The sermon, based on 1 Corinthians 11, delves into the doctrine of communion, emphasizing its significance as a time of thanksgiving, remembrance of Christ, a sign of the New Covenant, and a proclamation of Christ's death and return. The speaker highlights the importance of approaching communion with joy and gladness, and not in a state of gloominess. The sermon connects Old Covenant sacrifices, which were reminders of sin, to the New Covenant's focus on remembering Christ and His finished work on the cross. Communion is also described as a family table for the gathered body of Christ, stressing the importance of unity and fellowship among believers. The sermon critiques the Corinthians for their disunity and improper conduct during communion and urges self-examination and repentance. Additionally, it underscores the necessity of regular participation in communion, suggesting that it should be observed every week as a culmination of the Lord's Day worship.

From 1st Corinthians chapter 11 beginning in verse 17 but in giving this instruction I do not praise you because you come together not for the better but for the worse For in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that divisions exist among you and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you meet together it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. What?

Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread 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 took the cup also 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 the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep. But If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. When we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come. May God bless the reading of His word. Amen. You may be seated.

Well, last week we embarked on part one of a two-part series on the doctrine of communion, the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Table. And what did we find one week ago? We found a table full of gravity and gladness, a feast full of delight. What is communion? What is the Lord's table?

Well, number one, it is a thanksgiving. Jesus is the great provision from God the Father for your sins. He's the ultimate and final Passover lamb. When you take part in communion, you say with John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You say with the hymn writer when you're partaking communion, my sin, not in part, but the whole, has been nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Communion must be a time of great thankfulness. A time of gratitude and gladness. You simply cannot approach the Lord's table rightly with simple glumliness.

You can't be glum. Not at this meal. It's a time of thanksgiving and A time of remembrance of Christ. When Jesus had given thanks, He took the bread and broke it and said, This is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way He took the cup, as often as you drink this cup, do this in remembrance of me.

Isaac Johnston this week showed me something that he had heard from Pastor James White. Some of you are familiar with Pastor James White as a G3 guy. And it's spot on as a way to summarize what we saw last week in thinking about what we are to remember about Christ in communion. So I want to show this to you just as a way to summarize what we talked about Last Lord's Day. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews.

So it's to the right in your Bibles. Go to Hebrews chapter 10 for just a moment. We're going to come right back to 1 Corinthians, so keep your finger on 1 Corinthians, but just briefly, just as way of review, go to Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to look at the first three verses summarizing what we learned last week. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 1.

I want you to see this with me. This is wonderful. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Verse 2. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins.

Now listen to verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year. What's that talking about? That's talking about the sacrifices of the old covenant. Sacrifices offered continually year after year after year and yet those sacrifices could not cleanse someone from their sin.

It could not cleanse you from your sin. They could not truly, everlastingly atone for your sin. So What were those sacrifices all about if they couldn't atone for your sin? What was the point of the Old Covenant sacrifice? Verse 3.

A reminder of sins year by year. You know what that could be translated as? For a remembrance of sins year by year. Does that word remembrance sound familiar to you? The old covenant sacrifices were a time of remembrance for what?

Sin. But what does Jesus say when He institutes the Lord's Supper in our passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11? Go back to me to 1 Corinthians 11. Look again at the end of verse 24. What does Jesus say communion is?

Look at verse 24 of chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians. What does Jesus say? Do this in remembrance of what? Me. Me.

Same exact Greek word in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 24 that is found in Hebrews 10 verse 3. Same word. Old Testament, Old Covenant sacrifices were made to be reminders of sin. But in the New Covenant, at this table, when we see the bread and the cup, what Are you now to be reminded of your sin? Jesus Christ.

Your living hope. Your conquering, resurrected and reigning Savior. You ought to remember Him. The old covenant sacrifices were meant to remind the people of God that they were guilty. They stood condemned apart from the promises of God and the coming Savior.

They were condemned. They were accursed. And In this meal, beloved, you are to remember Christ, the one crushed, the one condemned for you. You want to remember that you are forgiven by the Savior whom all those sacrifices year after year in the Old Testament pointed to. And He came and He finished the work.

Do this, Jesus said, in remembrance of Me. Your sins are forgiven, Christian, through the shed blood of Jesus. You don't stand condemned anymore. The final sacrifice has been made and with His final sacrifice, Jesus has truly made an end to all your sin. What a table you come to.

