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Eating With Jesus

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There is something special that happens when we sit down to enjoy meals together. You've heard the saying: "A family that prays together stays together." Predominantly, where do families pray together? Yep...at mealtime.

Often, the best discussions we have all week in our home are at the dinner table (evening meal for those of you who insist on calling it supper). :) We enjoy a congregational meal once a month together - why do we do this? Because often times there is relationship building that happens at those tables unlike what occurs in the sanctuary & in the SS classrooms.

I bring this up because I often have a lot of confusion over the Lord's Supper (yes...being an elder does not prohibit one from confusion). Why do we do it & what am I supposed to get out of it?

I often think that I need to unearth a spiritual high from the Lord's Supper. So, at times I do things like looking through the juice cup at my fingers to remind myself that it should be my blood spilt instead of the Lord Jesus'. Why do I do that? I think it's because I'm just trying to feel something emotionally. Maybe it's that I believe, at times, that a greater sense of guilt breeds a greater sense of need for Jesus. I've been convicted of that. Maybe it's because my old Roman Catholic roots are showing themselves.

Regardless, the question needs to be asked: what should my response to the Lord's Supper be? In other words, what are the main things that our Lord has instituted "on the night that He was betrayed"??

In this piece, I do not desire to go into a lengthy explanation of the theological constructs of the Lord’s Supper and the HOW or WHEN of the Lord’s Supper---although suffice it to say that there is rich, deep theological beauty there to behold. For the sake of simplicity, I wanted to convey what I’ve been chewing on lately on how to rightly approach the Lord’s Supper and even enjoy it as we celebrate it monthly.

After talking to Richard and reading excerpts from What is the Lord’s Supper? by Richard D. Phillips (found in the back of the church), I surmised the following: we can glorify God and enjoy Him in the Lord’s Supper by Remembering, Receiving, and Rejoicing (isn’t alliteration fun?).

Remember that God keeps His promises! A long time ago, as God was busting His people out of slavery from Egypt, He instituted something called Passover (Exodus 12). God’s people were instructed to take a “lamb without blemish” and kill it, paint their exterior doorposts with the blood of the lamb, and then eat it. This was done in obedience to the Lord as He was coming down to Egypt to kill the firstborn in the land---and so it was that God came and killed the firstborn of every household (and even the livestock!) in Egypt except for His people who had sacrificed the Passover lamb in obedience to God. God made a way for His people to be spared!!

We celebrate this every first Sunday of the month! God has made a way for His people to be spared from the coming judgment that will be upon all sins and sin-doers (this includes us!). Except that we don’t need a lamb from a farm somewhere---God has provided a “Passover” lamb for us---Jesus is the Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world”!! (John 1:29) We honor God and can enjoy Him in the Lord’s Supper as we remember how He has kept His promises for His people and provided a way of salvation for us!!

We must Receive this gift! The gift of Jesus is received by faith. (Ephesians 2:8) It’s not something that He requires that we come up with. Rather, just like in Egypt, God is the Giver and we receive His gift by faith. This is a call to all of us to privately talk to the Lord during the Lord’s Supper that we would (whether it’s for the first time or the 912th time) receive His gift of mercy, salvation, relationship, & hope eternal by believing on God the Son!!

We may then Rejoice!! There is a time to be somber when considering our sin before Him---but we must also rejoice at the grace upon grace that He offers us in Jesus. The design of the Lord’s Supper is not just: “eat this” and “drink that” and you better remember what I’ve done for you! Rather, if we have received Jesus by faith, we are then able to rejoice and even eat with Him!! He invites us to His table to eat and drink with Him and celebrate Him and who He is for us.

And, as Richard has often said from the pulpit: “The best is yet to come!” The “meal” that we enjoy at the Lord’s Supper is just a very small reminder of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22) that is being prepared for all of God’s people to enjoy forever more. This will be no small party.
I hope that this is of some encouragement to all of you as we look to the Lord’s Supper again in June!

1 Comment

The word "remember" has the greatest covenantal implication for us. Thanks for your insight.

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