A Vision for the Church (Part 1): A Biblical Vision of Hospitality

Here is Part 1 of our current church vision series:

• A Vision for the Church (Part 1): A Biblical Vision of Hospitality

And here is our Elders Round Table discussion from that evening:

• Elders Roundtable: Vision, Hospitality, and Evangelism

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What Should You Be Thinking about During the Lord’s Supper?

Justin Taylor shares this quote from J.I. Packer (“The Gospel and the Lord’s Supper,” in Serving the People of God):

I don’t think we can ever say too much about the importance of an active exercise of mind and heart at the communion service. . . 

Holy Communion demands of us private preparation of heart before the Lord before we come to the table. We need to prepare ourselves for fellowship with Jesus Christ the Lord, who meets us in this ceremony. We should think of him both as the host of the communion table and as enthroned on the true Mount Zion referred to in Hebrews 12, the city of the living God where the glorified saints and the angels are.

The Lord from his throne catches us up by his Spirit and brings us into fellowship with himself there in glory. He certainly comes down to meet us here, but he then catches us up into fellowship with him and the great host of others who are eternally worshipping him there.

We are also to learn the divinely intended discipline of drawing assurance from the sacrament. We should be saying in our hearts, ‘as sure as I see and touch and taste this bread and this wine, so sure it is that Jesus Christ is not a fancy but a fact, that he is for real, and that he offers himself to be my Saviour, my Bread of Life, and my Guide to glory. He has left me this rite, this gesture, this token, this ritual action as a guarantee of this grace; He instituted it, and it is a sign of life-giving union with him, and I’m taking part in it, and thus I know that I am his and he is mine forever.’ That is the assurance that we should be drawing from our sharing in the Lord’s Supper every time we come to the table.

And then we must realize something of our togetherness in Christ with the rest of the congregation. . . . [We should reject the] strange perverse idea . . . that the Lord’s Supper is a flight of the alone to the Alone: it is my communion I come to make, not our communion in which I come to share. You can’t imagine a more radical denial of the Gospel than that.

The communion table must bring to us a deeper realization of our fellowship together. If I go into a church for a communion service where not too many folk are present, to me it is a matter of conscience to sit beside someone. This togetherness is part of what is involved in sharing in eucharistic worship in a way that edifies.

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Free Book: Don Whitney, Ten Questions

For a limited time, the Kindle version of Don Whitney's Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health is available for free.

You might also be interested in Don's other titles:

• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
• Spiritual Disciplines within the Church

Spurgeon on Frequency of Lord's Supper

My witness is, and I think I speak the mind of many of God’s people now present, that coming as some of us do, weekly, to the Lord’s table, we do not find the breaking of bread to have lost its significance—it is always fresh to us. I have often remarked on Lord’s-day evening, whatever the subject may have been, whether Sinai has thundered over our heads, or the plaintive notes of Calvary have pierced our hearts, it always seems equally appropriate to come to the breaking of bread. Shame on the Christian church that she should put it off to once a month, and mar the first day of the week by depriving it of its glory in the meeting together for fellowship and breaking of bread, and showing forth of the death of Christ till he come. They who once know the sweetness of each Lord’s-day celebrating his Supper, will not be content, I am sure, to put it off to less frequent seasons.

~ Charles Spurgeon, "Songs of Deliverance"

Book Recommendation: Believer's Baptism

In preparation for my sermon on baptism this past Sunday (audio here), I read Believer's Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand not only the doctrine of baptism, but how the whole Bible fits together.

Particularly helpful were the chapters by Shawn Wright (Baptism and the Logic of Reformed Paedobaptists), Stephen Wellum (Baptism and the Relationship between the Covenants), and Jonathan Rainbow ("Confessor Baptism": The Baptismal Doctrine of the Early Anabaptists).

Wellum's chapter is available to download as a PDF. I'd recommend printing it out and investing a chunk of time in reading it. For a short summary of some of that chapter, see this helpful interview Stephen gave with Justin Taylor.

Believer's Baptism is in the NAC Studies in Bible & Theology series, which also includes Jim Hamilton's God's Indwelling Presence, Jason Meyer's The End of the Law, and a volume on The Lord's Supper (by various contributing authors). I'd recommend these volumes to anyone wanting to better understand how to read their Bible as a whole. (Note: They are very academic studies, not light reading! But, I think they'd be accessible to any serious student.)

Believer (Confessor) Baptism & the New Covenant

Sermon #1 from "Water, Bread & Wine."

Galatians 5:25-6:5 – The Conceit-Slaying, Burden-Bearing Gospel (Part 2)

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached July 10, 2011 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Audio will be available here.

Last week, we looked at verses 25-26.  Paul encouraged us to “walk by the Spirit,” something we examined for several weeks in verses 16-24. Walking by the Spirit means that we will not become “conceited”—we will not live in the pursuit of our own glory. Such conceit expresses itself in various ways, such as “provoking” those we feel superior to (so that we can prove our own glory) or “envying” those we feel inferior to (since their perceived superiority exposes our lack of glory). 

Galatians 6:1-5 flows out of 5:26-26. In these verses, Paul gives tangible application to what he wrote in 5:25-26. Instead of being conceited and destroying community, this is how Christians ought to live. Faith ought to work itself out in love that restores and helps the community of the saints. It ought to do this because we stand alone before God and our righteousness is not found by comparing ourselves to one another.

Is Congregational Government from Satan?

James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, recently posted an article titled, "Congregational Government is From Satan." (Congregational government is a form of church government affirmed by such men as Al Mohler, John Piper, and Mark Dever.)

His main points are:

1. Congregational meetings are forums for division
2. Voting is not biblical
3. Eldership is sometimes unpopular
4. Congregationalism crushes pastors
5. Priesthood, not eldership, of all believers

Having read his article a couple of times, here are some initial conclusions:

1. I agree with many of his critiques. In fact, I agree with portions of every point.
2. I do think he rightly highlights many actual abuses of congregationalism.
3. I do think he is (rightly) critiquing what many (wrongly) think congregationalism is.
4. I do not think that his critiques defend or establish the conclusion stated in the title.
5. I do not think that his critiques offer anything substantial in the way of dismissing or disproving the biblical nature of congregational government. 
6. I think it is dangerous to attempt to dismiss a system of church government based on mainly anecdotal evidence, largely ignoring any of the biblical arguments for it. (I attended a denominational event where I heard exactly what MacDonald does in this article done to the biblical doctrine of plurality of elders. We can use this line of arguing for anything we don't like.)

