About this sermon
The focus of these verses is not primarily on the material universe but on it’s function in an ordered system
read Genesis 1:14-19
1. The meaning of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth (v. 1).
2. The unbounded chaos of earth’s original condition of being “without form and void” (v. 2).
3. Understand the Spirit of God as God’s creative power which brings order out of chaos (v. 2b).
Sermon transcript
standing, dear friends, for the reading of God’s Word. We return today to the Foundations of Faith sermon series, which is being guided by the Apostles’ Creed. And this morning we consider Foundations of Faith God as the maker of heaven and earth. And my sermon text today is Genesis chapter one, verses one and two. So the very opening verses of your Bible, please turn to Genesis one and hear the word of God as I read verses one and two. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, We thank you that by your grace you have brought order out of the chaos of our sins through Jesus Christ.
And we thank you that you have given us your word. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, a guide to our way. We ask that by your spirit you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. We pray that by your spirit you would illuminate us and feed our souls through the word today and grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power for your glory and the building up of your saints. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. As I mentioned, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, Maker of Heaven and Earth. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, again, I would direct your attention to a number of words that the children can be listening for.
And even if you choose a number of these words to count the number of times that I say them in my sermon, if you find that to be helpful, I’d encourage you to do that. Well, dear ones, this morning we return to our Foundations of Faith sermon series. This is a Bible-based series which is being guided by that classic ecumenical creed of the historic Christian church, which is known to us today as the Apostles’ Creed. It is one of the briefest, most succinct of the creeds, but it is a pact full of important truth that we confess as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. While this is inevitably a more topical series, it is my intention to ground every truth, every credo that we consider throughout this series in a faithful exposition of relevant passages from the Word of God, the Bible.
Now, some of you may recall that in introducing this series a number of weeks ago, I preached a sermon on the biblical basis for using creeds and confessions. And so far in this series, we have considered Bible truths from the first credo, or I believe, or statement of belief found in the Apostles’ Creed, the opening statement which says, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Now from that first credo, we have so far considered the foundational truth of the existence of the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the blessed Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who is revealed to us in the pages of God’s Word, the Bible. We also considered a brief overview of the central and important doctrine of the Holy Trinity and its vital significance to our holy Christian faith.
And we’ve also considered the wonderful truth of God as the loving Heavenly Father of His believing people in Christ. Well, today, as we return to this sermon series, we consider another foundational truth of this opening statement of the Creed, namely, the truth that God is the Maker of Heaven In other words, we consider today the foundational truth of God as the almighty creator of the universe and we consider some of the important implications of that truth for our lives as individual Christians and also for our life together as the church. And what better place to turn to in the word of God to consider this important doctrine of creation, this doctrine of God as creator, than the creation account in the book of Genesis. And so this morning, friends, we return to the opening verses of Genesis chapter one.
So let’s dive in to our text for today. And the first thing I would have us to consider from verse one, and this is the first point in your sermon outline, beloved, let us consider the meaning of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth. Let’s consider the meaning of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth. Verse one says, in the beginning, God, let me pause there. The Hebrew word that is translated there as God is the word Elohim. It’s a plural of majesty. This is the more generic name for God in the Bible. The name Yahweh, or sometimes it’s transliterated incorrectly, in my opinion, as Jehovah, is the covenant name for God. Yahweh has in view God as the covenant-making, covenant-keeping, redeemer God of Israel. But the term Elohim has in view God as the omnipotent, sovereign creator of heaven and earth.
And that is the name of God that is being used here. In the beginning Elohim, God created the heavens and the earth. What does that mean? Why this terminology of the heavens and the earth? Now, some of you may be thinking to yourselves, okay, Pastor Jeff, this is really basic, isn’t it? It means God created the heavens and the earth, right? and certainly he did. But it’s important to understand the terminology that the inspired author of this Genesis account, whom I believe to be Moses, I believe Moses the prophet either composed this account of creation or received it as divine revelation, perhaps from the patriarchs, but whatever the case may be, Moses here uses the heavens and the earth. What does that figure of speech represent? Well, this is a figure of speech known as a merism.
A merism is a figure of speech which pairs together opposite terms, in this case the terms heavens and earth, and these opposite terms are paired together to express totality. So in other words, when it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, this merism, the heavens and the earth, means everything. God created everything. There is not anything that exists that God did not create. To use our contemporary lingo, the heavens and the earth is basically a Hebrew way of saying the universe and everything in it. Now friends, I believe our. Our Shorter Catechism, which we love, our Shorter Catechism offers a biblically grounded, biblically-based definition of the doctrine of creation and its answer to question number nine. I’m sure some of you know the answer by heart. The question is, what is the work of creation?
