The understanding of the Lord's Supper along with the doctrine of baptisms has been some of the most misunderstood and abused teachings in the history of the body of Christ. I don’t think this is hyperbole nor an overstatement and I believe it’s because the enemy to our souls knows their foundational importance.
It’s these two doctrines that help us to truly understand our identity as members of the body of Christ and they’ve been either over-emphasized, completely distorted or neglected altogether because of excesses. The reason the enemy has tried to distort these truths is because of their spiritual and practical power in the life of every believer and the corporate experience of the body of Christ.
The Lord's Supper is to be a clear declaration of the cruciform life of the resurrected Christ living through his body connecting heaven and earth.
The power of the gospel is declared through the broken body and blood of Jesus Christ, which brings deliverance from sin, Satan and this world. It also gives us the understanding of how we are to function as his body serving in the humility of heart. On the night before Jesus went to the cross He partook of the last Passover meal with His disciples and it was on this night that there was a completion of the old and a bringing in of the new.
Out of all the gospel stories which tell the life of Christ it’s John's gospel, which centers on the Passover.
John's account uses the Passover as a guide to help us see that in Christ there was a completion of the Old Covenant promises and the starting of a New Covenant between God and man through Him. The central focus of the Passover is the sacrifice. It was the power of the sacrificial blood of the lamb, which brought the final separation between the children of Israel and the Egyptians. What seemed like foolishness to the Egyptians was really the power of God in demonstration to deliver those who had faith in the God who commanded the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. At the same time, God's wisdom was seen in action by the obedience of the Hebrew people to apply the blood to their homes.
It’s what Paul called the word of the cross which releases the power and wisdom of Christ for the fulfilling of our missional journey of faith.
Among some, there is a debate as to whether Christ partook of the Passover meal or of the Lord's Supper on that last night with His disciples before His crucifixion. To me it's pretty simple: He did both. At the same time it was the last Passover meal and the first time the Lord's Supper was eaten. In Matthew's gospel it says while they were eating Jesus took some bread and after a blessing He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: take eat this is My body.
Can you imagine what might have been going through the disciples' minds at this moment? They had only heard their Master speak this way one other time as recorded in John chapter 6 verse 51 where Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever this bread is my flesh offered so the world may live.
The body of Jesus Christ was unlike that of any other human being.
In his gospel, Luke vividly portrays the birth of Christ. The angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, the virgin chosen by God and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. Matthew quotes Isaiah by saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, 'God with us'. Then John in his gospel says, the Word which created the heavens, the earth and all things became flesh living as one of us.
If we take a further look at John's gospel we will see that he goes from seeing Jesus as God taking upon Himself human flesh to the words of John the Baptist who saw Jesus coming to him and said: behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John the Baptist, who was the prophet sent to prepare the way for the Messiah saw the true purpose of Christ which was to be a pure sinless sacrifice, shedding His blood for all of humanity. In John's first epistle he says, the Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil.
The only way that Satan could be defeated was through a man. It was the first man Adam, who had handed Satan his power and authority. Therefore, it had to be through a man, the Last Adam, that Satan's power was to be destroyed. Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 tells us that, because God's children are human beings - made of flesh and blood - Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. The Passover lamb to be sacrificed was to be unblemished which merely pointed to the final sacrifice of Christ. Peter in his epistle calls Christ a lamb unblemished and spotless.
On that night when Christ was partaking of that last Passover meal with His disciples He was pointing them to His body which was about to be beaten, crucified and have the sin of the world lay upon it. The 'mystery of Christ' was about to be revealed. The scribes and Pharisees who were the interpreters of the prophets could not understand how the Messiah could be both a Conquering King and the Suffering Servant. However, the two main themes of the prophets came together in one person.
The mystery of Christ is that He broke the serpent's hold over man as a spotless, harmless, sinless lamb being slaughtered on the cross.
