The What, Who, and How of the Lord's Supper (Observing the Lord's Supper)

Well take your Bible, turn back to the two places that I asked you to turn to earlier, Matthew 26 and 1 Corinthians 11. Now some of you may be surprised that we will be in 1 Corinthians 11 for the Lord's Supper, but I think you'll see just how these verses are relevant. So take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians 11, mark that place in Matthew chapter 26. We'll get to those passages a little later on in the message. Now this morning we are here together to worship and we're here to observe what we commonly call the Lord's Supper. Now if you think about it, in observing the Lord's Supper, we are really doing many things.

First of all, we are remembering that the Lord Jesus died for man on the cross. And you could say something like this, "Well pastor, isn't that what we see in the Gospels? Isn't that what Jesus said? Do this in remembrance of me?" He did. We do know that is in the Gospels. But when I say that we are doing many things, what I mean is this. We start off by remembering what our Lord has done, and then by properly remembering what He has done, we are able to move on into other spiritually significant matters. We are able to move on to worship in many other ways. So there are many things that are going on here in observing the Lord's Supper.

Now on the night that Jesus instituted the Supper, we read about that earlier, Jesus was doing many things. As a matter of fact, there were many things that were going on then. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the Passover as it was commanded in the Old Testament Scriptures. And in celebrating the Passover, they were commemorating their forefathers' deliverance out of Egyptian slavery. Some of you know your Old Testament, and you know that reality. But Jesus was also teaching His disciples what the Passover pictured.

Jesus was teaching that He would give His body and blood to die just like thousands and thousands of Passover lambs had died before Him. See, He was the true Passover Lamb of God. And where the Passover commemorated Israel's deliverance from their physical slavery in Egypt, the Lord's Supper speaks of the spiritual deliverance of God's people from their slavery to sin. And this deliverance was provided by Christ on the cross. As the writer of Hebrews says, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." We're familiar with that passage.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say, "He that's Jesus has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." So in the Last Supper, Jesus was commemorating, remembering, celebrating the Passover, but He was instituting what we call the Lord's Supper as a celebration of His single sacrifice for sin. So you see, there is a lot going on here. There was a lot going on here that night when Jesus ate that Passover Supper and instituted this Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, with His disciples. Now a question that probably you haven't thought about. Why one message on the Lord's Supper?

Why don't we just come and take the Supper? We're probably more accustomed to coming to church and just taking the Supper. Well, many of us have been a part of churches where the Lord's Supper has been reduced. It's become a little too casual. As a matter of fact, there are some of you that you've been in churches. I know I have been in churches where it's been reduced even past the casual to even the carnal. Honestly, we live in a day when many things in churches have been reduced to the casual and the carnal. I made a quick list. Coming to faith in Christ has been very casual. It's reduced.

You know, we have this cheap decisionism that has plagued so many churches. We've been a victim of it. We've seen it. We've tried to beat it out of the life of our church. And we don't believe in a cheap decisionism in coming to faith in Christ. So conversion and repentance and faith has been reduced. It's been casual in many churches. Church membership has been neglected and it's been reduced to the carnal and the casual as well. Church music and worship through music has been reduced to the carnal and the casual. We've worked real hard to elevate both.

As a matter of fact, church membership is one of the things we will look at in our series on life and the body. Baptism. Believers, baptism has been relegated to the casual and the carnal. But observing the Supper has been reduced to the casual and the carnal as well. And the reason I give you that list is because some of you are familiar with how some of these things have become very casual in the life of the church. But here in the life of this church, our church, we want the Supper and observing the Supper to be very worshipful. We want to elevate the Supper to be a very meaningful time in our lives. Yes, worshipful.

But we want to elevate it to the biblical standard as best as we can. And there can be some of you here. You desperately need this teaching because of your past experiences. Some of you need to be re-educated or educated for the very first time. The real meaning of what all of this is. But then there's some others. We just need a reminder every now and then. And so with God's help, we want to have the right attitude this morning. We want to have the right approach in protecting the Lord's Supper. And so that is why different times like this will take the time to study what the Scriptures say about the Supper. I put it in my notes like this.

