Bible Study

The Gift of Eternal Life Berean Bible Study Course

PART III--The Way Of Serving God In Christ Jesus

A. Lesson 13--We Serve By Worshipping

6. READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26 AND 1 CORINTHIANS 10:14-17

c. What are three purposes of taking them?

Answer: The purposes of partaking of the bread and the cup--the fruit of the vine, (Luke 22:18)--are (1) to remember and portray Christ's death for sinners (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), (2) to proclaim the Lord's death until He comes again (1 Corinthians 11:26) and (3) to participate in the blood and body of Christ--a memorial symbol of fellowship with the crucified Christ, being done with those who are now the body of Christ, (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

• The Lord's Supper is to remind us of Christ--His body sacrificed and His blood shed for the sins of mankind. Each individual believer MUST remember that if he or she were the ONLY one in the world in sin and separated from God by that sin, Christ would have willingly died for him or her alone.
• Christ Himself established the Lord's Supper as a memorial--a symbol of His suffering and sacrifice. He knew we would need these symbols to always keep before us the reason that we have hope of eternal life. The world crowds into our minds and lives, and we are constantly in danger of letting the ultimate sacrifice of Christ fade from our memories. The Lord's supper is our constant reminder that we are not our own--that we were bought with a price and belong to God. We participate in His death as He participates in our death to sin. As believers, we were baptized into Christ's death and therefore were crucified with Christ--a death of the old life of sin, Romans 6:3-11.

Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Galatians 5:24: "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."

• In our partaking of the Lord's supper, we keep all of these things in our mind and heart. It gives us the proper perspective of who we are (God's children because of the gift of the sacrifice of Christ), who we belong to (having been bought at the price of the body and blood of Christ), how we should live our lives (as ones who are redeemed from Satan, made holy and reconciled to God by the body and blood of Christ) and why we have the hope of eternal life with God (being justified by God's grace through the body and blood of Christ).

The Lord's Supper is the central part of a believer's worship to God. It is the main reason that we gather together on the Lord's Day (along with strength gained from gathering together with like-minded believers--fellowshipping with God's true children, singing praises to God from our hearts, offering our prayers, petitions and thanksgiving to God, being edified and built up through the preaching of the Word of God so that we might "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," [2 Peter 3:18] and taking the opportunity to give back to God part of the blessings that He showers upon His children).