Why are We Observing the Lord’s Supper Every Week?
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26, ESV)
If you’ve been gathering with us, you will have noticed we are observing the Lord’s Supper each Sunday morning when we gather. For many who have grown up in the church, especially Baptist churches, this is a new practice. Most Baptist churches have traditionally observed the Lord’s Supper once a quarter or once a month. To be sure, the Bible nowhere tells us how often to take part in the Lord’s Supper, it only reminds us that “as often” as we do it, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Why, then, are we observing the Lord’s Supper each week? That’s a great question! Allow me to try to answer that question:
The History of High Pointe and the Lord’s Supper:
As I was told, in 2005 High Pointe had not observed the Lord’s Supper for over a year. We immediately began to plan for the Lord’s Supper once a quarter, then once a month. Due to nursery and Kids ’Pointe rotations, the same members were missing from the Lord’s Supper each time. So, we added 5th Sundays to our Lord’s Supper observance in order to try and address that problem.
For several years now, some of the staff have raised the question of the frequency of the Lord’s Supper and the possibility of its weekly observance. Some reasons given for weekly Lord’s Supper observance:
The main objection to weekly Lord’s Supper, though, was that it could seem rote, become routine, and thereby, lose its meaning. Here are some responses to this objection:
Four Reasons We are Observing the Lord’s Supper Weekly
Reason 1: To follow the early church’s example
Reason 2: To build up the body
Reason 3: To maintain the distinction between Christians and non-Christians
Reason 4: To worship God truly – on the basis of the truth of Christ, by the power of the Spirit
The elders believe these reasons (and there are more we could give) far outweigh any reasons not to observe the Lord’s Supper weekly. We are working hard each week to make sure our gatherings are more reflective of Scripture than of culture. And, in doing so, we are hoping to encourage your right, whole-person response to God and his word when we gather.
May our Lord grant us the grace to worship him in spirit and truth, for he is seeking such worshipers.
Love,
Pastor Juan
If you’ve been gathering with us, you will have noticed we are observing the Lord’s Supper each Sunday morning when we gather. For many who have grown up in the church, especially Baptist churches, this is a new practice. Most Baptist churches have traditionally observed the Lord’s Supper once a quarter or once a month. To be sure, the Bible nowhere tells us how often to take part in the Lord’s Supper, it only reminds us that “as often” as we do it, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Why, then, are we observing the Lord’s Supper each week? That’s a great question! Allow me to try to answer that question:
The History of High Pointe and the Lord’s Supper:
As I was told, in 2005 High Pointe had not observed the Lord’s Supper for over a year. We immediately began to plan for the Lord’s Supper once a quarter, then once a month. Due to nursery and Kids ’Pointe rotations, the same members were missing from the Lord’s Supper each time. So, we added 5th Sundays to our Lord’s Supper observance in order to try and address that problem.
For several years now, some of the staff have raised the question of the frequency of the Lord’s Supper and the possibility of its weekly observance. Some reasons given for weekly Lord’s Supper observance:
- This was the practice of the early church.
- It helps keep short accounts among the membership.
- It displays the gospel in yet another way during our gathering.
- By 2005, the Lord’s Supper had lost its meaning because it wasn’t being observed at High Pointe.
- By having a different elder lead the Lord’s Supper each week, we approach the table a little differently.
- Actions/practices do not lose meaning simply by doing them more often:
- Telling your spouse you love him/her (you should do that more than once a week).
- Eating meals together as a family
- Singing, praying, preaching, reading Scripture – we do these every week when we gather.
Personal Experience
As I shared in our Straight to the Heart article on February 14, some time ago when Jeanine and I were visiting another church, a few minutes into the service, a man and woman sat next to us. She was engaged in the singing and the sermon. The gentleman, not so much. That’s when it all came together for me. If worship is a right whole-person response to all God has revealed himself to be for us in Christ, then we respond to God in worship with more than just singing songs and listening to a sermon. To be sure, at High Pointe we sing the word, read the word, hear the word, pray the word, and listen to the word preached. On occasion, we get to see the word displayed in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Still, I realized during that church service that we should be presenting the gospel in as many ways as God has commanded on a regular basis: reading, hearing, singing, praying, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper. While we may not be able to do a baptism each week, we certainly can observe the Lord’s Supper.
As I shared in our Straight to the Heart article on February 14, some time ago when Jeanine and I were visiting another church, a few minutes into the service, a man and woman sat next to us. She was engaged in the singing and the sermon. The gentleman, not so much. That’s when it all came together for me. If worship is a right whole-person response to all God has revealed himself to be for us in Christ, then we respond to God in worship with more than just singing songs and listening to a sermon. To be sure, at High Pointe we sing the word, read the word, hear the word, pray the word, and listen to the word preached. On occasion, we get to see the word displayed in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Still, I realized during that church service that we should be presenting the gospel in as many ways as God has commanded on a regular basis: reading, hearing, singing, praying, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper. While we may not be able to do a baptism each week, we certainly can observe the Lord’s Supper.
Four Reasons We are Observing the Lord’s Supper Weekly
Reason 1: To follow the early church’s example
- The early church in Acts 1-8 was Jewish in background (met at the Temple and kept the Sabbath).
- But those who embraced Christ gathered on the Lord’s Day for distinctly Christian worship.
- Acts 2:42-47 | They devoted themselves to the word, breaking bread (Lord’s Supper)…
- Acts 20:7 | “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread,…”
- Each week when we gather on the Lord’s Day, we commemorate (remember) Jesus’ death.
