The Table of Love and Nourishment

By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Ensuring the Blessing of Bread and Wine As We Commune Together

Howdy!

It can be hard to understand why we need to take a whole Thursday lesson to talk about the elements of the Supper. However, sometimes it is helpful to take a moment to give more focus on the little things, which as you usually discover when you look at them, ain’t so little. The parts of the Table meal, including the pastor himself, are all a part of God’s purpose in the feeding of His covenant people by faith. We probably can’t say enough how important it is for Christians not to neglect the sacraments provided by our Lord for our benefit. To forsake the appointment of Christ is to in a real sense abandon Him. That’s the purpose behind our spending time on the query today. What we do matters to God, and if it counts to Him, it should to us.

Here’s the Q/A for today:

Q. 169. How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper?

A. Christ hath appointed the ministers of his word, in the administration of this sacrament of the Lord’s supper, to set apart the bread and wine from common use, by the word of institution, thanksgiving, and prayer; to take and break the bread, and to give both the bread and the wine to the communicants: who are, by the same appointment, to take and eat the bread, and to drink the wine, in thankful remembrance that the body of Christ was broken and given, and his blood shed, for them.

Christians are called not to reinvent the wheel. Nadab and Abihu teach us clearly that the Lord does not play nice with those who want to make His worship about themselves. That’s why the first word of the answer makes all the difference in the world. Christ has given to us a massive blessing of grace in that He has promised to us that He will be with us until the end of the world in His own body and blood through the elements of the Lord’s Supper. He has established that we are to feed upon Him by bread and wine (more on that in a second), not crackers and 7-Up.

There is an exciting prospect in the idea that God through His Son continues to give Himself on our behalf each time we come together at the table. While the sacrifice was once and for all, that does not change the fact that as the Minister of the Word administers, that is oversees, the setting a part of the common bread and cup, for the nourishment of the saints, he is in a literal sense giving Jesus to his flock. It is the very fulfillment of the testimony of Christ in John 6:35, “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”.

Take a moment to let that sink in. In order to feed on Him we must come to Him.

Continue here.