The Lord’s Supper

Bible Study

The Lord’s Supper

-{Matthew 26:26-29} “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.  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 I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father;s kingdom.”

What is the purpose of the Lord’s Supper?  It has 3 main purposes:

For us to remember Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross  to pay for our sins, for us to never forget how large the cost was to redeem us, the cost was His own life.  Jesus said ; “This is my body, which is broken for you“, and ” This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” {Matthew 26:26-28}. In {1st Corinthians 11:24-25} “…this do in remembrance of me…do ye…in remembrance of me.”
For us to remember that Jesus Christ is coming back! {1st Corinthians 11:26} “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”
For us to remember that there will be a future communion/fellowship at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  When Christ comes back for the body of Christ we will be part of a marriage and a supper! {Revelation 19:7-9}.

The Lord’s Supper is not another sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

The catholic church states that when they partake of the mass with the bread and the wine, that they are actually sacrificing Jesus Christ again and again for their sins.  This is what their church doctrine states from the council of trent: ” I proffess likewise, in the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead.  And that in the most holy sacrament the Eucharist, these are truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and the whole substance of the wine into the blood.”

But this is the total opposite of what the word of God says, God says that Christ offered His body once for all on the cross for our sins, never to be repeated!; {Hebrews 10:10-14,17-18} “By the which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL.  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:  But this man, after he had OFFERED ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God; For BY ONE OFFERING HE HATH PERFECTED FOR EVER them that are sanctified.  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”  Also look at {Hebrews 9:26-28}

Let’s examine the passage in the Bible that the catholic church tries to justify the mass:  As we will examine this passage,  you will see that in no way does it teach that the bread and the wine is the literal body and literal blood of Jesus Christ being sacrificed again;  {John 6:53-54} “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”  When Jesus said this His disciples couldn’t believe it!  They thought Jesus here was talking about His literal flesh and blood (just like the catholic church teaches) and so the disciples say in vs. 60 “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”  Jesus knew they were thinking this, so He cleared up the miss-understanding in vs. 63 ” It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”  Jesus tells them that what He had said in vs’s 53-54 is completely spiritual, and that it’s not the physical action of eating His flesh and blood that “quickens” (makes you alive from once being dead in your sins), but that it’s His words and His Spirit!  It is the Holy Spirit that gives you the new birth {John 3:5-8} and God performs this new birth once you believe His words regarding the gospel {1st Peter 1:23}, {James 1:21}, {Romans 10:17}.

Jesus had already told him in {John 6:40,47} how to have eternal life so that they would not get confused when He made the spiritual application of the bread and wine a few verses later; ” And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”  It cannot be any more clear than that, to be saved from hell, to be born again into God’s family and have eternal life does not consist of eating His literal flesh or drinking His literal blood, but only believing on the Lord Jesus Christ!  As we saw before, the partaking of the bread and wine is only a memorial, a remembrance for us, it has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation.

Who is to partake of the Lord’s Supper?

 Not everyone is to participate in the Lord’s Supper.  Only saved born again believers are to take part in the Lord’s Supper.  The passage that Paul deals with the Lord’s Supper is {1st Corinthians 11:23-34} and  exactly who he is instructing on the subject of keeping the ordinance (the Lord’s Supper) is found in vs. 2 “Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.”

It is a command for the Christian to keep the Lord’s Supper: {1st Corinthians 11:24-25} “…Take, eat…this do in remembrance of me…this do ye.”  Also in vs. 2 Paul tells us to “keep the ordinances” as he has delivered them unto us, one of these ordinances is the Lord’s Supper that we are to “keep”.

How often should a Church observe the Lord’s Supper? {1st Corinthians 11:26} “For as often as ye…”  How often you take the Lord’s Supper is at the discretion of the pastor.  But it should not be so often that it becomes  habit or second nature.  When something is done so often, the tendency is that you forget why you are doing it, and if this happens with the Lord’s Supper, then the whole purpose of performing it has been set aside and useless in a sense.  It should always be a memorial and remembrance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for us, that is the whole purpose of the Lord’s Supper.

Christians are to examine themselves before they partake of the Lord’s Supper: {1st Corinthians 11:28-32} vs. 28; “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”  Before you partake of the Lord’s Supper you need to make sure that your relationship is right with God.  Now I am not talking Christian about your salvation, once you are a saved child of God that never changes.  But what does change is when you sin, your relationship or fellowship with God is affected.  If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour then you do not have to worry about your sins sending you to hell, your sins (past, present, and future sins) have been removed from your account so that you can enter Heaven as we have already seen in {Hebrews 10:14,17-18}.  But in regards to your fellowship presently with God, if you sin, then your relationship is not what it could and should be with Him at this present moment.  So before you partake of the Lord’s Supper you are to take time to examine yourself, and to confess any sins to God so that He can put them underneath His precious blood, so that nothing will hinder this time of “communion” with God. {1st John 1:9} “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  The danger in not examining yourself and confessing your sins to God is found in vs. 30.”For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”  You can become sick and even die if you do not examine yourself before the Lord’s Supper!  So it is very very important to examine yourself before partaking!

The Wine is not fermented liquor, it is grape juice: {Matthew 26:29} “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  So to figure out what this “new” wine was that they were drinking, let’s once again run the verses in the Bible to get our answer!  {Isaiah 65:8} “Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster…”  So how do you get the new wine out of the cluster of grapes? {Genesis 40:9-11}”…and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes: And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.”  So the new wine is exactly what comes directly from the cluster, which, when the grapes are squeezed with your hand you get grape juice, or also called “the pure blood of the grape” {Deuteronomy 32:14}.  So we know from this that Jesus Christ did not have His disciples drink fermented liquor, but grape juice.  If Christ had given them alcohol then He would have gone against the old testament law which we know is impossible for Him to do {Habakkuk 2:15}.  The “new wine” (grape juice) in the Lord’s Supper is a picture of Jesus Christ’s precious blood and since His blood was not “corrupted…without blemish and without spot” {1st Peter 1:18-19} then we know it cannot be fermented alcohol because fermented wine is grape juice that has corrupted over time, which if you use alcohol then you are in effect saying that Christ’s blood was corrupted!

The Bread to be used is Unleavened Bread:  Jesus referred to Himself as the “bread of life” in {John 6:48}, and Jesus was without sin {1st John 3:5}, {Hebrews 4:15}, {1st Peter 2:21-22}.  So if this bread symbolizes Christ’s flesh, then it should be bread that is without corruption, and that is why unleavened bread is used.  Jesus tells us that leaven symbolizes sin and corruption: {Matthew 16:6-12}, {Mark 8:15}, {Luke 12:1}, Paul also tells us this in {1st Corinthians 5:1-13}.

Conclusion:  The Lord’s Supper should be a very solemn and humbling experience, when you examine your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and remember the sacrifice in which He paid for your sins on the cross so that He could reconcile you to God!  Thank God for His unspeakable gift! {2nd Corinthians 6:15}