August 20, 2025 • 52 mins
In this episode of Christendom and the World Pastor Andrew Preus unpacks the heart of the Gospel and its connection to the Lord’s Supper, with a focus on the often-misunderstood practice of closed communion. The conversation confronts the dangers of gospel reductionism, clarifies why doctrine cannot be reduced to a lowest-common-denominator message, and shows how bearing the cross is inseparable from the Christian life. Listeners will hear how the Lord’s Supper proclaims Christ’s death, why unity in confession is vital, and how the clarity of Scripture guards the church against error. At its core, the episode points to the ultimate goal of ministry: fostering assurance of salvation through the whole counsel of God, with Christ crucified at the center.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
He called the people as well as his disciples, if you want to follow me, he told them,deny yourself, take up your cross and come with me.
If you want to save your soul, you will lose it.
But if you will lose your soul for me and for the good news, you will save it.
What good does it do you to win the whole world and lose your soul?
Or what would you give to buy back your soul?
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If among the unfaithful and sinful people of today, you are ashamed of me and what I say,then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you.
when he comes with the Holy angels in his Father's glory.
These words of our Lord from Mark chapter 8 teach us what the Christian life is like.
What is it like to have the Gospel?
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Now we know that the Gospel is the free gift of salvation, the good news that Jesus hassaved us from sin, death, and hell.
It excludes all of our own merits, all of our own strength, all of our own uh powers.
And so what we find here is that the gospel in the life of the Christian, as it works onus in our earthly lives, also serves to be that ground of our training, where we learn
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from experience that we really can't rely on our own efforts and our own merits and ourown powers.
And so this teaches us then
as we bear our cross, really what the power of the Gospel is.
So today I would like to talk about the Gospel specifically in terms of the practice ofthe Lord's Supper.
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Here we see in this central part of the Christian life what the life of the Church is hereon earth.
This is Christendom and the World.
and I am Pastor Andrew Proiss.
oh
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Okay, so today we're going to talk about the life of the Christian, the life of theGospel, and specifically as it relates to the practice of the Lord's Supper.
Now, the Gospel, of course, is the free forgiveness of sins.
eternal life and salvation, one for us by Jesus's obedient life and death, all the way tohis death on the cross.
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And his resurrection declares this freedom from sin and eternal righteousness to allsinners.
It is that pure spiritual milk that nurtures us.
And it's a great comfort to those who find in themselves no good thing.
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But what the gospel is not is the gospel is not a lowering of the bar.
The gospel is not an easier to follow rule and law.
And that's a very important point to make, especially when we consider the practice of theLord's Supper.
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A stumbling block that a lot of people run into when they come to one of our congregationsis how we practice the Lord's Supper and what we teach about the Lord's Supper.
First and foremost, we teach what our Lord Jesus teaches us, that the bread and wine arenot merely symbols of an absent body and blood of Jesus, but they are, as He says, His
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body given for us, His blood shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
And right off the bat, this teaches us that our reason and our strength must be left atthe door.
They must be sacrificed.
They must bend the knee and bow to these words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And this really gets to the heart of what the gospel is, what the gospel does.
The gospel is the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
Again, it excludes our own works and that includes the highest faculties of ourselves,which is our own minds, our own reason, our own tactics.
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And so if we look at the gospel as just, you know, a kind of lighthearted message andthat's it.
Well, what we inevitably do is we reframe the gospel from being the blood, sweat and tearsof our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered all to save us poor sinners from the wrath of God.
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We turn it from that into a squishy, uh lowest common denominator kind of law.
But when we do that, even though we might see it as an easier message, and certainly it ismuch more palatable to our sinful reason, what we're left with is still a law.
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Even though it's a squishy law, even though it's a vapid law and a shallow law, itnevertheless is a law.
And this gets to then how we look at the practice of the Lord's Supper.
In our congregations, we practice what is called closed communion.
The word closed communion originates from in the ancient church when you had the serviceof the Word where everyone would be present for, but then those who were still learning
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the Word of God, who were still being catechized, would then leave and the doors would beclosed and only the
those who have been catechized in the Christian faith uh would participate in communion.
And why would they do this?
Why would they close the altar only to those who have been catechized?
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The reason is because of what scripture says.
St.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and he says this similar words in several otherepistles, but he says, he says, appeal to you that you would be of the same mind and of
the same speech, that you would all agree.
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And this goes back to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 18, where two or three of youagree, then it is true even in heaven.
And so the
goal here of communion is not just that we would go up and do this special ceremonytogether, but that we would be in communion together in our confession.
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And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
So what does it mean to proclaim the Lord's death?
It doesn't merely mean that you just mouth the creed.
believe in Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and wasburied.
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It means that you confess the whole counsel of God which all points to Christ and hissaving life and death for us poor sinners.
And this brings with it an understanding of Christian doctrine.
uh
The Christian doctrine, while it certainly has rules, it certainly has commandments andteachings about repentance and discipline that are all included in the Christian life.
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At the center of Christian doctrine,
is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
St.
Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are built, a household built on the foundation ofthe apostles and prophets.
It says the apostolic and prophetic scriptures with Christ Jesus being the chiefcornerstone.
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And so when we see doctrine, that is the scriptural doctrine, the apostolic and propheticdoctrine,
This is revealed to us as a body of doctrine and at the center of which is Christ and Himcrucified and risen for us, for our salvation.
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The free forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name is at the center of it.
This is what Peter teaches ah in Acts chapter 10.
He says,
in his name.
And so, when we look at doctrine not just like as a list of rules, but as a body ofdoctrine, of pure teaching, at the center of which, at the heart of which is Christ, the
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Savior of sinners, then we can see doctrine as – then we can see how every part ofdoctrine is so vital, right?
The heart of doctrine is that God justifies the sinner freely by his grace on account ofChrist through faith in Jesus, on account of whom our sins are not counted against us.
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That's at the center of it all.
That's the gospel, right?
That's at the heart of it all.
Now, is it possible for me to lose my arm and still survive?
Yeah, it is possible.
But what happens if I cut my arm off and then never, you know, mend it and just kind oflet it bleed?
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What's going to happen to my heart?
It's going to stop.
And so, we can't just look at the gospel as like this one thing that we get to pick outwhile everything else we can ignore.
And when we do that, we're treating the gospel as if it is a law.
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And so when we practice closed communion, we're assuming that the doctrine that we teachis a gracious gift from God and is all part of that package of the gospel message itself.
oh
On the show, we have discussed what is often called gospel reductionism.
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We had Dr.
Harmelink on several months ago talking about Seminex and the history there where therewas the issue of the inerrancy of scripture, but then there was also really at the center
of it was the issue of gospel reductionism.
And it's this idea that, well, we don't have to be so worried about or concerned
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about all the particularities of Christian doctrine, you know, whether Adam and Eve werereal people, uh whether Jesus did this or that miracle, as long as we believe the basic
gospel that Jesus is the Savior of sinners.
The problem with that though, besides the obvious problem that you're undermining theauthority of scripture, which is what reveals the gospel.
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The other problem with that though is that you're treating the gospel as something thatyou can control, as something that you can use in a kind of rationalistic way to benefit
yourself and say, okay, so all I gotta do, it's sort of like the kids who ask theprofessor,
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students ask the professor, what's going to be on the test?
Because they're not interested in learning everything else.
