Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 10:21; 11:23-25; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 4:24; 1 John 2:23; Heb. 2:11b-12; Matt. 26:30
There are four main items that we must practice in the Lord’s table meeting. First, to remember the Lord at His table is to partake of Him. The biblical ground for this is in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. Verses 23 through 25 of chapter 11 say, “I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and having given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me. Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.” This indicates that to remember the Lord in a real way is to take, eat, and drink of Him.
To eat and to drink something is to partake of it. Verse 21 of chapter 10 says, “You cannot drink the Lord’s cup and the demons’ cup; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the demons’ table.” It is not our own word to say that we partake of the Lord; in the Bible we have this phrase: partake of the Lord’s table. Since this is a table, it must be something for us to enjoy. In 1 Corinthians 11 there is eating and drinking, and in chapter 10 there is the table and the partaker of the table. All of this strongly proves that to remember the Lord, to have the Lord’s table, is to partake of the Lord. When we come to the Lord’s table, we do not merely remember Him in our mind. Rather, we partake of the Lord, enjoy Him once again, eat and drink of Him, and sit at His table with the saints to share Him one with another. This is the first meaning of the Lord’s table.
This thought, concept, and understanding is very much neglected by today’s Christianity. Today when many Christians come to the so-called holy communion, they have the thought that they must remember what Jesus did for us, that He was the Son of God, and that He died on the cross for us. However, when we come to the table, we come again to take something of the Lord Himself. We come to partake of the Lord. The Lord’s table is a table with the Lord Himself spread as a feast on the table. He has given Himself to us by His death and resurrection. Now He offers us not His blood first but His body. That His body is first and His blood follows proves that He is offering us Himself in resurrection. Even though the Lord set up the table before His death, it was something done in anticipation of His resurrection. He has given Himself to us by His death, and He has put Himself before us in His resurrection. Now in His resurrection we come to His table to enjoy Him, feast on Him, and eat and drink of Him.
The second main point concerning the Lord’s table is the exercise of our spirit. The way we come to the Lord’s table to partake of the Lord, that is, to eat and drink of the Lord, is by exercising our spirit. If we do not know how to exercise our spirit, we cannot enjoy the Lord. This matter is neglected too much. Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we have to realize that we have come to partake of the Lord. Therefore, we need to exercise. Before we come to a delicious feast, we have to get ourselves ready. Many times when I am invited to a dinner, I ask the one inviting me what he will serve. If it is something that I truly desire, I prepare my appetite all day long for the coming dinner. Then I am able to go and enjoy it adequately. To come to the Lord’s table is to partake of the Lord, to enjoy the Lord, to eat and drink something of the Lord. For this we have to prepare our spirit. Therefore, the second main item concerning this meeting is the exercise of the spirit.
Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we must realize that we are coming to enjoy the Lord. Today the Lord is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and the way He imparts Himself to us is in our spirit. Therefore, we have to exercise our spirit. The strongest ground to prove this from the Bible is John 4 and 6. Verse 63 of chapter 6 says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” To this we can add John 4:24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him [that is, contact Him, enjoy Him, and partake of Him] must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” We need to exercise our spirit.
We also need to give up all the preoccupying things. This means that we must not only prepare our spirit, but we have to open our spirit deeply. To open ourselves from our very depths is not only to open our mind and heart but to open our spirit. Whenever we come to the table, we have to prepare ourselves by opening to the Lord from our spirit, from the very depths of our being. It is not only that our sins have been purged away and that we have rid ourselves of the worldly things. It is also that we drop anything that preoccupies us, and we open deeply from within to the Lord. Then our spirit will be prepared and exercised.
First, we must realize that we are coming to partake of the Lord. Then second, we need to get our spirit ready and exercised. The third practical matter concerning the Lord’s table is even more important. We also have to sense the atmosphere of the meeting and follow the flow. These matters are very strategic. In order to have a good meeting for the Lord’s table, we must have all these main items.
We may compare following the flow in the meeting to serving a feast, which requires that we know the proper way to serve. If we are to serve steak as the main dish, we must serve the steak first. We cannot serve ice cream as the first course in a feast of steak. We must know what the first course is and that the second course follows the first. Then we can have a proper feast in its proper courses. When we come to the Lord’s table, we have to sense the atmosphere of the meeting and follow the flow. In that meeting will we “serve steak,” or will we “serve fish”? We can, for example, stress what the Lord is, or we may stress the ascension and glory of the Lord.
