Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 10-11 | Date: February 1, 2026 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Ordering the Church: The Lord’s Supper

We’re continuing our series on Ordering the Church, highlighting the leading marks of the church. We have worked our way from the foundation of the church through the offices of the church. We looked at the role of preaching. We looked at the matter of church membership and responsibilities of church membership and church life. We have seen then the ordinance of baptism, and now the Lord’s Supper. Paul has a brief mention of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 10 of 1st Corinthians, and we’ll look at that, we’ll spend some time with that, but then his fuller treatment of that is in chapter 11, and the bulk of our time will be there. But I want to note these verses at the beginning because we will spend some time with it. 1st Corinthians chapter 10, beginning with verse 14:

“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, 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? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

And then verse 21: “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” And now if you turn the page to chapter 11, beginning with verse 17:

“But in the following instructions, I do not commend you. Because when you come together, it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one of you goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment to himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come.”

One of the marks, the leading marks of a true church, as I’ve mentioned before, is the observance of the two ordinances, as we call them: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We’re not big on drama in our church, but there are two dramas that the Lord himself instituted to be observed in the church in the local assembly meetings together. One, of course, is baptism. We saw that last time. It is a picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. That’s what’s symbolized in the going down into the water, coming up out of the water. It is the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. But it’s more than that, as we saw; it pictures our identification with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection. So that as he has died and come to new life, so we, as it were, died with him and have been raised with him to new life.

And so in that respect then, baptism is the first step of discipleship. It is a declaration of our submission to Christ. It is, as we said last time, our pledge of allegiance to Christ. Christ says, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and therefore and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them,” showing their allegiance to me. And so this is our pledge of allegiance to Christ.

The other drama that Jesus gives us, imposes on the church to be observed, is this that we call the Lord’s Supper, or the Lord’s Table. And again, this pictures—it’s a symbolic drama—and it pictures for us the death of Christ. We find that here in chapter 11, verse 23, you hear Paul quoting Jesus. He says he took bread, broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you.” Then verse 25, “In the same way also he took the cup… This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” So the Lord’s Supper is intended to portray and symbolize the death of Christ, specifically, as we’ll see in a moment, what he accomplished in his death.

A brief word about the terminology that we use here. We tend to call these ordinances. The more traditional word that is used in most churches is the terminology of sacraments. The word sacrament comes from a Latin word, which is basically the same, sacramentum, and it had to do with a pledge or an oath that was made, like a Roman soldier would pledge his allegiance to the Roman emperor, things like that. In that original sense of the word, that is a perfectly appropriate use of the term with regard to these observances that we have, these rituals, if you will, that Christ has imposed on the church. Because today the term sacraments or sacramentalism tends to be used very often in terms of conveying grace or a means of grace. So in some traditions, baptism washes away sin, brings forgiveness of sins, and so on. Because the term has been used in that kind of a way of accomplishing things, Baptists have often shied away from the term of sacrament and have instead preferred the word ordinance—something that Christ has ordained, ordered to be in use in the church.

But both of these, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are permanent fixtures in the church for this age. Matthew 28, we saw that last time, baptism is to be observed to the end of the age. And now here in verse 26 of chapter 11, we find that we observe the Lord’s table until he returns. All right, then what is the significance of this ordinance, the Lord’s Supper?

The Lord’s Supper Is A Communion

First of all, and there are several layers of significance to it, but first of all, the Lord’s Supper is a communion. That’s what we often call it. That’s what Paul calls it. Let’s go back to chapter 10, verse 14. “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation [or communion] in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation [or fellowship or communion] in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Now this word in our version is translated “participation.” If you have the NIV, I think it might be translated “a sharing.” Sharing in the body and the blood of Christ. In the King James Version, it’s a “communion” with the body and the blood of Christ. And again, the New American Standard Version, it’s translated “a fellowship.” All the same word here. In fact, some of you may be familiar with this Greek term, koinonia. The fellowship in the body and blood of Christ. And that’s Paul’s point here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

You might remember the setting here. When Eric took us through this not long ago in the Sunday school hour, the question of eating meats came up. Is it okay to eat meats that have been offered to idols in their ceremonies, and now that meat is out on the market? Is it okay to buy that meat and eat it? Paul, long and short of Paul’s argument there, is that meat is meat; it’s fine, you can eat what you want to eat. There’s no restriction on that. You would not, however, want to participate in that ceremony itself, in that pagan ritual. That would be another matter altogether. You can’t participate or fellowship with idolatry.

