Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2638
“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when Hie 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. After the same manner, also, He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do you as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
WE have no respect whatever for the ordinances of men in religion. Anything that is only invented by churches, or councils, is nothing whatever to us. We know of two ordinances instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ—the Baptism of Believers and the Lord’s Supper. And we utterly abhor and reject all pretended “sacraments” of every kind. And because we observe these two ordinances, and these two, only, we are the more concerned that they should be properly used and duly understood, and that they should minister to the edification of those who participate in them. We would have those who are baptized understand what is meant by that expressive rite—that they, being dead with Christ, should also be buried with Him and rise with Him into newness of life. And when we observe the Lord’s Supper, we feel a deep and earnest desire that none should come to the Table in ignorance of the significance of the observance—or that, at least, ignorance may not be an occasion of eating unworthily—but that we may comprehend what we are doing and understand the spiritual meaning of this pictorial instruction by which the Lord Jesus Christ would, even until the end of the age, remind His Church of His great Sacrifice upon the Cross.
I. So, first, I will speak briefly concerning THE FORM OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
We do not think that it is at all material where that supper is held. It is just as valid and helpful in your own private apartments, in your bedroom, or in your parlor, as it is in any place where Christians usually congregate. We do not attach so much importance as some people do to the time when it is observed, but we are astonished that High Churchmen should be opposed to evening communion, for, if any definite time for partaking of it can be quoted from Scripture, it certainly is the evening! I should like to ask the Ritualists whether they can find any instance, either in holy or profane things, of a supper being eaten before breakfast—until they invented that absurd practice! There is no time that is more like the first occasion when the Master celebrated the ordinance with His disciples than is the evening of the day. Then it was that He gathered the 12 Apostles together and instituted this blessed memorial feast! At Emmaus, too, it was at the close of the day that He was made known to His two disciples in the breaking of bread. It must be sheer superstition, utterly unwarranted by Holy Scripture, which tells us that the Lord’s Supper can only be properly received in the morning and that we ought not to eat anything before we partake of the sacred emblems! We reject all such nonsense, for we find no authority for it in the only standard which we recognize, that is, the Inspired Word of God! Let us see what it teaches us concerning this ordinance.
We learn, first, that the Lord’s Supper should begin with thanksgiving. So the Master Himself evidently commenced it—“He took bread and gave thanks.” All through the Supper, the emotion of gratitude should be in active exercise. It is intended that we should give thanks for the bread—at the same time giving still more emphatic thanks for the sacred body which it represents. Then we should also give thanks for the cup and for that most precious blood which is therein represented to us. We cannot rightly observe the Lord’s Supper unless we come to the table, blessing, praising, magnifying and adoring our Savior—praising Him even for instituting such a festival of remembrance—such a memorial ordinance to help our frail memories! And praising Him yet more for giving us so blessed a thing to remember as His own great Sacrifice for our sin.
After the thanksgiving, it is very clear that our Divine Lord broke the bread. We scarcely know what kind of bread was used on that occasion. It was probably the thin passover cake of the Jews, but there is nothing said in Scripture about the use of leavened or unleavened bread and, therefore, it matters not which we use! Where there is no ordinance, there is no obligation and we are, therefore, left free to use the bread which it is our custom to eat. When the Master had broken the bread, He gave it to His disciples, and said, “Take, eat.” And they all participated in eating it. And this, mark you, is essential to the right observance of the Lord’s Supper, so that, when the priest, in celebrating “mass,” takes the wafer, which is not bread and which he does not break, but which he, himself, eats whole, there is no Lord’s Supper there! Whatever it may be called, it is not the Lord’s Supper. In the eating of the bread, there must be the participation of such a number of faithful, godly disciples of Christ as may be present, or else it is not the ordinance which the Lord instituted.