Lesson 8: The Lord’s Supper (1st Corinthians 11)
This week’s lesson takes us into one of the two ordinances we practice as Christians – the Lord’s Supper (the other being Baptism).
We will slow the pace a little and spend a little time examining the significance of this ordinance from several vantage points. During our study of this text together, we will consider:
- Why we use the word ordinance rather than sacrament?
- What Jesus meant when he said “this is my body” and “this is my blood”?
- Do believers receive a special grace in the Lord’s Supper?
- Who should take the Lord’s Supper? What about children?
We will begin this study by examining the celebration of the Lord’s Supper from a historical perspective. Men have been martyred because of their refusal to recant from an understanding of the substance of the Lord’s Supper, an understanding that we share today.
J.C. Ryle (1816 – 1900) was an Anglican bishop who wrote this regarding the significance of the historic division over the issue of the Lord’s Supper:
“The doctrine in question was the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Did they, or did they not believe that the body and blood of Christ were really, that is corporally, literally, locally, and materially, present under the forms of bread and wine after the words of consecration were pronounced? Did they or did they not believe that the real body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin Mary, was present on the so-called altar so soon as the mystical words had passed the lips of the priest? Did they or did they not? That was the simple question. If they did not believe and admit it, they were burned.”
He went on to conclude:
“Grant for a moment that the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice, and not a sacrament . . . You spoil the blessed doctrine of Christ's finished work when he died on the cross. A sacrifice that needs to be repeated is not a perfect and complete thing. You spoil the priestly office of Christ. If there are priests that can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God besides Him, the great High Priest is robbed of His glory. . . . You overthrow the true doctrine of Christ's human nature. If the body born of the virgin Mary can be in more places than one at the same time, it is not a body like our own, and Jesus was not the "last Adam" in the truth of our nature.”
A doctrine worth dying for by our early church fathers deserves our consideration. As we sharpen our understanding and bring clarity to the purpose of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (what we do, why we do it and how we should do it), we will grow in faith and love of the One whose death and resurrection we commemorate.