Can we begin with a word of prayer this morning?
Lord, we are humbled before You as we have shared around this precious table this morning, remembering the One who, Lord, did not hesitate to give His own life on our behalf. Lord, it was only Your life, and Yours alone, that could pay for the sins of the world.
Lord, we exalt Thee this morning because the Father has exalted Thee. You overcame as a Lamb. Now You reign, King of kings, Lord of lords, and we want to submit ourselves unto Thee this morning. We want to submit ourselves unto Your Word.
We would pray, as we share from Your Word this morning, that we would touch reality; that, Lord, we would enter into the Spirit of Your Word and receive from Thee. Lord, anoint that we might be able to speak and hear. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the lovely One. Amen.
Could we turn to the book of Acts, chapter 2? Just to reread the theme verse that I have been sharing on. This would be the fourth time that I have shared.
It is Acts 2:42 and 46.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
They continued steadfastly. They endured in the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. That is our theme verse.
Could we also turn to Acts 20:7?
And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.
I am not going to do that today. But upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them.
Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 10:16.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?
And 1 Corinthians 11:23–34:
For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, This is My body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of Me.
In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till He come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
But if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait one for another.
If any man is hungry, let him eat at home; that your coming together be not unto judgment. And the rest will I set in order whensoever I come.
Recently, I have been sharing on the recovery of the life and testimony of the early church. It is important that we always remember that the church is a living organism, born out of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ that He gave on the cross of Calvary. The church is a living thing.
The recovery of the life and testimony of the early church is important because, in those early days, it was pure and holy. Many of the heresies had not entered in, and many of the problems and issues were not present in the life of that very early church which God raised up in Jerusalem.
It is like newborn life. It is like my grandson—I have to refer to him—who was born a couple of months ago. I was over with him yesterday, and it is so marvelous. All you have to do is put him in this little swing, and he just goes off to sleep.
When he wakes up, if he is hungry, he cries and gets fed. If he is wet, his diaper needs changing, and his diaper gets changed. Not by me—I never was very good at that, I have to confess, even with my own two. But it is such a precious life, full of newness of life, innocent.
That is the way the early church was. Today, God is doing a recovery work to bring us back to that purity of life, to bring us back to the reality of what that life is in Christ.
Now, the life of Christ in the early church began to take on expression, or outward form. There were four basic expressions of the life of Christ in the early church, three of which we have shared on: the teaching of the Word of God, fellowship, prayer, and the breaking of bread—the Lord’s table.
Those were the four expressions of life that were just automatic, that flowed from the life of the early church. Today, God is about the business of recovering and bringing us back to the purity of the life that we see in that early church—the life that comes forth from the life of Christ. It is not what men think or how men organize it. It just flowed naturally from the life of Christ within.
We taught on the teaching of the Word. In brief review, we see how the enemy immediately attacked this expression of life in the early church. Even the early apostles had to deal with heresies that began to come into the early church.
Eventually, it entered into the Dark Ages, where almost all teaching that had any value to it was lost. It was not until the Reformation that the Lord was able to recover, “The just shall live by faith,” because men had come to the conclusion that you earned your way into heaven. If you did sin, you could give some money or make some penance, and that would handle the sin you had committed.
Of course, this is all heresy, because only the blood of Jesus Christ can avail for our sins. We must know that. We must believe that. That is our salvation. The only way any sin can ever be taken care of is by the blood of Jesus Christ. But that teaching was lost and had to be recovered. The enemy is incessant in attacking the life of the church.
The second issue was fellowship. We know that this fellowship was not merely what we call fellowship here, though in one sense it is. It is fellowship with the Father and the Son.
John said, “We want you to enter into this fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son.” That is the fellowship we are talking about, the fellowship to which we are called.
In the life of the early church, when they got together daily, they were excited to share something of the Lord with each other: how the Lord had touched their heart that day, how the Lord had blessed them, or freed them from some problem or issue they were having. They were anxious to share the testimony and life of the Lord Jesus with one another.
