We find in Scripture and in the practice of the early Christians the following five things linked together:
1) The Lord's day 2) the Lord's table 3) the Lord's supper 4) the Lord's death 5) the Lord's coming.
If our practice in respect to the Lord's supper be in accordance with Scripture and the example of the early disciples, we shall be found, if possible, every Lord's day, at the Lord's table, eating the Lord's supper, in remembrance of the Lord's death, and in view of the Lord's coming.
Let us briefly consider these five things and see how intimately they are linked together. The precious link that unites them is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt. 18:20.
1) The first Lord's day was that "morrow after the sabbath" when the Lord arose from among the dead-the first day of a new week and of a new era-on which He sanctioned by His presence the assembling of His disciples together, speaking "peace" to them as the result of His death and resurrection. This was repeated the following first day of the week, when Thomas also was present, and it would appear from Rev. 1:10 that that day soon became known as the "Lord's day."
In Acts 20:7 we read, "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." From this we gather that Christians were wont to connect the breaking of bread, or Lord 's supper, with the first day of the week, or Lord's day, and that they had apostolic sanction for so doing, though doubtless they did not confine it to that day, but at the first observed it even more frequently, than once a week.
2) The Lord's table is the name given in 1 Cor. 10:21 to the table on which were spread the memorials of the Lord's death-the bread (or, "one loaf") "the communion of the body of Christ," and the cup, "the communion of the blood of Christ." v. 16. Thus was the Lord's supper connected with the Lord 's table, and we should be careful to ascertain whether the table at which we partake of the communion, or "break bread," is indeed the Lord's table, for there are many tables which men have set up, all claiming to be the Lord's table, but which, if tested by the Word, would be found contrary to divine order. That only can rightly be called the Lord's table which the Lord Himself owns, which is open to all the members of the body of Christ (without any special membership), to which none but true believers are admitted, from which even these are excluded, if leavened by evil doctrine or practice, and where everything in the way of worship, ministry, and discipline is left to the Lord to direct, by His Spirit, "as He will," apart from all human order or arrangement. In short, the Lord Jesus Christ being recognized as present in the midst, everything must give way to Him, and befit His presence. All must be according to His name, and therefore consistent with all that He is as "made Lord and Christ," and "Head over all things to the church, which is His body."
Do not rest satisfied with only breaking bread every Lord's day, but apply the test of Scripture to your position, and see whether you are indeed in fellowship with those who are at the Lord's table. Even at Corinth, where so much internal division and confusion prevailed, they still came together "into one place" (1 Cor. 11:20, etc.) to eat of the "one loaf" (chap. 10:17, Greek), and thus was the outward expression of the oneness of the body maintained, though surely the outward expression is of slight account unless there be also the endeavor to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the [uniting] bond of peace." Eph. 4:3.
The Lord's supper is the name given to that blessed feast which the Lord Himself instituted after the Passover supper (see Luke 22) on the night of His betrayal, as that in which His people should be able, after His departure, to remember Him. We get the expression in 1 Cor. 11:20, and in the verses which follow, the Apostle communicates to us what he had "received from the Lord" respecting it, and he expressly connects it with-
The Lord's death, which, he says, ye show (or announce) "as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup." The very fact that the cup is apart from the bread brings before us that His precious blood was shed, and we remember His death as that through which we have forever been delivered from the guilt and power of sin. It is most important to remember that it was from the side of a dead Christ the blood and water flowed (see John 19:30-35), for "in Him was life," and although it is blessedly true that "God hath given to us eternal life" (1 John 5:11), yet, "this life is in His Son," and could not be imparted to us without His laying down His life and taking it again as He did in resurrection; after that He could, and did, impart His own risen life in the power of the Holy Ghost, as we see in John 20:22. Again, in John 12:24 we read, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The Lord Jesus might at any time have gone back to the glory from which He came, but there He must have dwelt alone, and left us in our sins to go on to death and judgment, had not His love and the Father's purpose led Him to come down to the place where we were, in death to be made sin for us, and bear our sins "in His own body on the tree," then, leaving sin, death and judgment behind, he rose from among the dead to impart to us who believe a life victorious, sinless and eternal. Well may we remember His death!
It may be well to remark that there is no reference to the Lord's supper in John 6:53, etc., for if the Lord's supper were intended, we should be forced to conclude from verse 54 that whoso eats the Lord's supper has eternal life, and will be raised up for glory, which even a Romanist would not assert. If we have never fed spiritually and by faith on the death of Christ as the ground of our forgiveness and all our blessings, we certainly are not fit persons to sit down to the Lord's supper, in which believers are called in a special way to remember and feed upon the Lord's death.
"The Lord of glory crucified;
The Lord of life has bled and died."
But there is another thing connected with the Lord's supper, namely-
5) The Lord 's coming. In the verse already partially quoted (1 Cor. 11:26) we are told, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." The Lord, when He instituted the supper, was just about to leave His disciples, but promises (John 14:3) to come again and receive them to Himself, and He simply invites those who have a heart for Him to remember Him together in this blessed way until He comes. We count on His presence in our midst, recall His first coming, and His death under the judgment of our sins, and we do it in longing expectation of His second coming. Can we not hope that each time may be the last, or we may be "caught up" from that very feast to meet Him in the air, to see Him face to face, and so "ever b2 with the Lord"? (See 1 Thess. 4:13-18.)
It is clear then that Scripture connects these five things together, and that it was the custom of the early disciples to assemble together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ every Lord's day (if not oftener) around the Lord 's table, to eat the Lord 's supper, in remembrance of the Lord's death, and in view of the Lord's coming.
Thank God, there are at least "two or three" thus gathered in many places week by week, in fellowship with all who desire to keep His word and not deny His name, and in spite of all the efforts of the enemy to throw contempt on the simple feast, to sow dissension, and to scatter. We believe there will be to the end a little company so doing, for it is written, "Till He come." Dear fellow Christian, would not you like to be found among that number when He comes?