This is the second book

The Lord's Supper

As an introduction for our thinking on The Lord's Supper, let us call to mind the experience of Mephibosheth through David. King David wanted to show a kindness to one of the house of Saul, for the sake of Jonathan, there was a character who was known by the name of Mephibosheth, he was lame on both feet, this not being his fault and he lived at a place named Lo-debar, which means a place of low estate. Mephibosheth was invited to the home of David and did eat frequently at the king's table, despite his handicap, he was invited to dine continually for the sake of Jonathan. Now let us so see how this all foreshadowed the person and the work of our Lord Jesus, as this is how Scripture should be understood, so what are we taught in this incident?

We, all humans, every single one of us have sinned, have peculiarities as far as our personalities are con�cerned, we come from our Lo-debar', the place of low estate' and we are lame on both of our feet' as far as our Lord is concerned, our righteousness is as filthy rags', this being the standard of our lives in ourselves, without our dear Lord. Without The Master we are spiritually handicapped, disabled in our efforts to find our Father God, as we endeavour, on our own, to try to walk along the heavenly highway of our Lord, this cannot be done, we fail. Now if this thinking is not understood then please do not bother to read any further, as it will be an utter waste of your time

Because of the love of our heavenly Father God, He shows a kindness to us, not for the sake of Jonathan but our dear Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour in His Cross work. Now just stop for a moment please, all that we have and are is in and through the work of our dear Lord Jesus Christ on The Cross, in Him we mshall not want'. As we repent of our sins, have forgiveness through The Master by His Cross work, we then feast at His table', having our deformity' of sin, ones disability' in our endeavour to walk with God, our spiritual handicap' completely, fully covered by the effective work of our Lord Jesus on The Cross. We should understand that, as Mephibosheth fed at the kind's table continuously, so we need the continuous grace of our Lord Jesus expressed to us all. Our Lord Jesus covers our sins, no, He removes them as far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered again. For this great act of our Father God through our dear Lord Jesus, we remember this, indeed remember Him as in The Breaking of the Bread'

So let us now consider some of the teaching given by His Holy Spirit in The Scriptures about The Lord's Supper. I am going to dwell in the main,� on the record in The Divine Oracles, as found in the first book of Corinthians, you might say, steady on Trevor, that is the writing of Paul', that is so but he received it under the guidance of our Lord Himself, as Paul said, I have received from the Lord, what I also delivered unto you'. In the four records of the first Communion Service, the bread is mentioned four times, also the same number of times for the wine, but for the cup there are eight recordings of that word, this must be important and I will touch on it shortly

As the bread is broken from the loaf, it reminds us that our Father God gave His only, only begotten Son, His body was broken on The Cross for our salvation, His life was given so that we might be forgiven, our Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty of our sin which is death, He died on The Cross. The life of our dear Lord Jesus Christ was given so that we might live, live eternally as we put our lives in the hands of our Father God, through this same dear Lord Jesus. As we break the bread from the loaf we should remind ourselves that our dear Lord Jesus Christ died of a broken heart because of our sins. There are so many paradoxes in life as we become Christians, we are in the upside down kingdom. In our lives we are weak, but in The Master we are strong, in the natural man we are poor in ourselves, but in our great eternal God we have all the riches of Christ, we are now in a world where there is death, which is the only thing that is certain, but in our Lord Jesus Christ we have life and that is everlasting

The next two words I want us to consider, they are that our Lord Jesus gave thanks'. Now just think for a moment that our Lord Jesus Christ was and is The Son of God, the Scriptures record, He that hath seen Me, hath see The Father', then we have the words I and the Father are One' and those lovely words, The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us'. Being The Son of God He is omniscient, He must be or He could not be God's Son. Our Lord would have known, as He instituted The Lord's Supper, have understood in every detail what was going to happen to Him over the forth coming hours Our Lord Jesus Christ was omniscient, yet He gave thanks, He was prepared to endure The Cross, despise its shame, for the joy that was set before Him'. Had you or I been in that position we would have run a mile, no done the marathon at record speed, but no He gave thanks, please dwell on that for a moment

