By Ron van Leerdam.
You can access Lord’s Day 28 here:
https://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/28.html
Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Every month we celebrate the Lord’s supper.
Today we consider the significance of the sacrament that Jesus instituted.
Jesus taught his disciples to eat and drink in remembrance
of Him.
Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover feast on the
night He was betrayed.
The Passover meal reminded Israel of God’s deliverance.
He brought them out of slavery to the promised land.
The Lord’s supper tells us of Jesus sacrifice to deliver all
His people from punishment and grant forgiveness of sin.
The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and fallen short.
Yet many religions teach – be good and you will be saved.
No-one is perfectly good.
All fall short – we have been born sinful.
Proof of this is the fact that we do not need to teach
children to be naughty – it comes naturally.
We need to know the Gospel – the good news – of Jesus.
In the Lord’s Supper we taste AND SEE the grace of God
in Christ.
We share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross; share in
all His gifts by faith.
Not the works I offer to God make me right with God.
By faith alone; that too is a gift of God we are able to be
assured of salvation.
By faith we are joined to Him who said,
“I am the bread of life.”
He is real bread-
In John’s Gospel we read:
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who
comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes
in me will never be thirsty.
But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not
believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and
whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will
but to do the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose
none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the
last day.
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the
Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.
This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in
me, and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the
Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your
forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this
bread will live for ever.”
Jesus was NOT speaking of Cannibalism.
Rather, He was speaking of the reality of the spiritual effect
of faith in Him.
We are nourished unto eternal life by faith in Him.
But there is more.
We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
By His working within us we are led to become more
like Jesus.
By God’s grace, the day is coming when we will be
perfect.
On that day there will be no nightmares or Covid-19, or
sin or death.
We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
We need to recognise that God does not just deal with
us as individuals, but just as the one body has one soul,
yet many members, we who belong to Christ are one
body.
We eat this bread and drink expressing our trust in the
person of Jesus.
We call on Jesus in faith.
We eat and drink in response to His command.
As we exercise our faith, our souls are nourished by the
gracious working of the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us.
He leads us into the truth.
He comforts and strengthens us as He points us to the
sacrifice of Christ and tells us, “His life was given for you.”
Being made in the image of God, we are made to have
fellowship; live in harmony with each other.
The relationship of the God head is characterised by love,
unity; diversity, and harmony in purpose and mind.
In a way we cannot fathom the fullness of the relationship
between Father, Son; Holy Spirit, but we know
something of their relationship from the Scriptures.
Jesus said, “He who has seen the Father has seen me.”
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the
Father is in me.
“My food and drink is to do the will of my Father.”
When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father,
He will testify about me.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God’s will.
Why have I gone into this detail?
To illustrate that in the Lord’s supper we have a picture of
the way that the grace of God not only removes our sins
and so enables God to reconcile us to Himself, but also how
we by grace are reconciled to each other.
We who are many are made one through the sacrifice of
Jesus.
We have been united to Christ by faith.
Not only do we have union with Christ – He said,
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Counsellor to be with you for ever–
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you
know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Before long, the world will not see me any more, but
you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will realise that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you.
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the
one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
In the form we read of the many grains making one loaf –
We who are many make one body.
This is a unity that God has created.
We share the same Father who has taken the initiative
in adopting us as His children through the one
sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
On the cross Christ stood in our place, bearing the
punishment we deserve.
Through faith we share in all His gifts.
One of the gifts is – becoming a member of His body.
We are part of the same family – the family of God.
This has significant implications for the way we relate to
each other.
Remember the way the triune God relates?
In a similar way – we being made in His image –
are to express the same qualities in our
relationships with our brothers & sisters.
One mind and purpose, one in love – that is
commitment to each others well-being.
Having the same hope.
The same faith.
The same Father – who is Lord over all.
Paul shows how this truth affects the way we live out our
faith.
“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I
say.
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks
a participation in the blood of Christ?
And is not the bread that we break a participation in the
body of Christ?
Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one
body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of
demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s
table and the table of demons.
Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we
stronger than he?
Everything is permissible –but not everything is
beneficial. Everything is permissible –but not
everything is constructive.
Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of
others.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all
for the glory of God.
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks
or the church of God–
even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I
am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so
that they may be saved.”
Let us seek to build up the body as each members does
their part so Christ is honoured and glorified.
We give thanks and praise for the gracious work of the
Father whose love for us was so great that he gave His son
to be the life giving sacrifice for our sin and our salvation.
May our lives reflect this same love & grace as we go
into this new week of this new year to serve the Risen
Lord.
The day is coming when all the nightmares and
calamities and sorrows will be no more.
Revelation 19:5 – 9.
Then a voice came from the throne, saying,
“Praise our God, all you his servants,
you who fear Him, both great and small!”
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like
the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of
thunder shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride
has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear.”
(fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy
people.)
Then the angel said to me,
“Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the
wedding supper of the Lamb!”
And he added,
“These are the true words of God.”
Rev. 21:5-7
He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!”
Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.”
He said to me: “It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring
of the water of life.
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be
their God and they will be my children.
AMEN
Mama by the water 
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