What The Bible Teaches About The Lord’s Supper

Theme: What The Bible Teaches About…
Speaker: Dub McClish, Editor of The Gospel Journal
Date: March 14, 2004, Sunday Morning Bible Class - (During a Gospel Meeting March 14 Through 17, 2004, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Main Scripture References: Matthew 26:26, Mark 14; Luke 22; Acts 20:6-7, 16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
Centered on the Text 2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (KJV)

[Introduction of Brother Dub McClish by Brother Max Marrs, a member of the Northeast church of Christ:]

Good morning. Dub McClish came to Denton, Texas, to preach in 1980 at the Pearl Street congregation where my parents attended church. And it wasn’t long until my parents were talking about this great preacher who had come to work there, and they were so impressed. Well, I had already moved away from home, so whenever I visited I tried to get over there, and pretty soon I was agreeing with my parents—there was a great preacher at Pearl Street in Denton, Texas, then. And it wasn’t too long after that until Dub had the unfortunate experience of preaching my Mother’s funeral. So, I’ve been very close to Dub ever since then. We’ve kept up with his work, and I feel a lot of affection for him. I could talk a long time about Dub, but he just reminded me that I’m “on his nickel,” so I’m going to be brief. This little brochure that we had printed [see “A Brief Biography of H. W. (Dub) McClish”] tells some of the most important facts about him, and I’m sure John [Phillis, preacher at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico] will do a good job of introducing him during the next worship hour. I’m going to say three things. Apparently, Dub McClish does not grow weary of well-doing, as we are admonished in 2 Thessalonians 3:13. I’ll say this, if he does, he keeps it to himself. He really works hard, year in and year out, to spread the Gospel. Marilyn [Max Marrs’ wife] and I get his work report periodically in the mail, and we often laugh, because we have to sit down to read it because it makes us tired just to read what all he has been doing. And that’s been going on for years. Jude 3 says that we are supposed to “earnestly contend for the faith.” And I can tell you, Dub McClish really earnestly contends for the faith with his writing, and his preaching, and his editing, and his travels, and I guess just day to day life. But also, he earnestly contends against error, and in this “PC world” we live in, I’m thankful to God that there are people like Dub who will have the gumption to do that, because those kinds of people are getting few and far between. So, if you want to hear the Truth in love, you’re in the right place this morning. Dub, welcome to our congregation.

[Dub McClish begins speaking – Introductory remarks:]

Well, I’ll settle up with Max after we get through today. He read it just about like I wrote it [laughter]. I can’t tell you how much of a joy it is to be here. I was so grateful for the invitation when it was tendered to me to come, and I’ve looked forward with great anticipation to being here. I knew a few folks that I knew were part of this congregation before I came, but I’ve already met some more of you that I knew, that I didn’t know that I knew that were part of this congregation. That’s already been a very pleasant experience. I look forward to meeting the rest of you, and Lord willing, we’ll have a wonderful four days together, and it will go by very, very quickly. By the time we’re through with this evening’s service, the meeting will be half over, as far as the number of lessons is concerned. So, “what thou doest, do quickly,” as we might misapply a passage.

[Dub McClish begins the Bible Class Lesson. He is using the American Standard Version of the Bible.]

Sometimes, the things that we become most familiar with are things that we come to not appreciate as much as we should. Familiarity does, in some ways, breed contempt—if not contempt, inattention.

At the Bible Class hour this morning, I want to talk about one of those things that I think has not been given enough attention in our teaching and our preaching, and that’s the Lord’s supper. Any time we begin to neglect fundamental things, there is the danger of our drifting away from fundamental teaching. We need to be continual students, even of the fundamental things, and the Lord’s supper is one of those fundamentals.

There have been many inroads made by denominational groups and Roman Catholicism into the realm of the Lord’s supper, and they have corrupted it in various ways. But some of these are now even creeping into some of the congregations of the Lord’s people. And so I want us to spend our time studying just some of the very basic things about the Lord’s supper this morning. I think maybe the best way for us to pursue the subject would be just to ask some questions about the Lord’s supper, and then, seek their answers in the Word of God.

“What are the Scriptural designations for the Lord’s supper?” is a good place to begin. There are four of these.

The first we find in Luke, chapter 22, verses 29 and 30. In the setting in which the Lord had instituted His supper, He said to the eleven (Judas had already departed): “…and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as My Father appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom….” So, putting that into the possessive case, “My table” would be the “Lord’s table.” We correctly refer to it by that term.

Paul used the same terminology in writing to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 21, when he said in addressing them on their failure to properly separate themselves from the worship of idols that had been part of their background, “…ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.” You’ve got to make a choice, but there you see, “table of the Lord,” the “Lord’s table.”