So also, in verse 16 here, the cup of blessing is a participation or a fellowship in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break, it’s a participation in the body of Christ. So this is a symbolic expression of our participation with or union with Jesus. We’ll see more of that as we go along. You see it again in verse 21, where Paul says to the people in that context, you can’t do both. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t express your participation with them on the one hand, and then your participation with Christ on the other. You can’t have it both ways.

But you see, the point then is that this is a symbolic communion or fellowship or partaking or sharing with one another in things that you have in common. Now, and this is important to see, this communion and bread symbolism works in two ways, and Paul does both of them here. On the one level, the bread of the Lord’s Supper is a picture of and represents the Lord’s own body given to us in his death on the cross. That’s what he tells us in verse 24 of chapter 11, if you’ll go there. “This is my body which is for you.” This is the body of Christ given in death on behalf of his people. Verse 26, when we take a piece, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. That is, his body—the bread pictures the body of Christ given in death for his people.

Now at the same time, and here’s the other direction it works, this bread symbolism points not only to the body of Jesus given in death, but it points to us, the church, the body of Christ. So you see the both ways it works. On one level, it’s pointing to Christ’s body that is given. On another level, it’s pointing to us, the body of Christ, the church. So chapter 10, again, verse 17: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Now, the New International Version here translates it, I think, in a way that’s a little bit more helpful. In the Greek here, we don’t have a distinction between the word “bread” and the word “loaf.” Clearly, it’s a loaf of bread that’s in view here, and so that’s how the NIV translates it. So it says, “Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one loaf.” So the loaf, the bread image, is a picture of the body of Christ. And here he’s speaking of it in terms of the church itself. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s table at the Passover meal with his disciples, he didn’t serve a tray of crackers. He had a loaf of bread. And he would pull off a piece and distribute it, and pull off a piece and distribute it, pull off a piece and distribute it.

And in that way, it’s symbolizing, Paul is telling us here, all of our oneness together as the body of Christ. Each of us a member, each of us a piece of the loaf, as it were, but there’s a oneness to it. So when we take the bread of the Lord’s table, we declare our union with one another as the body of Christ.

Now that’s important when we come later in chapter 11 that we’ve already read—this problem of division in the church at Corinth. This is one of the notorious traits of the church at Corinth. Way back in chapter one, which is introduced to us with these divisions in the congregation, with the factions—”I prefer this preacher, you prefer the other, and I prefer that one.” That division in the church showed up in chapter 11 even at the Lord’s table. You might have noticed that as we read through. These people come and they start gorging themselves and they eat up and they don’t wait for the other people to come later, and when they get there, there’s no food left. They are reserving the supper as a meal and some of them are just living it up and not waiting to share for the others; and the others who come up later, probably the poor people who had to work, show up later and there’s nothing left for them.

And Paul says you’ve turned this holy ordinance into an occasion of sin. Here it is meant to portray in drama the oneness of the people of Christ in Christ. And here you’ve torn it apart in the way that you behave with one another. And in that respect then, in chapter 11 verses 28 and following, the Lord’s table is an occasion of self-examination. To be careful that you are not destroying the symbolism of the supper by the way that you’re behaving with one another.

Now this, by the way, is why—a practical question, an answer to a question that’s often asked—this is why we do not offer a private communion in homes. Some churches do that, and they do that usually because they have assumed that the supper has some means of conveying grace of some kind, and so they bring it to the home or to the nursing home or wherever it is to have a private communion. We don’t do that here, and the reasons are, chapter 10, verse 16: this is a participation in the body of Christ. This is a symbol of the one loaf, the one body, and that’s why in chapter 11, Paul says this is to be observed when you come together as a church. We all partake of this one loaf, and that symbolism in a private ceremony is destroyed. So the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic affirmation of our fellowship with one another together in Christ. We are the people of Christ, redeemed through his death, and we declare in one loaf, being shared, our oneness together in Jesus.

