The Lord’s Supper and the Mass HC Lord’s Day 28-30.

Heidelberg Catechism

 

LORD'S DAY 28

75. Q. How does the Lord's supper signify and seal to you that you share in Christ's one sacrifice on the cross and in all his gifts?

A. In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup in remembrance of him.

With this command he gave these promises: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely was his body offered for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross.

Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the minister and taste with my mouth the bread and the cup of the Lord as sure signs of Christ's body and blood, so surely does he himself nourish and refresh my soul to everlasting life with his crucified body and shed blood.

 

76. Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood?

A. First, to accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

Second, to be united more and more to his sacred body through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us.

Therefore, although Christ is in heaven3 and we are on earth, yet we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul.

 

77. Q. Where has Christ promised that he will nourish and refresh believers with his body and blood as surely as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?

A. In the institution of the Lord's supper:

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,

"This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Cor 11:23-26).

This promise is repeated by Paul where he says:

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf (1 Cor 10:16, 17).

 

LORD'S DAY 29

78. Q. Are then the bread and wine changed into the real body and blood of Christ?

A. No. Just as the water of baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ and is not the washing away of sins itself but is simply God's sign and pledge, so also the bread in the Lord's supper does not become the body of Christ itself, although it is called Christ's body3 in keeping with the nature and usage of sacraments.

 

79. Q. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood, and why does Paul speak of a participation in the body and blood of Christ?

A. Christ speaks in this way for a good reason: He wants to teach us by his supper that as bread and wine sustain us in this temporal life, so his crucified body and shed blood are true food and drink for our souls to eternal life. But, even more important, he wants to assure us by this visible sign and pledge, first, that through the working of the Holy Spirit we share in his true body and blood as surely as we receive with our mouth these holy signs in remembrance of him, and, second, that all his suffering and obedience are as certainly ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins.3

 

LORD'S DAY 30

80. Q. What difference is there between the Lord's supper and the papal mass?

A. The Lord's supper testifies to us, first, that we have complete forgiveness of all our sins through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself accomplished on the cross

once for all; and, second, that through the Holy Spirit we are grafted into Christ, who with his true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father,and this is where he wants to be worshipped. But the mass teaches, first, that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the suffering of Christ unless he is still offered for them daily by the priests; and, second, that Christ is bodily present in the form of bread and wine, and there is to be worshipped. Therefore the mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry.

 

81. Q. Who are to come to the table of the Lord?

A. Those who are truly displeased with themselves because of their sins and yet trust that these are forgiven them and that their remaining weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ, and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and amend their life.

But hypocrites and those who do not repent eat and drink judgment upon themselves..

82. Q. Are those also to be admitted to the Lord's supper who by their confession and life show that they are unbelieving and ungodly?

A. No, for then the covenant of God would be profaned and his wrath kindled against the whole congregation.

Therefore, according to the command of Christ and his apostles, the Christian church is duty-bound to exclude such persons by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, until they amend their lives.

 

 

 

The Lord's Supper and the Mass HC Lord's Day 28-30.

Many Roman Catholic priests will tell you that all the claims of the Church of Rome stand or fall with the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Mass. If the bread and wine used in the Sacrament of the Mass, when consecrated by the priest, are changed in some mysterious way into the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ so that the communicant receiving the bread actually takes into his mouth and eats and digests the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ— if this is true, then the Church of Rome is the true church of Christ and every one of us should be members of it. But if it is false, if it is absolutely opposed to the teaching of the Word of God, then the Church of Rome is an apostate church and every faithful believer should come out of her in order that he might not be held accountable for her sins.

It was because the great reformers of the sixteenth century saw this clearly and were assured in their own hearts that the doctrine of the Church of Rome in regard to the Eucharist or the Mass was absolutely opposed to the Word of God and was not only blasphemous but idolatrous, that they came out in protest against that apostate system and they won for us at tremendous cost of Christian blood the liberty we have.

The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ had both a backward and a forward aspect.  He put away all the sins of the past that had only been covered by the blood of the sacrifices and made ample provision to put away all the sins of the future for every one who would believe on Him. The means by which needy sinners avail themselves of an interest in the finished work of Christ is very simple. The sinner has to take his place before God as a lost, guilty man, owning his iniquity and putting his trust in the Man who died on the cross; for "By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by Moses' law."

 

A Reformation of Doctrine

Recovering the biblical Gospel

Restoring the apostolic teachings about salvation

JUSTIFICATION:

•by GRACE alone      •Through FAITH alone    •In CHRIST alone

•as revealed in the SCRIPTURES alone   •To the GLORY OF GOD alone

 

The Reformation of Worship Return to the Word of God

The Bible in the language of the people

The primacy of the Word in worship

The prominence of preaching in worship

Return to the Sole Priesthood of Christ

There is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR between man and God, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

Solus Christus IN CHRIST ALONE

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…LET US DRAW NEAR with a true heart in full assurance of faith. (Hebrews 10:19,22)

Solus Christus IN CHRIST ALONE   Not via the Mass

Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Worshipping a false god is condemned.

Worshipping the true God oin a false way is condemned.

Exodus 32: The Golden Calf

1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."2 Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."6 So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, "Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.8 They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!'"9 The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.10 Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

1 John 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

 

1. Do I Substitute the Sacrament For the Saviour?

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 A.D., convened by Pope Innocent III, Transubstantiation was both defined and made dogma of the church The Eucharist must be administered by a priest The bread and the wine must be locked up in "properly protected places" "Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine; the bread being changed (transsubstantia-tio) by divine power into the body, and the wine into the blood, so that to realize the mystery of unity we may receive of Him what He has received of us. And this sacrament no one can effect except the priest who has been duly ordained.."