What a table you approach. What is communion? It's a time of thanksgiving. It's remembering of Christ. All that He has done is finished work on the cross.

And the final element we examined last week is the sign of the new covenant. The sign of the new covenant in His blood. You are a partaker of the covenant of grace, Christian, that stretches all the way back from Abraham, when God declared that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham and his seed, and then Jesus came through that line, the promised seed came, the promised Abrahamic seed came, His name is Jesus, and through His death on the cross, through His shed blood, He took you, Jesus took you, Christian, you who are far off, without hope, without God in the world, you who are separate from Christ, excluded from the promises of God, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, and He brought you who were far off near by the blood of His Son, by the shedding of His blood. So that you could sing things like, Hallelujah, what a Savior. He took the two groups, Jew and Gentile, and made them into one new man, establishing peace through the blood of His cross.

So that you can sing, You really can sing this song that I'm about to sing. You can sing with full awe and wonder in your heart that you belong to the rich olive vine named Jesus Christ and His everlasting covenant. You can sing the song, Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. And I am one of them.

And so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. That's what you do at this table. You can sing that song in your heart. I wouldn't even be mad if you sing it out loud.

In sharing this cup of grace and in partaking of this bread of grace together, we praise the Lord as children of God and heirs of the covenant promise. Wow. These things, these answers to our first question, they should just completely amaze you. These answers from God should change the way you approach this table forever. Forever.

This table isn't just about you. It's a covenantal table. This is a family table. This is a table for redeemed people who belong to a covenant-keeping God who made an end of all of your sin through the finished work of His Son, and He will never let you go. He'll never let you go.

What a cable! Amen? I mean, wow! But wouldn't you know it? There's even more.

How bountiful God is. There's even more to this feast. Communion is also a proclamation of Christ's death and return. It's a proclamation of Christ's death. Brothers and sisters, when you come to the table and you partake of the body and the blood, when you partake of the bread and the cup, Verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11 tells you, look there with me, look at verse 26, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

Notice First, you proclaim His death. That word, proclamation proclaimed, is used throughout the New Testament, especially in the book of Acts, to describe the Apostles' work of preaching good news. Same word. Of announcing glad tidings and good news for sinners. That while you were helpless, dead and depraved in your sin, Jesus Christ died for you, the ungodly one.

He died for you. God demonstrated His own love for you, and that while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. And in His death and in His resurrection, He justified you through His blood. He declared you righteous. That's what justification means.

A declaration of righteousness. I declare you, who once were dead and depraved, I now declare you alive and righteous in my sight, blameless." And through His blood, Jesus reconciled you, who were an enemy of God, to God, making you not just a friend of God, which is wonderful, but even a child of God. So in communion, you proclaim, You preach the good news in proclaiming His death as a substitutionary sacrifice, as a propitiation for your sins. What's that word mean? I use it all the time.

Propitiation. The Bible uses it all the time. What does that word, propitiation, mean? This is what it means. A satisfaction of God's wrath.

And that's what happened on the cross. Hear this, beloved. Propitiation happened at the cross. Propitiation, the satisfaction of God's wrath, would not be possible apart from the death of Christ. We've got teachers in America today, this morning on the Lord's Day, spewing out ugly, vile abominations saying the death of Christ was not necessary.

That's a heresy. You've got no hope apart from the death of Christ. He had to die for your sin to be satisfied, for the wrath of God that you deserve to be propitiated by Jesus Christ the Son. So I want you to think about that word propitiation. When Jesus hung on the cross, when he died, Jesus drank the full cup of God's wrath for his people, for you Christian.

The full cup, so that not one ounce, not a single drop of God's judgment remains upon anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord trusting in His finished work on the cross. Not an ounce, not a thimble full, Not a. Christian, there is not one sin left un-atoned for in your life. Not one. That's what you proclaim at this table.

What a proclamation. All of it. I wonder if some of you think that during communion, this is a common understanding, I don't want it present here. I wonder if some of you think that during communion your sins are being paid for again. That you need to put Jesus back up on the cross as you sit there and you think about it, you've got to put Him back on the cross and have Him die once more for your sins.

