1 Corinthians 11:17-34; 2 Chronicles 30
Please be seated. Take out your copy of the scriptures. We have our first reading from Second Chronicles, chapter 30, and then a reading from the gospel, Luke chapter 22. And then we pick up today in First Corinthians, where we last left off in chapter 11. It just so happens today, the passage is on the Lord’s Supper, and it helps us as we prepare to come to the Lord’s table. So the first passage is 2 Chronicles 30.
Remember in your Bible reading, lots of bad kings did what was evil in the sight of God. Then every once in a while, a good king would come up. They’d find the book of the law. They’d read it. They’d cast out the idols and quit doing bad things, reinstitute proper worship of God.
And so this passage tells us about Hezekiah, one of the good kings who holds the Passover observation. And it says in 2 Chronicles chapter 30, verse one, Hezekiah sent to all Israel and to Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover of the Lord, the God of Israel. For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at the time because the priest had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem and the plan seemed right to the king and the assembly. So they decreed to make a proclamation through all Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel at Jerusalem. For they had not kept it as often as prescribed. So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes.
As the king had commanded saying, O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers who were faithless to the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.
So the couriers went from city to city throughout the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. However, some men of Asher and of Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord. And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month a very great assembly. They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars were burning incense. They took away and threw into the Kidron Valley, and they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the second month. And the priest and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. They took their accustomed post according to the law of Moses, the man of God.
The priest threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites, for there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore, the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean to consecrate it to the Lord. For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than is prescribed.
For Hezekiah had prayed for them saying, may the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rule of cleanness. And the Lord heard Hezekiah and he healed the people and the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. And the Levites and the priest praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might to the Lord. And Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the Lord. So they ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness. For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for offerings. And the princes gave the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep.
And the priests consecrated themselves in great numbers. The whole assembly of Judah and the priest and the Levites and the whole assembly that came out of Israel and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel and the sojourners who lived in Judah rejoiced. So there was great joy in Jerusalem for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priest and the Levites arose and blessed the people and their voice was heard and their prayer came. to his holy habitation in heaven. And now from Luke’s gospel, Luke chapter 22, this is Jesus celebrating the Passover with his disciples and then instituting the Lord’s supper. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
And the chief priest and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death for they feared the people. Then Satan entered Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the number of the 12. He went away and conferred with the chief priest and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to him, where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large upper room furnished, prepare it there.’ And they went and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said, take. Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
And he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
For the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he has been betrayed. And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. And then over to first Corinthians chapter 11, beginning at verse 17.
But in the following instructions, Paul says to the Corinthian church, I do not commend you because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. Therefore, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever therefore 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. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak or ill and some have died.
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.
About the other things, I will give directions when I come. Amen. May God help us as we hear and receive his word. Tomorrow, you may strike up a conversation with someone. It could be the bug guy that comes to your house. It could be the teller at the bank. It could be someone you’re waiting in line with, in a waiting room with, and perhaps a friend over coffee. And church will come up. You went to church. And perhaps the question from a skeptic, an inquirer, what did church do for you? What did you get out of it? They’ll stare at you and you will stutter and you will stammer. But no, not you all.
You all are good, thoughtful, careful listeners, and so your response will be, without skipping a beat, I met with God’s people. I gave glory to God’s name for his redemption. I received from his word. I met with the Lord at his table, and I was fed by my Savior through ordinary bread, ordinary wine, but fed in a special and spiritual way?
And that would be a good answer. But what if you’re a Corinthian? You would be ashamed to answer. I overate. I got drunk. I humiliated the poor. That would be the response they would be forced to give based on the evidence we have here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And they would give you this answer with a look of shame and a tummy ache and perhaps a bit hungover. That sounds odd, doesn’t it, for what you got out of church.
But that’s exactly what’s taking place. And not only is it hurting one another and hurting the poor in their midst, it is hurting their souls and bringing judgment. So today we want to think through, we’ve got seven practical things that will help us come to the Lord’s table appropriately. And we’ll just pop right through them.
The first is apostolic instructions. You find in verse 17, but also in verse 23, the apostle saying, but in the following instructions, and then in verse 23, he says, I received from the Lord. And so what the apostle says as he is correcting and instructing the Corinthian church and then of course down the line to us. is he is saying this table etiquette, this Lord’s Supper table etiquette that I am giving you is directly from the Lord. It is apostolic teaching. It is binding. It is from the Lord of the Lord. And it is now, of course, in the scripture.
