13 - Lesson 6: The Lord's Table (Communion)

Well, welcome to the Striving for Eternity's School of Discipleship. As we are part of the Striving for Eternity Academy, this is where we hope to teach you how to disciple others. This is the Introduction to Discipling.

This is the first of what will hopefully be over the next several years, several classes that we'll have in Training for Discipleship. If you are following along with us, we're in a book called Growing in Grace.

Growing in Grace is a book you can get a hold of at our store, at store .strivingforeternity .org. You can pick up a copy. They're not too expensive, but basically we're using this as a tool to teach you how to disciple other people.

As we've been going through this, we've been going through many lessons, dealing with some of the basics, really the starting points of the Christian faith. With that, we're kind of covering things that for some of us, well, maybe they're familiar with us, to us.

We are knowledgeable on these things. For some, as we've already discovered, this is really brand new. For some people, we've been seeing that they've been kind of amazed at what they're learning, but what we're really trying to teach is how to disciple someone.

What, as you go through a book like Growing in Grace, what are the things we want to look for and be working with an individual? Most often, we're going to deal with people who are new believers, people who are, maybe they just come into your church.

Maybe they're your children. We've been noticing a lot of homeschoolers that have been using the materials for their homeschooling. That's been something that we've been having more and more of. This is one book that I went through with each of my children and taught them how to understand the basics of the Christian faith.

It was something good that I went through. I think at the age of about seven or eight, I started with my children. The way that it will help you to go through this book with someone is to get them to go through the lesson on their own, fill in the blanks, maybe in pencil, but try to get them to do it on their own.

Then you sit down with them each week and go through the full lesson with them, giving them the answers, always making sure that you're having them read every scripture verse that's mentioned. You want that repetition.

You may want them to as a practice, read a couple of verses before and after each one, forcing them to get in the habit of looking at that context. Not just grabbing a verse or a couple of verses, but grabbing the larger portion and making sure that we're reading through that.

It's a really good thing to be doing. Now, as we go, let's review where we were last week as we talked about, that's not the one. Thank you. We talked about the church. You're going to do it again, aren't you?

So, we've been having some fun. It seems that each week, the definition of insanity is when you do the same thing multiple times and yet you keep expecting different results. That seems to be the case here because I noticed that each week on the overview slides, we seem to not have that black.

Oh, now it's black on the side so you don't see the monitor screen. The definition of insanity. So, this is a review from last week when we talked about the church. We mentioned the church and we said that we looked at a definition of the church, what the church was.

We had gone through that. We mentioned that the importance of the local church. We went through some lessons there and then we talked about the purpose. We went through a lot of things there with the spiritual gifts.

Now, also what we want to do is do a memory verse. We have that that you should do with your students. So, let's do that together. Oh, you're going to put it. Okay, it's on the screen so you can just cheat and read it.

All right, then let's read it together. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more for the day for all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now, that shows you that I memorized that in a different translation. So, putting it up on the screen actually is messing me up but which actually I did discover. I don't know if any of you have noticed this that when you memorize scripture in one translation, most of my memorization was in New King James and when I switched to use something like the ESV, suddenly my scripture memory was just like gone.

I don't know what happened but that's that. This week we are going to be in lesson number six. Lesson six, The Lord's Table, Remembering Our Lord. So, that is the lesson that we have before us. Now, this is a special celebration unlike a celebration we're going to mention later in the class but this is a special celebration that the church partakes of the Lord's Table or what's also called communion.

Now, there's some confusion with communion that different groups have and we're going to get into a little bit of that but we're going to discuss in this class today three things. Why the Lord's Table is important, what is the purpose of celebrating the Lord's Table and then three, when should we celebrate the Lord's Table?

And we're going to examine what the scripture has to say about this. Now, if you come from a Roman Catholic background, you may have some confusion on what this is. The Roman Catholics will take the communion, they call it the Mass, where they would argue that Jesus Christ is being re-crucified all over again.

That he is actually, by the priest's, I guess, magical words and waving of his magic wand, I don't know, but in some way, shape or form, after saying a certain phrase or so, that the bread becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ and the wine becomes his physical blood.