Our Communion With Christ

All right, most fundamentally though, and here’s where we’ll spend the rest of our time, the Lord’s Supper, this bread and communion symbolism, expresses our communion with Christ. Not just our communion with one another in Christ, but most specifically our communion with Christ. Chapter 10, verse 16: “The cup of blessing that we bless, 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?” So as we take the elements of the Lord’s table, we declare our fellowship with and our union with Christ in his death. Verse 24 here of chapter 11, this is his blood, this is his body that is given for us. Verse 26, this is a proclamation, a symbolic, nonverbal proclamation of the death of Christ.

I’m going to take a couple of minutes here and put this in broader perspective in the various Christian traditions. It’s really somewhat ironic that this ordinance speaks of fellowship, and in particular it’s ironic that it speaks of fellowship with one another in Christ. And I say that because these four words of verse 24, “This is my body”—Paul here is quoting Jesus in Luke chapter 22, verse 19—these four words, “This is my body,” have been described rightly as the most contentious words in history. Isn’t that ironic?

Well, you have denominations forming themselves around this. The Roman Catholics, as you may know, take this in a very literal sense, and the doctrine is called transubstantiation. So the substance is transferred to the elements. And so when the priest says in Latin, “This is my body,” hoc est corpus meum—that, by the way, is where we get the word “hocus pocus.” It’s a corruption of the Latin because the priest now is performing a miracle when the elements that are served in the Lord’s Supper become the actual blood and body of Jesus. Now it still looks like bread and it still looks like wine, but it actually is the real body and blood of Jesus. It is transubstantiated.

Well, Martin Luther, breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, couldn’t buy that. But he didn’t move very far. And instead of transubstantiation, he developed a doctrine called consubstantiation. The elements do not become the body and blood of Christ, but the real human body and blood of Jesus are “con,” they’re with and in the elements. So the real human blood and body of Jesus is there. Now there were two branches of the Protestant tradition. There’s the Lutheran branch, and then there’s the Reformed branch. The Reformed guys came along and said, “No, we can’t buy that.”

Maybe I’ll explain that in a minute, but no, there’s a spiritual presence of Jesus in the elements. Not a human presence, but a spiritual presence of Jesus in the elements. And then came Zwingli and the Baptists, and they said, “No, there’s not a transferring of the substance. There’s not the real body of Jesus with it. And it’s not a spiritual presence. It’s a memorial of Jesus. That’s what it is.”

You might be interested to know that early in the earliest years of the Reformation—this is 1529—there was a famous council together where the leaders of the various branches of the Reformation got together: “Let’s join forces and see if we can do this thing together.” And they met and this was the point of division. Luther was there at the meetings, the Marburg Colloquy as it’s called. Luther himself was there in typical Luther fashion, slams his fist on the table and kept saying it over and over, “Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body.” So there has to be a real presence of Jesus, real human body there. While the divisions that were there have never been overcome, the theological implications really are too serious. And so we have the various views of it and the denominations form accordingly.

Because the Roman Catholic Church, and because the Lutheran, and because the Reformed all see a further significance in the Lord’s table than just a memorial, they tend to refer to the Baptist view—and I’m not making this up, this is their language—they tend to refer to the Baptist view as a “minimalist view” or a “low view” of the sacraments. And of course at that point they have the rhetorical advantage because who wants to have a low view of the sacraments and who wants to have a minimalist view of the sacraments? But of course we are ready to push back and we have good ground to push back. I want you to think through these quickly.

In the Roman Catholic view, it actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus. The Lutherans and the Reformed and the Baptists, they all agree that throws the finality of the death of Christ into question. In Roman Catholic teaching, there is in the Mass a re-offering of the body and blood of Jesus in sacrifice. Reformers, the Protestant reformers, all looked at that and said that just throws into question everything that the Bible tells us about the once-for-allness of the death of Jesus. And so the Lutherans would argue the body and blood of Jesus physically, his human body, is in and with the elements that are served. And the Reformed and the Baptists look at that and say you can’t have that because that’s not consistent with our understanding of the two natures of Christ.