They just want to know the right answers that they need to memorize so that they can getan A um and move on.
But what they're doing is they're treating it as something that's somewhat in theircontrol.
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And so when we say, well, all that matters is that we believe in Jesus.
The assumption behind that
is that the gospel is something that we are doing, that somehow we have figured out in away.
We've figured out kind of the lowest common denominator.
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And we think that that, when we talk that way, we think that that's more evangelical.
because it's easier for us to handle.
But again, the gospel is not, it's not the gospel, it's not the good news because it'seasier for you to handle.
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I Jesus, of course, says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
But what makes it easy and light is not that you are able to figure it out more easily orhandle it more easily.
What makes it easy and light is that it lifts off of you the burden of sin andcondemnation.
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But in the Christian life,
When you have the gospel, what does Jesus say?
That you lose your life for it.
As Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, count everything as loss for the sake of Christ,that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
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but the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
oh
And so when this gospel remains that which we hold on to, we actually experience a lot ofsuffering and terror and loss in this life.
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Because the underlying uh principle of the gospel is that you can't contribute anything.
that your best efforts that you think are the greatest and most pious works are inthemselves like filthy rags before God.
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And so, this burying of the cross that is inevitable for every Christian
You know, it's not just that some people are going to get persecuted in a really gruesomemanner.
No, this bearing of the cross has to do with trusting the gospel promise, our faithholding on to that promise of salvation, despite what our human reason says and what our
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experiences around the world in our daily lives tell us.
And that is excruciating.
That is losing your life, as Jesus says.
It's losing your life for the sake of the gospel.
That is, it's recognizing that nothing I do or nothing I accomplish, nothing I'm able tofigure out is something that I can boast in, but I can only boast in the righteousness of
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my Savior Jesus Christ.
If you're like me, you like to read a few different translations of the Bible.
Cross-referencing various passages in the Bible gives me insight into how words andphrases are used and repeated throughout the Scriptures.
And of course, as a pastor and teacher of God's Word, I often consult the Hebrew and theGreek sources as well.
(16:24):
But if you're like me, you also want your children to read and understand the Bible.
While there are many cross-references we can find when we dive deeply into scripture, it'snice for the simple Christian to see the basic connections between the Old and New
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An American translation of the Holy Bible, first translated by Rev.
(16:48):
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It reads almost like a novel, as the biblical accounts are clearly presented from theiroriginal languages into contemporary American English.
(17:14):
The simple references between the Old and New Testaments, found on almost every page, alsoshow the reader
how all the scriptures point to Christ and His fulfillment of God's will.
The maps in the back are also very simple and straightforward and detailed without beingintimidating to the simple student of scripture.
(17:35):
An American translation of the Holy Bible is a perfect gift for confirmation or for anyonewho is looking for an accessible translation of scripture in plain American language.
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So now let's again apply this to the Lord's Supper and to the practice of closedcommunion.
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Closed communion, again, is that we only give the Lord's Supper to those who are taughtand confess the Gospel in all of its articles.
The Gospel in all of its articles.
So you have the Gospel, the center of which is the life, death, and resurrection of
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the Son of God who became flesh and suffered and died for our salvation and rose again todeclare us righteous and gives this to us freely.
But its articles include the teaching of sin, the teaching of repentance, the teaching ofcreation, the teaching and with that then you can unpack these things, the teaching of
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creation, the teaching of man and woman, of children, right?
The teaching of sin, let's unpack that.
The teaching of original sin, the teaching uh of what sin actually is.
Is it simply a uh lack of something good and really it's just a matter of us being able tobe better or is it an enmity against God as Scripture clearly teaches?
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Is it something that we just need a little bit of help to kind of overcome or is itsomething that we need God to not count against us?
and give us then the strength to stand on the gospel, right?
So if we're not teaching clearly about what sin is, we're not teaching clearly about whatcreation is, about what repentance is, about what temptation is, if we're not teaching
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clearly about all of these articles, then we are undermining the very heart.
of the gospel message.
And so the gospel is that free gift of God, of salvation.
It is balm for your soul.
It's comfort for you who realize that in your flesh dwells nothing good.
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But as you experience the gospel, it often carries with it that burning away of
your own merits and of your own reason and of your own, you know, strength.
And that hurts, right?
So back to what Paul says in Philippians 3, I count all things as loss to gain Christ sothat I would remain trusting in Christ.
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So when we tell people, when we teach people the doctrine, the Christian doctrine,
and we hold one another accountable to that doctrine of the gospel with all its articles,what we are confessing is that all of this is part of God's good news of salvation for us.
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And we're confessing that it doesn't depend on our own mechanisms and our own traditionsand our own ideas.
But if we say, okay, well, we're going to give the Lord's Supper to those who say thatthey're Christians.
What we're doing there is we're assuming that, first of all, we're assuming that it'slegalistic to require people to believe and confess publicly the whole pure teaching of
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the gospel and all its articles.
And so the assumption behind that then is that
the doctrine of the gospel is really a law.
And so what these, it's like a to-do list of things to assent to and, you know, agree to.
And so then the trick or the, you know, what we really need to do then with that law is weneed to, if we really want to be evangelicals, we got to just lower it down to an easy
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principle.
And so as long as you say you believe in Jesus, that you are a Christian, that's goodenough.
And to require any more than that would be to add more laws.
But again, that's assuming that all of this is simply a law.
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uh And so the presupposition behind those who reject closed communion
is essentially legalistic, right?
Because they're treating God's Word like it's just a bunch of rules.
So let's pick out what we think is the easiest rule to follow, which is Jesus is ourSavior.
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But Jesus is our Savior is not just some rule to follow.
Jesus is our Savior is at the center of the whole gospel message, which gives you faithand nurtures you in the faith and
takes over your life.
So while it may, you may experience the gospel uh as a difficult thing, that's justbecause your sinful flesh never believes it.
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Your sinful flesh wants a do-it-yourself theology.
Your sinful flesh, in other words, wants a legalism, a legalistic scheme that is justcompatible
and easy to follow for the sinful human reason and our own sinful desires.
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And so, what I'm getting at here then is, if you find that it's difficult to hold on tothe gospel and all its articles, you shouldn't be surprised by that because your, again,
your sinful flesh
is never going to believe it.
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Only faith given to you by the Holy Spirit is going to hold on to God's Word.
And so if we say, you don't have to then confess all of God's Word to be true in order totake communion, what we're doing is we're kind of seeding that claim that this
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that all of God's Word is just a bunch of rules.
So, you know, and this is why it's so helpful to look at what Jesus says here about, youknow, trying to save your own life.
In other words, if you're gonna treat the Gospel as if it's this easy to follow list ofthings to do to be a good Christian.
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you know, memorize John 3.16 and say that Jesus is our Savior.
and that's how you get to heaven.
Well then you're going to, what you're doing is you're treating the gospel as if it'ssomething that you do or that is something that you contribute to even if it's just in a
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little bit, in a little way.
But if we understand that the gospel is
totally excluding our own merits and it's all what Christ has done for us.
He has fulfilled the whole counsel of God for us.
He has fulfilled the whole law.
He has fulfilled all the prophets and now he gives this to us as a package and at thecenter of this package is his lifeblood poured out for us.
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then we rest, we can rest in that pure doctrine.
We can rest on that pure teaching of our Savior.