In the meeting there is always a flow. We may illustrate the flow with a team playing a game. In basketball the five members of the one team do not play with more than one ball; they play with only one ball. In this sense, the ball follows a flow, as in a stream. If one person in a basketball game plays with a football, and others play with many different kinds of balls, that game will be a mess. In the best games, all the members play with one ball in one flow. For this we need practice.
Although it seems that there is not much wrong with our Lord’s table meeting, the tide of the Spirit is sometimes too low. This is due to the lack of the exercise of our spirit. Our spirit is not very living and strong. This may be due to the fact that we are afraid to make mistakes, but that still chokes us and quenches the Spirit.
Sometimes certain hymns frustrate the flow of prayer very much. At the beginning of the meeting there may be a real flow of prayer which is not fully expressed. This is not the right time to announce a hymn. Any hymn at such a time becomes a frustration to the flow of more prayers in the spirit. At other times, the worship to the Father may be the best portion of the meeting, but just when we come to the highest tide, a certain hymn again can frustrate the flow. Such a hymn can be like cold water poured on the fire. Just as we have the real sense that two or three more prayers will bring us to a climax, our mouths can be shut by the wrong hymn. To call a hymn in this way is the result of our forms, rituals, and knowledge. Therefore, we have to learn to sense the flow. We have to forget about mere knowledge. First we must sense the flow, and then we should exercise our proper knowledge to do things in an adequate, proper way. When there is a real flow of prayer, we should not do anything to frustrate it.
Sometimes we need a hymn to stir up the praying spirit. At other times, though, we should not call a hymn because the praying spirit is already present. To announce a hymn will stop the praying spirit. We have to follow the flow and not pay much attention to mere knowledge. To always say that after four or five prayers a hymn is needed to match the prayers is to act according to mere knowledge. The knowledge of the letter kills. We must pay attention to the flow. If there is a living flow, do not hinder it. Give the flow a free way to go on. We must learn to exercise the spirit to release something from within, and we must learn to always exercise the inner sense to take care of the flow.
The fourth main point concerning the Lord’s table is the worship to the Father. The Holy Spirit always brings people to Christ, the Son. When we are inspired by the Holy Spirit, we say, “Jesus is Lord!” (1 Cor. 12:3). In the same way, the Son always brings people to the Father. If you have the Son, then you have the Father. First John 2:23 says, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also.” The principle here is that when we are touched by the Holy Spirit, we realize something of Christ, the Son, and when we experience the Son, He brings us to the Father. Therefore, after we have experienced the Lord at His table, we should not close the meeting. According to the principle, when we have experienced the Son, He brings us to the Father. It is not right to close the Lord’s table meeting without coming to the Father.
Hebrews 2:11b and 12 say, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.’” When does the Lord Jesus praise the Father in the church? It must be after the saints in the church have had the Lord’s table. After we have experienced the Lord, the Son brings us to the Father to praise the Father in the midst of His brothers. Matthew 26:30 tells us that after the Lord established His table, He came to the Father to contact the Father by singing a hymn with the disciples. This is the principle to follow. Whenever we enjoy the Lord, we have to be brought to the Father through the Lord. This is why after we enjoy the table, we have to follow the Lord to worship the Father. The first part of the table meeting is to remember the Lord by partaking of Him. After partaking of the Lord, then the second part of the meeting is a time to worship the Father, following the Lord as the firstborn Son. We are the many sons following Him to worship the Father.
All these four main points are mostly neglected in today’s Christianity. Neither the Catholic Church nor the so-called reformed churches pay attention to these matters when they have the “holy communion.” If we are going to have the Lord’s table, we must learn these four main items. We come to the table to partake of something of the Lord Himself. Therefore, we have to prepare our spirit, to cleanse ourselves, and to exercise the spirit to contact the Lord and enjoy Him. Then we learn the technique of how to sense the present atmosphere of the meeting and follow the flow in the meeting. If we all act as one “team,” we will enjoy the Lord adequately and properly. Out of this enjoyment in the spirit, we have the Son. Then the Lord as the Son of the Father leads us to the Father, and we follow Him to worship the Father. In this way we will have a full meeting in two parts for two purposes: to remember the Lord and partake of Him, and to worship and praise the Father.