Therefore, they would say that they are re-crucifying Christ. Now, if you've never been in Roman Catholicism, that may seem strange to you but if you are discipling someone and you get this lesson, you have to understand something about what Roman Catholicism teaches in the Mass.

Because you may be discipling someone that's going to have questions, how does this differ? There's three main views. Transubstantiation, which is what Roman Catholicism teaches, which is the substance of the elements, the bread and wine, translate, they become something else, they transform into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

And so, they physically become a different substance. Like one of my friends asked of a priest, he had asked the priest, if this physically becomes the body of Christ, what do you do with the leftovers?

Do you throw out the body of Jesus Christ? Interesting dilemma. The priest did not answer, at least in my presence, but the reality is that's what they would argue. Now, the Lutherans would have a little bit of a difference.

If you're someone from a Lutheran background, you have consubstantiation, which they would argue, as Luther taught, being that he was reforming the Catholic Church, he said, well, it doesn't physically become the body and blood of Jesus Christ but it kind of becomes one that is in essence.

And so, it's not the physical body but it is in a form of Christ. And so, that's consubstantiation. In other words, that Christ is with the elements. That's what con would mean. So, he's with the elements.

Basically, really, Protestants, Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed, Covenantals, most other groups would argue what we are going to talk about in this lesson, which is communion, the communion. And so, we're going to start by discussing the importance of the Lord's table, the importance of the Lord's table.

So, as we look through this, if you look in your book, in the Growing Grace book, we have some things here for you. It says, we will see the importance of the Lord's table in the fact that first, or letter A, it is important because our Lord commanded it.

I mean, there's no more reason than we need than that. The fact that Jesus Christ, Almighty God, commanded us to do this is enough reason. He said to his disciples, do, and that's your blank there, do this in remembrance of me.

Let's look up that verse there in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23 and 24. Sorry, that's 34. So, it's a little bit more, but really what we want is verse, if you look in verse 25, in the middle of that, actually end of verse 24, do this in remembrance of me, and middle of 25, do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.

So, the first reason this is important is because God commanded it. And really, we don't need any more reason than that. The fact that God commands us to do something is enough. Now, some might argue he's commanding the disciples to do this and not us.

I would say as we look at that passage in 1 Corinthians, this is an instruction from Paul. So, this is much later in the period of the church. So, this isn't just after Christ, but this is something that Paul is saying is still a command.

He's quoting there Jesus Christ. And on that last day when Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, basically transformed what was the Passover meal into the Lord's Supper. And as he did that, he commanded the disciples to do this in remembrance of him.

Now, if this was something just for the disciples, then we would not see Paul telling the Corinthians to continue to do this act and quoting Christ as his reason. So, that would be the way we would argue that this is something that is for all of us to do.

And so, as you deal with somebody who's new to the faith, I remember the first time I went to church where Lord's Supper was taken. I had no idea what they were doing. We don't do that in Judaism. It was something completely foreign to me.

And I just literally sat there and watched them and was like, what is going on? And there really, unfortunately, wasn't much explanation from the pulpit of what the Lord's Supper is all about. And so, I didn't know what was going on.

I wasn't going to partake of a ceremony that I didn't know. And I really wasn't familiar at that point with the Roman Catholic Mass. So, I didn't even have that concept of it. I just let those elements go past.

There was no warning given or anything like that. Nothing, explanation. And I just said, okay, I'm not doing this. And then later, I started to study it to learn. So, one reason I say that the communion is important is because of the fact that the communion is commanded by Christ.

The second reason is letter B. It's important because the first church practiced it. It was the church's custom, if you look there, on the first day of the week to come together and break bread. That's the blanks there that you have.

Break bread. The breaking of bread refers to the Lord's Supper. So, let's take a look first at Acts 20 where it's commanded. And it says there, on the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged until midnight.

Now, where else do we see this breaking of bread? Well, 1 Corinthians 10, 16. As I mentioned here, the cup of blessing we bless is not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break is not a participation in the body of Christ.

