back into 1 Corinthians, we're in the 11th chapter, and I'll refresh you a bit on where we've been. The apostle began the section on the Lord's Supper with admonishing the church in Corinth because they had made the Lord's Supper something that it was not. They took that which Christ had instituted and given to his church through the apostles and they turned it into something that it was never intended to be. And then we looked at some of the broad lessons, some of the things that the Lord's Supper teaches us, some of the theology of the sacrament as we partake of the Lord's Supper. And then we focused in on the context being a context of betrayal. You remember we talked about the contrasts of light and dark and how those contrasts in light and dark and we used some art history to give our humanities friends a hat tip. We used some art history to talk about those contrasts between light and dark in the Lord's Supper and the context of Judas Iscariot And then we discussed the idea of receiving that which has been handed down to us. That the Apostle Paul said, that which I received, I gave to you. And that's the job of the church. Our job is to take that which the Lord Jesus has given to us through instruction, and in this context, the Lord's Supper, and we pass that down to a next generation. So we spent some time on that and then last time we were in First Corinthians we talked about the idea of remembering that the context of the sacrament is a context of remembering and how God calls us to do that and to think through what Christ suffered on behalf of his people. Now today we're going back into 1 Corinthians 11, and I'll again call your attention to verses 23 through 25. I'll read those again. The apostle there says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat. This is My body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. So we've looked at some of the theology behind the Lord's Supper. We've spent several weeks looking at the theology of the Lord's Supper, and today what I want to do is I want to bring to your attention some of the particulars around the Lord's Supper, some of the things that we do and think about when we have the Lord's Supper. So we could call these particulars, things that are particular to the Lord's Supper, things that are important. And as we discuss these, I want you to know that we're considering, you can see it in the bulletin, actions, elements, posture of the Lord's Supper. And instead of that being three sermons, a sermon on action, a sermon on elements, sermon on posture, we're gonna talk about those under these three ideas or these three headings. And as we do this, as we discuss these things, I want you to think about the theology that we've talked about. And now we're going to talk about particulars. And I don't want you to think that these are things that are nitpicky. These are not things that are just particulars that only over-precise Presbyterians would care about. This is something where the Apostle comes and he says to the people of God, you've been doing this in the Lord's Supper, and he backs up and he gives basic instruction. And he talks about actions, and he talks about elements, and he talks about posture and the way that we think through the Lord's Supper. And I will draw your attention to those things, but I want you to think about it in the bigger context of the theology of the Supper that we've already been discussing. So let's look at that, let's begin, and we're going to begin this morning as we look at how Christ instituted the Lord's Supper. We're going to talk about actions, the actions of the Lord's Supper. If you look at what Paul says here, or if you go back to the Gospels and look at the institution of the Lord's Supper, there are many verbs or actions that are described in the Lord's Supper. And you can see those, you can see some of those in in the text. Here Paul says, for I received what I delivered. And then he gives verbs. He gives action words to help us to understand that. Things that Jesus Christ has given to the church. Now this is important, as I said, because Corinth had devolved in their understanding of the supper as well as their practice of the supper. And think about that in context. This is a first generation church. Think how quickly things are able to devolve when we step off of the word of God in the instruction that we are given. And what we see here, we see that in the supper there's two major things that are focused on. We talked about theoretical or theological. That's our doctrine of the supper. What are we thinking? What is our belief system around the Lord's Supper? And then there's the practical or the application. And those verbs come out in the practical. They're practical things. They're applications that are put forward. And let's think through some of those. Matthew 26, 26, an easy one to remember. The Lord's Supper is there instituted and given in its simplest form. It says, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, This is my body. And then he does the same thing with the cup. Bread. Blessed. Broken. Given. Cup. Blessed. dispersed or given out, and then it is drunk from. There's so many verbs here. Our larger catechism, focusing on some of these, again, a good way to use your Lord's Day afternoon, larger catechism 168 and 169, and you can see some of those verbs there. 168 talks about giving and receiving. We give bread, we give wine to one another. We receive bread and wine, both theologically from the hand of Jesus, as we talked about. Remember, we're lifted up. by faith into the presence of Christ, and Jesus is the one that is serving his people. But also, practically, we serve one another. We pass to one another. 