As we begin again, whoa, okay. The reason why I'm passing out handout number one again is just that we didn't quite finish it last time, so I want to pick up where we left off. No, that is handout number two, so I'm saving that for a little deeper into our time together. What we left off talking about was What does it mean to partake of the Lord's Supper? In particular, we've been talking about how the significance of the Supper, what it points to, is our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. And the question that the Church has wrestled with so much over the course of 2,000 years is what does it mean to receive Christ in the supper? I only made a couple copies of the handout since hopefully everybody got it last week, and I hope you were able to bring it with you again. If not, it's really just gonna be a short part of this lesson, and if you want another copy, I'd be glad to get it for you. But we're quickly gonna move on to the second handout. What does it mean to partake of Christ? And we just talked about last time this section of the Confession 29.7 that says that the worthy receivers, though they hourly partake of the visible elements, they do at the same time inwardly by faith, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified. So there's a statement there about the manner of us receiving Christ. There is, as Ursinus says in that quote right below the box, if you have the handout, he says, there is in the Lord's supper, a double meat and drink, one external, the other internal. There is a double eating, one external and the other internal. There is a double administrator, one external, and the other internal. What does he mean? Well, what's the external meat and drink of the supper? What's he talking about? Anybody? Yeah, the wine and bread, physical elements there. Well, what's the inner, internal element of, or meat and drink, bread and wine of the supper? What is that? What's the meat and drink, the internal meat and drink of the supper? Yeah, Christ, in all that He is, including His body and blood, as Jeremy just said. This is something that's very important. When we partake of Christ in the supper, it's the whole Christ, His humanity, and His divinity. We receive him. That is what we are receiving in the supper, the whole of who he is and all of his saving benefits. But how, how do we receive it? What kind of eating is going on? Well, there's an external eating, right? We obviously are eating with our mouth and drinking with our mouth. But the internal eating is, as Calvin would say, the mouth of faith. So as you're eating externally and drinking externally, your faith internally is receiving Christ. So this is a very, very important point because there's been so much confusion on this. Let me just find a particular quote that I'm looking for here. Yeah, so what's happening with Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions when they talk about their idea of the presence of Christ in the supper, what they're doing is they're blurring what the supper points to, just to make this a little clearer. If the supper points to and is a sign of Christ, do they actually draw an equal sign and the elements actually are Christ, and there's different ways in which they cast it. Roman Catholicism has a stronger way of saying it than the Lutherans do, but the error is the same. They're not distinguishing between the sign, bread and wine, and the thing that the sign points to, which is Christ. And so, think about this. For a Roman Catholic, when you partake of the supper, You are receiving Christ no matter what, as long as you are eating and drinking the bread and the wine, you are getting him. And I mentioned to you a few weeks ago about what happens, you know, this is a debate they had in the Middle Ages. What happens about the church mouse that eats the crumb of the bread that was consecrated? Or, you know, the Roman Catholics have this problem. What happens if the wine spills on the floor? You know, well, that's the blood of Christ on the floor right there. Or what do we do with the leftovers afterward? When I was growing up in the Roman Catholic Church, they always had afterwards to consume all of the elements that were left over. They couldn't, like, dump it out or anything because it actually has transformed into the body and blood of Christ. That is not what the scriptures are teaching. scriptures are teaching is that we are receiving Christ in the supper by faith. We are receiving him, as Calvin would say, with faith, which is the mouth of our soul. We're receiving him through that external eating. We are, at the same time, our faith is receiving internally Christ. And just as externally, there's an external minister, myself or somebody, giving the bread and wine, the real minister of the supper is Jesus, who's ministering to the souls of his people through this. So, you know, Boving says this about Calvin in his understanding of the Lord's Supper. He firmly rejected any kind of physical, local, and substantial presence of Christ in the signs of bread and wine. Such a presence, after all, is inconsistent with the nature of a body, with the true humanity of Christ. In other words, you know, his body is in heaven. It's a real body. It's a human body. He's not going to be physically present in all of this, the supper. in every place where it's happening. Yeah, it's inconsistent with the true humanity of Christ, with Christ's ascension, with the nature of the communion that exists between Christ and his own. What kind of communion do we have with Christ? It's not a physical communion. It is a communion between Christ and us that's by the Spirit, and is vastly different from an unprofitable eating with the mouth. Okay, so, And our understanding of the Suffering, I think, is the biblical understanding. As our mouths are eating