The Lord's Supper

1
The Lord's Supper

• A Memorial Meal

2
1 Corinthians 1123-25

• For I received from the Lord that which I also
  delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same
  night in which He was betrayed took bread and
  when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
  "Take, eat this is My body which is broken for
  you do this in remembrance of Me." In the same
  manner He also took the cup after supper, saying,
  "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This
  do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
  Me."

3
Memorials

• Man has instituted a variety of memorials.
• In the U.S., for example, we celebrate Columbus
  Day, Mothers Day, Memorial Day, Fathers Day and
  Independence Day, to name just a few.
• These days commemorate certain people and events
  that Americans deem important.
• Nothing should be more important to the
  Christian, however, than the death and
  resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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The Lord's Memorial

• The Lord did not just leave it to chance whether
  or not we would institute memorials to these
  all-important events.
• He instituted the Lords Supper as a memorial to
  Himself, to enable us to keep uppermost in our
  minds what He has done in order for us to be
  restored to fellowship with God, which fellowship
  was broken by our sin.

5
The Lord's Memorial

• Obviously, when Jesus said, concerning the bread,
  
• This is My body,
• and concerning the cup,
• This is My blood,
• He meant they were His body and blood
  figuratively,
• not literally.
• That is, the bread would symbolize His body, and
  the
• contents of the cup would represent His blood.

6
The Lord's Memorial

• The unleavened bread is to remind us that His
  body was untainted by sin, but put to death on
  our behalf.
• The fruit of the vine prompts us to recall His
  innocent blood, which was poured out in His
  death.
• And the day of partaking is to bring to our minds
  His resurrection, which was the full and final
  proof that He was (and is) who He claimed to be.

7
Romans 11-4

• Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be
  an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which
  He promised before through His prophets in the
  Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ
  our Lord, who was born of the seed of David
  according to the flesh, and declared to be the
  Son of God with power according to the Spirit of
  holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

8
The Lord's Memorial

• The memorial nature of the Lords Supper was
  typified in the purpose of the Passover feast,
  which Jesus and His apostles had just finished
  eating when the Lords Supper was instituted.

9
Exodus 1214

• So this day shall be to you a memorial and you
  shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout
  your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by
  an everlasting ordinance.

10
Exodus 133, 9

• Remember this day in which you went out of
  Egypt. It shall be as a sign to you on your
  hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that
  the Lords law may be in your mouth for with a
  strong hand the Lord has brought you out of
  Egypt.

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Deuteronomy 163

• that you may remember the day in which you came
  out of the land of Egypt all the days of your
  life.

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A Memorial Meal

• This feast which commemorated the slaying of the
• paschal lamb to grant deliverance from death of
  the
• first-born of the Israelites and consequently the
  
• deliverance of Gods chosen people from Egyptian
• Bondage, was to keep these glorious events fresh
  in the
• minds of all Israelites in every generation, to
  make
• them feel that they shared in that which it
• commemorated.

13
The Memorial Meal

• Of infinitely greater significance than the
  Passover is the Lords Supper, which commemorates
  the death of
• the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
  world (John 129),
• which death grants deliverance from the bondage
  of sin and saves from eternal death.

14
The Memorial Meal

• Indeed, the greatest event in the history of the
  world was the sacrificial offering of the
  Saviors body and the shedding of His blood on
  Calvarys cross in order to redeem man from the
  bondage and curse of sin.
• This event is the central theme of the gospel.
• Paul declared,
• For I determined not to know anything among you
  except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor.
  22).

15
The Memorial Meal

• To the end that His disciples might have an
  abiding memorial to keep fresh in their minds His
  suffering and death for their sins,

16
The Memorial Meal

• To the end that His disciples might have an
  abiding memorial to keep fresh in their minds His
  suffering and death for their sins, Jesus left no
  statues or personal relics of Himself (such as a
  shroud),

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The Memorial Meal

• To the end that His disciples might have an
  abiding memorial to keep fresh in their minds His
  suffering and death for their sins, Jesus left no
  statues or personal relics of Himself (such as a
  shroud), but only the simple meal, the Lords
  Supper, which is indeed the worlds greatest
  memorial to commemorate the worlds greatest
  event.