When God became man in a human body He was then offered up as a sheep being slaughtered and through His death on the cross the serpent's head or his authority over man was being crushed as promised in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. Jesus handed the bread to His disciples and said eat this flesh. This flesh, which has no sin, is about to become sin for you! During the last Passover meal after Christ has pointed His disciples to His body, He now takes up the cup. Once He has drunk and given thanks, He gave it to them saying, 'Drink from it, all of you for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins'.
As we look at this text we can see that the main theme of the New Covenant is the forgiveness of sins. However, if you’ve been following this school of discipleship then you know that drinking Christ blood is more than a prayer, but it’s an active participation in the power of God by identifying totally with the crucified Lamb of God.
Identifying with the body and blood of Christ is synonymous with being baptized into Christ, which is all about sacrifice and covenant.
To get more details go back to Lesson 13: Baptism Into the Body. It’s the pathway into fellowship with the one true God and fellowship with those who identify with the body and blood of Christ. Baptism into the body of Christ is about identification with the covenant and it goes back to the garden when God clothed man with the freshly sacrificed animal garments of skin. To get more details on this subject go to Lesson 3: The Seed Of The Woman.
Modern man is repulsed by blood and sacrifice, but our ancient faith is founded on the sacrificial blood of the innocent lamb of God who was slain for us.
Our submersion into his sacrificial atonement on our behalf is our initial entrance into our covenant relationship with Him. I know in our sanitary culture drinking from the same cup would not be appropriate, but Jesus passed the same wine glass around each drinking from the one cup. At the same time they had a custom of dipping bread into the same sauce bowl, which indicated trust and intimacy.
I don’t think that I can over emphasize this point and it’s that the entire bedrock of Jesus ekklesia is laid down in the terms of a covenant with Christ's through his body and blood.
It’s only as a result of our covenantal union with Christ that we have a mutual bond with each other as members of his body. The symbolism of this meal together was to be more than sharing of food, but to demonstrate the sharing of our lives together joined by the power of Christ body and blood.
Paul uses the word sharing when describing the Lord's Supper in his first letter to the Corinthians. The Greek word he used for sharing is koinonia which means a fellowship and participation with. The Lord's Supper is fellowshipping, participating and sharing in the power of Christ's Spirit.
The Catholic Church teaches a doctrine called transubstantiation which means when the priest blesses the sacraments of bread and wine they literally become Christ flesh and blood. Obviously I don’t agree. The bread and wine are merely symbols of Christ's bruised body and shed blood pointing us to his death, burial, resurrection, ascension and return.
Symbolism has always been a powerful tool in human communication crossing cultural boundaries.
It’s how we convey ideas that are too complex for words and it allows us to do so across language barriers. It’s the old saying: a picture is worth a thousand words and symbols provide concrete representations of qualities, ideas, or concepts. Symbols evoke profound emotions and memories at our very core. Eating the bread and drinking the wine are to be literally done, but they are merely symbols, pointing us to our resurrected king priest Jesus.
The Kenneth Wuest Translation says it this way. The cup of blessing ... which we consecrate with prayer, is it not a symbol of our joint-participation in the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a symbol of our joint-participation in the body of Christ?
Each time we partake of the Lord's Supper it’s an opportunity to remind ourselves that we are joint participators of all that Christ accomplished for us. As we partake of the bread and wine we are publicly declaring that by faith we have become partakers of the cruciform life and are members of His body. The Lord's Supper is not to be simply a ritual, but an active confession by which you call to memory and appropriate today all that Jesus has provided and promised. Paul said as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
So like water baptism it’s a public declaration of your personal faith in the death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Christ and your union with Him.
In most gatherings of believers today once a month they pass out wafers and grape juice where everyone takes communion. I’m all for this ritualistic symbolism and actually think it's good if we do this every time we gather as Christ body. However, the very first time the Lord’s supper was instituted it was more than this, but it was actually in the context of the Passover meal. As a matter of fact in the early gatherings of believers a dominant part of apostolic worship was centered around a meal in which believers met together for fellowship and worship. Acts chapter 2 verse 46 tells us: continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
The expression, breaking bread, no doubt includes the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. However, the phrase, they ate their food with gladness would also indicate that this was more than just taking communion together it was also eating a meal together.
Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians had to correct them because they were partaking of the Lord's Supper in what he called an unworthy manner. He began his epistle laying out a context of the main problem he was addressing which was the divisiveness being demonstrated among them. The Corinthians were first of all dividing around personalities. The Corinthians had begun to separate into different groups among their favorite preacher. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 11 thru 13 he says there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
The Corinthians setup sectarian groups where one group said I follow Paul, one group said I follow Apollos, another said I follow Peter or I follow Christ: you know those real spiritual ones who think they know it all. Paul then asks, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Paul was addressing the holy man myth and showing them that Christ is the foundation not personalities. Paul then has to confront ethnic divisions that had developed between Jews and Greeks.
He clearly shows them how the cross has leveled the playing field and obliterated racism in all its forms.
I want to share a quick experience I had when I was in Africa. I had just spent 6 months in Zambia, Africa just 500 miles north of South Africa. I told the story in an earlier lesson about how God provided for me on the train ride from Zambia back to South Africa in Lesson 31: Part II The Sacrifice of Giving. I then spent a month in South Africa which was an eye opening experience. It was 1994 when I was in South Africa and it was just as they were setting up the new government after the ending of the ruling white apartheid government.
I had the privilege of staying a few days with a university professor and his family in Pretoria South Africa which is the capital. This professor told me stories of how he was part of the transition negotiations from a small white ruling class which handed power over to Nelson Mandela’s political organization. Did you know that it was only because of true believers getting together, praying together, talking together and compromising that you did not have a bloody conflict in South Africa? It could have been a blood bath. The only thing that held that nation together was true believers both white and black getting together in humility around the cross where racial divisions have been obliterated.
Now in speaking to the Corinthians Paul then addresses social hierarchical divisions that had developed among them. The vast majority of believers in Corinth were made up largely of the poorer class and many were actually slaves. He tells them in chapter 1 verses 26 thru 31 to consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read that passage and got such hope. It even gives me hope today, that God can use someone like me. A nobody, born with a plastic spoon in my mouth. Remember that God takes the poor, the despised, the weak, the nobodies and anoints them so that when He moves through their lives all glory will go to God. Paul then says: you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
The problem Paul had to address was that when they were meeting together these social inequalities were manifesting. The wealthy believers were displaying arrogance and divineness instead of humility and sharing of the cruciform life of Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 20 thru 22 Paul said, when you come together it’s not the Lord’s supper that you eat. Paul was saying no matter what you call it: when you are demonstrating selfishness, divineness and arrogance you are not displaying Christ nature and partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Instead of sharing, the wealthy members were eating in front of hungry brothers and sisters in Christ.
The wealthy members saw these other members of Christ body as poor people and slaves not as co-equals in Christ.
These wealthy people were eating and getting drunk with no regard for the needs of the body Christ. Paul asks them what are you doing? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
The whole point of the meal was to demonstrate that the body of Christ is a family.
Families share, support, accept and help one another. It was supposed to be a love feast where they would have a time of acknowledging the blood and body of Christ. The Corinthians were not demonstrating their faith by sharing in love, but were causing division in the body through their selfish behavior. Unity of heart should be the result of practicing the Lord’s Supper and not division.
Paul then explains to them that there can be consequences for not discerning the Lord's body correctly. If you look at the context of I Corinthians chapter 11 verse 29 Paul’s warning of not discerning the Lord’s body refers to the failure to maintain the unity of the church as the body of Christ. Paul said that some of the believers in Corinth were celebrating the supper in a way that destroyed the unity it was supposed to represent therefore they were bringing themselves under God’s judgment. As a result some were under affliction and some had suffered a premature death. Paul told them that they needed to examine themselves before partaking of the body and blood.
To partake of the Lord's Supper in a 'worthy' manner is to examine yourself in the light of the full forgiveness and acceptance of Christ.
It’s turning away from the sin that trips us up along our journey and making sure our feet are securely planted in the blood of the covenant. The author of Hebrews says it this way in chapter 10. He says that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. What he’s saying is that if we reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit who points us back to the blood and body of the cross then all we have left is a fearful expectation of judgment.