And uh even when we don't, you know, when we find it difficult to learn it and to relyupon it, we can know that that's just because our own sinful flesh is dying, right?
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It needs to be crucified.
So, you know, Jesus says, what good does it do to win the whole world and lose your soul?
What good does it do if you figure out how to make God's Word palatable to your ownreason, to the sentiments of the world, if in the process you lose the rest of God's Word?
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And if you lose the rest of God's Word, what you ultimately do is you lose the Gospel.
So, closed communion, that is, only giving the body and blood of Jesus to those whopublicly, who have learned, who have been catechized in the Christian Church, in the
Christian doctrine, and publicly confess that doctrine.
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it is at the heart of it evangelical because the assumption there is that all of thedoctrine that you learn
is centered on Christ and Him crucified for sinners.
Even the Ten Commandments, which is the law, which by itself doesn't save you, right?
It shows you your sin.
It helps you live outwardly a good life, teaches you discipline and all that.
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But even the Ten Commandments are part of that overall body of doctrine.
And that's because Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments.
So if we throw out the law, we throw out the teaching of love God above all things, loveyour neighbors yourself, throw out the teaching about honor your father and your mother,
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throw out the teaching about marriage, throw out the teaching about protecting yourneighbor's property, throw out the teaching that all things are a gift from God.
You see where we're going here?
that stuff out, well then what does that do to the gospel?
It makes the gospel, it basically just neuters the gospel.
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So the gospel is not just Jesus is cool with you.
The gospel is not just God smiles upon you.
Certainly that is true.
But the gospel is that Jesus fulfilled everything for you and he welcomes you into hiskingdom because he declares you righteous by his blood and he gives to you as your
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inheritance everything that he has fulfilled for you.
So, you know, what the law now...
m
what the law demands of you is now fulfilled for you in Christ so that now when you learnthe law you're not put to shame.
Even though that law still accuses your sinful nature, mortifies your sinful flesh, thatlaw you know has been fulfilled by Christ.
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And so learning that and holding one another accountable to that
is all part of our conviction that Christ has fulfilled it all for us.
And that again is why, you know, insisting that we all hold to the same doctrine isevangelical.
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because the doctrine is not just a list of rules uh that, you know, we can throw away uhsome and keep others.
Now, it is true, though, that we don't hold everyone to the same standard of understandingthe doctrine, right?
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There are those in the congregation who have a much simpler understanding of the Word ofGod.
and those who have a deeper understanding.
And uh that is there in order for the whole body to be strengthened, for the body, for thehousehold to be strengthened.
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And this gets to another thing about the practice of closed communion.
Another detail is that it's not only is it evangelical,
It's also ecumenical.
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(31:17):
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(31:44):
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(32:52):
Now, have you heard the term ecumenical, uh Hannah?
No?
Ecumenical has to do, it's often used to describe like different church bodies.
or different denominations kind of getting together and discussing things with oneanother, coming to some kind of agreements or what have you.
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The ecumenical movement uh has done some of that in a genuine way, but it often has beendriven by a kind of show of unity, right, which ends up sort of watering down the
differences.
So, you know, the big one is like the
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Roman Catholic Church got together with the Lutheran World Federation and talked aboutthe, came up with a statement on a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification
where they claimed that they had all this agreement, but they didn't really hash out thedifferences, very important differences on what they actually mean when they say faith,
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when they say grace, when they talk about sin and uh stuff like that.
So there's a kind of rottenness to the ecumenical movement, but being
ecumenical, it really goes back to what are called the ecumenical creeds or the ecumenicalcouncil.
So the ecumenical creeds we would confess are the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, theAthanasian Creed, right?
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So these are the creeds that we can as the household of God hold one another accountableto.
So ecumenical comes from the Greek word for household.
ah you know, the oikas, right, the household of God.
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So ecumenical uh means that we are interested in striving for unity ah within thehousehold of God.
And the reason why closed communion is ecumenical is because
What it does is it a striving for unity of confession within the household of God.
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ah And so if I say to someone, ah I can't give you communion today, but let's talk, what'sthe goal there?
What's the goal for that person?
is the goal for that person to just go away so we don't have to give him communion becausehe's like a Baptist or something?
No, what's the goal?
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Is that he would be taught and that he would come to actually confess the same thing as wedo, right?
So there's an ecumenical goal um there.
The other uh detail about uh something being ecumenical is that it takes intoconsideration uh
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what the rest of the church believes, right?
That I care about.
You know, the fact that, for example, I'm not going to give communion to a Baptist becausethe Baptists don't teach that the body and blood of Jesus are given in the bread and the
wine.
And they also teach that baptism doesn't save, right?
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And then there are a bunch of other teachings that we would disagree with them on.
The fact that I won't give communion to someone who is a Baptist or is attending a Baptistchurch.
What that carries with it is the fact that I am actually concerned and care about what theBaptists teach, right?
If I didn't care what the Baptists teach, then I would just give communion to Baptistsbecause it wouldn't matter, right?
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So the fact that I'm saying, here, you're currently holding to Baptist teaching, you'rejoining yourself to the confession of the Baptists that have some unbiblical teachings in
their confession.
The fact that I'm saying that shows that I have an ecumenical mindset that I care aboutthe whole household of God.
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I care about my brothers and sisters in the Baptist churches.
to be able to know the truth and confess it with me.
But if I just give everyone communion, then that ends any kind of serious pursuit ofagreement within the household of God.
And the other thing about the, you know, along those lines of have having that ecumenicalspirit where you care about the whole household of God and them actually agreeing on
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doctrine is it also keeps us in touch with our history, right?
So we care.
about what has been taught and practiced throughout history.
And that isn't to say that the basis of our teaching is what was taught, what we alwaysdid, like it's our tradition.
No, the basis of our teaching is scripture, but what our fathers in the faith taught andpracticed is a witness to what the scriptures teach.
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That's not to say that we're gonna do everything that they did just because they did it,but we
do care about the whole household.
Those who went before us, those who are coming after us, and those who are, you know, wewould consider Christians part of Christendom, but are not confessing the same thing.
And so when we go back to history, we actually find that this practice of closedcommunion, of only giving the Lord's Supper to those who are in agreement in the doctrine
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of the gospel, it's not only a biblical teaching, which Paul clearly teaches in 1Corinthians
1 and chapter 11 where he rebukes them for taking communion together when they don't agreeand even points out that many of them have died because of this uh unworthy uh taking of
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the Lord's Supper without considering what it is and what they are confessing with theirfellow Christians.
Not only is this a biblical uh practice, but it's also
a historic practice, right?
So I want to quote to you this.
I have a little quote from the first apology.
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chapter 66 of Justin Martyr.
He was a second century theologian.
He was converted to the Christian faith.
He was a philosopher, a Roman philosopher, uh and he is writing these explanations of whatChristianity is.
And in those explanations of what Christianity is, which he's writing for outsiders, healso explains the practice of the Lord's Supper, which would also be referred to as the
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the Eucharist, which simply means the Thanksgiving, because in the Lord's Supper, when wepractice the Lord's Supper, what's the first thing that we do?
It is truly metron, right, salutary that we should at all times and all places.
give thanks.
Yeah.
So that's why it was called the Eucharist because it was, you know, at the beginning of itwe would give thanks to God and then we would receive the gift of Christ's body and blood
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for the forgiveness of our sins.
