As Christians, we think too little about the Lord’s Supper. As a pastor, I teach too little about the Lord’s Supper! God has gifted us with this simple meal in order to remind us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though there is something very sobering about the Lord’s Supper—we are, after all, remembering Jesus’ death—it is also an occasion for immense joy. The tomb is empty, Christ has atoned for our sins, and he is coming back. All this is to be made clear as we celebrate.
And yet I wonder how many of us actually prepare to celebrate. My guess is not many.
We let the Lord’s Supper come to us instead of preparing ourselves to go to it. I want us to realize that God has gifted us with the tremendous privilege of celebrating His Supper. This isn’t an event we should merely show up at. Imagine if you had a family vacation set to start on July 15, but you did nothing to prepare. You simply went about your daily life, woke up that morning, and matter-of-factly said, “Oh, I guess it’s time to go on vacation.” That would be ridiculous, and we can approach the Lord’s Supper with the same lackadaisical attitude.
Preparation, therefore, is crucial. Do you know the next time you are scheduled to celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Here are five ways to prepare.
(1) Look forward to it. When Jesus sat down with his disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper, he told them to repeat this meal. He said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The early church understood this to mean they were to eat the bread and drink of the cup regularly, in light of Jesus’ work and because of Jesus’ command (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
If you are going to look forward to it, you have to know it is coming up! Find the dates when the church is going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and put them on your calendar. (At MVBC this is usually the first Sunday of each month). Especially on the days leading up to the event, pray that the Lord gives you an eagerness to gather with the body to participate in this simple meal.
(2) Look beyond it. When Jesus inaugurated the Lord’s Supper, he set the eyes of his disciples upon a future meal, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29). There will come a day when we will dine with the Lord, and on that day we will enjoy his perfect presence. Later on, this meal is called “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9). Believers will be with Christ. We will be aware of what he has done for us. We will marvel at his grace and his goodness. We will be overwhelmed by the privilege of feasting with him.
We know that it is very special to be able to dine with someone. I went to a fundraiser a couple of years ago where one prize being auctioned off was dinner with a celebrity. It is one thing to get an autograph, another thing altogether to break bread. I remember the first real date I had with Deana, who is now my wife. We went out for a spaghetti dinner. We both knew, in an awkward, college-age sort of way, that this meal meant something.
One day every believer will dine with the Lord. So it is good to gather with the body of Christ and celebrate the Lord’s Supper and anticipate an even better meal. Please don’t miss the forest through the trees. We gather anticipating the Lord’s return (1 Cor. 11:26). We gather with the promise of one day eating with him in heaven. Prepare for the Lord’s Supper by reminding yourself that this simple meal is a small taste of a much more impressive feast.
(3) Revisit the gospel. It has been said by more than one person that the Lord’s Supper is a visible presentation and proclamation of the gospel. This is obvious from Jesus’ own words about the Lord’s Supper. He called the bread “my body” and the cup “the new covenant in my blood.” Everything about this meal pointed to him and, specifically, his sacrificial work on the cross.
The Lord’s Supper is the gospel in a visible nutshell. It is the reminder of God’s promise to write his law on the hearts of his people (Jer. 31:33). It is a reminder of God’s promise to give his people a new heart and to fill them with his Holy Spirit (Eze. 36:26-27). It is a reminder that through the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ there is now hope for sinners who were once God’s enemies and are now his friends (John 15:13; James 2:23).
Prepare for the Lord’s Supper by revisiting this gospel. Re-read passages of Scripture that lay out the heart of the gospel clearly (1 Cor. 15:1-11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:1-10; 1 Peter 2:21-25). As you do, pray that God would give you a deeper appreciation both for who you were before he saved you, and who you are now. More than that, pray that God would give you a deeper appreciation for Himself. He is, after all, our Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.
