CALVARY BIBLE BAPTIST CHURCH

585 WEST ROUTE 5

ELBRIDGE, NEW YORK 13060

THE LORD’S SUPPER – I COR. 11:12-34

I.          What is the Lord’s Supper?

A.                According to the scripture, it is an ordinance.  I cor. 11:12

B.                 Webster defines ordinance as:

1.      A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action.  An ordinance may be a law or statute of a sovereign power.

2.      Observance commanded.

3.      Appointment

4.      Established rite or ceremony.  In this sense, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances.

II   What is its purpose?

A.    It is a memorial of the Lord’s death till his return.  I Cor. 11:26

B.     The confusion about the purpose of the Lord’s Supper comes from reading John 6:50-63 with total disregard for verse 63, which clearly defines the context as a symbolic representation.  This causes a person to take literally one of the very few passages defined by its own context.

II.                What are the Elements?

A.    Matthew 26:26 – unleavened bread, which almost all agree since the Jews were commanded not to use bread with leaven in the Passover.Lev.23:4-6.

B.     Mathew 26:29 – fruit of the vine, which has always been new wine as found in Isaiah 65:8.  This is found in the cluster fresh unleavened.  Gen. 40:9-13 tells us how it is taken from the cluster and placed in the cup.

                                                              i.      For those who argue it is to be alcoholic wine, need only to read Exodus 12: 15, 19 to find that all leaven was to be removed from the houses for Passover.

                                                            ii.      Further, no person that advocates alcoholic wine has ever discussed the inconsistency of unleavened bread with leavened wine.  The Jews in the wilderness drank grape juice.  Duet 29:6; Duet 32:14.  This is called the pure blood of the grape which represents the pure blood of Jesus Christ.  I Peter 1:18, 19.

III.             Who should take the Lord’s Supper?

A.    It is always offered to his followers to take as often as they will to show his death till he comes.  Matt. 26; I cor. 11:26

IV.             Where did the great controversy come from?

A.    Confusion about5 the Lord’s Supper usually arises over the teachings of Roman Catholicism from the Council of Trent A.D. 1545.  They teach that the mass is the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  It also teaches that the mass is the same sacrifice as that of the cross.  Both of which are contrary to clear teaching of the scripture.

B.     Council of Trent A.D. 1545 – “I profess likewise in the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead.  And the most holy sacrament the Eucharist, these are truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of bread into the body, and the whole substance of wine into the blood.”

C.     Council of Trent, Canon number one – “If anyone shall deny the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore entire Christ are truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist and shall say that he is only in it as a sign or figure, let him be accursed.”

D.    The contrary teachings of  Scripture:

                                                              i.      Heb. 7:27        He died once for all.

                                                            ii.      Heb.9:11-15    He entered once for all.

                                                          iii.      Heb. 9:26        Once for all.

                                                          iv.      Heb 9:28         Christ offered once.

                                                            v.      Heb.10:10       Once for all.

                                                          vi.      Heb.10:11-12  One sacrifice for sins.

                                                        vii.      Heb. 10:14      For by one offering

                                                      viii.      Heb. 10:15-20 There is no longer an offering for sin.

V.                How serious are these differences?

A.    I Cor. 10: 15-24, Psalm 16: 4-5, Duet. 32:31-33

B.     The drink of the blood is forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. Lev. 17:14, Acts 15:29

C.     You see the blood of Christ is not shed for consumption but to be used on the altar for atonement for sin.

                                                              i.      Heb. 9: 1-28

                                                            ii.      Col. 1:14

                                                          iii.      Heb 13:11-13

                                                          iv.      Rev. 1:5

Conclusion:

The Lord’s Supper is a memorial dinner that is taken in the fellowship of Christians to show the Lord’s death till he comes.  Before a man takes the Lord’s Supper, he is admonished to examine himself so as not to drink of the Lord’s cup unworthily.