Well, this do, Lord Jesus said, this do, in remembrance of me. So that's the theme for tonight. This do in remembrance of me, considering the Lord's Supper that he has instituted. Before we go to the details, it's remarkable that the Old Testament is so much more complicated and colorful and detailed than the New Testament. In the Old Testament you have the tabernacle, right, and the temple. All those details are known. The clothing of the high priest, and the normal priests, and the times of feasting, and music, and there's so much detail in the ceremonial law, right? The ceremonial law is very detailed in the Old Testament. Also regarding circumcision, and also regarding the Passover meal. And compared to all that complicated ceremonial law in the Old Testament, there's suddenly that simplicity in the New Testament. So simple. I would almost say oversimplified. No, it's not oversimplified, but so simple. Since the veil of the temples ran from the top to the bottom, the Lord did not think it was necessary anymore. So just a little bit of water for baptism, piece of bread for the Lord's Supper, a sip of wine, and that's all. That's all. It's all simple, on purpose. To not take the attention away from the Lord Jesus himself, He has come and he wants all the attention, the Savior himself, not the music, not the singing, not the clothing of the priests, nothing. Jesus alone, he deserves all the attention and that's the purpose in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. That's why someone like, for example, John Calvin was not even in favor of an organ. He said nothing in the church, but that is commanded in the New Testament. In the New Testament, it's commanded to preach the word, to baptize people, and to have the Lord's Supper. That's all. Luther has a different approach. And in our churches, in the beginning, there were no organ either. There were four singers. And slowly, the organ came to pass. Nevertheless, keep in mind simplicity in the New Testament. So we have, we say, two sacraments, huh? Baptism and Lord's Supper. Why not seven? Is a wedding not important? Why don't we call that a sacrament as well? Or the installation of a minister for the first time, laying hands on his head. That's also in the New Testament. Is that not a sacrament? I remember that my professor in Utrecht, in Holland, asked me the question, why do we have only two sacraments and not seven? And I did not know the answer. So I don't forget the answer anymore. He said, Lord Jesus only instituted two of them. We find also the wedding and the priest ordination and all those things. We don't see that Lord Jesus commanded, this do in remembrance of me. Teach the people and baptize them, Lord Jesus said. So the Lord Jesus explicitly commanded to baptize and explicitly commanded to have the Lord's Supper and nothing else. This do in remembrance of me. For whom? It might be something you know already, but it's good to think about it. because people are confused about it. People say, you know, if you go to the Lord's Supper, kind of, it's something so precious, so holy, so maybe something happens. Maybe I get something out of it. Well, I'm going to try it. You know, I'm seeking so long already, and I don't get any further, and I have no assurance at all, so if I sit at the table, maybe something happens. And I feel kind of happy and joyful and assured again. You know, that's not what the Lord's Supper is for. The Lord's Supper is not to give faith, not to bring new life, but to strengthen it, to deepen it, to make it stronger, to keep it, to bring it closer to the Lord, and to make him more conscious, but not to give it. It's only to make it stronger. So therefore, before people go to Lord's Supper, they need to ask themselves prayerfully, did I confess my sins? Did I flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior? And do I hate all sin? We don't need to be perfect in order to come to the Lord's supper table, no. But it needs to be right and true within. That confessing of your sins, I acknowledge my sin, you know that. You have been there. If that's true, you have been there. That you became so unworthy, the least of the Lord's blessings, you became so poor and so needy, you know that. You lost everything, you felt so deeply unconverted, so unhappy. So without God in the world, so lost, and you know that. You don't forget that. And the first time that you hear about Jesus, the Savior who came to seek and to save them, the lost, you know that. Have you believed in him? Do you have those times that you saw life in him? Not only some possibility, but that you just highly esteemed Jesus and believed in him, took refuge under him, you know that. Maybe it's not so alive anymore, but you remember it. And then that resolution to walk all the way to the Lord, to root out sin, and yet so disappointed with yourself again, yet it was so upright. That needs to be true before you go to Lord Supertail. You need a personal