Volume  2    Issue   52    November 3rd, 2002

A publication of the:
Butler church of Christ

Our meeting location is:
201 5th Ave.
Butler, PA 16001
724-287-0628 (building) / 724-282-9417 (home/office)

Assembling Times:
Sunday Bible Class - 9:30 AM
Sunday Worship – 10:30 AM
Wednesday Bible Class – 7:00 PM
 

Editor / Preacher –
Brian A. Yeager
 

Check out the web site:

http://www.wordsoftruth.net

In our fourth part of our series we are to deal with the subject and practice of partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus Christ instituted this collective practice of worship (Matthew 26:26-30, Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:19-20).  This collective act of worship is a memorial for the Lord.  There are many questions often asked about the Lord’s Supper that we intend to answer.  Two of those questions surround when we should partake of the Lord’s Supper and how we should carry out that command.  First we will deal with when.

(Acts 20:7) “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”  This passage gives us our clearest approved example of when to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  This serves as our example by which we establish a pattern of authority.  By following the approved example of what inspired men recorded in the New Testament we are following that which Christ authorized (John 16:13, II Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 1:1-2, and Colossians 3:17).  In another article we will deal with the avenue of giving monetarily to the Lord, however, the point of when that was done goes forth to add proof that it was the first day of the week in which the saints assembled for collective worship (I Corinthians 16:1-2).  Now that we have defined the when, we must define the how.

One might ask why the question “how” would even be a question, since the Lord said to eat and drink.  Our question of “how” does not apply to the mechanics, but more to the elements and how they are served.  The Bible defines that which is to be consumed by way of eating as unleavened bread (Matthew 26:17).  The Bible also defines that which should be consumed by way of drinking as the “fruit of the vine” (Matthew 26:29).  The Bible shows us that it is the contents of the cup (the fruit of the vine) that we partake of.  That raises an important point because there are those that contend that we must partake of the cup and they raise a divisive point that one local body must drink of the same cup.  Those individuals fail to recognize and admit even the simple fact that Christ himself gave authority to divide up the contents of that cup into “individual containers” (Luke 22:17).  As we see, the how is just as simple to understand as the when.  Truly, the word of God is understandable as Paul said (Ephesians 3:4).  Now that we have answered two of those questions we will simply conclude with some other points about the Lord’s Supper.

The Apostle Paul wrote about the practice of worship known as the Lord’s Supper by showing us that partaking of the Lord’s Supper is a command (I Corinthians 11:23-26).  Paul said that we can partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper “unworthily” (I Corinthians 11:27).  He went on to point out that this is a time of reflection and self-examination along with our memorial to the Lord (I Corinthians 11:28).  Paul pointed out that the Lord’s Supper is something we assemble together to observe collectively (I Corinthians 11:18; 20; 33).  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper is communion [fellowship] (I Corinthians 10:16-17).  Christians need to realize the great privilege that we have when we come together and partake of the Lord’s Supper collectively.  This we need to do so that our worship in spirit and in truth will truly be pleasing to God (John 4:23-24)!

Quick Notes

Those In Need of Our Prayers:
Steve Burgoon, Desiree’ Crist, and Joan Croyle.

Traveling:
Mike, Bill & Brenda, and Caroline.