This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Good afternoon. Would you take out your bible, please, and turn to second Thessalonians chapter two? Second Thessalonians chapter two. We're gonna start reading in verse 15 here in just a moment. Second Thessalonians chapter two and verse 15.

We'll begin this evening where we began this morning. And I'm grateful for your presence, grateful for the presence of those who are watching online, Grateful that you braved the weather conditions in order to get out here tonight. And I hope whether you're listening to this sermon live and in person, live via the livestream or listening to recording, I'm hopeful that the things that I have to say tonight will be helpful to us as we make some applications to the things we talked about this morning. And this morning, we talked about a firm foundation of why, specifically as it relates to this concept of apostolic tradition, the tradition from the apostles. And that concept is found here in second Thessalonians chapter two and starting there in verse 15.

Now I'm not gonna re preach the lesson from this morning. I'm not gonna have a show of hands that says who was here and who was not here, but just very quickly, I wanna summarize what we talked about this morning and then make some applications this evening. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which were taught, which you were taught whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. This tradition that he is referring to that they were taught is what they were taught by the apostles.

And whether they were taught those things in person or whether an inspired writer wrote to them, they were supposed to hold to those things and not change, and they could be established for every good work by doing so. And as Seth read to us here at the beginning of our service, those things came from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself spoke, and he himself sent the Holy Spirit so that the apostles would continue to speak his message, his words. And I would summarize our lesson this morning this way. The apostles taught it, New Testament Christians did it, and God approved of it.

That's apostolic tradition. And if that's what they did, that's what we can do as well. These divinely approved apostolic examples give us a pattern for what we know we can do. And so we think about this idea of the apostles' traditions. That's the pattern that we're trying to follow.

And then we have our traditions, the traditions of men, which are hopefully helpful practices. But these things that we do, our traditions, we can do those things if they're helpful to us, but we can cast those things aside if they're no longer helpful to us. And so the New Testament provides a pattern of the way things were done in the first century church, and we can know that we are being well pleasing to Christ when we follow the same pattern of doing things. In other words, if it was sanctioned, allowed in the New Testament, God approved it, then we can do it. And if we choose to do something else, we better have authority, a scripturally sound reason for why we are doing something differently.

Why should we be able to do this thing that we're doing? Where can I point my bible and say, this is the reason why? As Robert Turner said, this is acceptable, and if you would do otherwise, you must produce divine sanction or authority for it. So if we're gonna do something different, we need to be able to point to the scriptural reason why. And here are some considerations we talked about for a few minutes, this morning, and we're gonna apply these things tonight in determining if an example is part of that apostolic pattern.

So context, does anything in the context of this passage suggest something is essential or unessential? This is just a tradition that they were doing or a way they did it. Uniformity, Does the example agree with all other examples on the subject in question? If every time you see it in the New Testament, it's the same way, that's a pretty good indication this is what everyone was doing according to the apostles' teaching. The harmony of the scriptures would binding or losing loosening one of these examples conflict with other New Testament teaching.

Specific application, are there circumstances that limit the application of the example because this was just what was happening at this specific time or place? And then on the other end of the spectrum, universal application. Can the example by be followed by believers all over the world? This is a gospel for all. If it can't be followed by all believers, then we wanna examine that to see if that's actually apostolic pattern.

Now don't misunderstand me. When I say, I need to have a bible argument, this isn't just saying, well, here's an argument from the bible. Boom. I have a bible argument. That's good enough.

It's about being convinced, convicted by that argument that this is what the Bible teaches. This is what the Bible allows and encourages, where I can fellowship that practice, whatever it is personally. I can do this because I am convinced by this bible argument. And then in terms of our community, our church, the elders of our group are convinced for us to do it collectively in our local church. And so let's use our test case that I suggested we talk about tonight, the Lord's Supper.

Now that was slower than I wanted it to be, but the groundwork is laid. Let's look at this test case. A firm foundation of why as we think about the Lord's Supper and specifically the frequency of our partaking of that Lord's Supper. A number of years ago, I had somebody come into my office, and this was a younger person, but not super young. A younger person, younger than me, but by just a few years.

