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Christ. No doctrine stays alive in the mind by itself. It has to be fed.

[17:37] We have to remember the work of Christ on our behalf. So this morning I want to tell you three specific ways. I'm sure there are more categorically likely I think that these are good three specific ways that we can wrap our minds around and remember what we're meant to remember as we take the Lord's Supper together each and every Lord's Day when we meet as a congregation.

[18:03] So three things when we celebrate the Lord's Supper we remember number one Christ's death. Number one Christ's death. The symbols themselves are pictures of His body broken and His blood poured out.

[18:21] Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23 and 26 you should turn there we won't need Mark any longer. So why don't you turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Here we find Paul's account of what Jesus said when He instituted the ordinance of the Lord's Supper on this very night.

[18:55] 1 Corinthians chapter 11 beginning in verse 23 For I being Paul received from the Lord what I also delivered to you the Corinthian believers 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 do this in remembrance of me.

[19:18] In the same way He also 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.

[19:29] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. So Paul gives us a little more description than Mark does.

[19:42] In fact Paul's account is a little more close to the Lucan account of what was said by Jesus. We're meant to do this very thing to remember Christ and specifically as Paul tells us in verse 26 the Lord's death.

[19:57] To remember what He did on our behalf. The ultimate sacrifice paid for us. We had an infinite debt of sin against an infinite God and therefore the sacrifice must have been infinite and we celebrate that together every time we take the Lord's Supper rightly together.

[20:20] Secondly, when we celebrate the Lord's Supper we remember our participation in the benefits of Christ's death. Our participation in the benefits of Christ's death.

[20:33] Now and forever. Now we have spiritual life in Christ because of His person and His work.

[20:45] Turn to John chapter 6. Someone's getting directions to our building. You're here. John chapter 6 verse 53 So Jesus said to them Truly, truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you.

[21:10] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

[21:23] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me I live because of the Father so whoever feeds on me he also will live because of me.

[21:38] We have our very beginning in Christ and we then have our sustenance our sustaining in Christ as well. Now there are two ordinances of the Christian church and only two to be very clear on this point.

[21:54] We have baptism believers baptism and the Lord's Supper. So those are two believers baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism signifies new birth and entrance into the covenant community of God.

[22:09] The thing that has happened in your heart by the grace of God. It's a symbol of that. It's a picture of what has happened. Put to death and raised to new life. The Lord's Supper the ongoing practice of it signifies the spiritual feeding of that new life and the continuing relationship with the covenant community of God.

[22:31] In fact this is where the term the coined term communion actually comes from. Augustine coined that term and he didn't mean that we're communing with Christ he meant that we're communing with the community of God's people.

[22:45] That was what he meant by that term as so many terms get hijacked this is certainly one of them. in a sermon entitled fencing the table by Charles Spurgeon which is one I would strongly encourage you to go read at some point in your life he said others come to the communion as a piece of sheer superstition really believing poor deluded souls that when they take the wafer into their mouths they actually eat the flesh!

[23:16] of Christ I love Spurgeon I'm letting him say it for me such a monstrous doctrine as that is only fit for cannibals it is not a doctrine of Christianity what a profaning of the ordinance it is to come to it with such a notion as that it's a symbol it's a picture it's not actually the body of Christ or the blood of Christ we don't believe!

[23:45] in John chapter 6 that he's saying that you must be nourished physically by my actual body and blood that's lunacy Spurgeon agrees with me it's only fit for cannibals Catholics and some other denominations call it a sacrament and the belief is that it administers grace it administers grace it is actually a stacking up of grace a putting good things in the good list side of stuff if we've got a scale that will be weighed by it's putting extra stuff on the good side of the scale rather than it simply being a symbol of the grace that is already brought to us in Christ beloved we must be very careful at this point what are we celebrating when we celebrate the Lord's Supper not a giving of grace at that moment but a celebration of the grace that has been given and is continually being given in the accomplished work of

[24:48] Christ Spurgeon goes on to say it is not a converting ordinance nor a saving ordinance it is an establishing ordinance and a comforting ordinance for those who are saved but it never was intended to save souls neither it is adapted to that end and if it be so misrepresented it is apt rather to be the means of damning than of saving the soul for he that eats so eats and drinks may in very deed be eating and drinking damnation to himself and what he means is if we teach to people that it's a grace to them that is given to them as something that will bring them favor with God when they do not have it it's misleading to them therefore the warning that I give every Sunday before we take the Lord's Supper together if you're not a Christian if you've not placed your faith in the accomplished work of Christ don't think that some religious practice is going to help you find favor with him the only thing when you stand before him that will justify you is whether or not you were clothed in the righteousness of

[25:56] Christ whether or not you placed believing faith in him the practice of the Lord's Supper just draws us to that thing that he has done gives us reason to celebrate brings us comfort in the failing of our lives Jesus Christ died even for these!

