BACKGROUND FOR THE BIBLE PASSAGES Session 69: The Lord s Supper Few major doctrines of the Christian faith have been more misunderstood than the Scriptures teachings about the Lord s Supper. Historically, people tend to think of Leonardo Da Vinci s Last Supper as a depiction of the event, despite the fact that this socalled masterpiece is riddled with inaccuracies. Of even greater significance are the theological abuses of the Lord s Supper that the church has endured for centuries. Three major views of the Lord s Supper have been proposed. (1) The Roman Catholic Church developed its teachings on the Lord s Supper over a long period of time, but throughout the Roman church s internal debate, the Lord s Supper was always considered a sacrament, a means of appropriating God s grace into one s life that is, a means of earning salvation. At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the Romanists finally formulated their doctrine of transubstantiation, the view that the bread and wine actually turn into the body and blood of Christ during the Lord s Supper. (Incredibly, this means that the church did not really know what the Lord s Supper was all about for well over a millennium!) (2) The Reformers and their successors in the 16th and 17th centuries disagreed with the Roman church. Some of them advocated a doctrine called consubstantiation, the view that the special and mystical presence of Christ exists in the bread and wine when someone takes the Lord s Supper. (3) A much more common view, one that can be traced from the early church fathers to the Reformation and then to the present, is that the Lord s Supper is both a remembrance and a symbol of what Christ did for us through His broken body and spilled blood on the cross. This is the view taken in this session, and we will explore some of the major passages on the Lord s Supper to help us understand this important ordinance of the church. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:17-20 The Lord s Supper signifies a new covenant. Jeremiah prophesied during one of the most devastating periods in Israel s history. After eight hundred years in the promised land, God sent His people into exile. Deuteronomy 28 gives the stipulations of the covenant the Lord made with Israel at Mount Sinai, blessings for obedience (vv. 1-14) and cursings for disobedience (vv. 15-68). The final stage of God s cursings on Israel for disobedience was to remove them from the land (vv. 49-52,63-68) that He had promised the patriarchs and given the Israelites at the conquest under Joshua. After Israel split into two kingdoms during the first year of the reign of Solomon s son Reheboam (930 B.C.), the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell into idolatry and other grievous sins because of its wicked kings. God s judgment was for Israel to be conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrians (722 B.C.). The Southern Kingdom of Judah, because it had several godly kings, lasted a little over a century longer, but eventually fell to the Babylonians who took them into exile in three main deportments (605 B.C., 597 B.C., 586 B.C.). The Babylonian exile was nothing short of the reversal of the exodus. In 1446 B.C., God had redeemed His people from bondage in Egypt and took them to the land of Canaan. And now He had taken them out of the promised land and into the land of Babylon. But this wasn t all. The land of Judah had been overrun by the Babylonians, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the temple itself had been razed to the ground. Jeremiah prophesied during the chaotic events leading up to the captivity, and he continued his prophetic ministry after the exile had occurred even after being deported to Egypt. But while the prophet was still in the land of Israel, he sent messages to the exiles in Babylon. (See Jer. 29:30-31.) In Jeremiah 31, God made an astounding promise when He said that the days are coming when He would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah (v. 31). Both Israel and Judah had broken the covenant that the Lord had made with them at Mount Sinai, but this new covenant would be of a different order (v. 32). Whereas, under the Sinai covenant, Israel was responsible to keep all the laws so they could enjoy God s blessings, the new covenant would contain no such stipulations. Instead, the Lord would place His law within them and write it on 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America.
