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In this lesson we come to the various kinds of meetings and their natures. It is evident that a person must know the focus and activities of each meeting if he desires to serve and function in the meetings. We will first consider the bread-breaking meeting.
Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 10:21 and 11:20 show that the bread-breaking meeting is the gathering of the saints to partake of the Lord’s table and to eat the Lord’s supper. We must know that this meeting is divided into two sections. The first section is for the remembrance of the Lord, and the second section is for the worship of the Father. Since this meeting is divided into two sections, the activities in this meeting are also of two natures. The activities in the first section are to remember the Lord. The activities in the second section are to worship the Father.
The purpose of the first section is to remember the Lord; therefore, we should never bring in any activity related to the worship of the Father into this section. The focus in this section is on breaking the bread. Our coming together to break bread is for the remembrance of the Lord. This section of the meeting has two aspects.
As clearly presented in 1 Corinthians 11:20-25, eating the Lord’s supper is the first significance of this aspect of the bread-breaking meeting. Eating the Lord’s supper is for the proper remembrance of the Lord. There are three points for us to understand related to the Lord’s supper.
First, the bread signifies the Lord’s body that hung on the cross for us. This was His physical body that was given for us. The Lord’s body was given and broken for us on the cross so that we may obtain His life. Every time we come to the bread-breaking meeting and see the bread on the table, we should have a strong feeling in our spirit. We should have the realization that the bread signifies that the body, which the Lord clothed Himself with in His incarnation, was broken for us on the cross so that we may have His life. At His supper we partake of the bread that signifies His body that was given for us so that we may obtain His life. Our receiving and enjoying the Lord is our remembrance of Him. This is what the Lord meant on the night of His betrayal when He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).
Second, the produce of the vine in the cup signifies the Lord’s blood that was shed for us so that our sins may be forgiven. On the positive side, the bread signifies the Lord’s body that was given for us so that we may have His life. On the negative side, the cup signifies the Lord’s blood that was shed for us so that we may be delivered from sin and everything we have that is outside of God.
It is very strange that while the bread on the table is identified as the bread, the blood on the table is not identified as the blood but as the cup. If the cup was referred to as the blood, it would denote only redemption. However, the significance of the cup encompasses much more than merely redemption. In the Bible the cup signifies a portion, a blessing. Psalm 16:5 says, “Jehovah is the portion...of my cup.” Therefore, the cup denotes the portion we obtain from God. The portion God measures out to us according to our condition is the cup God has given to us. Therefore, Revelation 14:9-10 says that the fallen sinners who worship the beast and his image receive the cup of God’s wrath as their portion.
According to our true condition, we also deserve the cup of God’s wrath. But we thank God that the Lord drank the cup of wrath for us on the cross. Before His crucifixion the Lord prayed in Gethsemane, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). When He was arrested, He said to Peter, who drew the sword to protect Him, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). These verses show that on the cross the Lord drank the cup of God’s wrath for us who have sinned, fallen, and should perish. On the cross He was judged by God and shed His blood. Therefore, the Lord’s blood is proof that He bore our sins and was judged by God. His blood declares to the universe that He drank the cup of God’s wrath that we, the fallen sinners, should drink, and He suffered the punishment that we should suffer. He fulfilled the righteous requirement of God. Hence, the Lord’s shed blood indicates that He has washed away our sins before God.
The Lord has also established a covenant by His blood. This covenant enables us to receive God Himself and all His blessings. This covenant established by the Lord’s blood is included in the cup. This cup speaks forth that God Himself and all His blessings have become our portion. The cup that we have received from the Lord is the cup of salvation in Psalm 116:13 and the cup that runs over in Psalm 23:5. On the negative side, this cup speaks of the Lord’s blood that has washed away our sins before God. On the positive side, it speaks of the blood of the Lord that has paid the price for us so that God and all that belongs to Him are now our portion for our enjoyment. This is our blessed portion.
Hence, the bread denotes life, and the cup signifies blessing. The bread always refers to life; it is the bread of life. The cup always refers to blessing; it is the portion that man receives from God. By receiving the bread, we testify that we receive the Lord as life in our spirit. Our receiving and enjoyment of Him in this way is our remembrance of Him. At the same time, by receiving this cup, we testify that we receive all that He has accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood on the cross. Hence, every time we receive the bread and the cup, we have a fresh receiving of the Lord Himself and what He accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood on the cross. This receiving is in spirit for our inward enjoyment. Our receiving Him, enjoying Him, and eating and drinking of Him are our true remembrance of Him.