169 says that bread and wine is set apart, given, taken, and eaten. Set apart through prayer. It's something where we're communing with God, as well as communing with one another, and then that bread is broken and the wine is poured out. And these are ways that we see the Lord Jesus demonstrated before us. A minister of the gospel sets these apart, prayer in the name of Jesus, elements lifted, bread broken, poured out, and then we serve one another as the body of Christ. And again, there's so many verbs there. Those of you that are English people or language people, and you're able to think through all of the verbs that are put through there. There's so much action involved when we think about the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And these things are important because Jesus Christ has instituted it this way, and then the Apostle Paul here says, let's step back, let's think through these actions, these verbs, again, as a church. And friends, we remember, don't we? These verbs help you by faith to look to Jesus Christ. And to look at what Christ has done to secure your salvation. These verbs help you to look to Christ by faith. That you see that this is something set apart. That you see by faith that Jesus is broken. You see by faith that Christ has been poured out. And you receive that. by faith. These are things where the sacrament, as we spiritually commune on Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ and with one another, the purpose of this is that we would look to Christ by faith and hold on to Him. We have both theological and practical aspects of the sacrament, and this is part of the practical, but we have to have that rich theological understanding in order to fill up the meaning of that which is practical. But we see in the text, we see something more than just verbs. We see other things that are important according to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And we're going to look at that. We call those elements. So that's our second heading, elements. We've seen verbs, we've seen action, but there's elements. There's things that we use when we participate in the Lord's Supper. And we know that the elements of the Lord's Supper are put forward as bread and wine. That's the language of our catechism, it's reflective of the Word of God, it's the language of our Constitution as Reformed Presbyterians. But what is an element? What does that even mean? That's a theological word. What's an element? Why do we look at that? Why do we look at bread and the cup and say, here's the element. What does that mean? The word element is a theological word with a very long history. It's connected to the Latin elementum, and it means the component parts of a thing. So if you break down the thing into its parts, these are the parts, these are the elements of that thing. The simple materials or the rudiments that are used. And when we break down the Lord's Supper into its most basic parts, into the common elements of what make up the Lord's Supper, we could simply talk about bread and wine. We could talk about a cup, and we could talk about a loaf, and we could say these are before you the elements, the rudimentary parts of what make up the Lord's Supper. The simplest materials. Again, going back to our larger catechism, asks, what is the Lord's Supper? And the answer begins, the Lord's Supper is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein by the giving and receiving of bread and wine according to the appointment of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ has instituted these basic elements to be presented to the church and for the church to receive those by faith as the basic rudimentary elements of what it means to take the Lord's Supper. Now, What can we learn about these things? What can we learn about bread and wine? And there's so many questions that come up. So many of the difficulties in church history are difficulties that revolve around these two things. So you think about bread and wine. Jesus says, church, not just you all, church of all time and of all places Use these things to demonstrate in part that you are united in Christ. And the church pulls, pulls the guns. And it's really become something that divides the church. And we have questions. There's so many questions that come up in your head, and maybe you have questions. We could talk about leavened bread and unleavened bread. You could talk about a loaf of bread versus Scottish shortbread. You could talk about communion wafers. You could talk about all of these different ideas that come in play when we talk about bread. And then wine, of course, you know is a whole can of worms. Isn't it? Because we use the language of wine, and we're very familiar with grape juice as being part of the practice of the Lord's Supper. So all of these questions are there before you, and may be things that are spinning through your mind, and I'm not gonna answer all those, but I just want to talk about some of what is before us. And as we think about bread and wine, I want you to think back to chapter 10 in 1 Corinthians. Because 1 Corinthians 10 is where the Lord's Supper is introduced. If you remember in the series, 1 Corinthians 10 verses 16 and 17, the title of the sermon was Lord's Supper 1. and then we didn't do a Lord's Supper too for months, because Paul says something, and then he goes elsewhere, and then he comes back to the Lord's Supper. But there in 1 Corinthians 10, 16, and 17, the apostle speaks on the elements. And there he says, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, we all partake of that one bread. So if you remember in your mind going back to 1 Corinthians 10, we focused there on the theology of the Lord's Supper and the spirituality of us moving from a table into the presence of Christ and we talked about that historic reformed understanding that when we have communion, we're communing on, in our language, the actual body and blood of Christ By faith, not through our mouths, but by faith. And we talked about that. But there we also see the beginning of this discussion on bread and wine, or bread in the cup. So what is the bread? Leavened or unleavened? What is the cup? Why do some use the language of fruit of the vine, which is the language of the New Testament? If it's fruit of the vine, can