Eric Bechler's sermon on the 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 30, Paragraph 3, focuses on the administration and significance of the Lord's Supper. The sermon explains that elders or ministers are appointed to administer the sacraments, which include the Lord's Supper and baptism, within a gathered body of believers. The sermon distinguishes between the Westminster and London Baptist Confessions, particularly noting the removal of the phrase 'to declare His word of institution to the people' in the LBC, perhaps for simplification. The act of consecration during the Lord's Supper, where ministers pray and bless the bread and wine, sets them apart for holy use without transforming their substance. The sermon highlights the symbolic representation of the bread and wine, with the bread symbolizing Christ's body and the wine His blood, drawing parallels to Christ's sacrifice. Sinclair Ferguson's explanation is included to illustrate the exchange of the cup of cursing for a cup of blessing, signifying the Gospel message of Jesus bearing the curse of sin for believers. The sermon also addresses historical Catholic practices concerning the elements' distribution, emphasizing the necessity of both bread and wine to be partaken by all believers, as commanded by scripture. The Lord's Supper serves as a reminder of the Atonement and God's grace, reinforcing the importance of regular observance to keep the sacrifice of Christ at the forefront of believers' minds.

Our reading from the Second London Baptist Confession today comes from chapter 30 of the Lord's Supper, paragraph 3. The Lord Jesus hath in this ordinance appointed His ministers to pray and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use, and to take and break the bread, and to take the cup, and they communicating also themselves to give both to the communicants." The reading comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23 through 26. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, When he hits up, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it, In remembrance of me.

For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, You do show the Lord's death till He come. Amen. We continue today in our teaching of the Lord's Supper. Our focus today is on how the Lord's Supper is to be administered, who is to administer it, and the consecration of the elements and their distribution. We won't go into the abuses of these until next week.

We will instead restrict our focus to the biblical bases of our teaching for today. The first point to note is who Jesus appointed to administer the Lord's Supper. Our confession states the Lord Jesus hath in this ordinance appointed his ministers. We covered this in chapter 28 paragraph 2 and concluded that because baptism and the Lord's Supper are the sacraments of the Christian church to be used within the setting of a gathered body of believers, and because elders are the leaders of the spiritual life of their local Christian church, it follows that the responsibility of administering those ordinances must be with them. The sacraments must be administered by those who have been set apart for the task of ministry within the church, the elders or the ministers.

The next point is what the Lord Jesus appointed them to do. We find a small difference here in the text of the Westminster and the London Baptist Confession. The Westminster Confession includes the phrase to declare His word of institution to the people, whereas the LBC has removed this phrase. I found no reasons offered for this removal in any commentary, but I would suppose that it is just an effort in simplifying what is stated. What remains in the LBC is what is declared in Christ's words of institution, which are found in the Gospels of Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, and in Paul's letter to the Corinthians that we just read.

These words are declared by most, if not all, churches prior to the observance of the Lord's Supper. So what are the pastors or elders or ministers supposed to do? Our confession states that they are to pray and bless the elements of bread and wine. They're to do what Jesus himself did on the night in which he was betrayed. The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus' words.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you. That's Matthew 26, 26 through 27. This prayer of consecration does not change or transform the elements from bread and wine. It only, as the Confession states, sets them apart from a common to a holy use.

No Webster defines consecration as the act or ceremony of separating from a common to a sacred use, or of devoting and dedicating a person or thing to the service and worship of God by certain rites or solemnities. Consecration does not make a person or thing really holy, but declares it to be sacred, that is devoted to God or to the divine service as the consecration of priests among the Israelites or the consecration of the vessels used in the temple. Bread and wine are quite common and are used by many in their daily nourishment. As Dr. Sproul describes, when we pray over the elements we do not change them into the actual body and blood of Christ.

Rather, we ask God, who instituted this sacrament, to assign special significance to the elements. Robert Shaw explains, We conceive that the order of the words require us to understand that Jesus blessed the bread. Nor is there any more difficulty in apprehending how Jesus blessed the bread than in apprehending how God blessed the seventh day or the Sabbath day in Genesis 2 3 and Exodus 20 11. Indeed the two cases are exactly analogous. God blessed the seventh day by setting it apart to a holy use or pointing it to be a day of sacred rest.

Christ blessed the bread by setting it apart from a common to a holy use or pointing it to be the visible symbol of His body. The next point mentioned is the breaking of the bread. A. A. Hodges comments, this is symbolical of the rendering of Christ's body on the cross and of all his communicants being many, feeding upon one Christ as upon one bread.