Here we see that our remembrance of the Lord is completely different from the worldly commemoration of famous people and memorials of relatives. In the world people exercise their mind to contemplate the ways, conduct, works, and love of the one whom they are remembering, but there is no element of receiving. When we remember the Lord, however, we do not merely meditate on Him; this is but a small part. The focus of our remembrance of the Lord is our eating and drinking of Him. The Lord said, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me...This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24-25). The Lord’s words clearly state that to remember Him is to receive Him as the One who was given for us and to receive all that He has accomplished. Our eating, drinking, and enjoying Him in such a way is to remember Him.
Hence, every time we come to remember the Lord, we should not remember Him merely by meditating in our mind. We need to receive Him and all that He has accomplished in our spirit as our inward enjoyment and allow Him to mingle more with us. This is the true remembrance of the Lord.
The significance of bread-breaking is also the meaning of our Christian living. The Christian living is a life of eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord day by day in order to allow Him to mingle with us. We should not do this merely on the first day of the week when we come to the bread-breaking meeting. This should be our daily living. As saved ones, we live by eating and drinking the Lord.
If our understanding of bread-breaking to remember the Lord is not up to this standard, our bread-breaking may be merely something superstitious. This would be like the mass in the Catholic Church. Catholics believe that they come to God by keeping the mass and that they are thereby forgiven and able to receive His blessings. This is altogether superstitious. The significance of our coming to eat the Lord’s supper by remembering the Lord is absolutely different. We declare to the universe, testifying that we live by eating, drinking, and receiving Him so that He can enter into us to be our life and be mingled with us. This is not merely an outward ritual; it is the reality of our daily living. Only those living in this way are truly remembering the Lord; otherwise, bread-breaking is but a superstitious religious ritual.
Third, when we come to break the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of the Lord, our focus is on eating, drinking, receiving, and enjoying the Lord, not on thinking about the Lord. Hence, when we come to the bread-breaking meeting, we should not consider the Lord too much with our mind; rather, we should exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and have fellowship with Him. We must have a deep realization regarding this point. According to our human concept, we may think that as we break the bread, we should tremble at the sight of the bread. We may also think that when we touch the cup, we should consider each drop of blood that the Lord shed for us. We may remember how the Lord left His throne, was born in a manger, went to Nazareth, went up to Jerusalem, was crucified, was buried in a tomb, and then ascended to the throne after His resurrection. We often hear people pray in this way at the bread-breaking meeting. This is man’s natural concept.
We need to know that when the Lord established the supper, He passed the bread to His disciples and told them to take and eat it. He also passed the cup to them and told them to drink of it. He told them to do this in remembrance of Him. The main focus in the bread-breaking meeting is not to remember the Lord in our mind but to fellowship with the Lord in our spirit, receiving the Lord whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed in order to redeem us. When we have such fellowship with the Lord in our spirit by eating, drinking, and enjoying Him, we are fed in our spirit. This can be compared to being invited to a feast in which the host does not want us to think about the dishes that he has prepared; rather, he wants us to eat to the full what he has prepared. This is the Lord’s revelation regarding the bread-breaking meeting. This is completely different from man’s natural concept.
The Lord desires that we eat the bread and drink the cup in our remembrance of Him. He said, “This do unto the remembrance of Me” (v. 24). When we contact the Lord in this way, we will spontaneously think of His acts and of what He has done for us. However, this is not the focus of our remembrance of the Lord. The focus is our eating, drinking, receiving, and enjoying Him.
Eating the Lord’s supper, as presented in 1 Corinthians 11, is mainly for our remembrance of the Lord. Partaking of the Lord’s table, as presented in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 and 21, is mainly for our fellowship with the saints. First Corinthians refers to the matter of bread-breaking two times. In chapter 11 it speaks of the Lord’s supper with the focus of remembering the Lord. In chapter 10 it speaks of partaking of the Lord’s table with the focus of fellowshipping with the saints.