In response to his 5 points, I would offer the following short comments:

1. Yes, congregational meetings are forums for division. So are elder meetings, team meetings, marriages, corporate worship services, conferences, family meals, etc. Satan can and will use any and every situation in which people meet to do anything as an opportunity to divide people. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
2. This is over-stated. There is no biblical example for some forms of voting and voting on some issues. There are shreds of evidence for a congregation voting (meaning: the majority of the church coming to a decision or position) -- just not on anything and everything. (See this sermon I preached in defense of elder-led congregationalism.)
3. Aside from his application to elders of a passage that applies to every believer, this point is true. Eldership is not popular. Nevertheless, congregational accountability is not necessarily the same as forcing elders to submit to a referendum on what they've done. Using this line to support his thesis is twisting the truth, or equating one abuse of congregationalism with the whole. (Ironically: I've heard this exact argument used against plurality of eldership--"Pastoral leadership is not popular. Forcing a pastor to 'submit to a referendum on their actions [i.e. accountability to a group of elders] is crushing to good men and destroys the work of God in a church.' Therefore, plurality of eldership is from Satan.")
4. Yes, this is true. I've experience this multiple times in my tenure as a pastor. Abused congregationalism crushes pastors. Immature congregationalism, in which members are unwilling to confront and rebuke ungodly attitudes, crushes pastors. But removing congregationalism is not a means for fixing this. He cites the statistic that pastors leave churches "because of 8 people." I have no trouble believing this. But note: they leave over "8 people," not over a "congregation." These 8 people continue to exist and act as they do with or without congregationalism. The remedy is mature leadership and a mature membership that is willing to confront and rebuke (not coddle and feed) such ungodliness.
5. Absolutely agreed. All believers are priests. Not all believers are elders. Congregationalism must be led by elders, not the congregation. A congregation that does not trust the leaders it calls and allow them to lead without micromanagement should either remove said leaders or remove themselves. This point, however, offers nothing in the way proving that congregationalism is from Satan. It only proves the need to understand the relationship between elder-leadership and right congregational authority.

I'm thankful for MacDonald pointing out some common abuses and pitfalls of congregationalism. I think his points are over-stated and insufficient to prove his thesis. The result is that he does not rightly respect the congregational position and those who hold it, thus failing the build as strong of a case as he might otherwise have done for his view.

Lady Gaga, Lennon, Lady Libertas and the Gospel

Galatians 3:28-29 – The Unifying Gospel

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached March 6, 2011 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Audio will be available here.

It is amazing the Gospel hopes that come out of New York City.

This past Monday, Lady Gaga (the NYC native pop singer-songwriter) released the video to her recent single “Born This Way.” The video begins with an extended narration, spoken over a somewhat bizarre birth scene.

It begins, “This is the Manifesto of Mother Monster.” (Mother Monster is Lady Gaga’s name for herself. Her fans are her “Little Monsters.”) The manifesto continues by telling of a birth, not finite but infinite, something “eternal.” And this “infinite” and “eternal” birth “began the beginning of the new race. A race within the race of humanity. A race which bears no prejudice, no judgment, but boundless freedom.”

Now, much more could be said about Lady Gaga and her song, “Born This Way.” But what is interesting is that what she (and her fans) are longing for and working for is a new way to be human, a new race. She realizes that humanity needs to be “born again.” And, this “regeneration” must come from something “eternal” and “infinite.”

Thirty years ago in 1971, New York City resident John Lennon released his album “Imagine,” the title track of which encourages the listener:

Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world

Lennon is longing for and looking for a world where man lives, no longer in opposition and hatred, but as one big family, sharing all the world, living life in peace.

You may say he’s a dreamer, but he’s not the only one. In fact, that dream has been at the center of New York City for over a century. The Big Apple is, as a city, a small picture of what America is supposed to be—a melting pot of people from all walks of life, from all ethnicities, living together.

In her waters stands a great statue, the title of which is “Liberty Enlightens the World.” The robed, female figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. With glory as a halo around her head, she stands and proclaims good news to the world. In her right hand, she bears a torch offering herself as a light to the nations. In her left arm is the tablet of her law, inscribed with the date she declared her freedom. Inscribed in her base is her gospel-call:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

In other words, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

And to prove her promise, at her feet lies a broken chain, conquered, limp and useless, like the body of a serpent whose head has been crushed.

There is a reason that millions of immigrants from across the globe passed through her shadow at Ellis Island. They came seeking what she promised—a place where oppression was ended, where freedom was given. They came to a place where they could be transferred from the dominion of their old country into citizenship in a land of promise, where they could have a new life, a new start, a new birth.

Dever on the Mission & Purpose of the Church

"...the proper ends for a local congregation's life and actions are the worship of God, the edification of the church, and the evangelization of the world. These three purposes in turn serve the glory of God."