examination. Nobody else can look into your heart. You can deceive people. You can also deceive yourselves, but that's you, right? You need to examine your own heart if you have some of that true faith so that it can be strengthened and deepened and you become more conscious of it. to refresh it. But in order to go to the supper table, you don't only need the divine right, a divine right, you also need a church right. A divine right, that's personal. You need a sermon, you need a forum, you decide yourself. Do I have a divine right, yes or no? I'm not going to decide for you. You can write me the whole story, ask me what do you think. I'm not going to say, yes, you can, or you can't. I can not do that, it's your personal responsibility. But as I said, there's also truth right you need. Because holy supper is so holy, So precious, we want to protect it, and we hate it when people take it in a cavalier way, and people take it in a shallower way, and misuse it. So you cannot just take anyone from the street and introduce them to church and say, you know, there's a lot of supper today, so why don't you sit at the table? Why can't you do that? Why can't you pluck some from the street? Anyone is welcome in this church, right? So anyone is welcome to come to the Lord's Supper table, right? Anyone, whoever you are, it doesn't matter. No, we don't do that. Suppose that I would invite someone in town, random, to come to church. When it's Lord's Supper, I would introduce him and just say, sit here. Come on, look again, what's this? This is not edifying. We don't know this person. We cannot trust this person. What does this person teach? What does this person do in his life? Does he live in sin? Does he know the truth? Does he know those things? Is he under supervision of the church or something? So in order to keep the Lord's supper holy, we need oversight over the congregation. so that we know who is coming. And if someone lives in sin, I say, you know, as long as you live in sin, don't do it. Don't come to the Lord's table. Or if someone is an ascender, officially an ascender, because someone spoke inconsistently about it, and someone is Not a good standing in church? Maybe you don't know, but I do. So the church has a responsibility to say, not yet, just clean things up first, right? And confess your sins and make it good with your wife or something, and then come back. So we don't have open communion. We have a closed communion. if you want to trust the people, because the Holy Supper is so holy. What is possible, though, is that visitors from Alberta or from Ontario, from our churches, come and visit, and there's Lord's Supper, and the week before, they have informed me that they were intending to attend, and I phone Reverend Verhoeven, Reverend Adams, I say, so-and-so is in church next week. Is the person in the center? No. Okay, thanks. So then I phone the person, yes, you can come, because you have permission of your own church. They know you. We don't know you. So that's also why we don't have children at Lord's Epithel. Why not? Why not children who will serve a table? Any idea? Some churches do. Kids, 5, 10, 15. What's the problem? They can believe as well, right? They can be happy about it and excited about it. This is the reason. You have to really keep it in mind. The reason why we don't have children who will serve a table is this. Same reason as why we don't let them marry yet. Kid's 10 years old, mama would like to marry him. 10 years old, no, you're too young. Why? You have to grow up first and make up your mind and just be able to discern and able to choose. You have to be informed, you have to grow up, you have to mature first before you can make those difficult decisions. See? That's the same also with the Lord's Supper. You have to examine your own heart, right? Can you expect a child of 10 years old to examine his own heart? No. So that's why we say, why aren't you eight? And it has happened in our church, there's a girl of 16, I know her, she's still alive, 16 years old, came to the ministry and said, Reverend, I'm only 16, I have such a desire to go to the Lord's Supper table. And we said to her, or they said to her, why? And she told the story, impressive. And the consistory said, we allow you to do confession, 16 years old. We make an exception. So she came to the consistory, she did confession of faith, was announced in the church, and some weeks later, she was attending the Lord's Supper table, 16 years old. Exceptions, but it's possible. And what about mentally challenged people? What is allowed? What's wise? You know mentally challenged people right in church? Should we let them do confession? Should we let them go to the Lord's supper table or not? When the question is talked about, then this is the reasoning. Is that person able to examine his, her own heart? You say, no. She has no clue what the new heart is. Okay. Then we don't allow it. But if you say, well, she is kind of retarded, but