Beloved, that cross that is behind me is empty for a reason. He has triumphed over your sins, Christian. You proclaimed the Lord's death. You proclaimed that as Jesus died and when He said, it is finished, the Greek word to telestai, you proclaimed that it really was finished that there is no more work that needs to be accomplished he accomplished your salvation. And if you disagree with that, if you say, well, this morning, it doesn't feel that way.

It doesn't feel like that's true. It feels like I've got sin unatoned for. Do you think so little of Jesus Christ and His work? Please repent of such foolish thoughts. In taking this bread and this cup, you announce to one another and to all of the earth that Jesus' death 2, 000 years ago has secured, has accomplished, and applied your redemption.

Secured, accomplished, and applied your redemption, and your redemption, and your redemption, and your redemption, and your redemption. You proclaim His death once and for all, the final and sufficient atoning sacrifice for sin. You proclaim that in His death, you too have died to sin. That's what your baptism is all about. Did you know that?

At your baptism, what happened? You were declaring to this congregation that you've been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. That's what comes out of my mouth every time I baptize someone. Crucified with Christ, raised to walk in newness of life. That's right from Romans chapter 6.

And that was shown, that was pictured, as you were lowered into the water at your baptism. Sin no longer reigns in you, because you've died with Christ. And therefore you have been raised with Him as well. You are free. You're no longer spiritually dead, but you're spiritually alive.

You've been made born again by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His death for you? That was all symbolized in your baptism. Once at your baptism. And it is declared and proclaimed and preached afresh time and time again, week after week, as you partake in this supper. You declare your baptism afresh to one another as you eat this meal.

Think about that. Are you hearing me? Do you know what we do as a congregation when someone gets baptized in this church? What do we do? What do you do?

Well, if you're not going to say anything, I'll say it. I hear all kinds of amens. I even sometimes hear a hallelujah erupt from someone's mouth. And we definitely clap. Reformed Baptists clapping.

Wow! It's right to clap about such a thing. You're clapping at the work that God has done in bringing someone into His kingdom and setting them apart for Himself as His church administers baptism as an outward sign of an inward reality. Do we get excited about that, church? Oh, we get excited.

I love that. Don't ever lose that, beloved. We get zealous. We get encouraged. We get charged up with excitement when the death and resurrection of Christ and those in Christ by faith are on display.

So Why the change in behavior? Why the change in excitement when we partake of that same proclamation that was present at baptism when we partake of the same proclamation in taking part in the Lord's table. Why the drastic shift? Are we not proclaiming the same thing? Yes, we are.

In fact, as we've been discussing, we might be proclaiming even more glad tidings than we did even in baptism, maybe. Should we not then approach this table with the same heartfelt anticipation, enthusiasm, and gladness that accompany our approach to the waters of baptism. Yes? Beloved, we must. If we're to be obedient to the scriptures, we must.

Children, Children. You listening to me, children? I got a question for you now. When your mother, you kids look at me, I'm making sure. When your mother cooks you a delicious meal and you take that first bite, you know what I'm talking about?

And an explosion of amazingness hits your tongue. Kind of like when I take a first bite of a Chipotle burrito. Is Andy here? He got onto me last Lord's Day. He said you didn't talk about Chipotle and you talked about food the whole time.

Anyway, that was for Andy. Okay, when I take that first bite of Chipotle burrito, it just blows up. Kids, you know what I'm talking about? When you eat something good at home, your mom cooks you a delicious meal. What do you do when that first bite explodes all over you?

Do you frown? Do you try to just, well, I'm going to force it down the gullet. Is that what you're doing? No way, what do you do? I can tell you what happened to the Brown family.

I can tell you what happens when That first bite hits the tongue at the Brown table long sighs of awe erupt from mouths. My twin girls, especially the first year of their lives, that's all they did, all meal. The whole meal. And they were eating carrots. That is so satisfying, right?

When you eat that first bite, ah it's so good! This is so great! Can I please have some more? That's what comes out of the mouths around our table. Children, I bet it comes out of your mouths too.

Adults, you know the same. What is that? What is that? You know what that is? That's a proclamation.

That's a proclamation. It's literally so good, you just can't help but say it. Proclaim it. In the Lord's Supper, in spiritually eating and drinking of something infinitely better, you proclaim the good news of the death of Christ. You proclaim, oh, wow, The death of Christ is such good news for me and for you and for all the world and You know I've had friends that have asked me Why do you call the death of Christ?