And this person came into my office, and they, for the first time in their life and they admitted this was not a good thing. But for the first time in their life, they were actually trying to question things and understand and have their own faith on why we do the things that we're doing. And so they wanted to talk with me about a few things, and they said, I wanted to start this idea of really questioning things with something easy, something that would gonna be just, you know, open and shut, no problems whatsoever. So I thought to myself, I'll start with the Lord's Supper. And so I looked for the verse in the Bible that says, thou shalt partake of the Lord's Supper every Sunday, And I couldn't find it because it's not there.

And she was kind of shaken by that, and that was surprising to me, but she was. And I wish so badly that she wouldn't have been because that's often not how God communicates to us. Thou shalt do this or thou shalt not do that. What God wants from us is for us to seek him and find him and apply his will and his ways to our everyday life. God wants a relationship with us.

Isn't that true? I mean, people talk all the time about wanting a relationship with God. I need to have a relationship with God, and we should desire that and want that. But what kind of relationship would you have with someone if all of your interactions that maintain this relationship were just commands or things you shouldn't do. That's not much of a relationship, is it?

You think about a relationship with a parent and a child or a spouse with their spouse. If all of the things that showed the love that we had for one another were, here are my commands, do these. Here are my thou shalt nots, don't do those. That would not be something where we could really show and prove the love that we have for one another. God wants our hearts, and he wants to show us to show our desire to know him and to do what we know pleases him and that we don't always need a direct command in order to do so.

Now there are other reasons why the New Testament was written the way it was, but I think that's one of the big things that we overlook. God wants our hearts to be shown in the way we treat the things that are found in the pages of the New Testament. And I think partaking of the Lord's Supper and how we do so is an excellent test case for this idea of apostolic tradition. Do we know what the apostles did in the early church as it pertains to partaking of the Lord's Supper? Then we know we can do those things too.

And if we are doing something different than they did, where do we find the right reason reasonably and biblically in order to do so? So let's look at some passages together in regard to this test case. So we see the example, the simple pattern that Jesus instituted in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke 22. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use our harmony of the gospels book to read the combined account of all three of these passages. So here's what happened.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, take it. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them saying, drink from it, all of you, and they all drank from it. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

And he said to them, I tell you the truth, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it and do with you in my father's kingdom. There is a simple pattern for what we do, and that's basically what we try and do every Sunday. But it doesn't give us the win on the partaking of these things. So turn over to the book of Acts, to Acts chapter two. If we wanna know what the early church did, our best bet has a place to start is the book of Acts.

So Acts chapter two. After 3,000 souls are added to their number, the early church has begun there in Jerusalem, and the very next thing we read in verse 42 of Acts chapter two is this, and they, these new Christians led by the apostles, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, that is their teaching, and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And it goes on to describe some other things that they were doing both spiritually and physically. So we find that they were having this fellowship in the breaking of bread, what we would call the Lord's Supper, and this was something that they continued in. Now we all know if you're continuing in something, that means that there is something regularly happening.

Right? And the frequency of that isn't known, but it's something that is frequent, something that is regular if you are continuing in something. How regular? When are we talking about? We'll turn to Acts chapter 20.

Acts chapter 20. Read verses six through eight with me. Acts chapter 20 starting in verse six. Luke says, referring to himself and Paul and their traveling companions, But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed seven days. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. So here is an example, and all of these time marks by Luke show that they were meeting on the first day of the week to partake of the Lord's Supper. And it seems as though Paul and his companions stayed in Troas in order to do that, in order to make that happen, in order to meet with the brethren and partake of the Lord's Supper on that occasion. So we see Partaking of the Lord's supper on the first day of the week. And the question that we should ask is, where is the authority for us to partake on another day?

We referred to first Corinthians chapter 11 this morning. Would you turn back there with me? First Corinthians chapter 11. First Corinthians chapter 11. Let's start there in verse 17.

In my reading of first Corinthians, verse 17 kind of is a marker that he's turning from a lot of things that pertain to individual Christians, you and I as individual Christians is what we're doing. To looking at the collective church when we're all together in our collective work. Because he says this in verse 17. Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, so collectively, I hear there are divisions among you and in part I believe it.

For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, so the whole church in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. Well, that was why they were coming together, but that's not what they were doing. They were eating a different supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? This is an offense to the church, and this is an offense to those who have nothing. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this?