The apostle says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ? Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body” (vv. 16-17). He then explains that to have fellowship in the Lord’s blood and the Lord’s body is to “partake of the Lord’s table” (v. 21). Since partaking of the Lord’s table is for us to share in His table, the focus in this aspect is not on remembering, receiving, and enjoying the Lord but on having fellowship with all the saints in the Lord. There are many things a Christian can do individually; he can pray, read the Bible, and even preach the gospel. But he cannot break the bread and drink the cup by himself at home. The reason for this is that the bread-breaking meeting has an aspect of eating the Lord’s supper to remember the Lord and an aspect of partaking of the Lord’s table with all the saints. The Lord’s table is for all the saints to partake of together. Having mutual fellowship with all the saints in the Body of Christ is not an individual matter. There are three points for us to consider related to the Lord’s table.
First, in the aspect of eating the Lord’s supper, the bread on the table signifies the Lord’s body that was given for us on the cross. However, in the aspect of partaking of the Lord’s table, the bread on the table signifies the Body that is comprised of all the saints who have been regenerated through the Lord’s death and resurrection. Hence, the apostle says, “Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body” (v. 17). This Body is different from the Lord’s physical body that hung on the cross. The Lord’s physical body died on the cross for us. The Body in verse 17 is His mystical Body produced by the Lord’s death and resurrection, and it is composed of all the saints. Therefore, each time we break the bread, we come to enjoy the Lord, remember Him, and receive the body that He gave for us on the cross. In addition, we also enjoy His mystical Body that was brought forth through the Lord’s death and resurrection. This indicates that we have fellowship with all the saints in the Body.
Therefore, from the aspect of partaking of the Lord’s table, the breaking of the bread is our fellowship in the Body of Christ, testifying of the oneness of the Body of Christ. This concerns our relationship with all the saints and our relationship with the Lord Himself. Today Christians pay attention mainly to remembering the Lord but neglect the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
Second, in the aspect of partaking of the Lord’s table, the bread and the cup are the common portion that we enjoy in fellowship with all the saints. The apostle says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ?” (v. 16). Therefore, the bread and the cup are the common portion that we enjoy in fellowship with all the saints.
Third, in the aspect of eating the Lord’s supper, the focus is on eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord. In the aspect of partaking of the Lord’s table and having fellowship with all the saints, the focus is on having mutual fellowship in the blood and in the Body of Christ.
The Lord must be the goal of our singing, praying, speaking, meditating, and fellowshipping in the first section of the bread-breaking meeting. We must also have a focus. Every bread-breaking meeting should be focused. If we touch the Lord’s love in the atmosphere of the meeting, our focus should be the Lord’s love. The focus may also be the Lord’s name, His death, His humbling of Himself, His living on the earth, His sufferings, His ascension and glorification, His splendor, or His sweetness. Regardless of the focus, the selecting of hymns, praying, giving of thanks, praising, and sharing should point toward this focus. After singing a hymn on the Lord’s love, we should not follow with a prayer on the Lord’s suffering and then with a word on the Lord’s ascension. Such inconsistency confuses people. Therefore, each meeting should have a focus.
In order to be focused in a meeting, everyone must coordinate and cooperate. For example, after singing a hymn on the Lord’s love, I may offer a prayer on the Lord’s love in order to digest the hymn. A brother may follow by reading some verses from the Bible to strengthen this feeling. Another brother may then select a hymn to strengthen the singing on the Lord’s love. This is our coordination and cooperation. There should never be a situation in which one brother selects a hymn without considering the general feeling in the meeting, then another brother prays without considering the feeling of the hymn, and still another brother stands up to speak, not caring for the feeling of the prayer. Such a situation would indicate that everyone is acting individually. This will cause the meeting to be chaotic. Therefore, in the bread-breaking meeting we must learn to coordinate and cooperate with one another. When we coordinate, cooperate, and have a focus, the spirit of the meeting will be sweet.
In addition to having a focus and coordinating and cooperating together, we need to move toward a climax in every meeting. This enables the meeting to climb higher and higher. Once a meeting reaches the climax, the bread and the cup should be blessed and passed. We should not make the meeting a ritual, thinking that at a particular time the bread and the cup should be blessed and passed, regardless of whether a climax has been reached. Such a meeting does not have much spiritual inspiration and cannot give its participants a feeling of satisfaction. Every bread-breaking meeting should reach a climax when everyone truly touches the Lord with their spirit. This gives the participants a deep sense of satisfaction.
There should be prayers only of thanksgiving and of praise, not prayers of supplication, in the bread-breaking meeting. Prayers of supplication should be left for the prayer meeting. In the bread-breaking meeting we should remember only the Lord, giving thanks and praise to Him. Prayers of supplication drag the meeting down and ruin the atmosphere of the meeting.