[26:17] sins that I must repent of from day to day to day what then is the value of the symbol if it's simply that I don't wave a magic wand and somehow convert a wafer and wine or grape juice in our Baptist case into actual blood and body and you're not actually feasting on Jesus body himself what then is the value of the symbol it draws us to it draws our minds to where they should be John Calvin wrote of the Lord's Supper and institutes of the Christian religion by the showing of the symbol the thing itself is also shown for unless a man means to call God a deceiver he would never dare assert that an empty symbol is set forth by him and the godly ought by therefore those of us who desire to take the

[27:50] Lord's Supper rightly should have our minds and our hearts affections turned towards Jesus the one that the symbols are there to represent now as we've talked about the benefits that are brought to us we're celebrating that remembering that Christ's death let's recall that the benefits of Christ's death bear out in the way that we live that has it has present implication we are given spiritual life in Christ and that means something for what we're going to look like and the way we're going to conduct ourselves in this world another text for you to turn to Colossians chapter 3 I know I don't always make you turn so much but it gives me a chance to drink water and my throat is terribly dry this morning Colossians 3 1 through 4 and it's of great value for you to see it for yourself too if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears then you also appear with him in glory you see the language of our participation in Christ's death there right we have died our life is hidden with Christ and Christ is now our life we're talking of the spiritual things not the temporal but the spiritual thing the old us has died and the new us should be coming to bear in the way in which we live our lives further down in Colossians if you just notice beginning in verse 5

[29:46] Paul writes put to death therefore and gives us a whole list of things that we ought not be doing as Christians as those who claim the name of Christ who are disciples of his and then beginning in verse 12 he says put on then as chosen ones another list of things that we are to be doing activity that should exist in our lives that are activities that are nourished by the very fact that Christ died on our behalf so we're remembering this we're remembering our participation the benefit of Christ's death now and we're also remembering it forever turn to Revelation chapter 19 let me remind you of the words of Jesus in chapter 14 Mark chapter 14 verse 25 he says truly I say to you

[30:46] I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God with that in mind let's read Revelation 19 verses 6-9 then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns 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 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and he said to me these are the true words of God and so we see one day Jesus will be united with his bride the church and we will all feast with him forever this is what the Lord's Supper also does for us it reminds us this participation in the midst of Christ's death has implication now it means something now praise God but it also means something for eternity this is John's glimpse into this event that is one day going to come to pass thirdly when we celebrate the Lord's Supper we remember our unity in Christ's death so we've remembered

[32:25] Christ's death we've remembered our participation in the benefits of Christ's death but we also remember our unity in Christ's death do you recall me saying to you that baptism is this thing representing the new life that has been brought to bear in us that we are now part of the covenant community of God and the Lord's Supper now is a continuing picture of our communion with the people of God our unity in Christ's death there slipped into the Christian vernacular a phrase which I think is particularly harmful and you will hear it in most churches this Sunday morning personal relationship with Jesus Christ now it is certainly true that we do have personal relationships that now as those saved by the grace of God he speaks to us he is a friend he communicates clearly to us by his word through his spirit this is true but this type of language has caused so many people to think that what they can do on a

[33:38] Sunday morning is sleep in and then watch a little TBN later on not okay we've been saved to a community of believers we've been called out of darkness to be part of a people to the praise of God not individuals parts that we play but that's not the the impetus of what's being communicated in the New Testament concerning our salvation we are saved as a people 1 Corinthians 10 verses 16 and 17 expresses this Paul says the cup of blessing that we bless is talking about the Lord's supper 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 because there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread you see what he's trying to communicate to us here with all of these plural pronouns we are a community praise God for that that we are his people and it has been given to us to draw his other people the sheep that are not yet of this fold into the fold to make them part of this fellowship that we experience there are many expressions of God's global church

[35:06] I would give that a capital c church the universal church which includes not just all those who claim Christ now but those who claim Christ past and future but there are local expressions of this which is what Christ family church is do you come together because we're a people saved by the grace of God by the accomplished work of Christ or because you like the way we put together programs I hope it's the former and not the latter because I should remember we celebrate the Lord's Supper that we're doing it collectively together you know we've been doing the

