Week 11 The Practice of Service
LESSON ELEVEN
THE LORD’S TABLE MEETING
Hymn 221
Scripture Reading:
1 Cor. 11:24-25 And having given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me. Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.
REMEMBERING THE LORD— WITH THE LORD AS THE CENTER
The bread breaking meeting is not for anything other than remembering the Lord with the remembrance of the Lord as its center for the Lord’s enjoyment. Everything in this meeting, whether hymn singing, prayer, Bible reading, or words of inspiration, should take the Lord as the center, speaking either concerning His person and work, His love and virtues, His living or suffering on the earth, or His honor or glory in heaven, that others may consider or realize these things in order to remember the Lord Himself. In such a meeting, we should think of the Lord in our hearts and behold the Lord in our spirit that we would be inspired concerning the Lord. Then we will express our inspiration through songs, prayers, reading of the Bible, or words, that the feeling of the entire meeting would be directed to the Lord and that all would remember the Lord. (Life Lessons, Vol. 2, Lesson 16)
THE PRACTICE OF REMEMBERING THE LORD
By Eating the Bread
In John 6:35a the Lord told us that He is the bread of life, so to eat the bread is to enjoy the Lord as our life supply. Breaking the bread does not imply any enjoyment, but eating the bread surely does. We also eat the bread to testify that we live by the Lord. In John 6:57b the Lord said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.”
The next crucial point concerning our remembrance of the Lord is our eating the bread to enjoy the fellowship in Christ’s mystical Body. The breaking of the bread mainly implies the Lord’s physical body broken for us on the cross. Eating the bread, which is to take in the bread, mainly implies the fellowship in the mystical Body of Christ.
By Drinking the Cup
Our drinking the cup is to review the redemption of the new covenant. For this point it would be good to read Matthew 26:27-28: “And He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
In the Bible, the bread is called the bread of life (John 6:35a) and the cup is called the cup of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16a). Thus, to eat the bread means to receive the life supply and to drink the cup means to receive the blessing. We have a joint and mutual participation in the drinking of the one cup. Both eating and drinking indicate oneness and fellowship, communion.
At the Lord’s table, we do not remember the Lord’s death, but we declare, proclaim, display, the Lord’s death. First Corinthians 11:26 says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.” First Corinthians 11:26b says that we display the Lord’s death until He comes. While we display the Lord’s death, we express our desire of the Lord’s second coming.
WORSHIPING THE FATHER—WITH THE FATHER AS THE CENTER
After eating the bread and drinking the cup, the Lord will lead us to worship the Father. This is based upon Matthew 26:30, which says that after the Lord finished His supper with His disciples, He and the disciples sang a hymn. That hymn was sung by the Lord with His disciples to the Father. In the Lord’s table, the Lord takes the lead to praise the Father, to worship the Father. We worship the Father by praising. This is also based upon Matthew 26:30. This is a unique verse telling us that a hymn was sung. That means to praise. According to the Greek text, we may say that they “hymned a praise” to the Father. To worship the Father at the Lord’s table, we have to sing hymns of praise to Him. (Basic Lessons on Service, pp. 18-39)
According to Hebrew 2:12, after we have broken the bread in remembrance of the Lord, we should be led by the Lord to worship the Father. In this section of the meeting, we take the Father as the center, and, as depicted in Hymns, #52, all our singing of praises to the Father is the Lord in us leading us to sing praises to the Father. (Life Lessons, Vol. 2, Lesson 17)
Reference: Life Lessons, Vol. 2, lsns. 16-17; Basic Lessons on Service, lesson 2-3, 5; Life-Study of 1 Corinthians, msgs. 49-50, 54-56; CWWL, 1964, Vol. 3, Basic Principles for the Church Meetings, chs. 3-5.