Good news, but these are unbelieving friends right He died. How on earth is that good news? I know what gospel means good news. How was the death of Christ good news? And I've told them and you should tell your friends the same thing.

It's good news because His death satisfied the demands of righteous wrath that my sin deserved. His death in my place as a sinner has made me right with God forever. Without the death of Christ, I would still be spiritually dead, and I would be at enmity with God myself. I'd be hopeless. I'd be depraved.

I'd be doomed to eternal damnation. I'm desperate for the atoning work and death of Christ. I'm desperate. And my friend would say, okay, calm down. And then he would say, okay I get that.

But he still died. And I would say yes. But he didn't stay dead. He lives. He was raised up for my justification.

He's coming again. He's coming again. That's what I would tell my friends. Communion proclaims the good news of Christ's death on the cross And it also proclaims His second coming. Just return.

Look at verse 26 once more. Each time you eat of the bread and drink of the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. What? Until He comes. Until He comes.

Taking part in communion is proclaiming the second coming of Jesus. And what's going to happen at the second coming of Jesus? Well, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 27, is going to finally and fully be completed. That's what's going to happen. On that day when Jesus returns, He's going to present to Himself, His bride, the church, in all her glory, having no spot, no wrinkle, or any such thing, she will be holy and blameless and she will be presented with great joy.

Great joy. A wedding feast, A wedding supper with the Lamb of God who gave Himself to His Bride. That's what's coming. That's what's coming. And that has to flavor this meal.

Has to flavor this. Anticipation, excitement, longing, hope. Just ask Ari and Kenzie Lee. There was Ari, just moments ago it seemed, right here, standing in a dark suit, and there was Kenzie, coming down the aisle, being presented to Him, dressed in pure white. You know, the colors mattered.

We made an emphasis on that last night. Jesus the groom has taken away the sins of His bride, the church. He was made to be sin, and his people, the church, made and declared righteous through the righteousness given to them by Jesus. The church was cleansed by Jesus so that there's not one blemish, not one spot of iniquity, not an ounce of corruption that remains upon His bride, upon you, the church. That is a promise of the Second Coming.

When she came down this aisle, Christian, in your heart, when you're seeing Ari dressed in black and her in white, you should, two things, number one, rejoice. Christ paid my ransom for me. And on the last day, when He calls me home, or when He returns, He will present me holy, blameless, with great joy. Whoa! That's a promise of a second coming.

That's part of what you proclaim at this table. You proclaim to one another, Remember, the groom is coming, the groom is coming, the Savior, our love is coming. You should have a great wedding feast with Jesus on your mind when you come to this table. And that should just be downright exciting. I saw your excitement last night.

How much more right here? That should be exciting. Unless... It should be exciting unless you don't belong to Jesus Christ. You know, if you're in this room, and you don't name the name of Christ, if you've not submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you've not submitted to Him as Savior and Lord, then this table and what it proclaims is both the sounding of an alarm and an invitation.

You know, at the table, for a moment, everyone is a preacher. Think about that. Everyone, as you partake for a moment, is a preacher. Just for a moment. What are they preaching?

They are preaching the death of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and his return for his bride as he comes to judge the living and the dead. So if you're lost this morning, if you think that... I just kind of straddled the fence this morning. If you think that you're just going to wait and see, if you are waiting for some foolish reason to come to Christ later, you need to be alarmed. For when He comes, He is not going to come to try and convince you of His sovereign lordship over all things.

He will not come and try to get you to realize and finally figure out how great He really is. He is not coming to persuade people. You will know it. You will see it. You will know that you are a law breaker.

And you will cry out for rocks to fall on top of you rather than to face the wrath of the Lamb and be cast into hell, fire, and damnation forever. You should be alarmed every time the message of the Gospel is proclaimed to you by people on your left and people on your right. You should be alarmed. Don't straddle the fence. But also in the alarm, you should hear the sweet invitation.

Hear the invitation. Dear one, when you see this bread partaken of, when you see the cup raised up, and yet you realize that you yourself are unable to partake. You're being kindly preached to. You're being invited to turn from your sin and be saved. As an invitation, These saints here, these Christians here are preaching to you the good news that there is forgiveness in Christ.

