The fellowship of the believers

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Amanah

If the Lord's Supper is the new Covenant replacement of the Passover meal, why celebrate the Passover?

Because Jesus is our new covenant Passover Lamb. So instead of bringing a lamb to the priest at the Temple we have bread and wine in remembrance of Him.

The annual Passover meal was a memorial of the one-time Passover in Egypt, kept on the same day every year as a memorial. So the Passover takes on New Covenant significance when Christ died, and the Supper becomes one of bread and wine instead of lamb chops and bitter herbs.

While the Lord's Supper can be eaten every time Christians get together, the Passover holy day still has significance. It's meaning has been expanded to include the Lord's death and resurrection

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

Acts 2:42

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

What does Acts 2:42 mean to you?
How do you fulfill it?

What it means?

I find it to be the basis of what a church meeting should always entail. Or, at the very least, it is the pattern to which all believers must aspire.

How do I fulfill it?

One way is as follows:

On the Sabbath, we rotate between the four elements described in the text. So, in a month, we will spend time as a family discussing the Apostle's Doctrine. The next Sabbath, we fellowship together. Then, we eat the Lord's supper, then we learn prayers from the Scriptures, and use them to pray together.

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

There are two things I'm wondering about.

1) in my past experience, communion is done about once a year. Why so seldom?

To appear less Catholic. It seems that the more Protestant a congregation is, the more they do whatever they can to be as opposite from Catholicism as possible.

2) what do you think Jesus is referring to in John 6 when he tells his followers that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and how does this relate to communion?

Later in the chapter, He said "the flesh profiteth nothing". Then He explained that His words are Spirit and Life. Earlier in John, Jesus compared His body to a temple (Destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up...).

Eating and drinking in sacred space is the role and right of a priest. This was true in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. Eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood is the manner in which the New Covenant people participate in their royal priesthood (after the Order of Melchizedek).

Just as Melchizedek offered bread and wine to Abraham, so the New Testament priest offers "bread" and "wine", that is, flesh and blood, to the heirs of Abraham.

This is done through regular, ritual observance of the Lord's Supper.

The bread and wine are symbolic representations of Christ's body and blood. But those symbols have real, spiritual significance.

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

Anyone who would like to comment on The Lord's Table, 1 Corinthians 11, I liked to hear what you have to say.

I've always thought of breaking the bread and blessing the cup as a time of remembrance of our Lord's sacrifice, a time to discern the body of believers in appreciation, and wondered what the warning about some becoming sick, or even having fallen asleep actually means.

The warning about some becoming sick, or dying (i.e. falling asleep) and the condemnation Paul gives over it, is not to be spiritualized. Rather, remember what Paul wrote in the beginning of the epistle:

You see your calling, brethren, how not many wise, not many noble...

The Corinthian church was made up of mostly lower-class people, that is, servants and slaves. Paul even addresses this in chapter 7, that if anyone is a slave, to not seek freedom, but rather, make use of their slavery to serve the Lord.

So, once you get to chapter 11, Paul tells those who are hungry or thirsty, to eat or drink at home, or else, learn to wait for one another, that is, the servants and slaves among them, to arrive from their duties, so they can participate in the meal (not just bread and wine, but the full Love Feast).

Why would many become sickly or die off? Low-born, slave class people are always in danger of not getting enough to eat, of being of poor nutrition, which is a key element in how healthy someone is. So, if an impoverished brother comes to the table of a meeting, and the better off members have already eaten most or all of the food, and drank most or all of the drink, that poor, malnourished saint is going to continue to go hungry, and might not survive, if their malnourishment persists.

So, Paul upbraids the better off members of the church for not waiting for the other members, so everyone has a chance to eat. If they're hungry or thirsty, they can eat and drink at home, and so, not take the lion's share of the meal for themselves, while those who don't have the means, utterly depend on the meal provided at the Love Feast, for perhaps, the best chance to be fed/not go hungry.

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

Thank you Esaias

In the passage I linked, Ignatius associates immortality with the Lord's Supper, which would imply remission of sin in breaking bread and blessing the cup?

But John says, in essence, that if we sin after obeying Acts 2:38, we confess and repent to be forgiven.

So, what is the spiritual significance of the Lord's Table?

The significance is "we show the Lord's death till He comes". The Lord's Table is the unifying element of the believer. The ritual sacred meal is the means whereby we show we are in true communion with each other and with Christ as children of God.

Someone who has been officially and righteously ex-communicated, is someone who has been banned from the Lord's Table. This means they are outside of the fellowship of believers, and are no longer considered a brother or sister in Christ. This means they are cut off from God's people, and from God Himself.

In such a state, there is no remission or forgiveness, despite any confession or repentance such a one might attempt. Unless and until their confession and repentance leads to a restoration into the Body of Christ, they are lost and will remain so.

The Lord's Table, then, is not the means, per se, whereby we experience eternal life, but it is the measuring stick, if you will, to determine if one is in the faith, and so, is a participant in the eternal life granted to us by God.

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

If the Lord's Supper is the new Covenant replacement of the Passover meal, why celebrate the Passover?

Because God commanded it as a permanent ritual observance among His people. Passover is once a year, the Lord's Supper is "as often as you do this".

So, from daily to weekly, one should participate in the Lord's Supper. But then, once a year, keep the feast, as the saying goes, unto the Lord, just as Christ, a Torah observant Jew, did.

[Amanah]

Thank you Bro Esaias and Bro Votivesoul.

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Amanah

Thank you Bro Esaias and Bro Votivesoul.