Means of Grace: Eucharist

means of grace: Eucharist

Introduction 

A picture is worth 1,000 words. This saying was born in American marketing in the early 20th century. Part of the reason why it resonates is because there’s truth in it. Christians, of all people, don’t disparage words. We believe that God revealed himself to us in a book – the Bible. But we also know that a picture can convey countless words in a beautiful timeless way. God has left us 2 such pictures in the sacraments. Baptism and the Eucharist are the 2 substantial pictures that God gave the church to signify the gospel.

Last week we considered baptism and this week we will consider the Lord’s Supper. NT Wright correctly said, “To break bread and drink wine together is the central Christian act.” If the gospel is the center of our belief, the Eucharist is the center of our response. If I were to summarize the point this morning it would be this: The Eucharist is the weekly practice through which we have fellowship with the risen Lord Jesus. Why is this true? Why should you care about the Eucharist? Why is it so important that we participate in it every week? We will consider biblically, historically, systematically, and pastorally why Christians have always believed this about the sacrament.

Biblical

One of the first Eucharistic echoes that we hear in the Scripture is found in Genesis 14. After Abraham rescued Lot Scripture says:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” (Gen 14.18-20).

Some believe that this priest-king was a shadow of Christ; others believe he was a christophany – a preincarnate revelation of the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity – either way; he blesses Abraham after his victory with bread and wine.

Israel, hearing this story in the wilderness, would have seen a shadow of the Passover. When YHWH led Israel out of slavery in Egypt he commanded them to sacrifice their lamb and spread its blood on the doorway so that the LORD would pass over their house and their firstborn sons would live (Exod 12). God gave them the feast of unleavened bread (Exod 14) to celebrate annually and remember their redemption. They were to teach their children of the victory of YHWH over the gods of Egypt wherein they were redeemed and received a new identity as God’s people.

Israel celebrated the Passover every year for 1,500 years until the very last night that the old covenant feast was observed: the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed. It’s ecclesiologically significant that the ministry of Jesus is sandwiched by his own participation in the sacraments. Jesus’ three-year ministry (the majority of his life recorded in the Gospels) begins with his baptism and ends with the last supper. 

Christ celebrated the final Passover with his disciples and transformed the old covenant Passover into the new covenant Eucharist (Matt 26.17-29; Mark 14.12-25; Luke 22.7-23; John 13). At the last supper Jesus explained how Passover was a providential picture pointing to the gospel. Instead of the normal liturgy Jesus said that the bread is his body and the wine his blood. And as the Passover was given so that Israel might remember the Exodus, Christ commands the church to practice Holy Communion to remember his death.

This covenantal shift happened on Maundy Thursday. Jesus then put it into practice on Easter Sunday. In Luke 24 Christ revealed himself to some disciples on the road to Emmaus when he explained the Christocentricity of the Old Testament. Jesus then goes to their house with them where Luke records:

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24.30-32)

Luke uses the same exact phrasing he did for the last supper here: Christ took bread, blessed it, and broke it. Jesus celebrated Holy Communion with these disciples on Easter Sunday and it was tied to his Christ-centered explanation of the Word! In Acts 2.42 we see that the early church continued this pattern of the Apostles’ teaching and the breaking of bread – Word and sacrament.

Paul was the only Apostle not present at the last supper, but he tells us that he received the sacrament from Christ himself (1 Cor 11.23). In this pericope Paul says when you come together 5 times. It is unfathomable that the church would gather for worship without the Eucharist. As Israel celebrated the Passover every year, the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper every week.

But the sacrament is not only ecclesiological it is also eschatological. In Revelation John shows us what Jesus meant when he said he would take the supper with us in the kingdom:

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” (Rev 19.6-9).

The Scripture began with a wedding but the man and his wife fell with the fruit. Jesus says the wine represents his blood, shed to redeem his bride, the church. When Christ returns he will drink wine with us forever as we celebrate the kingdom purchased through his blood!

Historical

Christians have viewed the Eucharist as an indispensible element of liturgy and worship since the beginning. The Didache gives us the earliest glimpse into the church’s understanding of the Lord’s Supper: “But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist except those who have been baptized into the name of the Lord.” Justin Martyr recorded that the early church took Holy Communion weekly. And Augustine, the most influential of all the Patristics, defined the sacraments as an outward and visible sign of an invisible yet genuine grace.

It was during the middle Ages that the misunderstanding of transubstantiation entered the church. Transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine are transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ at the Mass and Christ is sacrificed anew every time. Paschasius Radbertus introduced it in his treatise On the Body and Blood of the Lord in 831 AD. It was at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 that the Roman Catholic Church first declared it dogma. Thomas Aquinas developed the idea more systematically utilizing Aristotle’s definitions of substance and accidents.

