The%20Lord's%20Supper

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The Lord's Supper

• The Manner of Partaking

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The Manner of Partaking

• There is no inherent spiritual value in the mere
  partaking of the elements of the Lords Supper as
  such.
• There is no magical quality in them to bless the
  Christian spiritually.

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The Manner of Partaking

• The idea that all the Christian needs to do is
  attend services Sunday morning or Sunday night,
  take the bread and fruit of the vine into his
  stomach, and all will be well with his soul is
  not only unscriptural but anti-scriptural.

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The Manner of Partaking

• Unless the Christians manner of partaking is
  correct, the fact of his partaking is sheer
  mockeryan insult to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• And so the Christian is duly warned,

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1 Corinthians 1127

• Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this
  cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be
  guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

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The Manner of Partaking

• Ones manner of partaking, though, will largely
  be determined by the attitudes and activities
  that characterize his entire manner of life.
• An incorrect life cannot produce a correct manner
  of partaking.

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The Manner of Partaking

• The person who hates and mistreats his fellowmen,
  who is impenitent with reference to his sins, or
  who manifests a lack of reverence toward God in
  his daily conduct can hardly approach the Lords
  Table in an acceptable manner.

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The Manner of Partaking

• How can anyone possibly remember in the right
  manner the Lords sacrifice for the sins of the
  world, and at the same time harbor resentment,
  hatred and impenitence in his heart?

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The Manner of Partaking

• Indeed, the Lord refuses to accept any phase of
  our worship unless our manner of life is
  essentially correct.

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Matthew 523-24

• "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar,
  and there remember that your brother has
  something against you, leave your gift there
  before the altar, and go your way. First be
  reconciled to your brother, and then come and
  offer your gift."

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The Manner of Partaking

• In the context of 1 Cor. 1127, we observe that
  the members of the church in Corinth were eating
  the elements of the Lord's Supper as an ordinary
  meal to satisfy the physical appetite.

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1 Corinthians 1120-22

• Therefore when you come together in one place, it
  is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating,
  each one takes his own supper ahead of others
  and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do
  you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do
  you despise the church of God and shame those who
  have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I
  praise you in this? I do not praise you.

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The Manner of Partaking

• In the context of 1 Cor. 1127, we observe that
  the members of the church in Corinth were eating
  the elements of the Lord's Supper as an ordinary
  meal to satisfy the physical appetite.
• Thus, they were eating in truth but not in
  spirit.

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John 424

• "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
  worship in spirit and truth."

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The Manner of Partaking

• Just as their disrespectful manner of eating
  contributed to their degraded spiritual
  condition, so their degraded spiritual condition
  contributed to their disrespectful manner of
  eating.
• An ugly party spirit was prevalent among them.

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1 Corinthians 112-13

• Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of
  Paul," or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas,
  or I am of Christ.
• Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
  were you baptized in the name of Paul?

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1 Corinthians 31-3

• And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to
  spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in
  Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid
  food for until now you were not able to receive
  it, and even now you are still not able for you
  are still carnal. For where there are envy,
  strife, and divisions among you, are you not
  carnal and behaving like mere men?

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1 Corinthians 34

• For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another,
  "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal?

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The Manner of Partaking

• Just as their disrespectful manner of eating
  contributed to their degraded spiritual
  condition, so their degraded spiritual condition
  contributed to their disrespectful manner of
  eating.
• An ugly party spirit was prevalent among them.
• Fornication was both practiced and tolerated.

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1 Corinthians 51

• It is actually reported that there is sexual
  immorality among you, and such sexual immorality
  as is not even named among the Gentiles--that a
  man has his father's wife!

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The Manner of Partaking

• Just as their disrespectful manner of eating
  contributed to their degraded spiritual
  condition, so their degraded spiritual condition
  contributed to their disrespectful manner of
  eating.
• An ugly party spirit was prevalent among them.
• Fornication was both practiced and tolerated.
• Brethren were going to law against brethren.

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1 Corinthians 61-3

• Dare any of you, having a matter against another,
  go to law before the unrighteous, and not before
  the saints? Do you not know that the saints will
  judge the world? And if the world will be judged
  by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest
  matters? Do you not know that we shall judge
  angels? How much more, things that pertain to
  this life?

