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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:24-34; Matt. 26:27-30
Focus: The real remembrance of the Lord is to receive and enjoy Him as our life supply by eating and drinking Him and by sharing Him one with another in the fellowship of His Body.
In this lesson we want to continue our fellowship on the Lord’s table meeting. In the previous lesson we saw that the focus of the Lord’s table is the Lord Himself. We also saw that we remember the Lord by breaking the bread to apprehend with appreciation and thanks the Lord’s physical body being broken for us. Now we want to consider more points concerning our remembrance of the Lord.
In John 6:35a the Lord told us that He is the bread of life, so to eat the bread is to enjoy the Lord as our life supply. Breaking the bread does not imply any enjoyment, but eating the bread surely does.
We also eat the bread to testify that we live by the Lord. In John 6:57b the Lord said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” By eating the bread we indicate that we enjoy the Lord, and we testify that this is our way to live. This is the real remembrance of the Lord.
The next crucial point concerning our remembrance of the Lord is our eating the bread to enjoy the fellowship in Christ’s mystical Body. The breaking of the bread mainly implies the Lord’s physical body broken for us on the cross. Eating the bread, which is to take in the bread, mainly implies the fellowship in the mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16b-17). The same bread, the same loaf on the table, signifies the physical body of Christ and the mystical Body of Christ. The Lord’s physical body was broken on the cross for our redemption, and the Lord’s mystical Body, the Body of Christ, is for our fellowship. Regarding the Lord’s physical body, we break the bread, and regarding His mystical Body, we eat the bread. Eating together means communion, fellowship. A part of the same bread gets into you, a part gets into me, and a part gets into each one of us. This is the oneness in the Body in the fellowship of the Body.
We need to spend time on this point, especially for the sake of the new ones and young ones among us. First, the bread on the table signifies the Lord Jesus’ physical body that He gave for us on the cross. This is the bread that we break. Second, the bread also signifies the Lord’s mystical Body, which is composed of all the saved believers. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He was a grain of wheat (John 12:24). But today He is no longer merely a single grain of wheat. He is the bread composed of the many grains, including Himself. Thus, to eat the bread implies that we are participating in the mystical Body of Christ, comprising all the saints; that is, we are fellowshipping with all the saints universally from ancient times until today. We need to see that the remembrance of the Lord at His table implies His redemption, His Body, and His entire New Testament economy.
We also remember the Lord by drinking the cup (1 Cor. 11:25).
Our drinking the cup is to review the redemption of the new covenant. For this point it would be good to read Matthew 26:27-28: “He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
To eat the bread is to receive life; to drink the cup is to receive blessing. In the Bible the bread is called the bread of life (John 6:35a), and the cup is called the cup of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16a). Thus, to eat the bread means to receive the life supply, and to drink the cup means to receive the blessing.
The cup indicates a portion — either a portion of wrath or a portion of blessing. If we are condemned under God’s judgment, the cup is a portion of wrath to us (Rev. 14:10). If we are forgiven and redeemed, the cup is a portion of blessing to us. The Bible does not say that we drink the blood but that we drink the cup. This means that the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus becomes our cup, our portion.
When we drink the cup, we not only review the redemption of the new covenant but also receive God’s blessing. This blessing is God Himself. Adam’s fall caused man to lose God, but Christ’s redemption brings God back to man. The losing of God in man’s fall was the greatest loss. Now our gaining God back in Christ’s redemption is the unique blessing. The cup as a portion is God Himself as the unique blessing to us.
Through this fellowship we can see how much the Lord’s table implies. To remember the Lord is not merely to remember how He was God and how He became a man. To remember the Lord is to break the bread, to eat the bread, and to drink the cup in the reality of all their deep significances.
Drinking the cup also indicates that we have fellowship in the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16a). We have a joint and mutual participation in the drinking of the one cup. Both eating and drinking indicate oneness and fellowship, communion. This is why we have only one loaf, not many loaves, and only one cup, not many cups, at the table. One loaf and one cup indicate the oneness and the fellowship, the communion. This communion, this fellowship, is in both the mystical Body of Christ and in the redeeming blood of Christ. Because we all are redeemed by this one blood, we have the one communion, and through this we receive the unique blessing.