~ Mark Dever, "The Church," in A Theology for the Church

5 Sermons on the Local Church

A series I preached three years ago:

• The Local Church: Why You Ought to Be a Formal and Active Member of a Local Church (Part 1)
• The Local Church: Why You Ought to Be a Formal and Active Member of a Local Church (Part 2)
• The Local Church: Congregationalism - Defending and Displaying the Glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Local Church: Led By Elders, Served By Deacons (Part 1)
• The Local Church: Leb By Elders, Served By Deacons (Part 2)

A few suggested resources:

• Elders in Congregational Life by Phil Newton
• 40 Questions About Elders and Deacons by Ben Merkle
• A Display of God's Glory by Mark Dever
• Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch
• The Mentor's Guide to Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch
• A Study Guide to Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch
• Meetings That Work: A Guide to Effective Elders' Meetings by Alexander Strauch
• The Elder and his Work by David Dickson
• Polity edited by Mark Dever

Tim Keller on The Mission of the Church, Justice and Proclaiming the Word

Tim Keller, in Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just, writes:

". . . [I]s the mission of the church only to preach the Word—evangelizing and making disciples—or is it (also) or mainly to do justice? Increasing evangelicals are talking about the church’s 'justice mission.' See Amy L. Sherman, 'The Church on a Justice Mission' in Books and Culture, July/August 2010. In this article examples are giving of local evangelical congregations that have added the combating of sex/human trafficking to their churches’ mission work. Indeed, sex trafficking is an important justice issue and an easy one for most evangelical churches to get a handle on. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that Kuyper is right: It is best to speak of the 'mission of the church,' strictly conceived, as being the proclamation of the Word. More broadly conceived, it is the work of Christians in the world to minister in word and deed and to gather together to do justice. (p. 216 n. 128)"

(HT: JT)

Book Recommendation: Paul Clark -- Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Grace

Paul Clark, Jr., Director of Worship and Music Ministries for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, has authored a new book on congregational singing, Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Grace: Worship Renewal through Congregational Singing.

I met Paul a few years ago, when he invited me to lead four sessions at the TBC's bi-annual worship conference. I was very encouraged by his views on the centrality of corporate worship and its place in the church and life of Christians. I expect this book to be well-worth reading.

David Dockery writes the foreword, which you can read through the preview option on Amazon's page. Dockery confirmed my expectations about the value of Paul's work and increased my excitement about the book.

Keith Getty offers this endorsement:

"Paul Clark is a church musician who is equally committed to the glory of God, the building up of his church, and using the best of creativity of the past and present to look towards the future. I cannot recommend him highly enough."

David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills and author of Radical, writes:

"Paul Clark reveals biblical, theological foundations for radically God-centered worship, and then he gives us clear, practical guidance for how God's people respond congregationally to God's greatness. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for pastors, worship music leaders, and Christians who long to see God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Spirit-led worship in the church."

Here is the publisher's description:

Music has a way of speaking into our lives, giving unique expression to the highest moments of celebration, the lowest depressions of the human spirit, and the common experiences that define an average day. We all know that music is an integral part of the worship experience, but Paul Clark takes it a step further, urging readers to seek actual worship renewal through congregational singing. What does it mean to "sing in tune with God's grace"? How does singing by oneself, in private worship, differ from singing with a small group of fellow worshippers, with congregations, or during festival worship? What criteria should be used when selecting music for each kind of experience? Distinguishing between worship that is people-centered-that is, that meets our needs and is pleasing to us-and worship that is God-centered, Clark offers pastors, lay leaders, and music ministers biblically sound guidelines and inspiration for their thinking as they plan and lead worship. Along the way, he sheds new light on the dynamics of what is happening when a congregation finds its voice and sings. Tune My Heart to Sing thy Grace goes beyond simply dealing with issues of music style. Through biblical reflection and practical considerations, it encourages the reader to plumb the depths of one of the most cherished activities of spiritual endeavor: singing worship. With greater understanding comes bolder, more enthusiastic participation and the potential for continuous renewal of the worship experience.

The Ways of Destroying the Church

"The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it-admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial 'conversions' and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism-all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: 'If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17).' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry

The Mission of the Church

On John 20:21:

On Sale: Biblical Theology in the Life of the Local Church

Michael Lawrence's new volume, Biblical Theology in the Life of the Local Chruch, is on sale at Westminster Books at 45% off, for $9.34. (Otherwise, $11.55 at Amazon.)

Buy three now.

John 17:20-23 – The Lord’s Prayer: The Son Prays for a Sanctified, Unified, Missional People

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached March 21, 2010 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The Creation Purpose.God’s purpose in creating mankind was to have a sanctified, unified people to engage in the mission of displaying God’s glory to the ends of the earth.

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Here we see a people sanctified. As we saw last week, to be sanctified means to be “set apart” by God and for his purposes. Man is a special creation, created in the image of God. Man is therefore holy, sanctified—set apart by God from all other created things.

Here we see a people unified. God created man male and female. The man and the woman, though distinct, have one nature and one purpose. And, the husband and the wife will be made “one flesh.” They are to be united—created for the good of one another.

Here we see a people who are to engage in mission. To be created “in the image of God” is to be created as God’s representative, made to “image forth God.” God assigns this sanctified, unified mankind a mission. That mission is to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion [over all that lives in it].” They were to spread out over all the earth and exercise God’s rule as his representative, according to the instruction given through his word. In short, man was to show the glory of God to all the earth.

The Fall.
As the story goes, Adam and Eve reject this mission. They disobey God’s word and sin. And this sin brings alienation, separation and division into the storyline.

Sin brings alienation from God. Adam and Eve are sent out of the Garden, where God walked with them. They would no longer enjoy the fellowship of God.

And, sin brought alienation from man. In the fall, man was divided. When God approaches Adam about this sin, Adam’s response is to throw Eve under the bus—“It’s her fault!” he declares.

And this division amongst men only grows worse as the storyline of the Bible continues. Adam and Eve have two sons, brothers, Cain and Able—one of whom grows up to murder the other and to have a great-grandson who brags about being a murderer. So mankind gets to the point of boasting about how it mistreats one another. It even gets so bad that God destroys all of mankind, except one family, in a flood.

But the descendants of Noah do not do any better in becoming a sanctified, unified people on mission to display the glory of God.

In fact, post-flood mankind finds unity—but a unity that God hates and opposes, because it opposes him. Mankind finds a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Instead of spreading on mission throughout the earth for God’s glory, they decide to make a tower with its top in the heavens so that (a) they will not be spread out and (b) they can make a name for themselves.

Instead, God foils their plans, confuses their languages, and scatters them throughout the earth. It would seem that God’s purpose of a set-apart, unified people on mission to display his glory is lost. But, not so.

The Redemption Purpose.
If God is to bring redemption, it must mean redemption of all that was lost. It must mean restoration of unity—man’s unity with God and man’s unity with man. And this unified people must be set-apart from the world for the purpose of God’s original mission—to display his glory in all the earth.