So how do we properly observe the Lord’s Supper? How do we properly worship God and in the worship of God receive the Lord’s Supper? We have this understanding in the Reformed faith that there are things in the Bible we are commanded to do in worship, like read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible.
And then there’s this, what we call wiggle room, which is probably a terrible way to put it, but it’s what we call circumstances. The elders have the wisdom to say, is worship going to be at 11 a.m. or 4 a.m. or whatever time. We also have wiggle room in how we serve the Lord’s Supper. Now we get principles from the Bible, Old Testament for the Lord’s Supper. We could take some Passover etiquette or teaching. But anyway, we wanted to think about what God instructs us to do from the Bible. from the pen of the apostles.
And so we are commanded to serve the Lord’s supper. How frequently? Well, that’s up to the elders. Here, we do it quarterly. Some churches, we do it monthly. Some churches do it quarterly. Some churches, especially in our old Scottish tradition and history, they do it once, perhaps twice a year.
But what does the apostle say so clearly to the Corinthians who have really poor table manners? He says very clearly, it is the Lord’s supper that you eat. And so it’s good for us to hear this apostolic instruction, understanding this is not a microwave meal. This is not a quick supper, a drive through. This is something solemn, something sacred.
And so the apostle catches wind of things going awry at the Corinthian church. Remember, he’s across the sea at Ephesus. He hears about all this from Chloe’s people. And he says in the very last verse of our passage, I’m going to write to you about this, but the other questions you have about worship or church etiquette, I’ll speak to you about when I come. But apostolic instruction.
The second thing, in addition to apostolic instruction, is this idea of us coming together as a church. The phrase coming together pops up about six times in this passage, verse 17, verse 18, verse 20. Think verse 33 and verse 34, the phrase coming together, and then he adds in a place or two, as a church. Communion, the Lord’s Supper, is to be done by the church when they come together. So you have reinforced here our principles.
Paul calls this the Lord’s Supper, first place in the Bible where it’s called that. It’s also the Lord’s day. So on the Lord’s day in the Lord’s house with the Lord’s people, we do the Lord’s ordinances, which include the Lord’s supper. What does the unknown writer of Hebrews say to the church? Don’t forsake the assembling together. So it’s good for us to be in God’s house on God’s day with God’s people under God’s ordinances, especially under or with the Lord’s supper.
And so apostolic instructions coming together as a church. Now I found two very interesting things in this passage and the next two points are those things. So we got apostolic instructions. That’s easy. Come together as a church. That’s pretty good. Now y’all are going to think this one’s weird, but it’s right in there. It’s in there twice. Eat at home. That just pops in there. Eat at home. What does Paul say? Well, he says, do you not have houses to eat and drink in? It says that in verse 22. And then in verse 34, when he’s concluding, if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.
Now you got to understand the context. There was one church in Corinth. people came from all over the place from all kinds of backgrounds and they came probably to a wealthy person’s house that had a Central courtyard a central meeting room, you know, they had their igloo coolers, you know, the rich had their Yetis others had their food lion sacks, but they you get the picture there they’re traveling in they’re bringing food and It’s a little interesting.
Early church worship practice had not yet been solidified. They weren’t Presbyterians yet. They probably weren’t doing things decently in order. They were doing things maybe somewhat orderly and somewhat decently, but it took the early church a little while to solidify a common liturgy. You read through worship books, the history of worship, the priorities of worship, and generally speaking, throughout church history, probably until the 1980s when the baby boomers took over church.
That’s a joke. You had, it’s really not actually a sad, but you had reading the word, praying the word, preaching the word, and you would see the word in baptism. You would touch and taste the word in the Lord’s supper. And there would be biblical things like benedictions, biblical things like praise and worship and, you know, tithes offerings, those sorts of things.
No Super Bowl Sunday back in the early church, all that sort of business. But you can look throughout church history and see a pretty common thread of what was done in church, what order it was done in. And you could say pretty closely, we follow in line with the historic Christian faith. And so when you come together as a church, eat at home.
