Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

Uh, this is the second Sunday in Lent and some of our songs reflect that, although my sermon will not. I do feel it well reminding us that Lent is a season of moving toward the celebration of the resurrection. And you might just be preparing for my resurrection sermon in this way. I love the song we just sang, “The Day Has Passed and Gone.” It’s a beautiful fuguing tune and I love the fact that we’ve learned some of these.

But it doesn’t end with the way everything ends. “And when our days are passed and we from time remove, oh, may we in thy bosom rest, the bosom of thy love.” That’s not the end of the story. Of course, that’s a reference to what’s known as the intermediate state—after we die and before Christ returns. But that is a temporary state. We sometimes think that is heaven or that is the eternal state. Maybe it is what we can call heaven, but it’s not the eternal state.

Jesus comes here. I was thinking in terms of the architecture of the church that draws us heavenward, the kind of vaulting effect. That’s good. We want to have a heavenly perspective, but maybe it’d be appropriate for a particular season in church architecture to draw things a little differently. You know how you have those onion dome Eastern Orthodox churches, and the idea is the world is swirling into heaven. But maybe it’d be good to have like a reverse one of those coming down from heaven, because we pray that thy will might be done on earth as it is in heaven, and Jesus returns to unite heaven and earth.

Well, in any event, that’s for the future. Today we want to talk about paedocommunion. We come together on the Lord’s day to take communion. And how we do that’s really important. The place where we have virtually the only place we have much instruction in this is found in 1 Corinthians chapters 10 and 11.

And so it’s good for us to focus on that. As we think about what it is we do in worship, we come to eat a meal with Christ. That’s the primary thing from one perspective. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. And how we do that according to 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 is quite important. So please stand for the reading of God’s word.

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*1 Corinthians 10 and 11*

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell.

Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let any who think he stands take heed, lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread.

Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake. For the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness. If any of those who do not believe invite you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for conscience’ sake.

But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for the earth is the Lord’s and all his fullness. Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience?

But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved.

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of women, nor woman independent of man in the Lord.

For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman, but all things are from God. Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

Now, in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on 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 broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.

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Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for this extended comment here on how we’re to be a body of the Lord Jesus Christ properly, and how we’re to partake of the Lord’s Supper. We thank you for bringing us here today to have a meal, a supper with Jesus, our Savior, with you, Father, and the Holy Spirit, and with one another. Bless us as we prepare our hearts to commune together at the table of our Lord by teaching us what this scripture has to say. Transform us, Lord God. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

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I might mention that at the conclusion of the sermon, our offertory is from Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is a psalm that in the history of the church has been one for family memorization. It’s long, but you’ll see in the first few verses it has a tremendous charge to parents about how to raise their children to be warriors for the Lord Jesus Christ and how they might be more faithful than us. That is our hope.

Today I want to talk about the Lord’s Supper and specifically I want to address paedocommunion. One of the things I want to do this year—you know, scattered throughout the year—is to talk about some of the basic doctrines of our church, some of our distinctives. And this, I guess, has been one of our distinctives since our origin in 1983, I believe it was.

Now, to sort of put this in the proper context: clearly what we just read says that how we do that is important. And if you sort of caught the bookends of the passage, it started by saying people that did it wrong were judged and destroyed. And by the end, it says people that are doing it wrong in Corinth are judged and actually may even be dead, weak, sickly, asleep.

So what we do here has tremendous significance for the here and now, for how we can go about the task of living our lives to glorify God. And so it has great importance. I hope you’re thinking about that.

If, for instance, you’re convinced that children do not belong at this table and we’re giving the holy things of the Lord Jesus Christ to children improperly, well, there’s some covenantal judgment that probably flows as a result of that. If, on the other hand, if we didn’t give the supper to our children, then if we’re correct about an understanding of 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, then we would be in great judgment for withholding them. So, you see, it’s not something you can just sort of be neutral on. It’s something you got to come to grips with, and the church is doing that.

Now, this all begins with the idea that’s why we’re here is to do that. In Acts 20, we read Paul talking about—or Luke talking about the voyage with Paul. “We sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days. And there we stayed seven days. And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…” this happens. He says, so from Luke’s perspective, the holy, inspired word of God’s perspective, the first day of the week is characterized as when we come together to break bread. That’s what it is.