God chooses a man named Abraham. He promises that Abraham’s descendants will become a great nation. Therefore, this nation is sanctified—they are set apart by God from the rest of the world, and are to be sanctified by God’s word—to be unified as one people, to be a people on mission. Their purpose is to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. They are the chosen people who are to show the nations who the Lord is.

But, just as Adam and Eve and as with Noah’s descendants, the nation of Israel both rejects and fails in this calling.

Israel rejects their sanctification and their mission. They persistently refuse to walk in God’s word—and so refuse to show the nations the glory of God. Instead of showing the nations what the Lord is like, they chose to become like the nations.

Israel ends up a divided people. Whether it was Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery, Absalom plotting against his father David, or the kingdom divided into two kingdoms—Israel was not a unified people.

So, if a sanctified, unified, missional people were not to be found in Adam and Eve, in Noah’s descendants, or in Israel—from where would it come? All these failures show us the need of Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah.

Reviewing the Lord’s PrayerSo, we should not be surprised that Jesus’ earthly ministry—and his final prayer here—are filled with overtones of sanctification, unity and mission.

We saw last week, in verses 18-19, that Jesus prayed for the unity and sanctification of his people. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” And yet, this sanctification, this “setting apart” of his own people, is not merely for the sake of personal holiness—rather, it is for mission. Jesus says, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” “For their sake I sanctify myself (I set myself apart to be a sacrificial offering to reveal the Father’s glory), that they also may be sanctified in truth (set apart in the Gospel for the sake of mission, to reveal the Father’s glory).”

Jesus Prays for the ChurchBut Jesus does not stop with praying for the band of disciples who believed in him at that time. He prays in verse 20 for the church. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in my through their word.”

The Petition: UnityJesus’ main petition is the unity of his people.  “I ask,” he prays, “that they may all be one…” Unity is the greatest burden of Jesus’ prayer.

That should not surprise us. The unity of God’s people is the purpose for which he came, lived, and died. In John 10:16, Jesus said that he, the Good Shepherd, calls his sheep from every fold and lays down his life for them, “so there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

And in John 11:52, John comments that Jesus would die, not only for the nation of Israel, but “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

What is this unity?But everyone—from hippies to communists to atheists to Buddhists—talks about unity. What exactly is this unity that Jesus prays for? What is Christian unity?

Jesus prays for unity…
1: …that begins with belief in the Gospel. Christian unity is founded upon acceptance of the revelation of the Father in the Gospel of the Son, passed down by the Apostles. Jesus prays for those that believe in him by the Apostles’ word.

That is John’s purpose in writing this Gospel—so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing may have life in his name.

Jesus is God’s anointed King. He is God’s Son—fully God—who became fully man. He lived a perfect life of obedience and submission to his Father. And then, he willingly offered himself as a sacrifice for sin when he was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day, he rose from the dead, showing the world that he had conquered death and made satisfaction for sin.

Those who believe in Jesus are those who understand that this is who he is. They confess that they are sinners in need of such a Savior. And, repenting of their sin, they trust in Jesus Christ alone. On the basis of their faith, by grace and not according to works, God pronounces them to be forgiven and grants them eternal life.

Only by believing may anyone be reconciled to God. And, therefore, only by believing may a person be joined with the people of God. That is why we require you to profess faith in Jesus Christ, to demonstrate an understanding of the Gospel before you become a member of Northbrook Baptist. Unless you believe in Jesus Christ, you cannot become one with us—for you are not one with us.

So, before we go any further, let me exhort you to believe in Jesus. Coming here, singing with us, listening with us, praying with us and eating with us does not make you one with us—only believing in Jesus Christ does that.

2: ...that is like the unity of the Father and the Son.Jesus prays that they may be one, “just as you, Father, are in me and I in you.” The model for the unity of believers is the unity of the Father and the Son.

The Father and the Son, though distinct, are one in their purpose, one in their love for each other, and one in their mission. So, believers, though distinct persons, are to be one in purpose, love, and action—all of this as they submit together to the revelation of God they have received in the Gospel.

Jesus says, “as you Father, are in me.” This is a statement about the Son being the agent and mediator of the Father. The Father is doing something in and through the Son, speaking and working through the person of the Son.

Throughout John’s Gospel we have seen that the Father created all things through the Son (John 1:3) and that Jesus only speaks and does what the Father tells him (14:10). The Father is doing his works through Jesus.

And, Jesus says, “I in you.” For Jesus to be “in” the Father means that the Son is dependant upon the Father and obedient to the Father as the one through whom the Father works.

Again, through John’s Gospel, we have seen Jesus depending upon the Father for his mission, for instruction, for authority, for words, for works as he completely obeys the Father (4:34; 5:19, 30).

Jesus wants them to be unified “that they also may be in us” He desires that the unified believers in Jesus will be in the Father and the Son, just as they are in each other.

This means: (a) Like the Son was the focal-point of the Father’s work in the world, believers are the focal-point of the Father and the Son’s work in the world (dependant upon the Father and Son for life and fruitfulness).

The Father and the Son will accomplish their mission in the world through the believing people of the Messiah. This is what Jesus meant when he prayed, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

This also means that: (b) the believers will depend upon the Father and the Son (as they dwell in the believers through the Spirit and the word) for direction, for instruction, for authority, for words and works to speak and perform, just as Jesus was dependant upon the Father (14:12; 15:4).

What was the purpose of the unity between Father and Son in the Son coming into the world?

3. …that is for the purpose of mission. (21b)That discussion on the relationship between the Father and the Son and Christian unity has already hinted at the idea of mission. But, now Jesus makes it explicit that the purpose of Christian unity is mission.

He prays that his believers might be one, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Jesus is praying for a unity that is so great it can only be explained and understood if the Gospel is true—that is, if God the Father sent Jesus Christ the Son.

First of all, this means that this unity, in some way, must be observable. It cannot be merely unity in the same faith (though it is that). It must be a tangible, visible unity. Something the world can observe and be astonished by, convicted by, convinced by.

