Lord’s Supper
Dear friends,
This Sunday we will remember the Lord’s death for us in the Lord’s Supper. Last Sunday we studied the different ways God shows us His Word: in His Son the living Word, the prophets in proclamation, and primarily in the Bible, the written Word. The power of the written Word is seen in 2 Peter 1:19 And we have something more sure (than the Transfiguration) , the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. If we connect this with 2 Timothy 3:10-17 we have a Scriptural basis for the sufficiency of Scripture regarding salvation, trusting Him perfectly and obeying Him perfectly. The Bible is more than sufficient for Godly belief, faith and practice.
The church is to add nothing to Scripture and we are to consider no other writings to be of the same value. Thus certain key passages in the New World Bible translation used by the Jehovah Witnesses, the Book of Mormon, and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy are of no value and rightly are rejected by orthodox Christians. We must never go beyond Scripture no matter what our experiences may be. Nor are we required to believe anything beyond what the Scriptures plainly teach. This does not mean we ignore tradition, but just make sure tradition is based on the plain teaching of the Bible.
Nowhere are these principles more needed than how we think about the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew 27: 32-56 gives us an account of what happened, but Colossians 2:8-15 or Romans 3:21-26 tells us what His death means. The letters of the Apostles are the best explanations of what the historical and narrative passages actually teach. What is most difficult in church history is to realize that the Supper Christ gave us to make us one is the very observance that divides the church so deeply.
I call upon you to prepare your heart and mind to remember the Lord’s death by considering carefully 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34, especially 27-32.
See you Sunday,
Lee