Simply, we just want to do this right. Isn't that correct? We want to be biblical. We want to worship in the Supper properly. Now this morning we're going to study the Lord's Supper by asking three questions. Three questions that might seem very elementary, but I do believe these questions will go deeper than maybe you expect. And I believe we will cover a lot more ground than maybe you anticipate. And no matter if we need some reminding and no matter if we need some major correction in our approach to the Supper, all of this that we look at this morning will be good. Now I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message.

The title of the message tells you what we're going to deal with. We're going to look at the what, the who, and the how. We're going to look at the what, the who, and the how. What is the Lord's Supper? Who is to partake in the Lord's Supper? And how should we take the Lord's Supper? Now I'll go ahead and tell you I'm not going to put any more information up on the screen. The outline of the message just comes out of these questions. What is the Supper? Who is to take the Lord's Supper? And then how should we take the Supper?

And you know as always I do encourage you to take notes, but I would a lot rather you listen with your mind and your heart and follow along and then maybe get some information later on. So I want us to start off with this first question. What is the Lord's Supper? Now we need to understand that the Lord's Supper is one of two ordinances instituted by Jesus and given to the church. Now the two ordinance are believers baptism and the Lord's Supper. Some call the Lord's Supper communion. There's nothing wrong with that. Occasionally you might hear someone call it a sacrament.

Now we must recognize that some do believe in what's called sacramentalism. Now we could go down that road quite a few miles and we don't have time for that, but we must see that sacramentalism is heretical. Sacramentalism is heretical. Simply sacramentalism teaches that a right relationship with Christ can be attained by participating in the sacraments. And sacramentalism is basically salvation by works. Sad to say that's one of the errors of our Roman Catholic friends. So it's important for us to see that the Lord's Supper and participating in the Lord's Supper, it has no saving qualities.

We cannot attain salvation by participating in the Supper. Now there is an important difference between the ordinance of baptism and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Baptism is practiced one time in a believer's life. Believer's baptism takes place at the beginning of the Christian life after one professes conversion to Christ. A great example is in Acts chapter 2 when the New Testament church's birth here on earth, we see Peter and he's preaching that famous day of Pentecost sermon at that famous day of Pentecost event. When that great crowd repents of their sin and they're converted to Christ, what does Peter do?

Peter calls them to be baptized as a sign of what has happened to them spiritually. So conversion to Christ is a one-time event. And starting in Acts 2 and all through the New Testament, we see that being converted to Christ and then being baptized after that conversion is a one-time event. But participating in the Lord's Supper is to be repeated. It is to be practiced all throughout the life of the believer in the life of the local church. We come to this belief and practice in two ways. First from Jesus' commandment, Jesus commanded his followers to remember his death through the Supper on a regular basis. We see this in the Gospels.

Now the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke record this event. And we also see it in our 1 Corinthians 11 passage. But we also see this in example in Acts 2, verse 42. We're familiar with this passage. We see that the church was devoted to the breaking of the bread. That's an important term. This term is a reference to celebrating the Lord's Supper. So we see so much here. But this term, the Lord's Supper, what about this term that we're familiar with? It's only found one time in the New Testament and that is in 1 Corinthians 11, 20. Paul uses a similar term as well. He uses the term the Lord's Table there in 1 Corinthians 10, 21.

And this institution that the apostle Paul calls the Lord's Supper is spelled out in four different passages in the New Testament. I said this earlier. We see it spelled out in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke chapter 22. And surprisingly to some of you in 1 Corinthians 11, we do not see the Lord's Supper in the Gospel of John. That's just the way the Lord inspired his scriptures to be written. So the Supper is clearly explained in the Gospels and in 1 Corinthians. Now we need to get to our question. What is the Lord's Supper? This would be a good time for us to look at our passage in Matthew again. I'd like us to turn back to Matthew.

We're going to start in verse 17 and just read a few verses on down. I want this to be fresh in our mind because this is the background of what we're going to look at here. Verse 17. Now on the first day of unloving bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, "Where will you have us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?" And he said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, 'The teacher says my time is in hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" So we see that they're gathering there to participate and to remember everything associated with the Passover.