The Bible-based answer to that question is the work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. Now there’s a lot to that catechism question and answer, but the central Bible truth that the Westminster divines express in that catechism answer is what the theologians refer to as creation ex nihilo. And those of you who know your Latin know that ex nihilo means what? out of nothing, creation out of nothing. In the beginning God created, meaning created out of nothing, the heavens and the earth. Now think about that for a moment. We are God’s image bearers. The Bible says that God created us in his image and because we were created in the image of the creator, we have creative capacity.
And so we sang that beautiful hymn earlier in the service, God All Nature Sings Thy Glory. And in one of the verses it says, music, art, the fruitful garden, all the labors of His hands. All of these things God has called us to. Why is it that we have the capacity to create music and beautiful works of art and literature and so forth. It’s because we have been created in the divine image, in the image of God who himself is the creator. But there’s a difference between God’s creative work in the beginning and our creative work. Let’s say that you’re a master painter and you’re gonna make one of your masterpieces, you’re gonna paint a new masterpiece. When you set about to create, to paint your masterpiece, do you simply conceive of it in your mind and then speak it into existence and say, let there be this masterpiece that I have conceptualized in my mind?
No. What you need to do is you need to find a canvas and you need to have paintbrushes and paints and so forth. In other words, you depend on the existence of preexistence stuff in order to make your masterpiece. Same thing if you’re a sculptor. You need that block of stone and a hammer and a chisel in order to sculpt your masterpiece. But God is different, especially when it comes to the original creation ex nihilo out of nothing. You see, God did not depend on pre-existent stuff in order to form the universe. The Bible assumes throughout, and our theologians have correctly taught throughout Christian history, that God created, in the very beginning, God simply spoke the word. His divine, creative, supernatural word and all things came into being out of nothing. This is what we might describe as the biblical Big Bang.
God spoke, I saw this on a bumper sticker once by the way. Usually it’s not a good idea to get your theology from bumper stickers, but this bumper sticker I think had a good point. It said the Big Bang, God spoke and bang it happened. In the beginning, God spoke the universe into being by his divine word, his Logos, and we know that Logos to be the eternal Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the scriptures, our passage for today, and the theological tradition rooted in the scriptures as expressed in our shorter catechism, affirms creation out of nothing, that God created everything out of nothing. But while the scriptures certainly teach and assume throughout that God brought the material universe as well as the spiritual universe of angels and archangels and so forth into existence, ex nihilo, out of nothing, by a supernatural divine fiat, As I hope to demonstrate in my sermon today, the biblical doctrine of creation involves much more than simply ascribing the material origins of the universe to the creative work of God, although the Bible certainly includes material origins in its doctrine of creation.
While the Bible clearly teaches and implies the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, and while Genesis 1 clearly assumes this truth, Nevertheless, if you read Genesis 1 carefully and sensitively, when you read it carefully, the main focus of the Genesis creation account is on God, our creator’s sovereign assignment of roles, functions, jurisdiction, and purpose to his material creation. The evangelical Old Testament scholar, Dr. John Walton, who is an expert in ancient Near Eastern thought, says that people in the ancient world believed that something existed not by virtue of its material properties, but by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system. What are you talking about, Pastor? Well, let’s flesh that out a little bit. The evidence from the ancient world suggests that the ancient peoples, including the ancient Israelites, whom the inspired author of Genesis addresses, shared this same view of existence as their Gentile neighbors.
See. the question of the origins of the material universe was not really a primary issue for the ancient people of God or for the peoples of the ancient Near East. That was not really front and center in their thoughts, as it is for us today. I mean, we live in a post-Enlightenment scientific age, and so our concerns have to do with material origins. Where did the universe come from? When did it come into being and so forth? But the ancient people of God were more concerned with matters of function, purpose, and order in the universe. The matter of the origins of the material universe was not really on their radar screen as it is on ours today. Instead, what the ancient people of God needed to know was that Elohim, their God, he was the one who assigned function and purpose and order to the world, and he formed the creation for mankind’s benefit and blessing.