So anyway, so he goes, this is what Justin Martyr says, and this food, namely the Lord'sSupper, the body and blood of Jesus, is called among us Eucharistia, that is the
Eucharist.
Of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which weteach are true and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins.
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Of course that's baptism.
uh in unto regeneration and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.
That is, he has joined himself to that church, to that confession.
So here we see in the second century, a witness to the biblical teaching and practice ofclosed communion.
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And so this is not just something that we made up.
It's not just something that we do in order to separate ourselves from these other
uh know, deviant versions of Christianity, but it's grounded in the biblical and historicwitness of the Holy Christian Church, of the household of God.
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And so...
So this is, I wanted to address all of this in light of the bearing of the cross, as Jesussays, picking up your cross and following me, as Jesus says, uh because this is a
difficult teaching and practice for a lot of Christians.
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And what I'm saying here is that if you find it difficult, don't be surprised.
uh
I understand uh that people will say, well, there's just so many different denominations,so many different interpretations of the Bible.
And my response to that is, yes, there are, and that's troublesome to you, isn't it?
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But this is part of burying the cross.
Part of burying the cross, part of holding on to the gospel while
you're losing everything else and you're going through suffering, whether it's persecutionor internal struggles against sin and error.
Part of that is that God would test your faith and to prove your confession.
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So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, when he's talking about there being divisions amongthem, he says, yeah, there must be divisions in the church.
so that those who are genuine would be tested, would be proven.
So when you consider that there are all these different denominations, all these differentuh teachings about God's Word, and instead of throwing your hands up and saying, okay, so
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what does it matter anyway?
And just kind of despairing over it.
Recognize that that's part of the cross that God places upon us.
that uh the test of our faith that we would still hold on to the gospel, that we wouldstill hold on to what the Bible teaches and hold one another accountable to it while also
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taking refuge in that core message of the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ givinghis body and shedding his blood on the cross for us, that we would still hold on to that
despite the heartbreaking division
that we encounter in this life.
um And it all goes back to that central teaching that our own merits don't contributeanything to it.
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And again, it puts into perspective how unpopular and how uncomfortable that teaching isto our flesh.
Because our flesh will only take comfort in something if it thinks that it has control ofthat thing.
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But the gospel is a completely different comfort.
The gospel says that God has done it all in Christ.
Your life, your soul does not belong to you to control in whatever uh good ideas you thinkyou can control it.
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But the gospel is your life.
It's what you rely upon.
So that even while other things are falling down,
you can still rest in that.
And while you go through the heartbreak and the consternation and the testing of seeingall these different errors, and it seems like no one can ever agree, ah you still have
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that pure word of uh God.
uh
And this brings me to kind the last point that I'll make about this, is that the fact thatwe insist that we would all confess the same thing, again, not all with the same levels of
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understanding, God gives different gifts when it comes to that, but that we would all holdto the same doctrine.
It assumes that the scriptures are actually clear enough.
to teach us that full counsel of God.
But if we just reduce it down and say, well, as long as you just believe in this oneprinciple, and then ignore the rest and kind of leave that all to your own imagination or
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your own opinion or preference, then what we're doing is we're assuming that the Bibleisn't clear enough for us to actually agree on it.
ah But the Bible is clear.
And the way that we know it's clear isn't because we always readily understand everysingle part of scripture.
No, there are plenty of parts of scripture that seem dark because of our own darkenedunderstanding of our sinful nature.
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But we know that the scriptures are clear, one, because that which is necessary forsalvation and that which is necessary for the Christian life.
uh is clearly taught in Scripture.
So even if there are clear, seemingly unclear parts of Scripture or enigmas, there are theclear parts of Scripture that help enlighten those other parts of Scripture.
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But the other way that we know that the Scriptures are clear is that Jesus Christ hasfulfilled all the Scriptures.
And so he gives that fulfilled prophetic word to us to hold on to as a light shining in adark place until the sun rises and the morning star, until the day dawns and the morning
(47:21):
star rises in our hearts.
And so that the clarity of God's word is not just that we can know what it says.
uh that it can be taught, but also that it enlightens us and it gives us a betterunderstanding as we grow in it.
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And what goes hand in hand with that as we grow in our understanding of the Word of God isthat our dull sinful nature is being shaved away and that part hurts.
Right?
That part of seeing error, being confronted with error and having the temptation to throwup our hands and say, well, we can never really know the truth.
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Witnessing other people falling away of your confession being mocked, of you having tostruggle against doubts and temptations and sins that still cling to you in this life.
All of that is part of burying that cross as you hold on to the doctrine of
the gospel.
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And this is why we practice closed communion.
We practice closed communion because we believe that the doctrine of the gospel isrevealed in scripture and we can know it because God has revealed it, he has sent his son
to fulfill it, his Holy Spirit delivers it to us through that preaching of the apostles.
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and that this is something that is a free gift for us that we depend upon.
that should give us hope then, which is even greater than just kind of a worldly optimism,but that we should be truly optimistic in the sense that when we see someone who comes and
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visits our church and we say, we can't give you communion today,
that we're looking at that person not in some fleshly way, but we're looking at thatperson as someone for whom Jesus died and someone for whom Jesus has fulfilled his word
and wants to give him that full inheritance of the word.
In other words, we see him as someone who can learn the word of God by God's grace, whocan uh grow in that understanding of God's word and can confess it with us, not by his own
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merits but by the grace of God.
And at the heart of this, and this is what I recently said to someone who uh showed someinterest in visiting our church, I said to him, you know, the goal of the ministry here at
this church, my goal for you and God's goal for all of us is that you would
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grow in your certainty of salvation.
And that's why we hold on to the whole counsel of God, to the whole doctrine, so thatwe're not relying on our own nitpickiness about which parts of Scripture we find to be
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easiest to believe and accept.
But that...
but that we would grow in our confidence of the whole teaching of scripture so that at theheart of it all.
our confidence in our salvation through the promise, the sure promise of our Savior JesusChrist who died for us and rose for us would be strengthened.
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And so what goes hand in hand with this confidence and this bold confession of the wholecounsel of God, what is not just goes hand in hand with it, but is at the heart of it is
to be able to approach the throne of grace with boldness and confidence to find
help in time of need.
And so in other words, our goal is not so that you would just join our club and hold tothe various kind of arbitrary principles that we hold to, or hold to our kind of
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philosophy or our traditions.
But that the goal is that you would be able to have that peace in your conscience throughthe Word of God.
That you would be able to have confidence to confess Christ in every facet of your life,whether you're bearing the cross or you're rejoicing in the good gifts of God with the
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Word of God ruling your heart and mind and at the heart of it all, the grace of God.
and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keeping your heart and your mindand guarding it in the true faith to life everlasting.
You have been listening to Christendom and the World.
(52:27):
I'm Pastor Andrew Price.
Please like and subscribe and share our content and join us next time for another editionof Christendom and the World.
He called the people as well as his disciples, if you want to follow me, he told them,deny yourself, take up your cross and come with me.
If you want to save your soul, you will lose it.
But if you will lose your soul for me and for the good news, you will save it.
What good does it do you to win the whole world and lose your soul?
Or what would you give to buy back your soul?
(00:21):
If among the unfaithful and sinful people of today, you are ashamed of me and what I say,then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you.
when he comes with the Holy angels in his Father's glory.
These words of our Lord from Mark chapter 8 teach us what the Christian life is like.