Jesus is omniscient. “I’m with you always.” But in his humanity, he is not omnipresent. He is not omnipresent as to his humanity, but as to his deity he is. And so they’ve argued that. And then the Reformed then come along and they say that, well, there’s a spiritual presence of Christ with the elements that are given. And at that point we want to ask: “Okay, of course Christ is present, he’s omnipresent, he’s God. But in just what sense do you mean he’s present? Do you mean he’s present in the service?” Oh yeah, well we’ll take that. Jesus promises a special presence where his people are gathered together. But when you say that there’s a spiritual presence of Christ in the elements, what do you mean by that? It seems to me they’re saying too much at that point. Do the elements now themselves possess some kind of special grace or convey some kind of special grace?

Do This In Remembrance Of Me

And the most important consideration in all of that, and here we come to the point, is that memorial is precisely the way Jesus himself defines the significance of this ordinance. Look at chapter 11 verse 24. “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is our Lord’s own words of institution, quoted from Luke chapter 22 in verse 19. This is Jesus’ only command with regard to the observance of this ordinance, and he describes its significance here as a remembrance.

This, notice again in that verse, is how Jesus defines, and then how Paul defines the expression, “This is my body.” “This is my body” is defined as, “Do this in remembrance of me.” So “This is my body” is, “This represents my body.” Verse 25, you have the same thing again. “Do this in remembrance of me.” And then in verse 26, we have Paul’s own explanation of it. Notice the conjunction “for,” and he defines it now in a memorial sense: “For as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

It is a non-verbal proclamation of Christ or a remembrance of him, a symbolic proclamation of him. So the expression, “This is my body,” very rightly means “This represents my body.” It portrays these elements as symbolic. So for example, in verse 24, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” No one will argue that the cup itself is the new covenant. What they would have to argue is the cup, and what is in it, represents the new covenant that Jesus is enacting in his death. And it would be nonsense to understand the expression in any other way. Just as Jesus would say, “I am the door, I am the vine,” and so on, so also he says, “This is my body.”

All that to say then, memorial—and this has massive bearing on the importance of observing the Lord’s Supper, as we’ll explain in a minute—but memorial is just where the New Testament emphasis falls. Jesus is saying, “Here’s the means by which you are to remember me, and by which you are to remember my death for you. This, these elements, this is the sign of the new covenant that I enact in my death. This bread, it represents my body. This cup, more specifically the wine in it, represents my blood.”

All right, with all of that foundation given, what is it—just what is it about our Lord’s death that we are to memorialize and that we are to remember? What is it about his death that is significant and why should we remember it? And why should we remember it routinely in the Lord’s table? Well, look at chapter 11, verse 23:

“I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body,’ [here it is] ‘which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.'”

That is to say, this is a remembrance not only of Jesus’ death—not merely as an historical event—but it is remembrance of Christ’s death as a redemptive event. “This is my body, which is for you.” For example, think of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, just a few pages later, when Paul comes to summarize the gospel. What is the gospel? You remember how he says it? “This is the gospel. In summary, Christ died.” Doesn’t stop there, does it? It’s not just a historical statement. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” It is as God has promised that a sacrifice would come on behalf of his people and take their place in death and bearing the judgment of God. And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

So it’s not just a mere historical event, but there’s a theological significance to it. This is a redemptive event that’s being memorialized here. “This is my body, which is for you.” And this is the standard language given in the New Testament. Christ’s death on behalf of his people in their place, dying as their redeemer. Now the setting here is very important.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, you’ll remember Luke chapter 22 and the other synoptic gospels portray it as well. It was the observance of the Passover meal with his disciples. That points us back to Exodus chapter 12, in the miraculous Exodus from Egypt, when God brought his people miraculously out of Egypt. You remember that night; it’s portrayed with a death angel coming. The Lord God had prescribed, ordered it through Moses: says, “You take a lamb and you slay the lamb. And you have that dinner, but the blood from that lamb you take and you paint it on the doorpost and on the lintel ahead. And when the death angel comes by that night, the firstborn in every home will be killed. Unless you have the blood painted on the doorpost and on the lintel.”

