Good Morning Friends,
“For I received from the Lord what I also
passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the
night 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 this in remembrance of
me.’ In the same way, after supper he
took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this,
whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
The Lord’s Supper has at least four purposes.
It helps us remember what the Lord has done
for us. We are all so prone to
forget. We get caught up in the activity
and stress of daily life. In our hectic
schedules there is little time to stop and focus on the Lord and His gift of
grace. Regularly coming to the Lord’s
Table guards against our tendency to forget His grace and love for us.
By it we proclaim the importance of what
Jesus has done for us. We proclaim it to
ourselves as an act of recommitment to Him.
We proclaim it to other believers so that they, too, will be reminded of
what Christ has done for them. We
proclaim it to nonbelievers who are in the assembly with us. It is not the music, or the peaceful
quietness, or the friendship of others that brings us to the assembly, it is
the Lord’s death that brings us there.
It is a time to examine our lives and be
drawn to repentance. “A man ought to
examine himself before he eats the bread and drinks the cup.” (1 Cor.
11:28) The reminder of the sacrifice of
Jesus to bring us forgiveness should cause us to look deeply into our own heart
and allow Him to cleanse us of the sin we find there.
We reaffirm and proclaim our unity with other
believers. A few verses later Paul says
we are to “recognize the Lord’s body” when we partake. We do remember Him and His sacrifice, but we
also remember His earthly body, the church.
As we partake together we remember that we are joined by His great
sacrifice to all others who have received Him.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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