James chapter 4 verse 4 says it this way. He says: whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. He then says in verse 6 that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Remember the only unforgivable sin is blaspheming or rejecting the Holy Spirit. It’s rejecting the Holy Spirit’s power to convict us of sin and convince us of the power of the blood and body of Christ. It’s why the author of Hebrews told us to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting our assembling together as the body of Christ, but we need to encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Partaking of the Lord’s supper is about each member of the body supporting, encouraging and building up one another.
Partaking of the Lords’ supper is all about reminding ourselves and one another of the power of the blood to cleanse from sin and the Spirit of grace which aids us in the walk of the Spirit. It’s living in a lifestyle of repentance as I taught you in Lesson 10 Part I and Part II of this school. It’s turning away from selfishness which is at the root of the works of the flesh. Discerning the Lord's Body is acknowledging the body that was bruised for your sins: the one body of Christ and that we are members of one another.
As I’ve said in previous lessons, the ekklesia is more than a social club; it’s the body of Christ which is fulfilling the mission of Christ by implementing and maintaining four main practices.
Number one is teaching the pure doctrine of the word which includes discipleship and equipping believers to do the work of the ministry. Number two is the practice of water baptism which is a public demonstration and a sign or witness that you are a member of the body of Christ. Number three is the partaking of the body and blood of Christ on a regular basis among the community of the faithful which is essentially fellowship and prayer. Number four is having some type of leadership structure which is about accountability and formation of Christlike qualities.
As I said I’m not going to tell you there is a specific form of the ekklesia or how we must perform these four practices, but when it comes to discipleship, equipping, fellowship and prayer: small groups are where you will truly be able to live out the cruciform life of Christ.
Does this mean that we shouldn’t have a gathering of hundreds and thousands of people? No, not at all. Large gatherings of believers are absolutely necessary, essential and beneficial.
The body of Christ is both macro and micro, you can’t exclude one for the other because both have their purpose and function. We see in Acts chapter 5 verse 42 that the believers day after day, met in the temple courts which are large groups or we could call it the macro-ekklesia and they met from house to house which is small groups or we could call it the micro-ekklesia.
In one of Jesus's parables he said the kingdom of heaven is like a net. A net is only as strong as the knots that hold it together and relationships are the knots that hold the community of the faithful together.
As members of the household of faith we need to seek God’s wisdom because it’s the key for effective relationships. I am going to put a picture up on the screen of a net showing the macro ekklesia and the micro ekklesia. The form and function of the early church embodied the macro-form of the ekklesia for outreach and ingathering along with the micro-form for discipleship, equipping and fellowship.
The Lord's Supper is about a participatory pattern not just on a personal level changing us from the inside out living the cruciform life. It’s also about a participatory pattern for the community of the faithful. It’s about equipping, empowering, collaborating and the networking of like minded believers co-laboring together.
The leadership model that Jesus taught was one of serving.
Jesus taught an upside-down kingdom and what I mean is that he specifically told those who would lead his body that they should not lead like the gentiles or nations do. Jesus said in this world the kings and great men lord it over their people…But among you it will be different. The worldly model is about managing institutional control and jockeying for position. Jesus said those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank and the leader should be like a servant.
I worked in the American corporate world for over 20 years and we ran our organizations by chain of command which is the same way the military works. It’s why corporations recruit from the military and hire college graduates from business schools because they are both trained to follow orders. It’s an over-under relationship. You follow the orders of those above you and those below you follow your orders and you don’t jump rank. It’s a very efficient way to run an organization.
The problem is that as Americans we have implemented this style of leadership into building Jesus ekklesia.
As a result the holy man myth has been perpetuated. The corporate style of leadership has prevailed and it's why we have the clergy / laity division or distinction in most churches. It’s the holy man and those who follow him. Jesus did not teach a chain of command structure for his body, but he said that the greatest among you is servant of all. Paul went further in breaking down the chain of command structure and broke down ethnic hierarchy, social class hierarchy, gender hierarchy and the holy man myth by saying in Galatians 3:28 that, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Your relationship with God is not through the holy man and we all equally stand on the same foundation, the Man Jesus Christ.
