The Feast of the Lord
A Sermon
(No. 3501)
Published on Thursday, March 2nd, 1916.
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At [9]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
On Lord's-day Evening, August 6th, 1871.
"For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the
Lord's death till he come."–1 Cor. 11:26.
I THINK we cannot too often explain the meaning of the two great
Christian ordinances–baptism and the Supper of the Lord; for it is
essential to our profiting by them that we understand them. If we do
not know what they mean, they certainly cannot convey to us any
blessing whatever. They are not mere channels of grace in themselves,
apart from our understanding being exercised, and our hearts being
moved by them. Very soon the best ordinance in the world will become a
mere form, and will even degenerate into superstitious practice, unless
it be understood; and we must not always take it for granted that the
meaning of the simplest emblem is understood. Line upon line, precept
upon precept, here a little, and there a little, must still be the
motto of the Christian minister. We must explain, explain, and explain
again, or else men will satisfy themselves with the outward form, and
not reach to the teaching which the forms were intended to convey. Our
text deals with the supper of our Lord, and we will read it again. "As
often as eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death
till he come."
The first point of the text is what we do–we "show." Then, what do we
show, and how? And then, who show it–"ye do show the Lord's death."
And then, when?–"as often"–"till he come." First, then, when we come
to the Lord's table:–
I. WHAT WE DO.
We "show." That word has two or three meanings. They all melt into one,
but we shall get at it better by dividing it. It is meant here by
showing Christ's death that we declare it. When the emblems are placed
upon the table–bread and wine and we gather around it, we declare our
firm belief that Jesus, the Son of God, descended into this world and
died as a sacrifice for sin upon the arose. It has been found that if a
great event is to be kept in mind in succeeding ages, there must be
some memorial of it. Men by degrees forget it, and even come to be
dubious as to whether such an event did occur. Sometimes a stone has
been set up–a monument–but this has not always been most effective.
God, when he would have the children of Israel remember that he brought
them out of Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm, did not bid
them set up a monument, but he ordained a ceremony which was to be
practiced on a certain day. It was called "The Passover," and the
slaughter of the lamb and the eating of it became a yearly declaration
by the people of Israel that they believed that God brought their
fathers up out of the house of bondage. So effective has this been that
men have often used the same device. When the Jewish people escaped
from the plot which was laid by Haman, through the wisdom of Mordecai
and Esther, they ordained the keeping of the feast of Purim, that they
might have in perpetual memory the goodness of God towards his people.
And you know how, in our own English history and in the history of
other countries, certain rites and ceremonies have been ordained in
order that there might be a perpetual memorial, a declaration made that
such and such a thing did occur. Now that more than eighteen hundred
years ago Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, died upon Calvary by
crucifixion, we do here protest and declare. We set forth again to a
world that is skeptical and denies the fact which is its brightest
hope–we set forth our confident belief that so it was; and as long as
this ordinance shall be celebrated, there shall be a standing proof in
the world that that was the case.
But to set forth means more than to declare. It signifies, in the next
place to represent. There is in the Lord's Supper a representation of
the death of Christ. Men, when they have found an event to be
interesting and remarkable, have often devised ways of representing it
to the people that they might understand it.
With regard to our Lord's death, there are some who hang up pictures on
the wall; they think the use of the crucifix and so on to be proper. I
find no teaching of that kind in the Word of God. I do find that too
often such things lead to idolatry. And what shall we say of these
miracle-plays which, even in these modern times, have been carried out,
in which the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is travestied? They seem to
be shocking to the Christian mind. But here, in a very simple manner,
you have God's own appointed way of representing to ourselves and to
onlookers the death of our Lord. This is the Christian's "show"–we
show the death of Christ here by a divine appointment. I shall, farther
on, show how it is so, and that the breaking of bread and the pouring
forth of wine–the use of those two emblems–is a most telling, most
suggestive, most instructive method of representing the death of
Christ. There are two other ways of representing it–the one the pencil
of the evangelist which has drawn the death of Christ in the Word of
God; the other is the preaching of the gospel. It is the preacher's
business to set forth Christ crucified–evidently crucified among you.
The three ways that God has ordained of representing the death of
Christ are the Word read, the Word preached, and this blessed ordinance
of the Supper of the Lord.
