A Study By
Gary Ray Branscome
Lesson 18
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was
betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He brake it and gave it to
His disciples saying, “Take eat this is My body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”
After the same manner, He took the
cup when He had supped, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them
saying, “Drink ye all of it; this cup is the New Testament in My blood,
which was shed for you for the remission of sins. This do,
as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
With those words, Christ instituted
“The Lord's Supper” as a perpetual observance of the Christian
Church. And, we can expect to see it observed wherever Christians gather for
worship. At the same time, His reason for instituting that ceremony, and the
purpose that He intended for it to serve, is not deep and mysterious. On the
contrary, it is simply a constant reminder of the fact that we only have
forgiveness because He took our sins upon Himself and died in our place.
[Matthew 26:26-28, Mark
In order to clarify what I mean,
let us begin by looking at the words, “In remembrance of Me”
(1Corinthians
Once that is understood, it becomes
obvious that Christ intended for His supper to serve as a ceremonial
proclamation of the gospel. In other words, whenever that ceremony is preformed
according to Christ's instruction, it reminds people that He died so that they
could have forgiveness and eternal life. And, because that message is the Word
of God, we know that it will accomplish the purpose that He intended for it to
accomplish.
In keeping with the role that
Christ intended for His supper to serve, He instituted it at the time of
Passover in order to make it clear that He is the true Passover sacrifice
(1Corinthians 5:7). In fact, the deliverance of God’s people from
physical bondage at the time of the first Passover, was intended to point
forward to the deliverance of His people from spiritual bondage through the
death of Christ (John 1:29). However, unlike the Passover, Christ’s
Supper gives every one of us His own promise, that His body was given and His
blood shed, for us, for the remission of sins (Galatians
Because of that promise it is
important not to contradict what Christ said when He instituted His Supper, for
those who contradict the Word of God make it of none effect (Mark 7:13). Since
Christ plainly said that the bread was His “body,” and that the cup
was His “blood” that is what He wants us to believe and teach
(1Corinthians
First of all, the words “as
often as ye eat this bread,” tell us that what we eat when we partake of
the Lord’s Supper is “bread,” not flesh (1Corinthians
In order to understand that sense,
we need to examine Christ’s discourse at
[Note: Since the ancient Rabbis claimed that the
Messiah would provide both water and manna, just as Moses had done, the book of
John shows Christ to be both the source of living water and heavenly manna.
(See Edersheim, volume 1, page 176. John 4:10-14,
John 6:35-63)]
Since the purpose of the
Lord’s Supper is to present each believer with Christ’s unspeakable
gift, those who do not believe that His body and blood were “given”
and “shed” for them, are unworthy to partake (1Corinthians 11:29).
In other words, because God sees no fault in those who trust in Christ, the
only people who could be unworthy are those who are unrepentant. However, we
need to remember that those who trust in their own righteousness are just as
unrepentant as those who sin willfully, and are more likely to assume that they
are worthy (Luke 18:9-14). In their blindness, they usually see little need for
forgiveness and, for that reason, fail to recognize Christ's sacrifice as the
source of their salvation (1Corinthians
When Christ instituted His Supper
He never intended for people to be pointed to the ceremony itself, as if
forgiveness was to be found in the ceremony rather than in His sacrifice. Nor
did He intend for us to regard His supper as nothing more than a
“memorial meal,” or to contradict His words “This is My body” and “This is My blood.” On the
contrary, He instituted His Supper as a way telling each and every person who
comes that His body was given for them, and that His blood was shed for them,
for the remission of sins.
1-
Who instituted the Lord's Supper?
2- What does Christ want us to remember when we partake of His Supper?
3- What promise does the Lord’s Supper give us?
4- Why is it important not to contradict what Christ said?
5- What tells us that Christ’s words (in the Lord’s Supper) have a
deeper meaning?
6- In what sense do we actually receive Christ's body and blood?
7- Why is John 6:35-63 not a reference to the Lord's Supper?
8- How does Christ’s discourse at
9- Who are unworthy to partake of the Lord’s Supper?
10- What does Christ tell each person who comes to His Supper?