One of the battlefronts of the Protestant Reformation was rejection of transubstantiation. Luther said access is gained to the supper not with any works, or powers, or merits of one’s own, but by faith alone. Our view of the Eucharist here at Christ Community Church is indebted to John Calvin who taught the spiritual presence of Christ in the supper. Calvin defined communion as “an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our conscience the promises of his good will toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith.” For Calvin, the sacraments help us to believe God’s Word. The church is made aware of the spiritual blessings through the preached word, which must always accompany the sacraments so as to explain them. The church is characterized by the preached word, followed by the visible word – the sacraments.

The elements of bread and wine were universally prescribed and used in every Christian church in history until the middle of the 19th century when some Baptist influenced by the American temperance movement replaced wine with unfermented grape juice. This was not the case with all Baptists though, as some continued to urge the use of wine, arguing that the Lord himself commanded wine. In the modern period Reformed Christians have held a high view of the Eucharist. Charles Spurgeon said he thought the closest that we are to heaven in this life is at the Lord’s Table. Karl Barth said that Christ conjoined himself to the elect and that the Lord’s Supper is “instituted to represent this perfect fellowship between Him and them which He established.” Thus in Holy Communion believers remember and proclaim redemption in Christ.

Systematic

The Westminster Confession of Faith defines the sacraments in this way:

“Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace. They were instituted by God along with that covenant to represent Christ and his benefits, to confirm our position with and in him, to demonstrate a visible difference between those who belong to the church and the rest of the world, and solemnly to engage believers in the service of God in Christ according to his word.”

In this series we’re considering different means of grace. While there are many means of grace, there are only 2 sacraments – baptism and the Eucharist. These are the only 2 signs given by Christ himself to the church to be signs and seals of the new covenant. Pastor Kevin explained what this means for baptism last week so if you haven’t heard that go to our website and check it out.

Baptism is the initiating rite of the local church. Holy Communion is the ongoing rite of the local church. Baptism is the entrance into the covenant community. The Lord’s Supper is weekly participation in the covenant community.

The sacraments are the only two signs and seals because Christ ordained them as the unique pictures of his death and resurrection. The elements of the Eucharist are signs of the death of Jesus. The bread signifies his body; not only the actual flesh that was broken, but also his entire life of sinless righteousness. The wine signifies his blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins. Christ died as our substitute to bear the wrath of God that we might be justified by faith alone. This is why we practice the Eucharist every week because it accompanies the Word as the tangible sign of the gospel.

But the sacrament is not only a sign it’s a seal. We read from 1st Corinthians 12.12-13. Paul is defining the nature of the church as the body of Christ and he uses sacramental language to describe our participation in Christ. We were baptized into the body; we were all made to drink of one Spirit. The sacraments seal us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit who testifies to Christ. Christ is spiritually present in the sacraments through his Spirit uniquely preaching his gospel. We’ve seen many come to faith because of the witness of the Eucharist here at Christ Community Church.

Pastoral

Finally we come to the question from the beginning: why should you care? Why is it imperative that you take the Eucharist weekly? As we think about the pastoral implications, or application, I want to use 3 synonymous names for the sacrament to meditate on the spiritual benefit. First, it is called the Lord’s Supper. This name evokes the family dynamic. God is our Father and we are his family. We are the bride of Christ. And we weekly have supper with each other and with our triune God. 

There’s a 15th century painting by Andrei Rublev called Троица or “The Trinity.” If you Google it you’ll see 3 men sitting at a table. When you consider the perspective of the viewer (you!) there are 4 people at the table. Rublev’s point was that in salvation we’re invited into the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We enact this reality each week at the Lord’s Supper. We dine with our God!

Second, we call it Holy Communion. Paul writes the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ (1 Cor 10.16)? The word participation is the Greek word κοινωνία. In the Vulgate the Latin word is communicatio. This is where the name Holy Communion derives. It speaks to the fellowship that we have with Jesus Christ. There is a unique covenant presence of Jesus in the Supper. Biblically speaking, the fellowship that we have with the risen Christ is in the sacrament – Holy Communion.

Third, we call it the Eucharist. The word Eucharist is a transliteration of the Greek word εὐχαριστία, which means, “to express gratitude for benefits or blessings; to give thanks.” It comes from the synoptic Gospels when Christ gave thanks after he broke the bread and raised the wine. Eucharist reminds us that the supper is not always or merely a somber sacrament. It is a table of joy and thanksgiving. Low churches of our flavor have a history of making the Eucharist more of a funeral luncheon than a wedding banquet. When we do so we neglect much of why Jesus left it for us. The Eucharist is to be a weekly catalyst of joy and thanksgiving!

Conclusion

The Eucharist is the weekly practice through which we have fellowship with the risen Lord Jesus. Christ Community Church, I hope when we get back to gathering, and we return to taking the Eucharist every week together, that your heart will be revived and you’ll once again see what this picture is worth.