To "show." This means to declare, to testify; and it means also to
represent. But it has a third meaning: it means also to hold forth, to
make manifest, to publish, to call attention to. Now it has been a
matter of fact that when the Jesuit missionaries went to China and
converted a great many to what they called the Christian faith, they
never mentioned the fact that Christ died. For years they concealed it,
lest the people should be shocked Now we, on the other hand, put that
first and foremost. We have no other Christianity than this, that
Christ died and rose again, and we cannot come to the Lord's table
without showing it. The Jesuit could, because it would puzzle the
wisest man to see the death of Christ in the Mass. He might sit and
look at a hundred Masses before he knew what it meant. But the moment
we gather around this table and break bread, and pour out wine, whoever
asks us, "What mean ye by this ordinance? the answer is prompt–the
wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err in this–"We set forth to
you that Jesus died." "God forbid that we should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." We are not ashamed of a crucified
Saviour. We have heard of some in these days who are always preaching a
glorified Christ. We wish them such success as their ministry is likely
to bring; but for us we preach a crucified Christ–"Christ and him
crucified"; for it is here, after all, that the salvation of the sinner
lies. Christ glorified is precious enough–oh! how unspeakably precious
to a soul that is saved!–but first and foremost to a dying world it is
Christ upon the cross that we have to declare. And, therefore, when we
come to the Communion table we do three things. We assert the fact that
Jesus died; we represent that fact in emblem, and then we thus press it
upon the attention of men. We desire them to observe it; we ask them to
mark it; we tell them that this is the sum and substance of all the
gospel that we were sent to preach, "God hath set forth Christ to be a
propitiation for our sins."
Thus I have opened up the meaning of the word to "show." This is what
we do. Now the second point is, my brethren:–
II. WHAT WE SHOW, AND HOW
It is said in the text, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this
cup, ye do show the Lord's death." How do we show it? What do we show?
Well, first of all, we show that God has set forth Christ for men. The
table is spread; there is bread on it; there is the cup upon it. What
for? Not for beasts. Here is the food of men. It is set there for men.
It is intended that the bread should be eaten, that the wine should be
drunk. Everybody who sees a table spread knows at once that there are
preparations for a meal or a festival. Now God has set forth Christ for
men. There is in Christ what man wants. As bread meets his hunger, as
the cup meets his thirst, so Christ meets all the spiritual wants of
mankind. And the soul that would live, and the soul that would rejoice,
must come to God's provision for his living and his rejoicing, and that
provision is to be found in Jesus Christ crucified. God set forth
Christ of old. Even in the garden, he set him forth in the first
promise. He continued to set him forth by all the prophets, and in this
last day every veil has been taken away by an open Bible inviting all
comers. God has set forth the bread of life to the sons of men. And you
tonight will show that fact. When you see that table uncovered, you
have a representation. God has made a feast of fat things for the sons
of men in the person of Jesus Christ. The feast consists of bread and
wine. Now in this we represent Christ's human person, Christ's
humanity. That he is no myth, but real flesh, is taught by the bread
being on the table–that he was no phantom, but that real blood coursed
through his veins as through ours–that the Lord of life and glory was,
like ourselves, a real man, in humanity in all respects like to
ourselves, sin alone excepted. There shall be no phantom feast upon the
table, and the materialism that is there is meant to show that he was a
man, a real man
"Who once on Calvary died,
When streams of blood and water ran
Down from his wounded side."
But the next thing we show forth is his death. We have his person; then
we have his death–observe how. Recording to the Romish Church, the
most of the people are only to participate in the bread–the wafer. Now
such persons never show Christ's death at all, for the text says, "As
often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show Christ's death."
It is only by the two that you show his death at all. The bread
represents the body, but the cup must represent the blood, or else you
have no token of his suffering–no emblem of his death. Cannot the two
be mixed together? No, for if the blood and flesh be together, you have
the living man. It is when the blood flows–when the lifeblood ebbs
from the body, and the body is bloodless, that then you have the wine
as a token of death; and the separation of the two–the use of the two
emblems–is absolutely needful to set forth death. The more you think
this the more you see in it. The emblem is the simplest in the world,
but yet the most instructive. Take either one of the elements–the
bread, how it typifies Christ's suffering! Here was the corn bruised
beneath the thresher's flail; then was it cast into the ground. It
sprung up and ripened, and had to be cut down with the sickle; then it
had to be threshed; then ground in the mill; then was it baked in the
oven. A whole series of sufferings, if I may use the term, it had to
pass through before it became proper food for us. And so must our
Saviour pass through sufferings innumerable before he could become food
for our souls, and redeemer of our spirits. As for that which is in the
cup, it was trodden beneath the foot in the wine-pressits juice was
pressed forth. So in the wine-press of Jehovah's wrath was Christ
pressed before he could become the wine that maketh glad both God and
man. Both emblems represent suffering, each one separately, but put
together they bring forth the idea of death, "and as often as ye eat
this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death."