This particular expression of life has almost been totally destroyed down through the ages. We only get together a few times a week, and when we do, we may hear the Word or whatever. But to go and meet with a brother or sister and just share Christ is almost lost today.
We might get together, but if you are in Richmond, you would probably share about the Redskins. Whatever sisters would share on, I do not know what it would be—I am not one of those, so I cannot share on it. But that expression of life, which is so critical to the Lord and to His church, has almost been lost.
Prayer life: today, we do understand the importance of prayer. But what has almost been totally lost is the prayer of the church—not individual prayer, but the prayer of the church.
It is the prayer where the church comes together as one man and binds and looses. As the Lord Jesus said when He gave revelation to Peter of what the church was:
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Where is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ expressed today? It should be through His church, the vessel through which His authority can flow. He is not just talking about personal prayers. It is prayer that binds and looses the powers and principalities of darkness that stand against our Lord Jesus Christ and His church.
It has almost been lost. In fact, if you talk about corporate prayer, or church prayer, or binding and loosing, to many Christians, they really do not know what you are saying. They do not understand, because that has been lost.
Today we come to this matter of the Lord’s table. I am not sharing it last as though it were fourth in importance. All of these are extremely important, and you really cannot separate one from another. But for the sake of teaching, I have done that.
Actually, it was the matter of the Lord’s table that was first on my heart when I began to look at this. Then I began to see that the Lord was saying, “We have to recover.” I lay this charge upon you: we have to recover the life and testimony of Jesus.
He will return. It says in the Bible that we can hasten His return by the spiritual life within His church. May the Lord enlighten us this morning as we share on this fourth expression of that early church: the breaking of bread, which it says they did daily from house to house.
There was an immediate attack in the early church upon this issue of breaking bread. You see it in 1 Corinthians, from which we have read.
There was an issue in the Corinthian church. Some in that church were very well off—educated and wealthy—while others were very poor. When they came together to break bread, they would first have a meal together.
What was happening was that the ones who were better off were bringing the steaks and chops and things like that, while the ones who were very poor could not even put two pieces of bread together. They were going hungry.
A division had occurred within that early church between those who were well off and those who were very poor, and the poor were being overlooked.
Paul begins by commending the Corinthians, but here he says, in effect, “I cannot commend you in this.” Because of this issue in their midst, they were not truly coming to have the Lord’s table together. They were dividing over food and how much they had. Some of them were actually getting drunk at these feasts.
Paul says, “This is contemptible. This is not the table of the Lord. It is a farce. What are you doing?” So we see that the enemy immediately begins to attack this expression of the Lord’s life in His church.
The Lord’s table is absolutely essential to the life of the church, but the enemy has attacked it in a really subtle way. He hates the table because it lifts up Christ, and he hates it. He has done everything he can to discredit the table and make it what it really is not.
He has worked in Christianity so that the table is not highly regarded. It has become a secondary issue and has lost its spiritual reality. In many places in Christianity, it is not even practiced very much. It is considered symbolic today, and therefore it has become a secondary thing that we do because we want to obey the Lord.
The Quakers say that anything symbolic is not spiritual, and therefore they do not practice it. Among the Quakers, they never take the Lord’s table because they see it as symbolic—purely an outward form. Since they believe they have entered into spiritual reality, they do not practice the outward form.
Others observe it perhaps at Christmas and Easter. In my own history, coming up in the church, we used to practice it once a month following a sermon. At the very end, before we left, we would have the table.
Unfortunately, it is mainly regarded as a ritual or tradition. Even for others who practice it regularly, similar to what we do here, it can become common and seem to lose the spiritual flavor that is in the Lord’s table.
The enemy hates this expression of life. If you read the Gospel of Luke, the Lord tells the apostles, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you.” It was something on the Lord’s heart—not only for those disciples, but for the Lord Himself, to be able to share His heart with His disciples. It was around this table that the Lord did it. Plus, He initiated the new covenant.