Now, our Savior said that we can—another tremendous emphasis from one perspective: the primacy is prayer for the nations. “My Father’s house is a house of prayer for the nations.” So we come together for the pastoral prayer. And here we see well, we come together specifically for the breaking of bread. And so, weekly communion.

I made the point a couple of weeks ago in our young adults Sunday school class that you can make a better proof in the New Testament for weekly communion than you can for a weekly sermon. I mean, you can have descriptions of Paul speaking—as in this text, preaching at some length till men fall out of balconies. That’s a description, but it doesn’t ever say we came together to hear a sermon from the word of God. Now, we do that. I’m not going to get rid of the sermon, but it’s interesting what our emphasis has become, right?

Our emphasis has become the sermon. “Is the sermon good at that church or not?” Not “Do they take the Lord’s Supper or not?” Not “Are they praying for the nations or not?” And so what I’m saying is this has tremendous importance: weekly communion.

You know, we follow the basic—we know that our worship is informed by Leviticus. And in our Lord’s day worship service at the end, before the benediction, it quotes from Leviticus 9:22 or 23. And it talks about after they were done with the offerings, including the peace offering, Aaron pronounces the benediction. The idea is that if they didn’t do the peace offering—the meal with God between the worshipper and God and the priest—if they didn’t do the peace offering, no benediction.

If children don’t partake of the peace offering, I don’t know what the benediction is supposed to do for them. So weekly communion is, I think, clearly taught. It’s not the purpose of today’s sermon, and I won’t go on at more length about it, but it’s clearly taught in the scriptures. It was throughout most—you know, we think of historically too.

Well, it’s odd and unusual to do weekly communion, and it’s really odd and unusual to have children at the table. No, it isn’t. For 2,000 years, most of that time, the church—the body of the Lord Jesus Christ—partook of communion every week. And many faiths and communions, both in the Western church and the Eastern church, that remains the case.

So what’s unusual is American Christianity, where all of a sudden we don’t do weekly communion. What’s unusual is coming out of the Protestant Reformation with the Roman Catholic Church now committed to weekly communion and the Protestants not. That’s weird, and it’s not something that we want to hold up as an example of the Reformation. That’s good.

The same thing’s true of children participation. For 2,000 years, the Eastern Church—you look at the church east and west, Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church—the Eastern Church has been giving children the Supper for 2,000 years. For the first 1,100 years or so of the Western church, the Western church gave children the Lord’s Supper.

So for over three-quarters—if you want to take the whole thing together, over three-quarters of the times that people get together to worship in the last—since the church was birthed, children have been at the table. See, so what we’re doing here is not odd or unusual. It’s normal. It seems ahistorical to us or different because we’re in a particular setting now of Christianity where we didn’t reform that part.

The Western church, because of superstitious beliefs primarily about the 12th century, stops giving children the Lord’s Supper. It was the Western church that went through the Protestant Reformation. Praise God. And to the reformers, I think the whole idea of restoring children to the table was a bridge too far for them. A few of them wanted to do that. There were discussions about it, but it was a bridge too far.

And so that hasn’t been restored to reformed churches, but there is this tremendous movement of the people of God in our day and age where children are being restored to the table in the churches that came forth from the Reformation. Praise God for that.

In the context of our particular denomination, the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, they’re nearly all paedocommunionists of some stripe or variety. So it’s important what we do. We’re here to take the Supper. The church has normally had the Supper every week, and the church has normally had children at that Supper.

So that’s all to set aside. It doesn’t make any difference what history has done. If it’s wrong biblically, we don’t want to do it. But that’s kind of the background for this.

Let’s take a couple of minutes now, or a minute or two, to look at your outlines for today. And today it really is kind of a syllabus. Some people have joked about that. Today it almost is. And if I would have been thinking when I made these up, I would have included two more pages. I got a mailing, and I will try to make copies of this and make them available next week.

I’ve mentioned the abortion statistics and how we’re almost down to the same rate of abortion that we were pre-Roe v. Wade. We don’t need laws to change the country. And that same point is made in the recent mailing from Right to Life here in Oregon. And the abortion rates in Oregon have dropped, dropped, dropped. So it’s really an amazing thing that’s going on.

