Title:
The Lord’s Table
Text:
Luke 22: 17-20
Date:
February 1, 2015
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Luke 22: 17: And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among
yourselves: 18: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
until the kingdom of God shall come. 19: And he took bread, and gave thanks,
and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given
for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20: Likewise also the cup after supper,
saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for
you.
Our
subject is “The Lord’s Table.” We see here how the Lord established this
ordinance. The things we see here are from the Lord Jesus himself, not from
man’s tradition. They are scriptural. These things are honoring to Christ
alone. These are things we need to know if we would truly, obediently observe
this ordinance.
WHAT THIS ORDINANCE IS NOT
This ordinance
is not to be used for preachers to lord over men. The pope attempts to put
himself in Christ’s place. Men bow before him, open their mouth, and stick out
their tongue. He dips a wafer in wine and lays it on their tongue. They claim the bread and wine actually turns
into the body and blood of Christ. The pope claims to have authority over men’s
salvation. If he refuses you the bread and the wine, which they claim is the
body and blood of Christ, then you are lost. Thereby, he can keep you in bondage
to him; thereby, they extort money from men and women. That is not what Christ
did. “He took the cup and he gave thanks and he said, ‘Take this, and divide it
among yourselves.’”
Sadly,
many preachers put themselves in place of Christ, determining who can and cannot
come to the Lord’s Table. Our Lord gave it to his disciples and said, “You
divide it among yourselves.” The purpose of this ordinance is not to see how
many people we can exclude. It is to remember the Lord. There is only one Lord,
one Christ. Popes, priests and preachers are not him.
THIS DO
The
Lord gives us clear instructions concerning this ordinance. He said, “This do.”
We are to do what the Master said, not add to it or take from it. This is a
very simple service. The Lord instituted this ordinance as they were finishing
eating the last Passover meal. They did not put on special clothing. His
disciples were not kneeling before the Lord. They were sitting around a table. The
Lord did not make Peter a pope and say pass down this office over the ages. They
were all together and together they ate the bread and drank the wine.
We are
not to try to create a mysterious religious atmosphere. Nothing about any part
of our worship should ever be phony. Worship is serious and we take it serious.
But I preach in the same voice I speak in. We cannot create spirituality by
changing our clothes, our voice, or our facial expressions. Only God can give
us a heart of worship in spirit and in truth. Attempting to affect people by an
outward show in the flesh is deadly.
NOT A MASS
This is
not a mass. It is not a perpetual repetition of Christ’s death. Christ died
once. This is a memorial to remember his death. The whole purpose is summed up in these words,
“This do in remembrance of me.” It is to be done in remembrance of Christ. There
are two simple elements involved: bread and wine. Bread represents the body of
our Lord—“This is my body which is given for you.” The wine represents the
blood of our Lord—“This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is
shed for you.” (Lu 22:20) Christ’s body was broken one time. His blood was shed
one time. Christ knew who he laid down his life for—“my body which is given for
you…my blood which is shed for you.” “And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever,
sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies
be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified.” (Heb 10: 11-14)
BELIEVERS ONLY
Here is
why this ordinance is to be observed only by believers. Christ said, “This do
in remembrance of me.” No one can remember one whom you have never known. We have
to know Christ before we can remember Christ. This one statement settles who
should and who should not come to the table, “This do in remembrance of me.” To the believer he says, “This do.” Every believer—born of Christ, redeemed by
Christ, resting in Christ—is commanded to come to the table to remember your
Savior. But those who do not know him,
do not rest in him, ought not come because you cannot remember someone you have
never known.
Each
believer should examine himself. Not to
find worthiness in us. Our worthiness is
not in how we have put away our sin. If that determined our worthiness then no
believer could partake. The apostle Paul tells us we are to examine ourselves
because our worthiness is in discerning the Lord’s body.
1 Corinthians 11 23: For I have received of the Lord that
which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in
which he was betrayed took bread: 24: And when he had given thanks, he brake it,
and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me. 25: After the same manner also he took the cup, when
he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye,
as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26: For as often as ye eat
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 27: Wherefore
whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28: But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29: For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
The one
qualification for coming to the table is spiritual discernment to remember the
Lord Jesus Christ. I am to examine
myself. Do I know Christ? Is Christ all my hope? Do I rest in Christ as all my
salvation, apart from any works or merit in me?
If I am resting in Christ—in his shed blood and broken body—then according
to the Master nothing prevents me from coming to the table of my Lord!
The
same is true of the other ordinance. God-given faith in Christ is the one thing
necessary for baptism. After hearing the
gospel of Christ, “the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder
me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart,
thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both
into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” (Ac 8:37-38)
REMEMBER CHRIST’S
INCARNATION
First,
by the bread and the wine we remember that the Son of God became a real man. We
use real bread and real wine. The bread
represents Christ’s real body, “This is my body…”; the wine represents Christ’s
real blood, “This cup is the new testament in my blood.” The
Son of God actually became a Man. As we take the bread and the wine, as we feel
it and taste it, remember our God, our Savior, became a real Man—the GodMan.