What is it like to have the Gospel?
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Now we know that the Gospel is the free gift of salvation, the good news that Jesus hassaved us from sin, death, and hell.
It excludes all of our own merits, all of our own strength, all of our own uh powers.
And so what we find here is that the gospel in the life of the Christian, as it works onus in our earthly lives, also serves to be that ground of our training, where we learn
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from experience that we really can't rely on our own efforts and our own merits and ourown powers.
And so this teaches us then
as we bear our cross, really what the power of the Gospel is.
So today I would like to talk about the Gospel specifically in terms of the practice ofthe Lord's Supper.
(01:42):
Here we see in this central part of the Christian life what the life of the Church is hereon earth.
This is Christendom and the World.
and I am Pastor Andrew Proiss.
oh
(02:05):
Okay, so today we're going to talk about the life of the Christian, the life of theGospel, and specifically as it relates to the practice of the Lord's Supper.
Now, the Gospel, of course, is the free forgiveness of sins.
eternal life and salvation, one for us by Jesus's obedient life and death, all the way tohis death on the cross.
(02:32):
And his resurrection declares this freedom from sin and eternal righteousness to allsinners.
It is that pure spiritual milk that nurtures us.
And it's a great comfort to those who find in themselves no good thing.
(02:54):
But what the gospel is not is the gospel is not a lowering of the bar.
The gospel is not an easier to follow rule and law.
And that's a very important point to make, especially when we consider the practice of theLord's Supper.
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A stumbling block that a lot of people run into when they come to one of our congregationsis how we practice the Lord's Supper and what we teach about the Lord's Supper.
First and foremost, we teach what our Lord Jesus teaches us, that the bread and wine arenot merely symbols of an absent body and blood of Jesus, but they are, as He says, His
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body given for us, His blood shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
And right off the bat, this teaches us that our reason and our strength must be left atthe door.
They must be sacrificed.
They must bend the knee and bow to these words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And this really gets to the heart of what the gospel is, what the gospel does.
The gospel is the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
Again, it excludes our own works and that includes the highest faculties of ourselves,which is our own minds, our own reason, our own tactics.
(04:34):
And so if we look at the gospel as just, you know, a kind of lighthearted message andthat's it.
Well, what we inevitably do is we reframe the gospel from being the blood, sweat and tearsof our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered all to save us poor sinners from the wrath of God.
(05:00):
We turn it from that into a squishy, uh lowest common denominator kind of law.
But when we do that, even though we might see it as an easier message, and certainly it ismuch more palatable to our sinful reason, what we're left with is still a law.
(05:24):
Even though it's a squishy law, even though it's a vapid law and a shallow law, itnevertheless is a law.
And this gets to then how we look at the practice of the Lord's Supper.
In our congregations, we practice what is called closed communion.
The word closed communion originates from in the ancient church when you had the serviceof the Word where everyone would be present for, but then those who were still learning
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the Word of God, who were still being catechized, would then leave and the doors would beclosed and only the
those who have been catechized in the Christian faith uh would participate in communion.
And why would they do this?
Why would they close the altar only to those who have been catechized?
(06:22):
The reason is because of what scripture says.
St.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and he says this similar words in several otherepistles, but he says, he says, appeal to you that you would be of the same mind and of
the same speech, that you would all agree.
(06:45):
And this goes back to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 18, where two or three of youagree, then it is true even in heaven.
And so the
goal here of communion is not just that we would go up and do this special ceremonytogether, but that we would be in communion together in our confession.
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And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
So what does it mean to proclaim the Lord's death?
It doesn't merely mean that you just mouth the creed.
believe in Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and wasburied.
(07:35):
It means that you confess the whole counsel of God which all points to Christ and hissaving life and death for us poor sinners.
And this brings with it an understanding of Christian doctrine.
uh
The Christian doctrine, while it certainly has rules, it certainly has commandments andteachings about repentance and discipline that are all included in the Christian life.
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At the center of Christian doctrine,
is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
St.
Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are built, a household built on the foundation ofthe apostles and prophets.
It says the apostolic and prophetic scriptures with Christ Jesus being the chiefcornerstone.
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And so when we see doctrine, that is the scriptural doctrine, the apostolic and propheticdoctrine,
This is revealed to us as a body of doctrine and at the center of which is Christ and Himcrucified and risen for us, for our salvation.
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The free forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name is at the center of it.
This is what Peter teaches ah in Acts chapter 10.
He says,
in his name.
And so, when we look at doctrine not just like as a list of rules, but as a body ofdoctrine, of pure teaching, at the center of which, at the heart of which is Christ, the
(09:32):
Savior of sinners, then we can see doctrine as – then we can see how every part ofdoctrine is so vital, right?
The heart of doctrine is that God justifies the sinner freely by his grace on account ofChrist through faith in Jesus, on account of whom our sins are not counted against us.
(10:00):
That's at the center of it all.
That's the gospel, right?
That's at the heart of it all.
Now, is it possible for me to lose my arm and still survive?
Yeah, it is possible.
But what happens if I cut my arm off and then never, you know, mend it and just kind oflet it bleed?
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What's going to happen to my heart?
It's going to stop.
And so, we can't just look at the gospel as like this one thing that we get to pick outwhile everything else we can ignore.
And when we do that, we're treating the gospel as if it is a law.
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And so when we practice closed communion, we're assuming that the doctrine that we teachis a gracious gift from God and is all part of that package of the gospel message itself.
oh
On the show, we have discussed what is often called gospel reductionism.
(11:11):
We had Dr.
Harmelink on several months ago talking about Seminex and the history there where therewas the issue of the inerrancy of scripture, but then there was also really at the center
of it was the issue of gospel reductionism.
And it's this idea that, well, we don't have to be so worried about or concerned
(11:33):
about all the particularities of Christian doctrine, you know, whether Adam and Eve werereal people, uh whether Jesus did this or that miracle, as long as we believe the basic
gospel that Jesus is the Savior of sinners.
The problem with that though, besides the obvious problem that you're undermining theauthority of scripture, which is what reveals the gospel.
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The other problem with that though is that you're treating the gospel as something thatyou can control, as something that you can use in a kind of rationalistic way to benefit
yourself and say, okay, so all I gotta do, it's sort of like the kids who ask theprofessor,
(12:21):
students ask the professor, what's going to be on the test?
Because they're not interested in learning everything else.
They just want to know the right answers that they need to memorize so that they can getan A um and move on.
But what they're doing is they're treating it as something that's somewhat in theircontrol.
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And so when we say, well, all that matters is that we believe in Jesus.
The assumption behind that
is that the gospel is something that we are doing, that somehow we have figured out in away.
We've figured out kind of the lowest common denominator.
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And we think that that, when we talk that way, we think that that's more evangelical.
because it's easier for us to handle.
But again, the gospel is not, it's not the gospel, it's not the good news because it'seasier for you to handle.
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I Jesus, of course, says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
But what makes it easy and light is not that you are able to figure it out more easily orhandle it more easily.
What makes it easy and light is that it lifts off of you the burden of sin andcondemnation.
(13:48):
But in the Christian life,
When you have the gospel, what does Jesus say?
That you lose your life for it.
As Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, count everything as loss for the sake of Christ,that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
(14:12):
but the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
oh
And so when this gospel remains that which we hold on to, we actually experience a lot ofsuffering and terror and loss in this life.
