Recovering the Lord's Supper

What is the Lord’s Supper?

“The highest form of corporate Christian worship is the Lord’s Supper. The celebration of the Supper directs our attention backward to the work of Christ on the cross and also encourages a forward look to the second coming of Christ. In addition, it provides a time for believers to examine their own personal relationship with God as well as their relationship with other believers while experiencing communion with the exalted Christ. The observance is one that is so simple a child can partake with a sense of understanding, yet it contains so many theological ramifications that even the most mature believer will not fully comprehend it’s meaning.”

— David S. Dockery in a foreword to The Lord’s Supper

“The purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to receive from Christ the nourishment and strength and hope and joy that come from feasting our souls on all that He has purchased for us on the cross, especially His own fellowship.”

— John Piper

Known by many names:

The Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Table

Communion

The Eucharist

One of the two sacraments established and ordained by Christ Himself.

A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace.

We are doing something physically that corresponds with a spiritual reality.

It is our act of faith in which we participate in what God is doing in the spirit.

Not just a symbol or memorial alone, but an actual means of grace. Something takes place spiritually as we partake in the physical sign.

The Sacrament itself is not the source of the grace but merely our act of faith and obedience to participate with the grace.

A person taking the sacrament apart from faith and obedience should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

The grace comes as a free gift from God, not from any ritual.

In the Communion

We are united together in fellowship with God and with our fellow believers.

We receive strength and empowerment to walk out our salvation and sanctification.

We bring our sins and weakness to the crucified Christ and receive the cleansing and lifting of our burdens that He has provided for us in his death burial and resurrection.

We proclaim the Lord’s death and atoning work, thus strengthening our faith.

We look forward to the return of Christ and the consummation of all things.

“One of the most admirable effects of Holy Communion is to preserve the soul from sin, and to help those who fall through weakness to rise again. It is much more profitable, then, to approach this divine sacrament with love, respect, and confidence, than to remain away through an excess of fear and scrupulosity.”

— Ignatius of Loyola

The Lord’s Supper in Church History

For over 1500 years the Lord’s Supper was the central focus of the entire worship service.

Not singing or the sermon, but the Eucharist was central.

A normal service consisted of prayers, public reading of scripture, singing/chanting, brief homilies (mini sermons), and all of it pointed towards the culmination of the service in the Eucharist.

The Lord’s Supper was so important that if anyone couldn’t come to service, because they were too sick, the elements were taken to them at home.

It was usually taken as often as they came together or at least weekly.

in the letter to the Corinthians Paul uses the phrase “when you come together” 7 times. 2 of those times are concerning spiritual gifts. The other 5 are all in regards to Communion.

Especially in the early church it was often celebrated in conjunction with a love feast.

Only allowed to be taken by believers.

So important to the Reformers that Luther and Zwingli were unable to unite Protestantism over their differing views on communion.

They were able to find common ground on 14 out of 15 points but the disagreement on communion was deemed so important that it torpedoed the whole attempt to unite.

For the first 1,000 years of church history there was almost universal agreement concerning the Lord’s Supper. They agreed that Christ was present in the Supper and that it was a means of grace, but they viewed it as a divine mystery.

Around that 1000 year mark the writings of Aristotle were rediscovered and they birthed the rise of rationalism and scholasticism.

people started feeling the need to explain everything rationally and it was no longer enough to accept the concept of mystery.

The church became more focused on intellectualism over faith and mystery.

The Eastern church, which had separated from the Roman Church, continued to embrace mystery while the Western church embraced Aristotelian philosophy and moved into rationalism.

It was during this period that the Roman church began to explain the Eucharist through the lens of Transubstantiation.

4 main views of Communion during the Protestant Reformation (500 years later)

Catholic - transubstantiation

the elements became the literal body and blood of Christ.

Aristotle - substance vs accidents

2. Luther - consubstantiation

3. Zwingli - Just a symbol or a memorial

Violently rejected by all the other Reformers. Marburg Colloquy.

Based on Enlightenment era rejection of anything spiritual being irrational superstition.

4. Calvin - Spiritual Presence

Christ’s body is seated at the right hand of God, but He is spiritually present in the Supper.

Scriptures on The Supper

John 6

48 “I am the bread of life.

49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

John is the only Gospel that does not include the institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper narrative.

It does. however, include this passage using very Eucharistic language.

Written much later than the other Gospels so his readers were familiar with the Last Supper as presented by the others.

Gospel not written chronologically but thematically.

3 main views on this passage

passover

Just Bread of Life/manna

Eucharistic

I think all 3 play a part

Jesus is the Passover Lamb and the bread of Life. It is only in Him and in His work on the cross that we are saved. His blood was shed once and for all. and in the Lord’s Supper we look upon these truths in faith and we participate in the body and blood of our work and the finished work He has done for us.

Matthew Chapter 26

26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

This is the passover meal.

This is where Jesus establishes the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah and he gives the wine as the sign of the covenant.

The Lord’s Supper has past, present, and future aspects. We look back and remember what He has done for us, we receive now a gift of grace for the empowerment to walk our our salvation, and we look forward to the day when Christ again drinks with us in celebration in His Father;s Kingdom at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

1 Corinthians Chapter 10

16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.18 Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?19 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

When we take the bread and wine we are sharing or participating in the body and the blood.

the word for share here is Koinonia.

Not just a memorial but a participation and joining together with,

1 Corinthians Chapter 11

17 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it.19 For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper,21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.The Lord’s Supper 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number asleep.31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

People getting sick and dying over taking the communion wrongly (seems like more than just a symbol)

Examine ourselves before we partake.

If we find sin, don’t let that keep you from the table, but bring it to the table with a repentant heart

the specific sin Paul is dealing with is disunity in the body and not loving and respecting one another.

application

We need to realize the import and power of the Lord’s Supper and come to it in faith, with an expectant heart.

Treat it as a Holy moment for it is.

Examine ourselves prior to taking and bring what we find before the Lord.

“We should pray that God would enrich His ordinance with His presence; that He would make the sacrifice effectual to all those holy ends and purposes which He hath appointed it; that it might be the feast of our graces, and the funeral of our corruptions; that it may not only be a sign to represent, but an instrument to convey, Christ to us, and a seal to assure us of our heavenly union”

— Thomas Watson