So, you're talking here, you're seeing the bread referring to the body. So, this is a cross reference that you can use. Another one, and I don't have this, I didn't give this to you, so I don't have this one handy.

But another one that you could use would be Acts 2, basically around 40, in that area, 40 to 45. What you're going to have there is a case where you're going to see that they did break bread as a fellowship and they also broke bread as Lord's Supper.

Because it's used twice, we would see two different references. There is a breaking of bread which is the regular fellowship. But this was something that we would see would be done by the early church, as far as we could tell, on the first of the week.

Now, that we're going to get to later. When do we do this? How often do we do this? Well, we see some churches do practice this weekly. Some practice it once a month. Different churches have different ways and we're going to get to that.

But let us look at what the purpose of the Lord's Supper is. The purpose of the Lord's Supper. As we look at the purpose of the Lord's Supper, we're going to see here in our book that while there are religions that teach the Lord's Table is a way to partake of the actual sacrifice of Christ.

What church might that be, class? Very good. Roman Catholicism. Some of you were paying attention. That's good to see. The purpose is very clearly defined in Scripture. It is a memorial. It is a memorial.

That's the first thing that we end up seeing in Scripture. We see in 1 Corinthians 11, 23 -34, that Jesus commands, do this in remembrance of me. That's your blank there, in remembrance of me. So, we do this in remembrance of Christ.

So, it's a memorial. It's something we remember. Okay? I would say that there are two ordinances of the church, baptism, which we've already discussed, and the Lord's Supper. Both of them are a memorial.

The difference being is baptism is a memorial that you do once remembering the changed life of Christ, or that Christ did in your life. This one being more of a continual remembering of what Christ did for you.

And we're going to talk about why that is when we get to the examination part. But one thing I'm making a difference here is that it's a memorial, not a sacrament. What's the difference? Well, the Roman Catholic Church would teach that this is a sacrament, therefore it adds grace.

It extends grace. That's why they would do it weekly. And the more masses you partake of, the more grace you have added to your count, so that when you die in their wrong belief, when you die, you'd go to purgatory.

If you have enough grace, it'll merit you to get to heaven sooner. But they're adding up, storing up grace is what it's called. Now, some Protestant churches also would call it a a sacrament, some Reformed churches, and they too would say that the act of partaking in the Lord's Supper does add grace to a believer's life, though not for salvation, though not for, you know, getting us out of purgatory, which doesn't exist, or getting us quicker to heaven.

It's not a works thing, but those Reformed churches that would teach that the communion table is a sacrament are saying that it adds additional grace in the sanctification process. Now, I would not make the claim that it is a sacrament, but a memorial.

But does it add value to the sanctification of the believer? Yes, it does, as we look in a moment at the self-examination portion of this time. So, it's not only a memorial, but letter B, it is a symbol.

It is a symbol. If you look here, the bread and wine are pictures to the disciples partaking of Jesus' body and blood. That's your blanks there, body and blood, which were given in His sacrifice. Again, 1 Corinthians 11, that's really a good passage to go to.

It has the most detail there. Jesus did not literally become bread and wine any more than He literally became a door in John 10, 7, or a vine in John 15, 1. Jesus said, I am the door. He didn't physically become a door.

It was a symbol. He said, I am the vine in John 15. He didn't physically become a The symbol reminds the believer that they are saved because of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. So, it is something that reminds us of what Christ did.

It's a symbol. That body and blood is a symbol. And you have to remember what's going on when He did this. This is the Passover meal. Passover meal is filled with symbolic material. When you have a Passover Seder, you sit down and there's a whole ceremony you go through at the Passover, like three hours.

I mean, I just wanted to eat as a kid. I didn't want to have to deal with any, I like the horseradish, I grant you that. I didn't like the bitter herbs so much, I'm just saying. But you'd have a portion, you'd have a unleavened bread that you would break and you would share around a table.

You had four cups of wine that you would share. He took the bread, he broke it, and when he dipped it into the hummus, this bitter thing, to remind you the bitterness, as you dip it, he passes this around, right?

