Transcript HOLY SPIRIT - Erskine College

LORD’S SUPPER
LORD’S SUPPER: DEFINITION
• WCF 29:1, “Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein
he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his
body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be
observed in his church unto the end of the world,
for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of
himself in his death, the sealing of all benefits
thereof unto true believers, their spiritual
nourishment and growth in him, their further
engagement in and to all duties which they owe
unto him, and to be a bond and pledge their
communion with him, and with each other, as
members of his mystical body.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: SCRIPTURE
• Earliest recorded account: I Cor. 11:23-25. “For I
received from the Lord what I also passed on to
you: 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, after supper he took the cup,
saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my
blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in
remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s
death until he comes.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: SCRIPTURE
• The Synoptic gospels record its origin:
– Matt. 26:26-8: “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.’”
– Mark 14:22-24: “While they were eating, Jesus took
bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his
disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he
took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, and
they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to
them.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: SCRIPTURE
• Luke 22:19-20: “And he took bread, gave
thanks and broke it, and gave it to them,
saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do
this in remembrance of me.’ In the same
way, after the supper he took the cup,
saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in
my blood, which is poured out for you.’”
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LORD’S SUPPER: SCRIPTURE
• No direct reference in John’s gospel:
– But see chapter 6 and its Eucharistic implications
– John 6:51, he speaks of the “Living Bread” that came
down from heaven, which bread is his flesh
– John 6:53, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real
food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in
him.”
– But, cf. with 6:63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh
counts for nothing.”
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LORD’S SUPPER AND PASSOVER
• Matt. 26:17-20, “On the first day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus
and asked, ‘Where do you want us to make
preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ He
replied, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and
tell him, “The Teacher says: My appointed time
is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover
with my disciples at your house.”’” So the
disciples did as Jesus had directed them and
prepared the Passover. When evening came,
Jesus was reclining at the table with the
Twelve.”
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LORD’S SUPPER AND PASSOVER
• Luke 22:15-6, “And he said to them, ‘I have
eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it
again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of
God.’”
• I Cor. 5:7-8, “Get rid of the old yeast that you
may be a new batch without yeast-- as you
really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has
been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the
Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of
malice and wickedness, but with bread without
yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: TERMS
• In the Book of Acts, it is called, “breaking bread,”
Acts 2:42; 20:7
• Paul uses several terms:
–
–
–
–
–
–
“the feast,” I Cor. 5:8
“the bread and the cup,” I Cor. 10:16
“communion,” I Cor. 10:16-7
“the table of the Lord,” I Cor. 10:21
“the Lord’s Supper,” I Cor. 11:20
Possibly a veiled reference to the supper in “neither
shall he eat,” II Thess. 3:10
• It is called a “love (feast),” Jude 12
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LORD’S SUPPER: R. C. View
• “Transubstantiation”
– The essence (substance) of the bread and wine
actually changes into physical body and blood of Christ
– “Accidents,” or appearance of the elements remains
the same
– Therefore, “after the consecration of bread and wine,
our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is truly,
really and substantially contained in the august
sacrament of the Holy Eucharist under the appearance
of those sensible things.” Trent, “Decree Concerning
the Most Holy Eucharist,” I. Canons and Decrees of the
Council of Trent
– Eating and drinking the elements actually brings Christ
into the person, bringing all the grace promised
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LORD’S SUPPER: R. C. View
• This view is contradicted by the WCF, 29:2,5-6
– 29:2 “In this sacrament, Christ is not offered up to
His Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all, for
remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a
commemoration of that one offering up of Himself,
by Himself, upon the cross, once for all: and a
spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God, for
the same, so that the popish sacrifice of the mass (as
they call it) is most abominably injurious to Christ's
one, only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the
sins of His elect.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: R. C. View
– 29.5 “The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set
apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation
to Him crucified, as that, truly, yet sacramentally only,
they are sometimes called by the name of the things
they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ;
albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly
and only bread and wine, as they were before. 29.6
That doctrine which maintains a change of the
substance of bread and wine, into the substance of
Christ's body and blood (commonly called
transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by any
other way, repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even
to common sense, and reason; overthroweth the nature
of the sacrament, and hath been, and is, the cause of
manifold superstitions; yea, of gross idolatries.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: R. C. View
• TRANSUBSTANTIATION- An
Evaluation
– The distinction between “substance”
and “accidents” is clearly Aristotelian
– It is without biblical warrant
– John 6:63 indicates that all benefit is
“spiritual”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Lutheran View
• Martin Luther rejected the Roman Catholic idea
of transubstantiation
– But- he still believed that Christ was corporeally
present in the elements
– The term used to describe this, although disliked by
many Lutherans, is “consubstantiation”
• The essence of the bread and wine remain
• The corporeal body of Christ is present “in, with,
and under’ the elements, much as light is
present in air, or “fire” is present in red, hot iron
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LORD’S SUPPER: Lutheran View
• Lutheran thinking is dependent on the notion of
the ubiquity of Christ’s body and the word “is”
