Looking at the Lord’s Supper

I Corinthians 11:23-29 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 brake 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 had supped, 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, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Notice five views or ways we ought to “look at” or approach the Lord’s Supper. As we observe the Lord’s Supper, may these thoughts enter and affect our hearts and minds.

Five Looks of the Lord’s Supper

1. Appreciation (gratitude; thankful recognition). In the Lord’s Supper we look upward in thanks for God’s provision, verse 24 “when he had given thanks.”

In everything give thanks. In general, we are to be thankful for God’s provisions for us. All we have is the Lords and we owe him all. He supplies us bread and drink. In the context of the Lord’s Supper, he supplies the bread and wine, which is his body and his blood. Let us be thankful that God provided a Lamb for the offering, a Lamb to take away the sin of the world.

2. Retrospection (the act or process of looking back on things past). In the Lord’s Supper we look backward in memory of the crucifixion, verse 24-25 “this do in remembrance of me.”

As we thank him for his life and blood, we look backward in memory to the event of the past. The event from all eternity. The event that shapes the future. The crucifixion is why the Son of God came into world, to give his life a ransom for many. It is backward in time; it is an historical event. In looking back, we are brought face to face with the past, the present, and the future. But not just the event – the man of the event – “this do in remembrance of me!”

3. Manifestation (an act of demonstration; making evident or showing plainly). In the Lord’s Supper we look outward in proclamation to others, verse 26 “ye do shew the Lord’s death.”

The Lord’s Supper teaches the truth; the Lord’s Supper paints a picture. It manifests in bread and wine the Lord’s death. Those who participate and those who watch see what we cannot say. We preach the gospel with our tongues. We praise his name with our lips. But here in the Lord’s Supper, in common elements from our common experience, we portray the truth in tones we cannot speak and in tunes we cannot sing. Oh, the mystery of the divine.

4. Prospection (the act of looking forward). In the Lord’s Supper we look forward in hope of our Lord’s return, verse 26 “till he come.”

In terms of frequency or the time of the Lord’s Supper, it hard to find a specific schedule that must be followed. But we are to do it “oft” and do it “till he comes.” While looking backward to the marvelous death of our Lord, we are reminded that he yet lives and that he is coming back again. Every time we eat this bread and drink this cup we ought to whisper, at least in our minds if not on our tongues, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

5. Introspection (an act of the examining of one’s own thoughts, impressions, and feelings). In the Lord’s Supper we look inward in examination of our participation, verse 28 “let a man examine himself.”

The Lord’s Supper is not an impersonal and perfunctory experience in which we just go through outward formal motions of eating and drinking some symbolic thing. It calls us to introspection, an examination of our deepest motives of observance. Look not to determine your worthiness, for we are all unworthy and yet made worthy by the blood of Jesus. Drink it worthily, a description of the manner of observance rather than the merit of the person observing, discerning the Lord’s body as you partake of him in that which symbolizes him. The examination is not to keep us from eating and drinking, but to prepare us for eating and drinking! Let a man examine himself, and so – in that self-examined state – let him eat and drink.

To these five looks in verses 23-29 we may add a sixth, where we look from –

6. Participation (or cooperation, an instance of acting together in a common purpose or activity). In the Lord’s Supper we look from inside the congregation, verse 18 “when ye come together in the church” (cf. also, “unto the church of God which is at Corinth,” 1:2)

The Lord’s Supper is not an individual, personalized, or isolated experience. It is a church ordinance, observed when the local congregation gratefully and prayerfully comes together to remember the Lord’s substitutionary death on the cross for our sins.

May we (in the assembly) solemnly, thankfully, and joyfully commune together and with our Lord – looking upward, looking backward, looking outward, looking forward, and looking inward. Praise ye the Lord!

Right on time

Right on time.

John 11:17, 39.

17 Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. … 39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

Introduction: 

The sickness and death of Lazarus shines a bright light on the fact of Jesus being an “on-time God.” We are creatures of time, but time is putty in the hands of God. By man’s standards and calculations, Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus four days late. However, with a long look of faith, may we study, see, and believe that Jesus arrived right on time! A popular inspirational or spiritual song is “He’s an on- time God.” “[Jesus is] an on-time God, yes, he is. He may not come when you want him, but he’ll be there right on time. He’s an on-time God, yes, he is.”

1. By the time Jesus came to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days.

• He came four days late, right on time. His not coming when they wanted him:

o Was not because he did not know. Mary and Martha sent him a message, verse 3.

o Was not because he did not care. Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, verse 5.

o Was not because of the circumstances. He stayed in place for two more days, verse 6.

o Was not because he could not do anything to help. He could have healed him, verses 21 and 32.