It is particularly mentioned in every account given of the institution by the evangelists in Matthew and Mark and Luke and 1 Corinthians. The next point is the taking of the cup. What is in the cup? Wine. Wine represents Christ's blood shed for me and for all the elect.

Sinclair Ferguson explains, it looks as though at the Last Supper Jesus took the last cup of the Passover meal, which was called the cup of blessing, and gave it to His disciples and said that He Himself would not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drank it anew in His Father's kingdom." Mark 14, 25. So did our Lord not drink the cup of blessing, but instead give it to the disciples? Why would he do that? Why would that be? Well, if we read on in the gospels, we find the answer.

Jesus was about to go to the garden of Gethsemane and having said to his disciples, take and drink. His father now pressed into his hands another cup and said, My son, take and drink. That cup was ultimately the cup that was filled with the judgment curse of God against our sins. And Jesus drank it to the last bitter dregs. He said, you remember, the cup that my Father gives me to drink, the cup of divine cursing, shall I not drink it so that my disciples may drink of the cup of blessing?

John 18, 11. What a wonderful picture of the Gospel, isn't it? Jesus drinks my cup, the cup of cursing. He gives me His cup, the cup of blessing. And I think this helps us to understand the Lord's Supper better.

It fills us with awe that Christ Jesus drank from the bitter cup for my sake and out of deep love for me. And now He gives me the cup of blessing which I want to bless and as I receive it I have fellowship with Him and I'm able to praise him for the wonder of his love. The final point raised by our confession relate to the distribution of the elements. It states, and they communicating also themselves to give both to the communicants. There are a couple of things going on here.

Who is taking communion? And the English here is a little confusing with the terms communicating and communicants. The confession in modern English is a little more clear and it says it like this. It gives both elements to the communicants while also participating themselves. The communicants would be those who are taking communion.

This is where the word comes from. It is not just the elders but all those baptized believers gathered to worship God in a particular church. It also states to give both, to give both elements, bread and wine. It seems a little strange that there would be needed in the, this would be needed in the confession. Isn't that obvious that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper has two elements, bread and wine?

It seems clear that to partake in the Lord's Supper, both would need to be received. But this is here to refute the practice in the Catholic Church to only give the bread to the laity, those in the congregation taking communion. This practice was possibly introduced somewhere around 1281 in the Council of Lambath, which directed the consecrated wine to be received by the priest alone and then strengthened in 1416 by the Council of Constance. The idea was the body of Christ contained blood thus both elements were received thereby removing the necessity of the cup. Having said this, in 1970 at the Second Vatican Council, this position was changed to allow the laity to take the cup.

However, this was the practice within the Catholic Church in the 1600s when our confession was written. This practice is contrary to scripture. Matthew records Jesus' own words and when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it all of you, in Matthew 26-27. Paul also clearly states the instructions that both elements are to be received, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup, 1 Corinthians 11, 26 and 28.

We are to eat this bread and drink this cup when we partake in the Lord's Supper. And our instructions include both. Furthermore, Paul writes, The cup of blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is not the communion of the body of Christ? 1st Corinthians 1016.

Matthew Poole comments here, the cup of wine, cup or wine, a blessing signifies that cup of wine to which the blessing is added or with which in that holy institution we are thankful that we thankfully remember the death of Christ and bless His name for that great mercy. And the wine or a cup of blessing also here signifies our religion's action in drinking of that cup of wine so blessed. This sayeth he is the communion of the blood of Christ, it is an action whereby and wherein Christ communicates Himself and His grace to us, and we communicate our souls to Him, so that Christ and believers in that action have a mutual communion with one another. And as it is with the one element in that holy sacrament, so it is also with the other. The bread which the minister breaks according to the institution and example of Christ for the church to make use of in the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

That is, their action in eating of that bread, so broken, is the communion of the body of Christ in action wherein Christians have fellowship and communion with Christ. I'd like to close with some words from Ligonier. The Lord's Supper is a visible word to us that depicts what happened on Calvary. When the elements are distributed to us, we are reminded that Jesus bled and was broken for us, for those who trust in Him alone. Our Savior gave His very life to redeem His sheep, yet we tend to get distracted and forget the wondrous reality of the Atonement.

In giving us the sacrament, which is to be received on a regular basis. God has condescended to our weakness that we might not forget what He has done in sending His Son, the one who offered Himself on the cross, through the Spirit. Hebrews 9 14. Amen.