Second, unity is a prerequisite for mission (along with love – 13:34-35; 15:12-13; 17:26). Mission cannot happen outside Christian unity. Jesus has already said that the world will know whether we are disciples by the way we love each other. Now, Jesus says our unity speaks the same truth.

Therefore, third, this means that mission may not be divorced from the local church—because that is where such unity occurs and is seen. The place where Christian love and unity is lived out, experienced, and put on display is in the local gathering of committed, accountable believers—what we call a local church.

You cannot refuse church membership and think that you are missional. A refusal to unite yourself with the body of Christ is a refusal to put the Gospel on display to the world.

Mission, evangelism is not the special task of an elite gifted portion of the church. It is the task of the whole body, together.

This is good, especially in a post-modern society, where abstract truth is not valued but people are hungry for love and relationships. People need to believe abstract truths to be saved. You must believe certain facts about God and Jesus and yourself to be saved.

Nevertheless, we live in an age when many will not be interested at all in debates about the historicity of the resurrection. In fact, some will say, “Yes, it is a fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Who cares? It doesn’t effect me!”

And so, we must show them something more than logical, historical deduction. We must show them the Gospel. We must put the Gospel on display for them. We must bring them out of a dog-eat-dog world, where every man fends for himself, into a Gospel-shaped community, a Gospel-centered unity, where believers in Jesus lay aside their own rights and defer to the preferences of others for the good of their brothers and sisters. We must show them a community that looks like Jesus on the cross—so that they can become convinced of the facts of the cross.

That—a mission to display the Gospel to the world—is what unity is about.

Unity Defined—for MissionJesus goes on in verse 22 to pray, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them” That is a startling comment. After all, the Lord says in Isaiah 48:11, “My glory I will not give to another.” What is Jesus speaking about?

Jesus is not speaking about his preexistent glory as God, which he had before he became man. We know that, because Jesus began this prayer asking the Father, “glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” In asking for this glory to be restored to him, it is implied that it has not yet been given to him.

So, we need to ask, what glory did the Father give to the Son? And, the first place we see “glory” mentioned is in John 1:14, where we read about the Son becoming a man:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We read in John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” So, the purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth was to reveal the Father to the world. The glory that is seen—the glory given to Jesus—was the revelation of the Father.

This is confirmed in John 2:11, when Jesus turned water into wine. John writes, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Jesus showed what the Father was doing in and through him, manifesting his glory—with the result of believing disciples.

Later, as Lazarus was dying, Jesus said (John 11:4), “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” What Jesus did in raising Lazarus from the dead was to show that he was the resurrection and the life, so that those who believe in him will never die. The resurrection that the Father had promised had come in the Son, Jesus Christ.

And, of course, Jesus repeatedly refers to his crucifixion as his “glorification.” In John 12:23, Jesus, referring to his crucifixion, said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” On the cross, the Son was glorified. There he revealed the Father to be just and forgiving, righteous and merciful, wrathful and loving, jealous for his glory and gracious to sinners. The Son’s glorification was the task of revealing the Father in self-sacrifice for the good of God’s people, when he died for their sins on the cross.

So, the Son’s glory was the task of revealing the Father to the world—revealing the Father’s character, person and work by being an obedient, suffering servant, who sacrificed himself for the good of God’s people and God’s glory.

So, for Jesus to give us this same glory means that we are given the mission of revealing the Father to the world by being a dependant, suffering people who, in self-sacrifice pursue the good of God’s people and the glory of God. And, that is impossible outside of unity with God’s people.

4. …that is not self-generated, it is the work of God by drawing his people into relationship with himself.The right application from this prayer is not first to work harder for unity (though we should do that). It should tell us something that Jesus is praying for this unity. Evidently, it is something that God the Father does and produces in his people, or else the Father would not be asked to do it.

And we see that in verse 23, where Jesus prays, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.” Unity happens as a result of us being draw into the relationship of the Father and the Son.

The Father is in the Son, revealing himself to the world. In the same way, the Son is in believers, so that they might reveal the Father and the Son to the world. And as all believers are in the Son, they become perfectly one.

Jesus has two purposes for his petition. “So that the world may know that you send me and loved them even as you loved me.”

First, as earlier, their perfect unity is for the sake of mission—so that the world might know that the Father sent the Son.

His second purpose is that their perfect unity will convince the world that the Father loves them (believers) even as he loves his Son. The Father loved the Son by setting the Son apart to reveal him to the world, after which he would receive him into eternal glory. And, in the same way, the Father has set apart believers—the people he has given to his Son—that they might reveal the Father to the world and afterward be received into glory.

Their unity of believers shows the world that they really are the people who are loved by God. Their unity proves that the Father has loved them and changed them and made them one.

5. …that is not an end in itself, but is for the glory of God in the Gospel.Do you ever wonder why prayers for unity in the church fail? After all, unity seems to be the will of God, and Jesus promised that if we ask according to his will, he will answer!

I would suggest it is possible to pray for unity amongst believers, and be praying outside of God’s will. Do you remember what reason James gave his readers in James 4:3 for why their prayers went unanswered, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

I wonder how often Christians work and pray for unity for all the wrong reasons. It would be possible to pray for unity in the church…

…because it would be more comfortable for us. Division is inconvenient and painful.
…to have growth in numbers.
…to keep what we’ve worked for and what we’ve built.
…to see growth in finances.
…to see success in programs.
…to have better organizational efficiency and productivity.
…because that is what good leadership brings.
…for sake of unity itself.

All of those things can be idols—things we worship and pursue, mainly because they make us comfortable and happy.     But, Jesus is no idolater—and he does not pray for unity for the sake of any of those things.

Rather, Jesus is praying for the same thing at the end of this prayer that he prayed at the beginning—the glory of God. Jesus began by praying that the Father would glorify him, so that he could glorify the Father. And, now he gives the church glory and prays for unity so that the church might display God’s glory.

Unity is for the sake of revealing the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That means that we must always be asking the question with every Christian relationship we have—particularly within the local church—of how our behavior in the relationship reveals the glory of God the Father in the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son.

Our unity reveals the Gospel we preach. Our disunity denies it. When the Gospel is at stake, we should always divide. But, whenever we think about dividing, we should always remember that the Gospel is at stake.

