Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 11? We read from verse 23.
These are familiar words, but sometimes, because they are so familiar, we miss them. So I will read them slowly, and we look to the Lord that the Spirit of God will impress every word into our hearts.
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.
Then turn back to 1 Corinthians 10. We read from verse 16. And again, I hope that we will listen carefully and allow the Word of God to sink into our hearts.
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?
Seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread.
Behold Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar?
What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have communion with demons.
Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, as we think of the high privilege that Thou hast given to us, remind us, O Lord, of our responsibility.
We pray that, as we come to Thy table, we may fully understand what it means, and that we may be in the reality of it instead of going through the motions. Teach us, O Lord, how to eat the bread and drink the cup in a worthy manner, that Thou mayest be glorified.
We commit this time into Thy hands. We pray, O Lord, that these words of Thine, even though they are familiar, will not lose their sharpness, but touch us deeply, that we may come in a worthy manner and that Thou mayest be satisfied.
We commit this time into Thy hands and just trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
The word church, in the Greek original, is ekklesia, which means “the called-out ones gathered together.” Thank God, He has called us out: out of sin, out of this world, out of ourselves, and out of the domain of the enemy.
But we who have been called out, even though we are called out as individuals—in other words, called out individually—are nevertheless called out together. That is the meaning of the church.
Now, it is very true that church life is not limited merely to gathering together. Even when we are not gathered together physically, church life is such a spiritual reality that it continues all the time—whether you are alone, whether you are at home, whether you are in the office, or whether you are with two or three. Church life goes on.
But one of the major expressions of church life is gathering together, because this is the very meaning of the word church.
The Bible warns us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need to assemble together. We need to exhort and encourage one another, especially in these last days.
People, because of the pressure of the world, may forsake the assembly of the saints, thinking that it is nothing. But, brothers and sisters, do remember one thing: the Lord has definitely exhorted us, especially as we know that the day is near. We need to assemble together, encourage one another, and comfort one another.
And of all the gatherings of the saints, the most important gathering is this: the breaking of bread, the Lord’s table, or the Lord’s supper.
This is because it is commanded by our Lord Himself. He definitely commands us to come together, to take the bread, to drink the cup, and to remember Him until He comes.
So we find in the Book of Acts, at the beginning of the church, that all those who believed persevered. They continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
After our Lord Jesus instituted this breaking of bread, the church, from the very beginning, obeyed His commandment. They came together and broke the bread.
If you read Acts 2, it seems as if they broke bread every day. Whenever they ate, they broke the bread and remembered the Lord.
And later on, you find in the Book of Acts that, when it was no longer being done every day, at least on the first day of the week—that is, on the Lord’s Day—they came together to break the bread and remember the Lord.
But unfortunately, as time goes on, the simplicity and purity of the breaking of bread begin to be lost. It becomes a ritual, a religious ritual. The spirit of the breaking of bread seems to be lost.
But thank God, from time to time, as you read church history, there are always some people—perhaps a minority—who want to return to the purity and simplicity of the breaking of bread.
And this is something that we feel very strongly. We want to return to its purity and to its simplicity.
We know that when our Lord Jesus gathered together with His disciples for the Passover feast, we are told in John 13 that He knew that He was leaving this world. He came from the Father, and He was returning to the Father. He also knew that God had given Him all things.
And yet we are told that He loved those who were His in the world. He loved them to the end, to the uttermost. It was under that kind of atmosphere that our Lord Jesus rose up and washed the feet of His disciples.
You know, as we walk through the world, unconsciously we pick up the dirt and dust of the world. Even though we should not deliberately sin, as we go through the world we find that the dust and dirt of the world are piled upon us.
Just as in the old days, before people came to a feast, they usually washed their feet. Why? Because when your feet are covered with dirt and dust—and they did not sit and eat, but reclined and ate—if your feet were dirty, you could not fully enjoy the feast. Somehow, it dampened the joy of the feast.
So that is why they had their feet washed, that they might have the full advantage of the feast. And, dear brothers and sisters, there is a connection between washing our feet and the Lord’s table in a spiritual sense.