(4) Assess your personal, spiritual life. The Bible is chock-full of calls to examine yourself, to check your heart, to make sure you faith is genuine. You could look at the Parable of the Soils (Mark 4:1-20), Peter’s call to make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10-11), and the author of Hebrews who urged us to hold to our original confidence “firm to the end” (Heb 3:13-15).
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is to be an occasion for serious self-examination, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:28-29). The “body” in verse 29 is probably a reference to both Christ himself and the body of Christ, the church. So before we take the Lord’s Supper we should examine our hearts for ways that we’ve sinned against Christ and his bride. That’s what it means to “discern” the body.
You should not take the Lord’s Supper if you are living in ongoing, unrepentant sin. In other words, if you are feeding a secret sin without battling against it, you should not take the Lord’s Supper until you have repented of that sin. To do otherwise would be to eat and drink “in an unworthy manner." We should all assess our personal, spiritual lives to be sure we have turned away from our sins, and are pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Most good jobs have built into the work year an opportunity for review and assessment. This usually comes in the budget season as employers are considering whom to promote, to pay more, and whom to demote, or even to fire. A good employee knows that an assessment is going to take place, and he prepares for that assessment by working diligently.
No Christian can work his way into heaven. It is God who finally judges us, and the only right assessment is the determination that we have fallen short. And yet the doctrine of justification teaches us that God declares us righteous, through faith in Christ alone; not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of Jesus’ atoning death.
Yes, no Christian can work his way into heaven, but every Christian must work to provide evidence that he is justified, saved, and forgiven. Paul warns us not to celebrate the Lord’s Supper until we have done the hard work of looking inward, examining our hearts, recognizing and confessing our sin.We are all unworthy recipients of God’s grace. If you wait until you are good enough to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, you will never eat of it.
Prepare for the Lord’s Supper by taking an inventory of your personal, spiritual life. Write about or talk about how you are struggling. Confess those struggles; confess them to another brother or sister in Christ. Take the upcoming celebration of the Lord’s Supper as a wonderful opportunity to be assess your spiritual state. Be honest about the condition of your soul.
(5) Assess your public, spiritual life. Paul tells us that the church in Corinth abused the Lord’s Supper by allowing divisions to infiltrate the body of Christ. He rebuked the church, “For when you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk” (1 Cor. 11:20-21). These believers went ahead and ate the Lord’s Supper with little or no regard for their brothers and sisters in Christ. It should not be this way. The Lord’s Supper is to be a picture not simply of our individual discipleship with the Lord, but of our communion with each other as a family of faith.
Prepare then to celebrate the Lord’s Supper by taking an inventory of your public, spiritual life.
- How are your relationships in the church?
- Are you holding a grudge against another brother or sister in Christ?
- Have you offended someone else?
- Are you taking seriously your commitment to be involved in the lives of other believers?
- Are you making time with other believers a priority in your life?
Prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper by asking these types of questions.
At Mount Vernon we celebrate the Lord’s Supper once a month. Three times a year we celebrate during the morning service. Nine times a year we celebrate during the evening service. We often begin by reaffirming the promises we have made to each other in our Church Covenant (a simple statement that notes the commitments we have made as church members to God and to one another). We do this to remind ourselves that we are part of one church, and that we have real obligations toward one another. Prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper by looking at the Church Covenant yourself. Ask yourself how you are doing bearing the burdens of your fellow church family members.
A few times a year, after we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we stay around for a church wide fellowship meal. We try to sit with someone we don’t know. We aim to have purposeful, spiritual conversations during this meal. Of course, we want every meal with believers to be marked by purposeful, spiritual conversations. And yet this fellowship meal is a unique opportunity to gather as one church and pursue the unity we just professed when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
However you do it, remember that the Lord’s Supper isn’t just another, personal, spiritual discipline that we are supposed to do as individual Christians. It is a precious reminder that God has saved us into the body of Christ. He has given us brothers and sisters with whom we can and must live together. So prepare for the Lord’s Supper by taking an inventory of these public, spiritual disciplines.
So the next time the church celebrates the Lord's Supper, take some time to prepare for it.
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