The enemy could not do away totally with this expression of life in the church—with the Lord’s table, the Lord’s supper—so he went about changing its basic character, or the nature of the supper. Eventually, the church came up with what is called the Mass.
The Catholics still practice Mass today. It is called transubstantiation. Really, it is a reenactment of Christ’s death on the cross.
Outwardly, that might appear to all of us to sound right, because we know that at the Lord’s table He says, “Show forth My death until I come.” So what is wrong with this issue of reenacting the Lord’s death on the cross?
The problem is that it became a physical thing instead of a spiritual thing. In transubstantiation, they say that when the priest blesses the bread and it is put upon your tongue, it actually becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ. When you take the fruit of the vine, the wine, it actually turns into the blood of Jesus, so that you are literally eating the body and drinking the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is very mystical; it is physical. Fundamentally, it is blasphemy, because it has changed the nature of what the Lord’s table is. The Lord’s table is spiritual, and it is real.
The elements do not change. Hebrews 10 says that once for all the Lord Jesus offered Himself a sacrifice. Every time they celebrate Mass, it is the crucifixion of Christ once again. Many consider this blasphemy and heresy in the church.
During the Protestant Reformation, when the Lord began to recover His testimony in the church, they recognized what had happened. They said transubstantiation was not spiritual at all. The Lord has not called us to reenact the crucifixion. The Lord has called us to recognize Him, to come to Him, to remember His death, and to fellowship with Him.
Unfortunately, the correction only added to the problem. The correction was: “No, this is not real. It does not really turn into the blood of Jesus, nor His body. It is not a reenactment. It is fellowship that you enter into with the Lord each time you do it. It is not cannibalism that we are practicing here.”
They said that the bread and the fruit of the vine represent His body; it is symbolic. You may believe today that it is just symbolism, because that is what we have been taught down through history.
But when you say that the Lord’s table is just symbolic, it puts it in a place where it does not belong. It puts it in a secondary place. That is why, down through the ages, it has been practiced so little—perhaps at Easter, once a month, or once a quarter.
People say, “Yes, it is symbolic, and we need to do it. We will do it, but what is important is the Word of God. So we will share the Word of God, and then we will have this ceremony.” And it becomes tradition.
What is more important is that the Lord’s table lost its place of testimony in the church. You see, the Lord’s table was the center of worship in the early church. It was about worshiping the Lord and coming to remember Him in your heart.
It was a heart issue. You came to the table to remember Him, to fellowship with Him—individually and corporately with your brothers and sisters. So the center of worship was lost.
As important as the Word of God is, it became the center. Preaching became the center instead of the Lord’s table, instead of having that time with the Lord Himself.
Brothers and sisters, worship, if it is not centered on the Lord, is not worship. I have been in many places where they call it worship time, and there is no worship.
Some have said that worship was the lost jewel of the church and needed to be recovered.
The Lord’s table is not transubstantiation. It is not merely symbolic. It is not mysterious, representative, or a physical act. What is the Lord’s table?
It is spiritual reality. I want you to know that. The Lord’s table is real—spiritually real.
That is why Paul says, concerning the Lord’s table, “Do not take of it unworthily. If you do, you will be judged by the Lord.” It is a serious issue and highly revered by the Lord Himself.
How was the table instituted? Maybe that will share with us some of the importance of the table.
I think most of us realize that it was instituted by Christ Himself, the night on which He was betrayed. That is very clear in the Word. I think it is said that way to put emphasis on the fact that, with His disciples, this was His last act. It was very important to the Lord.
When they came, He said, “With great desire I have desired to have this time with you.” It was important to the Lord.
They had the Passover feast, and near the end He took a loaf of bread and broke it. He blessed it and said, “Take it. This is My body broken for you.” He did not say, “This bread represents My body.” He said, “This bread is My body broken for you.”