But more than this; we show that God set forth Christ; we show his
person as a real man; we show his sufferings and his death; but next we
show our participation in the same, for it is not "as often as ye look
at this bread," or "as ye gaze upon this cup," but "as often as ye eat
this bread and drink this cup." Christ saves us not until we do receive
him by an act of faith. The bread satisfies no hunger while it rests
upon the table, and a draught from the cup quenches no thirst until it
really is drunk. So the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Saviour must
be received by our faith. We must believe in him to the saving of our
souls. Now how simple a matter is eating! It matters not, unless a man
be dead–he wants little teaching to know how to eat. It is as simple
as a natural act–he puts food into his mouth. It is just so here.
There is the Saviour, and I take him–that is all. It seems to me to be
even a more complex act to eat than simply to trust in Jesus, yet is it
a very simple thing. The idiot can eat. No matter how guilty a man, he
can eat; no matter how dark and despairing his fears, he can eat; and O
poor soul, whoever thou mayest be, there shall be no want of wit or
merit that shall keep thee back from Christ. If thou art willing to
have him, thou mayest have him. The act of trusting Christ makes Christ
as much thy own as the eating of the bread. Suppose some difficulty
were raised about whether a piece of bread was mine. Well, the legal
question would take a long time to decide. I cannot produce the
document, nor find the witnesses to prove it is mine. But there is one
little fact, I think, which will settle it–I have eaten it. So if the
devil himself were to say that Christ is not mine, I have believed on
him; and if I have believed on him, he is mine just as surely as when I
have eaten a piece of bread there can be no question about its being
mine. Now we set forth to-night, by eating bread and drinking of the
cup, the fact that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, and we take him by
simple faith to be our all in all.
But there is more teaching still. The bread and wine, are being eaten
and drunk, are assimilated into the system; they minister strength to
bone, sinew, muscle; they build up the man. And herein is teaching.
Christ believed in is one with us–"Christ in us the hope of glory. "We
have heard persons talk of believers falling from grace and losing
Christ. No, sir, a man has eaten bread–he ate it yesterday. Will you
separate that bread from the man? Will you trace the drops that came
from the cup, and fetch them out of the man's system? You shall more
easily do that than you shall take Christ away from the soul that has
once fed upon him. "Who shall separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord?" He is in us a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. See then how large a letter Christ has written
to us with these pens–how in this bread and this wine, eaten and
drunk, he has taught us wondrous mysteries–in fact, the whole
Christian faith is, in brief, summed up here upon this table.
And now we must remark upon what it is we show forth, and how we do it.
We do this very simply. Certain churches must go about this business in
a very mysterious manner–a great deal of machinery is wanted–a plate
becomes a paten, and a cup becomes a chalice, and a table, ah! that has
vanished and turned into an altar. The whole thing is turned
topsy-turvy until it is very questionable in the Church of Rome whether
there is any supper at all; for if you introduce the altar, you have
put away the table and done away with the whole thing. It is another
ordinance, and not the ordinance which Christ established. One would
suppose that when the Apostles first went out to preach, if the
religion of the Romish Church be that of the Scripture, they would have
needed, each of them, a wagon to carry with them the various
paraphernalia necessary for the celebration of their services. But
here, wherever there is a piece of bread, and wherever there is a cup,
we have the plain, but instructive emblems which our Saviour bade us
use. "He took bread and break it. "He did drink of the cup, and passed
it to his disciples, and said, "Drink ye all of it."
