Let me read the key sentence from the Elder Affirmation of Faith once more and then show you in the Bible where it comes from. Those who are unrepentant in their sinfulness should not be allowed. On the one hand, I can tell you from personal experience that it is difficult when you do something frequently not to allow it to become a mindless routine. For a new Christian, or even someone who has followed the Lord for years, the Lord's Supper can feel somewhat mysterious. The call to personal examination before taking the Lords Supper is a call to participation. 26:28). Shall I commend you in this? Why Do We Take Communion Each Week? - SermonCentral They had the Lords Supper. The bread broken symbolizes the torturous punishments Jesus body endured at the hands of His captors, the Jewish leaders, and the Romans. Obviously, because thats the date on which we got married. It is not mysticism. This is not speaking about a Christian being worthy or unworthy to take it. The Lords Supper resolves that problem. Here they were breaking bread daily, eating meat, and Paul says if we eat to satisfy hunger at the Lord's supper, we do it to our condemnation (I Corinthians 11:34). Indeed, St. Paul affirms in his theology that whenever we conduct the rite of Holy Communion, we proclaim Jesus until He comes again in glory (1 Corinthians 11:26). For Roman Catholics, the Lords Supper is a regular celebration within the mass. Since the 19th Century, the Roman Catholic Church emphasized the need to partake in communion frequently. Some argue that Jesus commanded only the disciples to wash one another's feet. 5 Many Protestant churches observe the Lord's Supper once a month and some do it very rarely. He is author of. Christ instituted the Lord's Supper in order for us to remember the great sacrifice He made for us and that we rely on Him and His sacrifice for our salvation. In the act of Communion, you consecrate yourself to God while accepting Him in your heart, soul, and being. 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at homeso that when you come together it will not be for judgment. The "Lord's supper" or New Testament Passover should be observed after sunset on the evening before the Jewish people of today celebrate their feast. It is eating bread and drinking the cup. I was recently asked why we do this, and since others likely have this same question, I thought it would be helpful to answer it here. . To commemorate Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor. That could not have been written had these days been done away and kept only by Christ-rejecting Jews. The Eucharist (/ ju k r s t /; from Koin Greek: , romanized: evcharista, lit. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. . I have long wondered if sermons that explain the Bible without a consistent connection to Christs death and resurrection do so because the preacher finishes his message with no vision of the cross and resurrection. While still believing in transubstantiation and Christs spiritual presence within the mass, the Eastern Orthodox church focuses on piety and liturgy rather than strict dogma. How do we take Communion? Christ dwells within His people as they remember faithfully His sacrifice and practice their faith as a community. Here, service leaders encourage the church members to participate while also preventing non-believers from participating. Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Communion as the core of Gods New Covenant. And why? Alex is a family man and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. Jesus knew His time had come. Notice I Corinthians 11:27, 29. That night, God sent His angel of death to kill every firstborn son in Egypt. Every mealnot just Communion, but including Communionis a reminder that we are dependent on God as creatures. For example, the Didache, written shortly after the close of the first century, speaks of Christians coming together each Lords day and breaking bread (9:1-12; 14:1). They took the Lords Supper into a regular communion with believers. Let us return to the faith once delivered. 30 [And here is what he means:] That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died [not to be sent to hell; the next verse explains]. The Gospels of Matthew (26:26ff), Mark (14:22ff), and Luke (22:14ff) all report the Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples the night before he died. 10:24-25). And it should be a weekly part of our worship today. The whole church participates and enlivens their faith with the benefits of Jesus flesh and blood. Whether or not you agree, I hope youll give me the opportunity to share with you why I believe in taking the Lords Supper every Sunday. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christs body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace., Where does this idea of partaking of Christs body and blood . Every Sunday, we take a few minutes to partake of the Lord's Supper and some don't even know why. How we should think about this and respond to it is a question for another day. And when various parts of Scripture precede the Lords Table, the resulting synthesis is a gospel proclamation that follows the same pattern of sound words, but with different emphases and angles that God has inspired. After the Bible, which is the infallible foundation of our lives and our church, one of the most important documents in the life of our church is the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith. In other words, if we proclaim the Lord's judgment over our sins, then we also proclaim our freedom, healing, victory, righteousness, prosperity, joy, and peace. His intent was for the church to focus on their unity in Christ. Should We Celebrate the Lord's Supper Every Sunday in Church? Why? He intentionally chose to establish the Lords Supper during the celebration of the Passover (Matt. Eat, drink, and remember. Three Arguments for Weekly Communion - The Gospel Coalition Get our latest tips and leader helps with our free monthly e-newsletter. We observe to commemorate a past event, to anticipate a future event, and to participate in the celebration of life between the two. 67). Pingback: Four Reasons for Taking the Lords Supper Every Lords Day | Via Emmaus Reformed faith salsa style. 