Bridge Church Vancouver

The Lord’s Supper is a mysterious sacrament because once again, like in baptism, we are invited to interact with God  in the physical and spiritual realities of us and God coming together in a significant and sacred manner.  Through the years and traditions, there have been numerous and varied understandings of the mystery of the Lords Supper. 

Lets take a quick look at the history of this sacrament.  To understand it’s significance we must understand where it came from and what it has gone through to be preserved for us and to be sacred to us today.

Acts 2:42-43

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 4

In the very early days of the church, they likely celebrated the Lords Supper at every meeting or  time of worship.  But very soon we see in the developing church of Acts and the letters of Paul that the administration of the Lords Supper was confined to the meeting on the first day of the week.  The ‘agape’ or ‘love feast’ always preceded communion and be followed by the singing of praises and genuine bonding of the fellowship of the community through greetings and the ‘holy kiss’. 

Through the development of the church, the Lords Supper continued to hold a great sense of mystic sacredness and in the church of the first couple of centuries would separate themselves from the more public preaching of the Word and prayers as in the previous period.  It was believe to be something too holy for the common eye to see and therefore not a part of the open church meeting and reserved for the gathering of the believers only.  All of the ingredients of the agape and elements of the supper were provided by the free-will offerings of the believers  and solemnly set apart by the officiating bishop with a consecrating prayer that became known as the “Eucharist” and the gifts were called the ‘sacrifices’. 

Over the next centuries several streams of understanding began to be associated with the mystical traditions.  Through the medieval period, the Roman Catholic Church taught a doctrine known as ‘Transubstantiation’ that by Divine power the bread and wine were physically and substantially changed into the body and blood of Jesus and that in the mass the physical sacrifice of Jesus occurred fresh for the congregants as a sin offering.  The mass became the very center of the Catholic worship service. 

During the reformation, the doctrine of transubstantiation was rejected and replaced with more symbolic understandings of the bread and wine.  That while the elements had spiritual significance in their meaning they physically remained bread and wine.  That when Jesus says “this is” it is understood as “this stands for”, “this signifies”.

Over thousands of years, The Lords Supper has remained a mysterious and sacred act that has evoked the hearts and minds of God’s people as they interact individually and corporately with the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.  This is like a most important and sacred family dinner where the Father and Son call their family together to remember and celebrate who they are and why they are at His table. 

This is not for those who have not yet believed but for those who have responded to Jesus’ sacrifice for their sin and received the life of God’s Holy Spirit.

In the supper we confess our faith and express what that faith means to us.   We do it in memory of Christ’s death and to celebrate His finished work on the cross that secures our everlasting relationship with the God of Life. In the Lord’s Supper we clearly see the vicarious atonement or substitution of Christ for our own sin; that He died the death we, ourselves, personally were condemned to.  It was my sin that nailed him to the cross.  In the Lords Supper, I personally, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually accept and receive the real and effectual sacrifice that Jesus made for me by letting himself be stripped, beaten, tortured and killed for my wilful sin – the choices, decisions, words, actions, attitudes that goes against what God has said is the way I should live. 

More so than in baptism, the Lords Supper Spiritually bridges our present day faith with both the past and future actions of Jesus

Jesus says...

"This is my body, which is for you (PRESENT); do this in remembrance of me."(PAST)  25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood(FUTURE); do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."  

Paul encourages us...26 “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”(FUTURE)

The Lords Supper is a time of remembrance of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for us, why he did it and what His death provided for us.  Jesus says “do this in remembrance of me”  (Lk 22:19)

The Lords Supper connects us to our Past

God has always been about the work of revealing himself, particularly as he is calling us, his creation to himself and redeeming us.  He did this in the Old Testament, as he provided a Passover Lamb.  A perfect lamb that was killed and that’s blood was wiped on the doorposts of the Jew’s who were living in Egypt, so that they would escape the death that the rest of the world would experience.  The death of the Egyptians was the necessary event that would provide the deliverance of God’s People.  At that time Gods people began to celebrate the Passover as an annual and sacred celebration feast to remember what God had done for them.  Over and over God would command them to “REMEMBER”

Deut 24:18

8 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord  your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

We so easily forget who we are, what has happened in our lives that has made us who we are today.    We often want to forget and move on, and when we do we end up going in circles.  The Israelites did that for 40 years as they wondered in the desert, they easily would forget what God had done for them and they would have to cover the same ground over and over until they were willing to accept who God was and what he had done for them and the future that he had for them. 