Let us keep this ordinance in its pure simplicity. Let us never add
anything to it by our own devising by way of fancying that we are
honouring God by garnishing his table. Let us plainly show Christ's
death, and as we do it plainly we should also do it festively. Is it
not delightful to reflect that our Lord has not ordained a mournful
ceremony in which to celebrate his death: it is a feast. You would
suppose by the way that some come that it is a funeral, but it is a
feast, and joy becomes a feast; and when, according to the example of
Christ, we recline at our ease in the nearest approach to the posture
in which the Oriental lay along at the table, and when we come with
joyful heart, blessing the Lord Jesus that though our sins put him to
death, yet his death has put to death our sins, then it is that we
celebrate his death as he would have us celebrate it–not as an awful
tragedy, in which we try to provoke our indignation against the Romans
or the Jews, but as a hallowed festival, in which the King himself
comes to the table, and his spikenard gives forth a sweet smell, and
our spirit is refreshed.
And once more, this way of showing Christ's death is one of communion.
Now one person cannot do it; many must come together. Ye must eat and
drink together to celebrate this, your Lord's death. And is not this
delightful, for in this cup we have fellowship with him and with one
another? We, being many, have one bread; we, being many, have one
cup–one family at one table with one common head, the Lord Jesus, who
is all in all to us. Oh! I bless his name that whereas he might have
ordained a way of our showing his death which would have been mournful,
or a way which would have been solitary, he has selected that which is
joyful, and that which is full of good fellowship, so that saints below
and himself can meet together in the festival of love and show his
death until he come, in the breaking of bread and the pouring forth of
wine. Thus I have tried to show what it is we show, and how we show it.
Now thirdly:–
III. WHO ARE TO SHOW IT?
Who show it? "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do
show the Lord's death." The "ye," then includes all the saints of
God–all who come to the table, who eat this bread and drink this cup;
and truly a very pleasing thought arises from this. Here is a way of
showing Christ's death in which all who love Christ have a share. You
cannot all show it from the pulpit; gifts are not equally distributed;
but you all alike share in this showing of his death–in this special
way, which he himself celebrated for our example, and which he
delivered to his servant Paul, expressly that it might stand on record.
Now if Paul himself were here, he could not show Christ's death alone
at the Lord's Supper. He must ask some of his poorer brethren to come
with him. If the minister of a church should be full of the Holy Ghost,
yet could he not show forth Christ's death here in this peculiar way.
He must say to his brethren, "Come, brethren and sisters; it says '
ye,' as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup." Here we are
to-night, as we sit here, all brought into a blessed equality in the
act of using the same outward sign, and of performing the Master's will
in the same way.
"But," says ones "doth every man who comes to the table, and eats and
drinks, show Christ's death? Notice how the verse which follows my text
puts a bar to that. "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
this bread." It must be taken for granted that the man has examined
himself–that he comes there as a true believer in Jesus–that he comes
there with the full intent to show Christ's death; and if he does that,
such a man is showing Christ's death. I am very earnest, dear brethren
and sisters, as it has been a long time since I have met with
you–having been kept away so long by sickness, though I have been with
my brethren below stairs–I am anxious that we should indeed show
Christ's death to-night. Let us do it to ourselves. I find that the
text may either be read in the indicative or in the imperative mood. It
is either "ye show Christ's death," as our version has it, or it may be
"show ye Christ's death"–it is an exhortation. Oh! let us take care
that we show it to ourselves. "Show it to ourselves?" says one. Yes, it
is meant for you. This is a primary meaning of the text. When you take
that bread, don't think of the bread, and stay there, but say to your
own soul, "My soul, think thou of Jesus. My heart, go away now to
Gethsemane. Come, ye stray thoughts; Come, ye passing vanities, begone!
I must away to where my Saviour bled and died.
"Sweet the moments, rich in blessing
Which, before his cross, I spend."
