Last Lord's Day morning, we looked at the doctrine, the matter of believers' baptism, which is one of two ordinances that Christ has appointed for his people, the Church. Baptism is one, and the Lord's Supper is the other. Ordinances. Sometimes people have called them sacraments, probably the clearer way of understanding these things to avoid misunderstanding is to call them ordinances. The word sacrament has tended to convey the idea that by the performing of the ceremony, as it were, there is some peculiar conveying of grace that comes from God, which is a misunderstanding of the things. Ordinance really just means something appointed. and Christ has appointed baptism and Christ has appointed the Lord's Supper. Sometimes it's called the Lord's Table, sometimes it's known as the Communion Service. Now as with baptism, so with the Lord's Supper that it does not save a soul. By coming to the waters of baptism, you are not saved by those waters, And by coming to the Lord's table for the Lord's supper, you are not saved by taking of the symbols, the elements of the bread and the wine. That needs to be very crystal clear in our minds. As baptism is a symbol of salvation already received, so the Lord's supper is a remembrance of a saviour already known. You cannot, as has been repeatedly said, remember one that you have never known. If you haven't known someone, then you need to be introduced to them. The supper is the remembrance of a saviour that the participant already knows. So I hope that clears that up. Something else that needs to be probably spoken about, even today, that the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper do not magically become the actual body or blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is a Roman Catholic heresy, one of many that that body has introduced over the course of the centuries. it does not become the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus said, this is my body, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, and so on and so forth, what he meant was that these things symbolize my body and my blood. If I gave you, or presented you with a photograph of my family, and said, this is my family. Now, none of you would think that the piece of paper that I'm holding in my hand is my actual family. What you would automatically think of is that this represents, this is a symbolic representation of my family. And that's the same thing in the Lord's table, the Lord's supper. This is my body, it's a representation of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romanism has got it badly wrong in that particular respect. But the Lord's Supper is a great means of blessing, and because it's been given to us by the Saviour, as baptism has, it obviously must have a great meaning and be given to convey benefit and blessing to the Lord's people. Now the institution of the Lord's Supper is recorded in three of the gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, Luke all speak of this. And of course the main passage that has to deal with this is given to us in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11. And I'm just going to read some verses from that. from that passage that will be familiar to most of us here this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and from verse 23. 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, and when he had given thanks, He break it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. 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. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 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. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. intending to do this morning is to try to simply explain the meaning and the purpose that is behind the Lord's Supper. As with everything that we've looked at thus far, there's more that needs to be looked at and to be said about these things, but for this morning, what I'm proposing to do is simply to try to explain to you what's behind it. the meaning of it, the purpose, why Christ has given to us such an ordinance as this. To begin with, let us understand that it is something that is commanded by Christ himself, and it's not just some empty tradition that has been invented or introduced by the Church over the years. Paul says in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 11, I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. In other words, all that he's about to say concerning the Lord's Supper is from Christ. Now if you read the letter of Paul to the Galatians, he speaks about the fact that after his conversion, he didn't consult with the other apostles, he went into Arabia. And we can deduce from putting these things together that what Paul means here in verse 23 is that he gained that teaching, that doctrine directly from Christ when he was alone with the Lord in Arabia, and it was when he went back to Jerusalem and started to consult with the other apostles that the gospel doctrine in its very centrality and all of the other doctrines that the apostles had received from the Lord Paul had also received directly from the Saviour while he was on his own with Christ in Arabia. So I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. The Lord's Supper is given by Christ to his apostles to teach in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a commandment then. It comes out very clearly also in verses 24 and 25. When he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And verse 25, similarly, at the end, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. So it's something that is commanded by Christ for his people. And it is commanded by Christ to be observed throughout the whole of the New Testament age. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." So it's an abiding ordinance for the Church of Jesus Christ from the time that it was first instituted with Christ in the upper room with the disciples all the way through until the Savior comes to bring the end of the age. Of course, there's a difference between the two ordinances. You're baptized the once, but the Lord's Supper is something that you come to over and over and over again throughout our lives in this world. And indeed, the supper is to be repeated and regularly so. Verses 25 and 26 again. As oft as ye drink it, as oft as he eat this bread and drink this cup. So it's to be a regular feature of the life of the church of Jesus Christ. Now, when was it first commanded? I think there's a significance in this. You see verse 23. I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, and Paul specifically and deliberately puts this in there, the same night in which he was betrayed. took bread and so forth, the same night in which he was betrayed. Now that statement immediately leads us to the occasion when Christ's sufferings were climbing to a great climax. He had suffered all the way through his life in varying measures, but that suffering was now coming to its great climax, the night in which he was betrayed. Well, we've read Luke's account of that night in which he was betrayed. It was the Passover feast, and Christ and his disciples were gathered together in the upper room for the Passover meal. Now, I don't know how familiar you are with the Passover feast, but roughly speaking, what would have happened is that it would begin with a prayer of thanksgiving, and there would be the drinking of the first cup, which would be the first of four cups of diluted wine that they would drink through the course of the meal. Then there would be the eating of bitter herbs, which was something that would remind the Jews of the bitter experience of their slavery back there in Egypt. And then the son, the eldest son, in a kind of a ceremonial way, say, more or less, not these particular words, but more or less, what sets this night apart from all other nights? And then the father would give a reply which rehearses the events of that first Passover, people of Israel were instructed to take the lamb and to sacrifice the lamb and to apply the blood over the tops of the doors and down the doorposts and where this destroying angel would come over Egypt to destroy the firstborn, the final judgment upon Egypt for Pharaoh's refusal to allow the people to go and But when the destroying angel will see the blood on the doorpost and on the lintel, he would pass over that house and no death would come. So on the Passover feast, this was done to remind the people of all that had happened on that great day. Then after the father had made his reply to the son's question, there would be the singing of part of what's known as the Hallel, the Psalms 113 and 14. And there would be the washing of hands, and then there would be the drinking of the second cup. And then the feast would proceed with the eating of the lamb with unleavened bread, and all the lamb had to be consumed. And then there would be the third cup of wine, And then right at the end there would be the singing of the remaining part of the Hallel, Psalms 115 to 118, and then finally the drinking of the fourth cup. And it's probable that it was during the last part of this feast, as the Lord was with the disciples in the upper room, that the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper. So at the same night in which he was betrayed, that's what the disciples, and the Saviour would have been doing. But betrayed, you see, this very single word introduces the atmosphere, doesn't it, and the mood, and the particular accent of our remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. The same night in which he was betrayed, it takes our minds right away, doesn't it, to his sufferings. The worst sufferings, if you like, were to come the day after upon the cross, but his sufferings were climbing to a pitch. He was betrayed. And the 12 apostles were there, including Judas, in that upper room. Judas had already agreed with the Jewish temple leaders upon that price of 30 pieces of silver as being the price for leading his enemies to Christ as he was to do in the garden of Gethsemane. And there was Judas present in the upper room, concealing his evil wickedness, but he was exposed by Jesus. Matthew, in his account, says that they were exceeding sorrowful when the Lord spoke about him being betrayed, and one by one they all said, is it I, is it I, is it I? And in Matthew's account, It's when the Lord goes on to say, it had been good for that man if he had not been born, that then, Judas says, is it I? And the Lord, Jesus, says to Judas, recorded by John in chapter 13, that thou doest, do