Hi, my name is Corey. I'm a pastor in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and I have been a ministry partner with Desiring God for more than 25 years. You are listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper. Corey is someone I want you to meet, and you will in just a moment.

But first, thank you for joining us on this Monday broadcast of the Ask Pastor John podcast. Today, we field two pastoral questions. They are related. The first is from a listener named Ethan. Pastor John, hello, and thank you for taking my question. My church is considering letting known unbelievers take the Lord's Supper.

The argument is that it points the unbeliever to the Lord's work on the cross and his future return, a form of outreach. What would you say? And a similar question comes from a listener named Matt. Hello, Pastor John. Recently, I've been thinking about nominal church members who participate in the Lord's Supper.

What happens when an unregenerate person eats the bread and drinks the wine? What is the specific sin that such a person commits? I believe it is sinful for such a person to take part, but why is this the case? Pastor John, what would you say to Ethan and Matt?

So let me begin with something blunt to the first part of the question. If your pastors are thinking of welcoming unbelievers to eat the Lord's Supper as a way of pointing them to Jesus, you're probably in the wrong church. That is so far from the New Testament and what it teaches about the Lord's Supper that it is very difficult for me to think your pastors are seriously submitted to the authority of Scripture rather than to their own wisdom.

So that's my initial blunt response. It is irresponsible and ignorant at best and disobedient and cruel at worst to encourage unbelievers to eat the Lord's Supper. Now, the reason I say cruel is that the warnings Paul gives to eating the Lord's Supper unworthily are ultimately warnings of life and death.

Here's what he says. This is verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11. "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink the cup." Pause.

What will an unbeliever find if he examines himself? He will find unbelief. And that's precisely what Paul intends for us to find. Has disobedience of unbelief gotten the upper hand in our lives? If so, get that fixed and don't eat this supper assuming that it doesn't matter. That's the whole point of self-examination.

So why would you invite unbelievers into that deadly situation? Continue reading. Verse 29. "For anyone who eats or drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." Pause. Discerning the body means grasping the utter uniqueness and glory of Jesus' physical body as an infinitely valuable sacrifice for sins, which unbelievers do not do.

Verse 30. "That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. That's why I say it is cruel to encourage unbelievers to eat this supper." Verse 31. "But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." In other words, true believers who need to be disciplined because of the way they're eating the Lord's Supper can be saved even if they die through discipline for taking the Lord's Supper.

But what would become of an unbeliever? They're not going to be saved. When Jesus said and when Paul said that each time we eat the Lord's Supper, we do it in remembrance of him, he did not have in mind a kind of remembrance which an unbeliever has of merely remembering that there was such a person as Jesus.

Maybe there was, maybe he existed, and he died for sins. Maybe he died for sins. He meant that we should remember the preciousness of what happened when Jesus died and shed his blood. The memory is a loving memory, a thankful memory, not an unbelieving memory. And this is made much more clear as if it could be in 1 Corinthians 10, not 11, but 10, 16 to 22.

Not many people go here to get clear about the Lord's Supper and what it means, but it's very important. The Lord's Supper, according to 1 Corinthians 10, 16 following, is a participation in Christ. So here's what it says, verse 16, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation, a sharing in the blood of Christ, the bread that we break?

Is it not a sharing, a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." In other words, the loaf represents the church, the body of Christ, sharing in, participating in the life of Christ.

This is impossible to conceive of as unbelievers. Verse 21, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" In other words, Paul was explicitly dealing with unbelievers who have their kinds of religious ceremonies, where they eat and drink, and believers who have our kind of ceremony, where we eat and drink, and he's denying that you can participate in both.

It is a tragic misunderstanding of the glorious transaction between Christ and his people at the Lord's Supper, if pastors try to reinterpret this supper as an evangelistic tool to point unbelievers to Jesus. Tragic. The glorious transaction is this, first, there is a remembering of what the foundation of our faith is in the blood and body of Christ sacrificed for us.

Second, there is a communion, or as chapter 10 says, a sharing in, a participation in Christ spiritually, as we feed upon him by faith and are nourished and satisfied in our souls. No unbeliever can do this, and that's the meaning of the moment. It's not designed that they should.

Let me end like this. Yes, yes, yes. The Lord's Supper points unbelievers to Christ and makes crystal clear that they are not participants in it, in Christ. They are not participants in forgiveness. They are not participants in salvation. They're not participants in the second coming of rescue from wrath.

