The Lord’s Supper is a Picture

The Lord’s Supper requires careful study of the Word of God. Like baptism, the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is generally misunderstood and there are many substitutes for the real thing.

So we are going to take a look at what is the Lord’s Supper.

The Bible only uses three terms for the Lord’s Supper.

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Here the Lord’s Supper is called communion.

1Co 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

Here the Lord’s Supper is called the Lord’s table.

1Co 11:20 When ye come together therefore into one place, [this] is not to eat the Lord's supper.

In this verse it is called the Lord’s supper.

The Bible does not use the following terms for the Lord’s Supper: Mass, Holy Communion, and Eucharist are not in the Bible at all.  When a group cannot even get the name right, it should cause you to wonder what else they have wrong about the Lord’s Supper or if what they are doing is something different altogether.

The Lord’s Supper is an Ordinance of the church.

An ordinance is an outward action that was appointed by Christ to be administered in the church as a visible sign of the saving truth of the Christian faith.

1Co 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered [them] to you.

The first thing that you need to notice about this verse is that the word ordinances is plural. That means that there has to be more than one.

The second thing is that Paul said that he delivered the ordinances to the people that he is writing to, and Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth.

1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth…

So the ordinances were delivered to the church and not to Christians in general. And because ordinances is plural we know that there is more than one.

Then Paul tells us what one of the ordinances is that he delivered was in

1Co 11:23 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:

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

1Co 11:25 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 ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me.

1Co 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

The Lord’s Supper is one of the ordinances that was given to the church.

And these verses tell us that when we take the Lord’s Supper we are to do it in remembrance of Christ.  It says remembrance several times in these verses.  It is clear that the Lord's Supper is a memorial supper. 

And that when we take the Lord’s Supper we shew the Lord’s death.

We have already seen in recent lessons that the other odinence of baptism was a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Baptism does not save.  It is just a picture.

And now we see the same kind of symbolic language in connection with the Lord’s Supper.

Verse 26 says ye do shew the Lord’s death. It is not literally a death. Instead it is a showing of the Lord’s death. Again what we have here is a picture. A showing forth.

So how does the Lord’s Supper show forth the Lord’s death?

To see this we need to look at the two elements of the Lord’s Supper.

First in Verse 23 it says that He took bread.

What kind of Bread?

Mat 26:17 Now the first [day] of the [feast of] unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?

During this time of year, the Jews were not allowed to eat leavened bread. In fact they were not even allowed to have any leaven in their houses. We see this in

Exo 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

They were commanded by God to put away the leaven out of their houses during this feast. You could not even have any of it in the cupboard. And look at how serious God took this. For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Exo 13:7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.

During this time of year the Law forbid any Jew from even having leaven in their possession let alone eat it.

This is one reason why we know that it was unleavened bread that was used for the Lord’s Supper.

Remember Jesus came to fulfill the law. If Jesus ate leavened bread during this time of year, He would have broke the law and sinned against God.

Another reason that we know that unleavened bread was used is that Leaven is a type, a picture if you will of sin. One place that we see this is in the offerings of the tabernacle which pointed to Christ’s work on the cross.

Lev 6:17 It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it [unto them for] their portion of my offerings made by fire; it [is] most holy, as [is] the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.

Mat 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Leaven is clearly a type of sin.

Jesus clearly tells us that the bread symbolizes His body.

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Jesus was sinless 2Co 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Leaven pictures sin - Bread pictures Jesus' Body

Leavened bread would picture Jesus as a sinner.

Unleavened bread pictures Jesus as being sinless.

So if we used leavened bread, then we would be picturing Jesus as having sin. You see even the type of bread that we use is important to picture the death of Jesus correctly.  We must picture Him as sinless.

Then notice what Jesus did to the bread before they ate it.

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

He said the bread represents His body, and He broke the bread, thus picturing a broken body.

Isa 52:14 … his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

His body was so broken that His face was marred more than any man.

Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Isa 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Isa 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth.

Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

O what a picture of the punishment that He took on the cross.

Mat 27:29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put [it] upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

Mat 27:30 And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

Mat 27:31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify [him].

What a painful death that He suffered on the cross.  His body was indeed broken.

Joh 19:33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

Joh 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Joh 19:35 And he that saw [it] bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

Joh 19:36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

None of His bones were broken, but make no mistake His body was broken.

So for the bread to be a better picture the Body of Christ it needs to be broken. This is why Christ broke the bread first, and this is why you will see many Christians break the bread of the Lord’s Supper before they partake. The breaking of the bread shows a better picture of the Lord’s broken body.

His body that was broken for your sins and for mine.

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

The second element in the Lord’s Supper is the fruit of the vine.

Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it] to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

Jesus used the term fruit of the vine.

Paul uses the term cup in 1 Corinthians 11:25-26.

Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The cup pictures the Shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a reminder to us when we partake of the Lord’s Supper that without the shedding of the blood of Christ there could be no remission of sin.

Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Nowhere does the Bible refer to wine as part of the Lord’s supper. Alcoholic wine is a result of the action of yeast (which is leaven). Leaven is a symbol of sin. Therefore alcoholic wine and leavened bread would be invalid symbols of the sinless Son of God.

We have seen that both of the ordinaces are a picture of the Lord.

Baptism is a picture of our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection.

And when we observe the Lord’s Supper we set forth symbolically the Lord’s Death until He comes. The Lord’s supper pictures the work of Christ on the cross. It is a picture of Christ’s broken body and of His shed blood. It pictures what He did on the cross so that we could be saved.  The Lord's Supper does not save.