Our Mediator is God and Man in one person.
REMEMBER CHRIST’S HOLINESS
Secondly, the bread and wine remind us that
Christ is holy. They were using unleavened bread. We know that because it
is what was required at the Passover—“the feast of unleavened bread.” (Lu 2:
21) When they ate the Passover, they were to go through their house and take
all the leaven out of the house. (Ex 13: 7) The bread we use is unleavened and
the wine is the pure wine of the grape with no mixture of water with the wine. Why?
In the
scripture, leaven is a type of evil, of sin, of glorying in self rather than
God. The Lord told his disciples to beware of the leaven of the scribes and
Pharisees—their doctrine of self-will, self-worth and self-works. (Mt 16:
11-12) Paul told the Corinthians, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye
not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old
leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old
leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1Co 5:6-8)
Our
Lord and Savior was without sin. He was perfect in his flesh, his body, his
blood. Christ knew no sin. The corrupt blood of Adam did not flow through
Christ’s veins. So as we eat this unleavened bread and this pure wine, remember
our Substitute was pure and holy.
REMEMBER CHRIST’S SUFFERING AND DEATH
Thirdly,
these elements remind us of Christ’s suffering and death. The wine and the bread are separate. When our
blood and our flesh is together we are alive but when they are separated, we
die.
Christ
took bread, separate from the wine. He said, “This is my body given.” Then he
took wine, separate from the bread, saying, “This is my blood, which is shed.”
These two elements are to remind us of the suffering and death of our Savior.
Our
Redeemer won the victory over sin and death by suffering at the hands of wicked
men, at the hands of evil, and at the hands of justice. His visage was marred more than any other
man. Christ’s soul was in an agony. The
greatest suffering came from being separated from God his Father in justice. He
cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Is 52: 14; Lu 22: 44; Ps
22: 1) So as we hold this bread which is broken and as we drink this wine poured
out, remember Christ’s suffering unto death.
REMEMBER CHRIST’S SUBSTITUTION
Fourthly,
the bread and wine is to remind us of Christ’ substitution for us. He said, “This is my body which is given for
you; this is my blood which is shed for you.” Believer, in your stead, in your
place, Christ gave his body to be broken and his blood to be poured out to
satisfy divine justice for you. By
satisfying divine justice by his death, the Prince of life declare God just and
the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus. (Rom 3: 26)
Notice
the words “for us”: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor 5: 21); “Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Gal 3: 13); “Walk
in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” (Eph 5: 2)
You who are born of the Spirit of God, who rest in Christ
your only Righteousness, as you eat this bread and drink this wine, hear Christ
say to you personally, “This is my body which is given for you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for
you.” You are justified freely because
he gave his body and blood for you; eternally redeemed from the curse because he
gave himself for you; perfected forever by his one offering for you.
REMEMBER OUR LIVING UNION WITH CHRIST
Lastly,
this ordinance reminds us of our living union with Christ. Christ gave the bread and wine and commanded
them, “Take, eat; take drink.” Remember what Christ said of himself,
John 6: 51: I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread
that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52: The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? 53: Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life
in you. 54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.
God the
Father put his elect in Christ before the foundation of the world making us eternally
one with him. We were in Christ when he
was crucified so that we gave the law all that it demanded of us even as Levi
paid tithes in Abraham because he was in Abraham’s loins. When Christ arose and
sat down at God’s right hand we arose and sat down together with him because of
our union with him.
Yet,
Christ said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you.” The Jews had no
idea what he meant. The unregenerate in our day do not know, either. Christ
said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn 6: 63) By
nature, we were dead in sins. Every child for whom Christ died be united with
Christ in the experience of grace and believe on him or we have no life in us.
We see an
illustration of how Christ brings this about in the way Christ gave the bread
and wine to his disciples. Christ
entered the upper room where his disciples were. When Christ enters us in
Spirit through his gospel, Christ becomes the life of our inner man. As he did physically
at the table, spiritually, Christ commands us, “Take, eat! Take, drink! Believe
on me!” That is how Christ gave us life and the gift of faith! That is when we believed
and began resting in Christ!
Christ
says we are not merely to look at Christ and admire him! But it is absolutely
necessary that every elect, redeemed child of God eat his flesh and drink his
blood. It is a must that we experience this living union with Christ and
believe on him or we have no spiritual life in us.
The
bread and the wine of our Lord’s table is not his flesh and his blood; it is
bread and wine. But as you take this
bread and wine, eat it, and it becomes one with you, remember that Christ has
given you life, making you one with him experimentally. Oh, what a wonderful,
mysterious, living union! Christ said, “I in them, and thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (Jn 17: 23) We shall never be
separated from him.
What a
beautiful, simple, ordinance! As we eat this bread and drink this wine: remember,
the Son of God became a Man; remember Christ is holy; remember the suffering
and death of our Redeemer; remember, Christ’s substitution for us; remember our
living union with him. He said, “This do in remembrance of me.”
Amen!