The Lord’s Supper

Hopewell Baptist Church

August 4, 2019

Family meals. Now, I am not necessarily talking about just one’s immediate family, though it does work that way. When your entire family, aunts and uncles, cousins, parents and grandparents, etc. all get together for a meal, you’re eating as one family. Whether it be at someone’s home or a restaurant, a banquet hall or around a campfire, you are eating as a family because you are family and your are eating together.

In the same way, the Lord’s Supper is the “Family Meal” of the church. A matter of fact, the early church, especially the first century churches, took The Lord’s Supper as an actual meal. There are books and information that talk about how they would sit around tables and the such as they took it. Today, we are going to be looking at the Lord’s Supper, what it is, and why it is considered the “Family Meal” of the church.

Read

This was God’s description of the very first Passover meal eaten by the Jews. While it wasn’t officially instituted until after the beginning of their Exodus (), that is what the meal was.

I. What –

a. What is the Lord’s Supper? (Read Bobby Jamieson quote)

i. The Lord’s Supper is a church’s act of communing with Christ and each other and of commemorating Christ’s death by partaking of bread and wine, and a believer’s act of receiving Christ’s benefits and renewing his or her commitment to Christ and his people, thereby making the church one body and marking it off from the world.[1]

b. Sacrament of the church, taken in the form of bread and of wine or juice

i. In the early church, especially the first century, it was taken as an actual meal, with everyone sitting around tables and the such

1.

II. Where and When – Within the gathering of the local church

a.

b. – Many see this as a call to take the meal on a weekly basis

c. – Many see this as a call to do it often.

i. While I don’t feel a church must do it weekly, I think that the example of the first century church shows us that it is something to do more often than not.

III. Why

a. The Passover was originally celebrated to commemorate and look back upon the that 10th Plague, the death of the firstborn…read

b. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper because Jesus is the new, better, ultimate Passover lamb. Just as the blood on the doorposts and lintels saved the Hebrews in Egypt from physical death in the original Passover, so the blood of Christ saves God’s people from their sins, and spiritual death, for eternity.

i. We commune with God together as one body

ii. We receive the benefits of Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection

1. Namely, His righteousness and forgiveness of our sins

iii. We are renewing our public profession of faith in Him

iv. The Lord’s Supper sets us, the church, apart from the world.

IV. Who

a. Believers. Born again () believers are to take the Lord’s Supper.

i.

ii.

b. Believers who have examined themselves, to make sure that they are taking it with right heart attitude.

i. To make such a commitment to the local church is to commit to caring for the body, the local body of Christ.

1. – if anyone claims to love God but hates his brother…

2. 1 – No who who abides in Christ keeps on sinning…

ii. If you’re harboring (habitual) sin in your life…don’t take the Lord’s Supper until you’ve made it right

1. Same with anger, grudges, bitterness, etc. (I could go on and on).

iii. To take the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner is sin.

1. Third Commandment () sin.

c. Unbelievers – if you’re here, or visiting another evangelical church, and you are not a believer, you do not profess faith in Christ, I implore you to not take the Lord’s supper, for if you’re not part of the family of God, you’re not meant to partake in the Family Meal.

V. Invitation

a. Unbeliever – if you are here and are an unbeliever, and hearing the Gospel, the Good News of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, taking upon Himself the sins of His people, and you’re convicted of this by the call of the Gospel on your life, I urge you to respond.

b. Believer – If you are here and are a believer, a professing disciple of Christ, and there is some sin in your life that has gone unchecked or unconfessed and unrepented of, I urge you to take this time and confess it to God and ask for help in repenting. If there is something that you need to make right, if you can, make it right…right now.

c. Take the time in just a moment when we sing (HYMN NAME HERE) to examine yourselves, each and every one of us, to make sure we are taking this in a worthy manner. Let’s pray.

[1] Jamieson, Bobby. Understanding The Lord's Supper (Church Basics) (p. 25). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.