The Lord’s Supper (or Communion) is the meal that the early
Christians ate at their worship services. It was a simple meal – just unleavened
bread (crackers) and a cup of juice (called the “fruit of the vine”) – and they
took of it every Sunday.
But today, many churches offer communion only once a
month or quarter or year. Some churches don’t even serve it on Sunday mornings
– they’ll wait until Sunday night to make sure that only their members take
part. I’ve even heard that some modern churches don’t want to have communion on
Sundays because “it interrupts the flow of worship.”
By contrast, Restoration churches (like ours) offer communion
at every service on Sunday, and it is the main focus of our worship. Why?
Well
first, because that is what the early church did. In the Book of Acts 2:42, the
early church met regularly to worship, and part of that worship was to “break
bread” – a phrase they used for taking of the Lord’s supper together.
Later in
Acts 20:7 we find that the church got together “on the first day of the week,
when (they) were gathered together to break bread...” The first day of the week
was Sunday.
Sometime around 130 A.D., a man named Justin Martyr wrote
“On Sunday a meeting is held of all who live in the cities and villages, and a
section is read from the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the
Prophets, as long as time permits. When
the reading is finished, the president, in a discourse, gives the admonition
and exhortation to imitate these noble things.
After this we all arise and offer a common prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before
described, bread and wine and thanks for them according to his ability, and the
congregation answers, ‘Amen.’ Then the consecrated elements (the bread and the
wine) are distributed to each one and partaken of and are carried by the
deacons to the houses of the absent.”
Communion was very important to the early Christians. In
fact, it was so important that they took of it every Sunday - and it was the
center of their worship. When the early church gathered on the first day of the
week, Acts 20:7 tells us it was because they were there to “break bread.” The Lord’s
Supper was the main reason they had gotten together.
So, what was so important about this meal? Well, Sunday was
the “first day of the week” and that was the day of the week that Jesus rose
from the dead. And so, as these Christians took of Communion, they were
remembering what Jesus had done. They were declaring that the reason they were
Christians was because Jesus had died on the cross for them.
On the cross,
Jesus had allowed his body to be broken (represented by the unleavened bread)
and his blood to be shed (represented by the “fruit of the vine”). In fact, the
Lord’s Supper was the main sermon of each worship service. Paul wrote: “as
often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes.” (I Corinthians 11:26)
Years ago, a man named Robert Tinsky visited a Christian
Church for the first time. Raised in Judaism he was visiting the church because
he’d grown dissatisfied with what he’d been taught in the synagogues. Part of
the worship service (of course) was the Lord’s Supper, just like it was in the
early church, but Tinsky didn’t understand it.
He asked some young people seated near him what it meant, and they
faithfully told him the gospel story as portrayed in the loaf and cup. He was amazed that there was a God who loved
mankind enough to give His Son to die for us and at the wisdom that originated
such a living memorial.
He kept coming back again and again, and eventually
became a Christian and a faithful preacher of the gospel.
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