All who accept him are made equal, yet we are all uniquely gifted as part of his multi-faceted body. It’s a unified, yet diversified body of Christ. It’s an enigma. The God who fills all in all has poured out his blood on all nations and He puts his Spirit into all who will come under that blood covenant no matter if they are red, yellow, black, rich, poor or white they’re all precious in his sight. The Bible teaches that there is only one holy man and there is only one head of the church. No, it’s not the pope, it’s not your priest, it’s not your apostle, it’s not your pastor or your bishop.
Jesus is the only head of the church and everyone who comes under his Lordship is simply just another part of the body.
If you don’t get this foundation right then everything you build on top of it is built on a faulty foundation of man centered worship which will eventually crack, crumble and fall. I’ve watched a lot of crumbling over the last 30 years of my life. I’ve seen a lot of congregations dissolve and no longer exist because they got this foundation wrong. I’ve seen a lot of believers no longer follow Christ because they became disillusioned when the holy man let them down. If you build around the holy man then at some point your idol is going to fail to meet your needs because they always do then you will destroy the idol, burn the idol and go find another. I was introduced very quickly in my walk with God to the holy man myth and I could tell you story after story.
Jesus is the only doorway and access to the Father. It’s His body and he is not going to share the lordship of his body with anyone. No other man should try to usurp that place no matter how great they think they are. Jesus leveled the playing field because in Christ we are all on the same footing. Christ truly is the great equalizer. We are to look at each other eye to eye since the over-under hierarchical leadership model should not apply to the body of Christ.
Don’t mistake what I am saying. I’m not saying we have no leaders, but leaders are simply a part of the same body not the head.
I’m calling out to the next generation to leave behind the desires of celebrity, popularity and pursuits of grandeur. Don’t try to take power so you can rule, but lay down your life. Embrace the roots of our ancient faith. Refuse to let the surrounding culture dictate what it means to be a follower of Christ. The cross is our foundation, living out the cruciform life of Christ through faith and love. Our leadership commitment must be that we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Leaders in the book of Acts were consistently sharing their authority with others through discipleship and equipping. The early church survived and thrived because it wasn’t built on the faulty foundation of man worship where power was concentrated under a hierarchical structure. Authority was dispersed rather than concentrated in one man.
It was an apostolic movement born in the soil of the cruciform life of denying self. It was a participatory pattern based on fellowship, mutual honor and living out the cruciform life through the cooperative hearts of servants. If you build around one person then what happens if they become immoral, start teaching false doctrine or die?
The movement stops and it’s why Jesus picked a body not just one man to carry on his mission.
In the book of Acts what happened when leaders were imprisoned for their faith or killed? Persecution did not stop the advancing ekklesia, but caused others like Stephen to emerge because it was an organization built on fellowship with the risen Christ not a hierarchal structure based on man. The head of the church is Christ and you can’t kill the one who has overcome death and Hades.
The ultimate goal of Jesus for his disciples was that his life be reproduced in them and through them, into the lives of others. . . . Reproduction was our Lord’s desire. . . . But multiplication was the ultimate end. Making disciples is about Christ being formed in believers, but it’s also about multiplying leaders who can carry on the mission. No, everyone is not going to be a leader because we each have our part to play, but the participatory pattern is about always developing new leaders for the expansion of the body.
As we go over the rest of the lessons in this discipleship course I want you to think of Jesus ekklesia as a decentralized network of disciples, leaders, small groups and large groups tied together through the bond of the body and blood of Christ.
I want you to begin to see yourself as part of an apostolic movement equipping, empowering, collaborating and networking with like minded believers co-laboring to fulfill the Great Commission. I want you to find your place in this net of relationships we call the ekklesia so you can do your part. Out of this participatory pattern of the Lord’s supper Jesus is wanting to expand and build his ekklesia through servants who have laid their lives down for the king serving one another.
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Next Lesson: Lesson 47 - Part I Order in the Church
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