Bible Study Page

A common refrain we sometimes use as we partake of the Lord’s Supper is that God help us to put the cares of the world out of our minds and think about the gravity of this moment of worship. We ask Him to help us think about what really matters.

The potential trains of thought are plentiful. We can dwell on:

• The innocence of the Son of God
• The unfairness of the kangaroo trial that sent Him to the cross
• The mockery and beatings He endured to save mankind, including the lives of the very people mocking and beating Him
• The damage to His body as represented by this unleavened bread
• The blood that spilled from His body over several hours as represented by this cup
• The communion that we share with each other on this day as God’s children

There is at least one other thought worth considering at this time: What am I going to do after this memorial is over? How am I going to keep this “new covenant” with God written in the blood of Jesus the rest of this week, until we gather here again next Sunday?

Do this in remembrance of Him. Then remember Him in your words and deeds.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.

“Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). Jesus spoke those words to His 12 apostles at the Last Supper, the feast that we recreate every Sunday in remembrance of Him.

He defined this “greater love” as part of an admonition for them to love each other — so deeply that they would be willing to die for each other. How deeply? “Just as I have loved you,” Jesus said.

No man ever loved as deeply as Jesus, as Paul explained in Romans 5: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

He loved unrighteous men so deeply that He knew and accepted that fate before God even created man in His image.

Think about that. We all like to think we would give our lives in the moment to save those we love the most — like the parents in Uvalde, Texas, who were willing to rush into a building, against the orders of police, to save their own children at risk of their own lives.

But what if the parents knew in advance all of that was going to happen? What if they knew and sent their children into the building anyway? What if they had the power to stop the murder of innocent children and let it unfold? What if the children had the power to call 10,000 police officers into the building to prevent the injustice?

That’s how much God loved us. That’s how much Jesus loved us. And they knew it was going to happen before the beginning of time — before God ever created man in His image, long before God came to Earth as Man in the flesh.

“Greater love had no man than this.” And we live because of it. Let’s remember that love again today as we partake of these emblems that represent the body of Jesus hanging on the cross and the blood that spilled from His body.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.

Buried in the heart of Romans 5, we find this familiar passage: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”

But the chapter is also rich with reminders of everything we have gained (and will gain) through Jesus’ death on our behalf. Let’s think about those gifts as we remember His sacrifice today:

• We were justified by His blood.
• We were reconciled to God.
• We received the gift of righteousness.
• We have peace with God.
• We abound in the grace of God.
• We exult in hope of the glory of God.
• We will be saved from God’s wrath.
• We exult in our tribulations because they teach us to persevere, prove our character and give us hope.
• We will reign in life through Him.

The chapter closes with this summation: “As sin reigned in death, even so grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Justification. Reconciliation. Righteousness. Peace. Grace. Hope. Salvation. Life.

That’s how we benefit from the death of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us thank God for sacrificing His Son as we break the bread, the symbol of Christ’s broken body on the cross, and drink the fruit of the vine, the symbol of the blood he spilled in agony for us.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.

In the world of fine dining, the more courses you have, the fancier the dinner. The number can range from as few as five to as many as 21 in the extreme, with each course designed to complement the one that follows. The feast is more about the experience than the food.

That’s how men think; it’s not how God thinks:

• When God chose a deliverer for Israel, He chose Moses, a humble man who did not consider himself eloquent and who used his brother, Aaron, as a spokesman.
• When God relented to Israel’s foolish demands for a king, He picked David, the youngest son Jesse, not because of his physical stature but because he had a heart after God.
• When God sent our King to earth in the form of Man, He did not give Jesus the kind of superficial beauty that appeals to mankind.

Likewise, when God designed a feast to remind us of His Son, He kept it simple – a two-course meal for all time.

The first course is the bread: “This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” Jesus said in explaining the symbols to His apostles.

The second course is the fruit of the vine: “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood,” He added.

The menu never changes because this feast also is about the experience, not the food. “If anyone is hungry, have him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment,” Paul told the Corinthians when they turned the Lord’s Supper into a common meal.

Simple but substantive: The Son of God made Himself lower than the angels. He was tempted just like we are yet without sin. He died in anguish on the cross, an innocent man, so we could live through Him. We are here today to remember that sacrifice and gain spiritual strength from this two-course meal.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.

“Do this in remembrance of me.” We associate that phrase with this part of our weekly worship to God because Jesus said it to His disciples at the Last Supper.

“And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is being given for you: do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

The words are so profound that some version of them are burned into the wood of many tables like this one.

But what are we supposed to remember? Here are some snapshots from God’s Word to consider as we partake of the bread and the cup this morning:

• “As He existed in the form of God, [He] did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7)

• “He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of great pain and familiar with sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and had no regard for Him. However, it was our sickness that He, and our pains that He carried.” (Isaiah 53:3-4)
  
• “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)
  
• “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishments for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

• “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9)

• “He poured out His life unto death, and was counted with wrongdoers; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the wrongdoers.” (Isaiah 53:12)

• “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” (Matthew 28:6)

• “For the joy set before Him, [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Through inspired men, God etched those memories into His Word for our benefit. Always remember what Jesus did for you, and commit your life to Him. It’s the least you can do after everything He endured for you.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.

Symbols are all over the news these days, and it has us asking lots of questions about what these symbols mean or whether they mean anything at all:

• Is the Confederate flag a display of heritage or in-your-face racism?
• Should Confederate statues come down?
• Should statues of anyone with presumed ties to historical bigotry come down?
• Is it offensive to take a knee during the national anthem?
• Should the president use the Bible as a photo prop?
• Is it cultural appropriation for congressional leaders to wear African garb at a photo op?
• Should the president wear a face mask in public even if the risks are minimal?

Symbols can be powerful. They remind us of important events and people. But symbols also can become superficial.

That’s true for the symbols before us now. Christ instituted them to remind us of his sacrifice – the bread as a representation of His body and the fruit of the vine as a symbol of the blood He shed to cleanse men’s souls. But it’s possible, for all of us collectively and each of us individually, to rob these symbols of their meaning.

The Corinthians did, and Paul admonished them for it.

Now in giving this next instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you come together it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for when you eat, each one takes his own supper first; and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you. (I Corinthians 11:17-22)

… Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number are asleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, have him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment. As to the remaining matters, I will give instructions when I come. (11:27-34)

In other words, the burden is on us to keep the substance in these symbols. Christ’s death is important enough that God gave us a weekly reminder of it. But we can turn it into something superficial or meaningless, and condemn ourselves in the process. Let’s make sure our heads and hearts are in the right place this morning and every Lord’s Day.

For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.