quickly. And he sends Judas out of that room to perform that which must be done. is in control of it all. And it was Judas that led the temple authorities to Gethsemane, and there the Lord Jesus gives himself up into their hands. And it is said in the Gospel account so poignantly that when these authorities came to arrest him, Judas stood with them. With them. He had been with Christ, but now he stood with them. The same night in which he was betrayed. Now there are two Psalms that speak about this in advance. One is Psalm 55, but the other is Psalm 41. Listen to this. yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." That's Christ speaking prophetically through his servant. The same night in which he was betrayed, the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Now this same night, this same night of the Passover, really was a kind of signal of the end of the old order and the introduction of the new. The Passover was one of several feasts that the Jews were commanded to observe annually and all of that was a part of the the wider sense of the ceremonials that of course had to be fulfilled by the priestly order in the temple, and you can put the whole thing as a lump together, and you can say that all of that had its significance in that age, but all of it pointed forward in one way or another to Christ who was to come. Now Christ having come and about to go to the cross the next day is even now signalling that all of that old order has come to an end because it's all being fulfilled in what he was to do upon Calvary's cross. And that's why there's this sort of transition from the Passover to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper, look back to a type or a picture or an illustration of what would be done in a grander, far greater way by the Lord Jesus Christ. If God, by his grace, redeemed Israel from death and from slavery in Egypt, Christ was to come and to redeem his people from death and from bondage to sin in a much more wonderful and profound way than Moses could ever do. And so you have the end of the old and the beginning of the new. What the New Testament church is to remember is not redemption from Egypt, but redemption from sin. Redemption from slavery to sin. Deliverance from all that sin brings and an introduction into the kingdom of Christ and into the kingdom of God that will last forever in heaven to come. And all of it, you see, all the blessings that we know as Christian believers, all of them are founded upon what Jesus was doing in those days. It's where it all comes from. We think of our sins being forgiven, we think of ourselves being just before God, we think of ourselves being bound for heaven. Why? How can we think of these things? It's because of what Christ has done. And therefore, just as the people of Israel were taken back to that night when God did that for the people of Israel, so the Lord's Supper takes us back to the sufferings of Jesus that made all that's possible to be true for us as it is today. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. What Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 5 is the fulfilment of the Old Testament type and picture. But why was it commanded? What's the meaning and the purpose of it? This do in remembrance of me. Well a number of things, I'm very conscious whenever I tackle something like this that endless books have been written. Endless books. and probably stating things in a more succinct and helpful way than I'm going to attempt to do this morning. But we have to look at these things and to understand the meaning and the purpose why Christ has given this feast to us. This do in remembrance of me. First of all, given to us to counter our weakness. You might say, well, I haven't forgotten. that Christ died? This do in remembrance of me. Do you mean to say that the Lord Jesus thinks that we might forget that he ever went to Calvary? Well, I don't think that could be true of even the weakest of Christians. So what's behind it? Well, you see, Christ and his atoning work is such a fundamental matter, the central doctrine really of the Christian Church, and the basis for all the blessings that we have. But we are that weak that we can become so taken up with the world, so taken up with our personal troubles, or even so taken up with our pet doctrines, and you come across people that have their pet doctrines, People that, for example, are taken up with election, and that's all they talk about. That's all their focus is upon. Or they're taken up with opposing the Church of Rome, and they will go on and on and on about these things. Or they're taken up with the doctrine of the return of Christ in whatever form they believe that's going to be. And that's all they talk about, it seems. And we can all get absorbed with one thing or another. And just as the Lord's Day brings us back to where we ought to be, doesn't it? Before God in worship and praise and adoration. So the Lord's Supper brings us back to the central focal point of what the Christian faith is all about. The atoning work of Jesus Christ. And woe betide us if we've become so absorbed with something else and not absorbed with the death and the sufferings of our Lord. This is a mercy to us. You understand, don't you, that the Lord's Day is a mercy to us. And the