- One way to remember Jesus’ death is by participating in the Lord’s Supper.
- The Lord’s Supper is a participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16).
- When we take the Lord’s Supper, we participate in the ONE body (1 Corinthians 10:17).
- The Lord’s Supper is a picture that reminds us we’re part of Christ’s body united by Jesus’ death.
- The Lord’s Supper is not about ME; it’s about US.
- Therefore, we will only take part in the Lord’s Supper when we ALL come together.
- This is one reason we only serve the Lord’s Supper when we gather only to those in the room.
- The Lord’s Supper is a church ordinance, not an individual experience.
- In the 1980s, the “seeker-sensitive” movement sought to make church gatherings inviting to unbelievers.
- Many of the elements that distinguished between Christians/non-Christians were downplayed.
- Observing the Lord’s Supper weekly allows us to draw attention to the line between belief and unbelief – EVERY WEEK – in a powerful, yet inviting way.
- In our confused churches where non-Christians attend and are allowed to think they’re Christians, we need to make that distinction clear every time we gather.
- True worship is a right, whole-person response to God’s revelation of himself in Christ, in the fullness of the Spirit.
- In other words, all true worship is a right response to God’s word.
- We respond to God/his word by singing, praying, and hearing the Word.
- We also respond with our whole person – body/spirit.
- The Lord’s Supper is a right, whole-person response to God’s word.
- As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remember Jesus’ death and look forward to the eternal kingdom.
- In a time when Christian worship has been equated with only music, or when churches are experimenting with “creative ways” to “encounter God,” we must gather together and only respond to God in the ways he has prescribed in Scripture.
May our Lord grant us the grace to worship him in spirit and truth, for he is seeking such worshipers.
Love,
Pastor Juan
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3 Comments
Praise God, we love you!
The Bible tells us to take the Lord's Supper the first day of the week. Not the first day of the month.
Hi
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nPlease find below some teachings from early Church fathers on the Eucharist (I can provide more). You will see that none of them are teaching memorial only. In John 6 Jesus Christ asked us to eat His flesh and drink His blood for compelling reasons. Later, at the Lord's Supper, Jesus Christ showed us how to obey His request to eat and drink of Him via blessed bread and wine that becomes His body and His blood. God made this straightforward to understand.
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nST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
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n"the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead." ("Letter to the Smyrnaeans", paragraph 6. circa 80-110 A.D.)
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n"I have no taste for the food that perishes nor for the pleasures of this life. I want the Bread of God which is the Flesh of Christ, who was the seed of David; and for drink I desire His Blood which is love that cannot be destroyed." ("Letter to the Romans", paragraph 7, circa 80-110 A.D.)
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n"Take care, then who belong to God and to Jesus Christ - they are with the bishop. And those who repent and come to the unity of the Church - they too shall be of God, and will be living according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren: if anyone follow a schismatic, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If any man walk about with strange doctrine, he cannot lie down with the passion. Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons." (Epistle to the Philadelphians, 3:2-4:1, 110 A.D.)
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nST. JUSTIN MARTYR
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n"This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus." ("First Apology", Ch. 66, inter A.D. 148-155)
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nST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
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n"The Word is everything to a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. 'Eat My Flesh,' He says, 'and drink My Blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients. He delivers over His Flesh, and pours out His Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of His children. O incredible mystery!" ("The Instructor of the Children" [1,6,41,3] ante 202 A.D)
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nST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM
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nSince then He Himself has declared and said of the Bread, (This is My Body), who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since He has affirmed and said, (This is My Blood), who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?" ("Catechetical Lectures [22 (Mystagogic 4), 1] c. 350 A.D)
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nST. HILARY OF POITERS
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n"When we speak of the reality of Christ's nature being in us, we would be speaking foolishly and impiously - had we not learned it from Him. For He Himself says: 'My Flesh is truly Food, and My Blood is truly Drink. He that eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will remain in Me and I in him.' As to the reality of His Flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt, because now, both by the declaration of the Lord Himself and by our own faith, it is truly the Flesh and it is truly Blood. And These Elements bring it about, when taken and consumed, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Let those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God be free to find these things untrue. But He Himself is in us through the flesh and we are in Him, while that which we are with Him is in God." ("The Trinity" [8,14] inter 356-359 A.D.)
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nST. GREGORY OF NYSSA
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n"The bread is at first common bread; but when the mystery sanctifies it, it is called and actually becomes the Body of Christ."("Orations and Sermons" [Jaeger Vol 9, pp. 225-226] ca. 383 A.D.)
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nST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
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n"You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That Bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. The chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ." ("Sermons", [227, 21] ca. 400A.D.)
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nMARCARIUS THE MAGNESIAN
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n"[Christ] took the bread and the cup, each in a similar fashion, and said: 'This is My Body and this is My Blood.' Not a figure of His body nor a figure of His blood, as some persons of petrified mind are wont to rhapsodize, but in truth the Body and the Blood of Christ, seeing that His body is from the earth, and the bread and wine are likewise from the earth." ("Apocriticus" [3,23] ca. 400 A.D.)
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nST. LEO I, THE GREAT
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n"When the Lord says: 'Unless you shall have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and shall have drunk His blood, you shall not have life in you,' you ought to so communicate at the Sacred Table that you have no doubt whatever of the truth of the Body and the Blood of Christ. ("Sermons" [91,3] ante 461 A.D.)
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nGod bless you