Preparing To Receive the Lord's Supper
Beloved,
Together, as one body in Christ, we will be receiving the Lord's Supper during our morning worship service this Lord’s Day. As your Pastor, I want to encourage you to prepare your heart to participate in this sacred meal.
What Is the Lord’s Supper About?
“Do this in remembrance of me…” (I Cor. 11:24).
Through the Lord’s Supper, the saving work of Jesus Christ is visibly portrayed before our very eyes. Jesus assigned the bread to represent his body and the wine to represent his blood. Each of these elements are symbols of the work which Jesus accomplished for us in order to bring us—guilty sinners—into the saving grace of the New Covenant, (Matt. 26:26-28).
As we receive the elements together by faith, we are reminded through them that Jesus willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. Through the divinely appointed symbolism of the bread and the wine we remember that:
Just as the bread is broken into pieces in order to be distributed for the nourishment of many, so Jesus’ body was broken for us (Lk. 22:19).
Just as wine cannot be poured out for drink unless the choice fruit is first crushed, so through the agony of the cross Jesus’ blood was poured out for us (Mk. 14:24).
“[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds [we] have been healed,” (I Pet. 2:24).
How Do We Prepare To Come To the Lord’s Supper?
The Bible tells us that the manner in which we approach the Lord’s Supper is very important, and not something that we should treat haphazardly. In I Corinthians 11:27-29 we find these words:
“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.”
According to the Word of God, the approach of every professing Christian to the table of the Lord is to be marked by earnest self-examination. This is not an examination of our merits, as if we are seeking to discover if we have done enough good things to earn a place at this feast. May it never be! Self-righteousness has no seat at this heavenly table. All who have been invited, and for whom this feast has been mercifully prepared, are unworthy of the invitation they have received. We draw near not by any merit of our own, but by the merits of Another—the Lord Jesus Christ.
The examination of our hearts to which we are called is not an attempt to discover our own worthiness to draw near, but rather a summons to soberly renew our sinful hearts before our God and Father in heaven. Self-examination means humbling ourselves before the Lord, acknowledging our guilt to him, turning away from all known sins, renewing our soul’s rest in his promised grace, and re-centering our minds and lives upon the glory of the Almighty King. As you prepare your own heart to come to the Lord’s Supper this Lord’s Day—as well as the hearts of any of your communing children—you may be aided by considering the following questions (or others like them):
1. Am I truly trusting in Jesus Christ as my only righteousness before God and the only source of forgiveness for all my many sins?
2. Am I truly submitting to God as the Sovereign of my life—receiving the whole counsel of his Word as the rule of my conduct?
3. Am I truly walking in Christian love toward my brethren in the body of Christ? Am I harboring any unforgiveness or bitterness?
4. Am I truly walking in repentance of all the things which God’s Word forbids and condemns in my life?
Like the crook of a faithful shepherd, such questions point our straying hearts back to the green pastures and still waters of God’s wisdom for our lives. The very process of thoughtfully reflecting on these things will naturally help prepare a Christian’s heart to more greatly treasure what the Lord’s Supper represents. This is because a time of prayerful and repentant preparation always freshly exposes how deeply we need the sacrificial work of Jesus to atone for our sins.
If our heart is in a posture of pride or resistance toward the will of the Lord, it is best that we do not yet come to the table, but first deal with these sins. To come to the table of the Lord in unbelief, pride, or unrepentance, is to come in an “unworthy manner.” However, if our heart is in a posture of humble repentance and trusting submission to the will of the Lord, this table welcomes the sinful and needy believer with open arms. For this heavenly feast is a God-given reminder to the repentant sinner’s soul that although you and I fall short in every way, Jesus has willingly taken our place and done for us what we could never have done for ourselves.
Jesus has lived a life of perfect obedience in our place—because of this we who believe are counted righteous, (Jer. 23:6).
Jesus has offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins upon the cross—because of this we who believe are declared forgiven, (Isa. 53:4-6).
These gifts of salvation are granted not by anything we do to earn them, but as a free gift of God that is received by faith alone, (Eph. 2:8-9).
Jesus Is Not Just a Savior, He is Our Savior
“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup”—that is, every time we receive the Lord’s Supper together as members of the local church—“you proclaim his death until he comes.” (I Cor. 11:26). What we are proclaiming when we come forward to the table and subsequently receive the elements of bread and wine together with our fellow saints is not merely that we believe the gospel is true. As a Christian church we certainly believe that! But our declaration during the Lord’s Supper is far more powerful and personal—and this is why our participation in this sacrament (or abstention from it) is no light matter, (I Cor. 11:27).
Through our participation in the Lord’s Supper we are proclaiming that we believe the gospel is true for us! We are declaring that Jesus Christ is not merely the Lamb of God who takes away sins, but that he is the atoning-sacrifice whom God has provided to take away our sins, (Jn. 1:29)! By personally participating in the Lord’s Supper as a member of the local body of Christ, we are not merely proclaiming that Jesus is a Savior, but that he is our Savior, our hope, our Righteousness, our Peace, our Redeemer, and our everlasting Lord! Everyone who eats this bread and drinks this cup is declaring that they believe that,
“For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (II Cor. 5:21).
However, just as bread that is uneaten can provide no benefit to the body, so the gospel of Jesus Christ unreceived can provide no benefit to the soul. Eating the physical bread and drinking the physical cup of the Lord’s Supper are important acts of Christian obedience. But these acts must always be undertaken by a sincere faith in the heart that lays hold of the spiritual realities to which these physical elements point. Righteousness before God is not obtained by rote ritual, but through genuine faith in the One to whom this ritual powerfully directs our souls. May we truly behold the glory of the Lamb in the Supper of his saving grace as we gather this Lord’s Day. And may we come to this meal with hearts prepared to feast on the bread and wine of Jesus’ saving work with sincere faith.
Your servant in the Lord,
Pastor Tom