it be tomato juice, tomatoes of fruit of the vine, or watermelon juice, watermelons of fruit of the vine? So many questions. But I want to just look at this in the simplest form and understand that there are other questions that develop. So let's start thinking about the bread. The word bread that the Apostle Paul uses here is, now this will be like a rookie seminarian mistake, The Greek word for bread is bread, right? That's sort of how seminarians give Greek words sometimes. The word means bread. That's the Greek word behind this word. The word that he uses, it's artos is the word. It can be translated as bread. It appears 72 times in the New Testament. It can be translated as the word loaf, like a loaf of bread. It's translated as loaf 23 times. Or at four times, it's used for the show bread that is part of the temple or the tabernacle. So the word that Paul uses here for bread, it's the most common word that the Greek language has for bread. Now this gets interesting. The root word of artas here is arrow. And that means in Greek to be raised up or to be lifted or elevated. Now do you see why that's interesting? It's interesting because the word that the Apostle Paul uses here for bread, just that common simple word for bread, is a bread that has a leavening agent in it. It's bread that is raised. It's not unleavened, but leavened bread. That's just the word that he uses. Now it's also interesting that the word can be translated as showbread, which I mentioned already, that's a minority use within the New Testament. And the showbread was not leavened. Isn't that interesting? So you think about the Apostle Paul and maybe God in his divine wisdom gives the best word in Greek that can be translated as leavened bread or unleavened bread. Now why is that important? It's important because what Paul is speaking of here, he's not speaking of your particular style or desire for a particular type of bread. He's saying whatever is common, use bread. Use bread. So if you go to Panera and they've got all those different types of breads that you can order, you look at that and you say, what's bread? What's the common bread? And you just pick one. See, it's something that's simple. It's not something that we over-complicate or over-spiritualize in the elements. It's not something where we have to set apart a whole order of nuns to spend their life pressing little wafers with a Cairo on them to be distributed throughout the world. It's not what we do. We get bread. And we use bread. And that bread in Orlando may look different than the bread in, say, Mexico City. Or it may look different from what they may use in France. Or it may be different from what they use in Argentina. But what brings all of those together, what unites all of those in the body of Christ is this. It's just bread. That's the element. And as we think about that, as we think about that, the language, our theological language that we use when we talk about the bread of the Lord's Supper is this word that is so wonderful in Reformed theology. It's the word common. Common. Common bread is used. There's something so beautiful about common. in the Reformed faith. We have common or ordinary means of grace, just things that God does. We hear the common preaching of the Word. We go through our lives and we live our common lives in this order and rotation of six days and Sabbath. And we come to the sacrament, and again, nothing magical, nothing extra spiritual about that bread. It's bread. Common bread. And then we can think also of the cup. The word cup is used in the New Testament, and the phrase that I mentioned already, the fruit of the vine, those are words that represent that which is in the cup, the cup itself. is not the element, it's what is in the cup that is the element. And the New Testament uses that phrase, fruit of the vine. Now fruit of the vine is a term in the first century that is used for the wine that is served at a sacramental or a ceremonial service. So the Passover would use the term fruit of the vine, and the fruit of the vine is the wine used in Passover. And again, what is important for our sake as we think about the elements is again this word common. Does it matter if it's red wine or white wine? Does it matter if it's Merlot or Chardonnay? Those things don't matter. It's common. It's wine. It's table wine. Whatever you would use in that service is fine. Charles Hodge says, by wine as prescribed to us in the ordinance is to be understood as the fruit of the grape or the juice of the grape in the state in which it was commonly used, which is known as wine. The wine of the Bible was not the juice of the grape as existed in the fruit, but the juice submitted to the process of fermentation as secured in preservation and gave the qualities ascribed to it in scripture. So wine is that which is given as the element. Now we know there are discussions on the legitimacy of using the juice, grape juice, and we don't need to, We don't need to delve into the allowance of that. It is a practice that is allowed within the RPCNA and is a practice that's allowed within actually all NAPARC churches to use wine or grape juice. And part of the practicality of offering both is that people can take according to their conscience. But my job, as a minister of the gospel, and my job in teaching you what the word of God says, the New Testament practice is wine. That doesn't mean that you can't do what your conscience allows, but I'm saying that what we have in the scriptures is wine, and it's common wine. Now interestingly, connected to that, is that throughout all of church history, this idea of it being wine was never questioned until the 19th century. And it was questioned, or began to be questioned in the 19th century, and when our denomination, not just ours, others as well, the main Presbyterian church also was part of what's called the Temperance Movement. When the RPCNA first started being involved in what's called the temperance movement, there was a distinction made where