And so the ancient view of existence was somewhat different from what ours might be. One illustration that I found helpful. Let’s say that you visit a junkyard one day and you come across an old car that is out of service, it’s rusting there in the junkyard. Now, does that old junked car still exist? Well, as a material object, yes, it still exists. But in a very real sense, that car no longer functionally exists. It no longer functions as a working vehicle that can navigate the roads as it once did. And you say, well, Pastor, where in the Genesis creation account do we have this emphasis on function and purpose within an ordered system? Well, we could spend a long time in Genesis chapter one. This is such a deep and rich portion of Holy Scripture, but let’s just skip down to verses 14 through 17, which has to do with the creation of the heavenly lights, the sun and the moon and the stars and their God-assigned function and purpose.
And as I read these verses, I want you to notice the author’s, Moses’ emphasis on the function and purpose of these heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon and the stars. The focus is on function, not so much on material origins as such, although again, the biblical doctrine of creation includes that. Verse 14, this is the fourth creation day, and God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens. Let there be, right? Does it stop there with the material origins of the lights in the heaven? No. God explains why he has created these heavenly bodies. Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be, and notice that these are their functions with respect to man’s life on earth. and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.
The signs and the seasons, obviously, the heavenly bodies make an impact upon the changing of the seasons and so forth. We judge our seasons and time them according to that, but also for days and for years, which anticipates the sacred days in the Jewish calendar, the Old Covenant calendar. for days and for years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to do what? To rule the day. There’s an emphasis on dominion, on rule, which again, focuses on purpose and function. To rule the day, and the lesser light, that would be the moon, which reflects the light of the sun, to rule the night. And the stars, the stars are almost mentioned as an afterthought.
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. In other words, the focus is on what is their purpose? Why did God create these great lights? What was their function? What was their purpose? God has created a purposeful universe an orderly universe, and when things are running as God intended them to run, they run for the benefit of his image bearers, mankind, male and female. Now Genesis chapter one, verse one, in terms of the structure of this chapter, the verse one of Genesis chapter one introduces the process of creation, which begins in earnest in verse two, and which is described in the creation days. So that’s the basic structure of this chapter.
And as I mentioned, Genesis chapter one, verse one proclaims Elohim as the only true God. It shows that God has given our world and thus our lives meaning and purpose. And it shows that the ultimate eschatological goal of creation is God’s eternal Sabbath rest, a rest which we believers share in through Christ. What is the climax of the creation account? Again, the purpose of the creation account, although the creation account is relevant to modern scientific questions, its purpose is not to address the issues that might be front and center in our minds. Its purpose is to show that God created the universe with an eschatological purpose in mind, namely that we would share in his eternal Sabbath rest, as the opening verses of chapter two say. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Does that mean that God was pooped, that he was worn out? Boy, that was really hard. What a week, what a work week, right? No, God wasn’t tired, he’s omnipotent. He rested in the sense that he sat back, if you will, and he took delight and pleasure in that which he had made. Verse three, so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He set it apart because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. And so with all of this in mind, God created the heavens and the earth. Yes, he is the source of their material origins. God created all things ex nihilo, out of nothing, but he also created with a purpose, a function, order and jurisdiction in mind.
But what about verse two? That leads us to our next verse. As we consider the unbounded chaos of earth’s original condition of being without form and void. Look at verse two. The author writes, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Verse two shows, beloved, that the creation account is primarily concerned with God’s sovereign assigning of purpose, function, and jurisdiction to his creation, and with preparing his creation to be inhabited by mankind, and not primarily with questions regarding material origins. Verse one, as I mentioned, had introduced the beginning of the creation account, which starts up in earnest here in verse two. It’s important for us, brothers and sisters, when we read this passage, many questions arise in our minds.
It says in verse two, the earth was without form and void. What does that mean? The earth was without form and void. What does it mean that darkness was over the face of the deep? And what’s he talking about when he pictures the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters? Here is where it’s important to understand how the ancient pagan neighbors of the Israelites would have been impacted by this kind of language. You see, my friends, darkness and the watery deep were seen in the ancient Near East as symbols of the threatening forces of chaos. You see in ancient Near Eastern pagan creation stories, darkness and the raging sea represented the forces of chaos, forces that threatened not only the order of the cosmos, but forces which threatened even the gods themselves, forces which represented an obstacle that the gods either had to conquer or to restrain.
