The Lord's Supper as a Means of Grace (3)

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church

Pastor Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 and Acts 2:42, continuing his series on the Lord's Supper as a means of grace. He focuses on the biblical directives for proper observance, specifically addressing the question, 'Who should come to the Lord's table?' Martin argues that only those savingly united to Christ and actually united to a true church of Christ should partake. He distinguishes between open, closed, and restricted communion, advocating for restricted communion as the most biblically faithful position, and concludes with a pointed application to both the unconverted and unchurched believers.

1 illustration in this sermon

Three Positions on Communion: Open, Closed, and Restricted

lightbulb example

Urbana Missions Conference Communion

In this part of the sermon: He outlines three historical positions among evangelicals: open communion (any self-professed Christian), closed communion (only members in good standing of that local church)…

Martin recounts a communion service at an InterVarsity Fellowship conference with thousands of students in a basketball arena, illustrating the practice of 'open communion' in a non-ecclesiastical framework.

This is why certain parachurch groups don't have any scruples about having communion services, where they don't have a clue about the individuals. For example, when I was at Urbana a number of years ago, a missions conference called by InterVarsity Fellowship, a parachurch organization, thousands of students sat in a large, not auditorium, but like the Brendan Byrne Arena, a large basketball arena, and were encouraged to have a communion service. A totally non-church, non-ecclesiastical framework. They had no problem with, quote, That's a position that has been held, and alas, tragically is he...

35:59 - 36:43 Read in full sermon

headphones Listen to full sermon