and drinking the elements, our faith is feeding on Christ, as I say in the handout. And when the wicked receive the external elements, they do not receive Christ. Because Christ is only truly received in the Suffer through faith. Through, do this in remembrance of me, remember? Do this in remembrance of me. we have to believe and remember what he has done to receive and participate in Christ. Okay, so this is a huge, huge question. How do we partake of Christ in the supper? I've only kind of given a very basic answer to it, but any questions on this point that we didn't quite finish off from last time about how the Lord's Supper, how we receive Christ in the supper? Yes. So by it being a sign that points to Christ, that is actually logical that it would be done in remembrance of what Christ is. Yes. That it would actually become Christ. Yeah. That would imply that maybe it would be re-sacrificed every time. Yeah, exactly. And that's at least, Roman Catholics kind of waffle on this point. Sometimes they talk about it as being a re-sacrificing of Christ. Sometimes they say, oh no, that's not what we're doing. But you can see why they would tend towards that, right? If it is in fact the body and blood of the Savior being broken and poured out again, you can understand why they would be tempted to say it is a re-sacrificing Christ. For our part, we're saying, look, this is in remembrance of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, and yet it's more than just remembrance, and that's the other side of this. And I said this last time, but I'll say it again. You know, 1 Corinthians 10, 16, the cup that we drink, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Participation in Jesus Christ is present in a way that he is not present elsewhere in the supper. But it's not that he's physically present, rather he's present to our faith as we receive the physical elements. I wish I could explain this better. I always feel like anytime I talk about this, I'm just not nailing it. It's just so mysterious and a rich gift that Christ has given. Any other questions on this, about how we receive Christ and stuff? Yeah, Paul? Okay, great question. Why don't we do this for children or babies? After all, they are baptized and they are Christians, objectively, in the covenant. Why don't they receive the covenant meal? Really great question and a question that I personally have wrestled with very, very much over the years. And actually, I'm going to dedicate pretty much half of a Sunday school to that question. But the short answer is this is partaking, what kind of eating takes place in the supper? It's the eating of faith. That is a remembrance of what Christ has done and a believing, receiving of his work for us on the cross. So you need to be able to remember to have this kind of eating. Even people who practice paedo-communion would say, there comes a point where when they're first born, they really shouldn't be partaking because their stomachs just aren't adapted for bread and wine. There comes a point where a kid can take solid food, and that's when they should start eating the Lord's Supper according to the Paedo-Communion view, so like one and a half or something, or earlier. But if the kind of eating that is taking place in the Supper is the eating of faith primarily, and only secondarily the external eating of the mouth, then really you should be old enough to be able to not just munch and swallow bread, but able to comprehend in a very basic way the gospel and recall it as you eat. Yeah, Paul? Yeah, that's a very important point, in case you didn't hear Paul saying, well, wasn't the Passover also an eating of remembrance and of faith, and didn't the children partake of that? It seems like they did. Young children did partake of that. It was basically a family meal. Anybody who's at the table for the Passover, including the little one-year-old guy, is eating Passover. And that's a very important text that the Paedo-Cunean advocates would raise. I think I will punt at this point and just say, you know, a few weeks I will get into depth on all of those things. But yeah, that's an important reply right there. Well, so we're receiving Christ. He's really in the supper. This is not a mere memorial, this is a participation in Christ. In the supper, the Lord is saying to us, and really sealing to us, that you are still mine, and all that my cross accomplished is ever more deeply working its way into you. So remember, the big picture from last time, really the whole of our times together here on the supper is, the Lord's Supper is a sacrament of renewal of faith. It's the renewal of our covenant relationship with God. Baptism says you are mine. Lord's Supper says you are still mine. You still belong to me. And I'm still working my life into you. But there's more. It's not just union with Christ. It is also union with Christ and his body. And so, 1 Corinthians 10, 17 says, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. So, you know, the elements as they come to us, they come in separate parts. We've got little cups and we've got already broken off for us, the little cracker, right? Even though they come to us in separate parts, we still need to think of them as one. And so some churches actually do this way to actually show that symbolism. So they have one cup that they pass around and drink, or they have one loaf that's on the plate and you all break off a piece that represents the fact that we are all one body. And if you think about how a normal meal takes place, here's the delicious casserole right in the middle of the table, right? And we spoon out onto our plates, All of us are eating from the same dish. What's happening as we eat that same dish? Well, the dish is going into us and it's becoming part of our bodies, right? Our digestive system makes it