26:29), Jesus anticipated a reunion with His disciples in His Fathers kingdom. And what a joy it has been! Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18). To signify, seal, and apply to believers all the benefits of the new covenant. Should we take communion every Sunday? Acts 20:7 We humble ourselves before Him. When Peter balked at His leader lowering Himself to the role of a servant, Jesus said to them that to be a leader, you must learn how to serve. Introduction: When should we eat the Lord's Supper? Verse 17b: When you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. Verse 18: For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. Verse 20: When you come together, it is not the Lords supper that you eat. Verse 33: When you come together to eat, wait for one another. Verse 34: If anyone is hungry, let him eat at homeso that when you come together it will not be for judgment.. Nothing is specified about the kind of bread or the way it is broken. Some believe it would be good to do it weekly; others practice it quarterly. In the Lords Supper, we are all equal. It was "as they were eating" that He took bread and introduced this solemn ordinance we call the Lord's supper. We are to share Gods blessings with the whole world. But it must be remembered that "in the 14th day of the first month at even is the Passover, and in the 15th day of the same month is the feast." He urges us to live a Christian life with love, faith, and charity. Along with baptism it is one of the two sacraments most clearly found in the New Testament . Surely if we, once we see and know the truth, partake of this most sacred ordinance at any other time than that set apart in the Scripture, we would do it unworthily, and to our damnation. The Lord's Supper - The Gospel Coalition He instructs His church to treat one another as brothers and sisters. For all of their young lives, they have followed us to church. God lifts us to Him and justifies our existence in Him. And for the fourth week in a row, we took the Lords Supper and remembered the death and resurrection of Christ with elements resembling his body and blood. Our communion with Christ also urges us to live thankfully and kindly with others. The Lords Supper is Jesus promise of salvation and His return. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you. Do they observe on other days too? Let us observe it worthily. Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. To all of this, an objection may be raised: If we take the Lords Supper every week, it will become rote, tired, and perfunctory. So the historical origin of the Lords Supper is that final supper that Jesus ate with his disciples the night before he was crucified. For that reason, we believe that one of the best ways to preach Christ in our weekly services is to celebrate the Lords Supper every week. Here are five brief biblical and theological reasons for this . Unbelievers may be presentindeed, we welcome them to be presentthere is nothing secretive about the Lords Supper. Why is Eucharist observed in Catholic parishes every Sunday? And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.". But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. But it was after midnight before they broke bread, when they were all getting hungry. There Jesus foreshadows the meaning of the Lord's Supper and says . When Christians fight and squabble about when to take the Lords Supper, we miss the point of the meal (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). I close the way Paul does in 1 Corinthians 11. Protestantism comes from the Religious Reformation, the breakup of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. The Lords Supper is not a plaything. Sundayis our holiday. Each describes Jesus giving thanks or blessing the bread and the cup, and giving them to his disciples saying that the bread is his body and the cup is the blood of the covenant, or the new covenant in his blood. During the Lords Supper, Jesus told His disciples about His death and resurrection. We are not saying that it is sinful to take the Lords Supper less frequently than every week. They believe that the bread and wine remain as they are and we honor Jesus sacrifice as we accept God who alone saves. Here is something much deeper than remembering. It is an integral part of Christian worship. Jesus Explains That He Is Speaking Figuratively ( John 6:63) John 6:63 points away from seeing Christ's physical body in the bread of the Lord's Supper. If we look at Roman Catholic theology, what happens during the Eucharist is transubstantiation the transformation of bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. But it does not say that! The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? he means: Do we not at the Lords table feast spiritually by faith on every spiritual blessing bought by the body and blood of Christ? It is more than the priest reciting Jesus words during the Lords Supper. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 11:24,25). Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave His life for everyones redemption from sin. Last Sunday marked our fourth Sunday back after the COVID-induced hiatus of three months. Yet, later, as He sat "at meat," eating a meal, He broke bread and blessed it (Luke 24:30). What did Jesus mean when He said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood? And yes, because if I didnt remember that date, Id be in the doghouse. Much of our food is grown, processed, distributed, and possibly cooked by other people. Had the ancient Israelites in Egypt observed the first Passover at any time except the exact time appointed by God, they would have done it unworthily, and suffered the plague. Why Do Churches of Christ Observe The Lord's Supper Every Sunday? Jon But, "when I see the blood, I will pass over you," the Lord told the Israelites. 