Reflections on the Remembrance

By EDWIN NEELY

Edwin Neely shares some personal reflections and meditations on the Breaking of Bread (also known as the Remembrance), together with selected extracts from other writers on the subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hayes Press
• Release date: Aug 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386344391

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

The time that we spend on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7) in the presence of the LORD is known in the Bible by several titles:  the Remembrance (1 Cor.11:24-25), the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor.11:20), the Lord’s Table (1 Cor.10:21), the Breaking of the Bread (Acts 2:42), and the Communion (1 Cor.10:16).  The Roman Catholic Church calls it the Eucharist, referring to the emblems employed and their belief that each transform into the actual body and blood of Christ as the priest performs his rituals.  The act of remembering the Lord with bread and wine is generally known, as it is kept throughout protestant Christian churches as Holy Communion, and among those in Churches of God as the Remembrance, although throughout the book of the Acts it was generally known as the Breaking of the Bread.  Sometimes, however, that latter title has been confused with normal dining, Bible context deciding the difference. 

This Remembrance is, then, according to Scripture, a time devoted to the collective remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ by Churches of God; a proclamation of Christ’s death until He comes again.  Following this, the practice of the Churches of God is that there is also a time of praising His God and Father for the various aspects of Christ’s Person and work; and an appreciation of all that He has accomplished for His Father and for us.  It is a time of thanksgiving and praise. Much of what is said in this book relates to both the taking of the bread and wine and the subsequent worship, which although occur sequentially and seamlessly, they are nevertheless distinct from each other.

Many opportunities with other disciples are given for individual worship in life, and disciples enjoy participation in them.  These, however, do not employ the use of bread and wine symbols and all that is entailed in them, of course.  The collective meeting of the church for prayer, as outlined in Acts 2:41-42 is a separate entity, different entirely in its scope and content.  It may contain worship and should contain thanksgiving, but full discussion of that would require a different book.

Just what God receives from the worship services of others either individually or in church group capacity is not in any way our concern.  But those who are outside, God judges (1 Cor.5:13). Earnest believers worship in their own way and no doubt God gets great pleasure from any who so devote themselves. Scripturally, however, the collective worship of a holy priesthood forming the house of God is seen only in Churches of God built together after Scriptural principles to form a people, a holy nation for God.  The fact that the whole gathering for the Breaking of the Bread is not often mentioned in the Epistles rather indicates a oneness of mind among the early churches as to what should be done, not needing to be corrected by apostolic intervention.  The letter to the Corinthians which teaches us concerning the gathering was written to correct obvious problems in that carnal church. 

We are blessed through their troubles because we learn much from the apostle Paul’s correction of them, especially about the Breaking of the Bread.  The churches of the time no doubt followed exactly what the Lord Jesus had done on the night of His betrayal, what He had taught them in the forty days preceding His ascension, and what He had personally revealed to the apostle Paul; he was not there at the cross or earlier, or at the ascension, nor even together with saints gathered in Acts 2, but he was, as he described himself, like a child untimely born (1 Cor.15:8).  However, Paul did spend time in the desert being instructed by the Spirit of God and fitted for the massive undertaking that the Lord would lay upon his shoulders as apostle to the Gentiles.

It is of special note that references are not to the Father’s table, the Father’s supper or Christ’s supper or table and so on; they are to the Lord’s.  The Holy Spirit, who is so careful and accurate in His description of all things, attributes these things to the Lord and not to His Father.  The two are inseparable, of course (Deut.6:4); however, the Spirit is consistent in using titles of the Lord and His Father in different ways from each other.  Were it the Father’s supper, all believers would have access, but the Lordship of Christ demands that there be barrier-removing obedience from participants.  Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I say? (Lk.6:46; see also Heb.12:1-4). 

Those in the Fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, have acknowledged the Lordship of Christ in obedience to His Word and meet the qualifications of Scripture - saved, baptized, added, and continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the Breaking of the Bread and the prayers.  Peter says to sanctify Christ in our hearts as Lord (1 Pet.3:15).  Paul writes about the cup of the Lord and the table of the Lord (1 Cor.10:21); the Lord’s supper (11:20).  He says, I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you (11:23); you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (11:26); whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (11:27).  

