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 feel 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 the 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.

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