I do not praise you. Now, again, I'm not gonna re preach what I preached this morning, but to what does Paul appeal in order to correct these issues that they're having in not following the tradition of the apostles? He goes back to the pattern of what they received. Verse 23, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

We read from this combined text, Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22. And what Paul does is he just repeats those same concepts of what the Lord did in order to institute this simple supper. He appeals to this pattern, and he says this is what you do when you come together as a church, when you come together in one place. Verse 33, when you come together to eat, you wait for one another. Chapter 14 and verse 19, yet in the church, chapter 14 and verse 23, therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place.

Verse 28, in the church. Verse 34, in the churches. And so in this context, he's talking about these are the things that you're doing when we come together. There are lots of things that you're doing that you're not doing right that you shouldn't be doing, but let me tell you the pattern of the way those things ought to be. Well, when was that?

When was the whole church coming together in one place? We get some insight into that in first Corinthians chapter 16 verses one and two. First Corinthians 16 verses one and two. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so you also must do, on the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside storing up as he may prosper that there be no collections when I come. Maybe your translation, if you're reading from the ESV or the revised standard version or the New American Standard version, it says on the first day of every week.

And that in Greek, that's kata main, every first day of the week. And we see that same word kata is is used in a number of different places. In Acts chapter 14 and verse 23, it's kata ecclesion, every church. Acts fifteen twenty one, kata pollen, every city. Revelation 22 and verse two, kata mina, every month.

And so every first day of the week, the church was coming together in one place. And he says, that's when you set something aside. And that's when they were partaking of the Lord's supper and the other things that we see in these chapters. But even without this phrase used in this way, every first day of the week, we could draw the conclusion of every first day of the week by the implications of the language. Which first day of the week?

Well, let me ask you. Which Sabbath day of the 52 in a year, which Sabbath day did the Jews observe? We know the language from Exodus chapter 20 and verse eight. You will remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. And the Jews rightly understood that remembering the Sabbath meant every Sabbath day.

Every seventh day that came along, they remembered that Sabbath and its prohibitions on work and remembering the Lord and all the things that went with that. So the apostolic tradition, the approved apostolic example for partaking of the Lord's supper in frequency is the first day of every week. In content is the bread and the cup. And this is confirmed by extra biblical sources as well. There is uniform history in the early church about this.

For the first two and a half centuries of the church, everyone partook every first day of the week, and we have writings to that effect in the early church fathers. There's an early second century document called the, didache, which means the teaching of the 12 that dealt with partaking of the lord's supper among other things, the eucharist it's called. Eucharist, the idea of thanksgiving. You're giving thanks for these emblems. Even giving in that document suggested prayers you could pray for the cup and for the bread.

Concerning the frequency, it says, but every lord's day, gather yourselves together and break bread. In Greek language, that is very similar to what we see here in first Corinthians chapter 16. Justin Martyr, you probably know that name, he lived in the mid second century, and he wrote about worship services. On the day called Sunday, he writes, all who live in the cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. Some things never change.

That was a joke. And he detailed they're partaking of the eucharist, the bread and the watered down wine, as he puts it, From the Didache onward until the mid late mid to late third century, the evidence consistently places the breaking of bread in the church's Lord's Day assembly on the first day of every week. Now keep in mind, there aren't a ton of these writings that specifically deal with the Lord's Supper, maybe more than you would expect, but not a ton. And they don't prove anything. Right?

They don't prove anything to us. There are a number of things in those writings that I would say are not the apostles' pattern, but what it provides is another resource, another source of evidence for considering what the early church did and practiced so that then we can implement those same things. Because it wasn't until the mid to late two hundreds that this pattern of when and how often to partake started to change. And we only know that because writers started criticizing those churches who started partaking less frequently than every first day of the week. And there were other churches who were starting to suggest it was okay to partake more often than once a week, every day, in fact, in some African churches.

So we think about that uniformity over all of those years that this is what everyone was doing. And I think our nation's history might be helpful to us here. We just had the two hundred and fiftieth of America, right, since the declaration of independence. Think about that timeline. It would be like in regard to the Lord's Supper, it would be like all the churches practicing the same thing on this one particular issue since the time of George Washington and then only starting to change that in the last few years.

And with all of the changes and innovations that took place in the second and third centuries, that's strong evidence to us that this is the apostolic tradition, the approved apostolic example. But what about other things that they did by example for the Lord's Supper in the New Testament? We see them partaking of the Lord's Supper in an upper room in two different places in our New Testament. I'm a little raised here, but I would certainly not call this an upper room. Right?