Now I want to skip on down past the portion of scripture dealing with Judas. Verse 26. Now as they were eating, Jesus took the bread and after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to the disciples. And what did he say? "Take it and eat it. This is my body." And he took the cup after he had given thanks. He gave it to them saying, "Drink of it all of you for this is my blood of the new covenant." We see that in other places in the Gospels, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Now here in Matthew, we see that Jesus is instituting what we see as the Lord's Supper. He celebrated his last Passover meal with his disciples.

I've already briefly explained what the Passover celebration was. But what is important to see is that the Passover celebration, specifically the Passover lamb, was a picture of Christ and his substitutionary death on the cross. I ran across a quotation by John MacArthur that helps us see the difference in the two, the difference in the Passover and the Lord's Supper. And I'm quoting, "The Passover looked back, the Passover looked back, remember, to the temporary rescue from physical bondage?

The Lord's Supper commemorates the eternal and spiritual deliverance provided through the new covenant." And he's looking back here, "The lambs slaughtered during the Passover merely foreshadowed the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God who died on the cross to redeem sinners once and for all." Now all this information is helpful. We see where the term the Lord's Supper comes from. We see the background of the Supper, which is the Old Testament Passover celebration and how Christ instituted the Supper. We see the very important differences in the two.

The Passover celebration looked back to a temporary deliverance from physical bondage, while the Lord's Supper commemorates the spiritual and eternal deliverance through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. And the Passover and everything associated with the Passover was a shadow of what was the con. Christ was and is the true and final Passover Lamb to be sacrificed once and for all. We see that in Hebrews. But a question, what is the Lord's Supper? What is the Lord's Supper? See, the Lord's Supper is an ordinance given by Christ to the church whereby believers remember the atoning sacrifice for sin made by Christ on the cross.

The bread of the ordinance is symbolic of the body of Christ. Let me state that again. The bread of the ordinance is symbolic of the body of Christ. The wine or the juice is symbolic of the blood of Christ. Simply, the Supper is a continual memorial for Christ's followers so as to reflect on the significance of Christ's death on the cross. That is very important for you to see. So I'll restate that. Simply, the Supper is a continual memorial for Christ's followers so as to reflect on the significance of Christ's death on the cross. Now I want to use this statement and I want to reflect on a few things and application.

The Supper is a continual memorial. Remember, what did he say? He said, "Do this in remembrance as often as you meet." The Supper is a continual memorial for Christ's followers so as to reflect on the significance of Christ's death there on the cross. And see, for us, this is a time for us to remember Christ's death on the cross. This is a time for us to reflect on the fact that God's perfect Son died in the place for man. He died in our place. He was not once and for all true in perfect sacrifice for sin. For our sin. For our sin. Now earlier I said that the Supper was a time of remembering but more.

I said that it was a time of remembering but more. Now a question I want us to ponder. I want us to think about how can the Supper be more than what Christ commanded. Think about that. How can the Supper be more than what Christ commanded? It is more in that we remember how Christ saved us. Yes, we remember his death. Yes, we remember his death on the cross. But that automatically compels us to remember how he saved us and more. Now I want to personalize this. For me, I look back and see that Christ died in my place. He went to the cross for me and then that leads me to remember and reflect on the fact of when God saved me.

That was a time when God converted me out of my sin and my death and my rebellion. And then I move on to the fact that I am who I am today because of what Christ did. So in remembering what Christ did on the cross, that substitutionary death automatically come to my conversion and then everything in my life, all that I am, all that I will ever be. So we see what the Supper is. It is a continual memorial of Christ's death on the cross. But I think you'll see what I mean. It is so much more. It is so much more. Now our second question, who? Who is to take the Lord Supper? Who is to take the Lord Supper?

Now to answer this question, we need to look at two places in scripture. We need to look at Matthew chapter 26. Now I'm not going to turn back there, but we do need to look at our 1 Corinthians passage and we will do that here in a minute. This will enable us to see who should take or participate in the Supper. First, Matthew 26 helps us see that Jesus gave this ordinance to who? To his disciples. That's right there. We know who was there. Jesus gives this ordinance to his disciples. Here we see that after the Passover, Jesus leads his disciples into the Supper. He first takes the bread and he gives it to his disciples as a sign of what?

