THE LORD’S SUPPER

 The church that Jesus built will obey the scriptures about the taking of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus wanted us to remember His death. Because God offered His only begotten Son, He will want us to remember that sacrifice.

In Matthew 26:26-28, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and commanded that the disciples remember His death, burial, and resurrection with thie unleavened bread and fruit of the vine. He was very specific about the elements we are to use in this feast. He told His disciples about the bread, “Take, eat; this is my body” (KJV). Then He took the fruit of the vine and said, “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for man for the remission of sins.”

Jesus told His disciples that the bread represented His body, and the fruit of the vine represented His blood. They could not possibly understand at the time the significance of these elements; but in time, they did understand.

Acts 20:7 is our example of the first century Christians taking the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week. They didn’t take it once a year, once a quarter, or at weddings. They took it in the way Jesus commanded, on every first day of the week.

When Christians partake of the Lord’s Supper today, we are obeying what Jesus told the disciples in Matthew and in Luke 22:19.

Just as important as the time we take the Lord’s Supper and the elements we take is the attitude with which we take it. I Corinthians 11:27-34 tells us just what our attitude should be. Paul says that if we take the Lord’s Supper unworthily, we will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

The word, “unworthily”, is an adverb that modifies the verbs, “eat and drink”. This means that we are suppose to be thinking about Christ and what He did for us. We are not to eat like someone who is hungry. It is not that kind of supper. It is all about Christ and how He sacrificed His life for us. That is why we take it every week, why we must take it with the right attitude, and why we must use the elements He commanded.

Man’s plan is to take it when he decides: taking it only on Easter, taking it other days of the week, taking it at weddings, using other elements than what Jesus commanded, or taking it and thinking about Jesus and His death on the cross.

God’s plan is eating unleavened bread and drinking the fruit of the vine, on every first day of the week, and remembering Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

In our search for the true church, we need to be conscious of the seriousness of this feast.

Sandra Oliver