part of us. What happens then? Well, we who are many are all one because we ate from the same food. The same stuff went into us and is now at work in us. Well, in a similar way, Christ is one. He is one body and his body and blood is working its way into us. So I always feel a little weird when I left, as I give this cup to you, and then I set that cup down, right? Anybody notice that, right? So, okay, you're thinking to yourself, well, wait, you said, as I give this cup to you, you just kept that for yourself, pastor. No, no, no, don't think of it like that. Think of it as this cup, the whole thing. This cup is one cup we're all drinking of together, because we're all one. And that's why we must be reconciled to each other before we come to the supper. And Matthew 5, 23 has this picture of a guy at the altar and there remembers that his brother has something against him. And Jesus says, leave the gift at the altar. go be reconciled to your brother, and then come back and make the offering. Well, that's kind of old covenant language for the same concept here. Look, 1 John, you cannot say you love God, but then not love your brother. Love your brother, and now we know you love God. And so, if we are to come to the supper, we need to be reconciled. And we'll talk about, I'm gonna dedicate a class to talking about what is a worthy partaking of his supper, what should we be thinking about before we partake of supper. One of the things we should be partaking of in light of this union with his body is, are there any people out there that I'm not reconciled to, especially in his church? that I need to go ask their forgiveness of. Like maybe it's even my spouse, right? Or my kids or somebody, one of my friends at church that we had a falling out or something like that. I need to get right with them before I take the supper with them. And do not delay. Get right with them before you partake or what you're doing is denying really what the supper is picturing. The worst, the worst picture I've ever heard of this. so abominable, is a church celebrates the Lord's Supper. The service is over. The pastor then announces that he is splitting the church and going off and doing this other church over here. And he's taking a bunch of people with him. So here's this church that just was taking the supper together and saying, we're one, while premeditatedly intending to divide from each other. No, that is so incredibly wrong. And now, positive flip side. Part of what I love about how the OPC does the Lord's Supper, it's different from some other communions. Some communions practice what's called closed communion, where you have to be a member of that denomination to receive the supper. So Missouri Synod, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, you're not allowed to take the supper. Even if you're a believer in Christ, you're not allowed to take the supper if you go to their service, unless you're part of their community, their denomination. Okay, so what's that saying? Well, it's saying Christ is divided. His body is divided. What did we say here? We say, if you're a member of a Bible-believing church, welcome. believing in Christ, you're not under the discipline of your church, you know, you're still a member of the visible church. We could have lots of differences with you theologically, but we recognize that fundamentally on the last day, everybody who believes in Christ, we will all be visibly shown at that time as one. And so here at the supper, we're saying, welcome, you are one with us, receive the supper with us. It's, you know, it's a beautiful ecumenical moment. Anybody who says to you the OPC is rigid and unecumenical, not interested in church unities, say, well, just look at how we practice the Lord's Suffering. Jeffrey? I think maybe they just pride the fact of giving this Lord's Supper to who is the right person to receive the Lord's Supper. In terms of, you know, you say if you're not like in a proper condition to have the Lord's Supper, Yes. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah, no, I appreciate what you're saying there, Geoffrey. I understand what Geoffrey's saying. He's saying, look, the intention of those churches that practice closed communion, that say, you know, you can't partake unless you're a member of this local denomination, or this particular denomination, you could see that as them practicing or exercising care for your soul, saying, look, we don't know you. we can't discern whether or not you ought to be partaking, and so don't here. I still want to stand by, though, what I said before, that basically what that's doing is excommunicating every other denomination. It's basically saying every other denomination is not capable of properly exercising the keys of the kingdom to let in people who really do believe in Christ and keep out those who are walking in unrepentance. And so, I mean, I agree with you, Geoffrey, that it's still, in our view, there's very much a possibility that somebody could partake who ought not to be. And it's because their church has let them join, but they don't actually believe in Christ, or they're walking in sin, and their church doesn't practice discipline. Yeah? That's possible, but I think there's an element of confidence in the brethren that we ought to have towards other denominations that, look, we're gonna believe the best about you and your keeping of the flock, and if this person says they're a member in good standing, we're gonna welcome them as a brother or sister in Christ. Yeah, it's a tough one, though. Yeah, Paul? Well, there's some individualism in the Bible. Jesus didn't say, hey, you elders, check out these people and see if they have Right. Yeah, that's great. And I think that's part of what, you know, 1 Corinthians 11, he says, let a man examine himself. I think there's an element