THE words of Paul in verse 20 where he says of the Corinthians ' When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat...' are very suggestive that this meeting together of the Corinthian church failed to be in any way a celebration of the Lord's Supper, which we know as 'Holy Communion' or 'The Eucharist'. This explains why Paul, in the verses we are meditating upon in this meditation, are a declaration of the central action in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Paul definitely felt the need to declare what was the central action in the Lord's Supper as Jesus gave it to his disciples and to the church in the Gospel narratives.

Let us notice the title Paul gives to this sacrament. He calls it the Lord's Supper. This designation has been almost lost in the church worldwide, together with an essential element in this celebration. What we call Holy Communion is in fact a supper meal, and this means the one celebrating this sacrament is not a priest offering a sacrifice or acting as a mediator, but simply a servant serving the food the Lord provides to those invited to the supper. No doubt the office of the servant is one of great responsibility and privilege, but the one serving is simply serving the food provided by Jesus, who is the host and master at the meal. The sacrament is indeed Holy Communion because it is communion and fellowship with Jesus who is present at the meal in a spiritual way by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is present spiritually. The bread wine are not changed into the physical flesh and blood of Christ, nor is his presence localised in any way in the bread and wine. Jesus present spiritually is blessing us with the remembrance of all he has done for us by his sacrificial death, and blessing us with his death's efficacy in the way he knows we need at any one occasion we attend his supper.

In Luke's account of the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper the purpose of the sacrament is mentioned, as it is by Paul in verse 24 of the verses before us in 1 Corinthians. The purpose of seeing the bread broken and the wine poured out and then distributed to each of those attending the supper, is meant to be an act of remembrance. It is to be a remembrance of Jesus. Both in Luke 22: 19 and here in 1 Corinthians we are told this purpose of the bread broken and distributed. We are told in Luke that Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it saying 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' From this it is clear Jesus was doing a symbolic act, the bread was a symbol of his body, the breaking of the bread symbolising Jesus giving his body to be broken on the cross. The giving of the broken bread symbolising Jesus giving to his believing people, his disciples, the blessings and benefits he won for them by giving his body to be broken. The purpose, therefore, of the sacrament is plain that Jesus wanted us to remember his death and all the significance of what he was doing in and by his death, and the great cost he paid to provide those blessings; and by giving the bread to us to eat, he was telling us to appropriate afresh by faith and spiritually all the blessings he procured for us by his death for us. This blessing is received by faith alone. It is not received mechanically. It is not received automatically in a physical way of eating the bread, but always in faithful remembrance of what Christ achieved by his death for us. This is made clear in Matthew 26: 26-28 where Jesus tells us that the wine symbolised the covenant of blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

It is plain that the Lord's Supper is a visual sermon given to his people in order that they should have presented vividly before them his great work of the sacrifice of himself for the forgiveness of their sins. It is reminder that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. The cleansing is because in his death, his body broken on the cross and his blood poured out upon the cross, Jesus made a full, complete and all-sufficient, sacrifice for the sin of the world, so that all who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

So it is essential that the elements of Christ's institution of the Lord's Supper should always be present. There must be bread broken and wine poured out. There must be a giving of thanks for what the bread and wine symbolised; thanks to God for the gift of such a perfect salvation and such a perfect Saviour. There must be the eating and drinking of the bread wine symbolic of the reception of the blessings of Christ's death for us, and this must be accompanied by faith in the death of Christ for us. This apparently was lacking in the fellowship celebration described by Paul in Corinth.

From this it is clear that there is an essential element in coming to Communion, that is to the Lord's Supper, of true repentance from our sin. If Christ died to save us from our sin, and the Lord's Supper is a remembrance of this wondrous act of love by Jesus, there must be a true confession of our need for the blessings provided by the cross, and so a true and deep confession of our sins, and our totally lost condition apart from the death of Christ and faith in him as our sin-bearer.