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1 Corinthians 64-6

• If then you have judgments concerning things
  pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who
  are least esteemed by the church to judge?
• I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is
  not a wise man among you, not even one, who will
  be able to judge between his brethren? But
  brother goes to law against brother, and that
  before unbelievers!

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1 Corinthians 67-8

• Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for
  you that you go to law against one another. Why
  do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not
  rather let yourselves be cheated?
• No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do
  these things to your brethren!

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The Manner of Partaking

• It was impossible for them to have a correct
  manner of partaking when their manner of life was
  so wrong.

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The Manner of Partaking

• We must not conclude, however, that the Lord
  demands perfection of life - absolute sinlessness
  - as the necessary qualification for proper
  participation in the communion meal, for then no
  one would be qualified.

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Romans 323

• .for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
  of God

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1 John 18

• If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
  ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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The Manner of Partaking

• It is constantly giving diligence to serve the
  Lord and to be holy in life that qualifies the
  child of God to commune at the Lords Table, and
  prepares him to partake in the right manner.

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Being Adequately Prepared,

• How Should One Partake?

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Discerningly

• Paul, in 1 Cor. 1129, speaks of the person who
  eats and drinks in an unworthy manner as not
  discerning the body that is, such a person does
  not see in the elements of the Lord's Supper what
  they represent.

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Discerningly

• But the person who partakes in the right manner
  will focus his entire mind on the cross of
  Calvary.

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Discerningly

• By faith he will stand beneath the cross, looking
  up into the agonized face of Jesus with the head
  marked by the crown of thorns, seeing the nails
  that were driven into His hands and feet, and
  seeing the blood that flowed from the precious
  body given for the world.

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Discerningly

• His heart will overflow with reverence as he
  beholds in the elements of the Lord's Supper the
  wonderful gift of God's love in the sacrifice of
  His only begotten Son.

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Trustingly

• As the Christian concentrates on that which is
  represented by the Lord's Supper, partaking in
  the right manner, he believes that Christ is
  spiritually present with him in this act of
  communion.
• "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit
  of the vine from now on until that day when I
  drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
  (Matt. 2629).

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Trustingly

• He will trust in the Lord to bless him so that
  his partaking will uplift him spiritually and
  incite him to greater service in the divine
  kingdom, so that he will truly commune, have
  fellowship, with the body and blood of his
  Savior, and so that he will truly partake in
  remembrance of Him.

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Humbly

• As he considers his weakness and tendency to err
  in contrast to the greatness of God's love and
  mercy in sending His Son to this world to bless
  mankind, the Christian will partake of the Lord's
  Supper with a deep sense of humility and
  unworthiness.
• And he will understand the significance of the
  Lord's utterance in Luke 1710.

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Luke 1710

• "So likewise, when you have done all those things
  which you are commanded, say, 'we are
  unprofitable servants. We have done what was our
  duty to do'."

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Penitently

• With his deep sense of humility in partaking of
  the Lord's Supper in the right manner, the
  Christian will feel such strong remorse, shame
  and sorrow for the sins he has recently committed
  that he will repent, change his mind concerning
  them, confessing them to God, and highly
  resolving to quit them and to do better with the
  help of divine grace.

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Penitently

• Such penitence will be a powerful motivating
  force for him to renew his entire commitment to
  Christ as he remembers in the blessed meal the
  commitment of Christ on his behalf in dying for
  his sins.

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Gratefully

• Having given thanks for the bread and the fruit
  of the vine, the Christian who partakes of these
  emblems in the right manner will seriously
  meditate on the salvation he has received through
  Christ's death.

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Gratefully

• Recognizing that, because of his sins he deserves
  eternal death but, because of the wondrous grace
  of God through the sin-offering of Christ, his
  past sins have been forgiven and he has been
  granted citizen-ship in the divine kingdom,

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Gratefully

• the entire act of his partaking of the Lord's
  supper will be a hymn of praise and thanksgiving
  to God for the great blessings he has received
  through His only begotten Son, such praise and
  thanksgiving that can only flow from a heart that
  is truly loving and grateful.

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And
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Prayerfully

• As the faithful, loving Christian desires to
  partake of the Lord's supper in a worthy manner,
  to truly remember the death of Christ and to
  commune with Him, he will partake with a prayer
  in his heart to God that his attitude will indeed
  be discerning, trusting, humble, penitent, and
  grateful, so that he will reverently and
  sincerely worship God in this blessed meal.

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How About You?

• Are You Partaking in a Worthy Manner?