(estin) in the words of institution
• Lutherans believe that grace is given to the one
who partakes in faith, through the elements and
the accompanying word
• The WCF 29:7, and L.C. # 170 speak against
consubstantiation. It is theologically problematic
to base special significance for the Lord’s Supper
in a supposed ubiquity of Christ’s body
• The word “is” often is used metaphorically,
meaning “represents,” as in , “I am the door”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Zwinglian View
• Takes the Lord’s Supper to be only a
memorial ordinance
– There is no promise of grace other than
that which comes through obedience to
any command
– The focus is on our act of remembrance
– The elements are symbolic
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LORD’S SUPPER: Reformed View
• WCF 29:1 “Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein
He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His
body and blood, called the Lord's Supper, to be
observed in His Church, unto the end of the
world for the perpetual remembrance of the
sacrifice of Himself in His death, the sealing all
benefits thereof unto true believers, their
spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their
further engagement in and to all duties which
they owe unto Him; and, to be a bond and
pledge of their communion with Him, and with
each other, as members of His mystical body.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Reformed View
• WCF 29:7 “Worthy receivers, outwardly
partaking of the visible elements, in this
sacrament, do then also, inwardly by faith, really
and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but
spiritually, receive, and feed upon, Christ
crucified, and all benefits of His death: the body
and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or
carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine;
yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith
of believers in that ordinance, as the elements
themselves are to their outward senses.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Reformed View
• The Reformed view denies both the doctrines of
transubstantiation and consubstantiation
• It affirms that the sacrament exhibits and
conveys grace to the elect who exercise faith
and obedience in receiving it
• The giving of grace is always subject to God’s
will
– Grace, however, operates directly on the spirit of the
believer, not through material elements
– Sacramental Grace is identical to grace conveyed
through other means
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
• In the Reformed view, generally, the
recipients of the Lord’s Supper are limited to
professing believers who have been
baptized and admitted into membership in
the visible church
– Some provision is made in the PCUSA (and
UMC) to admit baptized children to the Lord’s
Supper regardless of age
– Furthermore, some PCA and OPC congregations
in recent years practiced paedocommunion,
although this is now officially forbidden (See Peter
Leithart, Daddy, Why Was I Excommunicated?)
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
• The NT emphasizes the necessity of an
acceptable witness in one’s life in order to
participate in the Lord’s Supper
– I Cor. 5:6-7, “Your boasting is not good. Don't
you know that a little yeast works through the
whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old
yeast that you may be a new batch without
yeast-- as you really are. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”
– I Cor. 5:13, “God will judge those outside.
‘Expel the wicked man from among you’”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
– I Cor. 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot
have a part in both the Lord's table and the
table of demons”
– I Cor. 11:27-29, “Therefore, whoever eats the
bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning
against the body and blood of the Lord. A man
ought to examine himself before he eats of the
bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who
eats and drinks without recognizing the body of
the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
– II Thess. 3:6, “In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep
away from every brother who is idle and does
not live according to the teaching you
received from us”
– II Thess. 3:14-15, “If anyone does not obey
our instruction in this letter, take special note
of him. Do not associate with him, in order
that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard
him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
• WCF 29:8, “Although ignorant and wicked men
receive the outward elements in this sacrament;
yet, they receive not the thing signified thereby;
but, by their unworthy coming thereunto, are
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their
own damnation. Wherefore, all ignorant and
ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy
communion with Him, so are they unworthy of
the Lord's table and cannot, without great sin
against Christ, while they remain such, partake of
these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
• L.C. #173, “May any who profess his faith,
and desire to come to the Lord's Supper, be
kept from it? A. Such as are found to be
ignorant or scandalous, notwithstanding
their profession of the faith, and desire to
come to the Lord's supper, may and ought
to be kept from that sacrament, by the
power which Christ hath left in his church,
until they receive instruction and manifest
their reformation.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipients
• Assurance of salvation: not required for Lord’s Supper.
• L.C. #172, “May one who doubteth of his being in Christ,
or of his due preparation, come to the Lord's supper? A.
One who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due
preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, may
have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured
thereof; and in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected
with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly
desires to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity: in
which case (because promises are made, and this
sacrament is appointed, for the relief even of weak and
doubting Christians he is to bewail his unbelief, and labour
to have his doubts resolved; and, so doing, he may and
ought to come to the Lord's supper, that he may be further
strengthened.”
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LORD’S SUPPER: Recipient
• WCF 29:3-4, “The Lord Jesus hath, in his ordinance,
appointed His ministers to declare His word of institution
to the people; to pray, and bless the elements of bread
and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common
to an holy use; and to take and break bread, to take the
cup and (they communicating also themselves) to give
both to the communicants; but to none who are not then
present in the congregation. Private masses, or receiving
this sacrament by a priest, or any other, alone, as
likewise, the denial of the cup to the people, worshipping
the elements, the lifting them up, or carrying them
about, for adoration, and the reserving them for any
pretended religious use; are all contrary to the nature of
this sacrament, and to the institution of Christ.”
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LORD’S SUPPER