wine in communion was exempt from temperance discussions. Now that changed eventually, but originally they made the distinction. Here's the sacrament, that's one thing, and here's the use of alcohol in the home or in your life, and that's another thing. But the point is, New Testament element We see bread, we see wine, and the word that should stick in your mind, the word that's super great in your head, is the word common. So common bread, common wine. It's the word for bread that Paul would use here, just common, ordinary bread, common, ordinary wine. These are the elements. But they're elements, again, as practice, that point us to Christ. They're not just things that are given for their sake, they're pointing us to Jesus Christ. They're pointing us as one loaf shared among the people of God, and a cup that is commonly shared among the people of God, and these elements that are set apart from what we say common use to sacramental use, so that we can look to Jesus by faith, and so that we may commune with one another by faith. We look to those things. and we seek to do as Christ has called us to do. So we've seen actions, we've seen elements, and thirdly, This morning I want to look briefly with you at posture, the posture of the Lord's Supper. Now the word posture, as you know, or as you ought to know, is how one holds his or her body. So all the moms in the room may be looking up in this corner and saying, boys don't slouch, sit up, right, sit up. That's your posture and how you're going to carry yourself. And posture has been a part of the discussion on the Lord's Supper for many, many years, even early on in the discussions on the Lord's Supper for this reason. Luke 22 tells us that the disciples were reclining at table. And you can see how we get into these sorts of discussions, right? We want to be faithful with the elements. We want to be faithful with doing that which Christ has commanded us to do. We want to be faithful in how we present ourselves at the Lord's Supper. And somebody opens the Bible and says, Luke 22 says reclining, so we need to be reclining. Now why is that a problem? It's a problem, I mean, we don't have to recline, and I'll tell you why. Philosophically speaking, we talk about accidentals and elementals, right? Those are philosophical terms. So again, think of that word element. The things that are elemental are the things that are necessary for the thing to happen, that are necessary for the thing to remain in itself. But the accidentals of a thing are going to be those things that revolve around it. Those things that may be present or may not be present, but still are there in some area. So they're modal terms. Essential properties of an object are things that they must have. Accidental properties are things that they may have, but they also could lack. So think essential must have. accidental may have. And this idea of reclining is an accidental, meaning that it may or may not be present because not every culture is going to participate of the Lord's Supper in that same way. The church ought to reflect what is best for how we have a meal. We call it the Lord's Supper. Part of the elemental of the language itself is that it's a meal. So we come together for a meal. And because of that, we traditionally in Reformed churches use a table. Now, during the Reformation, there were altars. As you know, if you've been to some of the great cathedrals in Europe, and you'll see these great big altars. And the altars were removed because the meal is not a sacrifice. And tables were replaced because it was a meal. Now, this was something that during the time of the Westminster Assembly, it was actually a big deal as a discussion. So when the directory for worship was being formulated, there were about 70, seven zero, 70 discussions that talk about how we take the Lord's Supper, the posture of the Lord's Supper. And you could almost put out a chart of who's who of the Westminster Assembly, and if you knew where they were from or what some of their theological positions were, you could say whether they were in favor of one thing or another for the way you go to a physical table or not. The English or the Anglican party, they favored kneeling. You come up front, you kneel, you take the Lord's Supper. Independents, or we would say Congregationalists, they favored the sitting in the pews and having elements distributed. And it was the Presbyterians who were unanimous in their decision that the table was something that ought to occur at the Lord's Supper because it's a meal and it should reflect something of that meal. Alexander Henderson said, we sent from the Church of Scotland, so all of us that came from the Church of Scotland to the assembly, are all of one mind on this point. We can hardly part from it. Nay, I may add that we may not possibly part from it. So it was like something that was held onto so strongly that they wanted to come, as Presbyterians, they wanted to come to a physical table because it was a meal and they were reflecting the theology of the fact that when we commune, we commune, think of the language, we commune with Christ and we commune with one another. So the table became that important posture among the Presbyterians for that to occur. We talk about it being a bond and a pledge of our union and communion with him. and with one another, his body, the church. So nobody was disputing that the sacrament was instituted by a meal, but the discussion had to do with the practicality of serving a congregation. Does anyone know how many, we had the Lord's Supper last week. Does anyone know how many people we had at communion last week? It was 99. Okay? And I mentioned that when we have the Lord's Supper and we have a table, I describe it to all you as a family meal. where we come, and there's not always going to be enough seats at a family meal. And you tack on tables, you tack on extras, and you gather around. And we were gathered around. And I had the distinct privilege, of course, of being over here