Where does that fit in? Well, when it came to the Lord’s Supper, there seemed to be a little mixture, it’s hard to tell in history, of eating lunch or eating a meal together as a church, often called a love feast. And then was the breaking of bread the Lord’s Supper too? Remember Acts chapter 242?
You’re going to be a New Testament church. So what do you do? You hear the word read, you hear the word preached, you pray together and you eat together. Yeah, we’re gonna be a New Testament church. Well, as they eat together, the Lord’s supper, or as they eat together, the feast.
And so you can probably have in mind here that as some unpacked their coolers, some brought more food and more drink. And then there was a disorderliness of some were eating and drinking before others got there. And then when the others got there and had nothing or very little, some were fat and full and drunk while others had nothing to eat or drink. And so you can see the disunity problems. And so the commandment, eat at home. If you’re hungry, eat at home. If anyone is hungry, let them eat at home. You have houses to eat and to dine in. And so we have apostolic instruction. We have the command not to eat at home.
What about divisions? This is the second thing that caught my attention. Verses 18 and 19. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, he says, I hear there are divisions. Okay, we get that factions. There’s the early service people, right? There’s the late service people. There’s the contemporary group and the traditional or whatever. There’s the choir people, the bell people, the, you know, on and on.
I hear there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. Remember, he’s getting hearsay. He’s getting secondhand info from Chloe’s people. So he says, I believe it in part. But here’s the interesting thing. Verse 19, he says, there must be factions among you. And then he speaks of the benefit in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
Now, every once in a while in the life of a church, there are little outbreaks of. Let’s just say unpleasantness. And the exit doors seem to fly open. And it hurts, it’s painful. You see the factions, you see the divisions. The King James here uses the word heresies. You experience it, you go through it, it’s painful. But what does Paul say here the purpose is? It shows who is genuine, who is tested, who is proven, and they are brought to light. Always, always the case in the church, you’ll have wheat and the tears. That’s what Jesus said. Uh, the tears will blow away with the wind, generally speaking, but often, and the elders should give a little chuckle here. It’s often without, you know, that cause a little trouble first, right? Then, then they hit the exit.
So there’s divisions in the Corinthian church. There are divisions in our own congregation from time to time. But what does Paul say the purpose of divisions is? It shows who is genuine, tested and proven. Why he sticks that in here, I don’t know, but I found it very interesting. So my two interesting takeaways from this passage, eat at home, divisions are necessary, which is kind of painful to read as a minister.
All right, the fifth thing, words of institution. So Paul’s gonna straighten out the Corinthians. This is how you do the Lord’s Supper. No getting drunk, no gluttony, no not sharing, no not hogging the bread and the wine. So he gives the words of institution. And can’t you imagine as they read this, I, Paul, receive this from Jesus, and Jesus then says to you, that ought to scare them straight. That ought to straighten them out.
So here’s the apostle. who on his Damascus Road trip to persecute Christians, met the risen and exalted Jesus, spent 10 years or so in Arabia with the Lord himself, teaching him about all that the Old Testament he already understood meant. He met with the disciples. He met with Peter. He went to Jerusalem. He stayed at Damascus a little bit.
He says, I received from the Lord and I already delivered it to you. This is something in his 18 months he had spent with them earlier on his missionary journey. He had taught them, this is the Lord’s supper. This is what you do. This is how you do it. This is why you do it. This is how it will benefit you. And you can guarantee he never said get drunk. You can bet he never said overeat, and you can definitely bet he never said humiliate the poor and don’t share out of your abundance with others who have little to nothing.
And so the words of institution, which we are so familiar with, we hear monthly when we take the Lord’s Supper, it’s a requirement that the words of institution, at least in our denomination, our practice of worship, it’s a matter that they are to be read so that we are reminded.
And in a sense, he’s saying to these Corinthians, so what you are doing is dishonoring to Jesus. Well, he then gives words of warning. That’s the sixth thing we find in this passage. Words of warning, and they come in verses 27, 28, and also on through verse 32. So you’ve got rich people, you’ve got gluttonous people, and you’ve got people getting drunk. And he says very simply and plainly, whoever eats and drinks in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus.
Now, a little side excursion in here to old covenant to new covenant practice. So the old covenant right of circumcision is now which New Testament right? Baptism, very good. And which custom in the Old Testament represents the Lord’s Supper? Passover. Oh yeah, that’s why we read for 10 minutes. Okay. In the Old Covenant, you had these rites and you had the prescribed way to observe them.
