We are here this Lord’s day morning to remember our Lord in His death for us. The Lord Jesus requested us to do this in Luke 22:19,20, “This do in remembrance of Me.” We are reminded of this again in 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 where we learn that this remembrance meeting is a vital part of the life of the local assembly. Acts 20:7 shows that the early church did this weekly.
We are happy you are here this morning to witness this special privilege of Christians. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, we trust you will be able to join in the singing and to add your Amen to the prayers of praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord.
You may wonder why the bread and wine are not passed to you to partake of in remembrance of the Lord. This is because we believe that the Bible teaches the following:
1. The breaking of bread is not an isolated act. It involves fellowship with others. In 1 Corinthians 10:16 we read, “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?”
Communion has the thought of fellowship—a sharing together. When you break bread with us you are not only remembering the Lord with us, but you are also expressing fellowship with us in our teachings and position as gathered out to the Lord alone—apart from man-made denominations and gatherings. It would not be right for you to express fellowship with us in the breaking of bread unless you are convinced that the way we gather and what we teach is according to the Bible, and you are willing to walk in the same position with us.
2. Although the breaking of bread is the privilege of every Christian, it is very clear that this privilege can be forfeited by sin in a believer’s life or by association with evil (anything contrary to the Word of God). The Christians at Corinth were told to excommunicate a brother who was living in sin (1 Cor. 5:11-13).
We are told in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other men’s sins.” The laying on of hands is an expression of fellowship. If we were to accept someone into fellowship with us whom we did not know very well, we could very easily associate ourselves with sin. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (1 Cor. 5:6). For fellowship to be genuine, you must be well know by the assembly and vice versa. We hope that there will be opportunity for us to become better acquainted and to have more fellowship together.
3. In a local assembly the brothers and sisters are responsible to care for each other (1 Cor. 12:25). If someone is habitually absent from the gathering or falls into some sin, the Bible teaches that the assembly is to seek to restore such an one to the Lord (Gal. 6:1,2; 1 Cor. 5:5).
In order to restore someone to fellowship with the Lord and with the Lord’s people, the assembly is to take steps of correction depending on the individual case (1 Thess. 5:14, 1 Cor. 5:11, etc.).
It would be impossible to practice this truth of godly care and discipline if a Christian breaks bread with us one Lord’s day, then goes to a denomination or some other group to break bread another Lord’s day, and sometime later comes back to break bread with us.
4. It is the assembly which receives or excommunicates (Matt. 18:15-20). If you feel that you have been led by the Word of God to identify yourself with us in the breaking of bread, then you should express your desire to someone in the assembly. A short time would be allowed for any in the assembly to visit with you. Providing that there is nothing in your life and associations that would prevent you from breaking bread with us, you would gladly be received to break bread with us each Lord’s day. Of course you would also be received to break bread in any of the assemblies associated with us in various places by a letter of commendation (2 Cor. 3:1).
We would ask you to prayerfully search the Scriptures to see if what we have stated above is true. Should you desire, we would be happy too discuss this further with you.
WE’RE GLAD YOU CAME AND TRUST YOU WILL BE BLESSED!