of like, look, individuals are capable of examining themselves. But let's go back to a few lessons back when I talked about the integral unity between sacraments and the visible church. Still, that doesn't mean that somebody who has individually come to faith in Christ but has yet to profess their faith and come under the authority of the elders ought to partake. No, they should not partake of the sacraments until that faith has been made public for all the reasons I gave before. So it's both and, like it's both, there's a visible governance that Jesus has appointed for exercising the keys of the kingdom, binding and loosing. And we also personally need to own this for ourselves. And so, yeah, it really is both, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were going to say something. Yeah, Tracy, go ahead. How would we handle, which we've actually dealt with a few times over the years, a lot of people visiting or coming into an OPC church who aren't technically members because the churches that they attend regularly for years don't really show membership as something necessary. Yeah, this is a difficult problem. Yeah, great question. So Tracy's saying, like, hey, what about all these churches that don't even practice membership? These people, for all intents and purposes, are members, like they're faithful, serving there, they feel part of that body, but they've never actually come under the authority of the local leadership of their church. What about them? I'd say, again, church membership matters. It's biblical. And if nobody, if they're not practicing membership, then they can't say they're members. They've never professed their faith in Christ and said, I am now I'm following Jesus, I'm making a vow to him, to be faithful to him. And so, you know, technically, are they believers? Probably, you know, God knows the heart. Is the Lord's Supper for them? Yes, of course, you know, that's why Jesus came, to sustain people like those beloved brothers and sisters. Should they partake? No, they should not. They should become a member of a church, and they should come under the authority of the session, so that they can, you know, if they're walking in sin, all that stuff we talked about from Matthew 18 can be practiced, and at that point, you know, when somebody's put out of the church for walking in unrepentance, it actually has a meaning, right? Because there's actually membership in the first place, so they could be put out, right? So it's a tough situation which you're describing, but I would say, again, that's part of why I always mention membership in a local church. Those people need to recognize that They're not to partake when they come to visit us. They should hear the words of warning and they should not partake. And they should get serious about membership. They should go to their sessions or their local leaders and say, hey guys, we need membership. We need accountability in the body because it's what Christ ordained. Well, we're going to get to talk a little bit more about who is worthy to partake in a future lesson, but I want to press on now with the significance of the supper. And I was saying last time, I'm not sure how I'm going to fit into one Sunday school class the whole significance of the idea of eating and banqueting in the Bible into one class. And in fact, as I was working on this, I realized I have two classes on my hands. So I have to re-kind of think my schedule for this class, but that's okay. So this is actually part two of three. Sorry, the handout is inaccurate. This is part two of three. As we continue to explore, what is the meaning and the content of union with Christ and his body? Well, the Shorter Catechism says this, it's receiving, We are made, look at the top of the handout, 96, we are made partakers of his body and blood with all his benefits, with all his benefits to their spiritual nourishment and growth and grace. I've already drawn this diagram up here before. You know, Christ in particular in his death, and resurrection. That's the core of the Christian faith, union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Everything flows from this. All His benefits are because we are united to Him. You know, there's this famous quote from the beginning of chapter, or book three of the Institutes, where Calvin says, until you're united to Christ, Christ's death benefits you nothing, nothing. If you are outside of Christ, you are still in your sin. And so Paul can say Ephesians two, we once were children of wrath, but now Because of Christ, we are children of the promise. We're made heirs of eternal life. Once we're united to Jesus in his death and resurrection, we receive everything that Jesus has. Everything. And what is it that Jesus has? Well, we're gonna try to list some of them. There's no way you could list it all, but I'm going to list some of the key benefits and then show you how the supper seals every single one of those benefits to you. And the way I'm going to do that is by talking about a biblical theology of feasting. I just want to mention, pull back the curtain a little bit to some of how I put all this stuff together. This is a terrific book, which is in our library by Peter Lightheart, Peter Lightheart, Blessed Are the Hungry, where he basically goes through the Bible and a theology of eating in the Bible and talks about how the supper shows us and seals the significance to us. And then this is also a terrific book, also in our library, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Basically what I did in this is I looked up banqueting, eating, food, feasting, and these guys, the scholars who put this dictionary together, they basically take you through every single different instance. It's not comprehensive, but all the representative instances of when those symbols, motifs come up in