• When we part ways with other believers because our pride has been offended, our behavior denies the Gospel we proclaim.    But, when we lay aside our rights, suffer shame and mistreatment, humbly forgive, and continue to love, we reveal the Gospel.
• When we divide with believers because our preferences have been overlooked, we contradict the Gospel. But, when in humility we count others more significant than ourselves and look to the interests of others, we reveal what Jesus did in the Gospel.
• When we severe relationships with believers because we are not able to show off how great are spiritual gifts are—we deny the Gospel, because Jesus did not come to glorify himself. But, when we use our gifts only for the strengthening and building up in love of the entire body, we reveal the Gospel.
• When we leave Christian community because relationships are difficult and inconvenient, we deny the Gospel. But, when we inconvenience ourselves to pursue relationships with others, we show what Jesus did in the Gospel.
• When we shrink back from fellowship and eventually leave because no one in the church seems to notice us, to value us, and to pursue us, we deny the Gospel. Jesus was not esteem and was counted as nothing, overlooked and scoffed at, but continued to serve even those people. And so, when we pursue, serve, love and remain committed to those who seem to have forgotten us, we show the world what the Gospel is.

Put aside your selfish pride! Church unity is not about you! So often, we divide from other believers, end relationships, or simply give the cold-shoulder to other Christians—we quit attending and then count the days until someone contacts us—because our pride (our glory) has been offended. But what we are doing when we refuse to humbly, self-sacrificially forgive and serve other believers is not to protect our glory—but to hide and deny the glory of God in Christ.

Jesus Christ was hurt, offended, mistreated, hated, rejected, and wronged by the people the Father gave to him. And his response was to love those very people and generously give everything he had—even his own life in an agonizing death—for their good! When the world rejected God, his response was not to move away from the world. Rather, he pursued a relationship with them all the more strongly.

So, what does the glory of God look like in Christian unity? It means that when we are offended, mistreated, hated, rejected and wronged by other Christians, we do not withdraw. We do not pout. We do not slink back and lick our wounds and throw a pity-party. Rather, we pursue. We inconvenience ourselves. We prefer our offender. We forgive. We sacrifice for their good. We love to the point of death.

And we do this because we love the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ more than we love ourselves.

Remember, Jesus prayed.What a calling! This is scary. This is hard. This is painful. This is impossible with man.

But just as Jesus prayed for Peter before he denied him, Jesus has prayed for us. And that is why such unity will be a reality.

The Father has chosen us to be a set-apart, unified people on mission. The Son has prayed that we would be set-apart, unified people on mission. And the Son has died that we might be a set-apart, unified people on mission.

If that is true, then we can pursue such unity and mission  in the confidence that God will give us grace. And, he will. For he cannot deny His Son.

This is What I've Been Trying to Say!!!

And, as always, Piper says it better than I do!



(HT: Z)

The Feast of Faith: The Lord’s Supper in Corporate Christian Worship

©Eric M. Schumacher – Preached September 13, 2009 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Audio available here.

For the past several weeks, we have been examining corporate worship, asking the question of what we are doing in the various elements of corporate worship. The definition of worship that we have been using is:

Christian worship is the response of the believer to the Gospel by presenting the whole self to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Corporate worship is the presentation of the corporate body, the local church, to God in response to the Gospel.

So I want us, before we celebrate this Lord’s Supper, to pause and ask four questions of Scripture—Why? What? Who? and How?:

• Why do we celebrate the Lord’s Supper?
• What are we doing in the Lord’s Supper?
• Who can celebrate the Lord’s Supper?
• How do we celebrate the Lord’s Supper?

Why Do We Celebrate the Lord’s Supper?

We celebrate the Lord’s Supper…

...because it is an ordinance.

We celebrate the Lord’s Supper out of obedience. It is an ordinance. An ordinance is something that is:

1. commanded by Jesus,
2. passed along by His apostles in their writings,
3. and practiced by the early church as recorded in the book of Acts.

Peter Gentry defines ordinances as “symbolic acts that set forth primary facts of the Christian faith.” Baptism, done once, is a picture of us entering a relationship with God through Christ. The Lord’s Supper, repeated often, is a picture of us continuing in that relationship.

Being ordained by Christ, passed along by His apostles and practiced by the early church, they are obligatory for those who believe in Jesus Christ. They do not bring us, or help us attain, salvation. They are pictures of the reality of our relationship with God through Christ. Since they are ordained, all Christians are obliged to practice and affirm them. Since they are pictures of our covenant relationship with God, only those who have entered that relationship through faith in Christ should be allowed to participate.

...to remember Christ’s death. (vv. 24-25)

Jesus said twice, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is a meal to be repeated by Christians to remember Christ and His death for us.

There are a number of things we should be careful to say it is not:

These elements are not literally Christ’s body and blood. The elements of communion do not become Christ’s actual flesh and blood. We can say this for a number of reasons:

1) Christ used symbolic/figurative language. He said, “This is my body. This is my blood.” This is like when the Psalmist says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” He does not mean that he himself is a sheep, which walks on all fours, eats grass and says “baaaa, baaaa.” And he does not mean that God is a man who lives in the fields with a flock of animals and guides them with a great big shepherd’s crook. He means that God cares for him like a shepherd cares for his sheep.

2) The Passover festival, which the Lord’s Supper is patterned after, was a memorial dinner, eaten to remember what God did for them. This meal is the same.

3) The pagan festivals at the same time were also symbolic. It would have been assumed that any such meal was symbolic, unless that was a clear explanation stating otherwise. We do not have such an explanation.

4) Jesus said twice, “This is my body, my blood.” He could have said, “This becomes my body.” Just as the gospel says of Jesus’ first miracle, “The water had become wine.”

This is not a new offering of Christ’s sacrifice. As Hebrews 9:24-28 explains, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice cannot be repeated. His sacrifice is “symbolized,” not presented again (re-presented). He was offered “once for all:”

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

This is not a means of receiving saving grace. John wrote his gospel so that we might, “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing we may have life in his name.” Eternal life comes by truly believing that Jesus was the Christ, the one who died for our sins. John’s purpose in writing his gospel was for people to have eternal life. John’s gospel is the only one that does not mention the Lord’s Supper. If taking the Lord’s Supper was a way of receiving saving grace, couldn’t we expect John to mention it? However, he does not. He says that by believing we have life in his name.