But is that the picture we get of Elohim, the true and living God here? Is Elohim having to do battle with the forces of chaos, with the chaos waters and the darkness? Do those forces pose a threat to Elohim, the true and living God? No. In verse two, these primeval unbounded forces of chaos are not pictured as a threat to Elohim’s sovereignty or as unruly forces that he must fight and conquer in order to subdue. Instead, the darkness and deep are depicted as tranquil yet unformed powers, powers which are totally under God’s sovereign control and ready to be reutilized for God’s purposes according to his timing and his plan. And this is what the picture of the Spirit of God hovering or circulating over the water seems to depict. So what we have here, beloved, is likely a divinely inspired polemic or argument against the idolatry of the ancient patriarchs or the ancient Hebrews’ pagan neighbors.
The gods of the Gentiles were threatened by the forces of unbounded chaos. They were threatened by the darkness, the formlessness and void. But Elohim, the true and living God, the God of Israel, was and is sovereign over those forces of chaos, and those forces are under His control. available for his service whenever he chooses to use them. Now, again, what does it mean when it says the earth was without form or void? The Hebrew is tohu vabohu. This is a literary device known as a hendieties, if I’m pronouncing that right. This is the use of two words connected by and to express a single concept. Namely, in this case, formlessly void, or what have you. One example of this that you might be able to relate to, let’s say that it’s winter. I know winter’s coming.
Some of us would wish that it didn’t come so fast. But someday winter’s going to be here. We’re going to have those frigid cold months. And let’s say that you’ve got a fireplace in your house. And there’s a nice fire in the fireplace. But you’ve been outside, maybe shoveling your driveway or working out in the cold. And you come inside. You’re shivering. You’re freezing cold. But ah, you enter the door. And what do you see? You see that fire in your fireplace. And you sit down, you get nice and comfortable in front of the fireplace, and you say, ah, I am nice and warm now. What does that mean, nice and warm? That’s a way of saying you are nicely warm. That’s an example of a Hendieties. And that’s similar. This is what we have here in this passage with the tohu vabohu, without form and void.
The term Tohu without form seems to indicate the cosmos was empty of purpose, meaning, and function with respect to humanity. Dr. Walton writes that Tohu generally refers to a desert-like wasteland or to emptiness. So what does without form and void mean in the context of this passage? The answer, my friends, is it means that an ordered system of function and purpose for the benefit and flourishing of mankind had not yet been established. But God was ready to establish it, for the Spirit of God is pictured as hovering over the face of the waters, ready to bring order out of chaos, ready to form a habitation for His image bearers, Adam and Eve, humanity. Now what are some of the lessons that we can glean and take away from this verse, from this passage? Well, there’s many lessons we can learn, but let me suggest a few.
My friends, without God’s blessing and action to bring purpose and order, our world and our lives would have no clear-cut purpose and meaning. You look around at our culture today. What do so many folks struggle with? They struggle with their identity. Who am I? Why am I here? These are age-old questions, by the way. The great philosophers in previous ages, what are some of the deepest questions they wrestled with? They wrestled with questions like, what is the meaning and purpose of life? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing and so forth? The Bible has an answer to those questions. The Bible reveals to us a God who not only created the material universe, though praise God, he certainly did that, but he created it with a sovereign, ordained purpose and plan in view.
And you and I, dear friends, we are part of that plan. What is our purpose, by the way? Why did God create us? Well, if you know you’re short of catechism, you know the Bible-based answer to that question, right? Our first catechism question, what is the chief end of man, which is an old-fashioned way of saying what is man’s purpose? What is the answer? What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So you know your purpose. You, brother, sister, you were created to glorify God, to reflect His glory, and to enjoy Him forever. But that would not be possible without God’s sovereign blessing and action to bring about a world with purpose and order. Another lesson we glean is that without God’s sovereign ordering and blessing, unbounded chaos would reign and God’s covenant plan to dwell among His people in His created world would not go forward.
What is the ultimate goal of creation? Well, as I touched upon a few moments ago, and we could really spend a lot of time in this, but we don’t have time this morning, but the ultimate goal of creation is covenant blessing. God dwelling in covenant communion and fellowship and friendship with mankind, male and female, his image bearers. This is reflected In the book of Revelation, if you turn to the very, I know we’re in the very first book of the Bible, but turn to the very last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21, verse three. This is the goal towards which all of creation is going towards. It says in verse three of Revelation 21, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.