it's something so keen and so to the point, she knows, then you may let her do it. But it is sensitive. Let me show you on page 186 in the back of the Psalterbook. Page 186, the church order. The last thing that's mentioned, 186, article 61. None shall be admitted to the Lord's Supper except those who, according to the usage of the church to which they unite themselves, have made confession of religion, besides being reputed to be of a godly conversation, without which also those who come from other churches shall not be admitted. See? So also we need that proof of godly conversation, of godly luck, without which also those who come from other churches shall not be admitted. Now, when it's Lord's Supper, for example, suppose within a couple months we can have it again. Should we say we have only a limited amount of people in church, so only the communicants are invited? Would it be right? Only the communicants. The rest can stay home. Some churches do that. Some churches say, when the Lord's Supper, we don't want the unbelievers to come here, they just stay home. Because they don't have this. They don't have that life. So we just keep this to ourselves, private, only God's people. No. No. That's not right. When God's people are attending Lord's Supper, we want others to see it. We want the husband, the wife, The children, the parents want to see it, they want them to see it, that they may show the Lord's death till he come. To show the Lord's death, they are asked to show it, to confess it, to profess it, so that people see it, to witness it. That's a very powerful thing, to witness that you are in the midst of death and seek your salvation in Jesus Christ and receive him in your heart. So that's one of the first important things regarding the content of the Lord's Supper, it is to show the Lord's death. 1 Corinthians 11, 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death, till he comes. Maybe you never realized that. Maybe you never paid attention to those words. To show the Lord's death till he comes. Show it to others. Show the Lord, preach it. Preach it and come out of your pew and just walk through the aisle and sit at the table and show the Lord's death. So the Lord's Supper is about the death of Christ and the death needs to be glorified and preached and shown and revealed. So that's the first activity to show by sitting there. What other actions are there? Let me mention the physical action, the mental action, and the spiritual action. Physical, mental, spiritual action at the Lord's Supper table. What is the physical action? Yeah, simple. That you come there physically, right? Sit there physically. and that you receive the physical bread, just normal bread, nothing special. White bread, we usually take, or brown, or whatever it is. The Bible does not give specifics as long as it is bread. And it says, the fruit of the vine, It doesn't say wine, it says the fruit of the vine, so there might be grape juice. Some say that's biblical because the Bible doesn't say wine. The Bible says the fruit of the vine, so grape juice will be fine, they say. Well, I don't want to make a big point of it. But I assume that in Israel they hardly drank grape juice because it spoils very quick. Also, you need alcohol to preserve it and to disinfect it. So when people drink from the same cup, it's safe to also have alcohol in there, to have fermented wine, fermented grape juice. In other cultures, for example in India and Jaya, they don't know what bread is. They don't know what wine is. So what do you do there? That's hard. You could introduce something foreign to them and bring in bread. But they think that it's such a strange thing, you know, this magic. So that was not chosen. So they take a piece of sweet potato. And they have fruit juice as well. But that's an extreme circumstance, right, in those mountain tribes. So that bread is bread and the wine remains wine. It does not change. In spite of the fact that some say, Lord Jesus said, this is, this is my body, and you have to believe that, that it simply is the body of Christ. And we say the word is, is a metaphor. The word is points to that he is the way, the truth, the life. It's a figure. It's also talk about what we see and can touch. I also see on the table on the far sides, I see a pot or a bowl for money. So often people come first to that pot, put a bill in there, and they sit down. It's that far. Is that, do we have to pay for it or so? Is that a fee? Is that, do we have to buy the wine from that? What is it for? It's a very old custom and I don't know how far it goes back, but I think it is related to Nehemiah 8. In Nehemiah 8 verse 10 I read this. Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our Lord. Need be sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength. At special feast days, there was a slain offering and they killed animals. Pieces are for the Lord. Certain pieces are eaten by the sacrificer, others by the priests, and also portions are sent to the poor. So in thankfulness to God, also the poor are given portions of it in thankfulness. And so a child of God is so thankful There's so much gratitude in her heart that she doesn't mind to give something to the poor. It's for the deacons, for the relief fund. Not for the church, nothing else, but for the relief fund as a token of gratitude. So that is the physical action. Coming, sitting, taking, eating, drinking, giving. Secondly, a mental action. Mental action. So I see Charles sitting here, and he, she thinks. And her mind goes to heaven. Her mind goes to the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. She thinks of He was born. He was given. He lived on earth. He suffered. He obeyed. He was precious. He had no sin. He was made to be sin. He was crucified on the cross. He healed the ghost, he was buried. She just let her thoughts go to Christ and just ruminating, dwelling on the Lord Jesus Christ at the table. That's the purpose. This do in remembrance of me. Right? That's us. It doesn't say, well, do it on my behalf or because of what I did, no. In remembrance and remember. And remember constantly and just fill your time at Lent with remembering, with meditating, with considering the death of Christ and what he did. This is doing remembrance of me. So have your thoughts filled with me. Huldrych Zwingli in Switzerland thought that that was the real thing in Holy Supper. To remember, to think it through, to mail it over, to have sweet thoughts of God, sweet meditation of God. The meditation will be sweet, and that's it. Well, it is part of it. I won't say it's not this, but it's something else. No, it is also that. Certainly, it's also disdue and remembrance of me. There's more, but that's also true. God's children are not supposed to just sit back and see what's happening. Kind of passive, waiting, what's happening. Maybe something happens, maybe something sticks. No, they are called to remember, to remember, to remember at the table. To see the bread, to see people sitting, to just be active, be involved. So physical action, mental action, Also a spiritual action. Spiritual action, what do you mean? God's children do not only come to remember and to celebrate and to be fed, they come to have fellowship and union communion with Christ. They take communion. But there's a unity, a communion with the Lord Jesus. They become one with Him. They eat Him. They drink Him with their spiritual mouth. So, is that in the Bible? Oh yeah. Previous chapter 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16 The cup of the blessing which he blessed, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? What is that, the communion? The bread which he break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So it is communion with the blood and communion with the body of Christ. Communion. And that communion is real. It's a real communion. It's not just a feeling. I think first at Luther, we talked about it before, Luther was very fond of the Lord's Supper. He was a very emotional person. And he got tears in his eyes when he heard, this is my body, broken for you. And he thought, he says so, this is my body. So when I take the breath and swallow it, I take Jesus in. I don't only take in bread, I take in Jesus. He asked Luther, how so? He said, Christ is in the bread, right? It's bread, but in the bread is Christ. When I take the bread, I take Christ, and I unify myself with him, become one with him, and I feel so close to him, the union with the Savior. He enjoyed that. And then people said, Luther, The body of Christ is not in the bread. Christ rose to the heavens and his body is at the right hand of the Father, he said. No, he said, it is my body. So when I eat it, the body of Christ is there in the bread. I must believe that. I cannot let it go. It was a comfort to him. But he ran into problems with Ascension Day, right? Because Ascension Day was now not real anymore. The body of Christ became omnipresent, or at least in all the pieces of bread. Calvin said, no, it is one step further. The body of Christ, the body of Christ is in heaven. And only in heaven, nowhere else Not in the bread, not in the wine, nowhere else, but it's really in heaven that disciples start happening and you cannot touch that. The body of Christ in heaven. Is that a spiritual body? No. The real physical body of Jesus is in heaven. Heaven is local, somehow. Heaven is somewhere, somehow. And the body of Jesus went there. The body, the glorified body of Jesus is in heaven. And Calvin said, it's there and it remains there and it doesn't change. So, what does it help us? He said, well, we eat with the spirit of love the real body. We eat with the spiritual mouth, the real body. He doesn't say we eat the spiritual mouth with the spiritual body. He says we receive, we eat the real body with the spiritual mouth. Because he knows that sin, how simple it is, he knows that the body of Christ is in heaven, right? And