REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 18
MAY 2003: MORNING SERVICE: COMMEMORATION OF THE LAST SUPPER
Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Psalm of praise: 100:1-4.
The Apostle's Creed (or, below
this, the Nicene Creed)
1. I believe in God the Father,
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
2. And in Jesus Christ, His only
begotten Son, our Lord;
3. Who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary;
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate;
was crucified, dead, and buried; He suffered all the pains of hell,
even unto death;
5. The third day He rose again
from the dead;
6. He ascended into heaven, and
sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
7. From thence He shall come to
judge the living and the dead.
8. I believe in the Holy Spirit.
9. I believe a holy catholic
Church, the communion of saints;
10. The forgiveness of sins;
11. The resurrection of the body;
12. And the life everlasting. AMEN
The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of the Father before all the worlds; God of God, Light of
Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance
with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made
man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered
and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the
Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living
and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life;
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the
Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I
acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN
The Law : Ex. 20:1-17.
Psalm 103:9.
Prayer.
Hymn 47.
Scripture reading: John 5
Scripture text: John 5:35-36
He was
the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to
rejoice for a while in his light.
But the testimony which I have is
greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has
given Me to accomplish - the very works that I do - testify about Me,
that the Father has sent Me.
It sometimes happens that we are satisfied with something that is
superficially very close to the truth in appearance. When we then come
across the real thing, we do not want what is real and true, because we
have something with which we are quite satisfied instead.
That is exactly what the position was in the passage we have read
together.
- The people were greatly impressed by John the Baptist.
- They also regarded him as a prophet.
The Jesus came - and Jesus declared to the multitude that He was God.
He told them that everything done by the Father was done in like manner
by the Son. (5:19).
- All at once the people began to doubt the truth of His preaching,
and whether they could believe what Jesus taught.
- For that reason Jesus referred them to John the Baptist.
- John knew the Lord Jesus, because he had been sent by the
Father to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus Christ.
- That was also why Jesus said that John was a lamp that was
burning and shining.
John preached of grace:
- Amid the darkness of the lost he preached to the people that
there was light.
- God would redeem them.
- The One through Whom God would redeem them, was the Light who
was coming, and who would shine so much more brightly than he.
John preached that the prophecy in Isaiah 9:1 (9:2 in some Bibles) was
about to be fulfilled:
The
people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
This light was Jesus Christ!
For this reason John continually exhorted the people to repent. His
words were:
Repent,
for the Kingdom of God is at hand! (Matthew 3:2).
This was not intended as a sermon preaching condemnation.
- He did not threaten everyone with hell, so that fear should drive
them to repentance.
- It was a simple sermon of great profundity, because it led people
to devote thought to their relationship with God.
There had to be a radical change:
- This change would comprise seeing the light of redemption in
Jesus and recognising it for what it was.
- They needed to begin co-operating immediately and actively with
the redemptive plan of God - by accepting and confessing the Lord Jesus
as the Messiah.
The sermons of John the Baptist thus showed that a new phase in God's
plan and counsel had now come.
- The old phase had passed.
- The Redeemer is here!
- That is why he preached that his baptism was the baptism of
repentance unto the forgiveness of sins.
John's time had passed.
- Then the day arrived when the Lord Himself stood in our midst.
- He accomplished His atonement and fulfilled His redemptive task.
- He did, in truth, do God's work, because He could - He is Himself
God!
If John's work was like a burning and shining lamp, Jesus' work is so
much greater and effulgent:
- He did away with the distance separating us from God.
- He removed the confrontating force of God's wrath.
- He entered the realm of death to bear our punishment.
- He conquered death, thereby bestowing life upon us.
- He ascended with His body, thereby affirming that He would also
resurrect and bear away with Him our bodies.
Let us now celebrate the Last Supper, because by it the Lord gives you
the assurance that you partake of the grace which He accomplished by
His atonement.
You stand embraced within His grace.
Amen.
Prayer.
Psalm 144:1,6.
FORM FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE
LORD'S SUPPER (SHORTER FORM)
Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, attend to the words of the
institution of the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are
delivered by the holy apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 11:23-29:
"For I
have received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus in the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "Take, eat: this
is my body, which is for you: do this in remembrance of Me." After the
same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, "This cup
is the new covenant in my blood: do this, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread, and drink the
cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore whoever
eats this bread, or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must
examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of
the cup."
That we may now celebrate the Supper of the Lord to our comfort, it is
necessary, rightly to examine ourselves, and to direct it to His
remembrance.
The true examination of ourselves consists of these three parts:
First. That we consider by ourselves our sins
and the curse due to us for them, to the end that we may abhor and
humble ourselves before God.
Second. We must believe this faithful promise of God
that all our sins have been forgiven us only for the sake of the
atonement of Christ, and that His perfect righteousness is imputed and
freely given us as our own.
Thirdly. We must have the unfeigned desire to show
true thankfulness to God, to walk uprightly before Him, and to walk in
true love and peace with our neighbour.
All those, then, who are thus disposed, God will certainly receive in
mercy and count them worthy partakers of the table of His Son Jesus
Christ. On the contrary, those who do not feel this testimony in their
hearts, eat and drink judgement to themselves.