It says the dip in the sup. This is what's going on. He's passing this around where we all do this as part of the Seder, and he's saying this bread is my body. As he does that cup, the cup of the new covenant, he says this is the cup of my blood which I shed for you, which is the new covenant.

He is making all this change of ceremony at a ceremony that is very, very symbolic. If you haven't been part of a Seder, if you're actually interested in a Seder, that's something you can contact us around April, around Resurrection Sunday time.

We can help put together a Seder for you if you are interested. I don't do it often, but there's a lot of symbolic actions in the Seder, and it helps you to understand the table much better. Also in your book, I say further, Jesus is not offered again and again at the communion.

It is a symbol, not an actual offering of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 3 .18, let's read that. Do we have that? You're not sure? Okay. Okay. 1 Peter 3 .18, for Christ also suffered, how many times?

Read that. Once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh and made alive to spirit. So Christ suffered once for sins, not weekly for sins, once for sins.

That's your blank there, that we are told that Jesus was offered once for sins. Okay. And this is how, if you're dealing with a Roman Catholic, this becomes very important to explain that this is not something, this is not saving you.

It's not in any way a work that gets you closer to heaven or gets you out of hell faster or purgatory or anything like that. This is not Christ being crucified again. This is a symbol. The Lord's table, as you see in your notes, is also intended to symbolize the truth that those who believe in Christ are part of one body.

Let's look at that. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we partake of the one bread. So your blank there is body. All right. What this is teaching us is that we are all part of the body of Christ.

We as believers universally and we as a local body that are saved are part of the body of Christ. This is why I give warnings that I'm going to mention in a little bit before partaking of the Lord's Supper.

1 Corinthians 10 .16, if we put that up, says the cup of blessing that we bless, it is not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break, it is not a participation in the body of Christ.

So you see here is when we say, we have here in your notes that this is saying the Lord's table is called communion. It's called communion. What's communion? Well, I put that there. The word communion literally means fellowship.

We partake. You actually see that. Let's put that passage up because this translation has it. It says participation. That participation is communion. So if they say the Lord's table is called a participation, that's fine.

Either way, the idea behind it is it is a fellowship. When we partake of the Lord's table, it symbolizes the unity of the church and the sacrifice that Christ did. So when you gather as a church, the whole church does together.

This is one reason why I don't really think that private communion really pictures it. I understand some people do private communion. Now, I do have a set that was purchased for me. I have two sets actually because one pastor gave me a set for shut-ins, for people that can't come to church but they feel that the communion table is important.

They want to participate. There are times where I would go to a shut-in and partake with them of the communion. We'll usually have a couple people from the church come. What we'll typically do is announce at the communion that later that day we're going to go meet with so-and-so who's a shut-in and partake of the communion with them.

If anyone would like to join us, you can come out. We do that because we want it to be something of the church. We want the church to participate, to fellowship, to commune together. This is why this is for believers only.

So that's one of the things I give a warning. I'm going to get to my warning in just a moment. Let's continue. Letter C. It's a proclamation. It's a memorial. It's a symbol. It's a proclamation. What is it proclaiming?

We are told that every time we partake of the Lord's table, we are proclaiming the death of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11 .26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

So we're proclaiming the death of Christ. It's also a reminder. Letter D there. Every time we partake of the Lord's table, we are reminded that this is only a temporary celebration. For we partake of the Lord's table until when?

Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 11 .26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Until He comes. That's your blank there. Comes. Until the Lord comes.

We continue to do this until the Lord's arrival. Until He returns. And then we're in His presence. We no longer need the reminder because we're there with Him. So, the communion, it is a memorial, not a sacrament.

It is a symbol. It is not the transubstantiation, the re-crucifying of Christ or the re-offering of a sacrifice of some kind. It's a proclamation to the world and to ourselves that Christ has died for sin.

And it is a reminder until He comes that we're going to continue doing this. Why? Because we need this reminder. Why? Well, it's also in letter E a time of examination and that's why we need the reminder.

