The Lord’s Supper 

Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper in order for us to remember the great sacrifice He made for us and that we rely on Him and His sacrifice for our salvation.  He gave us this memorial so we would not forget Him and what He did for us.  In Luke 22:19, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."  This is done to help us remember the Lord and what He did for us.

     The death of our Lord was not an accident.  It was in God’s eternal plan of redemption for Christ to come to this earth and take our punishment for our sins by dying for us so God can now be just in saving us.  In a number of places in the Old Testament, God foretells the death of His Son for us.  One place is found in Isaiah 53:5-6, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed…And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."  God and Christ are loving and wonderful for what they have done for us.

     In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 we read of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, "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; this do 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."  This is how we remember the great suffering which our Lord did for us.  We proclaim our faith in this great and wonderful deed to the world each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper.  There are those who partake of only the bread and their priest partakes of the fruit of the vine.  This is a perversion of the Lord’s Supper.  This is not doing it the way the Bible instructs.  But notice each Christian is to partake of both the bread and the fruit of the vine.

     When we partake of the unleavened bread we picture our Lord’s body hanging there, suffering in anguish and pain, taking the punishment that was rightly due us.  As we drink of the fruit of the vine we envision His precious blood which was poured out for us to cleanse us from all our sins.  What great love and concern God and Christ have for us!  The Lord wants us to remember what He did for us every first day of the week as the church did in the first century.

     We are to remember that our Lord gave up heaven to come to this earth for thirty-three years, and then died for us.  We remember the humiliation of the mock trial, the crown of thorns and the terrible scourging that left His back raw and bleeding.  We remember the soldiers gambling for the Lord’s only earthly possession, the clothes on His back.  Then we remember the nails as they were driven into His hands and feet, and the cross as it was raised and dropped into the hole.

     We also remember the spirit of forgiveness of our Lord, as He was being   crucified, when He said in Luke 23:34, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."  We remember our Lord’s loud cry of loneliness   in Matthew 27:46, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"  We remember as our Lord hung on the cross, how the people mocked, shamed, and made fun of Him as He was dying not only for their sins but the sins of all mankind.

     We remember in Matthew 27:45, "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land", and in Matthew 27:51, "The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split."  The sun refused to shine and the earth shook because of the death of the Son of God.  We read in 1 Peter 2:24, "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed."

     We must first examine ourselves to determine whether we have the right attitude to partake of this memorial.  We must put all else from our minds.  We should make sure we have our minds centered on what Christ did for us.  We are told in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, "Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body."  We must clear our minds of all other thoughts and center our minds on the sacrifice of our Lord, or otherwise as 1 Corinthians 11:29 (KJV) says, "We eat and drink damnation to ourselves."

Questions

The Lord’s Supper
(click on the button of the answer of your choice)

  He didn’t want to die.

  Do this in remembrance of Me.

  He did not want us to remember that He died for us.

3)  (Isaiah 53:5-6) In God’s eternal plan of redemption

  The death of Christ was part of that plan.

  The death of Christ was not part of that plan.

  God did not intend that Christ would die.

5)  (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) In partaking of the Lord’s Supper

  We are to partake of only the bread while a priest partakes of the fruit of the vine.

  We are not to remember the death of Christ.

  We are to partake of both the bread and the fruit of the vine in remembering the death of Christ.

7)  (Luke 23:34) As Jesus was being nailed to the cross He said

  Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

  Father I don’t want to die on the cross.

  It doesn’t hurt.

9)  (Matthew 27:46) As Jesus was hanging on the cross

  The angels ministered to Him.

  God did not forsake Him.

  God forsook Him.

11)  (Matthew 27:45, 51) When Jesus died on the cross

  The sun refused to shine and the earth shook.

  Nothing happened.

  Jesus deserved to die.

13)  (1 Peter 2:24) When Jesus died on the cross

  He died for His own sins.

  He died for our sins.

  He did not die for our sins.

15)  (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) We are to partake of the Lord’s Supper

  Without thinking of the Lord’s death.

  In an unworthy manner.

  In a worthy manner.

16)    We partake of Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner when we do not discern the Lord’s body.

Weekly Observance Of The Lord’s Supper

     Many people do not want to remember the Lord’s death for us very often since they only partake of the Lord’s supper monthly, quarterly, annually, or not at all.  The excuse is given that they do not want to partake of it more often because it will become too common place and loose its meaning.  But the very opposite is true.  The Lord’s Supper loses its meaning when we choose not to partake and think about it.  This would be like saying that we should only pray two or three times a year, for if we prayed more often then prayer would lose its meaning.  This would be absurd.  Does the Lord’s death really mean anything to us?  But Jesus requested in Luke 22:19, "Do this in remembrance of Me."  Do we really care to regularly remember the death of our Lord?

     People seem to be turned off by the death of Jesus and the shedding of His blood.  They don’t care to remember it.  But it is His blood that cleanses us from our sins.  As Revelation 1:5 says, "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood."  They had rather remember Him as a babe in a manger than a crucified saviour.  It is an insult to Jesus to celebrate His manger and then ignore His cross.  Many people seem to be ashamed of the death of Jesus.  Jesus says in Mark 8:38, "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in His glory of His Father with His holy angels."

