The Lord's Supper - PowerPoint

							The Lord’s Supper is not designed for the satisfaction of physical hunger and
thirst, or for the nourishment of the physical body.
It is designed to meet spiritual, rather than physical needs.
As a spiritual meal, it has many aspects, or facets.




                                                                                1
The Lord's Supper
    It Is A Memorial Meal




                            2
The Lord's Supper
   It Is A Proclamation Meal




                               3
The Lord's Supper
    It Is A Covenant Meal




                            4
The Lord's Supper
    It Is A Fellowship Meal




                              5
The Lord's Supper
    It Is Also A Unity Meal




                              6
                  Acts 20:6-7
But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of
Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at
Troas, where we stayed seven days. 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.




                                                       7
           1 Corinthians 11:17-21
Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you,
since you come together not for the better but for the
worse. For first of all, when you come together as a
church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and
in part I believe it. ... Therefore when you come
together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's
Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper
ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is
drunk.


                                                     8
                 J. W. McGarvey
"This verse is an indictment with three counts. There
could be no communion supper when: 1. The parties
did not eat at the same time, but some before and
some after; 2. when each ate his own meal, instead of
sharing in 'the one bread' (ch. 10:17); 3. when some ate
to the full and others ate nothing at all, because there
was nothing left."




                                                       9
          1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one
body; for we all partake of that one bread.




                                                 10
                  A Unity Meal
When Christians, those who compose “the one bread
and one body,” worthily partake of the one bread in the
Lord’s Supper, they are reminded that the one Lord
and Christ established but one body, the church, of
which He is the head.
Jesus said,
        “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18).
Paul declared,
           “There is one body” (Eph. 4:4)
                         and
“He is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18).
                                                      11
                  A Unity Meal
The death of Christ, symbolized in the Lord’s Supper,
had as its sublime purpose the uniting of Jews and
Gentiles into one body, the church.




                                                        12
              Ephesians 2:14-17
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both
one, and has broken down the middle wall of
separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity,
that is, the law of commandments contained in
ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man
from the two, thus making peace, and that He might
reconcile them both to God in one body through the
cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He
came and preached peace to you who were afar off
and to those who were near.”
                                                        13
                  A Unity Meal
Can any person, who is in favor of human names,
creeds, disciplines, and doctrines that separate men
into different religious organizations, possibly
appreciate the meaning of the body of Christ given on
Calvary to make men "one" in Him?
Can they possibly appreciate the meaning of the bread
which symbolizes that body?
How can anyone, who is not in favor of the unity, which
that death was intended to make possible, acceptably
proclaim the death of Christ in partaking of the proper
elements?
Denominationalism is antithetical to unity!
                                                     14
                   A Unity Meal
Also, those who worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper,
recognizing that they compose the “one bread and one
body,” are incited to strive to fulfill Jesus’ prayer for
the unity of His disciples:
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who
will believe in Me through their word; that they all may
be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that
they also may be one in Us, that the world may
believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21).


                                                        15
                   A Unity Meal
They are also incited to strive to obey the following
injunctions:
“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing,
and that there be no divisions among you; but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).




                                                        16
                   A Unity Meal
They are also incited to strive to obey the following
injunctions:
“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of
Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast
in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).




                                                        17
                  A Unity Meal
The unity meal, the Lord’s Supper, is without a doubt
meaningful to the Christian who has the sincere desire
to be united with his brethren in Christ and who works
to that end,
“endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
And we should never so exalt ourselves as to measure
others by the extent to which we have grown, and deny
them the privilege of sitting at the Lord’s Table and
partaking of His Supper.
It is the Lord's Supper not ours.
                                                      18
                    A Unity Meal
Since He said, through the apostle,
“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor. 11:28),
you are to examine no one but yourself.
For none of us is fully what he ought to be:
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. ... If we say that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us”
(1 John 1:8, 10).
                                                         19
                   A Unity Meal
If the apostle Paul could say,
“Not that I have already attained, or am already
perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that
for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forward to those
things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”
(Phil. 3:12-14),
who are we to think that we have apprehended?        20
                   A Unity Meal
Indeed, when we meaningfully partake of the one
bread, seeing in this symbol the one body of Christ
that was given on the cross to make possible the one
body, the church, we are declaring the primary, vital
essence of the unity that is to be kept in the bond of
peace; namely, love.




                                                         21
                   A Unity Meal
The unity of the body, the church, of which we are
reminded when we as “one bread and one body”
partake of the one bread, the symbol of the physical
body of Christ, at the Lord’s Table, cannot be limited to
certain externals of worship and practice that the
brethren agree upon.
Unless we see in this reminder of unity the vital
essence of love, and so truly love one another, any
agreement we have with our brethren is a hollow
mockery, a mere sham.


                                                        22
                   A Unity Meal
For example, is a married couple truly united just
because the husband and wife are lawfully joined
together in matrimony, eating at the same table,
sleeping in the same bed, etc., even though they
almost constantly quarrel and bicker, with intense
hatred and bitterness in their hearts for each other?




                                                        23
                   A Unity Meal
What about brethren, supposedly in Christ, who meet
together around the Lord’s Table the first day of every
week, yet who
      “bite and devour one another” (Gal. 5:15),
who hate rather than love one another, who have no
association with one another outside the church
building?
Are they truly striving for the unity set forth in God’s
word?
How can they possibly understand and appreciate the
unity that is portrayed in the Lord’s Supper?
                                                           24
                   A Unity Meal
Thus the unity for which they labor and of which they
are reminded in the unity meal, the Lord’s Supper, is
much more than mutual acceptance of certain religious
doctrines and forms of worship.
It is a unity that binds them together in loving, patient,
compassionate, understanding, merciful fellowship.
It is a unity that shows no distinction because of
differences in race, nationality, education, gender, etc.,
but recognizes that
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for
[we] are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).          25