This is probably the most important part of the communion and I want to spend a little bit more time here because this is the area most people spend the least time in churches discussing. And yet, I think this, when we look at, we've been going back to 1 Corinthians 11 over and over and over as we've been looking through this lesson.

And we're doing that realizing that that's the strongest instruction that we have. And when you look at that, so much of the instruction provides a warning and how to partake of the Lord's Supper and most people just kind of brush it off.

So, to give you the blanks that you have here, well, let's look at 1 Corinthians 11, 17, sorry, 27. And it says, for whoever therefore eats the bread, drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

So, what that is saying is that we are not to partake of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner. That's your blank there, unworthy manner. We partake of the Lord's table unworthily when we have not accepted the sacrifice of Christ but demonstrate outwardly that we have.

In other words, when you join the church in partaking of the communion table but you're not a believer, that is partaking in an unworthy manner. You may have been baptized, you may be a member of the church but you've never been saved.

That's partaking in an unworthy manner. So, this is where I give a warning. I warn people before partaking of the table. Are you a believer? It's a good time to examine yourself. Are you a false convert?

Are you a hypocrite? Are you one that comes to church week after week pretending to be a Christian but in your heart of hearts, deep down inside, you know you've never repented and put faith in Jesus Christ?

Is that you? I give that warning because you don't want to partake in an unworthy manner. To know that you're not a Christian and celebrate the Lord's supper is to condemn yourself in an even greater way.

The Lord warns you against doing that. Don't do such things. There's more. During the time of the Lord's table, each person is to examine themselves. We see that in verse 28 of 1 Corinthians 11. Let a person examine himself then so that he eats the bread and drinks of the cup.

So, what you have here is that they should be examining themselves. Not only to see if they're in the faith, but when I give the instructions for the communion table, I will say, do you harbor bitterness toward another individual?

Matthew 5 says if you know your brother has something against you, you should leave your sacrifice and go reconcile. I believe that at the communion table is a good time for reconciliation. If you have someone that you are not reconciled with, it is a good time to let the elements pass until you reconcile with that brother or sister.

Do not partake. Better to go reconcile. It's a good time. It's also a time where if we have to follow through with church discipline, it's a time that we typically would do that in our church. We would do that at a communion table.

Why? Because this is the communion. Church discipline is to bring someone to repentance, to be part of the body, to bring the unity and the purity of the local body together. Well, that's what the communion celebrates, the unity of the body.

So, it's a good time to do that. Now, keep in mind what's going on in 1 Corinthians 11 is what's called a love feast. It is a time when there would be people that would gather together. They would partake of the communion table, but they would also, in that partaking, have a time of fellowship over a meal, over food.

And there was some pridefulness going on. What was actually happening was the wealthy people were coming and they wanted to make sure that they got the best food. And so, when the poor got there who actually needed the food, all the good stuff was gone.

And Paul condemns them for such things, for these love feasts that they were doing. That was something I noticed in church where I pastored. We used to have the church where they used to let all the children eat the food at fellowships, which meant that all the children piled their plate full of all the really good food and then threw it away because their eyes were bigger than their stomach.

And all the adults didn't get the food that everyone looked forward to. I had made a policy change. Some people were upset with me, especially the children. I made a change to the rules of the church and I had the audacity to say, we are going to respect our elders and we are going to start with the older people first.

Work our way down to all the adults, then the young adults, and lastly the children. Now, if a child, because some parents are like, oh, but my child needs to eat right away. That's fine. Parents, when you get in line, you're more than able to get food for your children.

It saved from throwing away lots of food. All of a sudden people enjoyed the food. It's the same kind of idea that Paul is saying in these love feasts. Let's show love for one another, not for self. As part of the communion, he talks about this examination.

There are times that I will encourage people, if there is a sin in your life, some habitual sin, that you need to repent of, maybe let the elements go by. Do not partake of the elements in an unworthy manner.

Let them pass by you. Some reasons to let the elements pass by and to not partake in an unworthy manner after you examine yourself. One, if you're an unbeliever, you shouldn't partake. Two, if you are unreconciled with someone.