Each title of our Saviour teaches us something different about Him.  Each is used specifically by the Holy Spirit to teach us a different aspect of His lovely Person.  The title ‘Jesus’ was given at His birth and refers to His salvation from the effects of sin; the title ‘Christ’ refers to His heavenly origin and the fact that He has been anointed by His Father and sent by Him to this earth.  His ‘Lordship’ demands obedience to all His commandments on our part.  One evangelist said, If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.  Thomas, after he had witnessed Christ risen from the dead, acknowledged Him as My Lord and my God (Jn.20:28). That should be our attitude to Him also.

Of course, the Lord wished all His disciples to be united into one thing (Jn.17:11).  Satan had attempted to disunite Deity in his temptation of Christ in the wilderness; he was completely unsuccessful.  The temptations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the vainglory of life, though working at the temptation of Eve, made no dent whatsoever on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Satan has had much better success with the disciples of Christ in our day, who by his leading have been scattered abroad by sundry doctrines and practices.  When Christ was tempted, His answer to Satan was the Word of God.  Unity will not be achieved in the things of God by compromise, ecumenism or uniformity.  Unity today - accord rather than discord - will only be realized where there is obedience to the plain doctrines of the Word of God.  Again and again when Moses was reiterating the words of the Law of God to ancient Israel he added the words, This do and you shall live, or words to that effect (e.g. Lev.18:5).  The Lord’s words to us today in connection with the Remembrance are, "This do ..."  Some who did not follow closely and with the wrong attitude were among those who were sickly, or had even fallen asleep (1 Cor.11:30). 

As the Lord did on the night of His betrayal by Judas, so we do.  One brother goes to the table, prompted by the Spirit so to do - nothing prearranged - gives thanks for the loaf, breaks it and all in the Assembly partake of it.  That same man goes again to the table, gives thanks for the cup of wine, and pours it so that all may partake of it also.  The instruction was that all are to drink of it.  Then the meeting (through oral presentation by various brothers) praises God, either in thanksgiving for God’s Son or praise to God for what the Son and God together are.  One brother speaks at a time (1 Cor.14:40), each in turn as led by the Spirit, all done in plain understandable language, decently and in order.  He, in that way, brings to God on behalf of the rest of the congregation the "things that [each has] made touching the King" (Ps.45:1 RV).

There are only seven references to this gathering in the New Testament: (1) Matthew 26:26; (2) Mark 14:22; (3) Luke 22:19; (4) Acts 2:42; (5) Acts 20:7; (6) 1 Corinthians 10:16; (7) 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.  It is always important to watch for seven-fold references to any subject in Scripture.  The Bible was not inspired haphazardly.  We may wish more had been written about this meeting and the early keeping of it - just how the various brothers had expressed their appreciation, for example -  but the number 7 is God’s perfect number and enough has been written to give us clear guidance as to what, where, when and how we are to carry on with matters of remembrance today and just who may engage in the supper.

To the Brother at the Lord’s Table

You went to the table and spoke of the Saviour

The dear Man of Sorrows who died on the tree,

Who bore all God’s judgement and purchased our favour,

Who suffered in anguish the captives to free.

First you handled the loaf, and this is a token

Of Christ’s holy body, bruised, smitten and torn.

Once marred and sore wounded, though no bone was broken,

Once nailed to the cross, His head circled with thorn.

Next you lifted the cup and you poured out the wine

Which spoke of the blood which the Lord freely shed,

Precious blood of the Saviour, a Victim divine,

The blood of His cross when He died in our stead.

You helped us to worship and think of the Master,

To worship our God in the holies above.

The rest of the week we can now follow faster

The One we remembered, the Saviour we love.

(Danny Mawhinney)

CHAPTER TWO: THIS DO...

One thing that is clear from the Gospels’ record of the Breaking of the Bread is that, in the Passover that the Lord longed to keep with His disciples, no Passover lamb was even mentioned.  We realize the connection between the lamb and the death