But in the New Covenant, you have these new covenant rites, Passover into the Lord’s Supper, circumcision into baptism and there are adjustments and the adjustment in the new covenant for baptism is anyone who is in the covenant community no longer gets circumcised but they get baptized including baby girls or if a family comes to faith later they they get baptized as a little older now We, I know we live in the Baptist South with believers, baptism, and I don’t want to get into that whole mess and mix, but we don’t find a place in the, well, I guess I am getting into it. We don’t find a place in the New Testament where it says, quit doing, quit doing that that way. But what do we find when we come to the Lord’s supper? Don’t take the Lord’s supper if you can’t discern the body. and don’t take the Lord’s Supper if you can’t discern your own heart. And so while Passover was for everyone, who is the Lord’s Supper for? It’s for those who can discern the body and the blood.
So if you’ve grown up in the Presbyterian faith or maybe Episcopalian faith, or I know some of you are recovering Catholics and all, you went through what is called confirmation. And what were they confirming? They were confirming that you had indeed come to faith, you made good on your baptism, as it were, or God had, and you were then admitted to what? The Lord’s table. They were making sure that you would not come eating and drinking judgment on yourselves. And so that’s still a big practice today. The other thing is we do what’s called fencing the table. Sometimes I forget to do it.
But generally speaking, we say something like this. This table is for all who know of their sin and need a savior and they have received and rest in Jesus alone for their salvation. And you are in some way, shape or form united to the church of Christ. You don’t have to be a member of our church, but you need to have professed your faith and been admitted into membership of a church of the Lord Jesus. That’s usually our fencing of the table. You can say way more and you can, well, at least in the ARP, you can’t say less. And so we guard the table, but are we really guarding the table? Yes, of course, but what else are we guarding?
Well, Paul says some of them have gotten sick. Some of them have fallen ill. Some of them have even died. I don’t know if you’ve thought about that when you come to the Lord’s supper. Do I want to die today? You know, we don’t have Ananias and Sapphira outbreaks in the church, do we? We don’t have Nadab and Abihu outbreaks in the church, the strange fire. We don’t seem to have Uzzah outbreaks where he steadied the Ark of the Covenant. Or perhaps do we? Do we have stretches in the church where the Lord’s Supper has not benefited people, but it has been to their harm? Something interesting to think of. to think on and ponder. The last thing we want to think about, the seventh thing, is the good Presbyterian phrase, decently and in order.
What do we take from all these commands, principles, warnings of Jesus and of Paul? Well, first of all, and this had to be said after the whole COVID business, communion should be taken in a church worship service. You know, we don’t just pick up some bread and wine and, you know, lay hands on it and have communion at home and say, well, there we go. Don’t need to go to church. It’s an ordinance of the church. The Lord’s Supper ought to be taken when the church comes together as a church. The second thing is there needs to be bread and there needs to be wine.
And I know in the South, you know, we debate the whole wine thing. You know, we buy some scuppernong juice from up Up near Alamance Church area, there’s a guy that has a scuppernong thing and it’s not alcoholic, but it’s also not sugary Welch’s. So we made a move recently. We’re not going to do the wine thing because that just has a lot of issues. But we got the scuppernong juice. No more sugary Mr. Welch. He’s not going to get rich off of us.
There’s a whole story about that, by the way. Oh, there is. It’s very interesting. So there’s bread and there’s wine. So Jill makes our bread. We get our scuppernong juice from up the way, but we set it apart by prayer for a special use. That’s why the table’s covered. That’s why afterwards the table is covered.
It’s not a free-for-all or a buffet after communion is over. Oh, I get the leftovers. It’s communion. What is communion? It’s fellowship with one another. It’s Eucharist. The Greek word for Thanksgiving is Eucharist. Some folks call the service a Eucharist service. Others a communion. Others the Lord’s supper, the Lord’s table. But what else is involved? There is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for what God has done for us in Christ.
And then there’s a distribution of the elements. There’s a waiting for one another. One of the issues of the Corinthian church is they weren’t having unity and taking together. So probably most of you have been in a church where the elements get passed out and everybody waits and everybody eats together. That’s probably why. What happened? The rich would get there early. They would eat their food. The poor would show up because they had to work or they were at the docks or doing their day trade. they would get there late.