He took the cup as well, lifted it up, and said, “This is the blood of the new covenant.” The new covenant was instituted that night, and that covenant is in the blood of the Lamb. He said, “Take, drink all of it. It is the blood of the new covenant for remission of sins. Do it in remembrance of Me.”
Since that night, the early church and the church down through the ages have been practicing the Lord’s table, or having the Lord’s supper.
It was done in the early church in Jerusalem and eventually spread to the Gentile churches—or churches that were mostly Gentile, I should say—as the gospel spread. The taking of the Lord’s table also spread.
The Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, before He went to the cross of Calvary, instituted the Lord’s supper. The King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lamb who was slain on the cross, said, “As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of Me.”
But not only that: once the Lord ascended to the throne—and you can read about that in Revelation—Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, “By revelation, I received from the risen Lord” concerning the breaking of bread.
Paul did not know the Lord while He was on earth. We need to be clear about that. Paul did not know the Lord personally; he was still running around putting Christians in prison after the Lord died. We remember how the Lord met Paul with that great revelation on the Damascus road.
At some point, the Lord gave Paul another revelation. I think it was because He knew Paul was going to be the appointed one to go to the Gentiles. He shared with Paul how important this table was.
He told Paul, I am sure, “You need to share this with the saints. This table is important to Me. It is important to them. We need to continue with this expression of life in My church.”
So He shared with Paul by revelation. Paul was not taught it by the other men. This was something Paul received directly from the Lord. You need to think about that when you read 1 Corinthians 10 and 11.
What was the purpose? What is the purpose of the table? Why is it so important? Why is it so important to the Lord?
Because He loves us.
My son has come in from out of town, from California. I just love hearing his voice and seeing his face once again, because we do not see each other but maybe once a year. I do not know that he realizes how much that means to me. He probably does not, but it means a lot to me.
When you come prepared before the Lord to share your love with Him at the table, He takes note of it. He loves it. He loves it.
Brothers and sisters, the table is not complicated. It is just about love: the Lord’s love for you and your love for the Lord. It is a transaction between you and the Lord—an expression of love.
Do not, week after week after week, commune alone in your heart with the Lord. I hope you are doing that. But there are times when you need to open your mouth and express to the principalities and powers, and to your brothers and sisters—not for their sake, but for the Lord—how much you love Him.
The Lord knows our heart. If you have love in your heart, it thrills Him when you are willing to open your mouth and say, “Lord, I just love You. You are marvelous. You did so much for me. I cannot live without Your love, Lord.”
If we were called to meet with the President of the United States, George Bush, regardless of how you may feel about George Bush, and you were called to a supper at the White House, I think you would be on time. You would be there, because it is important, is it not?
If I were going to meet with the President of the United States, I think I would be considering what I was going to say to him. What is in my heart to say to this man who rules over this nation? Am I going to talk politics with him? Maybe, if I felt very intensely about some issue.
But for me, I think if I met George Bush, the first thing I would want to say is, “I am praying for you, because God put you there. It is important, and you have an important place in the history of this world and in God’s government. I am standing with you, and I just want you to know that.”
I do not know what you would say. But when we come to the Lord’s table, He has called His family together. It is a family time. He has called His family together.
Have you ever thought, “This is an opportunity, with the rest of the family, to say something publicly to the Lord”? “Lord, I love You.” I think it can be that simple.
Yesterday, something really touched me. Children generally do not take well to me. I do not know what it is. I do not know whether I am not friendly or whatever, but they do not generally come around me that much. Partially, I lay that on being an only child and not really having much association with brothers and sisters, but I do not know.
Yesterday, I was at the 7-Eleven store. There was a young family there, and it was stair-step children—four of them. I think it was three girls and a boy. The oldest looked to be about six, and the youngest looked to be about three years old. If there are four of them, there has got to be six—well, anyway, perhaps three to seven. It could have been twins.
