BREAD-BREAKING
Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:16-22; 11:23-32
I. THE INSTITUTING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
There is a supper in the church which all God’s children should attend. This supper was instituted by the Lord Jesus on the last night He was on earth. He was to be crucified the next day. It was the last supper the Lord took on His last night on earth. Although He ate after His resurrection, that eating was different from ordinary eating. That eating was optional.
What was the last supper like? There is a history behind this supper. The Jews had a feast called the Passover; it was for remembering their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. How did God save them? God commanded the children of Israel to take a lamb, according to the house of their father, one lamb for a house, and slaughter it on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. After that they had to take the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of their houses. That night they ate the flesh together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. After the exodus from Egypt, God commanded them to keep this feast every year as a memorial (Exo. 12:1-28). Hence, to the Jews, the Passover was instituted as a reminder of their deliverance.
The last night before the Lord Jesus departed from the world was the very night of the Passover feast. After the Lord ate the Passover lamb with the disciples, He instituted His own supper. The Lord was trying to show us that we should take His supper in the same way the Jews took the Passover feast.
Let us compare these two matters. The Israelites were saved and delivered from Egypt, and they kept the Passover feast. God’s children today are saved and delivered from the sins of this world, and they partake of the Lord’s supper. The Israelites had their lamb. We also have our Lamb—the Lord Jesus, the very Lamb of God. We have been delivered from the sins of the world, from Satan’s power, and we are completely on God’s side. Thus, we take the Lord’s supper in the same way that the Jews partook of the Passover lamb.
After He celebrated the Passover feast, “Jesus took bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My body. And He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:26-28). This is the supper that the Lord instituted.
What is the meaning of a supper? It is a time when the whole family comes together to eat in peace after a day’s work. It is not a hurried meal like breakfast or lunch. It is peaceful dining in full rest. This should be the kind of atmosphere among God’s children when they partake of the Lord’s supper. They should not be in any haste. Their mind should not be busy thinking about this or that. Instead, they should enjoy their rest in God’s house.
The Lord used unleavened bread, instead of leavened bread, because He instituted His supper during the Passover (Exo. 12:15). The “product of the vine” spoken of in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22 can also be translated as the “fruit of the vine.” During the bread-breaking meeting, we can use either grape wine or grape juice, as long as it is a product of the vine.
II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
A. To Remember the Lord
Why does the Lord want us to keep His supper? The Lord said, “This do...unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25). Thus, the first significance of the supper is to remember the Lord. The Lord knows that we will forget Him. Although the grace we received is so great and the redemption we received so wonderful, our experience tells us that it is easy for man to forget Him. With a little carelessness, the newly saved ones can even forget the Lord’s salvation. This is why the Lord purposely charged us: “This do...unto the remembrance of Me.”
The Lord wants us to remember Him, not simply because we tend to forget, but also because the Lord needs us to have such a remembrance. The Lord does not want us to forget Him. He is much greater than we are; we could never fathom His greatness. We do not add benefit to Him by remembering Him. Still, for our sake, He said, “This do...unto the remembrance of Me.” The Lord has condescended Himself and has beckoned us to remember Him. He first condescended Himself to be our Savior. He also condescended Himself to win our hearts and gain our remembrance. He does not want us to forget Him. He desires that week after week we continuously live before Him and remember Him. He asks this so that we may gain spiritual blessings from Him. The Lord wants us to remember Him; this is His request in love. If we do not always remember Him and place His redemption before us, we will easily be entangled with the sins of the world. There will easily be quarrels among God’s children. Our loss will indeed be very great. This is why the Lord wants us to remember Him. We are blessed when we remember Him. This is one way to receive His blessing. We receive the Lord’s grace through remembering Him.
One great blessing in remembering the Lord is that we are separated from the power of the sins of the world. Once every few days we are reminded of how we received the Lord and how He died for us. By this we are separated from the sins of the world. This is one blessing we receive from breaking bread in remembrance of the Lord.
Another spiritual reason for breaking bread in remembrance of the Lord is to prevent God’s children from having any quarrels or divisions. When I recall that I am saved and another brother also recalls that he is saved, how can we not love one another? As I consider that the Lord Jesus has forgiven my numerous sins and I see a sister coming to the Lord’s supper who is also redeemed by the blood, how can I not forgive her? How can I hold her to her faults and make divisions based on this? Throughout the two thousand years of church history, many quarrels among God’s children were resolved when they met together at the Lord’s table. Animosity and hatred have dissolved at the Lord’s table. When we remember the Lord, we also remember how we were saved and forgiven. The Lord has forgiven our debt of ten thousand talents. How can we seize our companion, who owes us a hundred denarii, and take hold of him by the throat? (Matt. 18:21-35). When a brother remembers the Lord, his heart is enlarged to embrace all God’s children. He will see that all those redeemed by the Lord are loved by Him, and spontaneously he will love them as well. We cannot have envy, hatred, contention, and a lack of forgiveness when we are in the Lord. It is unreasonable for us to remember the Lord’s forgiveness of our many sins and yet quarrel with the brothers and sisters. We cannot remember the Lord if we are quarrelsome, envious, hating, and unforgiving. Therefore, whenever we gather together to remember the Lord, the Lord reminds us of His love and His work on the cross. He reminds us that all the saved ones are loved by Him. The Lord loves us and gave Himself for us. He gave Himself for us and for all those who belong to Him. He loves all those who belong to Him, and we spontaneously love all of His children because we cannot hate those whom He loves.
“This do...unto the remembrance of Me.” We can never remember those people whom we do not know. We can never remember the things that we have not experienced. Here the Lord wants us to remember Him, which means we have already met Him at Golgotha and have already received His grace. We are here remembering what He has accomplished. We look back to remember the Lord in the same way that the Jews look back to remember the feast of the Passover.
Why are so many people lazy and unfruitful? It is because they have forgotten that their former sins were washed away (2 Pet. 1:8-9). This is why the Lord wants us to remember Him and to love Him. He wants us to remember Him all the time. We should remember that the cup is the new covenant enacted by His blood, which flowed out for us. We should also remember that the bread is His body given for us. This is the first thing we should emphasize in our bread-breaking.
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