At the Lord’s table we do not remember the Lord’s death, but we declare, proclaim, display, the Lord’s death. First Corinthians 11:26 says, “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.” Here we have the bread signifying the Lord’s body, and we have the cup signifying the Lord’s blood. On the table the Lord’s death is declared, because the cup is separate from the bread; that is, the blood is separate from the body. We eat the bread and we drink the cup to declare the Lord’s death, because whenever the blood is separate from the body, that is death. Whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we do not remember the Lord’s death, but we declare His death to the whole universe, especially to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies.
We also remember the Lord at His table to express our desire of His coming back. First Corinthians 11:26b says that we declare the Lord’s death until He comes. While we declare the Lord’s death, we express our desire of the Lord’s second coming. In Matthew 26:29 the Lord said, “I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.” This is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, in which the Lord will drink with us after His coming back. When we remember the Lord and declare His death, we express our desire that the Lord will come back soon.
After all this, the Lord will lead us to worship the Father. This is based upon Matthew 26:30, which says that after the Lord finished His supper with His disciples, He and the disciples sang a hymn. That hymn was sung by the Lord with His disciples to the Father. In the Lord’s table the Lord takes the lead to praise the Father, to worship the Father. At the end of the Lord’s table meeting, we need to worship the Father with the Lord. We must follow the firstborn Son to worship the Father as His brothers. The Lord as the firstborn Son takes the lead to worship the Father (Heb. 2:12), and we as His many brothers follow Him.
Hymns, #52 is a very good hymn on the worship of the Father. Stanzas 2 and 3 say,
This hymn is simple and short, yet high in its thought and full of light. It would be good to ask the saints to read these stanzas so that they can be impressed with the significance of worshipping the Father.
Related to our partaking of the Lord’s table, there is also a warning in the Scriptures.
We have to prove ourselves and discern the Body at the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 11:28-29). We have to discern whether the bread on the table signifies the unique Body of Christ or a sect, a division, a denomination. This is why we can take the Lord’s table only in the local churches. We cannot partake of the so-called communion in other places, because that bread on the table does not signify the Body but a division. Whenever we go to a place to attend the Lord’s table, we must prove to ourselves that the bread on the table really signifies the Lord’s Body, without any division.
In 1 Corinthians 11:27 we are warned not to eat the bread and drink the cup in an unworthy manner. If you are in division and you still eat the bread and drink the cup, that means you are eating and drinking unworthily. According to 1 Corinthians 11, there was a kind of looseness and lightness among the saints in Corinth. Everyone behaved according to his own likes or dislikes. The divisions and parties among them spoiled the Lord’s table (vv. 17-22). This shows that if we take the Lord’s table with a divisive spirit, we are partaking of it in an unworthy manner. We should not partake of the Lord’s table in a light, loose, or careless way.
First Corinthians 11:17-18 shows that if we take the Lord’s table with divisions, our coming together is not for the better but for the worse. For the better means for a profit. For the worse means for a loss. It is not a profit but a loss if we take the Lord’s table in division.
If we take the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner, the Lord will come in to chasten us (vv. 30-34). The Lord’s judgment upon those in Corinth who participated unworthily in the Lord’s table was to cause them to become weak physically. Since they would not repent of their offense, they were further disciplined and became sick. Because they would still not repent, the Lord judged them by death. This is the Lord’s chastening, the Lord’s judgment upon the believers in this age who would willfully continue to partake of His table in an unworthy manner. Sometimes when a believer is sick, he may need to call for the elders of the church and ask them to pray over him (James 5:14). This means that he needs to get himself reconciled with the Body.
We all need to be trained to partake of the Lord’s table in a proper way. In the past we had the Lord’s table in an untrained way. But now we are going to have the Lord’s table in a civilized way, in a cultured way, in a trained way. In the past we ate wildly, without “table manners.” Now we are training the saints to have table manners. The table manners at the Lord’s table are not formal things. To have proper table manners at His table means that we exercise our spirit and release our praise to Him in the right way. This is a great thing. The Lord’s table is the best meeting, but it is the most difficult meeting for us to have. No other meeting exposes where we are as much as the Lord’s table meeting does.
We need to remember the focus of our fellowship in this lesson. The focus is that the real remembrance of the Lord is to receive and enjoy Him as our life supply by eating and drinking Him and by sharing Him one with another in the fellowship of His Body.