their hearts (v. 33). Instead of punishing His people for their wickedness at breaking the covenant, God would say, I will be their God, and they will be My people (v. 33). This new covenant relationship would mean that they would all know God, for He would forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin (v. 34). Through this new covenant God would take the initiative and provide knowledge of Himself and the forgiveness of sins to His people. One significant truth from this passage is that God never intended for the Sinai covenant to be permanent. The Lord told His people that one day He would replace it with another covenant, and He explained this primarily through the exilic prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (who called it a covenant of peace in 34:25 and 37:26, and an everlasting covenant in 16:60 and 37:26). But when did this new covenant go into effect? To answer this question, we have to flash forward about six centuries after the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the time of Jesus the night of the Last Supper. Luke 22 records the night of Judas s betrayal, Peter s denial, and Jesus arrest and appearance before the Sanhedrin. From there Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate, then to Herod Antipas, back to Pilate, and then to the cross. But before the events that led to the cross were set in motion, Jesus had a Passover meal with His disciples. The Passover meal celebrated the Lord s great act of redemption in Old Testament times when He led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. The Hebrew people had been celebrating the Passover for almost 15 centuries when Jesus explained something even more significant to His disciples about the meal they were eating. Jesus turned the Passover meal into the Lord s Supper that the church still celebrates. Jesus explained to the disciples that one cup (v. 17) was for them to enjoy at that time, but He would wait until the kingdom of God comes (v. 18) evidently a reference to a special meal Jesus would enjoy with His people when He returns in power (Rev. 19:9). But then Jesus took the bread and the cup and announced that it now signified His work on the cross that He would accomplish the next day. Jesus took bread and said to the disciples, This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me (v. 19). One reason we celebrate the Lord s Supper is to remember what Christ did for us on the cross when He paid for our sins so we could be forgiven. Jesus also took the cup and said, This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you (v. 20). The shed blood of Christ is what put the new covenant into effect. Since that time, people must relate to God through the new covenant and not through the Sinai covenant, which Paul explained in terms of law and grace (Rom. 6:14). The writer of Hebrews quoted Jeremiah 31:31-34 to explain that the new covenant began with Christ s death and thus made the old covenant disappear (Heb. 8:7-13). The bread and the wine of the Lord s Supper symbolize the body and blood of Christ that was broken and shed for us so that through this ritual we can participate in His sufferings, and live now and forever in the blessings and freedom of the new covenant. May God give us a greater understanding of His grace so we can live under His new covenant as He intended. 1 Corinthians 11:23-30 The Lord s Supper proclaims the gospel. Paul referred to the Lord s Supper twice in 1 Corinthians, and the reference in chapter 11 quotes the passage in Luke 22 we have just considered. Paul was not a participant at the Lord s Supper he was not even a believer yet but he received from the Lord knowledge about that event and passed on to the Corinthians what had happened. Paul s wording in verses 23-26 and the order of events he listed are very similar to Luke 22:19-20: The night Jesus was betrayed He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Further, Jesus also took the cup and explained, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. Paul understood the significance of the Lord s Supper and how important it was for the church to continue observing this important ordinance. He used the language of Jeremiah 31:31 to connect the new covenant to the Lord s Supper. God s people no longer look back to the Passover, but to a far greater event the death of Jesus Christ. Christ s body was broken for us and His blood was shed for us, and we remember Him in a specific and special way during 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America.