When you take the Lords Supper – do you remember what Jesus has done for you.  Let your mind remind you of the sin – the specific names, dates, times, places, words, actions that the blood of Jesus is covering in your life.  The things you have confessed and repented of.  The things you are no longer judged and held responsible for.  These are the things that the sacrifice of Jesus and forgiveness of God has set you free of. 

Freedom is freedom when you know what you have been set free from.  In the Lords Supper we remember the marvellous life and ministry of Jesus.  It is an opportunity to express our deepest praise and appreciation for all that Jesus has done for us. 

Just as one step in the Jewish Passover meal was to proclaim the Hebrews deliverance from Egyptian bondage, so in the Lord’s Supper we proclaim the deliverance from sin and the misery through the death of  “Christ our Passover”  (1Cor 5:7)

The Lords Supper connects us with our past – it also connects us with our Present.

The Supper is a time of refreshing and communing with God through the Holy Spirit.  An event that happened 2000 years ago becomes real and significant in our present day lives.  As we participate in the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection life.

1 Cor 10:16

16 When we bless the cup at the Lord's Table, aren't we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren't we sharing in the body of Christ? NLT

Through the spirit of Christ we connect our lives with the sacrifice of Jesus...

Through the death and life of Jesus we to are able to live

    John 6:53-54  53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day

Jesus also said

John 10:10

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Through the Lord’s Supper we remember what Jesus has done for us and find the refreshment our souls long for to live in the fullness of life that Jesus bring into our lives today.  Through the Lords Supper, and the power of the Spirit God reminds us and renews the strength of Jesus life that remains within us. 

1 Peter 4:11

11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

At the Lords table we are refreshed, renewed and find the strength to face our very present days. 

We must also remember the Lords Supper is not an individual experience but is an expression of the whole community.  Not just between me and Jesus, but that God is calling His whole family together, we are part of the body of Jesus. 

1 Cor 10:17-18

17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. NLT 

Paul chastised the Corinthian church on their abuse of this sacred event.       

1 Cor 11:20-21

20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, 21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else.

The problem in this church was that each person was only interested in themselves, their own issues, interests, concerns and comforts and Paul reminds us we are part of a body that God is strengthening us for.

The Lords Supper also connects us to our future. 

God has always had a greater future for us than we may even have for ourselves, it is a future of a glorious home

In the Old Testament, God was calling his people to worship him and he would take them to their new home – a Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.            

Ex 3:17

17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into ... — a land flowing with milk and honey.'

The Supper is a time of recommitment and anticipation.  We are to examine (literally “prove” or “test” ) ourselves and participate in a worthy manner.  When we do this we renew our dedication to Christ and His people, in the hopeful anticipation “till He comes again”  After Christs return we shall partake with Him in His physical presence in the Kingdom.

Luke 22:16-18,20

16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.  

Jesus is entering into a covenant relationship in itself indicates an on-going future relationship, but this future is not ambiguous in Jesus mind, but very clear and with great fulfillments – it is that time when he comes for us and takes us to the great feast of the lamb in the physical presence of God. 

Rev 19:9

9 Then the angel said to me(John), "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."

1 Cor 11:26  “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

 In the Lords Supper you are declaring you have a future with God.  You are anticipating and looking for the return of Christ who will bring you into his glorious home.  When Jesus said      

John 14:2-4

I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

This is real.  When we are participating in the Lords Supper – we are participating in the Past – Present and Future of our Relationship with God because of our faith in Jesus Christ, that his sacrifice of his body and blood on the cross secured this relationship for me. 

This is why the Lords Supper is a GREAT, MYSTERIOUS SACRAMENT FOR US AND ONE HE INVITES US TO PARTICIPATE IN.