That the wrath of God that you deserved may be propitiated, removed, and satisfied by Jesus at the cross. For all who repent and believe, they are preaching good news to you that there's liberty for captives, that there's no sin, there's no failure, there's no lust, there's no power stronger than the power of Jesus to save. They're preaching good news. You know they're preaching to you lost ones? Children, children, your parents are preaching to you as they eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

They are preaching to you that there is very much still room at the table of the Lamb for ruined sinners made clean by the blood of Jesus. There is still very much room at the table for you. He says, come, come. That's why we call it grace. And that's why we call King Jesus good.

Because He says come. So I invite you, I urge you. Children, young men, young women. You know, I use this word, but I really mean it I plead with you I Beg you forsake your sin See the cup see the bread see what it proclaims and realize cry out today today is the day of salvation. I will forsake my sin.

I will trust Him. I will be baptized into membership of this church, and I am given a place at the table because of the blood of Jesus Christ. His merit alone. Do that. Come and be welcome to Jesus Christ.

Communion is a proclamation. OK. Final answer to the first question. What is communion? And this is a bonus one.

This is a bonus one because we find in, we find part of this answer in chapter 10. So communion is a participation in the body of Christ, a participation in Christ's body. And we're going to look in chapter 10 real quick. I can't leave the talk of communion until we cover this last piece here. Look in 1st Corinthians chapter 10, turn the page to the left.

Go to the left in your Bibles. Go to verse 16 and 17 of chapter 10. Chapter 10, verses 16 and 17. Look at verse 16. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?

Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there's one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread now I'm gonna unpack that quickly that word sharing in is the Greek word koinonia you know that word that's kind of a popular word among evangelicals and it should be It's the word that we commonly translate fellowship. So from these verses, here's what we can see. Communion, in communion, look at verse 16 and 17, you partake in fellowship with Christ and one another. The cup and the bread is a symbol of your fellowship with Christ.

Yes? Yes. Your union with Christ. And our union together with Him, one another. Don't miss both those pieces.

You read verses 16 and 17 you realize you gotta have them both. Paul is telling you in verses 16 and 17, the vertical union that you experience with Jesus individually, individually, privately, you and Jesus, because of His death for you, It has to flow out horizontally and fellowship with one another. Listen to this. I'm not making it up, this is what Paul said. If there's no fellowship horizontally here, you're just kidding about this.

It ain't real. If there's no fellowship among the saints, there's no fellowship here. One comes after the other. When you partake of the bread and the cup then, you're partaking in a time of fellowship with the body of Christ the body of Christ what's the body of Christ in case there's confusion there Ephesians chapter 5 verse 23 Christ is the head of the church which is his body what's the body the church the church is his body this This table is not a time to be individualistic. I know our temptation, but beloved, it's just not a time to be individualistic.

It's just not. I know that's what so many of us have grown up thinking, but that's just simply not in the Bible. It's a time to partake together. This is a family meal. This is a time of fellowship with one another.

So Joe Rigney says it this way, your baptism depicts entrance into the family, and this meal is the regular family dinner. I love that. We partake of the one loaf together. We partake of the cup of blessing together, end quote. That's why your elders have consistently encouraged you, when we partake together at this table, we've consistently encouraged you to look around the room when you participate in the Lord's Supper.

We've consistently asked you to do that with this text in mind. So let me ask you a question. Do you eat food at your own tables in your own homes with heads down and eyes closed the whole time In complete disregard for the precious souls around your table at your home. Do you do that? Of course you don't do that.

So stop doing it here. Now I need to hear this. There's nothing wrong with closing your eyes and praying. Nothing wrong with that. Do that.

There's nothing wrong with closing your eyes and praying nothing wrong with that do that There's nothing wrong with closing your eyes praying and remembering all these things that we've just talked about you can do that privately You can give thanks privately you can remember privately You can think about the new covenant as blood privately. You can proclaim to yourself privately. You can remind yourself of the participation that you have privately. But at some point, you need to open your eyes And you need to give thanks together. You need to do, you need to on some level be giddy together like we were last night as we feasted in celebration of what Christ our groom had done in bringing Ari and Kenzie together.

You've got to have some of that. If you don't, you're in sin. Jesus says to you, remember this when you sit at my table. You are the body of Christ and individually members one of another being built up together. And as I care for you, so you are to care for one another." I just said four Bible verses there.

