September 4, 2009

This coming Lord’s Day we have the great privi-
lege of sitting down to share a meal with our Savior
and Bridegroom. The Lord’s Supper was instituted
by Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed.
Have you ever wondered why Paul includes that last
phrase, “on the night in which He was betrayed”?
Part of the reason is that he wants to draw our at-
tention to the incredible love of our Savior for us –
just before He was about to enter His greatest suf-
fering, at the hands of men and God, He was think-
ing about you and me. He knew that our faith would
need propping up. He knew that we would doubt
His love for us. He knew that we would falter and
faint along the way. So He gave us this sign of His
covenant faithfulness, a physical sign since we live (as
He does forevermore) in a body.
We do at least three things as we eat and drink
at the Lord’s Supper: commemorate, commune, and
anticipate. We commemorate: “Do this in remem-
brance of Me.” This has reference to the past. We
remember the once-for-all, unrepeatable event of
our Lord’s death. We show forth His death; we de-
clare to all that the heart of the good news is a
bloody cross. There He bore our sins in His body,
and our sins were forgiven. There God’s wrath was
satiated, and He was reconciled to us. But it’s not
just that we remember that event – we remember
our Lord Himself. We remember that He who pos-
sessed all glory and riches became poor and suffered
for our sakes. He who knew no sin became sin for
us so that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him. We remember that the righteous shall
live by faith (a truth Habakkuk will teach us this
coming Lord’s Day).
We also commune. There is a present aspect to
what we will do this Sunday morning. The One
whose death we commemorate is living and present
with us. Jesus Christ is present at the table; He is the
host. We commune with our Savior in the eating of
the bread and the drinking of the cup. “Is not the
cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood
of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing
in the body of Christ?” (I Cor. 10:16). In Him are all
spiritual blessings; by His Holy Spirit and by faith we
partake of all that is in Him. You who eat with faith,
repentance, and love will feed upon His body and
blood – not literally (the bread and the wine remain
bread and wine), but spiritually. We are nourished
spiritually, and grow in grace as we remember what
our sin deserves and Christ’s death in our place. As
we eat we renew our thankfulness and our commit-
ment to God, as well as our love and fellowship with
one another, as members of the body of Christ. We
declare our willingness to walk in the steps our Savior
trod, suffering for His sake and the sake of the gospel.
Finally, at the Lord’s Supper we anticipate. We
“proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” We must
not forget the future aspect to what we will do Sun-
day. There will one day be a presence of Jesus bodily
and visibly, and seeing Him we will be made like Him!
This sacrament will be no more, for the marriage sup-
per of the Lamb will be at hand. We anticipate that
day every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper.
In light of these three realities, the believer looks
in four directions as he/she comes to the Lord’s Ta-
ble: within, back, forward, and around. 1) Within. Ex-
amine yourself, says Paul in I Cor. 11:28. Look for sin
to confess, for knowledge of Christ and of what the
Lord’s Supper is all about, for faith to feed upon Him,
for repentance, love, and new obedience. 2) Back.
Look to Christ, who died to forgive your sins, who
suffered that you might be reconciled to God, who
drank the cup of God’s wrath that you might drink
the cup of God’s blessing. 3) Forward. Look with joy
to the second coming, when we will feast with our
heavenly Bridegroom in person. 4) Around. We must
discern or judge the body, says Paul in I Cor. 11. That
is, we must realize that we are not only in union and
communion with Christ, but with one another, and
are called to love and serve one another and forgive
one another as God in Christ has served and forgiven
us. Parents and grandparents, I encourage you to use
these words as you discuss the Lord’s Supper with
your children and grandchildren – especially if they
are not yet communing members. Let us pray that
God would continue to work the reality and the ma-
turity of faith into our hearts and the hearts of our
children’s children, and that this coming celebration of
the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper would indeed be a
means of grace to us all.
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We began Wednesday night adult small groups this
week, and new Sunday School classes begin this Sun-
day; please note the various offerings later on in the
newsletter. These times of fellowship and instruction
are a wonderful way to get to know in a more inti-
mate way the body of Christ, the word of God, and
the God of the word, and I encourage you to partici-
pate as you are able.
Your Pastor,
Caleb