In SUNDAY'S MATTHEW BIBLE STUDY FELLOWSHIP, we began looking at the Lord's Supper. What is it exactly? We began to answer this question by laying some foundation work from 1 Cor. 10 where Paul gives some very helpful examples and defines his terms.
Historically man-made religious and man-centered theological systems claimed that they were the ones who decided what was and what was not the Lord's Supper. One major religion claims the Lord's Supper is a wafer and cup of wine that undergoes transubstantiation, becoming the actual body and blood of Christ so that He can be sacrificed over and over again. Others use only a cracker with grape juice claiming that they are remembering the death of Christ. Some do it weekly, others monthly or just periodically. It is usually considered a very solemn and somber ritual, though some treat it more like a common meal.
But all of this is fruitless because it doesn't matter what men and their religious and theological systems say. What matters is what God and His Word say! To illustrate this, Paul draws our attention to an example in Israel's history (1 Cor. 10:1-7), the Golden Calf Incident in Ex. 32:1-10. You remember what happened there. While Moses was up on the mountain talking with the LORD, the Israelites were down in the valley committing idolatry and fornication. They told Aaron to get Up, make us gods, which shall go before us! Aaron did as they commanded, gathering all their gold jewelry, and then he fashioned them into a molten calf, saying: These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Then Aaron made an official religious proclamation: TOMORROW IS A FEAST UNTO THE LORD. And the people rose early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play (a euphemism for sexual immorality) (Ex. 32:6).
So, there the Israelites were, murmuring, complaining, rejecting God and what He was doing at that time through His messenger Moses, desiring to return to Egypt and turn to the pagan idols and the devil gods that were behind those idols, engaging in all kinds of idolatry and sexual immorality (by the way, all things that the Corinthians were having trouble with as well!). And their great religious leader Aaron, no doubt decked out in his priestly garments, waving his priestly accoutrements, resonating his voice in a deep solemn tenor announced: WE SHALL HAVE A FEAST TO THE LORD TOMORROW! A LORD'S FEAST! In the midst of all this rebellion against the LORD, Aaron (like the so-called religious leaders of our day!) thought he had the authority to claim what was and what was not A FEAST UNTO THE LORD, A LORD'S FEAST, or perhaps going one step further: A LORD'S SUPPER! But he was wrong. What mattered wasn't what Aaron and the Israelites thought. What mattered is what the LORD thought!
And we find out exactly what the LORD thought of Aaron's presumed feast/supper unto the LORD in the following verses: And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down for thy people, which thou brought out of the land of Egypt, have CORRUPTED THEMSELVES! They turned quickly out of the way which I commanded them: They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said: These be thy gods, o Israel ... I have seen this people, behold a stiff-necked people: Now, therefore, let Me alone that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them ... (Ex. 32:7-10). Well, there you have it. The One who decides what is and what is not a LORD'S FEAST OR A LORD'S SUPPER or A LORD'S CUP or A LORD'S TABLE is ... THE LORD! It is not humans, even religious humans, even human religious leaders. It is the LORD.
This is as true today as it was back in Israel's history. So, the question we need to ask is not how your religious system does the “Eucharist” or how your denomination does communion or what your theological system says about the Lord's Supper. The only question we should ask is what does God say is a true LORD'S SUPPER, LORD'S TABLE, LORD'S CUP and LORD'S BREAD? What does He accept and acknowledge? We don't have to guess because right after Paul gives us the example of the Golden Calf Incident (1 Cor. 10:1-7), he goes on to give us the LORD'S SUPPER for today in the Dispensation of Grace that truly pleases Him.
Paul says that the LORD'S CUP today is a Cup of Blessing, that comes from fellowshipping (communing) around the blessings that flow out of the Blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16a), which include: Redemption, propitiation and forgiveness of sins (Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7), justification and life (Rom. 5:9-10) and reconciliation (Eph. 2:13). Today, we drink from the LORD'S CUP when we fellowship and associate together and relate one to another in intimate union with the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9), enjoying and sharing the blessings made possible through His death on the Cross.
And the LORD'S BREAD that we break is the fellowshipping together in one Body, the Body of Christ. For we being many are one BREAD and one BODY (the spiritual Body of Christ) (1 Cor. 10:16b). Believers are placed by the Holy Spirit into the one Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), where their hearts are comforted, being knit together in Love (Agape Love–the self-sacrificial love of Christ on the Cross), built-up together in the full acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, which was revealed to and through the Apostle Paul (Col.1:21-2:2; Eph. 3:1-9; Rom. 16:25).
In God's sight, a true LORD'S SUPPER, made up of joyfully and thankfully drinking form the LORD'S CUP and eating of the LORD'S BREAD at the LORD'S TABLE, only occurs when believers eat and drink together (which includes literal as well as metaphorical eating and drinking) in fellowship around the blessings that flow through the death of Christ for them, enjoying and sharing them one with another, being comforted and knit together in the Agape Love, which flows out of God's Mystery Truth revealed to and through Paul's distinct apostleship by the Holy Spirit.
Whatever man-made and man-centered systems may say (like Aaron), anything short of this displeases God. Just as Israel corrupted itself and turned quickly from the way God commanded them to follow through His spokesman, Moses, so too most of historic Christianity in its rebelliousness has corrupted itself and turned quickly from the way God commanded them to follow through His spokesman for today, the Apostle Paul (Ex. 32:7-8). They have replaced God's Mystery truth through the Word rightly-divided with their own human rituals out of their own vain imaginations. Like Aaron, to claim to offer a FEAST/SUPPER to the LORD in the midst of such rebellion is, in fact, not to offer up a LORD'S FEAST, SUPPER, TABLE, CUP or BREAD at all (1 Cor. 11:20) and can easily turn into a feast, supper, cup and bread of devils (I Cor. 10:20-21), something unworthy of the LORD, bringing guilt and shame onto themselves, others and the whole Body of Christ (1 Cor. 11:17-22; 27-28).