Now I jump to the words in Scripture for the institution, that we should Do this in remembrance of Me'. At the fellowship where I worshipped in my twenties, the full meaning of the words just quoted, were brought clearly to my notice by a dear elderly brother who must have been in his seventies, his name was Harold. In the prayers at a Communion Service we should not pray for folk who are unwell, it just should not be done, nor should we consider those on the missionary field although they need our support, the troubles of the world should not be remembered, so what should we pray for? The answer is in the words we are considering, all our thoughts as expressed in our prayers should centre directly around the person of our Lord Jesus. If any music is played as we Break Bread' together, it should be of hymns which, as we mull over the words in our minds, as we muse upon them, they will remind us of our blessed Lord Jesus no one and nothing else, this is the discipline our Lord desires of me and you, a strict discipline that should be applied to the hearts and minds of us all, leading us to remember Him mor0e fully. The Lord's Supper should, must have a levelling off effect of everyone within an assembly, no one should have prominence, it is our Lord Jesus to whom we gather, it is to Him that the gathering of the people should be. Our Lord Jesus desires to stand in the midst of His people. This in itself solves so many problems within a Christian fellowship, as experience has taught

We now come to the cup', why ever is this mentioned eight times in the four records we have in The Scriptures? This must be important, please dwell for a moment on how I understand this matter. The cup contained the portion of wine, so there was first of all the portion our Lord Jesus had in His Cross experience, remember He said in the Garden of Gethsemane, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevert2heless, not as I will, but as thou wilt'. The cup, the portion of our Lord Jesus was to give His life a ransom for many, to pay the price, the penalty of my, of our sins. We know from Scripture, The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die', our God is just, His law cannot be broken and our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of God fully, what a price He paid! In this very act, our Lord Jesus Christ did it all on His own, as He was made sin for us, as He took our sin, He uttered those piercing words' My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Our Lord, took His cup', He drank every drop of its contents and gave thanks

Now we have our cup', our portion. As we are Christians, having our sins washed away by the shed blood, the life giving of our dear Lord Jesus, the portions of blessings from our F
ather God are many, I will just mention three. First of all, as we become Christians, our sins are separated as far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered again by our Father God, completely forgiven. Then as we believe, we have within our being the presence of the Holy Spirit of our Father God, to convict of our sins, make us holy, glorify our Lord Jesus in our lives and also to have with us, on a day to day basis, His fellowship, His communion so we are never lonely. Finally, as we believe and put on one side our mortal bodies in death, we go, without any doubt at all, to be with our dear Lord, which will be far better than anything we will have experienced here in time. In and through our dear Lord Jesus our eternal destiny, as individuals, is sealed, this is an absolute certainty, yes it is. Our Lord Jesus was and is The Truth, He could not be otherwise, He could not tell a lie. Now Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live'. Our eternal destiny, in our blessed Lord, is an absolute certainty. We will also, never loose anything good of what we have experienced while on Planet Earth, that will not be more than made up for when we get to glory - I have just given the tastes of three of the portions we have in our cups' as Christians

Finally we are told that as we partake in a Communion Service, We show, we declare the Lord's Death, until He come'. In the communion how do we declare the Lord's death? Just one brief� answer, as we partake of the elements we declare in our hearts and minds, what we understand of our Father God, declare to Him, what we know of the reality of the bread and wine which is Christ. We will continue, continue to remember our dear Lord Jesus in this way until He comes again, then we will be actually in His divine presence, no further remembrance will be necessary - what a day that will be!

The Lord's Supper is also known as The Communion Service but this is not a Biblical title. In the service our communion should not first of all be with each other, nor with those in our Lord, who have gone before. Our first delight in communion should be with our Lord Himself as has been pointed out in Scripture. We are asked, as we partake of The Lord's, Supper, to do it in remembrance of The Master and our Lord said that as we remember our Him in the way He has asked us, that we do proclaim the Lord's death uintil He come - what more advise do we need on this point?DSETz
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This is the second book