When Christians come together on the first day of the week, they are instructed by the Bible to do certain things, commonly referred to as “Acts of Worship.” In 1 Cor 11 Paul centers on the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthian brethren were not observing this act of worship in the correct way. They had confused the Lord’s Supper with a common meal. The rich would have plenty, but the poor might not have anything.
The Lord’s Supper is not about taking nourishment to sustain the body, but to nourish the soul. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He was in the upper room with His disciples. After they had eaten the Passover Meal, He gave them bread and wine (Luke 22:19-20). When Jesus broke the bread, He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” There are three aspects to the remembering.
We are to look BACK to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Believers are bound together as a people by their common confession that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Son and that He suffered and died on the cross for our sins. If we ever forget this truth, we no longer belong to God.
We are also to look AROUND. The Lord’s Supper is communion within the body of Christ. We have been warned if we drink the fruit of the vine and eat the bread unworthily, we are drinking and eating damnation to our souls. Our minds must be centered on what we are doing. Many shy away from taking the Supper because they feel unworthy. There none worthy. “Unworthily,” as the King James has it, does not describe the Christian’s standing before God, but the manner of participation in the Supper itself.
We are to look FORWARD. The Lord’s Supper is a witness to a promise. It is a call to look forward to the coming of Christ and heaven. The bread and the cup remind Christians that the Lord has promised to come again. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1Co 11:26 KJV)
The secular world denies that time is going anywhere. Atheists think the world will be destroyed by a meteor or that mankind will destroy himself with an atomic bomb, but we know the destruction of the earth has been set by God. When Christians take the Lord’s Supper, it is a time for reflection on the risen Lord who will come again.