the Lord s Supper as we memorialize His death on our behalf. Paul mentioned another important aspect of the Lord s Supper in verse 26. Every time believers in a local church partake of the Lord s Supper together, they proclaim the Lord s death until He comes. The Lord s Supper proclaims the gospel by demonstrating to others what Jesus did on the cross: His body was broken and His blood was shed, and this blood provides forgiveness of sins to those who believe in Him. Believers need to be reminded of Jesus sacrifice for them, and unbelievers need to know what Jesus sacrifice can do for them. In what condition should our hearts be when we take the Lord s Supper? Paul addressed this issue in verses 27-30. It is possible for believers to eat the bread and drink the cup in an unworthy way, and in doing so they are guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. In the broader context of 1 Corinthians 11, partaking unworthily is probably connected to the factions that were rampant in Corinth and that were causing problems at the Lord s table. Verses 18-22 describe the situation, which led Paul to discuss the Lord s Supper in the verses we just examined (vv. 23-26). So Paul s meaning in verse 27 is about those who disrupt the unity of the body by thinking they are better than others and refusing to fellowship with them for some reason or other. All believers are one body in Christ (1 Cor. 10:17; 12:12-13), and few things dishonor Christ s body more than refusing to accept other believers. This is the reason that a man should examine himself before taking the Lord s Supper, for whoever partakes of it without recognizing the body acknowledging the importance of the body s unity in Christ eats and drinks judgment on himself (vv. 28-29). Are you doing everything you can to promote the unity of the body in your church? Or do you cause schisms, factions, and disunity by your actions? Be careful! Failure to examine yourself and correct your actions can be hazardous to your health, for this is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep (v. 30). May God grant us the ability to be honest in our evaluations of ourselves and our relationships with other people. May He also grant us the humility and grace that we need to restore relationships with other believers who are estranged from us. (See Matt. 5:23-24.) 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 The Lord s Supper symbolizes fellowship with Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul warned the believers in Corinth about the dangers of idolatry. The Gentile believers there had come from a pagan background, and many of them may have thought that Christianity and paganism were compatible, that they could just incorporate their new faith into their old religious beliefs. But Paul denied that such a spiritual marriage was possible, and instead he commanded them: flee from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14). The fact that we enjoy fellowship with Christ makes it impossible to enjoy fellowship with other spiritual entities. (See 2 Cor. 6:14-18 and Session 61.) In symbolic fashion the Lord s Supper explains why this is the case: the cup of blessing that holds the wine (symbolic of Jesus blood) is a sharing in the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break (symbolic of Jesus body) is a sharing in the body of Christ (v. 16). Every time believers partake of the Lord s Supper, they should realize the significance of what they eat and drink. The elements of bread and wine should take our hearts and minds back to the cross, for the cross is the only reason we have fellowship with God. The elements also speak of our fellowship with other believers: we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one bread (v. 17). The Lord not only wants us to enjoy fellowship with Him, but with each other also, and the Lord s Supper helps us keep both aspects of our relationships in focus. The next time you take the Lord s Supper, ask yourself: Am I taking this seriously? Or do I have a flippant and casual attitude? Do I take the Lord and His table for granted? May God grant us the wisdom and spiritual discernment we need to evaluate our hearts in preparation for the next time we participate in the Lord s Supper. 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES Session 69: The Lord s Supper Jeremiah 31:31-34 31 Look, the days are coming this is the Lord s declaration when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt a covenant they broke even though I had married them the Lord s declaration. 33 Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days the Lord s declaration. I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them the Lord s declaration. For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin. Luke 22:17-20 17 Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He said, Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 19 And He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. 20 In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one bread. 1 Corinthians 11:23-30 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: on the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 gave thanks, broke it, and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. 25 In the same way He also took the cup, after supper, and said, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord s death until He comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 So a man should examine himself; in this way he should eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible, Holman CSB, and HCSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
EXPLORING THE BIBLE DAILY 69 Write 1 Corinthians 10:16 in the space below and memorize this week: Read these Scripture passages each day this week. Respond to each passage by jotting down questions and insights you may have. Day 1 - Jeremiah 31:31-32 Day 2 - Jeremiah 31:33-34 Day 3 - Luke 22:17-18 Day 4 - Luke 22:19-20 Day 5-1 Corinthians 10:16-17 Day 6-1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Day 7-1 Corinthians 11:27-30 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America.
THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD S SUPPER Session 69 Which of the following statements are reasons we observe the Lord s Supper? A. It is a reminder to thank Jesus for our daily bread. B. It is a reminder of Jesus death for us. C. It is a requirement for those who have been baptized. D. It represents a new covenant. E. It proclaims the gospel. F. It represents the need for Christians to give to the poor and needy. G. It symbolizes fellowship with Christ. H. It symbolizes the last meal Jesus ate. I. It sets apart those who are behaving in a worthy manner from those who are not. J. It proclaims Jesus is coming again soon. K. It is a fellowship meal for believers. 2007 LifeWay Press. Fuel2: Owning Your Faith, Volume 6. Permission granted to reproduce this item for church use only. Published in the United States of America.