Articles
The Purpose and Intent of the Lord's Supper--Transcript
We began that study back in May of this year and just focusing our attention upon that on the first Sunday of each month.
This month we talked about the purpose and intent of worship that focused on singing as well as teaching God's Word.
The purpose and intent of worship also involves a memorial.
I would say that several of you have probably been to a memorial service for a loved one, There's also been times where there would be a memorial that would be repeated over and over every year at a particular place because there was a certain event that took place at that location.
And you might be one of those that participated on a yearly basis.
You have observed that.
Most often we would think about it at the end of May on Memorial Day.
We had a lesson about that, but not necessarily the focus of our lesson was about this particular memorial.
Every time there is a thunderstorm, a heavy rain, and there's a sun that comes through at a certain direction at a certain time, you have an opportunity to see a memorial.
It's the rainbow that happens in the sky.
And at that moment there probably is a time that you reflect upon Noah and what happened during that time of him being rescued by the ark.
And that just is a continuing memorial every time that particular event happens.
All through Scripture you've got feast days that are listed over and over that God said, I want you to observe this because this is a time of year where harvests came about.
I want it to be a memorial to you because of the blessings that I gave you and several other feasts, the Sabbath day.
Even when in the book of Exodus chapter 12 this memorial feast of which brought this one on, the Passover.
And when that event took place for the people of Israel, God said, okay, what I want you to do is I want you to keep Unleaven here in your house for a period of time.
And then the Passover lamb was offered, blood put on the doorposts, and the people of Israel were delivered from their bondage in Egypt.
And on the way to Canaan there was a continuing memorial that they had.
It was this omer of manna that God said, I want you to take it, I want you to keep it with you all the way through to let you know that every morning you're going to be fed.
You're going to be fed by me.
And they kept this manna all the way to the time they went into the land of Canaan.
I don't know about you, but I do believe that every memorial that takes place in our land or in other countries is definitely one of these humbling, sober, serious moments.
And I must say that some of those particular moments of memorial brings a lot of emotion.
Tears in your heart as well as tears in your face.
And in some instances this one is no different, the one you see found in scripture.
We're believers or individuals who come together on an assembly like this.
First Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23, a passage that has been stated many, many times in preparation for this memorial where it says, I received the Lord that which also delivered unto you the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
And when he had given thanks he break it and said, this is my body which is for you this do in remembrance of me.
And in like manner the cup also after supper he said, this cup is 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 the cup you proclaim the Lord's death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man prove himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For he that eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment and to himself he be discerned not the body.
What is the meaning of a memorial anyway, specifically in this one? Well the purpose and intent of worship and in this particular activity of worship is to let you and I come to the realization something happened, a very special moment happened of which God said I do not want you to forget.
I don't want you to forget it because it brought about your salvation.
According to Matthew chapter 26 verse 17 to verse 29 it was established by Jesus Christ.
It wasn't something of which we came up with.
It wasn't something that people came up with in the first century and said oh we got to remember this man that Jesus walked upon the face of the earth that gave himself for us.
It wasn't something that came in the second and third century by some of the early Christians and said we need to remember because in the history books there's this man that came and did all these miracles, wonderful acts of the power of God.
We got to put something together to remember this guy because of all he did.
This was established by Jesus Christ because he wanted a communion with us.
Chapter 10 of the book of 1 Corinthians says it this way, the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a communion of the blood of Jesus? The bread which we break is it not a communion of the body of Christ? Seeing that we who are many are one bread, one body for we all partake of the one bread.
And then he said in verse 21 you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? The communion with the Lord who gave himself for us.
The communion with all of our brethren in fellowship that comes as a result of Jesus the Christ who gave himself for us.
At his table, at his table.
That's why some brethren when they stand up in front of the congregation talk about coming to the table of the Lord.
And according to Luke chapter 22, 29 and 30 it is his table.
It is his table that we come together for this feast.
A pattern which you see really established as a means of bringing about the new covenant.
Not only the new covenant but also bringing about the New Testament church.
The kingdom.
Jesus even mentioned how that he would not partake of it again until the kingdom comes.
And when the kingdom came, then the people came together to remember him.
In a communion together.
In the book of Acts the second chapter verse 42 after these about 3000 souls were saved, it says they continued to step fast in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and in prayers.
The breaking of bread where these brethren come together on the first day of the week.
And in the book of Acts 20 verse 7 says this is this occasion.
And it's so interesting to me that this is one of those instances where when you read and understand how valuable this is, you see why it would be that we would do this on a weekly basis.
It's not a Christmas feast.
It's not an Easter celebration.
It's not something that you just enjoy when two people come together in marriage as some people do at a marriage ceremony.
This is a particular spiritual feast.
I do know that if you look in the book of Acts 27 and verse 38 there is this phrase breaking of bread that refers to the eating and the drinking for your own health and benefit to keep you sustained physically.
But the breaking of bread that you find here in the book of Acts the second chapter with the surrounding features of worship, doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, prayers.
This is all about something spiritual.
It's connection to the one who gave himself for us.
The significance of this, some people say why do you do it every week? Why would we do this every week? The more you do this, however frequent you get it done, it seems like it just doesn't become to be as significant a memorial.
It's not really something that you need to do all the time.
Maybe we just forget to do it every week.
