Worship Service—Pt. 3

Introduction

The next act of worship we will look at is The Lord’s Supper; commonly known as communion in the denominations. This memorial of our Lord’s death and burial is treated differently across the board; depending on where you attend. We’ll look at various aspects and then what the Bible says.

The Last Supper

I would say that everyone is in agreement as to what The Lord’s Supper represents. During the final week of Jesus’ life, he partook of the Passover meal with his disciples (Lk. 22:14-20). It is referred to as The Last Supper as Jesus wouldn’t eat again until after his resurrection (Lk. 24:41-43).

The disciples partook of The Lord’s Supper according to Paul’s instructions in 1 Cor. 11:23-26. It was part of the worship service but not seen as a common meal. Paul chastised the brethren in Corinth regarding this (vs. 17-22).

The Emblems of The Lord’s Supper

        There are two emblems that are used in The Lord’s Supper, The Unleavened Bread; which represents Christ’ body on the cross and the fruit of the vine; which represents Christ’ shed blood. The purpose of these emblems is a reminder of the Passover meal that the Jews partook of during the Egyptian Bondage. The 10^th plague was the death of the firstborn. Blood of the lamb that was slain was to be placed on the two doorposts and the lintel (Ex. 12:1-8). The Lord would then Pass over the houses that had the blood.

        Unleavened bread was used as a leavening agent takes time to cause the dough to rise. Since they were in haste to leave Egypt, they didn’t want to wait for the it to rise in order to bake it.

       Fruit of the vine (grape juice) is used to represent the blood as that is the life force of all individuals (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:11). It is not alcoholic wine, as some like to say, because it would be promoting drinking and drunkenness.

        In the Catholic church, and other denominations, they use a paper-thin wafer for the bread (sometimes called the Eucharist). I don’t see how this is considered unleavened bread. Yes, we use what could be considered a cracker (as purchased in groceries stores), however, since it is unleavened, we are in the right to use it according to scripture.

        Others might use fresh-baked bread to enhance taste and a representation of “real bread”. But this would have leaven it in and goes against scripture (1 Cor. 4:6; 2 Jn. 9). If you want to “enhance taste”, you might as well serve apple pie and Coca-Cola. Again, these are not acceptable as they do not serve the purpose of our Lord for a memorial of his death and burial. Better to go with the scripture teaches, and serve God, than to eat what you want and serve self.

How Often is The Lord’s Supper served?

Among the denominations, The Lord’s Supper or Communion is served once a month; usually the first Sunday of the month. Then, it is also served on “special occasions” like Christmas and Easter. Growing up as a Lutheran, I took for granted it was done monthly but I never asked why. I just assumed this was correct.

Other congregations will partake every three months. Their reasoning is that if it is taken more often than that, it becomes mundane. Really? What about prayer? We do that every week, isn’t that mundane? The same with singing and preaching. If it seems mundane to do it more than every three months, then your heart isn’t right with God. The same with partaking monthly.

The bible says every first day. Let’s look at Acts 20:7, Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. From this we have an approved example that they partook on the first day of the week; Sunday. Now if that is the case, you need to ask yourself, “How often does the first day of the week come around?” The answer is Every Week. The result would then be that every first day (Sunday) you partake of the Lord’s Supper during the worship assembly.

The Purpose of The Lord’s Supper

We’ve already established that The Lord’s Supper is to be partaken as a memorial of Jesus’ death and burial. But that doesn’t seem to be the only reason. Again, a part of the Lutheran church, I learned that if you partake of the communion twice a year, you are still considered a member of that church. It sounds like a membership drive, doesn’t it?

This is why most people only attend worship on Christmas and Easter (known as the C and E “Christians”). Since those two days are guaranteed to be serving the communion, those are the two days that some will attend worship. This downplays the whole purpose of The Lord’s Supper in the first place.

The whole reason Jesus went to the cross was to die an innocent death for the sins of the world. Isn’t that worth remembering more than twice a year; let alone every three months or once a month?

Another fact is that since Christmas doesn’t always fall on a Sunday and, according to scripture we partake every Sunday, then there is no scriptural authority to partake of the Lord’s Supper on Christmas!

Conclusion

As you will notice, all acts of worship are by the authority of God in His Holy Word. They are not for us to adjust to make them “more palatable”, but to worship God in Spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). The Lord’s Supper was taken each first day of the week and is used to memorialize Jesus’ death on the cross. We should always remember this and know that it wasn’t created for any other purpose.