Dr Paul Allen

Is there any essential importance or even spiritual significance of the Lord’s Supper either to a Christian or the church? Is it only a church ritual, or is it really a means of grace? The Lord Jesus Christ gave His church two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism signifies our spiritual union with God through Christ’s death and resurrection so that we might walk in the newness of life.  The Lord’s Supper is the ordinance of communion with God by continuance in the grace that we received from Christ by faith. It is also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist. But a preferable designation is “the Lord’s Supper” since that name separates it from all other meals. It is the supper of Christ with His bride, the church while here on earth. Christ instituted it by giving us its menu—that is, the elements of the bread and the cup, with the former signifying His body and the latter His blood. It is the Lord’s supper because the Lord commanded its observance (Matt. 24:26–29; Mark 14

The Lord’s Supper has never been a meal that goes down easy. From the beginning, Jesus’s own words about eating his body and drinking his blood were widely misunderstood. “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” (John 6:60). Not only were they confused, but this proved to be the turning (away) point for many. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66). So too in the history of the church, the Supper has not gone down easy. Such simple language as “This is my body” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” can be anything but simple to understand and apply in the practical life of the church. For example, during the Reformation, the nature and meaning of the Lord’s Supper became a major flashpoint for debate between Catholics and Protestants. The Supper even became a point of divide among Protestants — and in some instances, the only major point of the divide. What, then, is the Lo

“May these precious seasons make me fruitful.” These words, found in the diary of a certain Isaac Staveley, who worked as a clerk for coal merchants in London during the 1770s, were written after he had celebrated the Lord’s Supper with his church, Eagle Street Baptist Church, in 1771. In the rest of this diary, Staveley makes it evident that the celebration of the death of the Christ at the Table was a highlight of his Christian life. On the evening of March 3, he recorded that he and fellow members “came around the table of our dear dying Lord to feast on the sacrifice of his offered body, show his death afresh, to claim and recognize our interest therein, to feast on the sacrifice of his offered body as happy members of the same family of faith and love.” How many today view the Table this way? Packed into these few words, Staveley reveals his conviction that the Lord’s Supper was a place of communion — communion with Christ and with his people. It was a place of spiritual nurture a

  Martin Luther and Consubstantiation With the publication of The Babylonian Captivity of the Church in 1520, Martin Luther attacked the sacramental system and the eucharistic practices of the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, he addressed three “captivities” to which the church had subjected the Lord’s Supper.  The first captivity was the church’s withholding of the cup from the laity and the administration of communion in one kind. Luther passionately opposed this practice. He emphasized Jesus’ insistence that the cup is drunk by “all” of his disciples. He also dissented logically, reasoning that if the Lord’s Supper is given “to the laity, it inevitably follows that it ought not to be withheld from them in either form.” Most important, Luther focused on the fact that “the blood is given to all those for whose sins it was poured out. But who will dare to say that it was not poured out for the laity?” Finally, Luther questioned why the church, if it concedes that the laity receiv

The second church ordinance all Christians practice is the Lord’s Supper, also known as the Lord’s Table, Communion, or the Eucharist, meaning “thanksgiving.” The model is the Passover meal, the Last Supper, as observed by Jesus and his disciples just before his arrest, trials, and crucifixion (Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–23; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Jesus identified the bread with his body, which he offered as a sacrifice for sin (1 Peter 2:24), and the wine with his blood, which he shed for the forgiveness of sin (Ephesians 1:7). Elsewhere, Jesus is identified with the Passover event itself (1 Corinthians 5:7) and is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), whose blood cleanses and redeems (1 Peter 1:19).  Transubstantiation As to the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, the Roman Catholic view is called transubstantiation: During the Mass, when the priest consecrates the bread, it actually becomes Christ’s physical body, and when he consecrates the wine, it actual

On July 20, 1969, moments after the lunar module, The Eagle, alighted upon the Sea of Tranquility, a solitary Presbyterian church elder celebrated the Lord’s Supper in reverent silence—on the Moon. Commander Buzz Aldrin had stashed a communion wafer, a capsule of wine, and a tiny silver chalice onboard the Columbia, and smuggled it into space with him. Before his historic walkabout, Aldrin requested a brief radio silence. He described the following moment in the 1970 issue of Guideposts magazine: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.” His actions were at first kept secret because NASA was embroiled in a lawsuit with an atheist who was suing them for broadcasting a public reading of the Bible by the crew of Apollo 8 (ev

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by the command of Christ and by His example as well. On the night before His death, Christ gathered with His disciples to eat the Passover meal (see Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:17–20).  Since the Supper was celebrated in connection with the Passover, we may assume the bread was unleavened. Jesus gave thanks (eucharisteo, from which the idea of Eucharist comes) for the meal. That the institution of the Lord’s Supper was connected with the Passover meal is clear in the phrase “after the Supper” (1 Cor 11:25), meaning after the Passover meal. It is practically certain that 1 Corinthians was written before the completion of the Gospels, which means that Paul’s account is the earliest record we have of the institution of the Lord’s Supper.  The Names of the Supper. The Supper is identified six different ways in the NT: (1) Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:20); (2) Lord’s Table (1 Cor 10:21); (3) Breaking of Bread (Acts 2:42; 20:7); (4) Communion

