Episode 286: The Lord's Table | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Might need a teenager's technology. Do we have a teenager here? Run up here real quick. See if you can get this timer working. Everybody, you'll be everybody's friend. Okay. When you get it, bring it to me in the pulpit. Alright. Well, anyway, guys, glad to be here. We just came back from Rwanda. He'll have it like five seconds. Thank you. That is embarrassing—the start button. Yeah. I know. Yeah. I used to mock my mom and her lack of technology, and then I figured I've become my mother. So, it's tough.

Glad to be here. We were in Rwanda. We worked a lot serving and overseeing worship. We took Cole and Emily Massey because they were cheaper than the Imhoffs because they got so many kids. But anyway, Cole got to lead worship to people from 51 countries. We actually decided to break out of all those meetings and host something for college students. So, we got our missionaries from Iraq. Can you say it? Iraq. They came and they brought a young man who was a son of a sheikh. Actually, he's a sheikh and he'd been in the army. He had seen how they brutalize women and children and, basically, though he was Muslim, he actually became an atheist and was kind of discreet about it. Then, for about two years, he had no faith until somebody gave him a Bible pamphlet. You know, those ones people give to you, and you're like, thanks a lot, and he actually got it, and it said, God loves you. And he had never heard that God actually loves people. He just thought God was a fierce, mean person who tells you what to do and not to do.

And so, the man became a Christian at age 25. His father, who is very rich and very powerful, said, I will drink your blood. His father took out a knife and stabbed him multiple times. The kid was tough, a soldier, escapes, and goes on to heal up and become an evangelist, handing out Bible tracks and leading people to Jesus, even building a church in Iraq. So that was part of what we’re doing. When we had a gathering for all the college kids in Rwanda, we let him give his testimony. So he's speaking in Arabic. A translator translated into English, who then translates it into Kinyarwanda, and people came to the Lord. Even people in the band in Rwanda came to the Lord. So, if you're timing the sermon, you may start now. Okay, great.

The Love for Holy Communion

I actually love holy communion. I loved it before I was a Christian. I remember as a kid, I was an accolade. I didn't really, I didn't know the Lord. I knew about Him, but there was something I knew even as a kid — like, something's going on here. You know, the Bible says that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men. He knows that we're thirsty and we're hungry for something more. He said, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not hunger.

The last page, the last book, it says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any of you are thirsty, come. Come. And so today, we're going to be talking about holy communion. And you know, that's one part of what we do on Sunday morning. What else do we do? We have preaching, and we also have—which is really amazing today—is always singing. And so, I like preaching and I like singing. But, let's be honest, sometimes the sermon’s an A plus, sometimes it's like bless his heart. You know, and music at our church, we're blessed. And so, sometimes it's an A plus and sometimes it's a B or B minus. Well, maybe occasionally B minus. But, you know, holy communion is always good. It's not dependent on how clever somebody is or something I put together. When you come in faith and receive, the Lord meets you. And it is, it's always good. It's always good.

And I want you to see where it comes from. So, let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When God got His people out of Egypt, He told them to do something. What did He tell them to do? Kill a lamb. You’ve read the book. To kill a lamb. Although, they belonged to the...

And it's hot. One degree, please. One degree. Go hit it. He told them to take a lamb and kill it, and put the blood of the lamb on their door. And so, when God sent the angel of death to break His people out of bondage—four hundred years of harsh bondage—God cares about injustice. He said, put the blood of the lamb, that pure spotless lamb, on the lentils, on your door. And when the angel of death sees that, He's going to pass over you. Hence, the feast of Passover. And God told Moses, tell the people, this is to be done forever and ever, amen, until the Messiah comes back. Lo Alam in Hebrew, forever. And so, that was that.

We skip forward to Jesus and His disciples. And He's ready to go to the cross and die a terrible death. But before that, He was a faithful Jew. And so, He wanted to celebrate or keep Passover just like Exodus 12 said to do. And so, here it is in Matthew 26. It’s also in other places. Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, matzah, the disciples came to Jesus and said, hey, where would you have us prepare the Passover? And Jesus tells them, and they go and prepare the meal.

When evening came, He reclined at the table. You know, I’m always up and anxious and ready to fight and move, and Jesus just reclined. Kinda reminds me when He was in the boat. Like, He has enough faith and trust in His Father. He can rest. And even though He knew He's going to the cross, it says He reclined. Maybe we could learn to rest in the Lord like that.

In verse 26, it says, then Jesus, as they were eating, He took bread. And after blessing the bread, He broke it. I don't know about you, but I don't like to be showy in my religion, but I also never want to lift a fork to my mouth without thanking the Lord. You know, we have friends in many countries whose kids do not eat every day. Every time you put your fork or spoon to your mouth, you don't have to do a showy prayer, look at me, but in your heart, bow your head, pray the Lord, and give Him thanks.