Why? Because even though we wear shoes and socks, spiritually speaking, we are still in the world. The Lord knew that His disciples were in the world. He was leaving, but He left them behind in the world. They are in the world, and yet they are not of the world.
Now, that really causes a problem. If they were out of the world, then the problem would be gone. But being not of the world and still in the world, dirt and dust are accumulated.
So, brothers and sisters, because of His tremendous love for us, He is afraid, as it were, that we will forget Him. Strange. He is afraid, as it were, that because we are in touch with the world, unknowingly our spirit becomes covered with dirt and is not as alert, as keen, as clear, and as pure as it should be.
Instead of seeing Christ and Christ alone, we begin to see many things, and our love toward Christ grows cold.
He knew—and He knows—all our frailty. And because of this, He instituted the breaking of bread.
Sometimes you may wonder, “Why should He ask us to remember Him? Is that demand absurd?” No. He knows us too well. He wants us to remember Him because He loves us too much.
This breaking of bread is an expression of the deep love of Christ. He wants us to be in love with Him. He does not want us to be cold in our love toward Him.
For this reason, He gave us the breaking of bread. In a spiritual sense, as we come together to break the bread and drink the cup, it is a washing—not of our feet, but of our hearts.
It renews us, refreshes us, and brings us into fresh, living communion and fellowship with Himself, so that we may be occupied with Himself. That is what is behind the breaking of bread.
The breaking of bread is very simple. When you read the Word of God, you find that all that is commanded is very, very simple.
The Lord said:
Take, eat, all of you.
This is My body.
Do this in remembrance of Me.
And afterward, He took the cup, blessed it, gave it to His disciples, and said:
Drink ye all of it.
This cup is the new covenant sealed by My blood.
Do this in remembrance of Me.
That is it.
How do we conduct this breaking of bread? Does it need an hour, or is it limited by an hour? Is there any form that it must take? No. Let the Spirit lead.
So it is not a matter of outward features. It is a matter of inward reality. If the inward reality is there, time, formality, or anything else does not matter.
When we come to the Lord’s table, there are two things that we must remember. These are the meanings of the Lord’s table. We find them in 1 Corinthians 11 and in 1 Corinthians 10.
In 1 Corinthians 11, the emphasis is remembrance. The breaking of bread is a remembrance.
Remembrance is looking backward. You have a history. You have a relationship. You have an experience. Something has happened, and you can look back and remember it, recall it, and recollect it.
In other words, it tells us that something has happened. There is something that has definitely been done in your life, and because of that, you can look back and remember.
When our Lord Jesus said, “Remember Me,” why did He say it? Because we have some experience with Him. We have some contact with Him, some relationship with Him. We have experienced Him, and that is the reason why we are able to remember. Otherwise, we have nothing to remember.
This loaf, He said, “This is My body, broken for you.”
Some people think that it is literal: that the loaf on the table, after the priest prays over it, is transformed, and this little loaf becomes the real body of Christ, so that you are really eating Him. That is the teaching of the Catholic Church: transubstantiation.
You know what a mass is. The mass is a replay, or a reiteration, a reenactment, a reactivation of Calvary and of the cross. In other words, Christ is crucified once again every time a mass is made.
But we know that He did it once for all and never repeated it. If we repeat it, we are crucifying Him twice, and we are warned seriously about that.
Then the Protestants will say, “Well, it is not literal. It is symbolic. This bread symbolizes the body of Christ.” But our Lord Jesus did not say, “This bread symbolizes Me.” He said, “This is My body.”
So is it just symbolic? If it is just symbolic, you can do it carelessly and nothing will happen.
We believe that when He said, “This is My body,” He meant it spiritually. It is not literal and physical; it is not merely symbolic and mental. It is spiritually real.
In other words, when we come to break the bread and drink the cup, something spiritually real is going on. And if there is something spiritually real going on, the effect is tremendous. Why do we do it worthily or unworthily?
We believe that, as we come by faith, breaking the bread and drinking the cup, the Holy Spirit makes it real in our lives. There is something spiritually real happening at the breaking of bread. It is not just a tradition.
