When I was a teenager my mother would pack me a “sack lunch” for school.  The idea was to have what I liked at home to carry along for lunch at school.  Today, there are brethren that treat the Lord’s Supper like a sack lunch.  They believe that they can pack and go as to not be tied down to saints gathering in one location to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  This allows brethren who like to hunt or fish to get one or two other brethren and go hunting on the first day of the week.  They just partake of the Lord’s Supper out in the woods.  The “Sack Supper” idea allows brethren who run camps to be free from having to find a group of Christians with whom to assemble on the first day of the week.  Some pack up the emblems of the Lord’s Supper and take them to nursing homes and to others who cannot assemble with the saints.

    To some, brown bagging the Lord’s Supper is a very liberating doctrine.  This doctrine allows brethren to forsake the assembling of the saints and gives them the ability to free their consciences.  For others who truly just cannot assemble with the saints packing up the emblems to partake of any and everywhere allows them to free the consciences for missing the opportunity to partake with the saints.  The true question, why don’t we read of the idea that the Lord’s Supper is like a meal to go in the New Testament?  Of course, as it is with most false doctrines, some feel that they do have biblical authority for brown bagging the Lord’s Supper.

    There is not one single direct statement within the pages of the New Testament that permits brown bagging the Lord’s Supper.  Nor can one find an example where brethren packed up the Lord’s Supper and partook of it outside of the local assembly of saints.  However, brethren do think they have authority based upon the words of Jesus in a context dealing with discipline.  These brethren argue that they can partake of the Lord’s Supper outside of the assembly because Jesus said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

     The questions that come from the argument made from Matthew 18:20 should add some clarity.  First, where in the context is the Lord dealing with the Lord’s Supper?  No where in that context is the Lord dealing with the Lord’s Supper.  Then, our second question, where in that context does the Lord conclude that a local church can be divided into several mini local churches?  No where in that context does the Lord authorize brethren to divide into sub-congregations.  Our third question, where in that context does the Lord deal with the idea of a lawful forsaking of the assembling of the saints?  No where in that context does the Lord contradict what is later taught so clearly in the New Testament.  Saints cannot find a verse that supersedes Hebrews 10:25 in allowing saints to forsake the assembling of the saints.  Therefore, we can conclude that Matthew 18:20 does not authorize the pack and go Lord’s Supper idea.  In fact, the idea that Matthew 18:20 authorizes a group to break away and form a one or two-time local assembly to partake of the Lord’s Supper outright contradicts other Scriptures.

     Saints, according to the pattern we see in the New Testament, assembled in one place, together, on the first day of the week, with the purpose to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  In fact, we have one example that clearly removes any misunderstanding on the fact that saints assemble together to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  Luke pens: “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” (Acts 20:7).  In this account Paul is able to assemble with the brethren in Troas who came together for the purpose to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  To proclaim that one does not have to assemble with saints to partake of the Lord’s Supper is to ignore the lesson of this verse and it’s context.  That position in fact does away with the need for saints to assemble and leads to the modern day “house church movement”.

     The church assembles in one place to partake of the Lord’s Supper (I Corinthians 11:18; 22).  As we saw in the example of Acts 20:7, we also see a context dealing with the Lord’s Supper in the first letter to the church in Corinth where partaking of the Lord’s Supper is something we do when we COME TOGETHER (I Corinthians 11:33).  The Lord’s Supper is not something we do separate from the local assembly.  The Scriptures that we have reviewed have clearly shown we are to partake of the Lord’s Supper together.  Matthew 18:20 is used clearly out of it’s context.  The motive behind the “Sack Supper” is merely to relieve one’s guilty conscience while they forsake the assembling of the saints.  Yet, there remains more to expose when it comes to the idea of packing the Lord’s Supper like a sack lunch.

     When brethren pack up the emblems of the Lord’s Supper and partake of it on the go, they also abuse other principles that exist within the worship and work of the local church.  They fail to be considerate of the brethren whom they serve with in a local work, whom they should be provoking unto love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).  They fail to assemble and contribute to the collection taken of the saints in a local congregation (I Corinthians 16:1-2).  They fail to hear the lesson prepared and delivered within that local work they should be attending (Acts 20:7).  They fail to lift up their voices with the saints in song worship to God wherein we teach and admonish one another (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16).

     When brethren fail to worship with the saints on the first day of the week and they form a “to go” worship service, they also fail in doing the works of a local church.  Rarely do these brethren take up a collection (I Corinthians 16:1-2).  Never do they appropriately support an evangelist (Philippians 4:15-16).  They do not edify the body as the body, as they are not a congregation (Ephesians 4:16).  They meet just once or twice, and they do not work as a local congregation of evangelism (I Thessalonians 1:8-9).  What’s the point?  These folks that brown bag the Lord’s Supper essentially “play church” once or twice here and there, and in the meantime they do a huge disservice to their brethren whom the have forsaken.  They do not and cannot do the work of a local church nor conduct the worship of a local church.  The idea of a pack and go Lord’s Supper is not found in the Scriptures, it exists solely in the minds of brethren who truly do not desire to please the Lord.  Their focus is wrong!

     When brethren seek to nullify worship for their own pleasures and convenience they most surely have placed their alliances with self instead of God.  Paul wrote the following to the brethren in Colosse: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).  Can one really argue that their affections are set on things above while they are finding ways to circumvent the need to assemble with saints to worship God on the first day of the week?

     There are those who sack lunch the Lord’s Supper for reasons of conscience sake.  They just simply cannot assemble with the saints for reasons well beyond their control.  This issue is not about convenience to those brethren.  However, so that the conscience does not take rule over bible authority, we must realize that the observation of the Lord’s Supper is not just a matter of conscience, it is a matter of the faith.  As illustrated in this brief article, the Lord’s Supper was shown to us through the pattern in the New Testament that saints assembled for the purpose to partake, they did so as a local congregation, and there simply is no other way the Lord revealed.  The Lord’s Supper is a memorial to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  If He wanted us to partake in any other way than with the local assembly He would have revealed that to us in His will and testament.  He did not!  Thus, the idea of a Sack Supper is that of men and not of the Lord.