His broken body. He then gives them the cup as a sign of his blood that will be spilled out. Of course, this is a sign of what was to come. His physical death on the cross was just hours away from that event. And I think most of us know that. Now remember what I mentioned earlier, the fact that the New Testament gives four detailed accounts of the Supper. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 1 Corinthians. But I want us to see a couple of details out of Luke's account. Two specifics that help us. Luke shows us that Jesus commanded his disciples to continue to Supper.

In Luke 22 19 it says, "And he thus Jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he gave it to them saying, 'This is my body which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" So this is not a one-time ordinance. Luke also shows us who was a part of that group. You might say, "Pastor, it was the disciples." Yes, it was the disciples. But we also see traitor Judas was there. That's why I read that Matthew account earlier. Luke 22 verses 20 to 21 reads, "And likewise the cup after he had eaten saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new cover to my blood.

Behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.'" See, Luke gives us these details on purpose. This was a part of God's predetermined plan. This was not a mistake. Judas was not some intruder here or mistake here. This was a part of God's redemptive plan. So Luke shows us that even traitor Judas took part in the supper. So in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that Jesus gave this ordinance to his disciples. And these disciples are to me representative of those first believers. Really, they are representative of all believers.

And then second, our 1 Corinthians 11 passage, it helps us see that this ordinance was given to the church. Right here is when I would like us to turn to the Corinthians passage. We'll see that this is given to the church. I want us to start reading in chapter 11 verse 23, on down to verse 26. Notice what Paul says here. Again, Paul is writing to a church, "For 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, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he also took the cup after the 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.'" Here we see that Paul gives this Corinthian church what he has received from the Lord Jesus. Is that what verse 23 says? Paul says that he received this directly from the Lord. But notice what Paul is giving them. He is giving the Corinthian church exactly what a scene taught in the Gospels.

He was giving them the ordinance of the Lord's Supper as it was given to him by Jesus. And this is more significant than you know. Most Bible scholars believe that this letter, the Corinthian letter, was written before any of the other Gospels. So most likely this account was the first written record of the Lord's Supper. So in 1 Corinthians, we see that the Apostle Paul gives the New Testament church this ordinance which was given to him by Jesus. Again, this was not a one-time ordinance just for the disciples. This was for the New Testament church as well. Now all of this is important as well. We see who is to take the supper.

There are individuals. These are individuals. Whether the disciples or the Corinthian church, they have been converted to Christ. But remember Judas. Was it Judas there taking the supper? And was it he lost and unregenerate? What about the Corinthian church? Were all of those Corinthians saved within the church? No, because later we see that Paul deals with the unconverted in the church there at Corinth. But why do we have this account? Why do we have this truth? Why do we have this reality? Listen folks. The Lord's Supper is for the church. But within the church on earth, there are those who are not redeemed.

The church on earth is not perfect. We need to see that. There are tares among the wheat. There are goats among the sheep. The church on earth will always have those within her walls, if I can use that language, that are not truly born again. This is just the reality of the church in our day because of sin and then more specifically because of the reality of the false convert in the church. Now at this point I need to ask you a question. Are you a part of the church? Now I'm not talking about a particular church membership. I'm not down in church membership. No, we always elevate church membership. But what I mean is this.

Have you been converted to Christ? Have you believed in Christ? Have you trusted in Christ? Has God saved you? Well, if that's the case, if you were converted to Christ, you're part of what's called the universal church. I'll give you an example. Many of you know that we're part of a network of churches. Yesterday I was talking to a minister at a sister church. Well, he's a brother in Christ. I've heard of his conversion to Christ. I believe he walks with the Lord, knows the Lord. And what I'm showing you is this, although he is in another town, another state, and in another church, he is a member of the church, the universal church.

I have a friend of mine. It's a pastor at Grace Life Church in prior Oklahoma. His name is Derek Melton. He's a retired law enforcement officer. He's been pastoring for quite a few years. I've had the privilege of visiting his church. See, those born again believers, they're a part of the universal church as well. What I'm showing you is this. All true believers are a part of the church. And so I must ask you, are you a part of the church? Have you been converted to Christ or are you like Judas? Judas was a liar and a traitor, a thief and everything else. And see, if we're unconverted, we're just like Judas. We're a traitor. We're a liar.