This bread speaks of the body of our Lord. The Word became flesh. What a tremendous emptying! God came to be a man.
He emptied Himself. He took the form of a man, and He was obedient to the Father even unto death, and that is the death of the cross. What tremendous emptying, absolute obedience, and complete giving—nothing held back.
He died so that His life could be released. We can eat it. We can have it. We can enjoy it. We can live by it.
And because His body was broken, the veil was rent. We now have the privilege to enter into the holiest and to live in the presence of God. What a privilege!
And He said, “This cup is the new covenant, sealed by My blood.”
In other words, God made a new covenant with us—not like the old covenant, the covenant of law, with the children of Israel. Under that covenant, it was, “You do this, you do that, and then you will be My people and I will be your God.” In other words, prove yourself first, and then I will recognize you.
It is like God was holding the hand of the children of Israel and trying to lead them into righteousness and holiness, but they struggled out of His hand.
But in the new covenant, we find that it is all, “I, I, I. I will do this. I will do that. I am your life. I am your strength. I am your wisdom. I am your understanding. I am your forgiveness. I am everything to you. I am your God; therefore, you are My people.” Grace.
It was promised to Israel. One day this covenant would be there. We find it in Jeremiah 31. But our Lord Jesus, on that night when He instituted the breaking of bread, brought it to us. Today we are in the joy and good of the new covenant.
If you want to know what the new covenant is, read Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31.
Brothers and sisters, this new covenant is sealed by the blood of our Lord Jesus. You know what that means: it is permanent, eternal, and unchangeable.
What a blessing it is! He said, “I will forgive your sins, and remember them no more.” He says, “You do not need anybody to teach you outwardly, ‘Know the Lord,’ because every one of you, from the least to the greatest, will know Me in yourself.”
The Lord is no longer outside of you. He is inscribed in your heart. “I am your life. I am your power. I am everything to you.” That is the new covenant.
You see, with the blood of our Lord Jesus, it is certain. It cannot be altered or changed. So every time we come to take the bread and the cup, eating and drinking, dear brothers and sisters, something spiritual is going on.
We cannot come to the table and leave without any change.
The Lord said, “When you do this, remember Me.” In other words, it is through His work that we come to know Him.
How do we know our Lord Jesus? We know Him by what He has done for us. But just knowing what He has done and stopping there means that we are stopping short. We have to go back to the origin: Who did it? Who did it for us?
We are not just here to enjoy what He has done for us. We are here to know Him and to thank Him, for He is the One who does it all.
So you find in this matter of remembrance that, even though we have the loaf and the cup, and we eat the bread and drink the cup, enjoying all that He has done for us, we must not stop there. The Lord said, “Remember Me.”
You know, it is very sad among God’s people. We enjoy what He has done for us, but we forget the Giver. We enjoy what He has done for us, but we neglect Him.
So the Lord said, “Remember Me.” Not just My blood shed for you; not just My body broken for you; but Me. Remember Me.
What occupies us is not only what He has done. What occupies us is the One who does it all. We love what He has done for us, but we love the One who does it all even more. Now, that is the meaning of the breaking of bread.
Every time we come together to break the bread and drink the cup, dear brothers and sisters, if there is not a refreshing and renewing of our love toward the Lord—appreciating His love and appreciating Himself—we come in vain.
That is what the Lord is expecting.
Furthermore, we find in this matter of remembrance that it is an exhibition. He said that when you eat the bread and drink the cup, you announce the death of the Lord.
This is an announcement, not by words but by deed. When we put the bread and the cup before us, we announce to the whole world—not only the seen world, but even the unseen world—what our Lord Jesus has accomplished.
We are the witnesses. That is why we come to break the bread and drink the cup. We witness that this has happened. We witness that it is true. We witness that He has done it. We witness that He has overcome.
It is an announcement, a silent announcement. We exhibit this to let the world see and even let the unseen world see it. What a testimony!
The breaking of bread is the testimony of the church. It is one of the strongest expressions of the testimony of Jesus in the church.
Not only that: as we remember and look back, as we exhibit now, we also look forward to His return, because He has promised that He will come back.