So why don't we partake of the Lord's Supper in an upper room? That's an example. Is that a pattern, or was that a tradition, a helpful way that they did it then? Well, it was probably helpful to them. In some cases, an upper room would be cooler than the lower part of the house.

It was, in most cases, a larger place, more private. There are lots of reasons why they might partake in an upper room, but is that a pattern for us to follow? Well, let's look at that list that we put up before with these five things. Let's just go through them. Number one, what in the context of those two passages binds the upper room on us?

Mean, the upper room seems like an important part of the story of the ball of the boy falling out of the window in Acts chapter 20, but there's nothing there that says this is vital to the partaking of the Lord's Supper. What about number two in uniformity? Well, we have two examples of partaking of the Lord's Supper in upper rooms in the New Testament, but we see Christians meeting in different places in the text. Most notably, Christians in Jerusalem meeting in the temple, which was decidedly not an upper room. What about number three and this idea of the harmony of the scriptures?

Is there any teaching of in the scriptures that applies to this? I think certainly so. We see Jesus' teaching on the place of worship in John chapter four. It teaches us that the where is not what is important, but the how, that we're worshiping in spirit and in truth. What about specific application?

Well, Jesus was eating with his apostles in the upper room in the gospel accounts. But that was during the Passover. It was in Jerusalem, and it was in a divinely prepared guest room. And there are lots of specific circumstances that we could not recreate of those things. What about number five, universal application?

Well, we think about all Christians everywhere across all time, and I know that's difficult for us to do. It's difficult for me to do sometimes to think about Christians in all the different places in the world who are trying to do what's right today, much less all the different Christians in all the different parts of the world throughout the course of time over the last two millennia. But think about how difficult it would be to fulfill this in all the places in the world, all those places without upper rooms, especially think about nomadic peoples throughout history who didn't even have a room specifically where they might meet together. And so I think about those things, and I read in my bible and I work through that, and I do not believe that the upper room is bound upon us. I know that we can partake in an upper room.

Right? You ever done that? I've been places where they're meeting in an upper room, and we partook of it there. I didn't feel like I was closer to God or more holy on those occasions, but can we partake in an upper room? This is where you have to nod your head this way or that way.

Of course, we can. But I have very good and compelling biblical reasons why we don't have to partake in an upper room. Now Christians have had to work through the same things when it comes to a number of different things about the Lord's Supper, partaking on Sunday nights or not, using one container, one cup for the fruit of the vine or not, allowing visitors to partake with us without knowing their status before God. Are they a Christian or not? Using fermented wine or wine mixed with water or not, and much, much more.

And those are not made up things. Those are all issues somewhere or have been issues among those who are trying to follow the biblical pattern. And we know that not all of these things are difficult. There are lots of things that clearly fall outside the pattern with no biblical backing. People have justified partaking of so called Lord's Supper with Skittles and iced tea, for example.

Now that's, again, not a made up example. That really happened in a place. They partook of the communion, and they used Skittles and iced tea to do so. Now I present that example because I think probably everybody here and most everybody that we talk to who believe in Jesus to one degree or another would say that's probably not what the New Testament teaches. That falls outside of New Testament teaching, and I would agree with that.

But that extreme example tells us something, that all of us, to one degree or another, say, yes. There is a pattern to be followed here, and you can get so far afield that you are no longer following that pattern. But at the same time, we have great liberty on our traditions of fulfilling that pattern, don't we? COVID forced us to wrestle with identifying some of those traditions and differentiating them from apostolic example. What is what we have to do according to the pattern of the New Testament and what is our tradition that we've done for many, many years.

You know, I really did not like that time. There were some good things during that time. No doubt. I didn't like that time as a whole. I don't think most of us did, but it was helpful in some ways.

I heard the phrase one time, it is an ill wind indeed that doesn't blow somebody some good. Right? And there were some good things that came out of that period, and I think maybe this could be one of them, that we were forced to examine some of our traditions. Because the reality is, if we are not willing to question the tradition, the next generation will question the pattern. If we commingle those things as if they are the same, which as we've talked about this morning is exactly what the Jews during Jesus' day were doing.