Maybe why don't we just do it on Saturday night like some want to do.
Maybe we need to lessen the numbers of times that we sing songs.
Maybe what we need to do is lessen the number of the prayers that we offer.
Maybe we need to lessen the times of which we give.
Maybe we need to reduce the amounts of times of which we spend in speaking and teaching God's Word because the less you do it, maybe the memorials and the benefits and the blessings of it, maybe they'll increase.
First of all, in Acts chapter 20 verse 7, if it's not every week, why not every week? The more you begin to understand what God's wisdom is in putting it there, the more you see the need for a frequency.
Unless we forget the mighty deeds of God in bringing about our salvation, diligent, faithful remembrance, loyalty to this does not diminish the significance of it at all.
Not at all.
It is very important for us to understand when we talk about the breaking of bread and the summarizing of all these things, you see Jesus putting together and establishing His Supper.
This is His Supper and He's inviting us to come as fellowship believers together in the body of Christ.
It's a communion that we come together at His table.
He put this together.
This bringing of bread is for Him and it is for us to remember what it was that happened for our sake.
Believers that come together in this worship assembly, we do it because a pattern was already set forth by the apostles that you see in the book of Acts 2 chapter verse 42.
And we continue to do this over and over again.
Not because it's tradition.
Not because it's some ceremonial observation.
It's not because it's something as a rite that we do.
It's not a ritual.
This is a spiritual activity that has wonderful blessings and benefits to it that we need not forget.
Not just that we remember Jesus on the day of which this observance is done, but it is put forth for you to continually remember what it is that Jesus did.
Sometimes there's something to be said for the value of this supper.
One of the things that you and I must think about is that this supper is circumstantial evidence for the fact that Jesus came.
Look at it this way.
Jesus in this says to you and says to me that He did live in spite of all the people that will tell us that man didn't come.
He was just a good fellow.
In the book of Luke the 22nd chapter verse 19, He declares this due in remembrance of me.
It's a memorial.
In other words, any memorial that's set up is to help you understand, help me understand that this event did take place.
Now we might not have been there.
We were not eyewitnesses of this.
We didn't physically see it happen.
But the circumstantial evidence of us continually doing this every Sunday is to say this man lived.
Not only did he live, he died.
According to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26, you will see this text as it said, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death.
The Lord died.
He lived and He died.
But then in the same verse at the end of that, He said He will come again.
You do show the Lord's death until He comes.
Until He comes.
Until He comes back to bring His redeemed with Him.
He will come again.
Eat this bread and drink this cup.
You show forth the Lord's death.
It just plainly states the purpose and the reason for this memorial to continue.
Because Jesus did come.
Jesus did die.
Jesus will come again.
And as I alluded to just earlier, one of the great things about this supper is that this is telling you and I there's a new covenant that's come.
A new covenant that brings about the redemption of those people that are in sin.
Those people that are in the midst of a transgression of which they don't think they can get out of.
Here's this man, Jesus Christ in Matthew 26 and 28 says, this cup is my blood which is shed for the remission of sins.
And then when you see the case in the book of Acts 2.38, what is it that Peter says to the people? You're going to be baptized for the remission of your sins.
So therefore this man who gave himself was beneficial to all people who want all their sins washed away.
Who don't think they could ever be removed.
Who carries such a burden and struggle within their life to say, I'll never be any better than what I am.
Jesus is the one who brought about the redemption.
And in the supper, if that person ever becomes a believer, they will do this every week and remember not just the shame of what they've done, but the victory that God gave them through that man and his blood that was shed for him.
Sadly, as with every memorial, it just seems like people do damage to those granite figures, bronze statues, concrete, wood, man-made created memorials.
I hope and pray that no one ever comes along and in some way defaces or takes a can of spray paint and sprays across your loved one's marker.
If that would ever happen and you were to go to that memorial or where that loved one is buried and you see them painted something on there, you think how could they ever do such a thing? How would they ever do this to this marker? This person has died and there's no reason for them to do this here.
But you know and I know there's been a lot of markers defaced, profaned, spray painted all over it, broken pieces of it, taken a hammer and destroyed it.
For whatever reason, I have no idea.
You could only ask the person that did it.
But listen to this.
In verse 21, here is a very personal individual responsibility.
Let a man prove himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Command.
But watch this.
For he that eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment unto himself, he be discerned not the body.
And if you go back up to verse 27, wherefore, whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
It would almost be like you took a can of spray paint and sprayed it all over the Lord's supper in defamation, profanity, criticism, forgetfulness, disregard for what this memorial meant to everyone, specifically to you.
And for us to live in hypocrisy, for us to live in total sinfulness, for us to live in disregard for what it was that Jesus did for us, not just in this memorial, but every day that we live.
And if we trade all the sacrifice and disregard our personal self-examination of how we should be living, we don't really discern the body and the blood of the Lord.
Every believer should hold this with sacred honor.
I don't know if you noticed this or not, but as we were sitting there singing just a little bit ago as John Mark was leading us, it just seemed like to me there was this awe that just filtered its way from one side of the building to the other about what it is that we were about to do.
This memorial gives you and I an opportunity to prove ourselves, to self-examine ourselves, to see whether or not we're truly living the way that we should.
And that we're just not taking the bread and drinking the cup because that's what we've got in our hand and because it's the time to do it.
