Search
1)“We gathered together to break bread…” (Acts 20:7).
2)“You come together…to eat the Lord’s supper” (1 Cor. 11:20).
3)“You…partake of the table of the Lord…” (1 Cor. 10:21).
These three verses show us that the bread breaking meeting is a meeting in which the believers come together to eat the Lord’s supper and attend the Lord’s table. This meeting is divided into two parts, the first part for remembering the Lord and the latter part for worshipping the Father.
1)“And having taken a loaf…He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this unto the remembrance of Me. And similarly the cup after they had dined” (Luke 22:19-20).
The bread breaking meeting is not for anything other than remembering the Lord with the remembrance of the Lord as its center for the Lord’s enjoyment. Everything in this meeting, whether hymn singing, prayer, Bible reading, or words of inspiration, should take the Lord as the center, speaking either concerning His person and work, His love and virtues, His living or suffering on the earth, or His honor or glory in heaven, that others may consider or realize these things in order to remember the Lord Himself. In such a meeting, we should think of the Lord in our hearts and behold the Lord in our spirit that we would be inspired concerning the Lord. Then we will express our inspiration through songs, prayers, reading of the Bible, or words, that the feeling of the entire meeting would be directed to the Lord and that all would remember the Lord.
The three verses quoted in the beginning of this lesson show us that the breaking of bread is to eat the Lord’s supper and to attend the Lord’s table. Eating the Lord’s supper is for us to remember the Lord; attending the Lord’s table is for us to have fellowship together in the Lord’s accomplishments for us. In the aspect of eating the Lord’s supper, we should mainly do the following three things:
1)“The Lord Jesus…took bread…broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:23-24).
According to what the Lord has established, whenever we break bread, there is not only a loaf of bread prepared for us to break and eat, but next to the bread there is also a cup prepared for us to receive and drink. By eating the Lord’s bread and drinking the Lord’s cup, we eat the Lord’s supper in remembrance of the Lord. The bread and the cup are both symbols. According to what the Lord said, the bread signifies His body that He gave for us and the cup signifies the blood that He shed for us. His body was given for us on the cross and His blood was shed for us also on the cross. He gave Himself for us in order to impart life into us that we may partake of Him. He shed His blood for us in order to redeem us that our sins may be forgiven.
When we see or receive the bread that we break, we should consider how the Lord became flesh for us, how He died for us in the flesh, and how His body was broken for us and given to us that we may have His life. In the Bible, bread refers to life. The Lord said that He is the bread of life which gives life to the world (John 6:33-35). Whenever bread is mentioned, we must think of life. The Lord’s body being broken to be given as bread to us means that He gave His body for us that we may have His life. We partake of His life when we receive His broken body. All of this is signified by our breaking of bread and by the bread which we break.
2)“Similarly also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
In the bread breaking meeting, we should consider the Lord and what He did for us not only when we see or receive the bread which we break but also when we see or receive the cup which we drink. This cup signifies the new covenant, which the Lord enacted for us by shedding His blood. Whenever we see or receive this cup which we drink, we should consider how the Lord partook of flesh and blood for us (Heb. 2:14), how He not only gave His body for us that we may have His life, but how He also shed His blood for us that we may have the topmost blessing, that is, to be delivered from sin and obtain God and all that is of Him. By this symbol, we should consider how the Lord bore our sins, was made sin for us, and was judged and cursed for us, shedding His blood, which constitutes our cup of blessing, our eternal blessed portion. We should also consider how we are redeemed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, reconciled, and accepted by God through the Lord’s blood; how it cleanses us from our sins and washes our conscience that we may come to God with boldness; how it speaks better things before God; and how it resists the attacks from the evil spirits for us that we may overcome the Devil who accuses us.
In the Bible, the bread denotes life and the cup signifies “portion,” such as “Jehovah is the portion of…my cup” (Psa. 16:5). Originally we were sinful and evil, and the portion we deserved from God should have been the cup of God’s wrath, that is, to go into the lake of fire to suffer the torment of eternal perdition (Rev. 14:10; 21:8). However, God made the Lord Jesus drink the cup of wrath for us on the cross (John 18:11). He received God’s righteous judgment for us and fully tasted the torment of perdition in the lake of fire; He shed His blood to fully redeem us from our sins and enacted the new covenant for us, giving us instead the cup of salvation (Psa. 116:13) and becoming our cup (of blessing) (Psa. 23:5). In this blessed cup of salvation, God Himself and all that He has has become our portion, our eternal blessed portion, and the portion of our cup.
1)“Jesus took the bread…broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat” (Matt. 26:26); “This is My body which is given for you; do this unto the remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19); “And taking the cup…He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant” (Matt. 26:27-28); “…which is being poured out for you” (Luke 22:20); “This do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
Although the center of the breaking of bread is to remember the Lord, such remembrance is not merely to reflect on the Lord and all that He has done for us, but even more to enjoy the Lord and all that He has accomplished for us. The Lord said that our eating His bread and drinking His cup is our remembrance of Him. His bread and His cup signify His body and His blood. Thus, to eat His bread and drink His cup are to eat His body and drink His blood. The Lord’s body and His blood are He Himself given for us and the means by which He accomplished all things for us. Furthermore, to eat and to drink are not only to receive but also to enjoy. When we eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood, we not only receive but also enjoy the Lord Himself and all that He has accomplished for us by giving His body and shedding His blood. To receive and enjoy the Lord in this way is to remember Him. It is when we thus eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord that we truly remember Him. This is the profound meaning of eating the Lord’s supper.
Our eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord at His supper are also our declaration and testimony. Our declaration is that we are joined to the Lord and are mingled with Him, just as the bread becomes mingled with us after being received into our body. Our testimony is that we live by eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord, taking Him as our life every day. When we break bread to eat and drink the Lord, we declare that the Lord, by giving His body and shedding His blood, has come into us to be joined to us. We also testify that, by receiving the body the Lord gave for us and the blood He shed for us, we have partaken of Him and all that He has accomplished for us, we have been joined to Him, and we live by Him as our life and our life supply. This is our declaration as well as our testimony when we break bread.
1)“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).
The word “declare” in this verse has the meaning of showing and displaying. Whenever we eat the Lord’s bread and drink His cup, we simultaneously remember the Lord and display His death. We remember the Lord, not His death. But while we are remembering the Lord, we display the Lord’s death for ourselves, the angels, and all things to see. When we remember the Lord, the bread and the cup are displayed separately on the table. The bread refers to the Lord’s body and the cup to His blood. Since the separation of the body and the blood signifies death, death is thus displayed. This is how we display the Lord’s death when we break bread to remember Him.
The Scripture quoted here says that we should remember the Lord and display His death until He comes. This implies that when we break bread to remember the Lord and to display His death, at the same time we are waiting for His coming. This shows that we should display the Lord’s death and thus remember Him in the spirit and atmosphere of waiting for His coming.