[36:06] Lord's Supper every single Lord today together for quite some time some of you look so miserable when we're doing it and I know you're not I believe it's just because it's been given to you as some kind of a somber moment in the life of a congregation I smile at the person that I get the Lord's Supper elements from and I say thank you that's okay we're a community taking the meal together in fact I would argue that the way that we do the Lord's Supper is probably not the purest expression of it we see particularly in the book of Corinthians the believers were gathering around a table the great admonition to them by Paul is that there were some who were getting off of early and they were starting the meal before those who got off late particularly the slaves could come and eat and the food was gone the Lord's supper had been consumed before they ever got there I think the most pure expression of it is us sitting together in community and sharing food with one another and particularly commemorating

[37:10] Christ in our gathering together however I do think that the elements are there! great juice as we've said I don't know that it's all that important that it has to be necessarily fruit of the vine although this is the element that Jesus himself used as well as bread someone say that our bread is leavened and that's not good because Jesus used unleavened bread because it was the Passover meal again I don't think it's all that terribly!

[37:39] important I do believe because we have the proper elements the symbols once again that were within the biblical boundaries of celebrating it in the way that we do there are some challenges concerning having our Lord's Supper being so open the way that it is and if you are here you are invited to participate in the Lord's Supper with us and our crowd being predominantly college students there's often a fringe fluctuating!

[38:10] We love to see you more consistently but there are people sometimes on a given Sunday that I just really don't know about a year and a half ago I went to one of George graduations and the girl that was handing out programs said Nathan hey when I walked in and I didn't recognize her no idea and I felt horrible for that but she probably was part of that group kind of coming and going there have been churches throughout history that have held done what they would call closed communion and that only members in good standing of the church were allowed to come together and participate in the Lord's Supper in fact an antidote from history Jonathan Edwards had men stand guard over the Lord's Supper table and if there was somebody coming up that he knew was living in sin had not taken appropriate steps of repentance he would give a little head nod and they would escort him out maybe a little severe

[39:14] I don't know we are a church that believes in church discipline that there is a place for it that we ought to be encouraging and pressing for it but I am led to believe that it is okay for us to allow to give warning to people to say to people you have no part in this if you're not a believer it doesn't make sense for you to celebrate a thing that has not happened on your behalf because it is a symbol right it's not an administration of grace to you it's a symbol I'm encouraged by the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 28 where he says let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup and so we have Paul's exhortation here that we're also to be introspective of ourselves that there's a place and a time for discipline in the life of the church and that somebody may be excluded from gathering together and being called a believer the church may say to somebody at some point we don't believe that you're even in

[40:15] Christ and therefore you have no examine himself or herself there be some moments of introspection that you be sure that you're taking the Lord's Supper rightly recall as a summary when we celebrate the Lord's Supper together we're remembering firstly Christ's death secondly our participation in the benefits of Christ's death now and forever and thirdly our unity the unity of the church in Christ's death we ought to be asking ourselves if we're doing this appropriately and the reason that you're so often warned against having harbored sin things in your life that you know you're doing that you ought not be doing or things in your life that you know that you should be doing that you're not doing both sins of omission and commission that you're fully aware of and yet you're going and you're celebrating the redemptive work of

[41:25] Christ you've been given access to the father to repent of those things and then go celebrate what Christ has done on your behalf praise God that when we sin we can go to the one whom we sinned against right that he and his wrath against sin doesn't destroy us because celebrate in the Lord's supper so we ought to rid ourselves of unrepentant sin before we go and partake of the elements let a person examine himself I hope that this is a thing that you do as a habit in your days that you're constantly experiencing the conviction of the spirit of sin repenting and turning once again to God that is this cycle that you go through because I know we're all sinning this is a thing it's a reality that's happening to us I hope that repentance is right on its heels and you're continuing to press on and pursue your walk in the Lord I know that as we take the

[42:26] Lord's supper together I'm at least giving you a charge to do it once a week at least then taking the time to respond to what's going on in your life by the power of the spirit it's a chance for us to respond to what God may be working in us in the preaching of his word some recognition of sin on our part something that we're not doing today it may be that your confession is about how you've taken the Lord's supper in the past the way you've treated it and been dismissive!

[42:58]  Maybe that this is our invitation time when we do the Lord's supper together we celebrate the Lord's supper we remember Christ's death our participation the benefit of Christ's death and our unity as the church in Christ's death if you want to hear it organized in another way maybe a simpler way we remember what he has done in the past the implications for us in the present and the promise of his sure return let's pray together