And then the Lord imposes this on Israel as a ceremony that’s to be remembered every year. And so for every year throughout the years, throughout the centuries, Israelites would gather together in their homes and they would have this meal and they would have the lamb offered and it was given. And then the children were instructed to ask, “Well, what’s the meaning of all of this?” The fathers were instructed to respond: “Well, our fathers were slaves in Egypt. God came in a miraculous way and delivered us out of Egypt. And they offered the lamb in those days. And in that day, they had to take the blood and put it over the doorposts and all around. And those who had the blood on the doorposts, they were spared.”

And so this year after year after year is being observed. And now Jesus sits with his disciples to observe this ceremony. Paul refers to it actually in chapter 10, verse 16, when he speaks of the “cup of blessing.” A number of cups that were observed during that meal. The cup of blessing was one of them. He takes the cup of blessing. And now Jesus gathers with his disciples in Luke chapter 22, and he observes that meal with them as they had every year all of their lives. And he takes the bread and he breaks it. And he says, “This is my body.” It wasn’t that lamb by itself that redeemed anybody. That lamb was pointing forward to me. And this bread that is given represents my body, which is given for you.

Now I can only imagine how the disciples understood that. I’m sure they were puzzled by it. But in the coming days, particularly after the resurrection of Jesus, when he himself met with his disciples to unfold all of this—how the scriptures pointed to him—these words of Jesus began to take on meaning. “This is my body, which is for you.” Verse 25, Paul adds Jesus’ words again: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

Now this points us back explicitly to Jeremiah chapter 31. Remember Jeremiah writing to the people in exile? Covenant curses had come upon them just as God had warned. They hadn’t kept the old covenant that was given to them at Sinai, and now they’re being punished for it. And Jeremiah writes: “This is that old covenant—nothing wrong with it, but it wouldn’t do the job. All it could do is command and punish. It didn’t offer forgiveness. There’s no ground in the old covenant for forgiveness, only symbolically. And it couldn’t do anything. That covenant had no provisions for enablement for obedience.”

And so Jeremiah announces from God in Jeremiah chapter 31, “The days are coming, I’m gonna make a new covenant with you. And under the terms of this covenant, not like the old one that I made with your fathers at Sinai, under the terms of this covenant, I’ll forgive your sins. And I’ll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways.” Ezekiel 36 spells this out in some fascinating ways: “I’ll make you an obedient people. I’ll transform you from the inside out. And on the ground of my blood, you’ll have forgiveness of sins.” This cup, the new covenant.

Jesus says, “Here in my death I bring about God’s ancient promise to forgive sins and to secure a people for himself.” So in Luke 22 verse 20 when Jesus says, “This cup is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus himself announces that God’s promise of forgiveness is finally coming to be fulfilled. In his death, he secures forgiveness for sinners. And here he brings us, through this illustration, the bread and the cup, he brings us to the very heart of the Christian faith. Why is Christianity here? The answer to that question is to make a way for sinners to have fellowship with God. And how is that fellowship with God secured? It’s secured by nothing other than the death of Jesus Christ in their place.

And so when we observe the Lord’s Supper, we are called to look back. Verse 24, we take the bread in remembrance of Christ. Verse 25, we take the cup in remembrance of Christ. Verse 26, in this table we proclaim the Lord’s death as the great redemptive event. On the one hand, this might seem shocking, surprising that we need to have a reminder. You’ve heard me say this before at times of the Lord’s Supper. You’ve heard Pastor Greg say it at times of the Lord’s Supper. It is a surprising thing that the Lord Jesus would see fit to give us something to remember him as though we could forget. But the fact is, we do forget.

Not so much in an absolute sense, but with some. But with some it might be that we’re facing such a downgrade in our culture. The Christian responsibility becomes “I need to take a stand.” And so we take our stand against abortion and we take our stand against transgenderism and we take our stand against homosexuality and all of these things that are marking our culture now. And we do that and we do that faithfully until somehow that becomes the point. We might, in just a broader way, become so absorbed in Christian service—good things, serving one another, helping one another, helping out in the church, serving in offices. Somehow that becomes the point. It might be that we become so impressed with our faithfulness that that becomes the point. Or it might even be that we become so discouraged with our failures.