     This memorial of our Lord is called "the Lord’s Supper" in 1 Corinthians 11:20 and "the Lord’s table" in 1 Corinthians 10:21.  In 1 Corinthians 10:16 it is referred as "the breaking of bread" and "communion".

     But the church in the first century met every first day of the week to observe the Lord’s Supper.  We are told in Acts 20:7, "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."  Why did they come together on the first day of the week?  Here we see the church in the first century came together on the first day of every week to break bread, which is the Lord’s Supper.  Their primary reason of coming together on the first day of the week was to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  We cannot be pleasing to the Lord if we observe the Lord’s Supper only a few times a year or not at all.  In 1 Corinthians 11:26 we are told, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes."  Are we really interested in proclaiming the Lord’s death to the world until He comes?

     People today do not seem to have a problem with the command to give on the first day of each week as found in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: on the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside."  One of the things they were to do when they came together was to give.

     What else was the church at Corinth to do every first day of the week when they came together?  In 1 Corinthians 11:20 they were condemned for making a gluttonous feast out of the Lord’s Supper and were told, "Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper."  When did they come together in one place?  Every first day of the week.  What were they doing when they came together every first day of the week?  Perverting the Lord’s Supper by making it into a glutinous and drunken feast.  What were they supposed to be doing every first day of the week?  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

     Two of the things the church at Corinth did every first day of the week was to give and partake of the Lord’s Supper.  Why shouldn’t we be like those in the first century who assembled on the first day of every week to remember the Lord’s death by partaking of the Lord’s Supper?  But many people seem to have a problem in seeing the importance of partaking of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week as the church in the first century did when it was under inspired apostolic guidance.

     When the Jews, who lived under the Old Testament, were commanded to remember the Sabbath Day, that is the seventh day of the week, to keep it holy, they kept all 52 Sabbath Days of the year holy.  The first day of the week also occurs 52 times each year.  When Christians today observe the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week, they are following the Biblical example of Acts 20:7 of the disciples who came together on the first day of the week to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

     We also read in Acts 2:42 concerning the church at Jerusalem, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers."  Again we see the first century church was steadfast or regular in the breaking of bread which is their observance of the Lord’s Supper.  But later men in denominational groups chose to partake of the Lord’s Supper less frequently.  Should we be any less regular than the church in the first century?  According to what we have seen in the scriptures, we are to both give and partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week.  Could the Bible be any clearer concerning the Lord’s Supper?

     Another perversion of the Lord’s Supper occurred when men introduced the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation in the Decrees of the Council of Trent, which met from 1545 to 1563 A.D.  This decree devised by men stated that the bread and the fruit of the vine are converted miraculously into the literal body and blood of Jesus when we partake of it.  It is sad that men would dare to pervert the Lord’s Supper into such a mockery.

     It is ridiculous to place literal interpretations on symbolic language.  In John 15: 5 Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches."  Here Jesus is using figurative language because we know He is not a literal vine and we are not literal branches.  In John 10:9 Jesus said, "I am the door." But again He uses symbolic language. Concerning the Lord’s Supper Jesus said in 1 Corinthians 11:25, "this do in remembrance of Me."  The Lord’s Supper is designed to help us remember what the Lord did for us.  And as we partake of it as 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, "you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes".  We are showing the world that we believe that Jesus died for our sins.

     Let’s not pervert the memorial of what the Lord did for us.  But as we partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week in spirit and in truth, let us steadfastly "proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes" again.

Questions

Weekly Observance Of The Lord’s Supper
(click on the button of the answer of your choice)

  We should not partake of it more often than quarterly or monthly because it will loose its meaning just as if we pray too often prayer will loose its meaning.

  We should partake of it regularly (weekly).

  We should not partake of it at all.

3)  (Mark 8:38) If we are ashamed of Christ

  He will be ashamed of us when He comes.

  He will not be ashamed of us.

  He will overlook it.

4)     There are people who are ashamed of Jesus.
 

5)  (Acts 20:7) Why did the church at Troas come together on the first day of the week?

  To have a good time.

  To visit with one another.

  To break bread (partake of the Lord’s Supper).

6)     There is not a first day in every week.
 

7)  (1 Corinthians 11:26) Regularly proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes

  Happens when we do not partake of the Lord’s Supper.

  Happens when we partake of the Lord’s Supper weekly.

  Happens when we only partake of it monthly, quarterly or yearly.

8)     If we are interested in proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes, we will partake of the Lord's Supper weekly as the church in the first century did.
 

9)  (1 Corinthians 16:1-2) In this verse what was the church at Corinth commanded to do when they came together every first day of every week?

  Visit with one another.

  Greet their visitors.

  Take up a collection.

11)  (1 Corinthians 11:20) Why was the church at Corinth being condemned when they were assembled together on the first day of the week?

  They were making a glutinous feast out of the Lord’s Supper.

  Their worship services were too long.

  They were too anxious to leave.

13)  (Acts 2:42) Besides continuing steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, and prayers what other activity did the church at Jerusalem continue in steadfastly? 

  The worship of saints. 

  The breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper). 

  Not partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

14)    We are to partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of every week.