Jonathan Leeman - Understanding the Lords Supper

Copyright 2016 by Robert Bruce Jamieson and 9Marks

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-8895-9

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 234.163

Subject Heading: LORDS SUPPER \ CHURCH \ SACRAMENTS

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ( hcsb ), copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Also used: English Standard Version, ( esv ) copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv Text Edition: 2007. All rights reserved.

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Biblical and historical truths meet real life today. Bobby Jamison has served us well once again.

Mark Dever

Church Basics Series Preface

The Christian life is the churched life. This basic biblical conviction informs every book in the Church Basics series.

That conviction in turn affects how each author treats his topic. For instance, the Lords Supper is not a private, mystical act between you and Jesus. It is a meal around the family table in which you commune with Christ and Christs people. The Great Commission is not a license to head into the nations as Jesus witness all by oneself. It is a charge given to the whole church to be fulfilled by the whole church. The authority of the church rests not only with the leaders, but with the entire assembly. Every member has a job to do, including you.

Every book is written for the average church member, and this is a crucial point. If the Christian life is a churched life, then you, a baptized believer and church member, have a responsibility to understand these basic topics. Just as Jesus charges you with promoting and protecting his gospel message, so he charges you with promoting and protecting his gospel people, the church. These books will explain how.

You are like a shareholder in Christs gospel ministry corporation. And what do good shareholders do? They study their company, study the market, and study the competition. They want the most out of their investment. You, Christian, have invested your whole life in the gospel. The purpose of the series, then, is to help you maximize the health and kingdom profitability of your local congregation for Gods glorious gospel ends.

Are you ready to get to work?

Jonathan Leeman

Series Editor

Books in the Church Basics series:

Understanding the Great Commission, Mark Dever

Understanding Baptism, Bobby Jamieson

Understanding the Lords Supper, Bobby Jamieson

Understanding the Congregations Authority, Jonathan Leeman

Understanding Church Discipline, Jonathan Leeman

Understanding Church Leadership, Mark Dever

Introduction

There is something about a meal that can make you feel right at homeor just the opposite. Few things are more comforting than home-cooked food with loving family or friends. And few things make you feel like more of a stranger than eating food youve never heard of, with people youve never met, in a place whose customs are a mystery. I recently moved with my family to England, where a culinary task as miniscule as eating peas is loaded with social significance. Peas!? I know. Tell me about it.

If you asked most Christians whether they ate a meal in church, they would probably say something like, Well, no, we dont eat a meal in church, but once in a while we have a potluck afterward. And on one level thats true enough.

But what about the Lords Supper? Sure, its probably not enough to fill your stomach, but youre still eating and drinking, still seated together. What does this meal say about Jesus and his people? What does this meal have to do with belonging to Jesus family?

This little book is a biblical primer on the Lords Supper. Its aimed at all Christians, anyone who is interested in learning more about this meal Jesus gave us. A few sections will be most relevant to church leaders, yet even these were written with the whole church in mind.

I have three goals in this book, and they all overlap:

1. Consider the Bible. The first is to survey, summarize, and synthesize the Bibles teaching on the Lords Supper. This is the primary task of chapters 17. The first five chapters are snapshots of the Bibles teaching on the Lords Supper: the Passover which foreshadows it (chap. 1), Jesus institution of it (chap. 2), Pauls instructions regarding it (chaps. 34), and the coming wedding feast of the Lamb that it anticipates (chap. 5). Chapter 6 ties all this material together by unpacking a definition of the Lords Supper.

2. Connect the Supper and the church. Chapter 7 is where my second goal steps into the foreground, though its never far from view: to show how the Lords Supper relates to the local church. The Lords Supper actually plays a role in making the church a church, binding many into one. Too few Christianseven too few pastorshave thought carefully about how tightly the Lords Supper is tied to the local church. So I want to train the spotlight on the Lords Suppers church-shaping significance.

3. Provide practical counsel. My third goal is to provide biblical, practical counsel about how churches and individual Christians should celebrate the Lords Supper. So in chapters 812 I ask a series of questions and answer them based on the biblical picture sketched in chapters 17: What gathering may celebrate the Lords Supper? Who may participate in the Lords Supper? Who should lead the Lords Supper? How should churches practice the Lords Supper? And, finally, how should individuals approach the Lords Supper?

This little book has a sibling called Understanding Baptism (B&H, 2016). The two complement each other; some issues briefly touched on here are treated in more depth there. Also, before writing these bite-sized books, I wrote a heartier one called Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership (B&H Academic, 2015). Chapters 6 and 7 in this book summarize some of the arguments of chapter 6 in that one, and I borrow a few other bits where the two overlap. My thanks to the publisher for letting me carve off some of the roast so that I can serve it up here.

You can see it coming but I just cant resist: I hope that this introduction has whetted your appetite for the rest of the book. Well start where the biblical roots of the Lords Supper start, with a meal on the go.

Chapter 1

Takeout

When God took his people out of the land of Egypt, he told them to get takeout. Or at least to get some fast food. And that meal on the go defined a nation. It told them who they were, where they came from, and what God did to save them.

Jacobs descendants were being crushed under Pharaohs heel, and God had had enough. He remembered the promise he made to Abraham, to bring his offspring into the land of Canaan (Gen. 15:1217; Exod. 2:2325). So he sent Moses and Aaron to demand that Pharaoh release the people. But Pharaoh wouldnt let his precious slaves go. So God hurled plague after plague on the Egyptians (Exod. 410). Finally, God declared that he would kill all the firstborn sons of Egypt, because Pharaoh refused to let Israel, Gods firstborn, go (Exod. 4:2223; 11:110).

The stage is set for Israels flight. And on the eve of their deliverance, God tells the people to slaughter a year-old sheep or goat, smear its blood over their front doors, roast the animal, and eat the meatall of itthat night (Exod. 12:18). Theyre to roast it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (v. 8). The Lord even tells them how they are to eat it: you must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the L ord s Passover (v. 11). This is no languid feast; its food for the road.