the Bible. And so I can see everything from Genesis to Revelation about eating and get a sense of what's the significance in the Bible of eating, so that then when Jesus says, what is, what does it mean, you know, to eat of his body and blood here, we get a fuller picture of that. So that's where all these scripture references are coming from. So what are some of the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection for us? Well, one of them is joyful communion with God. And by the way, communion has a different nuance from union. Obviously they have similar roots. But union with God is the fact that we are one with him. Communion is the enjoyment of union. So like union, say of a husband and wife, when they make their vows to each other and become one flesh with each other, they are one objectively. Well, that's different from communion. Communion is when they're actually sitting at the table together, enjoying fellowship with one another. and enjoying being married together, that joyful interplay of love, giving love, receiving love, is one of the greatest benefits, is, I think, the greatest benefit of the supper. It's the joy of being together with God, of receiving His love while we give ours to Him. Take a look at some of these pictures of how God longs for us to have this with Him and how He calls eating the picture of that communion. Jesus, he wants to eat with us. Revelation 3.20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. We get to eat with Jesus. He wants to eat with us. He's knocking at our door, wanting to enter and eat. But the more common way of expressing it is actually, we are his guests. You know, the Revelation 3.20 kind of implies that we're opening the door and letting him in to eat in our heart, which is true. We are receiving him into us. But the more prominent way of saying it is that we are his guests. guests at his table, Jesus says, I assigned to you, the disciples, as my father assigned to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. The king says, you get to eat with me. You are at my table. You get to enjoy fellowship with me. Think about just the delightfulness of having a nice dinner with, you know, good friends. It's a picture of what the Lord's Supper is showing us in a whole higher level of eating with God. To be at God's feast is the greatest joy of all time. Jesus says, blessed is everyone who will eat bread. in the kingdom of God. And that context is about the parable. Remember this parable where the king is having a wedding feast for his son and he's got all these invites out and then he sends a servant says, okay, the feast is ready. Come on guys, time to enjoy the feast. And everybody's saying, well, you know, I have this new ox and I have to test them out and make all these excuses, right? And so the king says, well, okay, now go out and find the homeless guys and the riffraff and tell them to come to the feast instead. The meaning of that is that many of those who were originally invited to the feast, namely the old covenant people of God, old Israel, they will be cast away because when they were told, hey, the wedding feast is on, the bridegroom is here, they rejected him. They rejected Jesus. Well, we, the Gentiles, the riffraff of history, in that parable, we're the homeless guys. We're the riffraff of history who will be brought in to feast with the king. It's a picture of what the Lord's Supper is all about, our joyful communion with God, the greatest benefit of our union with Christ. Any thoughts on this or questions about communion with God and how the supper pictures that? We can kind of forget, unless we're thinking about this, that the feast is not just, you know, upstairs when we have Lord's Supper, it's not just us eating together. In particular, we are feasting before God. He's at the head of the table, and we're eating joyfully with Him. Well, it's also communion with each other. It's the joy of being one with each other. And so, I've already mentioned this, You know, at a normal meal, everyone eats the same dish, and so doing, in a kind of common grace way, they will be bound together in a one flesh relationship, they all have the same food inside of them, but it's even more so for we who are in Christ, for we all partake of the same Savior, and I talked about this before. And so, there must be no enmity between us, because objectively speaking, there is no enmity. between us. What has Jesus accomplished? He has broken down the dividing wall, Ephesians 2, between Jew and Gentile, and really between all nations. And so we have this picture of, you know, Isaiah 2, the swords to plowshares, right, where the nations which used to fight against each other are now using that metal, beating it into gardening implements, peacetime tools. And so, the Lord's Supper is the long prophesied banquet of peoples from every tribe and tongue. Isaiah 25.6 is one we'll look at, again, a little lower down, but I'm gonna bring it up now. Listen to what he says here. Isaiah 25.6, the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, particularly Mount Zion. All peoples are invited to this banquet. That includes us. And so when we come and lay aside the rivalries and the petty, you know, kind of at odds with each other difficulties, and we are reconciled to each other and we lovingly receive the same meal together, we are fulfilling one of the purposes, one of the significances of the supper. You know, there's that passage in Genesis 43 with the Egyptians there in Egypt, and there's Joseph at the head of the table and his brothers have come. I think it's his 10 brothers at this point. And they're all eating a meal, but it says the Egyptians would not eat with these Hebrews who had come down because it was an abomination to them. You see, these were two peoples not eating together because they're