After all, Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. It was instituted by Jesus at the time of his final meal with his disciples. . probably means that the Lord himself confirmed for Paul (who wasnt at the final supper as the other apostles were) that what the others reported about the Last Supper really happened. What Was the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible? The Pursuit of Victory: How To Conquer Your Greatest Challenges and Win In Your Christian Life. The reason is that unbelievers could do everything I have described so far. In the Scriptures, in the practice of the early church, at the time of the Reformation, in the Lutheran Confessions, and until quite recently the answer has always been, We give the Lords Supper at every Sunday Service. I close the way Paul does in 1 Corinthians 11. The Lords Supper offers food that sustains the soul. All rights reserved. He shared a cup of wine with them, and then some bread. Become a Patron. Starting from the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul, Christians practiced this ritual commemoration to celebrate the Kingdom of God. We eat something. The Lords Supper is one way in which a gospel life becomes instinctive. This is because Christ is present in the Eucharist itself. OR. Heres what he says in 1 Corinthians 11:2728: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. It is a memorial to Christs sacrificial death. WebSo, when we come to partake of the Lord's Supper, we need to examine our hearts ("But let a man examine himself" - 1 Corinthians 11:28) to make sure that we are coming for the right reason. Nevertheless, Communion is certainly not less than a memorial. Paul says, All the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). The bread and the cup point to his broken body and shed blood and are the definitive symbols of the New Covenant in Christ. . All rights reserved. He redeemed us by His sacrificial death. We must look at each other as a community. When you consider these different scenarios from the Bible again, the focus shifts from where you should take communion to how. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Create an Account. In other words, the Table is not only a symbolic rite that we do, but it does something to us as we eat and drink in faith. 7. Protestants, in particular, veered away from the transubstantiation significance of the Lords Supper. Supper, then, is a fitting image for what Christ designs to accomplish for and in his church through this family meal. As far as we can tell from the earliest records, the church did what Jesus said: They reenacted that supper in remembrance of Jesus and his death. In the Eucharist, the tangible signs are the bread and cup whilst the spiritual reality is Jesus presence during the service. Though this Reformed (or Calvinistic) view of the Table may be overlooked by many evangelical Christians today, Pauls language in 1 Corinthians 11 pushes us to acknowledge a spiritual efficacy in the ordinance beyond what we might call mere memorialism. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. The ordinance of baptism symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Perhaps it should have been enough for God simply to tell us what he had done. The Lords Supper roots us, time after time, in the nitty-gritty of history. Sinai. Learn more or donate today at, Truth We Can Touch: How Baptism and Communion Shape Our Lives, The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul criticizes the way those early Christians treat each other during the communion meal. Here is an example of a type of prayer to say before you take communion. This instinctive response (for good or ill) is what we call character. A godly character is a character that instinctively responds in godly ways. Since the 19th Century, the Roman Catholic Church emphasized the need to partake in communion frequently. And notice the word church in verse 18: when you come together as a church. This is the body of Christ, the assembly of the followers of Jesus. All I knew was they passed the plate, and I took a cracker from one plate and a cup of grape juice from the other. 10:17). Biblical MeaningWhat is Fornication?Meaning of Shekinah GloryWhat is Discernment? After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him (John 6:66). We are in the middle and generally celebrate it on the first Sunday of each month. The Bible tells us that such faith comes by hearing (Rom. For the early church, however, worship services were in homes. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them; and they all drank of it. We receive Gods grace. This means that when we take communion, we are proclaiming Jesus death until he returns. When Paul says, The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? We should act righteously towards all we encounter, no matter their background. The devil cant do it. We find strength in God and He blesses us to overcome all temptations and trials we face every day. Paul reveals that for those who took communion in an unworthy manner or for some who might take it unworthily today, premature death could be the result (1 Cor 11:30). The sacrament infuses Gods grace upon everyone who participates in the meal. I might mention in passing also that there is nothing in the New Testament about the frequency of the Lords Supper. It is where we commit our whole being to Him and commune with fellow believers. There are contrasting views about what happens every time the sacrament of Communion takes place: The Roman Catholic view of the Lords Supper is the miracle of the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ. This commemorates Jesus sacrificial death. It pictures Gods chosen people, in the midst of all their weaknesses and sins, receiving the grace that Christ lavishes on them through his atoning sacrifice. A second area of clarity, particularly in 1 Corinthians 11, is that this is a meal for Christs gathered church. During the Communion, we partake of the bread and wine. Jesus Himself commands Baptism and tells us that Baptism is water used together with the Word of God (Matt. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup (1 Corinthians 11:28). Taking the Lords Supper or Communion is something every believer should look forward to and participate in. Lessons learned through participating in the life of the community are often just as formative as lessons learned from the pulpit. We eat and drinkthat is, we take into our liveswhat happened on the cross. 11:26). That is why there is not one set standard across the board. This is important because we are so prone to become consumed Christian formation takes place in more ways than simply through sermons. What shall I say to you? Some people get hung up on the frequency question. And the most pleasant and meaningful of these are eaten in the company of family and friends. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. WebThe Lords Supper does not picture what we should do for God. Paul writes, then, in hope that Christians will partake in a worthy manner through self-examination, judging ourselves, and discerning the body that is, eating with faith in the broken body of Christ and with love toward his body, the church, with whom we share this meal. A study of the Lords Supper is a soul-stirring experience because of the depth of meaning it contains. Rather than simply saying remember, Jesus gave us a reminder. The preaching of the Word of God delivers the message of the cross to us audibly. This article is adapted from Truth We Can Touch: How Baptism and Communion Shape Our Lives by Tim Chester. It is not an act for unbelievers. The bread and wine do not turn into flesh and blood. Last Supper, in the New Testament, the final meal shared by Jesus and his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, the occasion of the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus instituted the Lords Supper as the core meal of the New Covenant. Jesus lived. Communion is not just bread and David Mathis is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at. Now, many individual Christians today are unaware of (or do not understand) the formal position of their churches and denominations. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? (John 6:60). Sometimes in church, we do the activity without fully understanding why we do it. Jesus already saved us when He died on Calvary and that is already enough to save humanity. The saying of grace at every family meal is energized by the focus on grace at the Communion meal. He is the author ofThe Pursuit of Purpose which will help you understand how God leads you into his will. The Lords Supper, from the moment of its institution, is a church ordinance. When we take the supper, we declare with other believers, Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 22:20). It is a conscious directing of the mind back into history to Jesus and what we know about him from the Bible. They took the Lords Supper into a regular communion with believers. Much of our food is grown, processed, distributed, and possibly cooked by other people. Every meal becomes an occasion for gratitude. He said, Do this in remembrance of me (1 Corinthian 11:25). For these are the lessons that become habitual and instinctive. No, I will not. But enjoy everlasting life (John 6:54). The whole church participates and enlivens their faith with the benefits of Jesus flesh and blood. He will come again to judge the living and the dead says the Apostles Creed. Each describes Jesus giving thanks or blessing the bread and the cup, and giving them to his disciples saying that the bread is his body and the cup is the blood of the covenant, or the new covenant in his blood. With this, God saves not just Israel, but all the races of the Earth. The only statement about what was in the cup is given in one verse each in Matthew, Mark, and Luke: I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom (Matthew 26:29; cf. Not going into neutral. Do this, as often as you drink it, in It is very simple. The actions and meaning of it are all rooted in what Jesus said and did on that last night. Because when Jesus died, his shed blood and broken body, offered up in his death on our behalf, purchased all the promises of God. This is called consubstantial or existing within the elements of communion. This grace helps people to live righteously. 6:11). Our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ, he says, in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life.1 The French Confession of Faith of 1559 says, The body and the blood of Jesus Christ give food and drink to the soul, no less than bread and wine nourish the body (37). We are calling on God to act in keeping with his covenant promises. A key He is an author or coauthor of overfortybooks, includingA Meal with Jesus;Reforming Joy; and, with Michael Reeves,Why the Reformation Still Matters. Verse 28 tells us that we are to examine ourselves so as to not eat and drink judgment upon ourselves. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. What is more important is your heart and attitude when you are taking the Lords Supper, which leads to the next question. And knowing what He would accomplish through His sacrifice, He instituted the Holy Communion (Luke 22:1920, 1 Corinthians 11:2425). This is the place where we come to commune with Christ, to experience afresh the fruit of our union with him. As for the Lord's Supper itself, we should begin to think of it as it was meant to be: a meal. It is a unifying act of worship, joy, and remembrance of our Saviors unmatchable love. God grants us forgiveness of our sins. Finally, Christ means for his people to eat in faith and find their souls nourished spiritually by Christ himself. And the context of Pauls mentioning as often as you drink it implies frequency is preferable to infrequency. So too in the history of the church, the Supper has not gone down easy. Christ dwells within His people as they remember faithfully His sacrifice and practice their faith as a community. Here is something much deeper than remembering. 00:00. Oh, how our churches in this cultural moment need more and more unity! They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. (Acts 2:46), On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. (Acts 20:7). These are Christians. For Baptists, the people who can partake of the Holy Communion are those who are baptized. The Lords Supper inspires us to live in Christ. The Lords Supper is a participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). If you take the Lords Supper correctly, you can take it anywhere and anytime. So the historical origin of the Lords Supper is that final supper that Jesus ate with his disciples the night before he was crucified. First, as Paul states, he and the apostles (and we through them) received from the Lord this sacred practice in the life of Jesuss church. Christ is present in the Lords Supper through the Spirit. He commanded that it be continued. The best way to answer this question is to remember what the Lords Supper is all about. We are part of a complex web of relationships upon which we rely day by day. You may wonder if the Bible defines when or how often you should take communion? The Lords Supper traces its symbolic roots to the Passover meal at the time of the Exodus. We should celebrate it with a sense of weightinesswhich we will talk about in just a moment. The Lords Supper is an appetizer for the feast that will commence on the day when Christ reunites heaven and earth. Acknowledging the historical differences of view, and not pretending to speak for all Christians, we can highlight at least four clear truths from the apostle Pauls treatment of the Lords supper in 1 Corinthians 11. But each denomination has different ways of observing this sacred rite. 10 Things You Should Know about Demons and Satan. So he said, Eat your own supper at home and come together to eat the Lords Supper.
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