administering it while you all are serving one another. And from that position, I honestly wanted to just pull out my phone and get a photo of us gathered around this table and singing to one another, communing to one another, and communing with Jesus Christ. It was such a beautiful portrait of heaven. It's a meal where we have fellowship together Our directory for public worship, 1945, said, the use of tables, which has come down to us from the past, has helped to guard the purity of the ordinance and should not lightly be set aside. Our current directory said those who commune may be invited to move forward or seated at tables. So we come forward, there's physical action that's associated with that meal. And we see that in the New Testament, Matthew 26, 20, Luke 22, 14, Luke 22, 28 to 30. all of these describing this table and this meal, and then 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul actually talks about the Lord's Supper in language of it being a table, that we come to table, not just speaking of bread and wine, but speaking of the fact that it's a meal and reflected in that. So the ideal set forth is bread and wine is broken, Bread and wine is broken and poured out and the church comes together as a meal in fellowship with one another and with the Lord Jesus Christ. John Knox wrote in 1553 concerning the table, he said, Christ's action was most perfect and we are most safe to follow his example. Now does that mean if we didn't have a table, we weren't having the Lord's Supper? No, we talked about elements. but we also can talk about best practice. And the part of the accidental versus elemental is that it is a meal of fellowship. How do we best reflect that as a congregation? Samuel Rutherford was, taken from his congregation in Anworth, and he was sent off to Aberdeen, way off, way off to Aberdeen in exile. And there he wrote letters. Some of you probably have read the letters of Samuel Rutherford, really a classic devotional piece. And one of the letters that he writes to his church in Answorth is he says that they should in any sort forbear the receiving of the Lord's supper except in the form that had been delivered to them according to the example of Christ our Lord and that they should sit, listen to this, they should sit as banqueters at the one table of our king and eat and drink and divide the elements to one another. And friends, that's the point, we're banqueters at a banquet of the king. And we're invited to come. And we're invited to that banquet, reflective language of the New Testament, we're invited to that banquet to come and to participate with that which Jesus has put before us. And all of these things that we're talking about, you might think on your way home tonight, or today, I don't want you in the car to say that was the most nitpicky, unnecessary sermon that I've ever heard from that pulpit. I want you to hear and think through the fact that all of these things, the actions, all of these verbs, and these two elements that are put forward before us, and this idea of posture, coming to table, that we may sing to one another, and that we may commune together, and that as a body we may be lifted up to Christ. I want you to consider that the main point of all of this, all of these things described today, can be summarized in this one word. for those that love Christ. Come. That is the word that Jesus Christ puts before us, isn't it? He says, come. All of these things today that we've seen, all of these things that are designed by God to point you to Christ, that you may look to Jesus, and that you may hear aspects of the elements, and that you may see things that you don't see in the preaching of the Word, and so that you may taste all of these sensual things are put before you for this purpose, that you will come to the banquet of the King. And I'm thinking beyond this table. I'm thinking by faith, you go to Christ. And you look to Jesus. J.C. Ryle once said, Do not stop short in any halfway house. Do not let the devil and the world cheat you out of eternal things. Do not suppose that you will get any good from Christ unless you go straight, direct, thoroughly, and entirely to Christ himself. Press onward, forward, upward, until you've had personal, business-like dealings with Christ Himself, dismissed from your mind all ideas of worthiness, of merit, and fitness within yourself. Throw away your notions of goodness and righteousness. Think not that you can bring anything to Him that makes you deserving of Christ's notice. You must come to Him as a poor, guilty, undeserving sinner. Or you might as well not come at all. He goes on and he says this, The invitation of Christ is before you. If you've never listened before, listen today. It is broad, full, free, wide, simple, tender, kind. That invitation will leave you without excuse if you refuse to accept it. There are some invitations, perhaps, which it be wiser or better to decline. but there is one which ought always to be accepted, and that is before you today, Christ Jesus saying, come, come to me. Friends, we've looked at 1 Corinthians 11. We've spent time talking about theology, which we love. And we look at these things that are practical. And things that you may look at at them and just say, oh, those Presbyterians are so precise. They're just precisionist. They just want to talk about things that are so precise. And I'm saying congregation, throw that off of your mind. We want to do as Jesus Christ has said, that we may look to him by faith and so that every one of you may find yourself in Jesus. We're called to come. The theology is seen. The practice is seen. And in all of these things, verbs and elements and posture, they all point you to a free offer by Jesus Christ. An offer that you may look to him by faith and come. Amen. Lord, we thank you for these things that we have seen within your word. We pray, O Lord, that we would more and more look to you by faith, and that we would cling to Jesus Christ, who's given us these things. Amen.