This is not a meal that gives us eternal life. It is a meal that pictures how we receive eternal life. Jesus spoke of himself as the “bread come down from heaven.” He said that the manna in the Old Testament pointed to him. We need to “eat his flesh” he said, to be nourished by the true food (John 6:55). This is speaking of receiving Christ and believing in Him.

How are you nourished by food and drink? When you are thirsty and there is a cool, clear, mountain stream running nearby, how do you satisfy your thirst? You kneel down and drink. You don’t get up and do a lot of work for the water and then it satisfies you. You simply receive it and are satisfied. It, because of what it is, meets your needs.

This is how we are saved. We are convicted of our sin, we see our need for Christ to die for us and to have his righteousness counted to us. Then we receive the message as the true Gospel by which we are saved. This is what we do in the Lord’s Supper. We take the elements and put them in our mouth and eat. We don’t add anything to them. We simply receive them, just as we simply receive the gospel.

What Are We Doing?

We are Worshiping…

1) …by Remembering Christ’s Saving Sacrifice. (“This is my body…” v. 24)

Jesus, the night before He was crucified, told his disciples to go and prepare the Passover meal. He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Jesus desired to eat this particular Passover with his disciples, because he was going to fill the old meal with new meaning and significance. Jesus deliberately chose the Passover Meal to institute the Lord’s Supper because as the Passover memorialized Israel’s redemption from slavery to Egypt, the Lord’s Supper would memorialize his people’s redemption from slavery to sin.

The Passover celebration and the seven-day festival that followed (the feast of the Unleavened Bread) were the most theologically significant days in the life of a Jewish person. They recalled Israel’s deliverance from almost 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The Lord was going to deliver his people by going through the land of Egypt and killing all the first-born in the land. The Jews were to take a spotless lamb and slaughter it. They were to collect its blood and spread it over the door posts of their houses. The Lord would “pass over” those houses covered by the blood of the lamb and they would be saved from death.

Along with the lamb, the Israelites’ meal included unleavened bread. It had no yeast in it because they were leaving in a hurry and did not have time to wait for dough to rise. The Jews continued to repeat this meal yearly. It memorialized the non-repeatable event of God delivering them from slavery and death. Its purpose was a backward glance to produce hearts of gratitude, thankfulness, and love toward the God who delivered them.

Jesus transforms this meal into a new institution. No longer does this meal symbolize Yahweh delivering Israelites from slavery by the blood of a spotless baby sheep. It now symbolizes God delivering us from our sins and death by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, which is the fulfillment of what the Exodus pointed toward. Through Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb, we take part in the New Exodus.

Just like the Passover blood, Christ’s blood is a shield against God’s wrath. We were slaves to sin. God was rightly angry at our sin. We were sentenced to die for our rebellion against God. But Christ, like the Passover Lamb, died in our place. 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.”

So, if Christ takes the role of the Lamb, why is it we eat bread at the Lord’s Supper and not lamb-meat? For one thing, Jesus was focusing attention Himself being the “bread come down from heaven.” He is showing us that He is the true “manna” the bread that kept His people alive in the wilderness. And we, having been delivered, are kept alive by continually feast on Him, being nourished by Him, abiding in Him, not through this meal, but through faith.

Christ is drawing attention to the fact that the yearly sacrifice of a lamb was about to become redundant. It would no longer be necessary to sacrifice a lamb each year to have fellowship with God.

Fellowship with God is restored and preserved by One Sacrifice of One Lamb. Fellowship comes, not through a yearly, monthly or weekly ceremony, but by truly eating His body and drinking His blood—that is, by having faith in His substitution death on the cross for our sins. And this is now symbolized in the Lord’s Supper. His body was broken for us.

This is an act of worship because it highlights the value of Christ’s work. We come to the Lord’s Table needy, sinful, dependent and helpless guests. The Lord comes as the host of the meal, who provides, serves, cares for and redeems. In this act, we display the value of Christ’s work as the all-sufficient, life-giving source of our salvation.

2) …by Celebrating the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood.

This meal is also a celebration of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. Jesus says (v 25), “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

The idea of covenant is one of the Bible’s central themes. It has to do with establishing a relationship between two parties. After God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, He made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. This covenant established a relationship that was to be marked by love, loyalty, and trust. He would be their God and they would be His people.

However, this covenant was broken by the people’s unfaithfulness to Yahweh. They repeatedly refused to follow God’s standards for the relationship. There was nothing wrong with the Old Covenant that led to it being broken. The covenant was good. The hearts of the people were bad. They were sinful and therefore unable to keep its requirements.

So God, in Jesus, initiated a New Covenant by a better sacrifice. The Old Covenant was good, but the New Covenant is better. It is based on a sacrifice that does not need to be repeated each year. It is a sacrifice given once for all.

We find God’s promise of the New Covenant recorded in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The New Covenant is also better because of the work God will do in the hearts of His people. He will write the law, not on tablets of stone, but on their hearts. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” In addition, the result: “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” God will give His people new hearts and remove their sin by forgiving it. “I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”

The New Covenant is better because God takes it upon Himself to ensure that both parties will keep the covenant. He will completely remove their sin. He will bring about an inner transformation of the heart. And as a result of His work, there will be intimate relationship between the Lord and His people. The new covenant is as sure as the sun and the sea, as fixed as the order of the moon and the stars. It is indestructible, unbreakable, and eternal, because of the work of the Lord.

This cup that we drink today represents that covenant. The cup represents Jesus blood shed to bring about complete removal of our sins. Through trusting in His work, and His work alone, we are forgiven, pardoned, and our sins are remembered no more.

This cup is a reminder of the work God did on the cross to fulfill His promise, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

This is an act of worship because we are confessing and celebrating what God has provided in Christ. We do not drink this to get saved. That would insult the value of Christ’s blood. It would imply that Christ’s blood needs something added to it to redeem us. We drink to celebrate what his blood has accomplished.