You may know, holy communion is called by many names. If you're very Protestant, you call it the Lord's Supper. If you're Anglican, somewhere in the middle, you call it holy communion. And maybe if you know Greek or if you're from a higher tradition, you call it Eucharist. U meaning good, charis meaning grace, good grace. But really, that word is translated to give thanks. So, Jesus takes the bread, He blesses it, gives it to His disciples. He says, take, eat, this is my body.

Now, this is freaky. Jesus in His body is holding out bread saying, take, eat, this is my body. You got God figured out? Yeah, you do. Okay. That's... I'm glad you do. I'm working on it. So, it says this, when He had given thanks, He said, drink this all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, or in some versions, my blood of the new covenant. My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

And so, just like in Passover, you have a lamb, and you have blood, and it’s for sacrifice for our sins. And the God that calls us sometimes to fasting—you're probably asking, what kind of God does that calls to fasting—the reason He calls us to fasting is so we can be stripped of things that lead us from the King and from the feast He wants for us. I hate fasting. Holy cow, I hate it. But the reason God gives it as a gift is to strip us, to strip away the things that would prevent us from knowing the King of the feast.

And so, Paul always wants to clarify things. Let's look in, let's go down to 1 Corinthians 11. If you have your Bible, go ahead and go there. Paul is recounting some of the same things Jesus said but also giving instructions about what we do. And let me just tell you the problem. What's the problem in Corinth? Well, there are a lot of problems. One, they thought too highly of themselves. Look at us. We're so spiritual. We're better than everybody. We're hyper-spiritual. And Paul’s like, well, that's funny because you're living with your father's wife. They were having gross immorality, the kind that would make pagans blink and blush. There were divisions, factions, pride, and divisions.

Apparently, people were coming to the Lord’s table as they gathered. The believers would gather. Some would come with a picnic basket, kinda like going to a tailgate at Virginia Tech, you know. Like, if you get invited to one, it's awesome. But half the time, we get a ticket, we're not invited to a tailgate. So, we stand like beggars outside hoping somebody will take us in.

And so, here are the instructions from the Lord. First Corinthians 11, Paul says this: when you come together, it's not the Lord's Supper you're eating. He goes, some of you are getting drunk. Some of you are feasting and eating all your food while your brothers and sisters in the faith have nothing because they're poor. You should be sharing with each other. You shouldn't come to church and get wasted.

Can I chase a rabbit for a second? Some of you guys know I do this. In my first church, there’s an old priest named Charles. I love Charles so much. He was 83. He just kind of felt like my great-granddad. And I was 25, and every Wednesday, we'd have holy communion. There were like ten to twelve little old ladies who would come for holy communion every week. It never got above fifteen. But Charles always filled up the flagon—that's a big thing that holds wine. He would fill it up almost to the top. I'm like, Charles, we only have ten to twelve people every week, but in faith, Charles always believed more were coming. At first, I thought it was faith, then I realized, no, no, he just liked to reverently consume. Dude, he would drink like two-thirds of a bottle of wine, and he's like this. And I'm like, Charles, no, no, sir, with all respect.

That's what was going on in Corinth. And He says this: one goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? And he says this is harsh: Do you despise the church of God that much? And so, really, what he's addressing is a bunch of people that are very carnal, very self-focused. They're getting wasted. They're not caring about others. There's no sense of the body, just individualism.

And so, in verse 23, Paul says, well, I received from the Lord Jesus what I also delivered to you—that the Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks—that's the word Eucharist—He broke the bread, and He said,>This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Let me break that down for you. My Greek professor in seminary said, because I just memorized for the test. He said this word remembrance is way stronger than the English word. We think, oh, do this in remembrance of Jesus: that we go, oh yeah, it’s kind of like Thanksgiving—the first Thanksgiving, which by the way, is in Virginia where people dress up like pilgrims, and that family gets together, and there's a big meal. You know how we remember that? When was it? 06/1609 or whatever? We remember that. Isn't that cute? That's not what the word means. The word is anamnesis. It means like you're remembering it so much, it's almost as if you're reliving the Passover. That's why the Lord said to keep the Passover year after year after year—not just recall facts like Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. No. When they did the Passover, it was as if they were there in Egypt. They'd just seen God move in power. He was ready to get them out and lead them to the promised land, and they took it in faith as if it was happening.

We're not re-sacrificing Christ. We're not actually reliving the Passover, but it's much more than simply remembering. Again, as we read earlier, it says, the cup that we bless, is it not a participation? It's not just some boring thing we go through. It's a participation with the blood of Jesus. That's why you feel something. If you have faith, that's why you're experiencing the Lord. It's a participation in His blood. And in the blood is the life. And the bread that we break is, is it also not a participation? The word is koinonia, or fellowship. We get to have fellowship with Jesus when we eat the bread and when we drink the cup. And that's what Paul says.