Lord's Supper is a mercy to us. That God would ever bring us back to himself, restoring a right perspective on the world and of our lives. You may come here this morning. You may come to the Lord's Supper if you're a true believer next week. And you may be taken up with some great tragic thing that's going on around you. And what better medicine can you have for your soul than be brought to the Lord's Supper and remember that no matter what is happening, you've a saviour. And he's died for you because he loved you. And he's given himself for you that you might enter heaven at the last. Remember him. Bring him to the forefront of the mind. That's what the Lord's Supper is primarily about. Jesus Christ, Him crucified, the very central focal point of our thoughts and of our hearts as it ought to be, and when we come to the supper, there He is again. We may also, and I have a feeling we're not gonna get through all of this this morning, In fact, I know that we're not, so we'll come back to it next week, which is not such a bad thing, because we'll have the Lord's Supper after the main service. The other thing, of course, is that we may come as true believers very, very conscious of sin and unworthiness. Have you never been like that? Have you never felt that? You almost blush to take up the Bible. You blush to try and pray. You're almost reluctant to call yourself a Christian because you've fallen into some sin. What's the hope for you? Well, the hope is not to run away and pretend it didn't happen and brush things under the carpet. What is the hope? It's to come to the one who says this do in remembrance of me. It brings us to the central message of the gospel, doesn't it? That Christ died for sinners. Oh, I'm a sinner, I'm the worst of sinners. We may all say that. In fact, we may have a debate and an argument and even quarrel about it. Who's the worst sinner? And we'd all say, well, probably I am. But Jesus says, you've trusted in me. This do in remembrance of me. Come back to me. Know again my forgiving grace. Know again my enabling for your life. Know again my willingness to be your saviour, to be your priest, to be your friend, to be the one that will take you into heaven at the last. You know you've sinned. I know you've sinned. You've confessed your sin. and your sin is forgiven. This do in remembrance of me. What a precious thing, isn't it? How distracted we can become. How absorbed with all the things that don't really matter. You know, I've given up trying to get all through this, that's why I'm saying more than I intended to say. but it strikes me, maybe because I'm getting older, but it strikes me that with all of the contentions that go on even among Christians about one thing and another, and things that matter, mark you, how will it be at the end? And how do things fit together in certain ways? And how does that doctrine fit together with that doctrine? At the end of it, as we stand before the judgment throne of Christ, what is the one thing that really matters? What is the one thing that matters more than anything else? It's that Christ has died for sinners. He won't be asking you, did you have a right grasp of eschatology? He won't be judging us according to our view of, let's say, the doctrine of election or providence or church government. Are you a Presbyterian? Are you a Baptist? What are you? Do we have to be one or the other before we enter into heaven? It's this one thing, isn't it, really, that matters? And I don't know about you, but when I come to the end of my days, this is what I want to know. That Christ has died for my sins, and on account of that, God has forgiven me, and God will welcome me into his heaven. This do in remembrance of me. You see the point? the Lord's Supper is given to focus our attention upon the one person and the one work that counts for everything. Now I'm not dismissing other things, I'm not minimizing the importance of getting things right in all kinds of other ways, but that gets to the point where all of those things as they fall away and they become insignificant compared to this one thing. Do this in remembrance of me. Do you know Christ? Do you really know Christ? Do you trust him? Do you walk with him? Do you seek to obey him? We're going to come back to all of this later on. But this is it, you see. Do you know Christ? Is he your saviour? this do in remembrance of me. So to counter our weakness, and I've really trespassed onto the second point already, to bring the sufferings of Christ to the forefront of our minds, and even to keep it as the focal point of the ministry of the Church. The sufferings of Christ, the reason behind them, Why is it that he ever came into the world? But because of the love of God, eternal for his people, with that determination of grace to save his people through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the sufferings. And the Lord's Table takes us to the doctrine of the love and the grace of God for his people. If it were not for the unfathomable, inexplicable love of God for his people, there'd be no Christ coming to the world, there'd be no New Testament church. There'd be no hope for anybody. And when you come to the Lord's table, you say, well, here are the elements, here is the bread, here is the cup. What do they speak to