That's what the prohibition from participating communicates as they watch us enjoy Jesus. It communicates, "We want you. We want you in watching this to see what you're missing." And, Tony, I can testify with great feeling that it works that way. I remember, for example, a man who sat in the balcony right in front of me in our old sanctuary, month after month, year after year, on every Communion Sunday, believing with his believing wife, never missing a Sunday horribly.

I knew the man. We had conversations about Jesus. He's a blatant unbeliever, and during Communion when I said, "If you're not yet trusting Christ, just let the tray go by and ponder the beauty of the gospel," and I would look right at him when I said those words, right at him, in his face, about 40 feet away.

We knew each other. Then, one Communion Sunday, he stopped at the door, took my hand, and said, "Pastor, we need to talk." And at 1030 p.m. the following Wednesday night, God saved him, and I baptized him a few weeks later. That's the way it works. Don't kick the unbeliever out of your services.

Show them the beauty of the gospel and tell them that they shouldn't participate yet, but oh may God grant you eyes to see, because we want you to enjoy this with us. Thank you for sharing that with us, Pastor John. He had a heart attack just a few months later and died.

Oh my. It was absolutely stunning that his whole family was just amazed and thrilled that God had saved him in the 11th hour. Oh, wow. Amen. Praise God. Thank you for sharing that with us, Pastor John. Well, speaking of pastors, at the start of this episode, you heard from Corey, a pastor in Wisconsin and a friend of ours.

Corey is here on the line with me now. Corey, I wanted to chat with you just briefly. It's an honor to connect with you. An honor because I know that you have a long track record supporting DG, over 25 years supporting Pastor John's ministry, which goes back before there even was a DG, back to the old cassette tape sermon days back at the church, which is amazing.

So tell us right now, Corey, today, we're talking about today, what is it that makes you so eager to be a ministry partner with Desiring God? It's easy to be a ministry partner. I financially support the ministry because Desiring God gives their resources away and the resources they give away are worth having.

But financial support has to come from somewhere and both the church I serve and my wife and I are happy to support Desiring God financially. And for me, the Ask Pastor John podcast has been helpful both personally and pastorally. Many people in our church listen to the podcast and many watch and learn from the Look at the Book episodes and many more read every day's Solid Joys devotional.

Wonderful. I love that the podcast answers are grounded in the Bible and Pastor John also brings enormously helpful application for living. And Look at the Book has been illuminating and that's an understatement. And Solid Joys is a solid way to begin a day. All of DG's resources have helped people understand God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

And that might be a motto, but it's also the main thing and DG aims to keep the main thing the main thing. Amen. Outstanding. Thank you, Corey. And what would you say to somebody who's listening right now? They've enjoyed the Look at the Book videos, the Solid Joy devotionals, the APJ podcast, but they've never thought about the financial side of the ministry.

They've never considered how expensive this ministry really is. What would you say to someone right now who's thinking of giving that first gift or a reoccurring gift, even a small gift of like 20 bucks a month. What would you say to those people who are about to make this next step of commitment with DG?

I am glad they're thinking about it. I don't know of any ministry that gets more bang for the buck than Desiring God and they find new and better ways to get their messages to as many people in as many places as they can. It's fabulous. I love that. Thank you.

You're a pastor and you not only give personally, you and your wife, but your church officially supports DG as well. What would you say to other pastors or maybe to the listener who wants to bring up this conversation with their church leaders about what that would look like for a local church to support DG?

How would you encourage them? Well, I encourage everyone to think about sensitively suggesting to your church leaders that Desiring God is a ministry partner worthy of regular support in your church budget. It helps foster a sense of partnership. We get more interested in the good things, the great stories that we hear from DG.

And they're doing great things and there are great stories and people in our church are tuned in to what is happening in the world and God is working and working through Desiring God and we love it. We will always include Desiring God in our regular budget and we do some over and above things with some regularity as well.

Well, we love serving the local church. So to hear this blesses our heart. Corey, thank you so much for spending a few moments with us today. Oh, it's my pleasure. And if you want to join us as a ministry partner, you, your family, or even your church, to support us as we make and spread new Bible teaching resources to bless churches around the globe.

You can partner with us right now. Go to DesiringGod.org/donate. That's DesiringGod.org/donate. We appreciate it. I am Tony Renke. We'll see you back here on Wednesday. Thanks for listening.