This idea of washing your hands before you eat, that was elevated to the same thing as anything lawful. This idea of don't carry your bed on the Sabbath, it's unlawful for you to do that even though that's their tradition. Elevating traditions to the same level as the will of God is always a dangerous thing to do. And if we're not willing to question those things and say, is this the best, most helpful, most expedient way to do something, then the day will come when others question, well, why are we doing any of this stuff at all? Because they don't see the difference between the traditions of the apostles, the pattern, and the traditions of men, the helpful ways that we try and fulfill that pattern.

I hope that we can all work through those things carefully and give grace and allowance to others with different traditions while at the same time submitting to the elders when the tradition we are following maybe isn't exactly my preference or yours. For example, I personally like the tradition as it relates to the Lord's Supper of having a table down here that says do this in remembrance of me. I like that tradition. That's the way I grew up. I think it's a nice reminder.

We have a scripture that talks about the table of the Lord. First Corinthians 10 and verse 21 refers to the Lord's supper as the Lord's table. But I acknowledge that it's really clear in that passage that a physical table is not in view anymore than the contrast, the table of demons in that passage is referring to an actual table. Paul is using that term, the table, to refer to a meal of communion, whether that's to honor Christ or to have communion with these pagan gods. That table, and it's back there somewhere, that table was a tradition, helpful to some, maybe not helpful to others, but not required of us in order to follow the apostolic tradition of partaking of the Lord's Supper.

We don't have to have it now. We don't have to. If we brought it back, that would be okay too. But either way, it is just a tradition. And there are other things where other churches who are certainly trying to follow Christ do things differently.

We might, on the Lord's Day, when we come together as a church, have a whole service remembering Christ focused on partaking of the Lord's Supper in that service. Justin Martyr, as we quoted earlier, talks about the presiding person over the lord's supper, quote, offering thanks of considerable length. So at least in the second century, that was, at least in some places, the tradition. There's gonna be lots of thanksgiving for what Christ has done before the partaking of the emblems. Some groups are now devoting a service to that end in the course of their regular meeting on Sunday, but that too is just a new tradition attempting to be helpful with, I would suggest, varying results of helpfulness based on the place and the way they're implementing it.

But a short talk like we normally do, that might be a tradition that we follow, or simple prayers. Josh, I believe that was last Sunday or was Sunday before. Josh got up here and talked about the simplicity of just leading a couple of prayers without further comments. Each of those would fit the New Testament pattern, and so we must choose what is gonna be most helpful to us in doing those things. So here's the summary of all the preaching today.

A firm foundation of why as it relates to the apostolic tradition and the Lord's Supper. And if, coincidentally, I've gone through this and you say, you didn't preach long enough because you didn't cover this specific question that I had about those things, I'm happy to talk as long as you're willing to talk about any of these things. But here's the summary of my preaching today. If it is the pattern, if this is apostolic tradition, we have no right to change it. If it is man's tradition, we should question it to determine if this tradition is most expedient in helping us to fulfill the pattern in our time and our place, our congregation that meets here at Timberland Drive.

And we have some different issues. We have some different context than churches in West Texas or Florida or across town or in India or The Czech Republic, but we do not have a different gospel. There is not a different holy spirit or a different savior, and the apostles did not reveal a different truth to those churches than what is revealed to us. It is the same pattern laid down by the apostles. And seeking to find that pattern and apply it in our time and place is what we should be doing, and that's true with the Lord's Supper or anything else that falls under this criteria of apostolic tradition.

Why? Why are we trying to do these things? For the same reason as good hearted Christians, we're trying to do anything else. Because we love God, And we want to serve and worship him in a way that we know he approves and accepts because we want a firm foundation of why that is motivated out of a love for God and a love for our brethren. And if that's our attitude and outlook, if that's the way we approach the scriptures, then we can have confidence.

We can know with certainty about these things that these things do please God. And maybe there are other ways of doing it that might please God as well, but I know I know that this pleases God. A firm foundation of why. That's what you want. That's what I want.

And if you're here this evening and you're not yet a Christian, do you know what is required to become one? Are you convicted that you need to come in humble submission to put Christ on in baptism, having buried that old man of sin so that you might rise to walk in newness of life? And if you're already a Christian and you need the help and prayers of your brothers and sisters in Christ, what we see a ton in the first century church is them praying for one another so that they might be healed. And if we can pray for you tonight, won't you come now while together we stand and while we sing? Are the