It was such a cute family. I had picked up a load of mulch and was going to help my son mulch his yard. I stopped to get a Coke and was standing by the truck, drinking my Coke. The family came out, and the littlest one, the little toddler, was walking the cracks in the sidewalk. You have seen children do that: they look at the cracks and walk the cracks.
This little one spied me as she was walking the cracks. She just walked up to me, looked at me in my eyes, and patted me on the leg. I will tell you what, I just about crumbled. I thought, “This is amazing.”
The mother came up, and she was probably trying to apologize. I said, “No need to apologize. You have a lovely child.” She really was a sweet little girl. I know the mother was horrified because, in today’s world, you try to train your children not to talk to strangers.
But that little act of affection really touched my heart. It did not have to be complicated. Just having a small child come up and recognize you—we are all God’s children—it is a simple act.
That is what the Lord’s table is about: family fellowship. I do not care if you are seventy years old or seven years old, you can tell the Lord you love Him.
I wish I could translate to all of us, including myself, how precious this table is to the Lord. How precious it is when one of the saints can simply say, “I love You.” Affection. The Lord’s table is about affection—an expression of affection.
It is first love. It is all about first love. That is why I think we struggle with the table sometimes: our love for the Lord has waned in some way. There may be some issue in our life with the Lord, and because there is an issue there, it is difficult. The first love is not there like it used to be.
That is the purpose of the table. The Lord says, “Do it in remembrance of Me. You are showing forth My death.” It is first love. “I need to keep you in first love, because My love for you is always first.”
He needs us to learn that love, not only for Him, but for our brothers and sisters, because it is the body of Christ. It is love.
Oh, it is a matter of first love. The enemy hates it. Can you understand why the enemy has attacked the Lord’s table? To some, he has convinced them that it is transubstantiation. To others, he has convinced them that it is purely symbolic, just a tradition that we observe because we are Christian.
There is a transaction at the table between you and the Lord. If there is no transaction, then it is a tradition. It is just symbolic, because the life has been taken out of it.
The bread and the cup—the taking of the Lord’s table—is spiritual reality. The Lord did not say, “This represents My body.” He did not say, “This represents My blood.” He said, “This is My body. This is My blood.”
It is not transubstantiation. It is not representation. It is not mysterious. It is not symbolic. It is not a physical act. It is spiritual. We need to remember that. We have to look beyond the physical to the spiritual.
Brothers and sisters, when you take the fruit of the vine, it is still the fruit of the vine. It has not turned into His blood. Let me say this much: it is the spiritual reality that counts.
If you could have gone to the cross and taken some of the blood of Christ in a cup and drank it, do you think that would have done you any good? Do you think actually drinking the real blood of Jesus would have done you one bit of good? No.
It is the meaning of the blood. It is the spiritual reality and the power of the blood to save men from their sins. That is where the power is. It is spiritual in nature.
When we take the table, that is why it is important that our spiritual life be right with the Lord, because we enter into it spiritually. We see what the table means. We know that this fruit of the vine is His blood. It is the Lord giving Himself for you to pay for your sins. That is the spiritual reality.
You come in touch with that as you share with the Lord, as we sing our songs, and as we offer prayers and say, “Lord, thank You for the blood that was shed for me.”
How do we enter into spiritual reality? It is by faith. It is by faith.
How are you saved? Are you saved by some traditional act that you perform? No. You are saved by faith. The Word of God says you are saved by faith, and even that is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
In order for you to receive God’s salvation, which He gives through His Son, how did you do it? You did not perform some outward act, some physical thing. No. Somehow God got your attention, and I do not know how He got your attention.
As He got your attention, you began to see that He died for your sins, that He is God’s Lamb, that He is the Savior of the world. You came into the knowledge that it is only by the blood that your sins can be taken care of, that He alone is your Savior, and it is by faith.
