Thoughts on the Lord's Supper
I think the basic answer to "Why do you take the Lord's Supper every week?" is because I believe it is important enough to do so. Paul says that as often as we take of it we proclaim Jesus until he comes.
A friend wrote a great commentary at bigwhitehat.com. He is very quotable, my favorite is "Sunday morning is full of ways that we show love to each other and to God. But communion is different. All the other stuff is us doing things to tell God we love Him. Communion is God telling us that He loves us."
In Acts and Corinthians there are several accounts of the reason the church came together was for the breaking of bread. (the greek references a particular bread and a particular act of breaking it) Many of the churches met daily, but Sunday was set aside for the lord's supper.
The first day was identified by the early church as the day to meet and partake because:
Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day
Every resurrection account is on the first day
Post resurrection appearances were on the first day of the week
Pentecost was on the first day of the week.
The apostles called Sunday "The Lord's Day"
1 Corinthians 10 has the verse I usually read about the service. Paul writes that the breaking of the bread and the cup are participation with Christ. And the participation is what unifies us. If this is where we are unified, should we not be unified at least weekly?
Besides the scriptural references there are several non-scriptural historical accounts. The early church was even accused of cannibalism by the Romans and jews because when they came together they had the Lord's Supper.
So if Jesus says "Do this", and Paul says "Do this", the early church said "Do this", then when we are deciding if we should do it or not, I'll stick with those guys.
My personal feeling is the reason it isn't done usually in an emotionalist church, is that they feel it is a downer to have a memorial that could be a buzzkill.
The good news is that there are a lot of baptist ministers rethinking their stance on the lord's supper and baptism.
A friend wrote a great commentary at bigwhitehat.com. He is very quotable, my favorite is "Sunday morning is full of ways that we show love to each other and to God. But communion is different. All the other stuff is us doing things to tell God we love Him. Communion is God telling us that He loves us."
In Acts and Corinthians there are several accounts of the reason the church came together was for the breaking of bread. (the greek references a particular bread and a particular act of breaking it) Many of the churches met daily, but Sunday was set aside for the lord's supper.
The first day was identified by the early church as the day to meet and partake because:
Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day
Every resurrection account is on the first day
Post resurrection appearances were on the first day of the week
Pentecost was on the first day of the week.
The apostles called Sunday "The Lord's Day"
1 Corinthians 10 has the verse I usually read about the service. Paul writes that the breaking of the bread and the cup are participation with Christ. And the participation is what unifies us. If this is where we are unified, should we not be unified at least weekly?
Besides the scriptural references there are several non-scriptural historical accounts. The early church was even accused of cannibalism by the Romans and jews because when they came together they had the Lord's Supper.
So if Jesus says "Do this", and Paul says "Do this", the early church said "Do this", then when we are deciding if we should do it or not, I'll stick with those guys.
My personal feeling is the reason it isn't done usually in an emotionalist church, is that they feel it is a downer to have a memorial that could be a buzzkill.
The good news is that there are a lot of baptist ministers rethinking their stance on the lord's supper and baptism.
posted by Son of Adam @ 11:59 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:38 AM,
John R said…
Sharing the Lord's Supper is when I feel closest to Christ and his whole church. Sharing what Jesus has given us with the entire Body of Christ is one of the main gifts of God to the Church. It should give us strength and unity.
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