Now, some of you may have been in a church where on communion Sundays, there’s a separate offering taken up for the poor. Why do you think that is? Well, it comes out of this Corinthian context. We want to remember that when we come to the Lord’s table, there are some who are less fortunate, and perhaps an offering is an appropriate way to remember those sorts of things.
So we want to do it decently in order. There’s things that have to be done. What are the big ones? Well, first, examine yourself. We largely do that at our confession of sin and assurance of pardon time. But while the elements are being distributed and while Julie’s playing piano, it’s good for you to think through, I’m a sinner, I need Jesus. I shouldn’t come to this table unworthily. I should come worthily. And the only thing that makes me worthy is Jesus Christ.
And so we want to examine ourselves. We want to discern the body. This bread I hold in my hand, this cup I hold in my hand that will go in my mouth and into my body are physical, signs of what Christ has done for me. And they are representative of his suffering death and sacrifice on my behalf. We want to discern the body.
We want to receive the Lord’s supper. It’s his gift. He’s invited us. He is the host. And so we want to receive it, but then obey his commands. Take and eat and do this in remembrance of me. Those aren’t suggestions. Those aren’t options. They are commandments of the Lord Jesus. This do, in fact, I think it says it on the front of the communion table, it’s covered over, but a lot of communion tables will say, this do in remembrance of me. It’s a command of Christ for the church. And as we do this, we remember, we remember what God has done for us in Jesus. He could have left us dead in our sins and trespasses. He could have left us unclothed and naked and shameful like Adam and Eve in the garden. I don’t know if you caught this as we read 2 Chronicles 30.
And then as we read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, there seems to be a lot of mercy built into the Passover that Hezekiah had served. And there seems to be a lot of mercy in what Paul says to the Corinthians. We’re going to do it wrong. Right. We’re going to goof it up. And what did Hezekiah pray for the early Old Testament covenant people, Lord, just see their hearts. We’re trying to do the right thing here. And God, what did it say? God heard Hezekiah’s voice. Now, we don’t want to do it goofily and say, OK, Lord, fix it. But you see the mercy in it. And then what is the mercy Paul sees built in?
Some of you have been eating and drinking, not to your benefit, but to your hurt. Some of you are ill and even others have died. But he says the judgment is not the judgment of hell and condemnation forever, but it’s a judgment of a father chastising his children. And so perhaps you come to the Lord’s table, you’re examining yourselves, you’re discerning the body, and you’re hesitant to reach out your hand and take.
The Lord’s supper is for those who are desperately in need of a savior. And that’s every one of us. The Lord’s Supper is for those who know they’re hypocrites. The Lord’s Supper is for those who know that the seed of every sin is in them because of the remnant corruption that is in them.
And so we come to the table finally to proclaim the Lord’s death. In the passing of the plate, in the service of the elements, and in the taking and the eating and the remembering, there’s a nonverbal proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so there’s a lot to think about, a lot to consider, but let’s now go to the table and eat together by faith, remembering that Christ, our Passover lamb, has died for us.
Let’s do pray together. Lord, we thank you for the chance to come to your table. This is a gift we think of the invitation we have. Why, oh Lord, would you invite us to your table? We are sinners. We are weak. We are wounded. We are sick. We are sore. We are obstinate. We are stiff-necked.
We do not deserve your mercy, yet you have granted it to us. And it’s only for the sake of Jesus and his righteousness that we have a standing in your sight. It’s the only reason you have greeted us today. It’s the only reason you have called us to worship today. It’s the only reason we hear the assurance of pardon. It’s because of Jesus’ obedience, Jesus’ righteousness.
And so as we think on our own, each of us think of our own personhood, our own standing before you, but also as we look at the body and blood. We think of all that Christ has done, and he sees us now as if we’ve never sinned and as if we’ve always obeyed.
Lord, let us ponder all this, but also today, go from this place, saying, what fit return, Lord, can I make for all that you have done? Lord, let us not repay you with evil. Let us not repay one another with evil, but let us repay with obedience. Lord, help us in this moment to worthily partake of your supper. We pray in the name of Christ our Savior, amen.