In other words, you have ought against somebody. You have sown against someone. You're bitter toward them. You're letting go of something. You're not forgiving them. You shouldn't partake. You should go reconcile.

Maybe you know someone's bitter toward you. You know your brother has ought against you. Then you should not partake but go and reconcile with your brother. Maybe there's some sin in your own life that you know you need to kind of straighten out with God.

Maybe you should let things go and straighten those out with God first. These are the things that we should be examining ourselves when we do this. I think this is the strongest aspect of the Lord's Supper and why the Lord tells us this is a reminder to do regularly because you and I are knuckleheads.

I know you think I'm just a knucklehead but I know you are too. I know I am but what are you? No. But we're knuckleheads. We need the reminder. We need to hear things over and over and over. It's not just our children that need to hear it over and over again but we still do as well.

We need to keep examining ourselves not to see if we're in the faith once we know we are but because we continue to sin and pride is such that it could deceive us and convince us that we're okay. Everything's good when we're really not.

And so we should be examining ourselves and we need to be teaching those that we're discipling this important aspect of the communion that they should regularly build into their life a period of self-examination.

Explain to them the importance of self-examination because we don't want to beat ourselves up. We can do that. We can beat ourselves up and think we're horrible and just keep focusing on self. It's not for that purpose but it's to prevent our pride from running away from us and getting a hold of us.

So the examination is an important part and that's the part that I actually enjoy. The time of just sitting, getting quiet with the Lord, recognizing, thinking through. I mean think about this. Our sin is so wicked that God himself came to earth and died on a cross to be a payment for our sin.

That's how wicked we are, were, maybe. That's how wicked our sin is. It's a good reminder to go back to that. As some say, preach the gospel to ourselves daily. That's what the communion table is. It's preaching the gospel to ourselves.

Remembering the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. That death and blood that Christ shed for our sin. It is that reminder of the gospel. To remind us who we are, where we came from. All right? All right, so let us look at the last thing and that is lastly we want to look at the time and place of the Lord's supper.

Time and place of the Lord's table. Now, the time. Let us look at that. First, letter A, the time. There was no set pattern as to the church's celebration of the Lord's table. As some do it every Sunday, others do it once a month as I mentioned.

All we are told is to partake as often as you drink. That's what your blanks there. As often as you drink it. All right? That's 1 Corinthians 11 .25. We already saw that so we won't put that up. And so, we see that people have different views.

Now, Colossians actually talks about not holding a man to different days or festivals. And the idea there is the Jewish festivals but some of it could have often also been this idea of the Lord's supper.

It's one of the ancient works of the early churches called the Didache and it doesn't provide an instruction. It provides a lot of instructions but it doesn't give a clear instruction that I know of on the Lord's supper of when to do it.

It was the practice of some churches in the early churches doing it weekly. Paul mentions that in the first of the week they gathered to partake, to breaking of bread. In other churches it wasn't. For some churches it was monthly.

We see that and so we don't hold anybody to a specific time. But we should be doing it with regularity and that's the important thing. It's not something for once a year. It's something that should be somewhat regular.

All right? Now, the place, the Lord's table is to be participated by the local church when they gather. When they gather. That's 1 Corinthians 11, 18, and 20. For in the first place when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among you.

And I believe that in part when you come together it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. He's basically saying, you know, when you partake this way you're not partaking of the Lord's supper when you're having all this fighting going on.

But when do they do it? Well, they did it as part of the church, when the church gathers. This is why the first church knew nothing about a private communion. There was no idea of that because communion was something the church did so the church partook of it.

It was always done as a church. Acts 20 verse 7. On the first day of the week, so here you see a time that we said a first day of the week when we gathered together. But again, what's the focus? It was the first day of the week when they gathered.

That's when the church would gather. Not the synagogue but the church. So as they would gather they broke bread. Okay? That's the point there. Also, to partake in a private communion robs it of its picture.

1 Corinthians 10, 16. The cup of blessing that we bless is not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break is not in the participation of the body of Christ. And so what you have there is this idea that you can't have this private ceremony.