We're a thief and we're rebellious against God and his word and his ways. And so my question for you is, are you a part of the church? Are you redeemed? Does it specifically mean are you a member of this church? Because we do practice open communion. That's okay. So we see who should partake in the supper, his people, the church, the redeemed. And then our third question, the question of how. How should we take the supper? Now, all of these questions have been important. What is the supper? Who is to take the supper? And most likely we relate to all of these questions differently and that's okay.

And for some of you here, what is the supper was really needed. Some of you might not have known truly what the supper is and also who is to take the supper. Some of you might have different views or maybe you've had different views on who is to take the supper. But the last question, this question, how should we take the supper? It really needs to capture our attention. Now to answer this question, we're going to go back to our first Corinthians passage. We're not going to read it. I'm going to allude to it because of time, but this teaching will come from our first Corinthians 11 passage.

Now we really need to see and understand what's happening here in this first Corinthians passage. We need to understand the background, the context. It was the church at Corinth. It was the problematic church. If you know anything about the church at Corinth, you'll know that they had a lot of problems, a lot of problems. So this teaching is a part of that church context. Specifically, verse 27 tells us that they were taking the supper in an unworthy manner, which means they were taking the supper with sin in their hearts and in their lives. Really, they were taking the supper with great sin in the church. It goes beyond individual sin.

Verse 29 tells us that they were bringing judgment upon themselves because they were taking the supper with sin in their lives and sin in the church. They were sinning against Christ and bringing judgment on themselves. Verse 30 tells us that some of them were sick. Some of them were even dying. Why? Because of this sin. Their offenses towards God were so grievous that God had put to death some of the worst offenders. And in verses 33 to 34, it's simply a summary of Paul's correction. And these verses are loaded.

So in this Corinthian situation, they were literally eating and drinking judgment on themselves because of their abuse of the Lord's supper. Now out of these verses, that's the background out of these verses, we'll see how we should take the supper. First, we see that they should have examined themselves. Look at verse 28. I want us to read that verse. Paul says, let a person examine himself then and so eat the bread and drink of the cup. Now here we have a key word, the word examine. I'm reading from my English Standard version this morning. The King James reads examine as well. Now this word means to prove or to test.

Now in their culture, this word was used often of a metal worker that tested a metal to see if it was genuine or not. Paul is calling these people to examine themselves on many levels. He is calling them to examine their attitude towards the supper. Did they have the wrong attitude? See Paul knew that their attitude about the supper determined their actions. He is calling them to examine their approach to the supper. Were they being casual? Were they being ritualistic? Were they approaching the supper in a wrong manner? He is calling them to examine their actions in protecting the supper.

Were they taking the supper with sin in their hearts and in their lives? You see, so Paul is saying that they should have examined themselves before they took the supper. And I want to pause here and ask you a question. Have you ever come to the place when you're taking the supper or about to take the supper where you are really examining yourself? Were you examining yourself? What does the word speak to? It speaks to proving, it speaks to testing. I think we understand testing. It's not about the right answers. No, it's proving the genuineness of who you are. See, are you examining yourself before you come to times like this?

But then second, we'll see that they should have judged themselves. We see that they should have judged themselves. I want us to read verse 31. Verse 31. But if we judged ourselves truly, notice he says that, but if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. Again, we have another key word. This word judge, this word can mean examined, but it can also have another layer. It can mean discern. See, Paul is saying that if they had examined themselves and come to a correct judgment before, then they would not have to be under God's judgment.

You see, he is showing them that they had a responsibility to judge themselves correctly, which should have led them to what? Repentance. And if you know this situation, it was a lot of repentance that was needed. So Paul is showing them that they should have judged themselves before God had to judge them. So Paul is saying that they should have judged themselves before they ever got to this day, this day of God judging them through Paul. Now, a question. Have you ever examined yourself and then even moved past that place to, to maybe you were even casting judgment on yourself.