 

Roman Catholicism today: "The altar-cross is also necessary as an indication that the Sacrifice of the Mass is nothing else than the unbloody reproduction of the Sacrifice of the Cross."

The Sacrifice of the Mass and The Sacrifice of the Cross are one and the same sacrifice.

To receive the Eucharist worthily, one must be a baptized Catholic in a state of grace, understand what one is about to receive and have kept the Eucharistic fast. The Church reserves consecrated hosts in the Tabernacle so the Eucharist can be brought to the sick and that the faithful can adore the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass.

Christ's Sacrifice, however, is perfect and thus it ONLY NEEDED TO BE OFFERED ONCE. The one Sacrifice of Christ is made present in a mystical way at every Mass. By participating at Mass, the faithful  receive grace and are transformed through the Holy Mass. The Real Presence means that Christ's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity become present under the appearances of bread and wine during the Consecration of the Mass.

 

Wycliffe  "But the simplest layman will see that it follows, that inasmuch as this bread is the body of Christ, it is therefore bread, and remains bread, and is at once both bread and the body of Christ."  "In the same manner, accordingly, though the bread becometh the body of Christ, by virtue of his words, it need not cease to be bread."

Luther: What is the sacrament of the Altar? "It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine which we Christians are commanded by the Word of Christ to eat and to drink." Augsburg Confession: "Of the Lord's Supper: '...the [true] body and blood of Christ are truly present [under the form of bread and wine], and are [there] communicated to those that eat in the Lord's supper...'"

 

Zwingli : "I believe that in the holy Eucharist, i.e., the supper of thanksgiving, the true body of Christ is present by the contemplation of faith. This means that they who thank the Lord for the benefits bestowed on us in His Son acknowledge that He assumed true flesh, in it truly suffered, truly washed away our sins by His blood; and thus every-thing done by Christ becomes as it were present to them by the contemplation of faith. But that the body of Christ in essence and really, i. e., the natural body itself, is either present in the supper or masticated with our mouth and teeth, as the Papists or some [i.e., the Lutherans] who look back to the fleshpots of Egypt assert, we not only deny, but constantly maintain to be an error, contrary to the Word of God."

Calvin: "Do this in remembrance of me. Hence the Supper is a memorial, appointed as a help to our weakness; for if we were sufficiently mindful of the death of Christ, this help would be unnecessary."

 

Common Views of Communion

1. The Catholic/"transubstantiation" view. When the elements are blessed, they become Christ's body and blood.

2. The Lutheran/"consubstantiation"/"in, with, and under"/"sacramental union" view. Christ is united to the elements.

3. The Memorialist/Zwinglian/Baptist view. Jesus is not present in the elements, but believers reap a spiritual benefit from partaking because they remember his death. The Calvinist/Reformed/"spiritual presence" view. Christ's body and blood are spiritually consumed by the communicants as they physically partake of the bread and wine.

 

Praying through the saints

2. Do I Substitute The Priests For the One Priestly Mediator?

 

Praying through Mary

3. Do I substitute Someone else for myself?

I need to go to the Saviour.

Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee alone who can cleanse each spot oh Lamb of God I come! I come!

 

The Lord's Supper Is A Meal 20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.

There He sat at the table. He is not indicating that any change takes place in the bread. He is there in His perfectly human body and He holds this bread in His hand and He says, "This is my body." Surely any one must be blind who cannot see what He is telling them is this: This bread, I want you to understand, is to bring before you the truth that my body is to be sacrificed for sin.  "This do in remembrance of Me.'* And He passes the bread around to them. There is no mysterious priesthood; there are no costly vestments; there are no candles burning in a ceremonial manner; no smoking incense ascending. They have partaken of one meal and then He gives them this beautiful memorial feast. He does not even appoint a clergyman to preside there. He addresses them as brethren and He says "This do in remembrance of Me."

The Lord's Supper Is A Memorial He ..took bread;24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

A Catholic once said  "Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; Protestants believe in the real absence." But that is false. Protestants do not believe that the bread and wine undergo any mystic change, but they do believe that as you eat and drink in remembrance of Christ, Christ is present in His sweet and wonderful way, manifesting Himself to the hearts of His beloved people so that by faith they are enabled to feed upon Him.  Matthew 18 "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst."  We feed upon Him in remembrance. We  look back and think of the sorrows He bore. We contemplate His cross and bitter passion, and as we do, we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, and as we feast on Christ we find our love for those things for which Christ died upon the cross becoming less, and our love for those blessed things into which He would lead us through the new and living way, through the veil into the holiest, becoming greater, for we become like that upon which we feed.

Therefore, I say, there is a tremendous chasm between the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass and the Bible doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a memorial feast. Christians, members of the body of Christ, come together to remember the One who died for them and who put away their sins, and do this because their sins have been put away. No instructed Christian would approach the Lord's Table to get forgiveness.    The reason that there is a crucifix with an idol shaped like Jesus is that the catholic church teaches that the image of the crucifix with the Mass underneath it mystically brings forgiveness of sins to the person who partakes. I have heard someone say "come to the altar stand under the cross and get all your sins forgiven!" Our sins were forgiven at the cross 2000 years ago, not by the priest last week.

It took the blood of the Son of God to forgive my sins, and only He could do it once and for all when He died at the cross. He is the only mediator, not some priest.  I come because my sins have been forever put away by the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus and I desire gratefully to remember the One who offered that mighty sacrifice and so fitted me for the presence of a holy God.

The Lord's Supper Is A Making known 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

The Lord's Supper Is A Moment to Reflect

Remember

Repent

Reconcile

Recommit

 

27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.