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The Blue Letter Bible

Don Stewart :: What Is the Lord's Supper?

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Don Stewart
The Lord's Supper is the name given by the Apostle Paul to the event that commemorated the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus instituted the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

Passover

Jesus had arranged to eat the Passover meal with His disciples. The Passover celebrated the Jews deliverance from Egypt when the angel of death passed over those who had blood on the doorpost.

Remember Me

When the meal was finished Jesus took the bread and the wine and did the following:

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you (Luke 22:19,20).

Matthew records Jesus saying.

This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28).

The object of the Lord's Supper was to keep Jesus in the remembrance of the disciples.

Table And Cup Of The Lord

The table on which the bread was placed is known as the Lord's table. The Apostle Paul wrote.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons (1 Corinthians 10:21).

The cup is known as the cup of blessing or the cup of the Lord.

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16).

Duration

The Bible says we are to do this until the Lord's returns. Paul wrote.

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

The feast was not confined to the Apostles or early Jewish Christians. Corinth was a church made up primarily of Gentiles. Until Jesus returns, the church is to participate in the Lord's Supper as a memorial to His death for our sins.

Summary

The Lord's Supper is a time when believers remember what Jesus did for them on Calvary's cross. The bread represents Jesus' broken body while the wine symbolizes the blood that He shed on our behalf. Jesus commanded that believers do this in remembrance of Him until He returns
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CONTENT DISCLAIMER:

The Blue Letter Bible ministry and the BLB Institute hold to the historical, conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed in the resource materials are not necessarily affirmed, in total, by this ministry.