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The Memorial Meal

• The eating of the bread reminds us of the body
  which suffered untold pain and was slain for us,
  and the drinking of the fruit of the vine reminds
  us of the blood that was shed for our sins.
• That we are apt to forget objects, events, and
  persons that are removed from sight - out of
  sight, out of mind - is most apparent in the
  experience of all.
• It is this fact that lies behind all the
  monuments and memorials men have ever created.

19
The Memorial Meal

• The treasured picture of a deceased mother is a
  constant reminder of the blessings and joy
  received from her unselfish and gracious deeds of
  love and devotion while she lived, and it
  perpetually serves to keep the image of her
  blessed person fresh and alive in the heart of a
  son or daughter.

20
The Memorial Meal

• No greater calamity can befall any child of God
  than to forget the crucified Savior.

21
The Memorial Meal

• No greater calamity can befall any child of God
  than to forget the crucified Savior.
• One who fails to keep His death in memory will
  likely forget, also, the purging from his old
  sins made possible by that death, and will, as a
  result, fail to live in harmony with the Lords
  revealed will.

22
2 Peter 15-9

• But also for this very reason, giving all
  diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue
  knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to
  self-control perseverance, to perseverance
  godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and
  to brotherly kindness love. For if these things
  are yours and abound, you will be neither barren
  nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
  Christ. For he who lacks these things is
  shortsighted, even to blindness, and has
  forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

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The Memorial Meal

• What, then, about the child of God who neglects
  or fails to meet with his brothers and sisters in
  Christ around the Lords Table to remember the
  Saviors death, which made possible deliverance
  from sin and citizenship in the divine kingdom?

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The Memorial Meal

• By such negligence he implicitly treats with
  contempt the death of Christ, virtually counting
  the blood of the covenant by which he was
  sanctified a common thing.

25
Hebrews 1028-29

• Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without
  mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
  Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,
  will he be thought worthy who has trampled the
  Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the
  covenant by which he was sanctified a common
  thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

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The Memorial Meal

• By such negligence he implicitly treats with
  contempt the death of Christ, virtually counting
  the blood of the covenant by which he was
  sanctified a common thing.
• In emphasizing the basic purpose of the Lords
  Supper as a means of recalling to the Christians
  mind the suffering and death of Christ on our
  behalf, we must not forget the durability of this
  greatest event the world has ever known.

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The Memorial Meal

• The pictures we have of our loved ones can be
  lost, be faded by the passing of time, or be
  destroyed by the elements.
• The monuments men have erected in remembrance of
  their heroes or of great historical events are
  also subject to the ravages of time and the
  elements.

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The Memorial Meal

• But the simple memorial that the crucified,
  resurrected, everlasting Son of God erected to
  Himself - the Lords Supper - shall last as long
  as time shall be so that His memory can be kept
  fresh in the hearts and minds of faithful
  Christians in every generation.

29
1 Corinthians 1126

• For as often as you eat this bread and drink this
  cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

30
The Memorial Meal

• But the simple memorial that the crucified,
  resurrected, everlasting Son of God erected to
  Himself - the Lords Supper - shall last as long
  as time shall be so that His memory can be kept
  fresh in the hearts and minds of faithful
  Christians in every generation.

31
The Memorial Meal

• But the simple memorial that the crucified,
  resurrected, everlasting Son of God erected to
  Himself - the Lords Supper - shall last as long
  as time shall be so that His memory can be kept
  fresh in the hearts and minds of faithful
  Christians in every generation.
• It has the same meaning for the church today that
  it had in the first century.

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What would you think...

• ...if your father, son, husband or brother died
  in a fire to save another person's life and that
  person did not even have the decency to attend
  your loved one's funeral?