Key Bible Passage(s)

Tier 1

Christian spirituality is physical. And so it is no surprise to find a meal at the heart of Christian worship. Through the Bread and Wine, the Spirit of Christ unleashes into our lives and experience the resources Christ won for us at the Cross… the resources that enable us now to grow towards being the knid of people, and living the kind of lives we’re called to as disciples.

Tier 2

Taking Communion embeds us in an ancient story of fellowship with God. Interstingly, much of that story can be told in terms of food! And it is through this symbolic meal that we become characters in it. The story we see ourselves part of shapes how we understand ourselves and how we see the world. It is a story of the redeeming of a people from tyranny, slavery and death, and the promise of a new life as the people of God.

Tier 3

As well as looking to our history, we must also consider what is happening in our present and in our future when we participate in Communion. How does the Spirit of Christ sustain us in the life of Christ through the death of Christ? And how does this simply ‘meal’ of Bread and Wine awaken in us a longing and anticipation for a New Creation future in which we will fully live out God’s vision for our lives in His presence and to His glory.

We should pray that God would enrich his ordinance with his presence; that he would make the sacrament effectual to all those holy ends and purposes for which he hath appointed it; that it may be the feast of our graces, and the funeral of our corruptions; that it may not only be a sign to represent, but an instrument to convey, Christ to us.

Thomas Watson

First Group time:

Throughout Scripture, different titles are given to this act in worship.

Breaking of bread (Acts 2:42; I Cor.10:16)

Participation (or Communion) (I Cor.10:16)

The Lord’s Supper (I Cor.11:20)

Eucharist (from the Greek word for ‘thanksgiving, I Cor.11:24)

What do each of these convey in terms of God’s agenda in our eating and drinking together?

Main discussion:

Read Matt.26:17-30

Why do you think Jesus’ being betrayed is so significant a part of this ‘Last Supper’ (v.21-23)? Even all these years later we still introduce it ‘On the night Jesus was betrayed…’.

In what way is the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ (vv.26-27)? Is it merely a symbol, or a token that triggers our memory… or is something more going on? Does it matter what we believe about this?

What is the significance of Jesus not drinking again ‘from this fruit of the vine’ until He drinks it with us in His Father’s Kingdom (v.29)? When will that be?

In what sense are we proclaiming (I Cor.11:26) the Lord’s death when we repeat this meal? Why is it important that we do so?

Homework