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| Section: Basic Christian Living:
courses for new Christians |
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Beginning with God |
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8. The
Covenant Meal: |
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The Lord's
Supper |
Luke
22:19-20
'[Jesus] took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to
them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in
remembrance of me." In the same way…he took the cup,
saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which
is poured out for you."'
Celebrating our deliverance
In obedience to the command
of Jesus, Christians regularly meet to take bread and wine.
It goes under various names: Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the
Lord's Table or the Lord's Supper.
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Its origin is in the Jewish Passover meal.
Jewish families took this once a year in remembrance of one of the greatest
moments in their history: their ancestors' great deliverance from slavery in
Egypt at the time of Moses (read the account in Exodus 11-12).
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Jesus celebrated
the Passover with his twelve disciples just before his crucifixion.
To their astonishment, he stopped the time-honoured ritual in
its tracks and gave it a whole new direction. He turned it into
a remembrance of himself. By his death he was about to
bring about a far greater deliverance for his people: deliverance
from slavery to sin and Satan.
Why 'covenant'
meal?
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| A covenant
is an agreement or special arrangement, and covenants
in Bible times were usually celebrated with a meal, rather like
a marriage banquet (marriage is a covenant, Malachi 2:14). |
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| Central to the New Testament
is the New Covenant. This is the arrangement that God
made, enabling those who believe to live in relationship with
him. It was ratified by the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross.
As a Christian, you're a beneficiary of the new covenant and
live under its terms. And the meal that celebrates it—the
covenant meal—is the Lord's Supper. It is not a 'once only'
meal, like a wedding reception, but a meal we enjoy regularly.
Some
practicalities
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| Where? |
Sometimes at
gatherings of the whole church. But it can also be in groups,
whether on church premises or in our homes:
Acts
2:46 'They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and
sincere hearts.'
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| What? |
The bread is just ordinary bread and the wine
ordinary wine. They are not 'consecrated', nor do they have any mystic
'spiritual' qualities.
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| How often? |
The New Testament does not legislate on
frequency, but the signs are that it was very often. The Christians in
Jerusalem in the early days of the church celebrated the Lord's Supper
'every day' (Acts 2:46). So, if we wish, may we.
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| Conducted by? |
It does not have to be a church leader who
presides. Any Christian may dispense the bread and wine (1 Corinthians
10:16).
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What's
the point of it?
Physical acts can convey spiritual
truths. That's what a sacrament is. We saw in Lesson 2,
for instance, that baptism is a dramatic reminder that we were
buried with Christ, so to speak, and rose with him to life in
a new dimension.
So what are the truths conveyed
by the Lord's Supper? We'll answer this question by looking at
a Bible passage about the covenant meal, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34,
and highlighting some aspects of it. First, read the passage
carefully.
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1. Looking
BACK
1 Corinthians
11:26
'Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes.'
The Supper is a reminder of
Christ's death at Calvary. The bread that we break reminds us
of his body, broken in crucifixion for us, and the wine is a
picture of his blood shed there for our salvation.
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So the Lord's Supper directs your
thoughts back in history to the cross, which is the source of all the
blessings you enjoy here and now. It reminds you of the awful cost of your
salvation, paid willingly by Jesus out of his love for you.
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2. Looking UP
1 Corinthians
11:24
Jesus said, 'Do this in remembrance of me.'
God never intended the Lord's
Supper to be a mournful occasion. While Christ's suffering on
the cross was appalling, we must never forget that Calvary was
followed by an empty tomb. Hard on the heels of death came resurrection!
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You take the bread and wine in
remembrance not just of Jesus' death, but in remembrance of him as a
person. And he's no longer dead. He's alive, and with us by his Spirit.
So the Supper is a joyful occasion as we look up to see him, with the
eye of faith, seated at the Father's right hand in glory (Colossians 3:1).
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3. Looking
AROUND
1 Corinthians
11:29
'…recognising the Lord's body…'
The Lord's Supper is a communal
meal; we take it in the company of other Christians. That's why
it's sometimes called communion.
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| When Paul tells us we should
take the Supper while 'recognising the Lord's body', the 'body'
he refers to is not the physical body of Jesus but the body of
Christians in the local church with whom we take the bread and
wine. Paul says, 'You [plural] are the
body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it' (1 Corinthians 12:27).
So as you eat and drink, look around at your spiritual brothers and
sisters and thank the Lord for joining you to them.
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4. Looking
WITHIN
1 Corinthians
11:28
'A
man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread
and drinks of the cup.'
To eat with somebody is to
declare your association with them. By sharing the same meal
you're saying to that person, 'I'm one with you. I'm with you
and for you.'
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| In this way
the covenant meal declares our unity as believers. Paul
says, 'Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf' (1 Corinthians 10:17).
Here's where we need to look
within and be careful that our attitude to our
brothers and sisters is right. Why? Because it's dangerous to
share the Lord's Supper, which declares to them, 'I'm with you
and for you' if, in our hearts, we are saying, 'I don't like
you and I'm against you.' That is to invite God's severe judgment
(see 1 Corinthians 11:27-30).
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5. Looking FORWARD
1 Corinthians
11:26
'Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes.'
This reminds us that the present
state of affairs won't continue for ever. Each time we partake
of the Lord's Supper it is both one time more and one time less-because
Jesus is coming back!
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The love and
fellowship you enjoy here and now around the Lord's Table is
just a foretaste of the unspeakably wonderful love and fellowship
that awaits you when Christ returns. The Bible describes this
in terms of a marriage: Christ, the bridegroom, will be
at last united with the church, his bride. And that's us! The
'wedding supper of the Lamb' (Revelation 19:9) will be the meal
to end all meals, a great heavenly banquet that will last for
ever.
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Learn by
heart |
1 Corinthians 11:24
'Do this in remembrance of me.' |
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There is more about the Lord's Supper on this website:
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