You are the body of Christ and individually members, one of another, being built up together. And as I care for you, so you are to care for one another." That's the word of Christ. So in our passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, when Paul says in chapter 11 verses 28 and 29, look there, 28 and 29, when Paul says in verses 28 and 29 of chapter 11 that a man must examine himself as he partakes in communion, that he judged the body rightly, when he says that, that phrase, judges the body rightly, is crucial. The body is this group. Not your body.

This group. Do you love this body? Christ does. He gave His life for this body. He gave his life for his bride so that his bride would be what?

All individualistic, never talking to one another, pilgrims that never interact? No. He gave his blood for his bride so that his bride would be united. He took the two and made them one. So that's why Paul is so upset in our passage this morning.

If you read verses 17-34 like we just did this morning at the beginning of this sermon. Paul is upset. He's upset with the Corinthians for the ways they are abusing the Lord's table. Why is he upset? They aren't waiting for one another.

They aren't sharing with one another. In the way they are partaking in the Lord's Supper, they are actually creating what? Divisions among one another. One has, one doesn't. One's rich, one's poor.

One's sober, one's drunk. Nobody's on the same page. He's angry. Righteously so. Because that's not discerning the body.

Discerning the body is coming together. And recognizing that at the cross, everyone is leveled. There's neither Jew, nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian slave, freed man. No, there's Christ who is all and in all. And you are to look at your fellow debtors of God's grace around you as you're partaking this bread and this cup, and you're to smile.

The same Savior. You've got the same Lord. We're fellow debtors to God's grace. All the same. We both had the same terminal condition that our Savior cured us from called sin.

And you're to smile with tears in your eyes as you look around this room and you see miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle Everybody that's saved is a walking miracle. It has to flavor your approach to this table. Consider one another as you eat this meal. Pray for one another as you eat this meal. Love one another as you eat this meal, and you will judge the body rightly.

And partake in communion rightly. A time of Thanksgiving, a remembrance of Christ, a sign of the new covenant, a proclamation of Christ's death and return, and a participation in the body of Christ with one another. That's what communion is. I ran out of space on the PowerPoint. I think I got maybe one for one more.

There is more to mine in this passage. But we're going to go to the next questions. The remaining questions are rather simple, really simple. They flow directly out of what we just considered and they're not going to take a great deal of time. That is what communion is.

As a result of what we've now seen from God, His answer to that question, the rest of the questions come quite easily. Question number two, who is communion for? Who is communion for? Well, it's for the body of Christ. We've already talked about that.

When the body of Christ comes together, that's when you participate in communion. Look in verses 17 and 18 of chapter 11. Look at 17 and 18 of chapter 11. But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you." Did you notice a repeated phrase?

Did you notice the constant use of that phrase, come together? Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and he's upset by the way they're behaving when they come together as a church. And the way they're partaking in communion, they are proclaiming disunity. They are proclaiming something other than the gospel, because the gospel brings sinners to God and to one another. And in their disunity, they're breaking apart the gospel.

They're proclaiming disunity rather than unity and Christ hates that. Verse 20, therefore when you meet together it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. When you meet together you aren't partaking in the Lord's Supper because you aren't actually doing it together. You aren't together. Paul goes on to instruct them after verse 20 in what communion is all about in the verses that we've just discussed.

And then he ends this section with the same phraseology. Look at verses 33 and 34. 33 and 34. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Verse 34.

If anyone's hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come. Now just think about this. At the beginning, and now at the end of this pericope, this section of Scripture, with the institution of the Lord's Supper in between, you have bookends, and you've got a lot of them. And they all say at the beginning and at the end, come together, come together, come together.

The Lord institutes the Lord's Supper. Come together, come together, come together. Who is communion for? It's for the gathered body of Christ. It is for the church gathered together.

A couple implications of this. Communion therefore should not be administered in your home during family worship. Communion should not be administered at weddings between the bride and the groom and no one else. No. Communion is for the body of Christ meeting together.

Do you have baptism at home? You wouldn't dream of such a thing. I know there's exceptions like in China. We don't let the exceptions prove the rule. Do you have baptism at home?

No. You're baptized among the church. Do you have baptism at weddings? No. You are baptized among the church, gathered.

