Strengthened by the Supper (3): What’s God’s Intent for the Lord’s Supper?
When Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” he was not simply saying, “Remember the historical facts of my death.” No, no. He was telling you to take hold of all that he accomplished for you by faith. He gave you bread and wine and the promise of the gospel. You see the gospel in the Supper. You also receive the gospel. Christ, through the minister, gives you bread and wine to taste, to eat, to drink, as signs and seals of his true body and blood.
Let’s think about the Lord’s Supper. Let’s try to better understand this incredible gift from our Lord. What’s God’s intent for the Lord’s Supper? Why did God give you and me the Lord’s Supper?
Heidelberg 67 asks, “Are both the Word and the sacraments, then, intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?” It answers, “Yes, indeed. The Holy Spirit teaches us in the gospel and assures us by the sacraments that our entire salvation rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross.” God intends the public preaching of His holy Word to focus your faith on the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the only ground of your salvation. Through preaching, the Holy Spirit teaches you the gospel and powerfully works faith in your heart. But God has given you more than preaching. God has given you the sacraments. The Lord’s Supper, then, is intended to teach you as well. The bread and wine are visible, tangible, and physical signs and seals through which the Holy Spirit further declares to you the gospel and assures you of the benefits of the gospel. The Lord’s Supper shows you that the gospel is true and real for you, and through the Supper, the Holy Spirit nourishes and strengthens your faith.
The Lord’s Supper is not a complicated ceremony. It’s pretty simple: bread and wine are served to eat and drink. In this Supper, Jesus himself communicates or gives or imparts himself to you (WSC 88). He said, “This is my body . . . this is my blood of the covenant.” As much as you receive the Supper by faith, Christ is giving you himself and all the benefits of salvation. The Supper is not magic. It possesses no power or grace apart from Christ (WSC 91). Nor does its grace and helpfulness depend on the minister giving it. Christ gives you himself and the benefits of salvation by his Holy Spirit working in you. Christ graciously blesses you, a believer, through the Supper. The blessing only comes through faith. In fact, one who participates in the Supper without faith eats and drinks God’s judgment and wrath against themselves. So faith is the means by which the soul feasts on Christ. Faith is the soul’s mouth.
What is the Lord’s Supper then? I mean, what are we talking about? Westminster Shorter Catechism 96 explains:
The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, in which by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s direction, His death is shown forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of His body and blood, with all His benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. [1]
You need to get this. Christ gives you bread and wine. That’s what he commanded. The bread and wine are signs and seals for you; they truly show you Christ’s sin-atoning death. When you receive, you are eating and drinking substances with your mouth: bread and wine. But as you believe in Christ, you are actually eating and drinking Christ spiritually by faith. You are eating and drinking with the mouth of your soul, which is faith.
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Preaching and Prayer
Making preaching and teaching a priority doesn’t mean devoting hours and hours to the study, it will mean some of that, but it also means meeting with the people, knowing them, knowing the pressures that they face, the temptations and pressures they feel and their spiritual temperature, so that preaching can be done well and relevantly and applicably to those God has called me to preach to, It’s not being an academic, it’s not being hidden behind a towering pile of commentaries. It is working hard to exegete both the word of God and the people of God.
I try to use the summer time to stop and take stock of where I am and where we are. As I do it’s always helpful to return to first things. Specifically what need to be the first things in my diary on a week to week basis, what are the priorities that we determine the reality of day to day ministry.
There is always lots to do and the good is often the enemy of the best. And so it’s been helpful to sit and try to weigh up this week does my diary reflect what ought to be my priorities in ministry. Acts 6 gives us a bit of a template when we look at the Apostles priorities when faced with the danger of distraction with good ministry but not the most necessary ministry.
There twin priorities were prayer and the teaching of the word. And they acted wisely in engaging others to take on the serving of tables – a good and necessary outworking of the gospel.
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What Does it Mean to “Lean not on your Own Understanding”?
You want to love the Word by knowing the Word—one feeds the other. This is in contrast to the person who leans on his own understanding. He doesn’t need the Bible to direct him, because he thinks he has life figured out. That person is a fool. In contrast, the person who fears the Lord actually studies God’s word—and he does so not to learn head knowledge, but to really and legitimately learn how to live.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
So reads Proverbs 3:5. But what exactly does it mean to lean not on your own understanding?
Like many verses in Proverbs, Proverbs 3:5 pits two opposite concepts against each other. A person can either trust in the Lord with their whole heart, or lean on their own understanding. It is an either/or, not a both/and.
But despite the simplicity of this structure, there is an ocean of truth behind it. In actuality there is a massive war in the world. There is a war between angels and demons, truth and lies, Satan and the church. There is a war involving “the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Those dark forces are hostile against the truth, and specifically against anyone who tries to live a life submissive to the the Lord.
In contrast to those forces, there is the Spirit-filled person—the person who fears the Lord. If he is a husband, he is a leader who loves his wife and brings his children up in the fear and discipline of the Lord. If she is a wife, she is submissive to her husband and loving toward her children. If he is a child, he is obedient to his parents. These roles describe the Spirit-filled life in Ephesians 5:21-6:9.
In all of those roles, there is a war being waged in the mind of the person. Should they act according to their own desires, or according to God’s pattern for the world? Should they do what they want to do, or do what the Lord calls them to do?
While the battle may sway back and forth, at some point the combatant needs to take sides. This is Solomon’s appeal in Proverbs 3. He is pleading with his readers to choose a side—are they going to fall prey to the devil’s schemes and live like they want to live, or are they going to crush their own desires, and live in submission to the God’s word?
The context of Proverbs 3 bears this out. There is a contrast between the one who “forgets” biblical wisdom and the one who “keeps the commandments” (Proverbs 3:1). There is a difference between the person who “is wise in his own eyes” and the one who “turns away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).
Solomon’s overarching point is that you can’t be both people.
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For Those Whom God has Afflicted?
Why does God afflict us? Because He loves us, and wishes to make us holy as He is holy, and happy as He is happy. For, as it has been well said, “Fiery trials make golden Christians!” God had one Son without sin—but He never had any son without sorrow. God chastens purposely and lovingly. Affliction comes from Him; and He afflicts, not as a stern Judge, but as a Father and a Friend!
Dear Brother or Sister, I have come into your sick-room, as it were, and wish to tell you a few things for your comfort and profit. God has seen fit to stop you in the midst of your busy life, and to lay you aside for a while. It is not by chance that His afflicting hand has fallen upon you. It is not at random that He has chastened you. It may seem to be a mere accident that you are afflicted, and not another. But no; God has done it purposely!
Learn this then—that your present sickness or affliction is from God. It is His doing. He it is, who has brought this present chastisement upon you. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father’s ordering, and He prizes His redeemed children more than many sparrows.
Sickness usually comes as a messenger of divine love—it is sent to be a blessing, and may be made, by God’s grace, a very great blessing to the soul. God afflicts His children, because He desires to do them some great good.
The gardener cuts and prunes his tree, to make it grow better, and bear more precious fruit. In the same way, God often uses His sharp knife for some gracious purpose. The wise and loving father thwarts his child, and sometimes scourges it, for its good.
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