Therefore, we announce to all idolaters, all enchanters and diviners
and those who confide in such enchantments; all blasphemers; all
those who are given to raise discord in church or state; all perjured
persons; all those who are disobedient to their parents and superiors;
all murderers and contentious persons; all adulterers, whoremongers,
drunkards, thieves, robbers, gamesters and covetous persons, to
keep themselves from the table of the Lord. Because those who lead
loveless and offensive lives have no part in the kingdom of
Christ.
Yet we do not come to this Supper to testify thereby that we are
without sin and perfect in ourselves; on the contrary, we come
precisely because we seek our life apart from ourselves in Christ.
Thereby we confess that we are in our own nature dead through sin. We
have indeed, still many shortcomings: lack of true faith, lack of zeal
in the service of God, lack of love towards God and our neighbour.
Nevertheless by the grace of the Holy Spirit we repent heartily of our
sins and desire sincerely to live according to all the commandments of
God. Therefore we rest assured that God receives us through His grace
and makes us worthy partakers of this heavenly food and drink.
(1 Cor. 5:11; Eph. 5:5; Ex. 20:12-17;; Lev. 19:12; Zech. 8:17; Gal.
5:19,21; Eph. 2:1)
The Lord teaches us to what end He instituted the Supper when He says:
Do this in remembrance of Me. To do this we must sincerely believe that
He was sent by the Father to this world, that He became true man and as
sinless Lamb bore throughout His earthly life the wrath of God for our
sins. He fulfilled with perfect obedience God's Law for us. He bore the
reproaches due to us so that we should never again become an object of
divine reproach. Although innocent, He was sentenced to death so that
we might be acquitted before the judgement seat of God. He was nailed
to the cross so that the certificate of our debt, consisting of decrees
against us, could be so nailed to the cross as well. In this way He
took from us the curse and assumed it upon Himself that He might fill
us with His blessing. He suffered the pains of hell and anguish and the
terrible desolation of separation from God when He cried out with a
loud voice: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? that we might be
accepted of God, and nevermore be forsaken of Him. He has finally
confirmed with His death and the shedding of His blood the eternal
covenant of grace with the words: It is finished.
(1 Cor. 11:26; Heb. 4:15; Matt. 27:46; John 19:30; Col. 2:14)
Whenever we so think of Him, the signs of bread and wine give the
assurance that He delivered Himself in our stead and that He as
certainly nourishes us with His body and blood as we eat and drink of
the bread and wine. So the living Christ wishes to assure us through
His Spirit of His love and bring about in us the firm knowledge that we
also belong to this covenant of grace. And every time we partake of the
Lord's Supper, we proclaim His death until He comes. Therefore the
celebration of the Lord's Supper lets us look forward with great
yearning to the bridal feast of the Lamb.
(Matt.26:29; Rev. 19:9)
The Lord's Supper so teaches us to embrace in faith the unique
sacrifice on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only foundation
and ground of our salvation. There His body was broken and His blood
was shed to the perfect remission of all our sins, and so He became for
us the true food and drink of life eternal. Through His death He also
won for us the lifegiving Spirit, which binds us to Christ in true
communion with Him and lets us partake of all His riches and benefits.
The same Spirit binds us also together in sincere love as members of
one body. Because we have all partaken of the same bread, we are all
one body. Therefore all of us who have been incorporated in Christ
through faith, must manifest this unity in love by word and deed
towards one another. May God through His Spirit help us to do so.
(1 Cor. 10:17)
AMEN.
Let us now humble ourselves before God and pray to Him in sincere faith
for the blessing of His grace.
Merciful God and Father,
We thank You that we may celebrate the comforting occasion of the
bitter death of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray You, grant us a sincere
confidence in our hearts to surrender ourselves ever more completely to
Your Son, so that we may be refreshed by Him, the heavenly Bread, so as
not to live any longer in our sins but in Him. Grant us the assurance
that You are our merciful Father, and we Your children and heirs. Help
us to deny ourselves, to confess our Saviour, and with longing to await
His return, when He will take us to be with Him eternally.
Hear our prayer, O God and merciful Father, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Psalm 23
(The congregation go to the Table)
During the celebration of the Lord's Supper, the congregation will join
in singing from Psalm 116 (after the elements have been taken) and
Psalm 118 (as each group return to their seats).
Lift up your hearts to Jesus Christ, our Advocate at the right hand of
the heavenly Father, and be assured that the Holy Spirit will
strengthen you just as certainly with the body and blood of Jesus as
you receive the signs of the bread and wine in remembrance of Him.
The bread we break is our communion with the body of Christ. Receive
it, eat, remember and believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
was broken to the complete remission of all our sins.
The cup of thanksgiving which we bless in gratitude, is our communion
with the blood of Christ. Receive it, drink everyone of the cup;
remember and believe that the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
was shed to the complete remission of all our sins.
Beloved, because the Lord has refreshed us with the heavenly bread, let
us now together with one accord praise His Name with the words:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is
within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O
my soul,
And forget none of
His benefits;
Who pardons all
your iniquities,
Who heals all your
diseases;
Who redeems your
life from the pit,
Who crowns you with
lovingkindness and compassion;
The Lord is
compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and
abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always
strive with us,
Nor will He keep
His anger forever.
He has not dealt
with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.
For as high as the
heavens are above the earth,
So great is His
lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east
is from the west,
So far has He
removed our transgressions from us.
Just as a father
has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has
compassion on those who fear Him,
For He Himself
knows our frame;
He is mindful that
we are but dust.
Closing Psalm: 148:1,5.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville
18 May 2003.
Scripture quoted from NASB.