not reconciled to each other. The Lord's Supper erases that. That enmity, rather than being a display of relative honor and exclusiveness, the dining of the kingdom is to be open and inclusive. So, you know, Jesus saying to the Pharisees as they're trying to get like the best seats at a feast, the most honorable positions closest to the host. Jesus said, you know, really you ought to take the lowest position and ask them to elevate you up. Because that's the dynamic of the kingdom, is the welcoming openness to all. James 2, you know, when the rich guy comes in, he says, oh, we got this really nice seat right up front, right here for you. And then the poor guy's like, you go over there. That's not what the kingdom's about. And the Lord set the pictures that we all eat the same delicious food in the supper. We are one with each other. All the things that cause the peoples to be elevated one over another or at odds with each other, all that stuff is erased in the cross, and therefore it's erased in the supper. Any thoughts on this one, the communion benefit with each other? Okay, well let's keep going to other benefits. So justification. This is table fellowship for those who are reconciled with God. So to eat with somebody is to be in fellowship with them. So it's a common thing after a covenant is made, for example, between Joseph, sorry, between Jacob and Laban, that they'll eat a meal after they make the covenant. What's the meal picture? It says, hey, we're good together. We're in good fellowship. Even on Mount Sinai, it says God throws a feast for his people after they've cut the covenant. Remember how the 70 elders sit there on the mountain, actually on the mountain, receive a meal, and it says they see God. These guys are in fellowship. They're a picture of how all Israel is in fellowship with God. But those who do not eat, are not in fellowship with God. To not be in fellowship with God is not to have the proper wedding clothes for the feast and to be cast out into the outer darkness. So on the one hand, the Lord's Supper is inclusive. Welcome everybody. On the other hand, it's exclusive. It's only for those who are in fellowship with God. How do we get to be in fellowship with God? Well, by having the proper wedding clothes. How do you get the proper wedding clothes? You don't buy them. You receive them by faith in Jesus. And when you're outside in the outer darkness, guess what? You actually still are going to be drinking, but it's not going to be the delicious fine wine of the kingdom. It's going to be the foaming sewage, which is the cup of God's wrath. that Jeremiah pictures to us, that all the nations, Jeremiah's supposed to go around and make all the nations drink of the cup of God's wrath. This is not something you're kind of looking forward to. This is a terrible cup that burns and it's like poison going down. Well, Jesus has drunk the cup of God's wrath for us. He's absorbed the wrath that our sins deserved. He calls the cross his cup, the cup of God's wrath. And because he drank that, horrible cup, we now get to drink the cup of joy. Justification. The Lord's Supper pictures that we're one with God. We're on good terms with God. God in the Lord's Supper is saying, you guys are reconciled to me. I see you as righteous. I find you perfectly acceptable in my sight, and therefore, welcome to my table. Jeffrey? Yeah, and Barbara Pargo's son's a great example of this. Yeah, he's welcomed back by his father. And in fact, that also is a picture of adoption as you flip it over. That's where I put that one, but I think you're right, Geoffrey. It really does also fall under justification too, right? That here's this son who has sinned horribly by wasting the father's inheritance, living a life of debauchery in a foreign land. He comes back with nothing. except his filth and sin, and the father welcomes him into his family and is reconciled to him, forgives him, and so he gets to eat at the table. There's a feast. Let's kill the fatted calf. And that's a picture not only of our justification, but of our adoption. Children get to eat at the father's table. If you're eating at the father's table, the father's recognizing you as his child. Even when we are estranged, from our earthly fathers as David was estranged from the table of Saul, who wasn't technically his father, but his father-in-law. Nevertheless, what happens after that is he's on the run. He goes to the tabernacle, and there's the priests of Nob, at Nob. And what happens, they are receiving there at the tabernacle, David and his men, the bread that Saul denied them. And it's the showbread, it's the bread of the presence. And it's picturing that David is still the true son of the father, the heavenly father, even if he's rejected by Saul, his earthly father-in-law. So the Lord suffered, it's God saying, you're my beloved son with you, I am well pleased. It's also a sign of our definitive sanctification. I break sanctification into two parts here, because on the one hand, there's the ongoing sanctification that we usually think of, how we're getting more and more holy, because God is at work in us. And the Lord's Supper definitely pictures that, but also pictures our definitive sanctification, in the sense, just like with adoption and justification, that we have undergone an objective change in status. Of course, baptism shows this too, but the Lord's Supper reiterates that that status is still true for you. God is confirming here our status as those who are objectively holy. As the law makes very clear many times over, only priests could eat holy food. So the sacrifice is very, very clear with the exception of the fellowship offering. which isn't called holy in the same sense. All those other sacrifices, they can be eaten, but only by the priests who are considered holy. Well, here at the Lord's