The Lord’s Supper — Somber or Cheerful?
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John Podcast with longtime author and pastor
00:00:09.120 | John Piper.
00:00:10.880 | Today's question comes from a listener named Morgan.
00:00:13.040 | "Dear Pastor John, it seems to me that some churches are more solemn when they celebrate
00:00:17.800 | the Lord's Supper.
00:00:19.440 | Other churches seem to be more cheerful in the reminder of what Jesus has done for us.
00:00:24.080 | Is this a false dichotomy?
00:00:26.160 | What is the proper tone of the Lord's table, solemn or cheerful?"
00:00:32.000 | I think the main thing I want to say is that it is not a decision for children to make.
00:00:40.600 | It's not a decision for immature people with little experience of suffering and sorrow
00:00:46.480 | and sustaining grace to make.
00:00:50.240 | This is a decision.
00:00:52.200 | How to do the Lord's Supper.
00:00:55.360 | It's a decision for battle proven, scarred, rugged warriors of the faith who have come
00:01:03.600 | through much suffering with eyes bright and lips smiling and hearts full of joyful hope
00:01:10.120 | and tears running down their faces.
00:01:14.120 | They're the ones who would know how to design a service for every level of Christian.
00:01:20.600 | Children and immature people with little life experience don't have the kind of complex
00:01:24.920 | emotional categories that are necessary to create the kind of atmosphere that reflects
00:01:30.160 | the realities of the Lord's Supper.
00:01:33.040 | Children are either bouncing off the walls happy or they're moody or angry or sullen
00:01:38.560 | or crying.
00:01:39.640 | Children have never experienced a kind of sorrow in which they wept for two hours while
00:01:46.480 | rejoicing from the bottom of their heart like I did when my mother died 43 years ago.
00:01:54.040 | Children don't have the experience of being shamed for the name of Christ and feeling
00:01:59.360 | the white hot hatred of others pouring over their faces because of Christ and yet all
00:02:06.720 | the while rejoicing like the apostles in Acts 5 41 because they had been counted worthy
00:02:12.760 | to be shamed for the name.
00:02:14.200 | That's just too complex of a set of emotions for children and immature Christians.
00:02:20.360 | Children don't have the experience of tasting imminent danger with all the trembling that
00:02:25.520 | goes with it while knowing in the same moment a peace that passes all understanding down
00:02:32.000 | in the soul.
00:02:33.240 | That's too complex for a child or an immature Christian.
00:02:38.160 | Children and immature Christians don't have sufficient experience to make any sense existentially
00:02:44.680 | out of Psalm 2 verse 11, "Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling."
00:02:52.040 | That just doesn't make sense to the heart that hasn't gotten to know the depths of what
00:02:56.560 | it means to fear the Lord, the very Lord who cares for us and loves us and yet would be
00:03:01.920 | terrifying to have as our enemy.
00:03:05.440 | Children and immature Christians don't have sufficient experience to make sense out of
00:03:09.840 | Paul's phrase, "Sorrowful yet always rejoicing."
00:03:15.120 | In other words, the immature heart thinks that sorrow and joy are alternatives.
00:03:21.520 | The immature thinks that joy and sorrow are sequential in life.
00:03:28.640 | Sometimes we're sorrowful, at other times we're joyful, but they don't have categories
00:03:34.920 | for simultaneous sorrow and joy.
00:03:38.400 | Only the battle-scarred, broken-hearted, contrite, seasoned followers of Jesus know
00:03:44.440 | deep down in the fiber of their being that in this life they will never only rejoice
00:03:51.840 | and never only sorrow.
00:03:55.220 | They will always be intermingled.
00:03:57.800 | And children and immature Christians don't have sufficient experience to understand why
00:04:02.900 | Paul would say in Philippians 2.12 that precisely because God is at work in us willing and doing
00:04:10.380 | his good pleasure, we should fear and tremble.
00:04:14.040 | Do our obedience with fear and trembling.
00:04:18.800 | Wouldn't the presence of God working in us take away fear and trembling?