Now, abortion is directly connected to what I’m saying here because we read in Judges 13:13: the angel of the Lord appears to the mother of Samson, will be Samson, and is giving her instructions about Samson’s coming birth—a deliverer; Jesus is the greater Samson, of course. And in verse 13, the angel of the Lord said to Manoah: “Of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. Manoah is the husband. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I command her, let her obey.”

Why couldn’t this woman have wine? Because she was pregnant with Samson, and Samson in an unusual way was to be a Nazirite from his birth. Well, Samson’s alive. That’s why we’re against abortion, is it?

The Bible says that Samson is communing. He’s drinking the fruit of the vine inside his mom when she takes wine. That’s the reason for the prohibition. He’s not supposed to have wine. Nazirites couldn’t do it for set periods of time, and that’s a whole other deal. But the point is that’s what he wasn’t supposed to do.

And the angel, by way of implication, what the word of God tells us here is that Manoah and other pregnant women here today—the children that are growing in the context of their womb is communing. They’re at least getting this wine. They’re communing. Now, they’re sort of excommunicated in a sense when they’re born, and they’re connected to the people of God through circumcision in the Old Testament, through baptism in the New Testament, and they become part of that communing family again.

But the only point I wanted to make there was there is this relationship between abortion and paedocommunion. And I’ll try to make this available to you at another time.

Now, the other handouts today—if you have the handout, great. If not, you ought to get one. If you need one, you can get up and get it. It’s okay. The first two pages are sermon notes. And don’t be intimidated. I got a lot of text actually cited here to assist you.

So the first two pages are what we’ll talk about, and really it’s basically just three points. We allow children to come to the table—not allow. We say children should be at the table because we think that’s properly discerning the Lord’s body. Secondly, the self-examination clause normally used to say that children should be at the table doesn’t work that way. And so we’re going to deal with the self-examination clause and say that it demonstrates again the properness of children at the table.

And then third, we’re going to look at the fact, the historical fact, from the Old Testament that children were part of the sacramental meals of the Old Testament. Children were part of the body of God in the Old Testament who partook of holy things. So that’s basically our point: properly discerning the body means we have to have our children at the table, our baptized children at the table. A self-examination clause doesn’t prohibit that; it actually reinforces that view. And third, this has historical continuity with the church of the Old Testament as well because children partook of sacramental meals.

So that’s the first two pages. The third page is a simple, succinct, introductory defense of paedocommunion by Tim Galant. He has a book called “Feed My Lambs.” Excellent book. We have it in our library. It has a study guide with it for those of you that might want to do a small group study together. And these are just a series of very succinct comments by Tim that are, I think, worthy for you to have.

And I produced this syllabus—so to speak, that’s an extended handout today—because this is an important thing. Number one, it’s important that we’re able to articulate what we think about our kids. That’s why I wore the tie today. Kids, right? Rejoicing kids at the Lord’s Supper. Why do we think that? Well, we want to be able to articulate that.

So I want to give you something. It’s three-hole punched. Little detailed. You can put it in your binder sometime at home, you can put it in your Bibles, think about it, be able to talk about it with your Christian friends, and with your children, to help them understand as they grow up.

So the third page is that section by Tim Galant. And Tim has a website as well that you can go to and find lots of articles. And then the last page is this nice picture of two kids: “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” So that’s true.

Oh, I skipped over the fourth page. The fourth page is guidelines for RCC’s third Sunday fellowships. Why do I have that here? Well, one, I wanted you to have it, and this is the easiest way to do it. But it is connected to the sermon because the point is that the Lord’s body is what’s represented here. And we’re going to gather for fellowship in smaller bodies and smaller groups this afternoon, many of us.

And so this is a way to encourage you and to be an encouragement to one another, and to practice what we’re talking about with children at the Supper, children in our groups—body life, I guess, is the evangelical term for it. And this is one thing we do. For a while this year we’ll be doing this third Sunday fellowships. And there’s some guidelines for you here.

Okay. And then finally, a coloring picture for the young kids. Sorry, not a dotted outline for kids today, but a coloring picture: “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

That’s about it, really. Jesus loves the little children. The Lord’s Supper is a good thing. Why wouldn’t the loving Savior who knocks at the door of the church today and says, “If you open the door, He’ll come in and sup with you”—I think that means everybody in the home, everybody at the doors of the church, including our children?