(14:33):
Because the underlying uh principle of the gospel is that you can't contribute anything.
that your best efforts that you think are the greatest and most pious works are inthemselves like filthy rags before God.
(14:56):
And so, this burying of the cross that is inevitable for every Christian
You know, it's not just that some people are going to get persecuted in a really gruesomemanner.
No, this bearing of the cross has to do with trusting the gospel promise, our faithholding on to that promise of salvation, despite what our human reason says and what our
(15:30):
experiences around the world in our daily lives tell us.
And that is excruciating.
That is losing your life, as Jesus says.
It's losing your life for the sake of the gospel.
That is, it's recognizing that nothing I do or nothing I accomplish, nothing I'm able tofigure out is something that I can boast in, but I can only boast in the righteousness of
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my Savior Jesus Christ.
If you're like me, you like to read a few different translations of the Bible.
Cross-referencing various passages in the Bible gives me insight into how words andphrases are used and repeated throughout the Scriptures.
And of course, as a pastor and teacher of God's Word, I often consult the Hebrew and theGreek sources as well.
(16:24):
But if you're like me, you also want your children to read and understand the Bible.
While there are many cross-references we can find when we dive deeply into scripture, it'snice for the simple Christian to see the basic connections between the Old and New
Testaments without getting overwhelmed.
An American translation of the Holy Bible, first translated by Rev.
(16:48):
Dr.
William F.
Beck, is specifically translated in the words of American English.
I especially appreciate using Pastor Beck's translation while I'm at home leading mychildren in devotions and daily Bible readings.
It reads almost like a novel, as the biblical accounts are clearly presented from theiroriginal languages into contemporary American English.
(17:14):
The simple references between the Old and New Testaments, found on almost every page, alsoshow the reader
how all the scriptures point to Christ and His fulfillment of God's will.
The maps in the back are also very simple and straightforward and detailed without beingintimidating to the simple student of scripture.
(17:35):
An American translation of the Holy Bible is a perfect gift for confirmation or for anyonewho is looking for an accessible translation of scripture in plain American language.
To order a copy for yourself or for a loved one, visit ChristianNewsMo.com.
You can click on the link at the bottom of this podcast.
(17:56):
Then just scroll down on the home page and you'll find a link on the left side of yourscreen.
An American translation of the Holy Bible.
A Bible for every English speaker who needs to learn of Jesus and His redemption.
So now let's again apply this to the Lord's Supper and to the practice of closedcommunion.
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Closed communion, again, is that we only give the Lord's Supper to those who are taughtand confess the Gospel in all of its articles.
The Gospel in all of its articles.
So you have the Gospel, the center of which is the life, death, and resurrection of
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the Son of God who became flesh and suffered and died for our salvation and rose again todeclare us righteous and gives this to us freely.
But its articles include the teaching of sin, the teaching of repentance, the teaching ofcreation, the teaching and with that then you can unpack these things, the teaching of
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creation, the teaching of man and woman, of children, right?
The teaching of sin, let's unpack that.
The teaching of original sin, the teaching uh of what sin actually is.
Is it simply a uh lack of something good and really it's just a matter of us being able tobe better or is it an enmity against God as Scripture clearly teaches?
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Is it something that we just need a little bit of help to kind of overcome or is itsomething that we need God to not count against us?
and give us then the strength to stand on the gospel, right?
So if we're not teaching clearly about what sin is, we're not teaching clearly about whatcreation is, about what repentance is, about what temptation is, if we're not teaching
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clearly about all of these articles, then we are undermining the very heart.
of the gospel message.
And so the gospel is that free gift of God, of salvation.
It is balm for your soul.
It's comfort for you who realize that in your flesh dwells nothing good.
(20:31):
But as you experience the gospel, it often carries with it that burning away of
your own merits and of your own reason and of your own, you know, strength.
And that hurts, right?
So back to what Paul says in Philippians 3, I count all things as loss to gain Christ sothat I would remain trusting in Christ.
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So when we tell people, when we teach people the doctrine, the Christian doctrine,
and we hold one another accountable to that doctrine of the gospel with all its articles,what we are confessing is that all of this is part of God's good news of salvation for us.
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And we're confessing that it doesn't depend on our own mechanisms and our own traditionsand our own ideas.
But if we say, okay, well, we're going to give the Lord's Supper to those who say thatthey're Christians.
What we're doing there is we're assuming that, first of all, we're assuming that it'slegalistic to require people to believe and confess publicly the whole pure teaching of
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the gospel and all its articles.
And so the assumption behind that then is that
the doctrine of the gospel is really a law.
And so what these, it's like a to-do list of things to assent to and, you know, agree to.
And so then the trick or the, you know, what we really need to do then with that law is weneed to, if we really want to be evangelicals, we got to just lower it down to an easy
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principle.
And so as long as you say you believe in Jesus, that you are a Christian, that's goodenough.
And to require any more than that would be to add more laws.
But again, that's assuming that all of this is simply a law.
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uh And so the presupposition behind those who reject closed communion
is essentially legalistic, right?
Because they're treating God's Word like it's just a bunch of rules.
So let's pick out what we think is the easiest rule to follow, which is Jesus is ourSavior.
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But Jesus is our Savior is not just some rule to follow.
Jesus is our Savior is at the center of the whole gospel message, which gives you faithand nurtures you in the faith and
takes over your life.
So while it may, you may experience the gospel uh as a difficult thing, that's justbecause your sinful flesh never believes it.
(23:54):
Your sinful flesh wants a do-it-yourself theology.
Your sinful flesh, in other words, wants a legalism, a legalistic scheme that is justcompatible
and easy to follow for the sinful human reason and our own sinful desires.
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And so, what I'm getting at here then is, if you find that it's difficult to hold on tothe gospel and all its articles, you shouldn't be surprised by that because your, again,
your sinful flesh
is never going to believe it.
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Only faith given to you by the Holy Spirit is going to hold on to God's Word.
And so if we say, you don't have to then confess all of God's Word to be true in order totake communion, what we're doing is we're kind of seeding that claim that this
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that all of God's Word is just a bunch of rules.
So, you know, and this is why it's so helpful to look at what Jesus says here about, youknow, trying to save your own life.
In other words, if you're gonna treat the Gospel as if it's this easy to follow list ofthings to do to be a good Christian.
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you know, memorize John 3.16 and say that Jesus is our Savior.
and that's how you get to heaven.
Well then you're going to, what you're doing is you're treating the gospel as if it'ssomething that you do or that is something that you contribute to even if it's just in a
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little bit, in a little way.
But if we understand that the gospel is
totally excluding our own merits and it's all what Christ has done for us.
He has fulfilled the whole counsel of God for us.
He has fulfilled the whole law.
He has fulfilled all the prophets and now he gives this to us as a package and at thecenter of this package is his lifeblood poured out for us.
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then we rest, we can rest in that pure doctrine.
We can rest on that pure teaching of our Savior.
And uh even when we don't, you know, when we find it difficult to learn it and to relyupon it, we can know that that's just because our own sinful flesh is dying, right?
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It needs to be crucified.
So, you know, Jesus says, what good does it do to win the whole world and lose your soul?
What good does it do if you figure out how to make God's Word palatable to your ownreason, to the sentiments of the world, if in the process you lose the rest of God's Word?