3) …by presenting “the body” to Christ in response to the Gospel.

The Lord’s Supper is something that we do corporately, as fellow members in the covenant community. When Paul was giving these instructions on the Lord’s Supper, he was writing to a church, to a community of believers who were committed to fellowship with one another and to help one another live out the Christian faith.

In verses 17, 18, 20, 33 and 34, Paul uses the phrase “when you come together” five times, all in reference to this teaching on the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is celebrated when the body gathers.

Paul gives these instructions to the church. He says, (v 23) “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you” and (v 26) “For as often as you drink it.” “You” is plural. It is to “more than one” Christian. This meal is not given to individuals, but to a community of believers. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16 “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.” By eating this bread, we are saying that we are participants in the “body of Christ,” the church.

In the context of 1 Corinthians 11, the problem that we find is that certain people were neglecting other members of the body. Some members of the body were going without while other members of the body were over-indulging. Paul says that they were not eating “the Lord’s supper” when they acted like that. If that was to be their behavior, they might as well have gone home.

The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to redeem his church. Such a proclamation should be matched in the lives of those taking it. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we should be living lives of selfless sacrifice for the good of other members of the body of Christ, the church. Those who are not committed to the church in loving service should not take this meal.

This is why the Baptist Faith & Message (2000), the summary of Southern Baptist belief, says, “The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church…” Now, this does not necessarily mean that you must be a member of Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa to take the Lord’s Supper here. But what it is saying is that you should be committed to a local body of believers. And, it is saying that those who have forsaken the body of Christ and are not committed to the covenant community shouldn’t take it. To take this meal is to say, “I am a part of the community formed by the covenant in Christ’s blood.” If the way we live our lives says otherwise, and we take this meal, we are lying.

Furthermore, in this meal, we (the church) are in communion with Christ. Just as this meal is an act of fellowship with one another in the body of Christ, there is also a deep and mysterious fellowship with Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:20 that those who participate in pagan festivals are actually participating with demons. In the same way, we who participate in this meal are enjoying a spiritual fellowship with Christ. This is why it is essential that we examine our lives for sin before participating.

4) …by Expressing Our Future Hope in the Return of Christ.

Paul says, (v 26) “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” This meal is to be continued by the church until Christ returns. We celebrate the fact that the one who died for us will return for us. We celebrate what happened and what will happen.

We believe, as Christians, in Jesus' bodily and physical return in glory. Titus 2:13 calls Christ’s return our “blessed hope.” Psalm 98 is a call for all the earth to rejoice and be joyful. Why? “For He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.”

Why is it good news that God will judge the world? It is good news because when “His kingdom comes” He will judge his enemies and punish them. He will set right the wrongs done in the world. He will reward His people. It is day on which those who are counted righteous in Christ through faith in Him will be given glorified bodies and reign forever with Christ on the new heavens and new earth.

When this happens, we will no longer eat this meal. We will no longer need a reminder, because we will dine at the marriage feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:6).

This is an act of worship, because it proclaims to the world that we are awaiting something better. You speak about what you value.

5) …by Proclaiming the Gospel.

The final thing we are doing is evangelism. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the Gospel, of Jesus Christ crucified for sins and raised from the dead. This is a simple and visible way for observers to see what Christ did for us. As we proclaim what this means and then eat, unbelievers see what it means to be a Christian and to receive Christ by faith.

This is not a meal for unbelievers to participate in. Doing this will not save you. You could take this meal every day for the rest of your life and not be pleasing to God. We become pleasing to God by trusting in the death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. This meal expresses that.

Who?

The Lord’s Supper may be celebrated by baptized believers who are persevering in the faith and are committed to the fellowship of a local assembly of believers.

Baptism is an expression of our entering into a relationship with God through Christ. The Lord’s Supper is an expression of continuing that faith relationship.

We only see the Lord’s Supper being eaten in the context of a local church in the New Testament. We only see baptized believers being admitted into the membership of the local church. So, it we can deduce that only baptized believers would be participating in the Lord’s Supper.

This meal is a sign of our continuing relationship with Christ. This is a relationship of faith and obedience. Only those who are feasting on Christ by faith should participate. We are identifying with Christ in this meal. We are saying, “I trust in Him and receive Him.” If this isn’t true of us, we are lying.

How?

We should eat the Lord’s Supper as an act of worship—trusting in and treasuring Christ.

In verse 27, Paul says that it is possible to eat the bread and drink the cup in an “unworthy manner.” Such eating and drinking makes one “guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

This implies that we ought to eat and drink in a “worthy manner.” But, what can that possibly mean? It does not mean that our lives have earned or merited Christ’s work. The whole point of the Lord’s Supper is that we are sinners who have been freely and graciously redeemed by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. To eat and drink in a “worthy manner” means to partake in a way that displays the value of Christ’s sacrifice.

Paul says that there were some eating who weren’t “discerning the body.” They weren’t stopping to consider what this meal was and what it meant. They weren’t examining their lives to see if what they were saying in the Lord’s Supper reflected the reality of their lives. As a result, they were being judged and disciplined. Paul says that there were people in their congregation who were “weak and ill, and some had died” because they were eating this meal without examining themselves. This seems like an outdated and superstitious idea, but it is what Scripture says.

This was not an outbreak of God’s anger. He was not punishing them with his wrath. Verse 32 tells us that this is discipline given “so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” The world will be condemned under the wrath of God. God disciplines his children so that they will not be condemned. (Thus, discipline is not punishment for sin, but the infliction of pain for the sake perseverance in faith.)

They should instead examine themselves and eat and drink “discerning the body.” They should eat and drink understanding the sacrificial nature of Christ’s sacrificial death and its implications for the church. Their selfish behavior in neglecting and mistreating the rest of the church body was a symptom of the fact that they did not value what Christ had done.

To eat and drink in a worthy manner is to eat and drink in faith—trusting in and treasuring the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is the only person who will benefit from the meal—the person who comes and eats because they treasure what Jesus Christ has provided through his death and resurrection.