What is the Lord’s Supper?
Christ commanded all Christians to eat bread and drink from the cup in memory of Him and His death. The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the presence of God in our midst; brings us together in communion with God and with one another; feeding and nurturing our souls. It also anticipates the day when we will eat and drink with Christ in his Father’s Kingdom.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26: “I received from the Lord the same thing that I transmitted to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and, after giving thanks, broke it and said: ‘This bread is My body, which for you He delivered; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper, he took the cup and said: ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, every time you drink from it, in memory of Me’. Because every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
The Lord’s Supper is a sign and seal of the covenant. That means that it represents and confirms the precious promise that God, through Jesus Christ, will be our God and we will be his people. In the Lord’s Supper we remember and celebrate the presence of God, and experience fellowship. We also have something that nourishes us and, in the Lord’s Supper, we anticipate the glory to come.
At the Lord’s table, He himself invites us to return to His presence. When Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Take and eat,’ he reversed the words of the serpent in the garden.
First, the Lord’s Supper is a reminder. At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus told His disciples that they would proclaim His death until He returned. The bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, are a representation of the covenant sacrifice. Both sides indicate that Jesus’ death was a deliberate act on his part. He gave Himself as a sacrifice in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. So every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we must remember the meaning and importance of the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We must remember Him. “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Lk 22:19). We celebrate the glorious work of atonement that Jesus Christ completed for us.
Second, the Lord’s Supper is also a celebration of God’s presence. Isn’t it wonderful that we are invited to God’s table? This is especially wonderful in light of our rebellion. In Genesis 3, Satan told Eve and Adam, “Take and eat of the fruit.” They ate the fruit against God’s command. Which it was the result? Did it result in your satisfaction and fulfillment? No. It resulted in their expulsion from the presence of God. But at the Lord’s table, the Lord himself invites us back into his presence. When Jesus told his disciples, “Take and eat,” he reversed the words of the serpent in the garden. Derek Kidner wrote this beautiful line: “God would taste poverty and death before ‘take and eat’ became verbs of salvation.” We experience this every time we come to the Lord’s table, every time we hear the minister say, “Take and eat.” It is a celebration of our reunion with God, of his presence with us, and of the intimate fellowship we enjoy with him.
The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace that God has designated to build us up, nourish us, confirm our faith, and strengthen us to grow.
Third, the Lord’s Supper is communion. It is fellowship with God and with His people. We not only have fellowship with the living God by grace, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, but we have fellowship with one another. When we are united with the Lord Jesus Christ, we are united with all who are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why Paul told the Corinthians that they had to discern the body (1Co 11:29). He is not telling them that they need to understand something mystical about the elements of the Lord’s Supper. What body is it referring to? The body of Christ, the church, fellowship with believers.
Finally, the Lord’s Supper nourishes us spiritually. It is a means of grace. It is one of the methods that God has designated to build us up, nurture us, confirm our faith and strengthen us to grow. And the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the coming glory. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples the night he was betrayed and served them the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Interestingly, when Jesus talks about the marriage banquet of the Lamb (Lk 12:37), in glory, when the grand finale comes and everyone recognizes that He is the King, He says that on that day he will ask all of us to recline. , just as the disciples did on the night of the Lord’s Supper, and it will serve us.
Yes, in the Lord’s Supper we anticipate the marriage banquet of the Lamb, in which we will all be seated together in glory, and our Savior will again serve us everything we need. What a great joy it is to come to the table of the Lord.
Prayer: Bread of life, we partake of the Lord’s Supper in reverent obedience. We don’t want to receive it unworthily, so we come in repentance and faith. Help us to forgive the sins of those who have offended us, especially the believers with whom we share the bread and the cup. Let our participation in this dinner proclaim Your saving death and our urgent need for it. Amen.
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