I'm still keen on more suggestions...
1.Introduction
(a)Sometimes when you go shopping at a supermarket you will see people offering small samples of a new product, such as a new brand of cheese.
(b)If they are giving away samples of a new type of bread, they may well be the same size as the bread we use at Communion – which raises the question, how is it different?
2.Ordinary Bread
(a)Chemical composition – 50% carbohydrates, 8% protein, 3% dietary fibre
(b)The difference lies in symbolism – the way in which it is used – the act of giving / receiving / eating, and what that means.
(c)Necessity of faith – I can't prove to you that it isn't just ordinary bread.
(d)So what does it mean?
3.Sacramental Bread
(a)The Lord's Supper is a sign and seal.
(b)Seals on university degrees (illustration going all the way back to Calvin) – declaring that you have, for example, a Bachelor of Arts. But it doesn't just say that you have a degree – it gives you the degree.
(c)In the same way, participation in the Lord's Supper actually does something – it's not just an illustration, not just God's PowerPoint presentation to help us understand the gospel better, not merely symbolic.
(d)In the Lord's Supper, Christ confirms his promise to us that he is the Bread of life
i.Assurance – just as a teacher who is wondering if she is really qualified can look at her degree and be assured, so the Lord's Supper strengthens out faith
ii.Proclamation – just as a university degree proclaims someone as passed the requirements, so the Lord's Supper proclaims Jesus' death – just as the wine (or grape juice) is poured out and the bread is broken, so Jesus died for our sins.
4.Living Bread
(a)The Communion bread isn't the bread of life – it points to Jesus who is the true Bread of Life.
(b)The bread come down from heaven (verse 41)
i.the Incarnation – today is the first Sunday in Advent – preparing for Christmas.
ii.We feed on his flesh and blood remembering that he became flesh and blood
(c)Food nourishes and gives life
i.Comparison with manna (verse 49)
ii.The Israelites had bread from heaven, but now they are all dead – Jesus, however, is the true bread from heaven, the True Manna.
iii.He is our sustenance for our journey to the Promised Land – and since the communion bread points to Jesus, since it by eating it we feed on Christ – it sustains as well.
iv.In the Lord's Supper we look back to Jesus' death, and forward to his return – 1 Corinthians 11:26, “you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”
v.Specifically, we look forward to the great feast in paradise – Matthew 26:29, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
vi.The Lord's Supper is a foretaste of that – looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb described in Revelation:
Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;
Yet, passing, points to the glad feast above,
Giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,
The Lamb’s great bridal feast of bliss and love.
(Horatius Bonar)
(d)We obtain life from his death (verse 50)
(e)Jesus offers us life – “Whoever feeds on me, will live because of me” (verse 57).
5.Eating the Bread
(a)Feed on Christ!
(b)This means coming to him and believing him!(verses 35 and 47-48)
(c)If it sounds strange, be assured that it would have done so to Jesus' hearers – his disciples (not just his opponents) grumbled at this saying (verse 62).
(d)Trust in his sacrificial death!
6.Conclusion
(a)Don't bother about other sources of sustenance – work, family, church, art, music, literature...
(b)Come to the table in faith!
(c)Don't eat the bread as if you were sampling a new product at a supermarket! Rather, come to the table in faith, trusting in Jesus' death to pay for your sins.
Books I've finished recently:
Nigel Benson, Psychology for Beginners.
F. W. Boreham, My Christmas Book.
John Byl, God and Cosmos.
S. J. Forrest, Saints and Sinods.
Thomas Edward McComiskey, The Covenants of Promise.
John G. Stackhouse (ed.), Evangelical Ecclesiology.
Books I'm currently reading:
J. W. Alexander, God is Love.
Umberto Eco, Mouse or Rat?
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed.
Edgar V. McKnight, Postmodern Use of the Bible.
Ellis Peters, The Raven in the Foregate.
Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.
Books I plan to begin very soon:
Martin Buber, I and Thou.
Paul Davies, The Last Three Minutes.
Erasmus, Praise of Folly.
Dominic Steele, Introducing God.
Jonathan Rogers, The World According to Narnia.
E. H. van Olst, The Bible and Liturgy.
| ← Previous day | (Calendar) | Next day → |