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And if you lose the rest of God's Word, what you ultimately do is you lose the Gospel.
So, closed communion, that is, only giving the body and blood of Jesus to those whopublicly, who have learned, who have been catechized in the Christian Church, in the
Christian doctrine, and publicly confess that doctrine.
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it is at the heart of it evangelical because the assumption there is that all of thedoctrine that you learn
is centered on Christ and Him crucified for sinners.
Even the Ten Commandments, which is the law, which by itself doesn't save you, right?
It shows you your sin.
It helps you live outwardly a good life, teaches you discipline and all that.
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But even the Ten Commandments are part of that overall body of doctrine.
And that's because Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments.
So if we throw out the law, we throw out the teaching of love God above all things, loveyour neighbors yourself, throw out the teaching about honor your father and your mother,
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throw out the teaching about marriage, throw out the teaching about protecting yourneighbor's property, throw out the teaching that all things are a gift from God.
You see where we're going here?
that stuff out, well then what does that do to the gospel?
It makes the gospel, it basically just neuters the gospel.
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So the gospel is not just Jesus is cool with you.
The gospel is not just God smiles upon you.
Certainly that is true.
But the gospel is that Jesus fulfilled everything for you and he welcomes you into hiskingdom because he declares you righteous by his blood and he gives to you as your
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inheritance everything that he has fulfilled for you.
So, you know, what the law now...
m
what the law demands of you is now fulfilled for you in Christ so that now when you learnthe law you're not put to shame.
Even though that law still accuses your sinful nature, mortifies your sinful flesh, thatlaw you know has been fulfilled by Christ.
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And so learning that and holding one another accountable to that
is all part of our conviction that Christ has fulfilled it all for us.
And that again is why, you know, insisting that we all hold to the same doctrine isevangelical.
(30:10):
because the doctrine is not just a list of rules uh that, you know, we can throw away uhsome and keep others.
Now, it is true, though, that we don't hold everyone to the same standard of understandingthe doctrine, right?
(30:34):
There are those in the congregation who have a much simpler understanding of the Word ofGod.
and those who have a deeper understanding.
And uh that is there in order for the whole body to be strengthened, for the body, for thehousehold to be strengthened.
(30:56):
And this gets to another thing about the practice of closed communion.
Another detail is that it's not only is it evangelical,
It's also ecumenical.
It seems that people don't like to read as much as they used to.
(31:17):
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(31:44):
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With this weekly printed paper, you will find devotions, editorials, and articlesaddressing biblical, theological topics affecting the Christian Church in the world today.
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Go to ChristianNewsMo.com or just click on the link at the bottom of this podcast.
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(32:52):
Now, have you heard the term ecumenical, uh Hannah?
No?
Ecumenical has to do, it's often used to describe like different church bodies.
or different denominations kind of getting together and discussing things with oneanother, coming to some kind of agreements or what have you.
(33:15):
The ecumenical movement uh has done some of that in a genuine way, but it often has beendriven by a kind of show of unity, right, which ends up sort of watering down the
differences.
So, you know, the big one is like the
(33:35):
Roman Catholic Church got together with the Lutheran World Federation and talked aboutthe, came up with a statement on a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification
where they claimed that they had all this agreement, but they didn't really hash out thedifferences, very important differences on what they actually mean when they say faith,
(33:56):
when they say grace, when they talk about sin and uh stuff like that.
So there's a kind of rottenness to the ecumenical movement, but being
ecumenical, it really goes back to what are called the ecumenical creeds or the ecumenicalcouncil.
So the ecumenical creeds we would confess are the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, theAthanasian Creed, right?
(34:20):
So these are the creeds that we can as the household of God hold one another accountableto.
So ecumenical comes from the Greek word for household.
ah you know, the oikas, right, the household of God.
(34:40):
So ecumenical uh means that we are interested in striving for unity ah within thehousehold of God.
And the reason why closed communion is ecumenical is because
What it does is it a striving for unity of confession within the household of God.
(35:06):
ah And so if I say to someone, ah I can't give you communion today, but let's talk, what'sthe goal there?
What's the goal for that person?
is the goal for that person to just go away so we don't have to give him communion becausehe's like a Baptist or something?
No, what's the goal?
(35:28):
Is that he would be taught and that he would come to actually confess the same thing as wedo, right?
So there's an ecumenical goal um there.
The other uh detail about uh something being ecumenical is that it takes intoconsideration uh
(35:48):
what the rest of the church believes, right?
That I care about.
You know, the fact that, for example, I'm not going to give communion to a Baptist becausethe Baptists don't teach that the body and blood of Jesus are given in the bread and the
wine.
And they also teach that baptism doesn't save, right?
(36:09):
And then there are a bunch of other teachings that we would disagree with them on.
The fact that I won't give communion to someone who is a Baptist or is attending a Baptistchurch.
What that carries with it is the fact that I am actually concerned and care about what theBaptists teach, right?
If I didn't care what the Baptists teach, then I would just give communion to Baptistsbecause it wouldn't matter, right?
(36:36):
So the fact that I'm saying, here, you're currently holding to Baptist teaching, you'rejoining yourself to the confession of the Baptists that have some unbiblical teachings in
their confession.
The fact that I'm saying that shows that I have an ecumenical mindset that I care aboutthe whole household of God.
(37:01):
I care about my brothers and sisters in the Baptist churches.
to be able to know the truth and confess it with me.
But if I just give everyone communion, then that ends any kind of serious pursuit ofagreement within the household of God.
And the other thing about the, you know, along those lines of have having that ecumenicalspirit where you care about the whole household of God and them actually agreeing on
(37:31):
doctrine is it also keeps us in touch with our history, right?
So we care.
about what has been taught and practiced throughout history.
And that isn't to say that the basis of our teaching is what was taught, what we alwaysdid, like it's our tradition.
No, the basis of our teaching is scripture, but what our fathers in the faith taught andpracticed is a witness to what the scriptures teach.
(38:01):
That's not to say that we're gonna do everything that they did just because they did it,but we
do care about the whole household.
Those who went before us, those who are coming after us, and those who are, you know, wewould consider Christians part of Christendom, but are not confessing the same thing.
And so when we go back to history, we actually find that this practice of closedcommunion, of only giving the Lord's Supper to those who are in agreement in the doctrine
(38:31):
of the gospel, it's not only a biblical teaching, which Paul clearly teaches in 1Corinthians
1 and chapter 11 where he rebukes them for taking communion together when they don't agreeand even points out that many of them have died because of this uh unworthy uh taking of
(38:51):
the Lord's Supper without considering what it is and what they are confessing with theirfellow Christians.
Not only is this a biblical uh practice, but it's also
a historic practice, right?
So I want to quote to you this.
I have a little quote from the first apology.
(39:17):
chapter 66 of Justin Martyr.
He was a second century theologian.
He was converted to the Christian faith.
He was a philosopher, a Roman philosopher, uh and he is writing these explanations of whatChristianity is.
And in those explanations of what Christianity is, which he's writing for outsiders, healso explains the practice of the Lord's Supper, which would also be referred to as the
(39:46):
the Eucharist, which simply means the Thanksgiving, because in the Lord's Supper, when wepractice the Lord's Supper, what's the first thing that we do?
It is truly metron, right, salutary that we should at all times and all places.
give thanks.
Yeah.