me about? They speak to me about the sufferings of Christ, but why was it ever that he came to suffer? The love of God. You think about that, not just when you come to the Lord's Supper, but when you think about God in any way, that He loved you. Can this be true, that He has loved us? But that's the declaration of the Bible in many kinds of ways, and it's what led up to the sufferings of Christ. The love of God, to think that we're loved by Him. It leads us as well to think about the necessity of the sufferings of Christ. Oh, this God of love is also a God of justice. Make no mistake about that. You see what he did to Egypt compared to what he did to Israel. The strictness of God's law and justice, unbending, unyielding. and the awful sentence that God's law passes upon those who sin, which means everybody, and those who have no Saviour. It impresses upon us the seriousness of sin, that Christ must suffer like that, that God's own Son must come into the world and so suffer, so die in that mortal physical way and so suffer in his mind and so bear the weight of God's wrath upon his soul? Was that necessary? Yes, it was necessary. And why was it necessary? Because of the seriousness of sin. Nothing less than the sufferings of Christ could ever atone for the sins of his people. And that leads us to think of this. that if sin is so serious and sin attracts such a dreadful sentence, then if not Christ, then me. You ever think about that? If Christ had not died, then what would have become of me? If God had not called me by his grace to trust in Christ, what would have become of me? Just like the world, out there going about all kinds of things, And the last thing upon anybody's mind is death and judgement and eternity. That's too solemn, they say. We don't want to think about things like that. Christmas is coming and we want to have fun. Well, I'll tell you, there'll be no fun in hell. None at all. And if we have no saviour, then that's what awaits us. A dread, awful eternity. And when we come to the Lord's Supper, we would surely think of something like this. If it was not for Christ, if it was not for his broken body, if it was not for his shed blood, I'd be going to the hell I deserve. I would. We all would. But then we think, but he has come. There are the elements, you see. There is the bread, his broken body. There is the blood, the cup, his shed blood. He has come, and he's died for my sins, and he's died to be my redeemer and my savior. He's come to atone for me, and the hell I deserve, therefore, will not be a hell I ever see, and the heaven I could never deserve will be mine forevermore. It also, and I'll finish with this, it also says to Christian people that there's a lost world out there. It brings us to be reminded of the imperative of the Christian church taking the gospel to a lost world. The last thing that we would want to do, or are entitled to do, is to meet in the context of a service for the Lord's Supper, and just to be glad of our own standing, oh how thankful I am that God has looked upon me and drawn me to faith in himself, and then to go to our homes and become so glad for ourselves that we never have a thought for anyone else. And for every person that believes in and knows the Savior, there are thousands who don't, aren't there? You probably know some. You may live next door to people like that. Some of us have got people in our own families who are like that. And when you come to the Lord's Supper and you see the bread and the cup, and you think of the body and the blood of Christ, broken and shed for us. And you think about the necessity of the sufferings of Christ and the strictness of God's law and justice. And you think that if not Him, then I would have to go into that hell that God appoints for lost sinners. You think, well, there are other lost sinners. Other lost sinners. What of them? People that don't come to the church, people that don't listen to the word of God, people that don't believe, people that therefore wouldn't come to baptism, they wouldn't come to the Lord's Supper because they're outside of Christ. What of them? What's to become of them? All those untold millions that will stand as goats, not as sheep on that great last day. And it stirs the heart, doesn't it? You can't be complacent when you have such privilege and such joy yourself and you look out at a world that doesn't. It stirs you up. What can I do? What can I say? How should I pray for these people? And so though you gather together as the Lord's people around the Lord's supper, It, as it were, it scatters the people afterwards, that they may go out with the powerful message of that Lord's Supper, deeply impressed upon them. And no wonder, no wonder we need to come regularly and repetitively to the Lord's Supper, because how easy it is to live in a lost world and become so blasé about its state and its future. So these are just two things, two reasons, two benefits, two blessings of the Lord's Supper, and there's more to come, and we'll have to come back to that, God willing, next week. And may the Lord help us to understand it. May the Lord help us to grasp it, and ever to see beyond a ceremony to the Saviour of whom that ceremony speaks. Do this in remembrance of me, the Lord Jesus Christ. May it always be so. Amen.