Covenant Presbyterian Church

If you have grown up in the church, you will one day ask the question, "Can I take the Lord’s Supper?" You may be six years old, or ten, or fourteen. Whatever your age, this is a very good question to ask. It shows that you are growing in your faith and starting to think like an adult. At the same time, you may be a little scared. What will the elders ask me? What happens to me when I take the Lord’s Supper? Am I really ready? Can I stand in front of the congregation and publicly confess that Jesus Christ is my only Savior?
In answering your question, allow me to ask you a few questions. First, do you understand your reasons for wanting to take the Lord’s Supper? Some reasons are good; others are not so good. You should never come to the Lord’s Supper just because some of your friends are doing so. Your friends can be a good example to you, and the Lord may use them to encourage you to be more serious about your faith. Your coming to the Lord’s Supper, however, must be an expression of your faith in the Savior, not simply your desire to be like your friends. The best and only biblical reasons for coming to the Lord’s Supper are your desire to fellowship more closely with Jesus Christ and to receive the grace and strength he offers you in communion. If you want closer fellowship with Jesus Christ, if you desire to walk with him, and if you want to make use of every help he offers for your holiness, your motives are excellent. You should take steps to come.
Then, do you understand the gospel, for the Lord’s Supper is the gospel in pictures? The Lord’s Supper preaches the same gospel to our senses that the pastor preaches to our ears. The gospel tells us of God’s love for us, of his sending his Son to live and die for us, to suffer for our sins, and to be raised from the dead for our justification. The bread in the Lord’s Supper is a picture of his body given for us on the cross; the wine is a picture of his blood that was spilled to cleanse us from sin. Do you believe this gospel? Do you recognize that you have no other righteousness before God than the righteousness of Jesus Christ? No other cleansing from sin’s pollution than his blood? If you believe this, if you receive and rest upon this gospel, then you have a good understanding of what the Lord’s Supper means. In taking the bread and wine, you are renewing your dedication to that gospel, expressing your faith in God’s promises, and seeking the additional grace that the Lord’s Supper provides. In effect, you are saying, "I have no other hope in life or in death than the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe and want to live in terms of his gospel."
This leads to another and equally important question: are you seeking the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ every day? You see, it is not enough for Jesus to be an idea to you, the subject of your catechisms, or a great religious figure. For lack of a better way of saying it, one way you know you are ready to take the Lord’s Supper is that Jesus is becoming more real, more vital in your life. As your faith matures, it will become more attached to the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you believe in him, you will love him for who he is - his wondrous person, his love, his suffering and death, and his willingness and power to save you. Saving faith is never nebulous, indefinite, a few ideas about Jesus floating around in your head. If you love and desire Jesus Christ, you will cling to him as your life. You will trust in him, receive him, and rest upon alone for salvation. One thing that must be present in your life if you are ready to take the Lord’s Supper is clear understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus did.
So how can you know that are committed to Jesus Christ, for the Lord’s Supper is concerned with personal commitment to him? The simple answer to this question is "love." Do you love the Savior? Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ loves him. He cannot help but love the Savior. And because he loves the Savior, his life shows that he loves him. He loves the word of his Savior. He loves to pray to his Savior. He loves to please his Savior. And because he loves his Savior, he is grieved over his sins and seeks from Jesus the strength to overcome them. This is one way the Lord’s Supper helps us - according to God’s promise, eating the bread and drinking the wine in faith feed us with the grace and blessings of our Savior. These actions help us love Jesus more. Here is the heart of the matter. Do you desire to come to the Lord’s Supper because you love Jesus, want more fellowship with him, and would please him more faithfully? If these desires are present in your life, the Lord’s Supper is for you.
We should also deal with the subject of self-examination, for Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 that a man should "examine himself." This means that the Lord’s Supper is for those who have the ability and are actually practicing self-examination. Self-examination is the ability to look at your motives, your life, and your desires honestly in the light of Scripture. It means that you want to please God, are grieved over your sins, and are seeking from the Lord forgiveness and the strength to please him. This is why the elders will inquire into your level of understanding. Do you know what God requires of you? Do you understand his Word? Are you studying it prayerfully? When you hear a sermon, do you examine yourself in the light of what the preacher says? The ability to examine oneself honestly in the light of Scripture is necessary if you are to come to the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner. You will never conclude that you are personally worthy; you will conclude that Jesus is worthy and only from him will you find the strength necessary to please him. I would add, dear friend, that for every minute you spend examining yourself, you should spend hours looking at Jesus. Looking at him will lead you to desire him, to find in him the grace and wisdom that you do not have in yourself.

One question remains. What should you expect when you take the Lord’s Supper? What should you be thinking about during the Lord’s Supper? I am reminded of something I read in the newspaper one time. A man submitted an editorial in which he ridiculed all the years he had "wasted" in church. "You know," he wrote, "I can’t even remember one sermon I heard." The next week another man responded. "My wife has been cooking dinner for me for almost forty years. I cannot really remember more than a few of the meals, but I am still alive." In many respects, this is like the Lord’s Supper. From week to week, you may not always notice much change in your life, but through this help to your faith the Lord Jesus keeps you alive, keeps you believing, and keeps you persevering. He does this not with a jolt of spiritual energy. He does it through faith, through feeding you, through giving you a little more of his grace each week. This tells you what to think about during the Lord’s Supper. You should be thinking about Jesus, praying to him, asking him to fulfill his promises to you. You should seek from him the grace you need to be a more faithful Christian, a better student, a holier child, a more loving sibling. In short, when you eat with Jesus, you should be communing with him, "eating" him, and seeking him. Together with the preached word, which is more central, the Lord’s Supper will bring you to heaven for it will feed you by faith upon the only manna that satisfies and strengthen: Jesus Christ, the Bread of life.

Young people, you have an important responsibility to fulfill in being admitted to the Lord’s Table. You must complete your baptism by coming to fellowship with the Savior around his table. This is not optional. You are in a bond of friendship with God, his covenant. You are an heir of God’s promises (Gen. 17:9-17; Acts 2:42). With this incredible privilege comes responsibility. The responsibility is clear. (1) To recognize the incredible grace of God shown to you in your placement in Christian families, access to Christian worship, discipleship, and education, and protection from the world in its rebellion against God. The only legitimate response to God’s grace is thankfulness, faith, and repentance. (2) To demonstrate your thankfulness to God by remembering your Creator while you are young, building your lives upon the rock of his Word, and unashamedly confessing faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. Young people, do not receive the grace of God in vain. Make use of the privileges you have been given, affirm your faith in God, and seek growth in grace through partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The Savior invites you. Will you respond to his call in faith and obedience? Will you confess Christ before men? Will you feed upon the Bread of life, our glorious Savior? He offers himself to you.