The second section of the bread-breaking meeting is entirely for the worship of the Father, taking the Father as the center. There are five points for us to consider in this section.
First, let us consider the basis in the truth for the worship of the Father. The salvation we have received consists of two sections. In the first section we met the Lord, received Him as our Savior, and received all that He accomplished for us. After receiving the Lord in this way, we immediately came to the Father’s house, and the Father accepted us. This is the second section. Hence, in the process of our salvation, first we received the Lord, and then the Father accepted us. First we are forgiven by the Lord, and then we are accepted by the Father.
This is clearly portrayed in the three parables in Luke 15. The first parable presents the Lord as the good Shepherd, who left the Father’s house to seek us, the lost sheep. He found us, carried us on His shoulder, and brought us back to the Father’s house. In the third parable we see that the lost sheep was the lost son, the prodigal son. The Lord brought us back to the Father’s house, and God the Father accepted us. From our experience of salvation we see that the One who came to seek us is the Son, and the One who accepted us into the house is the Father. When we were in the position of sinners, we met the Son. After we received Him as our Savior, He brought us to the Father’s house, and there we met the Father who accepted us.
Therefore, it is very clear from our salvation that there are two kinds of receiving. One is our receiving the Lord, and the other is the Father’s receiving us. Having only one kind of receiving is not a full salvation. If we merely receive the Lord without the Father receiving us, we would not have a full salvation. One side of our salvation is our receiving the Lord, and the other side is the Father receiving us. Therefore, we are not only saved, but we have also returned home. We not only have the Lord, but we have the Father also. The Lord is the Son. First John 2:23 says, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also”; we first have the Son, and then we have the Father. Since our receiving the Son makes us sons, the Father accepted us into His house.
Since there are two sections in our salvation, there should also be two sections in a meeting where proper worship is rendered. In the first section we remember the Lord. This is related to our receiving the Lord. In the second section we worship the Father. This is related to the Father’s receiving us. In the first section we remember our Lord, who saved us. In the second section we worship the Father, who accepted us as His sons.
Second, we know that the Lord Jesus was the only Begotten from the Father (John 1:14). However, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, the life within Him was released and imparted into all those who believe in Him. When the life of the Son enters into us, we are made sons of God as well. This is the one grain of wheat falling into the ground to die and bearing much fruit (12:24). Now the only begotten Son becomes the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Formerly, God had only one Son, but now He has many sons. Before His death the Lord Jesus was the only begotten Son, but after His resurrection from the dead He became the Firstborn among many brothers.
Therefore, in the morning of the Lord’s resurrection, He appeared to Mary and said to her, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17). Before the Lord’s death and resurrection He never called His disciples brothers; at the most He called them friends. But once the Lord was resurrected from the dead, His life was released into the disciples to make them the many sons of God; thus, the disciples became His brothers. Therefore, Hebrews 2:11 says, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers,” because they have His life, and they “are all of One.” Just as He is the Son of God, having the life of God, all those who believe into Him and receive Him as life also become sons of God. He now is the Firstborn among many brothers.
Third, Hebrews 2:10 speaks of the Firstborn “leading many sons.” Quoting Psalm 22:22, Hebrews 2:12 says, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” This is the Lord leading us to praise the Father in the church. The One for whom are all things and through whom are all things is leading many sons into glory. To accomplish this the firstborn Son leads the many sons to praise and worship the Father in the church of the firstborn, which is also the church of the many sons (12:23). This is what we do in the second section of the bread-breaking meeting. Our worship of the Father is based upon the history of our salvation. No other meeting is more suitable than the bread-breaking meeting to render this kind of worship.
Among Christians today, the fellowship of the Body of Christ is a much neglected aspect, and the Son’s leading many sons to worship the Father is almost a nonexistent aspect. We should not neglect these two points. Instead, we must care for them solemnly so that the Father can gain worship from His many sons with His Son.
Fourth, in this section our singing, prayer, and fellowship should be directed toward the Father, taking the Father as the center. There is no need for contemplation in this section.
Fifth, in this section the spirit of the meeting should climb to the highest peak, higher than in any other meeting. Therefore, there are two peaks in the bread-breaking meeting: one in the section of our remembrance of the Lord and the other in the section of our worship to the Father. If the bread-breaking meeting has these two peaks, the Lord’s presence will be prevailing, the moving of the Spirit will be apparent, and the spirit of the saints will be greatly satisfied.