Jesus loves you, little children. If you look at my tie today and think, “What’s Pastor wearing that goofy tie for?”—it’s just a reminder to you and to the adults at this church that Jesus loves you. He blesses you. He took you up in His arms and blessed little children in the Bible. And He blesses you at this table. He wants you to partake of the bread and the wine. And He wants us to cause you to rejoice in those things. Not bring some responsibilities, right?

The gospel is: Jesus loves you. He invites you to the marriage feast of the Lamb—the wedding feast that we have every Lord’s day. That’s the beautiful picture of what worship is. In summation, in the gospels, Jesus says, “Invite people to the feast.” And children, you’re invited to the feast. That’s good news, great news, that God loves you.

The response is you’re then called to live your lives for Jesus, right? You’re changed by that, and you want to serve the King and you want to honor Him whose family you are now part of.

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All right. Okay. So let’s now go to the actual text finally. Wow. 1 Corinthians 11.

And as I said, this is one of the few places that the Bible actually speaks about the Lord’s Supper. And this is an extended discussion. Paul, by the way—this is another instance of how we see that the Lord’s Supper is important weekly—because He says, when you come together, you’re not eating the Lord’s Supper. You may think you are, but you’re not. And the point is, the obvious implication is when you come together, you’re supposed to be eating the Lord’s Supper. So when we come together on the Lord’s day, we’re supposed to have the Lord’s Supper.

And so this text is given to them as a corrective to help them understand what they should do.

Okay. Roman numeral one: Paedocommunionists obey the injunction to properly discern the Lord’s body. To properly discern the Lord’s body, there is a problem in Corinthians. The problem is verse 30. “For this reason, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” There is a curse that’s at work. We could say there’s judgment, there’s chastisement.

Some people are getting sick, weak, and even dying. And I might say, by way of big picture sort of stuff, the church in America has been sick and dying for a long, long time. Reformed churches are not tearing it up in this country. And I think we could, by application at least and by inference, say that as children are restored, as the body is properly discerned—let’s put it that way for now—as the body is properly discerned, the cause of the church’s weakness, sickliness, and death will be taken care of, and the Lord God will bless us and revivify the church and change the culture as a result.

So there’s a curse. The curse is: many are weak and sick. The commandment then indicates to us the cause for this. Why is this happening? Well, verse 27 says, “Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. For he who eats and drinks in unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

So there’s a summation phrase. Why is the curse upon them? An improper discernment of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean? Well, and the basic point we’re saying is that what’s being talked about here is the corporate body of Christ. Why do we say that?

Well, in part because of the cure. Verse 28 says, “So let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” So he’s supposed to be examining himself, but of what? What’s the critique here that shows the failure of properly discerning the body?

He begins to tell us in verse 18: “First of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.” Verse 21, “in eating, each one takes his own supper and ahead of others. One’s hungry, another is drunk. What? Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God?”

The point is the Corinthians are despising the corporate body of Christ, the church of God. So if we’ve got a curse, and then the reason for it is told—a failure to discern the Lord’s body, which leads to unworthy participation—the correction he brings to them is to address that particular problem.

If we’re not sure what the cause is in terms of what does it mean discerning the body of Christ? Is it discerning His mystical body? Is it discerning something deep and spiritual about Jesus? And there’s probably some degree of that. The Supper, of course, He says, “This is My body,” and we do think of the body of Christ on the cross. But the corrective is—or the reason that he critiques them is that they’re failing in—they’re sinning against each other.

Okay, so he’s critiquing them by saying you’re having divisions. That’s the problem. That’s why you’re weak and sickly. That’s the reason the curse is upon you. The cause is not discerning the body, which is linked to his statements that they are sinning against each other in terms of the corporate body. The people in the room are being sinned against.

He says, and then the application of the cure shows the same thing—that the answer is to engage in proper community. How does he end all of this? He says in verse 33, “Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.”

He doesn’t say, “When you come together to eat, make sure you have a time of thoughtful meditation upon the mystical body of Christ.” If he had said that, then we would say, “Well, properly discerning the body has to do with that whole thing.” And that’s not bad. I mean, that might be what God is saying. But the correction that he applies to it—again, shows, as does everything else in the text—that what he’s talking about is sins against the corporate body, against each other, because the cure is an action that you take toward one another.