I have come here to show his death; let me see him. I will ask him to
permit me in spirit to put my finger into the print of the nails, and
to put my hand into his side. Oh! go not from this table satisfied with
the outward emblem; press into the inner court–pray the Master to
manifest himself to you as he does not unto the world. For here is the
main business–show his death to your own heart till your heart bleeds
for sin; show it to your own faith till your faith feels it is all
sufficient–show it to others. You will be sure to show it to others if
you show it to yourself for as others look on and mark your reverent
behaviour; if they cannot enter into your joy, they will be reminded of
what they have so long forgotten. Oh! brethren and sisters, let me urge
each one of you that no one should be content without sharing this
honour. I feel we all have an honour to participate in showing forth
the death of Christ. Let us not, in sharing the honour, bring
condemnation on ourselves. But I must hasten on. The fourth point is:–
IV. WHEN ARE WE TO DO IT?
The text says "often"–"as often as ye eat this bread." The Holy Spirit
might have used the words "when ye eat," but he did not. He teaches us
by implication that we ought to do it often. I do not think there is
any positive law about it, but it looks to me as if the first
Christians broke bread almost every day–"breaking bread from house to
house." I am not sure that that refers to Communion, but in all
probability it does. This much is certain, that in the early Church the
custom was to break bread in memory of Christ's passion on the first
day of every week, and it was always a part of the Sabbath's service
when they came together to remember their Lord in this way. How it can
be thought right to leave the celebrating of this ordinance to once a
year or once a quarter I cannot understand, and it seems to me that if
brethren knew the great joy there is in often setting forth Christ's
death they would not be content with even once a month. But I leave
that.
The other mark of time in the text is "till he come." Then this service
is to end. There will be no more Lord's Suppers when Christ appears,
because they will be needless. Put out the candle–the sun has risen.
Put away the emblem–here comes Christ himself. But until he does come,
this will always be a most fitting ordinance. I pleased myself with a
thought I met with the other day. Our Lord Jesus Christ sat at the
table and ate with his disciples, and he took the cup and he sipped it,
and he passed it round. It is being passed round still. It has not got
round the table yet, it is being passed on. For 1,800 years it has been
passed from hand to hand. They have not all drunk yet; and you remember
he, said, "Drink ye all of it"–all of you. Did he speak to all his
elect that were to be born–to all the countless companies yet to come?
I think he did, and it is going round: and by-and-bye, when all the
people of God have participated in Christ, it will cease. The cup will
never be emptied till then.
"Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more."
When the last has drunk of it, what then? It will come back into the
Master's hands, and then will be fulfilled that word of his, "I say
unto you I will not henceforth drink of the juice of the vine till I
drink it new in my heavenly Father's kingdom." And it is going round,
brethren–that cup of glorious Christian fellowship of love to Christ,
the cup that is filled with Jesus' blood–it is passing round, and when
it has reached his hand then we shall need no more the outward
ordinance. But until then it is clear from the text that it is to be
kept up. And I have a little dispute with some of you here present. You
love the Lord, but you have never been baptized; you love Jesus, but
you have never come to his table. Now let me say you are in opposition
to Christ. He says, "Do this till I come", you don't do it. "Oh! but I
am only one," say you. To your measure of ability you have helped to
make the lord's Supper obsolete. Can you see that? If you have a right
to neglect it, so have I–if I, so have all my brethren. Then there is
an end to it. My dear brother, you are doing the best you can to make
Christ forgotten in the world. I pray you by his own dying example and
his express command, "This do ye in remembrance of me"–if ye have
believed him, keep this, his commandment. If ye have not believed in
him, then far hence! Ye have no right to take it. But if you have
believed, I beseech you stand not back for shame or fear, but eat and
drink at his table till he come.
Time has gone too fast for me, and I must close. There is one lesson,
however, that I cannot leave out. Until Christ come. We are taught our
interim employment–what is to occupy us until Jesus comes. Beloved
brethren, until Jesus comes we have nothing left but to think of him.
Till Jesus comes the main thing we have to do is to think of and set
him forth a crucified Saviour. There is no food for the Church but
Jesus; there is no testimony to the world but Jesus crucified. They
have sometimes told us that in this growing age we may expect to have
developed a higher form of Christianity. Well, they shall have it that
like it; but Christ himself has left us nothing but just this, "Show my
death till I come." The preacher is to go on preaching a dying Saviour;
the saint is to go on trusting that dying Saviour, feeding on him and
letting his soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. There is
nothing left us to occupy our thoughts, or to be the subject of our
joy, as our dear dying Lord. Oh! let us feed on him. Each one,
personally, as a believer–let him feed on his Saviour. If he has come
once, come again. Keep on coming till Christ himself shall appear. As
long as the invitation stands let us not slight it, but constantly come
to Christ himself and feed on him.
In conclusion, let every ungodly person here know that he has no part
nor lot in this matter. Thy first business, sinner, is with Christ
himself. Go thou and put thy trust in him. Oh! go this night. Thou
mayest never have another night to go in. And then when thou best
believed, then obey his command in baptism, and then also come to his
table and show his death until he come. The Lord bless you for Christ's
sake. Amen.