Here is our blessed hope. Every time we come together to break the bread, we hope that this will be our last meal on earth and that our next one will be at the marriage feast of the Lamb. What a blessed hope!
So, brothers and sisters, you find that there is such spiritual reality in it.
Then, when you look at 1 Corinthians 10, there is another aspect in the breaking of bread, and the word is communion—fellowship, sharing the same thing together.
Fellowship, or communion, is always present. Communion is not something of the past, nor is it something of the future. It is always in the present.
So when we break the bread and drink the cup, not only do we look back to what the Lord has done for us and appreciate it, but as we are doing it, there is a sharing in common. There is a fellowship going on.
And you know, fellowship is always fresh and living.
In other words, when we are all breaking the bread, we are in fellowship with Him. He is our life. He sustains us. He strengthens us.
Every time after the Lord’s table, we should feel spiritually strengthened, that we may walk in this world for the coming week. This is where strength comes from. We do not go through the world on our own.
We go through the world by the strength of His life.
As we drink the cup, it is as if we once again experience the blessedness of sins forgiven, separating us from this world. Communion is going on. It is very, very real if there is faith. If we come in a worthy manner, it is very, very real.
This communion is not only with Christ Himself. As we find in Corinthians, He said:
Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.
Before we break the bread, the bread before us is the body of Christ—that body which He took when He came into this world, that body which lived for God for thirty-three years and died for us on the cross.
But after the bread is broken, where is the bread? The bread is in each and every one of us. When God looks down from heaven, He still sees the bread, but it is bread that has been scattered and united together among His people. We become the body of Christ.
So the fellowship is more than fellowship with the Lord. The fellowship is fellowship with your brothers and sisters. We share together. What a blessing that is!
We know what the breaking of bread is. But then, brothers and sisters, how shall we come and partake of the Lord’s table, the Lord’s supper, the breaking of bread?
If we really realize that it is such a noble, wonderful, heavenly, glorious, spiritual, and real thing, then what should be our attitude when we come to the breaking of bread?
Privilege is also accompanied by responsibility.
That is the reason why, in both 1 Corinthians 10 and 1 Corinthians 11, it seems as if more words are given on this matter of how we partake than on what the partaking is.
For instance, in 1 Corinthians 11, from verses 27 to 33, these are all words showing us how we should come to the Lord’s supper—not unprepared, not just casually. There is a way to come.
The same thing is found in 1 Corinthians 10. There are words warning against eating at the Lord’s table and also at the table of demons. Think of the contrast.
If we eat the bread and drink the cup unworthily, what does it mean?
We are always unworthy. When you think you are worthy, something is drastically wrong.
When we come to the Lord, we always sense our own unworthiness. So far as we ourselves are concerned, we are unworthy. We are the chief of sinners, rebels. Who are we?
It is He; it is His grace, that makes us worthy. Always come with the sense of our own unworthiness, that we may appreciate His grace. Then we may appreciate how He has made the unworthy worthy—worthy to come to the table.
We were outcasts, but now we are in a family, brothers and sisters. This is a sense that we must have. Otherwise, we will not be able to take the Lord’s table in a worthy manner.
So the worthiness here is knowing how He has made us worthy. We have to come in a worthy manner. That is what it is.
Now, what is a worthy manner? What is an unworthy manner?
If we come in an unworthy manner, what is the consequence? We are told here by the Word of God that we are drinking judgment to ourselves.
It is said in verse 27:
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.
We are guilty. In what way are we guilty? Now, you read on in verse 29:
For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.
In other words, when we come to the Lord’s table, we have to come in a worthy manner. And the worthy manner is that we must discern the body. Or, to put it another way, we must know what we are doing.
You know, you do not just come and not know what you are doing. Maybe you think that you are just taking a bit of bread or drinking a sip of the fruit of the vine. Why, is that all? Is it as common as that? No.
You have to discern the body. You have to know what the body is. Otherwise, when you eat and drink, you are guilty of the body and blood of our Lord.
That is why it is so important that only those who are saved, only those who have a past history with the Lord Jesus and a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, can come to the table.