And what I mean by judgment, you examine to see who you were, and then you pass judgment as to what you should do. I'll give you an example. This pertains to the supper and then it also pertains to a legitimate time of examination and judgment. Years ago, years ago, I had a disagreement with a, a brother. This brother wronged me and I wrestle with this disagreement for a long time. And I had a difficult time distinguishing between that which I could fix and that which I could not fix. I wrestle with that relationship, not being right.

And there were times and I would come to the supper and I would examine and I would cast judgment and I refrain from the supper because there were times I felt like that I should do something different. Then later, as I matured in that circumstance, I realized that I had done all that I can do, but it wasn't up to me. It was up to the second party. You see, I was examining and casting judgment. So it is necessary for us to see this situation. This helps us to see the outcome of not approaching the supper correctly.

This church, many in this church, they were guilty of approaching and taking the supper in an unworthy manner because of their sin. They had brought judgment on themselves. According to verse 29, so many were weak and sick and some had even died. I know that shocked some of you. And it seems that some may be many were under the judgment of God, but we do see God's grace here. Through Paul, God is calling them to examine themselves. Through Paul, God is calling them to come to a correct judgment concerning themselves. God is calling them to repentance and in calling someone to repentance, there is always grace.

Now, an application here, we need to do the same individually and corporately, two levels, corporately and individually, individually and corporately. I'm going to speak to the corporate first. See corporately, if we as leadership in the life of the church knew that there was some type of corporate sin, sin that affected many in the life of the church, we would have to deal with this sin before we could partake of the supper. I'll be honest with you, there has been corporate sin in the life of this church. There has been corporate sin in the life of this church that the leaders did not know about.

Had we known about that sin, we would have never celebrated the supper. We would have dealt with that sin first and then led the church to partake in the supper. Is that what Paul was doing? He was showing them a corporate sin. Everyone knew these sins and what was happening here. So this is at a corporate level, this examination and this judgment, but individually. See, this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. We believe in the priesthood of the believer. As believers, individual believers, we have to listen to the work of the Spirit in our lives.

If we have sin in our lives and the Spirit brings that to our minds and hearts, then we should deal with that sin properly. We should repent properly, bring about restitution properly. See, it's on an individual basis. I remember years ago, a gentleman that was in our church that's passed away. There were times he did not take the supper. He was wrestling with family issues. He knew there were some things that he needed to work on. He was counseling at times with myself and brother Keith about those matters. And there were just some times when he could not violate his conscience as the Spirit had led him. See, that was on an individual basis.

Now a question. What do you do when something is not really black and white? See, this is the time when someone, some of you can come to this place and you really come to a crossroads. I mentioned a broken relationship. What do you do when you have a broken relationship? That can be a difficult thing. See, you've got to get to the place where you know that you've done all that you can do. Listen, folks, sometimes you will have a broken relationship and you've done all that you can do, but it's up to the second party. See, if you've done all that you can do, then you're not accountable to do anymore. You can't force someone to reconcile.

You can't force someone to repent. You can't force someone to say, I'm sorry. You can't force someone to shake your hand to hug you around the neck. See, if you're not right with an individual, you have to come to that place where you can say, I've done all that I can do. And if that's the case, you are free. But you know, when you come to that place, when you know that there's a sin that needs to be dealt with something that is within your control, and you need to deal with that. And you might not need to take the supper until that is taken care of. So we see how we should take the supper. We don't want to be casual.

We do not want to be carnal. We want to be obedient, walking with the Lord in obedience. So what have we seen this morning? Really, it's a lot. We have seen that the supper is a continual memorial. Some scholars will use the word perpetual. It's a perpetual, a continual memorial to reflect on the significance of Christ's death on the cross. And the supper is for those who have trusted in Christ for their salvation. It was given to Christ's people, first to those disciples who later became the church. He was given to the church as a means of worshiping Christ for his redemptive work on the cross.

And it was given not to be participated in, in sin and disobedience. His people are to come humbly. His people are to come humbly, walking in obedience to Christ and remembering Christ's death on the cross. And all that that death means, see, this is where it gets personal because all of you would express what the death of Christ means after your conversion differently. So we've seen a lot, but I think this should prepare us for what we're going to do. And that is to participate in the supper. Now here in just a moment, I'll pray. We'll commit this to the Lord.

I'm going to read a couple of passages and then we will step into that part of participating.