So that's why it was called the Eucharist because it was, you know, at the beginning of itwe would give thanks to God and then we would receive the gift of Christ's body and blood
(40:12):
for the forgiveness of our sins.
So anyway, so he goes, this is what Justin Martyr says, and this food, namely the Lord'sSupper, the body and blood of Jesus, is called among us Eucharistia, that is the
Eucharist.
Of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which weteach are true and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins.
(40:38):
Of course that's baptism.
uh in unto regeneration and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.
That is, he has joined himself to that church, to that confession.
So here we see in the second century, a witness to the biblical teaching and practice ofclosed communion.
(40:59):
And so this is not just something that we made up.
It's not just something that we do in order to separate ourselves from these other
uh know, deviant versions of Christianity, but it's grounded in the biblical and historicwitness of the Holy Christian Church, of the household of God.
(41:23):
And so...
So this is, I wanted to address all of this in light of the bearing of the cross, as Jesussays, picking up your cross and following me, as Jesus says, uh because this is a
difficult teaching and practice for a lot of Christians.
(41:45):
And what I'm saying here is that if you find it difficult, don't be surprised.
uh
I understand uh that people will say, well, there's just so many different denominations,so many different interpretations of the Bible.
And my response to that is, yes, there are, and that's troublesome to you, isn't it?
(42:10):
But this is part of burying the cross.
Part of burying the cross, part of holding on to the gospel while
you're losing everything else and you're going through suffering, whether it's persecutionor internal struggles against sin and error.
Part of that is that God would test your faith and to prove your confession.
(42:39):
So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, when he's talking about there being divisions amongthem, he says, yeah, there must be divisions in the church.
so that those who are genuine would be tested, would be proven.
So when you consider that there are all these different denominations, all these differentuh teachings about God's Word, and instead of throwing your hands up and saying, okay, so
(43:08):
what does it matter anyway?
And just kind of despairing over it.
Recognize that that's part of the cross that God places upon us.
that uh the test of our faith that we would still hold on to the gospel, that we wouldstill hold on to what the Bible teaches and hold one another accountable to it while also
(43:31):
taking refuge in that core message of the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ givinghis body and shedding his blood on the cross for us, that we would still hold on to that
despite the heartbreaking division
that we encounter in this life.
um And it all goes back to that central teaching that our own merits don't contributeanything to it.
(44:01):
And again, it puts into perspective how unpopular and how uncomfortable that teaching isto our flesh.
Because our flesh will only take comfort in something if it thinks that it has control ofthat thing.
(44:21):
But the gospel is a completely different comfort.
The gospel says that God has done it all in Christ.
Your life, your soul does not belong to you to control in whatever uh good ideas you thinkyou can control it.
(44:44):
But the gospel is your life.
It's what you rely upon.
So that even while other things are falling down,
you can still rest in that.
And while you go through the heartbreak and the consternation and the testing of seeingall these different errors, and it seems like no one can ever agree, ah you still have
(45:15):
that pure word of uh God.
uh
And this brings me to kind the last point that I'll make about this, is that the fact thatwe insist that we would all confess the same thing, again, not all with the same levels of
(45:38):
understanding, God gives different gifts when it comes to that, but that we would all holdto the same doctrine.
It assumes that the scriptures are actually clear enough.
to teach us that full counsel of God.
But if we just reduce it down and say, well, as long as you just believe in this oneprinciple, and then ignore the rest and kind of leave that all to your own imagination or
(46:04):
your own opinion or preference, then what we're doing is we're assuming that the Bibleisn't clear enough for us to actually agree on it.
ah But the Bible is clear.
And the way that we know it's clear isn't because we always readily understand everysingle part of scripture.
No, there are plenty of parts of scripture that seem dark because of our own darkenedunderstanding of our sinful nature.
(46:30):
But we know that the scriptures are clear, one, because that which is necessary forsalvation and that which is necessary for the Christian life.
uh is clearly taught in Scripture.
So even if there are clear, seemingly unclear parts of Scripture or enigmas, there are theclear parts of Scripture that help enlighten those other parts of Scripture.
(46:55):
But the other way that we know that the Scriptures are clear is that Jesus Christ hasfulfilled all the Scriptures.
And so he gives that fulfilled prophetic word to us to hold on to as a light shining in adark place until the sun rises and the morning star, until the day dawns and the morning
(47:21):
star rises in our hearts.
And so that the clarity of God's word is not just that we can know what it says.
uh that it can be taught, but also that it enlightens us and it gives us a betterunderstanding as we grow in it.
(47:45):
And what goes hand in hand with that as we grow in our understanding of the Word of God isthat our dull sinful nature is being shaved away and that part hurts.
Right?
That part of seeing error, being confronted with error and having the temptation to throwup our hands and say, well, we can never really know the truth.
(48:11):
Witnessing other people falling away of your confession being mocked, of you having tostruggle against doubts and temptations and sins that still cling to you in this life.
All of that is part of burying that cross as you hold on to the doctrine of
the gospel.
(48:31):
And this is why we practice closed communion.
We practice closed communion because we believe that the doctrine of the gospel isrevealed in scripture and we can know it because God has revealed it, he has sent his son
to fulfill it, his Holy Spirit delivers it to us through that preaching of the apostles.
(48:57):
and that this is something that is a free gift for us that we depend upon.
that should give us hope then, which is even greater than just kind of a worldly optimism,but that we should be truly optimistic in the sense that when we see someone who comes and
(49:17):
visits our church and we say, we can't give you communion today,
that we're looking at that person not in some fleshly way, but we're looking at thatperson as someone for whom Jesus died and someone for whom Jesus has fulfilled his word
and wants to give him that full inheritance of the word.
In other words, we see him as someone who can learn the word of God by God's grace, whocan uh grow in that understanding of God's word and can confess it with us, not by his own
(49:52):
merits but by the grace of God.
And at the heart of this, and this is what I recently said to someone who uh showed someinterest in visiting our church, I said to him, you know, the goal of the ministry here at
this church, my goal for you and God's goal for all of us is that you would
(50:21):
grow in your certainty of salvation.
And that's why we hold on to the whole counsel of God, to the whole doctrine, so thatwe're not relying on our own nitpickiness about which parts of Scripture we find to be
(50:41):
easiest to believe and accept.
But that...
but that we would grow in our confidence of the whole teaching of scripture so that at theheart of it all.
our confidence in our salvation through the promise, the sure promise of our Savior JesusChrist who died for us and rose for us would be strengthened.
(51:08):
And so what goes hand in hand with this confidence and this bold confession of the wholecounsel of God, what is not just goes hand in hand with it, but is at the heart of it is
to be able to approach the throne of grace with boldness and confidence to find
help in time of need.
And so in other words, our goal is not so that you would just join our club and hold tothe various kind of arbitrary principles that we hold to, or hold to our kind of
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philosophy or our traditions.
But that the goal is that you would be able to have that peace in your conscience throughthe Word of God.
That you would be able to have confidence to confess Christ in every facet of your life,whether you're bearing the cross or you're rejoicing in the good gifts of God with the
(52:06):
Word of God ruling your heart and mind and at the heart of it all, the grace of God.
and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keeping your heart and your mindand guarding it in the true faith to life everlasting.
You have been listening to Christendom and the World.
(52:27):
I'm Pastor Andrew Price.
Please like and subscribe and share our content and join us next time for another editionof Christendom and the World.
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