As the book of Exodus begins, Israel has been in Egypt for more than four hundred years (cf. Ex. 12:40). They are now in bondage under an oppressive Pharaoh. The early chapters of Exodus describe the calling of Moses to be the one who will lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt. He comes before Pharaoh demanding that Israel be allowed to go and worship the Lord, but Pharaoh refuses. God then sends a series of increasingly severe plagues on Egypt. Pharaoh’s stubbornness in the face of the first nine plagues results in God’s pronouncement of a final plague that will result in Israel’s redemption from slavery. God warns that He will go into the midst of Egypt and that every firstborn in the land will die. It is in the context of the warning of this final plague that we find God’s instructions regarding the Passover in Exodus 12. God begins with a statement indicating that the Passover and Exodus will mark a new beginning for the nation of Israel. The month of Abib (late March a

Have you ever noticed the strangeness of the Lord’s Supper? Many of us have been attending church for so many years that this thing we do every week or every month has become somewhat routine. Its strangeness no longer strikes us. But step back and imagine what it looks like to someone attending a church for the first time. Imagine what it looks like to a child. With some differences among churches in the details of the liturgy, the members of the church receive bread, which they eat in a ceremonial way after the pastor repeats the words of Jesus: “This is my body.” Then they receive wine (or grape juice), which they ceremonially drink after the pastor repeats the words of Jesus: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” What in the world is going on here? What is the Lord’s Supper? Scripture anticipates that the sacraments instituted by God will raise questions among believers. When the Passover was instituted, for instance, Moses said, “And when your children say to you,

Communion with God in Scripture is one of the great distinguishing marks of a Christian, an acid test of true spiritual life. Whatever else we are as believers, we are people who meet God in the Bible. To be sure, we see shadows of God in other places: His glory glows in His creation ( Ps. 19:1 ), confronting us everywhere, from the golden immensity of a galaxy to the wondrous intricacy of a cell. His moral perfection unhinges us with the thunderous whisper of an offended conscience. But these shadowy pictures are just that—all picture and no sound. “There is no speech,” the psalmist says, “nor are there words, whose voice is not heard” ( Ps. 19:3 ). There is enough in nature to leave us without excuse ( Rom. 1 :18ff), but there is not enough to renew us deep within. This peculiar glory belongs to Scripture alone ( Ps. 19:7 ). We may see His glory elsewhere, but only in Scripture do we hear His voice. How should we then approach the Bible? 1. Come fearfully . God is in this book.

What was the Upper Room? A room or chamber on the flat roof of a Palestinian house. Sometimes it was no more than a tent (2 Sam. 16:22) or a booth (Neh. 8:16–17), but it might be built as a second story (Judg. 3:20; Jer. 22:13–14; Dan. 6:10). Such rooms were often used for guests (e.g., 1 Kgs. 17:19; 2 Kgs. 4:10). It was in such an upper guest room in Jerusalem that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his twelve disciples (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12;Matt. 26:18 “at your house”); it was a chamber large enough for thirteen guests to enjoy the Passover meal, reclining on cushions or carpets. This room and house have been variously identified with the house where Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:33, 36; John 20:19, 26), the upper room where the twelve apostles and others gathered following Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:13; hyperṓon), and the home of Mary the mother of John Mark (12:12). Two memorial meals were observed as they sat (lit. reclined) and ate. 

On the night before our Savior died, He instituted this meal. He expects us to regularly take this supper. He believes that it will make a difference in our lives. The Lord’s Supper has many effects for the believer, and I’d like to highlight three of them in this post. The Lord’s Supper challenges your desires “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God .” Luke 22 :15 Jesus gave up His life. No one took it from Him (John 10:18). Not only did He know He was born to die (Mark 8:34), but He knew the way He would die (John 3:14). But He also knew about a last supper He would eat with His disciples. And Luke 22 tells us that He earnestly desired to eat this meal with His disciples. He had looked forward to this very meal for a long time, perhaps since He could even remember. Why? Why was He so eager? Partly because this meal was a transition meal. This meal would be th

Has the Lord’s Supper become humdrum for you, something you do mindlessly, something you’ve simply done for years? Is it something that you do as you travel down the path of least resistance, something that is routinely passed to you so you figure you might as well? Luke tells us that it is so much more. His account of the Lord’s Supper ( Luke 22:7–30 ) provides us five magnificent reasons why this meal is above all others. 1. It Is Rooted in Redemption Are you in need of forgiveness, of deliverance, of grace? This meal is for you. Its roots extend deep into the history of God’s people and the riches of God’s character. Luke’s account makes clear that Jesus celebrates a Passover meal ( Luke 22:8 , 11 , 13 , 15 ), recalling God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. We’re reminded that God is eager to save his people ( Psalm 86:5 ). And even as Jesus observes the Passover meal, he elevates it, claiming that it’s ultimately about his own imminent death. Jesus himself is the L