In any case, it is massively important for your own sake to look back and remember Christ. You may have a history of sin. You may have a history of failures. You may have a history of disappointments. If you are not regularly reminding yourself of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are likely to make too much of those things. It’s a fascinating thing to me. In the Old Covenant, they had another annual ceremony, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. That great ceremony when the animals were offered in sacrifice and so on. When the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament picks that up, it’s fascinating to me how he describes it. Year after year, these people would come and the priest would lay his hands on the animal and the animal would be slaughtered. Next year, come back, lay his hands confessing his sins, animal slaughtered. Next year, come back… year after year after year, century after century, this went on and on.

The inspired writer of the book of Hebrews looked back at that and says, at least for the thinking worshiper, what that ceremony was, was a remembrance of sin. Every year I come back, there needs to be atonement. There needs to be atonement of sin. There needs to be atonement, we’ve sinned. There needs to be atonement, we’ve sinned. And every year there’s this remembrance of sin. And here our Lord gives us a ceremony that regularly reminds us of forgiveness. Isn’t that fascinating? And if we don’t keep this reminder before us always, we will begin to make too much of other things. We’ll think that our accomplishments are more valuable and more impressive than they are, or we’ll think that our failures mean more than they actually do. Lord’s Table, we come to it, proclaims Christ and his death. And it reminds me that there’s really only one really significant event in all of my past. And that is that one day, nearly 2,000 years ago, on a hill outside Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus took my place, answered to God for my sins, secured my acceptance, secured my forgiveness. And that really is the only thing about me that matters.

You might come to the table—I’ve seen people like this—tender conscience, you take these things seriously. You take Paul’s warning seriously in verse 28, “Let a man examine himself.” You take those things seriously and you come to the Lord’s table wondering, “How can I take this? What right, what right do I have?” Then we’re reminded the table itself calls you to remember that one event in your past that gives you the right. So you take the bread and you drink the cup, not in presumption, but you take the bread and you drink the cup, remembering Christ. And so the Lord’s Table is a gospel ordinance. It calls us to look back and to remember that one event in our past that matters supremely.

But there’s another aspect of the Lord’s Table. It not only calls us to look back, but verse 26 of chapter 11, it also calls us to look ahead. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he come.” We will not observe this ordinance forever, only until Jesus returns. And in that sense, the Lord’s Supper is not only a remembrance of Christ, but it’s an anticipation of Christ. We take the elements, we look back to what he has done for us, but we also look ahead to the next great event in our lives.

You might, as I’ve said, you might tend to make too much of your past—your sins, your failures, your accomplishments—but you also might tend to fret too much about the future—your health, your job, your savings account, relationships, whatever. And if you’re not careful, those worries can sometimes work you into a dither. And then we come to observe the Lord’s table. It calls us to look back at what Jesus has done for us, and it calls us to look ahead to that next great event in our lives. And the next great event in your life is not your job promotion, it’s not your retirement; the next great event in your life, when the heavens open, trumpet sounds, the Lord Jesus returns, raises his people from the dead, establishes his eternal kingdom. That is the next great event in your life and whatever happens between now and then just pales in significance.

And so the Lord’s Table gives us these bookends to our life, gives us a perspective to live by. Christ has come. He has died for sin. Christ is coming again and he’ll bring his kingdom to a grand consummation. And these are the two bookends of our lives. And every time we come to the Lord’s Table, we are called to put our lives in right perspective. Think like a Christian. Jesus has come. He’s died for your sins. Jesus is coming again. And within that perspective, all of life takes shape.

Now one other question then, raised it earlier. Is the Lord’s table then a means of grace? You bet it is. It is a nonverbal proclamation of the gospel and a reminder of Christ. And that does our souls good and is massively important to us. And whatever else we get taken up in, we need regularly to come back and remember Christ. Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Father, what a great Savior we have. What great truths you have revealed that you have done for us that enable us to live in a right perspective. Shape our thinking by it, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.