He applies the cure by saying wait for each other, be considerate of each other. Okay.

So there’s a curse. The reason is something that we’re trying to figure out: discerning the Lord’s body. And we understand that because he critiques them by saying you’re having divisions, you’re sinning against each other. And when he applies the cure to the problem that’s creating the curse, the cure says exercise love toward each other.

So you see, it makes it very clear, I think, that we—that discerning the Lord’s Supper, or discerning the Lord’s body rather, has to do with the corporate body. The curse, command, and cure sections of this text all point to the covenant community as the Lord’s body. That’s what is going on here. It’s the covenant community of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in verses 18, 21, and 22, as I said, he critiques the Corinthian situation. He shows the failure of discerning the body as a failure of community, not meditation on the mystical body of Christ. He tells them also—later, you won’t take the time to look there—but in chapter 12, listen to what he says again to reinforce this idea of the corporate body.

“By one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink of one spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many.”

The body—again, prior to this, the text in chapter 10 showed the body was the corporate body. After this, chapter 11 and chapter 12, he actually refers to us all as one body, being baptized into the one body, and also drinking of the one spirit. The elements of the Lord Supper are still in his mind as he writes chapter 12, as he brings that instruction.

We all partake of the one cup. We all partake of the one loaf. We are—this is the spirit—has placed us into the body of Christ.

So when children are baptized and brought into the visible family of God and the body of Christ, then surely this is what they’re supposed to be doing after their baptisms—partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

So, as I said, the application of the cure also is a strong statement that the answer is to engage in proper community.

A few other things about this discerning the Lord’s body. There are actually—the preponderance of Greek texts doesn’t say “discerning the Lord’s body.” It says “you’re not discerning the body.” It leaves out the “Lord’s.” Now, we use a particular textual tradition that has “Lord’s body” in there, and I think that’s probably accurate. But the point is that those texts would have been so obviously improperly, faultily made if what the text was trying to say was the Lord’s body in the sense of the mystical apprehension of the Lord’s body.

Do you see what I’m saying? It didn’t cause them much difficulty to slip the word “Lord” out because they all knew what Paul was talking about was the body, which is the church, not the Lord’s Jesus Christ body on that cross, or his mystical body in heaven—the corporate body.

So there’s preponderance of other texts. Secondly, when the Lord’s body is actually used in the New Testament, the preponderance of those usages, specifically in the context, say they’re talking about the corporate body of the church, not the actual physical resurrected body of Jesus.

And, as I said before, the contextual evidence—for “Lord’s body” here, saying that there is a one body because they all eat of the one loaf, and the corrective—all point to the meaning of the Lord’s body being the covenanted community of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we read the text, we say that their problem was a failure to discern the Lord’s body. Their sin was sinning against each other. We had better, as we come to the table, properly discern the Lord’s body, better understand it. And the immediate application in Corinthians tells us that what he’s talking about is understanding who the members of the church are. It’s concerning the Lord’s corporate body.

And if children are members of the covenantal or corporate body of Christ, then to exclude them from the table is improperly discerning the Lord’s body. And that’s going to bring the judgment of God on us. Okay?

I hope this is clear. Hope this is clear.

Now, the overall context of this is: I wanted to read 1 Corinthians 10 because clearly in 1 Corinthians 10, he’s telling them what that corporate body is. We can go to other places and we will to talk about children’s inclusion in the covenant body and the corporate body. But in chapter 10, this is why I read with emphasis the places that I did—he says that all of those that preceded us, our fathers, those that went before us in the faith, that all of them were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, which was Christ.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, in a footnote, cites this text to talk about the sacramental meals of the Old Testament. And the point is that all—all who went through the Red Sea and who ate manna in the wilderness? Just the ones old enough to think about it? No, of course not. The little ones went through. The babies went through, right? They all went through the Red Sea.

So children were—this is an ironclad text for the inclusion of children in the corporate body of Christ—subject at the earliest of ages to the baptismal waters, prefigured in the Old Testament church. But it’s also an ironclad text to say that all those same people, including the children, ate manna in the wilderness.