Supper, we get to eat the most holy food of all, the body and blood of the most holy offering ever offered, the Son of God himself. And in so doing, God is declaring to you, you, are even higher in status and in level of objective holiness than those old covenant priests. Just like Hebrews 10 says, let us now make bold to enter the most holy place in heaven. Why? Because we've been sanctified. Our bodies have been cleansed with the blood of Jesus. We are a royal priesthood. And Romans 1 7 there is to remind us of all those times when Paul begins his letters to the Romans, who are called as saints, holy ones. Holy ones is what that means. You are saints. You are objectively set apart as holy to God most high. You have the status of priest and therefore the Lord's supper is for you. Holy food for holy people. Well, it's also a sign of our progressive sanctification But since we think of where food is given, not just as a sign of status. Oh, wow, I get to eat at, you know, the president's dinner table or whatever. That would be a sign of status. Well, it's not just a sign of status. It's also a sign of nourishment. It gives us power and strength. Food gives us life. Jesus is our life. That's why we need to drink his blood and eat his body for the life is in it, in the blood. Through His blood shed for His own, we can take His life, the life of God, into ourselves. And what happens when you have the life of God in you? Well, you grow. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.10, we are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our bodies. How is the life of Jesus manifested in our bodies? When you live like Jesus. And so the Lord's Supper is like manna and water in the wilderness. We're on this long pilgrimage towards heaven. We want to make it there and not fall down weary in this long, dry and weary land, because we are after all in a wasteland. This is a spiritual wasteland that we are in right now in the old creation. God, just like in the old covenant when they were wandering in the wilderness and he made miraculous bread to appear on the ground. And he had this rock that followed them that had the water issuing forth, so they were never without water in the wilderness. Well, they ate and drank of that. That was their kind of sacrament in the old covenant. This is ours, the Lord's Supper, manna in the wilderness, so we keep strong for the pilgrimage. Any questions on any of these about definitive sanctification or progressive? See, all these things are being sealed to you simultaneously in the supper. If you are not working, you should have. Okay, yes, so he's recalling that there's a curse that will come upon those who do not worthily partake of the supper. And you're asking what is that saying, the curse? What does that mean? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think we should think of other times where eating and drinking brought judgment. And so you have, for example, in the wilderness, the people complaining and demanding, oh, we want to go back to Egypt, and we want to eat what we could eat back in Egypt. We want meat, right? And then they received the meat, but then it was a sign of judgment to them, and they began falling. You know, it was a way in which they received unworthily. Why? Because they lacked faith. They did not receive it in faith. And so, you know, we're gonna talk about unworthy eating in a future class, but essentially what unworthy eating is, is eating while at the same time denying the core of what the supper means. You're no longer believing in Christ while you're eating. and you're just sort of like going along with the flow, everybody else is doing this, or you've denied Christ in your life and you're living in sin, and you're denying basically your definitive sanctification, that you are objectively holy, set apart for God, and you're trying to kind of play both sides, get what the devil can give you and get what God can give you. God's not mocked by that. He says you're eating to your condemnation at that point, when you're eating without repentance. Did I see your hand, Paul? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I think we want to distinguish between two different kinds of ignorance. One is the ignorance that has absolutely no clue what the gospel is, and it's just sort of like, oh, now we're doing this. That would be to partake unworthily because there's no way in which faith is active at that point. But then there's the ignorance that every single person has, which is the eating and drinking where you're not really understanding the full import of what's happening, which is everybody. And that ignorance is the kind of thing that that actually God welcomes and he expects, and that's why he gave the supper, so that you won't stay ignorant. So that as you partake of the food, aha, the gospel becomes more vivid to you. You understand more deeply who you are. The significance of what Christ has done for you becomes something that's active up here and in here, you know? So that's a expected kind of ignorance that shouldn't be shunned. That's why, by the way, we welcome young children to profess their faith. Do they understand all this stuff? No? They don't? That's okay. That's fine. Just like a brand new believer, what did the thief on the cross know? Well, he knew Jesus was the true king and come to save him. Great, welcome. