Wednesday, August 23, 2017

“The Lord’s Supper We Celebrate” Basics of the Christian Faith Series, August ‘17




1.       Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  Today we’re going to look at what it means for us as Christians to eat and partake of the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and why it’s important to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper regularly.  The message is entitled, “The Lord’s Supper We Celebrate,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.       While still a seminary student, Charles Varsogea told this story, “When I was young, I often spent time at my grandmother’s house.  She grew grapes, and every time I visited her, I would taste them to see if they were ripe yet.  I could never seem to figure out that they were only good to eat in the fall, and so all summer I would run to the house with my teeth on edge.  I would sit down at the kitchen table and ask my grandma to help me get rid of the taste.  Her answer to my trouble was always the same.  She would give me a glass of grape juice.  It was sweet and took care of the sour grape taste without conflicting with it.  Our Heavenly Father offers us a similar kind of cure.  When we have been “eating sour grapes” and want to be forgiven, He invites us to His table where we receive the sweet wine of the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Eucharist.  Christ’s body and blood obliterates the sourness of our sin, and we are refreshed and renewed.  We are freed from the bitterness that sin would bring us if we could not hope in God’s forgiveness.”
3.       Some Christians understand the Lord’s Supper in the same way they understand Holy Baptism--as something we do in obedience to God, either to earn more of His favor or to avoid His displeasure.  They may also see Communion as a “memorial meal,” a time to remember Jesus’ death and suffering for us in the same way we remember a loved one as we look through a favorite photo album.  Lawyers know how carefully they must prepare a client’s last will and testament.  Any ambiguous words in the document can throw an estate valued at millions of dollars into the wrong hands.  When our blessed Lord Jesus left us His last will and testament, He used clear and unambiguous words.  Listen to what Matt. 26:26-28 says, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat, this is My body.”  Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.  This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  “This is My body,” Jesus said.  “This is My blood.”  Christ’s words and very clear.  We don’t understand how this can be, but because we don’t want to change the words our Lord used in His last will and testament, we accept what He has said.
4.       Based on the words of institution alone, we can conclude that the Lord’s Supper involves much more than a memorial meal.  As we receive the Holy Supper with our brothers and sisters in the faith, Paul writes in 1 Cor. 11:26, “We proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  We remember His suffering, death, and resurrection for us.  We recall His perfect work of redemption that makes it possible for God to declare us righteous in Christ.  In that sense, Holy Communion is a memorial meal.  But, it’s so much more than this.  Listen to Luther’s answer to the Question, “What is the Sacrament of the Altar?”  It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.”  Luther goes on to spell out the benefits we receive in Holy Communion, “These words, Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are give us through these words.  For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”
5.       What great benefits our Lord Jesus offers us in the Lord’s Supper!  This raises an important question:  Who is eligible to receive it?  Who can approach the altar and there receive, “Forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation,” through this means of grace?  Those who know their need and their Savior, those in whom the Holy Spirit has done His work--convicting them of their sin and drawing them to Jesus as the one through whom God has promised forgiveness.  That faith makes us worthy to approach our holy God.  That faith makes us worthy in His eyes.  This helps us understand how to prepare to receive this Sacrament.  We can’t do anything that will “earn the right” to commune or will produce in us enough “merit” to receive God’s grace.  By definition grace is the undeserved love of God in Christ.  To “be worthy and well prepared,” then doesn’t mean to attain to a certain level of right actions, but to examine ourselves and to see in ourselves our desperate need for Jesus.  When we approach the altar this way, we come in the worthiness, the righteousness of Jesus Himself, His worthiness and righteousness replacing our own.     
6.       God’s gift of faith makes all the difference.  Because the Lord’s Supper isn’t simply a “memorial meal,” because Jesus is truly present here in all His holiness, in all His power, we don’t treat proper preparation lightly.  The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 11:29-31, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.”  We could also understand that word unworthily to also mean carelessly.  Both these words can point to receive the Lord’s body and blood in an unrepentant way, not sorry for one’s sins.  The faithful Christian comes to the Lord’s Supper in repentant faith.  Luther is reported to have said, “I sometimes rush to the altar and receive the Sacrament without confession as a way of making clear to myself that whether or not I feel a certain way about it has nothing to do with God’s act of grace for me.”  FEELING WORTHY has little to do with actually being worthy.  Regardless of how you feel, you’re well-prepared when you are, a) sorry for your sins, b) believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin, c) trust Jesus’ words in the Sacrament, “this is My body given for you; this is My blood shed for you, d) intend by the power of the Holy Spirit to turn from your sins.
7.       Our Lord Jesus welcomes us at His Table.  He urges us to come.  He invites and, yes, even commands it in the words, “Do this, to remember Me” because He wants to give us so much there.  Many of us haven’t fully appreciated the meaning and blessing of this Sacrament.  As von Schenk says, “The central worship of the early church was the Holy Communion.  Back of their coming together was, first and foremost, the desire to celebrate the Real Presence of Christ in the Communion.” (The Presence, pp. 23-24).  It would be good practice for every congregation to offer Holy Communion on Sunday and on other special feast days as well.  Sometimes Luther is misquoted as saying that going to Holy Communion 4 times a year is adequate.  What Luther really said was that if a person went to the Lord’s Supper too infrequently, he doubted whether that person was a Christian.  Luther went on to say, “You see, then, that we are not granted freedom to scorn the Sacrament.  I call it scorning the Sacrament when a person, though there is nothing to hinder his attendance, lets a long time pass without ever desiring the Lord’s Supper.  If you want the liberty to do that, then you may as well take the further liberty of not being a Christian so that you need not believe or pray; for the one is just as much a commandment of Christ as the other.  (Janzow, p. 116).  Our Lord Jesus said, “Do this.”  We joyfully obey His command and invitation.  And He promises His blessing to those who come often.
8.       All of the blessings Jesus promises us in the Lord’s Supper come to us, not because we merit them in and of ourselves, but because He is merciful and He wants to bless us.  Just as our own worthiness doesn’t somehow “earn” for us the mercy of God in the Sacrament, neither does the worthiness of the person who distributes it.  What makes the Lord’s Supper effective?  The same thing that gives Holy Baptism its power--the Word of God.  It’s not the faith of the one who administers these Sacraments, but our faithful Lord who keeps His promises to His people.  We receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through the means of grace, even if they are “administered by evil men,” as our Lutheran Confessions say.
9.       The more we realize all that God in grace does for us and in us at the Lord’s Supper, the more we will approach Him there.  A member once told her pastor, “My Communion was ruined.  I smiled.”  What a tragic misunderstanding of what it means to come to the Lord’s Supper with a reverent, respectful attitude!  We have good reason for joy as we meet our Lord Jesus in His Supper.  Our sins have been forgiven.  Our Savior’s death on the cross has worked complete salvation for us.  Now by God’s grace, we rejoice in the assurance of His love.  We share with our fellow believers the Feast of the Lamb.  We join the saints on earth and the saints in heaven around His throne, singing the song of the redeemed.
10.   Keeping all these benefits in mind, we don’t need to wonder why another name for the Lord’s Supper is the Holy Eucharist.  Eucharist is a Greek word that means thanksgiving.  How thanksgiving and joy fill our hearts as we think of our Savior’s care for us as He comes to touch each of us--His brothers and sisters--personally in this Sacrament!  Here we have not a dead doctrine but a dynamic power, a great wellspring of power that the Lord Jesus has given to us, weak and unworthy though we are.  Refreshed by His touch, we lift up our hearts in praise to our Savior, who has given us His Holy Meal to us for the forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, and salvation.  Amen.

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