If you are not the Lord’s, if you do not have an experience of the Lord and no relationship with the Lord, then you should not eat the bread and drink the cup. Because if you do, you are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
So be sure that when you come to the table, you have a history with the Lord, so that you can remember. There is a fellowship that you can enjoy, and it is not just an outward form.
That is number one.
Number two: is it true that everyone who has a past history with the Lord, who is saved, can come and take the loaf and drink the cup?
Suppose you have a controversy with the Lord in your life. Suppose there is something in you of which the Spirit of God has convicted you, but you disregard it and even rebel. In other words, you do not have a real, living relationship with the Lord.
Then you come to take the table. You are not discerning the body. You are guilty of the body and blood of our Lord.
So, in other words, we who are the Lord’s, before we come, have to prove ourselves. Nobody will come and look at you, but you have to prove yourself.
Prove yourself: are you one with the Lord? Is there any controversy, any unsettled matter, in the relationship between you and the Lord?
Why not prove it? Examine yourself. Judge yourself. Have it all cleared up before you come to the table.
It is very, very important. If you read 1 Corinthians 11, you find that it is very serious. The Bible says that some of you are weak, sickly, and even fallen asleep.
In other words, we examine ourselves so that we will not be disciplined by the Lord. And even if we are disciplined, we are not judged or condemned with the world.
So, dear brothers and sisters, such a privilege requires a great responsibility.
And discerning the body has another meaning: it is the body of Christ.
You know, when we come together to break the bread, this bread not only represents the personal body of Christ that was given to us; it represents the body of Christ. In other words, it is not just a few of us here. All the Lord’s people all over the world are in that body.
There is no exclusivism here. All God’s people are in the body.
And if we have any controversy with any of God’s people, we are not discerning the body. Is there anything for which you cannot forgive your brother or sister? If you still have that unforgiving spirit, you are not qualified to break the bread. Have it settled first.
A great responsibility.
I remember a story. One brother, before he was saved, had someone kill his father. He was determined to take revenge. But thank God, he got saved.
One day, as he traveled, he came to a place where there was a breaking of bread, so he attended. As he came into the meeting, he noticed that his enemy was sitting there.
He could not forgive him. So he stood up and walked out.
As he was walking outside, struggling over this matter, the Spirit of God convicted him: “If you do not forgive your brother, God will not forgive you.”
And thank God, He took that hatred away. So he walked back.
After the breaking of bread, he stood up and testified, “Brothers and sisters, this is what the breaking of bread means to us. It is real. It is living.”
We must discern the body. We hold nothing against any brother or sister. There must be that fellowship, that living fellowship, there.
And then, if you read 1 Corinthians 10, you may find this very strange. Here we talk about how, when we come to the table, we are in fellowship with the blood and the body of our Lord, and we are in fellowship with one another.
But here you find a connection between the table of the Lord and the table of demons. There is the table of demons. In other words, there is a fellowship with demons.
If we are in friendship with the world, we are in enmity with God. There is quite a problem. You cannot eat at the Lord’s table and at the table of demons.
Should we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
Brothers and sisters, today we find modern Christians who are in fellowship with the world. They are eating at the devil’s table, as it were, and then they come and take the Lord’s table as if it is nothing.
Is there any fellowship between light and darkness? Fellowship between the Lord and the devil? No.
So we have a great responsibility. May the Lord’s table deliver us from eating at the table of the devil.
Every time we come to the Lord’s table, we are strengthened in our spirit to fellowship with our Lord and to be delivered from fellowship with the world.
It is very clear in the Word of God: God is a jealous God. His jealousy is because of His tremendous love. He is jealous for each and every one of us, lest we forget.
So thank God, every week when we come together, the first thing, before we hear any message, is the Lord’s table.
And that should be the beginning. We all prepare, by His grace, to come and remember Him. We come into fellowship with Him and with one another. Is that not glorious? The Lord bless us.
Dear Lord, these are Thy words. May Thy Word sink deep into our hearts by Thy Spirit. Lord, through Thy grace, we want to come in a worthy manner, that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in Thy precious name.