to have communion with it means that you have to believe in it. So there's eating it, there's believing in it, there's treasuring it, there's experiencing it, giving yourself over into it, using it. Let us see what the church order, no, what the confession writes about that in article 35 on page 23. Page 23. Article 35. Now on page 23 are two columns. So we go to the first column. And you go two further down. Now as it is certain. So this is after footnote nine. Now as it is certain and beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ has not enjoined to us the use of his second in vain, So he works in us all that he represents to us by these holy signs, though the manner surpasses our understanding and cannot be comprehended by us, as the operations of the Holy Ghost are hidden and incomprehensible. In the meantime, we err not when we say that what is eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ. The manner of our partaking of the same is not by the mouth, but by the spirit through faith. See that? It's us, the proper and natural body. I just think that it's so biblical that you eat it, that it's presented somehow, but it is in heaven, the body. So biblical, I don't think there's anything you can say against this. But the manner how it's working is so incomprehensible, let me say. I cannot explain it. Another aspect is to be one bread with God's people. So it is confessing, right? It is physical action, it is mental action, it is spiritual action, and also being united with God's people, being one together as bread. One couldn't stand for we being many, our one bread, and body for all partakers of that one bread. And that's also a special part of the Lord's Supper table. You don't have the Lord's Supper by yourself. It is in communion with the saints, and it gives a special bond and friendship and communion with God's people. You love one another at the table. You are of the same blood, of the same family. You're brother and sister in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's something we are missing now, right? I miss that. I miss Lord's Supper. I miss it for myself, to convey it, to preach it, the death of Christ, to participate, but for myself also to have God's people here on the podium and to feel kind of we are together. It's a special joy to be of the same house. Romans 12 verse 5. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and every member one of another. Member one of another, like a body. Like my thumb and my pinky and my middle finger and my ring finger, they all belong to one hand. And so God's people are one. for you are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, Galatians 3 verse 26. And let the peace of God rule your hearts to the which you are called in one body. So the Lord wants the church to be at peace. So this is what God's children do, right? They confess, they act, they sit, they eat, they think, they eat with their spiritual mouth, they unite with each other. They also receive a sign that the Lord loves them. They don't only love the Lord, the Lord loves them. Do you know a text regarding that? Proving that Lord Jesus, at the supper table, loved that people and expressed his love. Luke 22 verse 15. And he said unto them, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. The Lord Jesus said, I love you. I desire you. I have had such extreme desire. With desire, I have desire. That's the Hebraism. So that's very dear also to God's people. And sometimes the preparation text is about that. The Lord Jesus says, I desire it. It's the same as with this dewy remembrance of me. I could understand if someone would say, well, it's such a holy thing. I don't dare to come to the place, Lord's Supper. I probably will suffer from that, but you know, that's it. The Lord would say, well, if you don't come for yourself, then come for me. If you don't want to come for yourself, come for me. This is the inner remembrance of me. Because I have more desire, desire to aid and support you. It's the Lord's desire. He wants it. He delights in it. And don't sin against the Lord if you have that church right and divine right to not come. or the love of the Father for hell-worthy people, but also the love of Christ that He was willing to be crucified, to die, and to rise from the dead. And that love of Him creates love also in the heart of God's people again. How often, how often do we celebrate the Lord's Supper? The Bible does not give us any details on that. So it's simple. It does not matter. Every Sunday? It's fine. Every month? Possible. Every other month? Can do that. Four times a year? Okay. Two times a year? Okay. John Calvin started with every week. And then he somehow came to the conclusion it was too much. I think people became too used to it. And they were too used about the mass in the Roman Catholic Church already. So he changed it to every other month. And then, once a month I believe. And then the city council of Geneva interfered and said