“This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (See Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-26)
Our first thought should be, We have come together to meet the Lord; He is in the midst (Matt. 18:20). We are in His presence.
“Gathered to My name” is the condition attached to the promise of His presence.
We can claim the promise, if we are gathered in holiness and truth, for He is “holy” and “true” (Rev. 3:7). To Him alone the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of truth, gathers us in separation from evil and in the unity of the Spirit.
Have we His presence in all our meetings? Yes, the promise applies to them all: breaking of bread, prayer, open meetings for ministry, study of the Word, or discipline, whenever we come together as an assembly.
Gospel meetings or those held on the responsibility of a servant of the Lord, are not assembly meetings, but may have the fellowship of those so gathered.
We should therefore keep before us the character of the meeting so that our hymns, scriptures read, worship or prayers, may be appropriate for the occasion.
When we come together to remember the Lord, and thus show His death till He come, which leads our hearts to worship Him, would not the Holy Spirit lead our thoughts towards the sufferings of the Lord, the lamb of God without blemish and without spot, and to the love that led Him down here to die for us? We remember Him in death.
The finished work and consequent glory of the Lord connects itself with this, as what has given us a standing before God. Thanksgiving fills our hearts for these blessings, but the occasion is higher than our blessings. We think of Himself and of His sufferings, and His perfection in them, and how He glorified God about sin.
We worship Him. “This do in remembrance of Me” expresses His desire that our hearts should follow Him in His path of suffering that led Him in love into death for us.
In keeping with this, we can see that if hymns are sung or scriptures are read before the breaking of bread, it should be such as would lead our thoughts into fellowship with the Saviour in His sufferings and death, of which the bread and the cup are symbols.
Ministry or prayer should be left till the Lord has had His portion in the adoration and praises from the hearts of His redeemed people.
We do not want nor need rules, for we have Himself in the midst. We have liberty, not for the flesh, but of the Spirit. We are guests at His table; deep reverence therefore becomes us in His presence.
Avoid a criticizing spirit, for that destroys worship in the soul, robs it of its happiness, and the Saviour is robbed of His praise from it. We must not be occupied with failure in each other. The Lord bears the iniquity of our holy things (Ex. 28:38). If anything comes in that tends to mar, let the heart cleave still closer to Christ, the eye more firmly fixed on Him, seeing no man but “Jesus only,” that praise to Him in our hearts may not be hindered.
It is a time for worship, where we present and He receives our “spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
If the Lord leads us to some ministry after the remembrance of Him, it is good; but do not let us cut short His praises, if there is liberty in worship to go on. It is not out of order before separating for a brother to commend us and all the church of God to His care, remembering tried ones and absent ones, and giving the assembly as such an interest in praying for the gospel towards the unsaved.
The prayer meeting, which is next in importance, has a different object. We come to tell the Lord our desires for His glory and His people’s good, and for the spread of the gospel. Someone has said, “The prayer meeting is the pulse of the assembly and shows its condition.” Those who neglect it, neglect a great privilege of fellowship with the Lord. He never neglects it.
In this and in other assembly meetings the subjects are more general, but we can count on the Lord’s presence and the guidance and ministry of the Holy Spirit.