It says that God has to put that faith in your heart. Any of us who have accepted Christ have to get on our knees humbly and say, “It is not my faith, Lord. You did it. You even had to give me the faith.”
That is the same way with the table. When we come to the table, it is by faith. As you begin to look at the table and the elements, as you sing the songs, and as you begin to pray, it should bring us into the presence of the Lord. Faith should begin to rise in our hearts, and we say, “Lord, this is all real.”
“Your blood is real. The efficacy of the blood is real. It has paid for my sin—the one that I committed five minutes ago, the one that I will commit tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. You paid for it.”
If you do not believe that, you are hopeless. You are lost in yourself.
The same is true with the bread, brothers and sisters. The bread does not turn into the body of Christ. It is still bread. But it is the meaning—the spiritual meaning—behind that one loaf.
That one loaf is His church. The church assembles to break bread. What does that bread say to you? The Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
In other words, He is your all-sufficiency. He is the substance of your life. He is everything to you. You cannot exist without the life of the Lord Jesus.
When you take that one piece of bread, it is real. You are interacting with the Lord Himself, the Lord who gave His body, which was broken on your behalf.
Our sister, I remember this morning as we began, was thanking the Lord for the fact that the veil had been rent in the temple and that we could now enter in and have personal fellowship with the Lord.
His body was rent, brothers and sisters. The veil in the temple was physical. The spiritual reality was that the Lord gave His body for you, rent on your behalf. Because He gave His life to you, you can now fellowship with the Father. There is nothing between us.
It is not a ritual. It is not symbolic. It is real. It is spiritual reality, and it is entered into by simple faith. That is how simple it is.
If we come in this way, simply looking to the Lord and wanting to express our love to the Lord, entering into that spiritual reality of what the table is all about, oh, how rich it is for the Lord, and how rich it is for us.
It does something to us. It should refresh us. It should renew us. Brothers and sisters, if we can come and sit here and go through the Lord’s table and it does not affect us, I have to say there is something wrong with our spiritual life.
There is a responsibility on our part in taking the table. The Lord is willing to give you faith. You have His life, and you have His Spirit. The Spirit longs to take this table with the Lord.
The table is more than even just fellowship. If you are really fellowshipping with the Lord, issues come to light, do they not? Transactions take place in your heart. If you are really fellowshipping with the Lord, transactions take place.
Transactions should be taking place in our heart with the Lord. Otherwise, brothers and sisters, it will become common. It will become lifeless. It will become symbolic and a ritual.
I hope we are honest with ourselves in this matter.
I am wondering if I should end today and go on later. I am about halfway.
Let me tell you what I do want to share further on, because I want it to be on our hearts. This is absolutely critical. We have talked about these four basic expressions of life in the early church.
The Lord’s table is the least revered among the saints, but it is the most revered with our Lord. That is why it is so precious. That is why it is so important.
I want to go on to share about the nature of the Lord’s table: communion, public testimony, remembrance. It is an announcement until He comes. I want to share how we are to prepare for the Lord’s table.
We cannot come in an unworthy manner. It says, “Prove yourselves before the Lord.” We need to distinguish the body. It says, “Be not judged by judging your own self before you come.” Do not hold back. Do not absent yourself, but get right with the Lord so that you can come to this table.
Lastly, the Lord’s table is the center of worship, and that is why the enemy is taking it out of the church.
Lord, we do come to Thee today.
Lord, I just pray that You open all of our hearts to the spiritual reality of this table, its significance to You, Lord. You confirmed it when You were on earth. You confirmed it once You reached the throne. You have made it known to Your people that it is important to You.
And it is important to us, lest we lose first love. Oh Lord, we thank You that You have given us this table. We want to come as a family to You, Lord, and express our love to Thee.
Lord, may we revere the table in our hearts. May we keep it before us in its proper place. I do pray, Lord, before You come, You will recover this life expression that was so strong in the early church. In Jesus’ name, amen.