11:24,25). If I'm not mistaken, the Catholics celebrate Eucharist every Sunday. The Historical Origin of the Lord's Supper For Baptists, the Lords Supper is a church ordinance. It is a memorial to Christs sacrificial death. As we have noted, with our governors restriction in place, we might not be able to gather together every Sunday if weather forces us inside. The Greek word is Pascha meaning "Passover." "Do this in remembrance of ME " ( 1 Cor. The Lords Supper issomething that is supposed to bring us together, not tear us apart. At the very beginning of his earthly ministry Jesus told Mary, "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4, NLT). The first and most important reason I believe in taking the Lords Supper every Sunday is the testimony of Scripture. This happens because of Jesus presence during the liturgy of the Eucharist. But lest we forget, Jesus sent the apostle Paul to teach Christians how to conduct themselves, not just by what he said and wrote, but also by his example. In theory, we already knew that. When we drink a small amount of wine (or grape juice) at the Lord's Supper, we remember . Paul said, What you have learned and received and heard and seen in mepractice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9). We partake of Jesus flesh and blood. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. The Lord's Supper: Meaning, Purpose, and Practice - FaithGiant So the lamb was killed in the very beginning of the 14th of Abib. We can add to Justins testimony, the testimony of men like Eusebius, Pliny, Ignatius, Origen and many others to show conclusively that Christians have historically regarded Sunday as the day set aside by the Lords apostles as the day on which the church is to assemble and break bread together. Home | About | Sermons | Resources | Contact | Members Truly, this is something all of us should aspire to do with the Lords Supper. But John relates another part of this ordinance. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion . After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Apostles followed Jesus instructions. The word for church,ekklesia,means assembly or gathering, and therefore, the church cant be the church when it doesnt meet. With other priorities, we have not taught to that end or made that change. Weekly communion is biblical, and now it is once again possible. Observance of the Lord's Supper on Sunday reflects the general practice of both the first-century churches as well as post-first-century churches. Second, not taking the Lords Supper every week means that some Christians, through happenstance or habit, may go months without taking the Lords Supper. We should celebrate it with a sense of weightinesswhich we will talk about in just a moment. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. Gods grace makes the believer righteous, not what the latter does. If we believe, as Scripture teaches, that the cross of Christ is not a way that God reconciles man to God and man-to-man, butthe only wayto reconciliation, then we would be wise to do everything in our power to present Christs cross in all of its fulness. How Often Should Communion Or The Lord's Supper Be Taken? Our first brethren devoted themselves to the Breaking of Bread from the very beginning (Acts 2:42). 26:17). I think we are free in this matter and the question becomes one of 1) What frequency and infrequency corresponds to its proper importance in relation to the ministry of the Word of God? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The Reformed view of the sacrament of communion is that the bread and wine are pure symbolic elements. Bible Answer: Some churches take communion or the Lord's Supper every Sunday. He warns that if you come to the Lords Supper in a cavalier, callous, careless way that does not discern the seriousness of what happened on the cross, you may, if you are a believer, lose your life, not because of wrath, but as an act of Gods fatherly discipline. Not imagining. We find strength in God and He blesses us to overcome all temptations and trials we face every day. . Besides all that I have shared above, one final proof is the fact that taking the Lords Supper every week elicits conversation with my children about the gospel and their need to trust in Christ. However, with the events related to COVID-19, it has reinforced our need to keep the Lords Table as a regular part of worship. When it came to the salvation of mankind, God was in complete control. A key event in the Bible is the Lords Supper. Immediately after that last supper, Jesus and His disciples went out to Gethsemane, where, later that night, Judas Iscariot led the bloodthirsty mob who seized Jesus, and led Him away to be crucified during the daylight part of the same 14th day of the month. Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or Lord's Supper, in Christianity, ritual commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. The Passover was instituted by God to be a memorial of His deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Jesus already saved us when He died on Calvary and that is already enough to save humanity. by faith come from? Justin Martyr, who wrote in the second century A.D., said this about their Sunday assembly: And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. The Passover was instituted an ordinance forever. Jesus lived. 'thanksgiving'), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others.
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