Adam and Eve enjoyed that direct fellowship, God dwelling amongst them in the Garden of Eden before the fall. But when Adam and Eve fell into sin and dragged the human race down with them, They were kicked out of Eden. But ever since that time, God has been in the process of reestablishing his dwelling place among his redeemed covenant people. And that ultimately is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh who came to do what? Who came to dwell in our midst. He is Emmanuel, God with us. That is God’s ultimate plan for your life. and for mine, that is the ultimate goal of creation. And what brings that about, what makes that possible? The redeeming work of Christ as well as the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in applying Christ to us.
Now this brings me to my final point. Understand, beloved, the Spirit of God as God’s creative power which brings order out of chaos. Understand the Spirit of God as God’s creative power which brings order out of chaos. We’re told that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and if it stopped there, it would seem like a hopeless picture. But then, another sentence, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Elohim. Now what does Moses, what does the inspired author here mean by the Spirit of God? As those who have the complete canon of scripture and those who know our theology, we automatically think, well, this is referring to the third person of the Holy Trinity.
And certainly this language hints at that, but here the spirit of God or Elohim is probably similar to the phrase the hand of God. Probably it would have been understood by the ancient Hebrews to mean the power of God, not the third person of the Trinity as such. After all, the doctrine of the Trinity is a doctrine that had not yet been revealed to God’s people. But at the same time, beloved, This term certainly leaves room for what the Bible will reveal later on about the triune being of God and about the Spirit of God, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Let’s remember, friends, that God’s Word is a progressive, unfolding revelation. God gradually, over time, revealed more and more about himself. and about us and about his plan of salvation as the Scriptures unfold.
And the doctrine of the Trinity is not fully clearly revealed until after the incarnation of Christ our Savior. But the point here, friends, God’s power brought order out of chaos and made the earth a habitation for mankind to dwell in and to flourish in. This is the truth that the apostle Paul proclaimed to the Athenian philosophers in Acts chapter 17. Look with me, if you would, briefly at Acts 17, verses 24 to 28. As Paul is preaching to these pagan philosophers, and preaching to them the true and living God, the God of the Bible, he says this, beginning in verse 24. Paul says, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God.
Here’s again purpose and function, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is not far from each of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Of course, mankind has fallen into sin, but the good news is that God has sent his son Jesus to redeem us sinners from our sins. God’s grace and Holy Spirit brought order out of the chaos of our sin by making us new creations in Christ. He is brought in through Christ a new creation. Beloved, let us strive to further the order of God’s kingdom by living as faithful witnesses and servants of Christ. Dear ones, as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, we believe that the one true God is the maker of heaven and earth.
Not only did he create the material and spiritual universe out of nothing by his omnipotent creative power, he also created in the functional sense of forming a very good universe with a divinely ordered system of meaning, purpose, and function. A system where God might dwell with mankind, his image bears. The fall has put a wrench into that original plan, although God sovereignly decreed the fall to occur in his wisdom. But in Christ, that purpose goes forward. Do you know Christ? Have you trusted Him as your Lord and Savior? Do you recognize the chaos that sin has brought into your life? Are you repentant for that sin? Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. Receive and rest upon Christ and Christ alone as your Lord and Savior. And He, by His Spirit, will bring order, meaning, and purpose into your life.
And He will align your purpose with God’s kingdom purposes. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven. We thank you for the redeeming work of Christ, who has brought about a new creation, who has made us new creations in him. We ask, oh Lord, that you would help us to live out the purpose for which we have been created and redeemed. We ask that you would help us to walk in all those good works that you have prepared for us to walk in, out of gratitude for your gift of salvation to us in Jesus. We ask all of these things, heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s respond to what we’ve heard from the Word today by rising and we’ll sing, soul adorn yourself with gladness, hymn 200, as we prepare to celebrate the Holy Supper together.
Let’s rise and sing number 200. Okay. Soul, adorn yourself with gladness. Leave the gloomy haunts of sadness. Come into the daylight’s splendor. There with joy your praises render. Bless the one whose grace unbounded, this amazing banquet founded. He, though heavenly, high and holy, deigns to dwell with you most lowly. Hasten as a bride to meet him, eagerly and gladly greet him. There he stands already, knocking quickly, now your gate unlocking. Open wide the fast-closed portal, saying to the Lord immortal, come and leave your loved one never. Dwell within my heart forever. Now in faith I humbly ponder, over this surpassing wonder, that the bread of life is boundless, though the souls it feeds are countless. With the joystest wine of heaven, Christ’s own blood to us is given. O most glorious consolation, pledge and seal of my salvation.