00:04:23.840 | No, not all of it, but it takes a good bit of serious living with Jesus to discover these
00:04:30.000 | things.
00:04:31.000 | I say all of that because the question as posed cannot be answered, "Should the Lord's
00:04:39.520 | Supper be solemn or cheerful?"
00:04:42.520 | And I'm saying it should not be either/or and should not be both sequentially.
00:04:50.280 | There is a solemnity with explosive joy, and there is sweet cheerfulness whose eyes are
00:04:59.720 | brimming with tears.
00:05:01.520 | The Lord's Supper is a commemoration and an emblematic demonstration of the most painful,
00:05:10.160 | the most sinful, the most sorrowful act in the history of the world.
00:05:16.880 | And it is aiming to produce in us a kind of joy in the gospel and in Christ that is greater
00:05:25.520 | than any joy in the world.
00:05:28.900 | But that joy is not chipper, it's not glib, it's not superficial, it's not silly, it's
00:05:34.040 | not bouncy.
00:05:36.360 | But the only people I expect to understand what I'm saying here are mature, seasoned,
00:05:41.840 | battle-scarred veterans of some or much trial and suffering in which they have found Jesus
00:05:50.020 | to be all-sufficient and gloriously satisfying.
00:05:55.900 | But even though that's the only person I expect to get what I'm saying, I might be able to
00:06:01.480 | give a hint that would help people.
00:06:04.360 | Several years ago, one of the young men of our church died suddenly with no apparent
00:06:09.560 | explanation.
00:06:10.560 | He was in his 20s.
00:06:11.560 | He was a strong believer.
00:06:13.720 | In fact, he had died in the midst of a beautiful ministry.
00:06:17.720 | So his parents and family were grieving, but not as those who had no hope.
00:06:24.940 | We were all keenly aware that our brother was indescribably happy with Jesus while we
00:06:31.920 | were pouring out our sorrows.
00:06:35.760 | When we gathered for the funeral, the church was packed and it had been arranged by the
00:06:45.160 | parents that we would be singing as a congregation, as the family and the body entered, singing
00:06:57.100 | a mighty song, a big, strong, triumphant song of victory over death and celebration of life.
00:07:07.660 | And even as I recall it now, several years later, shivers are going down the backs of
00:07:13.560 | my arms because as I told his father later, that moment, that moment was one of the greatest
00:07:23.460 | moments of my life.
00:07:26.500 | Great with joy, great with sorrow.
00:07:30.380 | When I looked down from the platform and saw this father with his hands in the air, I could
00:07:40.320 | scarcely contain the power of what I felt.
00:07:46.360 | And I don't know what to call it except exquisitely joyful sorrow and exquisitely sorrowful joy.
00:07:59.200 | So that's my answer.
00:08:00.700 | The Lord's Supper is in a class by itself in combining emotions that only the veterans
00:08:12.120 | of sorrow and joy understand well enough to plan the service appropriately.
00:08:17.260 | And that's my prayer and that's my goal is that such people would plan the service.
00:08:23.060 | Yes.
00:08:24.060 | Amen.
00:08:25.060 | That was a powerful and unforgettable moment for a very remarkable family and a young man
00:08:30.320 | who was truly missed.
00:08:32.320 | What a testimony.
00:08:33.320 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:34.320 | And thank you for listening and making this podcast part of your day and your commute
00:08:37.700 | and part of your daily routine.
00:08:39.500 | Three times a week, we publish this podcast and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and
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00:08:47.760 | by email with a question you may be facing in life.
00:08:50.220 | You can do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:08:56.940 | We are going to return on Wednesday and I think we're going to hear from a listener
00:09:01.980 | who finds reading to be excruciatingly hard.
00:09:05.540 | And this is due to a learning disability that he is faced with.
00:09:08.800 | But he wants to study big swaths of scripture over time and he wants help for how to do
00:09:12.840 | this well, even if it's done through little bits over time.
00:09:16.100 | What's a good cumulative strategy for reading the Bible when reading is so difficult?
00:09:21.860 | That's the question on Wednesday.
00:09:22.860 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
00:09:25.340 | [End of Audio]
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