The Significance and Frequency of Holy Communion

So, there are a few more instructions, and let's knock them out of the way. He says, so when you take communion, you're actually doing something. Look at verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11: for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes again. Every time you take the communion, you're preaching a sermon, saying, I believe Christ was put to death for me and for the sins of the whole world. And I believe He was raised from the dead and will come again. That's a sermon you're preaching.

Now, here's the tricky part. Let's go back to verse 26. It says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, for as often. A lot of you want to know, how often do I take communion? And if you're brought up in a Protestant tradition, it could be four times a year, once a month. I grew up in a church like that—Anglican, once a month. My own twin sister, love you sis if you're listening, she called me probably twenty-five years ago. She goes, why do you guys take communion every week? And I’m like, well, what does the scripture teach? What does the scripture teach? It says, as often as you do it. If you want to look for a pattern in the book of Acts, what do you see? On the first day of the week, they gathered, and they broke bread together. So, at least weekly, they were taking the Lord's Supper. But this passage makes it seem like, well, whenever you do it, do it in remembrance of me.

Now, verse 27, it says, whoever drinks, therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Now, most of us are so libertarian, so free to want to live our best life now, and be free, and be free, and be free. But there's another percentage of us that are just masters of beating ourselves up. And we're like, oh, wait a minute. So, it says if anybody takes the Lord's bread and cup in an unworthy manner, I would be guilty concerning the body and blood of Jesus. And so, we beat ourselves up.

We had a man who literally would beat himself at the rail every time he took communion. We've had other people that wouldn't take communion for a year or two because they felt so unworthy. I think that’s what my sister was pushing at. She goes, I need more time. We'll need more time for what? I need more time to prepare myself and get myself ready. And I'm like, sis, what are you going to do in a month that you couldn’t do in a day? Confess your sins. He hears it. He is so happy to say, I paid for it. I already knew about it anyway, but I’m so glad you're walking in the light.

But there is a sense of holiness that you just don't take the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, Eucharist in a careless manner. Those of you who've been to Holy Spirit for a while, you've heard me tell the story of Philip. Philip was five years old, and his parents wanted to have communion. And I’m cool with that—a child of promise. Except Philip found that you could gargle holy communion. And then, like, he made monkey faces, as kids do. And he had the piece of bread falling out of his mouth, and he was making monkey faces. And I’m like, okay. Sam and his wife said, y’all might want to work on teaching him what's going on during the Lord's Supper. We don't want to be neurotic, but we do want to remember it's a holy meal.

In verse 28, it says, let a person examine himself, and then so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Okay. So, where's it all point? We had Passover, Exodus 12. There's a lamb, there's blood. God's doing an amazing thing. There's actually some feasting going on there. Then we have Jesus doing it with His apostles, Matthew 26. We have Paul giving us instructions, but it points to something else.

What did all this point to all along? It wasn't like an accident they tied it up. Isaiah 25 verses 6 and 7. Pop that on your in your Bible or on your phone. Isaiah is here with the feast. The feast that all the others point to. Isaiah, speaking seven hundred years before Jesus was even born, says:

On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food. See, the problem is, what you know—what you know—you don't come to church because they don't think it's a feast. They think it's a fast. They think our God is a God of fasting, not feasting. And I'll say, you haven't read the story. And the way we can have this feast is because the Lamb of God, the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, became a sin for us. He laid down His life for us.

He says, on this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples. You know that? Every tribe, tongue, and nation. Every skin color, every accent, everywhere. And they're all going to gather—not everyone, but people from all those different tongues, tribes, and nations—at the feast the Lord is going to prepare.

A feast of rich food, a banquet of aged wine. I don't know about you, but I like old wines. Right? Now, if you've already drunk your share, maybe you could just focus on the feast and not on the well-aged wine. Okay? But the point is, that God is going to have such a feast, with rich food—best meats, finest wines. You saw what Jesus did at Cana. And He says, on that day, He's going to destroy the shroud that unfolds all the people. Do you hear that? They see what they don't see. It's like they have scales on their eyes. I know because I was one of them. They sit in the pews. They even go on mission trips, but they don't see because a shroud covers them. But the Lord says, on that day, at the time the Lord's going to come back, He's going to destroy the shroud that covers all peoples and the sheet that covers all nations.

Jesus says, if any of you are hungry, if any of you are thirsty, come and I will give you life. It's a participation in the blood of Jesus. That's what Scripture says. It's a participation in His body, and we care for His body, the bride.

Amen and amen.