10 essays
Observing the Lord’s Supper supplies a corrective on church life. In one of the most familiar passages on this matter, Paul says,
“I received from the Lord what I passed on to you. The night he was betrayed he took a loaf, gave thanks, broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.’ After the meal he took the cup, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. As often as you drink it, do it in memory of me.’”
Read Essay →We always stand at the junction between past and future. That means we benefit from both God’s deeds from the past and his promises about the future. The things he has done guarantee the things he has said he’ll do.
As that present junction point moves forward, we carry with us observances that combine memory and hope. The Lord’s Supper is one such observance. That fact appears in one of Paul’s comments to the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you show the Lord’s death [past] till he comes [future].” His coming again is as certain as his death before; that hope is as grounded as that memory.
Read Essay →Getting something rolling is not the end of any work. Continued efforts must keep the matter rolling. Jesus’ ministry, his death and resurrection, and the “shedding forth” of the Spirit on Pentecost were not the end of the story. Luke summarizes the first Christians’ endeavors at carrying the faith forward right from the start: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers” (Acts 2:42).
Our gathering today incorporates these same four observances, including “breaking bread.” Doing so recognizes that convictions and commitments fade with time unless we make efforts to counteract that tendency. The sufferings of the Messiah happened whether we remember them or not; they meant what they still mean whether we acknowledge it or not. But they do not benefit us if they are not continuously alive before our eyes. “Lest we forget Gethsemane; lest we forget his agony; lest we forget his thorn-crowned brow, lest we forget his love for us,” let’s go to Calvary (“Lead Me to Calvary” by Jennie Evelyn Hussey).
Read Essay →We do not serve a dead Savior; we serve a living Lord. So the emblems he instituted for remembering his broken body and shed blood picture obedience to him as resurrected Lord. The reason there are emblems of his body and blood is that’s what he gave in obedience to the Father.
Likewise, our resurrected Lord ever lives to receive our total, permanent, and exclusive obedience. And he ever lives to intercede for us because our obedience is not always complete.
Read Essay →“You [Gentiles] were separated from Christ . . ., separated from the commonwealth of Israel, without hope and without God in the world. But you that were once afar off have come near by the blood of Christ. He’s the basis for peace between us. He made both of us into one group, tore down the dividing barrier between us, and abolished in his flesh the law made up of commanded regulations. That way, from the two groups he could create in himself one new united mankind, making peace between us, and reconciling both of us to God in one body through the cross.”
Read Essay →The night Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he told his disciples that he would not be drinking the fruit of the vine with them again till the kingdom of God had come (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:15, 18). This would be the last Passover meal he would observe with them; the shedding of his blood and the giving of his body would happen the next morning. For our purposes today, the point is that he would drink it with his disciples when the kingdom had come.
Read Essay →Early in Jesus’ ministry, he told the disciples he had go to Jerusalem and suffer a lot of things from the religious leaders and even be killed. That cloud hung over his entire ministry, but it was something he had to do, so he did it.
When we “come to the table,” we look back at his death and acknowledge the principle of fulfilling what is ours to do before God and other people. That is especially important when it comes to matters that only we are in a position to handle. Maybe it’s just that we are in a good place to take care of it. We don’t put it off or wait for somebody else to pick up the slack. We do our part.
Read Essay →God has given us a wide range of freedom in which to use our power of choice. We live within a broad arrow of options. As long as our choices fall within the limits of that arrow, we are moving along toward the Lord’s intended destiny for us. The garden in Genesis 2 pictures our circumstance before our Creator. Adam and Eve could eat the fruit from countless trees; they were to leave just one of them alone.
Read Essay →The bread and fruit of the vine are more than what they picture. They represent something that leads to what comes back on us to empower us for whatever lies between now and the coming joy. We can run steadfastly the race that is set before us because we are looking here to “Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a). “For the joy that was set before him at the right hand of the Father, he endured the cross and disregarded the shame” (12:2b).
Read Essay →Do you ever wonder whether somebody loves you? Do your parents care about you? What about your children? Do you think your husband, your wife, still loves you? What do your friends say that makes you confident that they care? Do your neighbors and fellow workers and church members do things that let you know how they regard you? Does it cross your mind that they may not mean it?
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