What we are about to do tonight is observe an event that is over 2000 years old! We are going to observe the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is the Gospel for the eye.

Christmas is all about the Saviour’s coming to die for us, and in the Lord’s Supper we focus on Him that came.

I. THE MEANING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

There are two or three views of what taking the Lord's Suppermeans.

A.One is calledtransubstantiation.

It teaches that when you partake of the wafer and the cup, it literally becomes the body and the blood of Jesus.

B.Another is calledconsubstantiation.

This means that the elements do not literallybecome the body and blood of Christ, but they become the actual presence of Christ at thetaking of the Supper.

C.Then there is MEMORIALIZATION.

This is what Baptist believethat the Bible teaches. The bread and the juice are very powerful symbols of the body or the blood of Jesus, but it is a symbol only.

When Jesus said, "I am the door,"do we believe that Jesus is literally a door? No, we don't believe that. We believe that Jesus was giving a picture of what He is.

It is natural today, to point to a representation of something and say that the representation is the thing. For example, I look at a photograph of our house and say, “This is our house.” It would not enter anyone’s mind to think I mean that the photograph was transformed into my house.

In the same way we are to see the Lord’s Supper.

II. The message of the Lord’s Supper

If it a symbol, then it has got to have some meaning behind it.

A. We look backwardat the Supper inappreciation.

Jesus died for you and I. The reason Jesus established the bread and the cup as symbols and pictures of His death is so that we will never forget that He died for us.

C. H. Spurgeon, nearing the close of life, said to a friend: “I am tranquil and happy, though very weak. My theology now is very simple. I can express it in four words. I don’t say they contain all you should preach, or that they are sufficient to live by, but I know they are enough to die on.”

“Now, what are they?” asked the friend.

After a pause, he said, slowly: “JESUS DIED FOR ME.”

I need no other argument

I need no other plea

It is enough that Jesus died

And that He died for me.

WE NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH ONE LOVES UNTIL WE KNOW HOW MUCH ONE IS WILLING TO ENDURE AND SUFFER FOR US; AND IT IS THE SUFFERING THAT MEASURES LOVE.

B.We lookinwardat the Supper in evaluation.

I Corinthians 11:27

Observance is to be followed only after personal examination (28). Before we partake of the Lord's Supper we should do an intense searching of the heart to see if here is any un-confessed sin in our life.

You had better not come to the Lord’s supper with things in your life that are not right and with a deliberate refusal to make them right.

1.Sins of Commission

2.Sins of Omission

  • Some are sick because of it – verse 30a
  • Some are dead because of it – verse 30b
  • All will be chastened because of it – verse 32

The Lord's Supper is a time when you are to do two things with any sin in your life.

1. Identify It

You ask God before you take the supper - Is there any sin in your life that you need to deal with?

2. Rectify It

Confess it and admit it and ask forgiveness for it.

C. We look forwardat the Supper inanticipation.

I Corinthians 11:26

When we participate in, and partake of the Lord's supper, we are not only looking back to the cross, but we are looking forward to His coming again!

It looks backward to a cross. It looks upward to the clouds.

There is a historical purpose in the Lord's supper, and there is a prophetical purpose in the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a proclamation of what has happened and an expectation of what will yet happen.

I read recently about a church building in Poland that had been reduced to rubble by repeated bombing in WWII. After the war, the congregation was too poor to buy new materials to rebuild the church, so they broke the rubble into smaller pieces, mixed in concrete and rebuilt the church with those recycled materials from the first building. When it was complete they wrote the following words over the door, "Lift up your hearts!"

Well, the Lord's Supper is also a heart-lifting experience. It's a time to lift up our hearts and ponder the sure promise of Christ's return.

The Lord's Supper reminds us as forgetful human beings of Jesus' sacrifice, of His great Love, and of His promised return.

III. THE MANDATE OF THE LORD SUPPER

See verse24,25-“this do….this do”

A.Scripturally ORDERED

It is a divine mandate.It is acommand we are obey.

Now, I think pastors are responsible a great deal for the fact that so many people have lost the importance of the Lord's Supper simply because they put it at the end of the service (as an afterthought).

B.Specifically OBEYED

THIS DO.…THIS DO. It is not an optional but is an obligation.

To not participate it in the Lord’s Supper is disobedience to a divine command. Our observance of the Lord’s Supper is not left to human choice; it is not to be neglected.

Conclusion

The Lord's Supper is probably the most eloquent sermon about the death of Jesus that could ever be preached.

The Lord's Supper proclaims the infinite worth of Christ. No one is more worthy to be proclaimed than Jesus Christ.

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VBC December 2011