he liked it four times a year. So it changed again. In Reformed churches, it's usually four times a year, but more or a little bit less is not in the Bible. And what about times of war or persecution or a pandemic? Well, if it is possible, then we should continue doing it. But you say what is possible? I don't know. That's such a hard question. We should really do our best to have that door open as soon as we can and to have the door open also for the world supper table. Now we have talked about that as a church a little bit in the Consistory. How we could do that? Is it important to have only one cup? We have many cups. We kind of thought many cups is okay too. So not to contaminate one another. And distancing would be possible as well, right? So maybe what we'll do is we'll see, maybe we'll have three services and have it spaced out. And two tables in the morning, two tables in the afternoon, two tables at night. We will see. Now what are the thoughts about that? When are we going to do that? You know, as Consistory, we are 14 people in Consistory. 14 people. And we have all different thoughts. One here, one there, one says, one saw. So it takes time to process things and to come to one conclusion, right? It's hard to come to a conclusion. So give us some time and pray for us that the Lord may guide us and that we may receive the freedom to say, now is the time. We have to do it now, we can't wait anymore. And I just hope that the government also works together and also shows respect for the fact that this is an important part of the worship service. Perseverance. As you know, the Lord has begun the good life, the life in the heart of his people, and he will also maintain it. He won't let go. He prays for them that their faith will not fail. But how does the Lord keep them alive? How does God keep God's people alive? The preaching, by the promises, by the threatenings, by the meditation, also by the sacraments. The sacraments are needed to maintain the life of God's people. They should not wither, they should not die, they should be kept up, maintained by the Lord, and so the Lord maintains them, so that they are awakened again, so that the gospel comes closer to them, so they see it again, so that they have more reasons to be humble, and to grow in grace, meaning decreasing themselves and the Lord Jesus increasing in their hearts. I like Ephesians 3 verse 16, that he would grant you, according to the riches of this glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart with faith, that Christ may dwell in your heart with faith. So in order to let them dwell in your heart, dwell in your heart, not visit, dwell in your heart, you also need a lot of suburb, when you have grace in your heart. Eating and drinking damnation to yourself. Also in 1 Corinthians 11, right? If you eat or drink unworthily, you eat damnation to yourself, not discerning the Lord's body. Not discerning the Lord's body. What is that? The body in the context of 1 Corinthians 10, 17 must mean the church. So it's harmful for the church. if you eat unworthily. Eating unworthily is, for example, when you are a pain to the church, when you are a coven breaker, when you are living in sin, in public sin, and just ruin things that is something so harmful to the body of Christ. You're not discerning the body of the Lord Jesus, and then you may not attend the Lord's Supper table. but also not when you live secretly as a hypocrite, because the Lord knows your heart. And also like the margin of the Dutch translation says, also when God's people have not properly prepared themselves and are just indifferent. Consequences are grave of that possibly. 1 Corinthians 11, 28, But let a man examine himself, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, I mention three ways to do that, eateth and drinketh damnation himself, not discerneth the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. So I understand that he takes also a sickness in that time, a serious illness as a punishment of the Lord for the congregation. For this cause, many are weak and sickly, and many sleep, many have died. In conclusion, don't think that God's people need to be perfect before they may attend the Lord's supper table. Although the faith is not perfect, their repentance not, their passion not, their holiness not. Even although they lay in the midst of death, they seek salvation outside of self in another. And that's enough. To seek salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him and to entrust yourself to him. So that's why the bread is broken. The broken bread does not refer to the breaking of the bones of Jesus, it's the window broken. But that means, it indicates that the bread is broken, that the bread is shared, and there's lots of that bread. So I hope that we may have the Lord's Supper soon, and that David with the church rite, and the divine rite, in an orderly way, directed by the consistory, may enjoy the Lord's Supper for his glory, so far.