Keystone Bible Chapel
7840 Maple Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68134
(402) 397-1714
Why we meet
We meet because our Lord told us to meet
We meet to remember our Lord
We meet to proclaim our Lord's death
We meet because we are warned against neglecting to meet
We meet because of the example set by the first Christians
We meet because our Lord told us to meet
…the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." (I Corinthians 11:23-25)
The imperative, "do this", is repeated. Our Lord did not suggest we remember Him, He commanded it. We are to break the bread and share the wine, and we are to do so regularly. (The church is to engage in other regular activities as well, but in I Corinthians chapter 11, the apostle Paul is focusing on the remembrance meeting.)
The Lord's command was issued to a collective assembly of believers, not to one individual, nor to many individuals considered separately. It is impossible to "do this", except as a body of Christians, a local church. Gathered together as a group of His blood-bought saints, we remember Him.
The Scriptures imply that Christians in the fledgling New Testament church gathered for remembrance on the first day of the week, our Sunday (Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2). It seems that at a minimum, the church in New Testament times met weekly. So, following their example, we meet weekly today.
May we faithfully obey our Lord's command to "do this"--to meet together and share the bread and the wine, which speak of Him!
One of the weaknesses we have as human beings is forgetfulness. We fail to keep in mind persons or things that we ought to keep in mind. We forget a family member's birthday. We don't remember to send the rent check to the landlord. Our forgetfulness can be simple absentmindedness, or worse yet, willful neglect.
The consequences of forgetting range from trivial to catastrophic, depending on the significance of the thing forgotten. If a person forgets to bathe or to brush his teeth in the morning, he may not be very pleasant company during the day. On the other hand, if a severe diabetic forgets to medicate himself at the proper time, his life may be in jeopardy. The social consequences of poor personal hygiene are trivial relative to the physical consequences of diabetic shock.
Christ makes it clear that remembering Him is a very important thing. So it should be no surprise that when Christ's people chronically fail to remember Him, the results are serious. Ingratitude, cold-heartedness, and spiritual lethargy set in. The intimacy and communion they once enjoyed with their Lord become spiritual distance and estrangement. This is not the sort of relationship the Lord of love desires with His people.
So He commands us to frequently bear Him in mind. He bids us think upon His incarnation, His suffering, His gift of Himself at Calvary, His resurrection, and His present heavenly ministry on our behalf. He calls us to worship, as we consider who He is, what He has done in the past, what He is doing now, and what He will do in the future. Of course, as individual believers, we ought to remember Him and worship Him daily. But as an assembly, we ought to remember Him and worship Him at least once a week.
Do this, He says, share the memorial bread and wine, to remind yourselves of Me. May we, as Christ's people, never fail to remember Him!
We meet to proclaim our Lord's death
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (I Corinthians 11:26)
When we share in the remembrance emblems--the bread and the wine--we solemnly demonstrate the truth and the reality of Christ, especially of His death. In the bread, we proclaim that God really became man, that the eternal Son of God put on human flesh. In the breaking of the bread, we preach His sufferings, and His giving Himself for us. In the wine, we show that atoning (sin-covering) blood was shed, poured out to death, that the sins of the world might be forgiven.
The audience of our proclamation is wider than one might expect. God Himself is a witness. Although He already knows completely the facts concerning His Son and His Son's death, God nevertheless rejoices to see the story told again. Also looking on are the participants themselves: the saints who have gathered for remembrance. They too rejoice as the gospel of Jesus Christ is declared in the bread and the wine.
In addition, there may be unbelievers observing the proceedings of the remembrance meeting. If their minds are engaged as they watch, they should come to know something of the truths of Christ's deity, incarnation, suffering, and death for sinners. Finally, there may be witnesses who are neither divine nor human--spirit beings like angels who are watching and wondering at the "unfolding drama of redemption", clearly portrayed in the bread and the wine.
May we proclaim--solemnly and clearly tell forth--our Lord's death until He comes!
We meet because we are warned against neglecting to meet
Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day [of Christ's return] drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25)
The author of Hebrews exhorts his readers to press on in the faith. Don't fall away from the truth, he writes, in theory or in practice. Hold fast to the good news delivered by the Lord Jesus. Don't be tempted to go back to old, familiar religious ways which have no benefit in this new dispensation--this, God's new way of dealing with mankind after the death and resurrection of His Son. Don't be discouraged by opposition and persecution. Consider the Lord Jesus, your great High Priest. Consider the saints of old, who lived by faith. Do not (our author also writes) neglect to meet together.
We observed earlier that when the Lord Jesus said, "do this", He was commanding, not suggesting. Likewise, the author of Hebrews issues an imperative: Don't let gathering slip your mind. Don't willfully avoid coming together for those essential assembly activities that the Lord has instructed you to do on a continuing basis.
It's all the more important to persevere in meeting faithfully as a church, because the Lord of the church is returning soon. The church collectively, and its members individually, will have to answer to Him for their behavior. We do not want to be ashamed when we stand before Him.
Also, Christ's imminent return should stimulate us to shine His light as brightly as possible in a dark world. God's people are obligated to further His testimony, proclaim His word, encourage righteousness, resist evil, and, above all, to promote His glory. We cannot do these things, as an assembly, if we fail to gather together for the Lord's purposes.
May we not neglect to meet together!
We meet because of the example set by the first Christians
And they were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, literally translated from the Greek)
The key word here is "devoting". It means that Christ's people in New Testament times were continuing steadfastly, adhering strongly to, persisting in, and faithfully engaging themselves in certain activities. Four activities are enumerated:
(1) The apostles' teaching (doctrine). The apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ's earthly ministry, death, and resurrection. They were commissioned by the Lord to take the gospel to the whole world. Their teaching, as given by God, would eventually be embodied in the New Testament. Since God had vested the apostles with authority in the church, the members of the church adhered strongly to their teaching.
(2) The fellowship (sharing in common). "…this is the fellowship of all the members [of the church] with each other as well as with the apostles. They were one spiritual body, inwardly one by faith in Christ, inwardly and outwardly one by confessing Christ and by adhering to the one doctrine of Christ that was taught by the apostles. And so they kept together as one body and treated each other accordingly. One faith and one teaching, and thus one body in one fellowship." [Lenski]
(3) The breaking of bread (the Lord's supper, communion). This refers to the remembrance meeting, discussed above with reference to I Corinthians 11. The believers in New Testament times continued steadfastly to remember the Lord Jesus, and to proclaim His death as they shared the emblematic bread and wine.
(4) The prayers. The Christians were persisting in collective prayer. The church as a group verbally communicated worship, praise, and petition to the heavenly Father. They faithfully engaged themselves in prayer.
May our assembly, like the assemblies of those early Christians, devote itself to the Lord's things: to doctrine, to fellowship, to remembrance, to prayer!
References
[I Corinthians 16:2] "On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper…" The apostle Paul is asking the Christians at Corinth to allocate funds for the relief of fellow-believers in Jerusalem, who were apparently in financial distress. He directs each individual to set aside funds, proportionate to his prosperity, on a weekly basis. The collective and cumulative gifts of all the saints would be sent to Jerusalem to relieve needy ones there. Notice that gifts were set aside "on the first day of the week", presumably when the believers came together for assembly activities. See Charles Hodge's commentary on I Corinthians (Banner of Truth reprint, 1988), pages 361-5, for helpful remarks on the relief effort for the saints in Jerusalem.
[Acts 20:7] "On the first day of the week…we were gathered together to break bread…"
[Lenski] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles (Hendrickson reprint, 2001). See Lenski's comments on Acts 2:42 at page 116.
Last updated Oct 10, 2002.
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