The Lord’s Supper4 min read
The Lord of the Lord’s Supper
The reason of the Lord’s supper would be lost if the Lord of the supper was not recognized. This is the very purpose of it: to remember the Lord’s death and resurrection until He come. It is to remind us of Him until we are in His presence in eternity. The focus and the purpose is Him.
Because of the importance of the feast, it is every disciple’s obligation who is saved and baptized to take part in this supper. We must do it, making it our absolute priority, because the Lord commanded it. We must never forsake it for any reason, whether being a job, fatigue, or a lack of desire. We must heed His command.
It should be obvious by now because of the command and purpose that the centrality must be Christ. Being at the Lord’s supper helps us to appreciate more about Christ and the depths of His love, something that is indescribable. These precious thoughts are ones that nothing on earth can buy. Should this time not be redeemed considering how short it really is?
Loyalty to the Lord’s Supper
One may wonder how often this supper must be held and how loyal we must be to it. Consider these points, and it will be clear that loyalty to the supper must be a characteristic of all who take part in it.
- Acts 20:7 – “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…”
- Acts 2:42 – And they devoted themselves (were constantly diligent) to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
- We are to expect His coming (Luke 12:36). We should want to worship as much as possible before He comes.
- As Christians, we should want to remember Him.
- We need to be reminded of Him, or else our focus will become lost and off of the ‘finish line’ as it were.
Lacking at the Supper
First Corinthians 11 speaks of one who is partaking in this small feast of the bread and wine in an unworthy manner. The person in this passage was not discerning the importance and understanding the purpose of the feast. The consequences were severe, he was eating and drinking his own damnation, he was weak and sickly and some had even died. To appreciate the value and importance of this feast must be understood by all who have a desire to partake of the Lord’s supper before joining the fellowship of a local assembly. We must treat the supper with respect and approach it only on the grounds of His finished work.
The Lamb of the Supper: the Bread
The bread and wine both speak vividly of His death; however, they are both from different aspects. The bread represents His body that was given and the sufferings He went through. While we should have born that punishment in Hell for all eternity, He bore it in our stead. This should cause us when remembering Him to contemplate how willing He was to give His own body for us who rightly deserved His sorrows.
The Lamb of the Supper: the Blood
Scripture says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). Because of His freely shed blood, we are brought under the new covenant of grace, rather than the old covenant of the Law. Our true hope comes from the blood, for when God sees the blood applied to our hearts, the wrath of God no longer abides on us but is laid on Christ. He will pass over us, just as the Angel did in Exodus 12. The blood cleanses from sin, and because of this we can go boldly into His presence knowing that we are justified in His sight. Where no deeds of the law could justify, Christ’s blood has. “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7. When in His presence at the supper, we see His precious shed blood as a vivid reminder that His life was given, a sacrifice has been made, and we have been reconciled to God.
We will not understand the true depth of the meaning of the Lord’s supper until we are in eternity. So while we eagerly await his return, let us remember Him passionately as He has commanded us to do. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name (Heb 13:15).”