So too then, just as baptism is the initial sign of the new covenant, and communion is the ongoing sign of the new covenant, it is reserved for the ecclesias, reserved for the gathering, the fellowship of the body of Christ, the church corporately. And if You're sitting there in your pew and you say, oh man, well we had communion at my wedding, or we've done communion at our home. Praise God for the blood of Jesus. There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Just stop.

But let's say that you get that. Let's say that you say, yes, okay, I get it. I see it. Okay, Pastor Grant, you beat a dead horse. I literally saw.

Come together, come together, come together, come together. I got it. I get it. It's for the church. Paul said it a million times.

So I get that communion is for the church gathered, but should I participate? Should I? You might ask, should I participate in communion as a member of this church when I know that I'm just really sinful? I just got all kinds of sin. Should I come to the table as a member of this church or a member in good standing of another church when I'm just loaded up and down with sin?

Should I come? And the answer is, you above all people should do so. This is a cup of what? Blessing. You see that in the text?

This is a cup of blessing, not a cup of condemnation. Did you hear that? Some in this room might be tempted to bar themselves from the table because they know themselves to be a great sinner. This table is for you. This table is for great sinners saved by a greater Savior!

You don't get to excommunicate yourself from this table. Only this congregation gets to do that for you. So you want to know the only way that you disqualify yourself from this table? It's by being unrepentant. Will you say, Christian, will you say, Saint of Crossroad, that you know better than God?

That though He bids you to come to His table, to be reminded of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that you will not, because you know how to fence His table better than He does. Wow! What a statement you're making. I know better than you, God. That's arrogant.

That's pride. You need to repent of that. Will you say today that your sin is greater than His mercy and forbid yourself from the table even though He bids you come? Will you say, Baptized believer, will you say that your sin is greater than his provision for that sin in the body and blood of his son? Stop saying that.

If you are under church discipline, then you're not considered by the church to be a Christian. That's what church discipline communicates. X communication. If you're under church discipline, this table is no longer for you. But there is no one in this room so far as I know.

So far as I'm aware of, that is under church discipline. And so if you belong to Christ and are a member of His church through baptism, this table is for you. And to not come is to be in sin. So you need to come and be welcome to Jesus Christ. Come, Jesus says to you.

This is My body which is what? For you. Do you have a pause to think about that one word? This is my body for you. Do you know who he's talking to?

You. That's who it's for. You. Question number three. How should communion be observed?

How should it be observed? This is again a culmination of what we've just discussed. Paul tells you in chapter 10, this cup is a cup of blessing. This cup is a cup of blessing. It's a cup of blessing.

It's not a cup of cursing. Jesus drank that cup already. You even think about that? You don't come to the table to drink a curse. Why?

Because Jesus became accursed for you. He drank the cup of curse for your sin for you. So that in exchange you might drink from the cup of blessing. What an exchange going on at this table. He drank the cup of curse that I might drink the cup of blessing.

And a person that gets that is thankful, is full of awe, full of excitement and anticipation. You know what the person who gets that is like? He's hungry. Let's eat. You know, here at Crossroad Church, we intentionally have a time where we confess our sins together.

Before God, We confess our sins to God who was thrice holy. We confess our sins together and privately every Sunday we do that as a church. Did we just do that a moment ago? Yes. Did you do that a moment ago?

Yes. Did you do that a moment ago? I need a little response. Yes, we did that together. And then every Sunday after the confession of our sins, we receive the assurance of pardon secured for us by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Freely given to you by grace, through faith in the Savior. We receive that assurance of pardon every Lord's Day, including today. You received it. You even said amen after it. Let it be true.

That's my hope. So when we get corporately to the end of the service, where we partake in the Lord's table together, you need to hear this. Get this in your brain. When we get to the end of the service and we partake of this table, you have already confessed your sins. You've already been reminded of the forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

Hear me. You've already been self-examined. But now at the end of our gathering, here at the table, you are bathing in a pool of gospel. You're marinating in a Pool of gospel. Pardon has been secured for you.

You've already declared it together. You've been made a member of the covenant household of God, stretching all the way back to Abraham. In fact, stretching all the way back to the garden. You belong to His body. So look around.

Soak in this family moment. Look at what Jesus Christ has done. Look at His victory. Look at His might. Here's His bride.