Now, we should know that, of course, because manna was the only thing they got to eat, and God wasn’t into starving kids and making them starve to death. We know the kids ate the manna in the wilderness because it was the only food available. But secondly, this text tells us they all ate the manna. And this text says that manna is the same sort of deal as this is. It’s the sacramental body of Jesus Christ that they partook of.

And so 1 Corinthians 10 clearly tells us that the Lord’s body includes the children of the church. So we don’t have to go outside of 1 Corinthians to know what properly discerning the body is. The corrective says take care of each other.

And then we don’t have to—well, how do the body—do we take care of at the table—does it include children or not? Well, yeah, and he made that point very clear in 1 Corinthians 10. And then he went on to say that we all are of one body because we partake of the one loaf. Are our children part of the body of Christ? Our baptized children? If they are, then they have to be partaking of the one loaf with us. And they surely must be seen that way.

We have this ironclad text from chapter 10, verses 1 to 5. I won’t take the time to go there now. Well, maybe we should. Maybe we should.

All right. In Isaiah chapter 1. Yeah, we’ll stop here today. In Isaiah, let’s turn to Isaiah chapter 1.

And this is by way sort of concluding. We’ll—in two weeks, I’ll be gone next week. John will be preaching on “Children of Zion”—very appropriately in the context of what we’re going to talk about today. And in two weeks from now, more on paedocommunion. We’ll talk then about the self-examination clause, and you’ll have the notes to help prepare for that.

But I want to sum this up by saying that we don’t want to drink judgment here. We want to understand what 1 Corinthians says, and we want to obey it. And I think it’s becoming rather obvious—I hope to you. It’s very obvious to me—that the sin we’re to avoid is improperly discerning the body. It’s sinning against the body of Christ.

And we’ll see that the whole scriptures talk about children as part of that corporate body in a couple of weeks. But for now, all we need is 1 Corinthians 10 to tell us that properly discerning the corporate body means it includes the children who were baptized and who ate manna in the wilderness.

Now, in Isaiah—I said Isaiah 10 before. In Isaiah 1, I’m sorry—the chapter, the book of Isaiah begins with the same thing that Paul does to the Corinthians. There’s judgment going on, there’s judgment coming upon them. And specifically in verse—well, the first 15 verses are about the judgment that’s coming upon them.

“Your feasts, your new moons,” verse 14, “your appointed feasts my soul hates. They’re a trouble to me. I’m weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.”

See, this is essentially what Paul is telling the Corinthians. God is not pleased with your Lord’s Supper. You’re not celebrating the Lord’s Supper. He doesn’t like it when you come together and worship in the way you’re worshiping. He’s disgusted with you, the same way he was disgusted with the people that engaged in new moon feasts in the Old Testament but were sinning as they did it.

Okay? So in like way, Paul comes to them as Isaiah went to the body of Christ in the old covenant—to Israel—and tells them you’ve got problems, and your problems mean that your worship is unacceptable to me, and as a result, my judgments are coming upon you because of your worship.

What is their problem? Well, “Wash. How are they supposed to do it? Put away the evil of your doing. Verse 16: “From before my eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

It’s the same corrective, isn’t it, as Paul brings. He doesn’t say, “I don’t like how you’re not thinking about me enough when you come to worship.” He doesn’t say, “I want you to meditate more upon who I am and how those sacrifices of the temple picture me.” He doesn’t say any of that. He gives them the same corrective that Paul gives the Corinthians.

The reason I’m dissatisfied with your worship is because it’s a picture of the division, the sins against each other that are going on. The corrective is to be properly loving, to properly discern that you’re part of this body of people—the fatherless, the widow, the poor. You’re part of that group, and you come to worship ignoring those people, sinning against them, and think that I’m going to accept it.

And Paul tells the Corinthians—to the rich, “What are you doing? Remember the poor. Remember the corporate body.” He comes to the church today, to the typical evangelical and unfortunately ultimately reformed churches, I think, and says the same thing. It’s not producing health in your life. Hand because I’m not happy that you are starving the children of your communion and of your covenant community by withholding them from the Lord’s Supper.