Jesus, source of lasting pleasure, truest friend and dearest treasure. Peace beyond all understanding, joy into all life expanding. Humbly now I bow before you. Love incarnate, I adore you. Worthily let me receive you. And so favored, never leave you. Congregation, you may be seated. Christ welcomes us sinners to the Feast of Salvation that is signified and sealed in this Holy Supper as we prepare our hearts To receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, let me read from 1 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 23, which is the Apostle Paul’s recounting of our Lord’s words of institution of this supper, which he instituted on the night in which he was betrayed. 1 Corinthians 11, 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper 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. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. May God add His blessing to this reading of His Holy Word. What is the Lord’s Supper? Well, the Lord’s Supper is called the Lord’s Supper for a reason. If this is not the church’s supper, this is certainly not a Presbyterian supper, though we are a Presbyterian church. This is a supper instituted by none other than the divine Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is described in scripture in a number of ways. It is, first of all, described as a memorial. It reminds us of our Savior’s bloody death upon the cross to redeem us from our sins. It is also a proclamation. It’s a sermon, if you will. It proclaims Jesus’ sacrifice, declaring the good news in symbol form.
It is also described in Scripture as a communion, a koinonia, a fellowship, a means by which we feast upon the benefits of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. Not in a physical sense, of course. The bread and the wine continue to remain bread and the fruit of the vine. But nevertheless, by faith and through the Holy Spirit, we partake of the benefits of our Savior’s broken body and shed blood. It is also presented in scripture as a foretaste of the feast of salvation that we will enjoy with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb, when Jesus returns in glory to take us to be with himself. The bread represents Christ’s broken body. and the cup represents Christ’s shed blood. Through this means of grace, Christ nourishes our souls as we partake with faith in him.
And in a very real sense, the Lord’s Supper, like baptism, is a personalizing of the gospel. The gospel call calls all who would repent and believe and promises to all who repent and believe salvation. But the sacraments take that general gospel call and personalize it. Notice Jesus says, this is my body which was given for whom? For you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood which was shed for you. So as we gather to partake of this Holy Supper, let us understand that Jesus himself is speaking to you and to me and saying, I offer myself to you. So by faith, receive the blessings and the grace that he offers. Now the Lord’s Supper is for the Lord’s people. If you are a baptized Christian who is repentant for your sins and is trusting Christ alone for your salvation, having publicly professed your faith in Christ as your very own Lord and Savior, and having united in membership in a biblical church, then you are invited to partake of the Holy Supper.
If you’ve not yet publicly professed your faith in Christ, or if you’re unsure if you should partake with us at this particular time, there’s no shame in that. I would simply encourage you to use this time to reflect upon what Christ’s death on the cross means for you personally. And I would also encourage you to use this time for prayerful self-examination before the Lord. But we all should examine our hearts before the Lord as that passage from First Corinthians states. So let’s spend a few moments, dear friends, silently searching our hearts before the Lord, examining ourselves as we prepare to partake of the supper together. Let us pray. Please join me in your hearts in prayer. All glory be to you, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, for you, in your tender mercy, gave your only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cruel cross for our redemption, who made there on the cross a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, fully satisfying for all of the sins of all of God’s believing people, and did institute, and in his holy gospel, command us to continue a perpetual memory of that His precious death and sacrifice until His coming again.
And so, our Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise from our hearts for the gift of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His perfect sacrifice for our sins on the cross of Calvary. Likewise, we give you thanks for the gift of the Lord’s Supper, which reminds us of our Savior’s sacrifice for our sins, and which signifies and seals to us believers all of the saving benefits of His broken body and His shed blood. O Heavenly Father, we pray that these elements of bread and the fruit of the vine would be set apart during this celebration from a common to a holy use, that they might symbolize, signify, and seal to us believers all of the benefits of Christ’s broken body and his precious shed blood. We do not presume to come to this table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, for we have none in ourselves, but we come trusting in your manifold and great mercies in Christ.
We acknowledge, Lord, that we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs which are under your table, but you are the same Lord who is merciful to those who are repentant. We thank you that you are kind to the brokenhearted. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat spiritually and symbolically the flesh of your dear son, Jesus Christ, and so to drink spiritually and symbolically his most precious blood that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. And we would beseech you, O God, to grant us your grace so as not to trust in the outward elements themselves, but instead may we look beyond these symbols to the spiritual realities to which these symbols point. In this sacramental feast, may we feed upon Christ In our hearts, by faith and with thanksgiving, we pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.