Christ instituted the
Lord’s Supper in order for us to remember the great sacrifice He
made for us and that we rely on Him and His sacrifice for our
salvation. He gave us this memorial so we would not forget Him
and what He did for us. In Luke 22:19, when Jesus instituted
the Lord’s Supper, He said, "Do this in
remembrance of Me." This is done to help us remember the
Lord and what He did for us.
The death of our Lord was
not an accident. It was in God’s eternal plan of redemption for
Christ to come to this earth and take our punishment for our
sins by dying for us so God can now be just in saving us. In a
number of places in the Old Testament, God foretells the death
of His Son for us. One place is found in Isaiah 53:5-6,
"He was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are
healed…And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
God and Christ are loving and wonderful for what they have done
for us.
In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
we read of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper,
"The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took
bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take
eat; this is My body which is broken for you; this do in
remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup
after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes." This is
how we remember the great suffering which our Lord did for us.
We proclaim our faith in this great and wonderful deed to the
world each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper. There are
those who partake of only the bread and their priest partakes of
the fruit of the vine. This is a perversion of the Lord’s
Supper. This is not doing it the way the Bible instructs. But
notice each Christian is to partake of both the bread and the
fruit of the vine.
When we partake of the
unleavened bread we picture our Lord’s body hanging there,
suffering in anguish and pain, taking the punishment that was
rightly due us. As we drink of the fruit of the vine we
envision His precious blood which was poured out for us to
cleanse us from all our sins. What great love and concern God
and Christ have for us! The Lord wants us to remember what He
did for us every first day of the week as the church did in the
first century.
We are to remember that
our Lord gave up heaven to come to this earth for thirty-three
years, and then died for us. We remember the humiliation of the
mock trial, the crown of thorns and the terrible scourging that
left His back raw and bleeding. We remember the soldiers
gambling for the Lord’s only earthly possession, the clothes on
His back. Then we remember the nails as they were driven into
His hands and feet, and the cross as it was raised and dropped
into the hole.
We also remember the
spirit of forgiveness of our Lord, as He was being crucified,
when He said in Luke 23:34, "Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they do." We
remember our Lord’s loud cry of loneliness in Matthew 27:46,
"My God, My God, why have you forsaken
Me?" We remember as our Lord hung on the cross, how the
people mocked, shamed, and made fun of Him as He was dying not
only for their sins but the sins of all mankind.
We remember in Matthew
27:45, "Now from the sixth hour until the
ninth hour there was darkness over all the land", and in
Matthew 27:51, "The veil of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the
rocks were split." The sun refused to shine and the
earth shook because of the death of the Son of God. We read in
1 Peter 2:24, "Who Himself bore our sins
in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might
live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed."
We must first examine
ourselves to determine whether we have the right attitude to
partake of this memorial. We must put all else from our minds.
We should make sure we have our minds centered on what Christ
did for us. We are told in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29,
"Therefore whoever eats this bread or
drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man
examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of
the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner
eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s
body." We must clear our minds of all other thoughts
and center our minds on the sacrifice of our Lord, or otherwise
as 1 Corinthians 11:29 (KJV) says, "We eat
and drink damnation to ourselves."
Questions Lesson 15
The Lord’s Supper
(click on the button of
the answer of your choice)
1) (Luke 22:19) When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper He said
He didn’t want to die.
Do this in remembrance of Me.
He did not want us to remember that He died for us.
2)
The Lord’s Supper is to help us remember what the Lord
did for
us.
3) (Isaiah 53:5-6) In God’s eternal plan of
redemption
The death of Christ was part of that plan.
The death of Christ was not part of that plan.
God did not intend that Christ would die.
4) God’s eternal plan was for Christ
to come and set up a
kingdom here on the earth.
5) (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) In partaking of
the Lord’s Supper
We are to partake of only the bread while a priest partakes
of
the fruit of the vine.
We are not to remember the death of Christ.
We are to partake of both the bread and the fruit of the
vine in
remembering the death of Christ.
6)As we partake of the Lord’s Supper we proclaim the Lord’s
death
to the world until He comes.
7) (Luke 23:34) As Jesus was being nailed to
the cross He said
Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
Father I don’t want to die on the cross.
It doesn’t hurt.
8)Jesus was not forgiving of those who nailed Him to the
cross.
9)
(Matthew 27:46) As Jesus was hanging on the cross
The angels ministered to Him.
God did not forsake Him.
God forsook Him.
10)Jesus endured the
cross alone.
11) (Matthew 27:45, 51) When Jesus died on
the cross
The sun refused to shine and the earth shook.
Nothing happened.
Jesus deserved to die.
12)The sun refused to shine and the earth shook because of
the
death of the Son of God.
13) (1 Peter 2:24) When Jesus died on the
cross
He died for His own sins.
He died for our sins.
He did not die for our sins.
14) Jesus died for the sins of only some people.
15) (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) We are to
partake of the Lord’s Supper
Without thinking of the Lord’s death.
In an unworthy manner.
In a worthy manner.
16) We partake of Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner when
we do not
discern the Lord’s body.