Here's His body. And I'm a part of it? You've got to be kidding me. I'm a part of this? I belong to these people.

These people belong to me. As we all belong to Christ, we're gaining ground together for the glory of God. You come to this table with serious gladness and joy and thanksgiving. So by the end of the sermon, we've already confessed our sins. We've already received the assurance of pardon from our sins.

And as you get to the end of the sermon, you hear from God's Word every week, sermon after sermon after sermon, you hear the promises of God's Word preached to you. You've been confronted with your sins. You've confessed them. You've been bathing in a pool of gospel. Every sermon, I hope, is bathed in gospel.

You've been marinating for, at least for right now, over 50 minutes, sorry. You're just marinating in gospel. And you're going to get to the end and say, downer. No! Nobody should do that.

You've already confessed your sins, you've received assurance of pardon, and you've just been bathing in gospel. If there's conviction, remember what you just did. And when you get to the table, you should be mouthwatering, heart pounding, eager to take part in this meal together as we remember and proclaim Christ together to one another and to the world. I can't help but quote Joe Rigney one more time. Listen to what he writes about the way you approach.

How should you observe communion? Listen to this. It's from Joe Rigney. When you approach the table, consider the prodigal son after his return home. Got that in your brain?

The prodigal son after his return home. What did his father do? The father killed the fatted calf in celebration. The father would not have been pleased. The father would not have been honored if his lost but now found son had sulked in the corner all night muttering about his unworthiness and trying hard to remember what it was like in the pigsty.

Such an attitude in itself would not honor the graciousness of the Father. What would honor the Father is if that sense of unworthiness that that Son felt on the way home from His sinful exploits gave way to a profound sense of amazement that he was actually sitting at his father's table, fully restored to communion with him. What would honor the father is if when the music started, the prodigal danced like he never danced before. That's a real gold ring on the finger. Those are real shoes on his feet.

It's the robe of inheritance on his back. He can still feel the kiss of His Father on His cheek. Amazement rises and converges with gratitude and joy and gladness. The kind that makes you want to pinch yourself to make sure that you're not dreaming. Approach the Lord's table this way.

Marvel, rejoice, strike up one of the ancient songs and sing and smile and weep and laugh together, feast together here at this table in a worthy manner with a full heart for the glory of Christ." End quote. That's a good word. That's how you should give yourself to the cup of blessing. Final question. And then we're done.

When should communion be observed? You put all this together, the fourth question should be very obvious. It's obvious to me. It's obvious to the elders. I've done my absolute best to make it obvious to you.

When, how often should this be observed? If you see what I've been trying to show you, the question Really ought to be in your mind. How? If all this is true pastor grant, and I believe it to be true How can we afford not to I mean how can we afford to not ever have communion? Like how can we ever get through get done with the sermon and say No communion?

What? That should be the question. How can we do what we do and not have communion at the end of it? It's like the climax of the Lord's Day. So when should communion be observed?

We as your pastors believe as often as we meet. As often as we can. And for us as elders, we believe that we should be celebrating and feasting at the Lord's table every week starting today. We sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs every Lord's Day. We read scripture each Lord's Day.

We pray each Lord's Day. We preach and listen and meditate on a sermon each Lord's Day, and not a single one of those things become less meaningful or less helpful, though we do them week after week after week regularly. How much more than the culmination of all those things, the feasting at Christ table. Joe Beeke tells us that in the New Covenant, we read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, preach the Word, and we see the Word made visible in baptism and the Lord's Supper. We see the Word made visible in baptism and the Lord's Supper.

We see the Word made visible in baptism and the Lord's Supper. We don't get to see a baptism every Lord's Day doing. We know we get to proclaim all the same. His death, His second coming, the sign of the new covenant, the reason for thankfulness. We get to see through the Lord's Supper the Word made visible.

So let us then see the Word made visible in a perpetual keeping of the Lord's table every week. And We're going to do that now. The elders are leading us into a perpetual keeping of the Lord's table. It should be very odd to you if we ever have a time when we don't partake anymore. You should be, what happened?

We ran out of juice. And so I want to do that. We're going to sing together in just a moment. We're going to sing for joy together. And then I want to bid you welcome.

Supper is on for the people of God. Amen? Musicians, if you would come and if you would now stand, let's turn in our hymnals to hymn 354, the church's one foundation, hymn 354.