The corrective is the same thing. “Do what’s right on the horizontal plane.” Vertical is what it’s all about—a relationship to God. But God tells us over and over again in the Bible that that’s played out in what we do to each other. Easy to fool ourselves about a deep meditation on the mystical body of Christ that we’re okay. Proper to be loving toward one another, patient with each other, forbearing of each other, and encouraging one another. But that’s the corrective in Corinthians. It’s the corrective in Isaiah 1.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord,” in verse 18. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

God doesn’t correct them so that they’d be torched, that they’d be burnt. He corrects so that they would become better. In the same way, He goes to the Corinthian church. “You’re judged, but not to the end that I kill you, but to the end that you would come to correction. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

He says, “Correct what you’re doing. Discern the body. Don’t sin against the body. And as you apply those corrections, I’ll be with you, and you’ll eat the good of the land. And those that oppose you won’t be the head over you any more. You the tail anymore.”

It is obvious, I hope, to us that the Christian church has become the tail in this country and no longer the head. Why? Because of our sins against the body. I think that’s primarily what it’s about. And so Isaiah is a parallel text to 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. We find ourselves in like times today.

The sword is devouring us. Our children are being eaten up by the context of the pagan culture in which we live. I mean, tremendous numbers of Christian children are trotted off down to public school to be taught false wisdom and to be taught practical atheism. As I said, why? Because they’re being cut out of the body of Christ. They’re not seen as part of the body of Christ until they make some kind of decision as they move toward adult life.

So I think that Isaiah and 1 Corinthians 11 says the same thing. Correct. Bring children to that table. They’re part of the corporate body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you do that, God promises that we’ll eat of the goodness of the land here, and we’ll eat of the goodness of the land in the context of his blessing upon us in the future as well. God says that this is what we’re called to do.

And in summation of your first Roman numeral, the outline: there’s judgment. This judgment is due to sins against the visible church. Therefore, wait for one another, consider one another. Properly discerning the Lord’s body means, among other things, understanding that children are part of that body and need to be nourished.

Now, in two weeks, we’ll deal with the self-examination clause. But we’ll see the same thing there—that as we look at it, it will not tell us that children shouldn’t be at the table. It’ll tell us again that children should be at this table.

We live in wonderful times. We live in times of the restoration of children to the table as a way of reminding the entire church of Jesus Christ that what we do relative to each other is of vital significance in the context of our Lord’s calling of who we are to be. We can’t hope to change the world around us through preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ if we don’t live out that gospel—the good news that Jesus Christ is amongst His people and sheds His love on each other through the corporate body one to the other. And that includes the little children that He’s given to us as well.

May the Lord God grant that our children rejoice today in the gospel that we rejoice in. Well, and in fact, we’ll talk about this in two weeks, but one of the things that this tells us is that our children are not first and foremost part of our families. They’re part of the covenant community. They’re part of the extended family of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We as parents need to hear that in our sinfulness. We think of our children as our children. The Lord’s Supper is a weekly reminder to parents that children are brought into the community of Jesus Christ and partake of the extended family meal—not because they’re your kids. You say, “What are you talking about, pastor? They come with the family.” No, they don’t.

If you have a child here today, I don’t care if they’re one of your children or not. If they’ve not been baptized, they can’t take the Supper because they don’t come here as part of your household. They come here as part of the family of the Lord Jesus Christ. And entrance into that family of Jesus Christ is by means of baptism. Baptism is the demarcator.

Only the people that are part of the covenant community, who have been washed, who have been given the baptismal rites, are allowed to participate at this table. And it tells us that ultimately we are stewards of a tremendous blessing and resource—our families. And in the context of those families, we are stewards of these young ones. But they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s their Father, and they’re part of his family.

May the Lord grant us, as we continue to think about our relationship to our kids, that we would indeed rejoice in the blessing we have of bringing them to this table today—and not just to the table, but to the whole worship service. And may He challenge us to respond to that gospel with renewed views of who our children are, renewed views of their part, of their responsibility to walk in the ways of Jesus Christ, and our responsibility to treat them as the sons and daughters of the King that they are.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for bringing us together to eat this Supper. And we thank you that you’ve brought us together, including the children here. And we thank you that you’ve called them here as well, to know that you love them deeply. And that great demonstration of love—the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, his shed blood pictured at the Supper—is immediately applied to them there.

Bless us, Lord God, as we continue to think through the implications of children at our table. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.