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Today, right now, we can have a taste of paradise as we eat this food. Yeah, and that's another thing that the sacrament celebrates, is our entrance into our inheritance. So this is kind of, I think, a very exciting thing about the supper. On the one hand, we are united to Christ already, and we are one with him already. But there's also the not yet. that we're looking forward to still deeper union and communion. So on the one hand, with the not yet thing, we can say that we are in the wilderness. We are in doing our wilderness wandering towards heaven. We've not yet reached the new creation. But, because we are one with Christ and Christ himself is raised from the dead, seated in the heavenly places, Paul can say, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, Colossians 3. and yet not yet in heaven. And the supper seals that. On the one hand, it's food in the wilderness to sustain you towards heaven, but on the other hand, it is a taste of the promised land's fruits. When Joshua entered the land, they enjoyed a meal. We are those who have long been exiled from the garden, and the Lord's Supper is an end of exile feast. as pictured in Isaiah 25.6. I love this. A feast of well-aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow, of aged wine, well-refined. Oh, did you get it? Wine. He repeats it twice. It was really good wine. So it's a picture of, look, wine takes a long time to prepare. It's not something that you're gonna have while you're on the wilderness road. That's water. But when you're in the land and you've entered into your rest, and you're enjoying the goodness of the land. What do you enjoy? You enjoy the wine that comes from these grapes that take forever to grow, the vine gets established, and then even once it's grown, you still have to wait for the grapes to ferment. Jeremiah 31, 12, this is end of exile stuff. This is the context here. When God brings them back from exile and puts them in the land, they will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd. Their life shall be like a watered garden. They shall languish no more. Does that sound like, you know, a bread and water diet? No, it's like, man, this is the best food, the best food. And this is all because of Jesus, because Jesus has endured the curse of exile. We are unable to return and celebrate this feast of wine at a heavenly Zion. And I'm really harping on wine because of the significance in the scripture as wine as the drink of rest. Interesting that the priests were forbidden to drink wine while they were on duty. in the tabernacle. Is it because they may get tipsy and do their job badly? Well, maybe, but it's really because of the significance of wine as the drink of kings. It's a drink of rest. It's a sign that by not having wine, that they're not entered their rest. They have to keep on offering you sacrifices. Jesus says, I will not drink of this cup until I drink of it with you when I enter my kingdom. Has Jesus entered his kingdom? Yes. Do we now drink of the cup with Jesus? Yes, because Jesus, the King, is drinking right now from this wine in heaven. And this is why he's reticent, you know, when Mary says, they have no wine. And Jesus says, woman, my time has not yet come. What's he saying? He's saying, look, I'm still in, objectively, this spot here, the wilderness, right? When I've entered my kingdom, then we'll have the wine. And yet, because the kingdom is at hand in his presence, he still makes the wine for that wedding feast. But how much more appropriate now, when Jesus is raised, that we drink and feast with the Lord of the banquet, and thereby celebrate his completed work. At the Lord's Supper, we drink with Jesus in the kingdom. We have arrived at Zion. And therefore, no more hunger, no more thirst. God is always picturing this to us in the promised land, but now in the supper, even more poignantly. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Does that sound like a stingy God? And this is the God who serves us in the supper. This is what he always meant for creation to be. You look at the end of Genesis 1, and he's got a menu there. He's created the people, and he says, oh, here's all this abundant food I've given you in this good creation. Well, that's all lost. in the curse, and now we are in a time, Genesis 3, where by the sweat of your brow you eat bread. That's the norm now. But God is saying that experience of the curse of sin, of hunger, and of thirsting, will end. And He promises genuine prosperity, a prosperity that is seen particularly in the land, and it's for everybody, including the poor. That's why even the poor get to eat from the gleanings of the field, and it especially climaxes in the prosperity of Solomon, where everybody's under their own vine and fig tree. Everybody's enjoying the best food. But really, it's all pointing to Jesus for how, as Mary says, he's filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he sent away empty. I am the bread of life, Jesus says. He who comes to me will not hunger. and he who believes in me will never thirst." The Lord's Supper is all about all the benefits, and in particular, how all these benefits satisfy us, as nothing else can. Well, I've gone over here, jot down some questions, if you have any, and think about these things as we take the Lord's Supper. I hope you realize just what a gift this is, how as big and as broad as the gospel is, So big and so broad is the supper and what it signifies. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the supper and for its amazing significance. As we see feasting in the Bible and all the dimensions of it, whether it's who we're feasting with or how delicious the food is or how satisfying that food is or how that food gives us life, whatever the dimension, That picture of food is showing us the gospel and how we have in Jesus the bread that truly satisfies. Lord, give us faith to see these things in the supper and to lay hold of them so that as we eat that bread and drink the cup, we actually are receiving the gospel of Jesus in all its fullness with all his benefits as we eat with the mouth of faith. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Just to remind you all about letter writing, which you can do upstairs if you wish.