2. By the time Jesus came to Bethany: 

• Lazarus was dead & buried (v. 17)

• Martha & Mary were distraught (vs. 21, 32)

• Friends had gathered to comfort them (v. 19)

• The disciples were confused (vs. 7-16).

3. When Jesus spoke to Martha & Mary, they testified their belief in him.

• They believed Jesus could have healed him, verses 31, 32.

• They believed Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and God’s Son, verse 28.

• They could not quite believe that Jesus had arrived right on time.

• They are about to see Jesus “do exceeding abundantly above all that [they could] ask or think” Ephesians 3:20

4. When Jesus came to Lazarus’s tomb, he spoke life into the dead.

• If Jesus had arrived early, he could have merely healed Lazarus. Verses 31, 32.

• Since Jesus arrived right on time, he raised Lazarus from the dead! Verse 43.

• John 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

Conclusion:

We walk by faith and not by sight. By faith may we see, understand, and believe that Jesus is an on-time God. He may not come when you want him, but he’ll be there right on time. Jesus came to his own, right on time. When he sprang from Mary’s womb in a stable in Bethlehem, he arrived right on time. Paul said, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” Jesus grew up in the carpenter’s home and was subject to his parents, till in his purpose he came to reveal himself, he went to be baptized of John in Jordan right on time! “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” When Jesus came to Lazarus’s tomb, it may have seemed like he was four days late, but he was right on time! Jesus said he came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost, and to give his life a ransom for many. Six days before the Passover, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt the foal of an ass, right on time! The people strewed branches before him and cried, “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” When he was sufficiently ready, he was arrested and tried. The Jews thought they had achieved exactly what they wanted; Pilate and the Roman authorities thought they were in charge of things. But when they nailed Jesus to that old rugged cross, then slammed that cross into the ground, so that he hung between heaven and earth, they did it right on time! Jesus hung between heaven and earth from the third hour to the sixth hour, and from the sixth hour to the ninth hour a thick darkness engulfed the earth, and in the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice of victory, “It is finished” – right on time. They took Jesus down from the cross, laid him in a borrowed tomb, “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The first day, the first night, sadness reigns. The second day, the second night, all is silent. The third day, the third night passes, and when he fulfilled had three days and three nights, Jesus came up out of that tomb, right on time! For forty days he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs, then in the presence of his disciples ascended back into heaven, right on time! He left them with this blessed promise, “I will come again.” The angels said “why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Fifty years. No return. One hundred years pass. One thousand years pass. Two thousand years pass. Scoffers and mockers, unbelievers all, ask  “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” Oh, but things will not continue as they were. One day Jesus will split the eastern sky. We are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and I assure you, brothers and sisters, by the authority of God’s word, and by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is coming back RIGHT ON TIME!

Comfort one another with these words. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

In relation to the Lord’s coming

Various things and their relation to the Lord’s coming

We have what we need to use until the Lord’s coming.
1 Corinthians 1:7 so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

We judge nothing before the time, for the Lord is coming.
1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

We partake communion with an eye to the Lord’s coming – “till he come.”
1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

We have prospect of joy at the Lord’s coming.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

We are to get along, love one another, looking for the Lord’s coming.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

The dead will be raised at the Lord’s coming.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

We have confidence because of the Lord’s coming.
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

We are to preach the word in view of the Lord’s coming.
2 Timothy 4:1-2 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

We should assemble together in anticipation of the Lord’s coming.
Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

We exercise patience in light of the Lord’s coming.
James 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Not Abandoned

The Morning Cometh

Behold, the Morning Cometh ... and the Night; By Grady E. Dearman

The Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai knew when the camp was to be broken up for moving. The cloud which had hovered over them began to move. Hurriedly, tents were struck, possessions were gathered and preparations were completed for the move. Then — a time of stillness as every family and tribe stood in its order of march, awaiting patiently the sounding of the silver trumpets. That certain sound — and each Israelite in his own order began to march.
We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses — and we know our time for the “journeying of the camp” is nearer than when we first believed. Paul said, “The night is far spent...” Soon the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which are alive and remain shall be changed.

Do you believe that rampant wickedness worldwide is standing blatantly and blasphemously before God Almighty and demanding judgment? Is there no end to the matter? Yes, there is an end.

He is coming back to receive you to Himself, that where He is, there you might be also. For some reason we feel that the church are now like men who must stand girt about with the truth, as men who wait for their Lord.

[Excerpt. Via Hoyt Sparks]