The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper Service
I Corinthians 11:23-34


Introduction:  Today we participate in a form of worship that is an old as Christianity itself.  In fact, the Lord's Supper was inaugurated by Jesus Himself on the eve of His crucifixion.  Today I want to share with you two things.


 I. The four basic views as to what the Lord's Supper
    represents.

    1st - Transubstantiation: this view is held by the Roman Catholic Church.  They hold the view that the bread and wine literally change into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In other words the recipient actually eats the Lord's body and drinks His blood, because Jesus is literally being sacrificed in the mass.

    2nd - Consubstantiation: this view is held by the Lutherans.   They hold the view that the bread and wine actually contain the body and blood of Jesus, but do not literally change.  They say Christ is actually present with, in and under the elements. According to them, the recipient receives the forgiveness of sins and the confirmation of their faith through the elements.
   
    3rd - Reformed: this view is held by the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches.  They teach that Christ is not literally present in the elements, but there is the spiritual presence of Christ.  They teach that the recipient receives grace through partaking of the elements.

    4th - Memorial:  This view teaches that Jesus is present neither physically or spiritually in the elements, but that the Lord's Supper serves as a symbolic reminder of what Jesus did for man at the cross; signifying to others their belief in Christ as Savior as well as His imminent return.

II. The Reasons Christians Share the Lord's Supper.

    1st - Christians share the Lord's Supper to remember the agony of His death.

    2nd - Christians share the Lord's Supper to proclaim  to others the Lord's death.

    3rd - Christians share the Lord's Supper with a certain hope.