To God be the glory.

As a new Christian, one of the most immediate issues facing you is worship.

Within a week of the time that you're baptized,

the services of the Lord's church are going to assemble

and you will have the opportunity

to worship God.

But, you know it might be that you're not exactly sure what to do.

You're not exactly sure how God desires for you to worship Him.

You need to understand

that worship is a great privilege given to God's children

and it is certainly something that you want to engage in properly.

Now the Bible lists five acts of worship:

preaching, prayer, singing, giving,

and the Lord's Supper.

In this lesson, we want to talk about the Lord's Supper.

And, there're three points that we want to cover.

Number one,

What is the Lord's Supper;

number two, the time and frequency of the Lord's Supper; and, number three,

we want to discuss some abuses and misunderstandings

about the Lord's Supper. Now,

first point, number one,

what is the Lord's Supper?

First, I want us to consider the fact that it is a memorial.

In 1st Corinthians 11:23, the Bible says that: ...The Lord Jesus,

on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread and when he had

given thanks, He broke it and said

"Take, eat;

this is My body which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me."

Now, the same thing was said about the fruit of the vine in verse 25.

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new

covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it,

in remembrance

of Me."

When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper,

He took the unleavened bread and He said that we are to eat it in remembrance of His

body.

He then took the fruit of the vine and said that we are to drink it

in remembrance of His blood.

Friends, it's really as simple as that.

The Lord's Supper is a memorial.

It's a time to reflect and a time to remember. There's nothing mysterious

about it.

There's nothing magical about it. I heard someone say on one occasion that

partaking of the Lord's Supper

forgave their sins.

Partaking of the Lord's Supper does not forgive our sins. It is simply

two emblems to help us remember.

Like a person who might set out pictures of a loved one at a memorial or at a

funeral.

They do that so we can remember our loved one.

A few years ago I was in Washington, D.C.,

and I went to see the Vietnam Memorial;

and there's a statue there of three soldiers.

And next to it, there's a wall with the names of thousands of soldiers who died

in that war.

Now, here's a question.

Why were those emblems set up?

And the answer is,

to help us remember...

so that we don't forget.

And the same thing is true about the Lord's Supper.

Jesus Christ gave us emblems that represent His body and His blood

and they cause us

to remember.

Now, the next logical question is what are we supposed to remember? Where should

my thoughts be as I partake of the Lord's Supper?

Well, the Bible says that I'm supposed to remember His death.

I'm supposed to remember his body and I'm supposed to remember

His blood.

1st Corinthians 11:26 says:

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,

you proclaim the Lord's death

till He comes."

Sometimes people will say that we're celebrating the Lord's death, burial, and

resurrection.

Certainly they're all tied together and certainly they're hard to separate, but,

Jesus said that we do this in remembrance of his death.

We are remembering the sacrifice.

We are remembering the price that was paid.

You know, there's an old spiritual song that asks,

"Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

Of course, I wasn't there.

But the Bible here calls upon me to use my imagination

and to let the scriptures bring to my mind the things that happened there.

And so, when I partake of the Lord's Supper,

I visualize the abuse He suffered.

When I partake of the bread

I see the body. I visualize the scourging that He endured.

John 19, in verse 1, says, "So then Pilate took Jesus

and scourged Him."

History says that when they would scourge an individual,

they would use a short-handled whip.

It had several thongs of various links.

And in these thongs there were tied small iron balls or

sharp pieces of sheep's bones

or perhaps iron chains with small weights at the end.

And this scourgers.

There were often times be two of them and they would take turns or there might be

one who alternated positions.

And they would beat the back of the individual

until the blood began to trickle

and the bruises began to form.

And it began to cut into the flesh and into the muscle.

It has been said that it hurt so badly that some men had been known to have

bitten their tongues in two

during the beating.

And, when I

remember

the body of Christ,

I think about that. I think about

them putting the cross

on his bloody, flesh-torn back.

And, I envision the nails being driven into His hands.

In actuality, it was probably the base of the hands, at the wrists.

That would have been stronger. It could support the weight. There's a bundle

of nerves there that makes it excruciating and

the Romans were all about that.

And, then I envision the cross being stood up and dropped into the ground.

Can you see the body?

Can you appreciate

the sacrifice?

And then I partake of the fruit of the vine,

and I imagine the blood.

In my mind's eye, I see the crown of thorns being placed upon His head and the

blood trickling down His face.

I see His back,

bloodied from the beating.

I see the Roman soldier piercing His side with the spear.

And, I always think about John 19:34:

"But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and

water came out."

I always visualize that in my mind.

Someone told me that the Lord's Supper always means more to them immediately

after they've heard a sermon on the crucifixion.

And that makes sense because

that's what we're remembering.

And when you hear a sermon on what He endured,

the emblems bring that to your mind and the sacrifice that He made

is more vivid.

Jesus said... "This do in remembrance

of me."

Now, why is that blood so precious?

Because Matthew 26:28 says because it was shed for the

remission

of sins.

Ephesians 1:7 says without that blood there is no remission.

A friend of mine said that during the Lord's Supper, he likes to remember

by thinking of it this way:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. What does he mean by that?

Let me go through it for you.

One, he thinks about the one Lord;

two thieves between whom He was crucified;

three crosses that stood on Calvary's Hill;

the four parts of His garment, divided amongst the soldiers;

the five wounds that He suffered: His head, bloody from the crown of thorns;

His back,

raw from the scourging; His hands with the nail scars; His feet pierced with the

spike;

His side bleeding from the soldier's spear.

Then six, he thinks about the six hours of darkness upon the earth

at the point of His death.

And then seven,

he recalls the seven sayings that the Lord uttered upon the cross before He died.

You know, when we partake of the Lord's Supper

it is

a memorial.

Now, secondly, in answer to the question,

"What is the Lord's Supper?" Not only is it a memorial

but it is also a proclamation.

When we partake of these emblems, we proclaim to the world