THE BREAD BREAKING MEETING
A. The first aspect is eating the Lord’s supper; a relationship between us and the Lord.
1. The emphasis in eating the Lord’s supper is the remembrance of the Lord (Acts 20:7; I Cor. 11:20, 23-25). By eating the Lord’s bread and drinking the Lord’s cup we eat the Lord’s supper in remembrance of the Lord.
2. In the aspect of the Lord’s supper the bread signifies the Lord’s individual physical body. The bread also denotes life, the eternal life of God (John 6:33-35). Thus the bread is a symbol signifying the Lord’s body, which was broken on the cross to release His life that we may participate in it. By eating the bread we remember how the Lord gave His body for us that we may have His eternal life (I Cor. 11:24).
3. The cup signifies the new covenant which the Lord enacted for us by shedding His blood (I Cor. 11:25). The cup denotes blessing (I Cor. 10:16), which is God Himself as the believers portion (Psa. 16:5). As sinners, the believers should have had the cup of God’s wrath as their portion, (Rev. 14:10). But the Lord drank the cup for them (John 18:11), and His salvation became their portion, the cup of salvation (Psa. 116:13) that runs over (Psa. 23:5), the content of which is God as the believers’ all-inclusive blessing. By drinking of the cup, we remember how the Lord shed His blood for our sins (Matt. 26:28).
4. When we eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood, we not only receive but also enjoy the Lord Himself and all that He has accomplished for us by giving His body and shedding His blood. To receive and enjoy the Lord in this way is to remember Him.
5. Whenever we eat the Lord’s bread and drink His cup, we simultaneously remember the Lord and display His death (I Cor. 11:26). While we are remembering the Lord, we display the Lord’s death for ourselves, for the angels and all other to see. The bread and the cup being displayed separately on the table means death. The bread refers to the Lord’s body and the cup to His blood. Since the separation of the body and the blood signifies death, death is thus displayed. And according to I Cor. 11:26 we should remember the Lord and display His death until He comes. This shows that we should display the Lord’s death and thus remember Him in the spirit and atmosphere of waiting for His coming. By displaying the Lord’s redeeming and life-imparting death we testify to the entire universe of His rich and marvelous salvation,
B. The second aspect is attending the Lord’s table; a relationship between us and the saints.
1. The stress in attending the Lord’s table is the fellowship with the saints (I Cor. 10:16-17, 21). Our eating and partaking of one bread and drinking and sharing in one cup imply mutual fellowship. Such fellowship becomes the fellowship of the blood of Christ and the fellowship of the Body of Christ. When we eat and drink together, sharing in the Lord’s bread and the Lord’s cup, we "partake of the table of the Lord" (I Cor. 10:21). At this table we share in the Lord’s body and the Lord’s blood with all the saints and have fellowship one with another (I Cor. 10:16-17). Such a bread and such a cup are the constituents of the Lord’s supper, which is a table, a feast, set up by Him that His believers may remember Him by enjoying as such a feast. Therefore, to remember the Lord is not to lock yourself inside your room alone and think of Him but it is by attending the Lord’s table and feasting on the Lord together with the saints.
2. In the aspect of eating the Lord’s supper, the bread refers to the Lord’s individual body, which He gave for us on the cross, while in the aspect of attending the Lord’s table, the bread points to the Lord’s corporate Body which He constituted with all the regenerated believers through His resurrection from the dead. The bread, which we share and which symbolizes the individual body of Christ, comes into us to make us one bread, signifying the one corporate Body of Christ (I Cor. 10:17). The bread which signifies the corporate Body of Christ is mystical. Each time we break the bread we testify of the oneness of the mystical Body - the universal church.
3. Concerning the Lord’s table the cup signifies the enjoyment of God’s blessing. By partaking of this cup we have fellowship (joint participation) of the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ, which we enjoy together removes all the barriers between the saints.
A. The meeting for the breaking of bread is a meeting for the believers’ worship. According to the procedure of God’s salvation, we first receive the Lord and draw near to the Father. The center of the section of worshipping the Father is the worship of the Father, where all the prayers, hymns, and words should be directed toward the Father.
B. After we have broken the bread to remember the Lord we ought to be led by Him to worship the Father together (Matt. 26:26-30). Hebrews 2:12 mentioned what the Lord did when He appeared to and met with His disciples after His resurrection, that is He considered them as brothers and declared to them the Father’s name. As the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29), He led His many brothers, (the regenerated believers), who are God’s many sons, to sing praise to Father together, that is, to worship the Father together.
A. Eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner; failing to make distinction between the bread, which signifies the Lord’s body, and common food; and not discerning the Body of Christ by partaking of the bread in any division or with any divisive spirit bring judgment to us by a temporary discipline (I Cor. 11:30-32).
B. Therefore we need to clear all our sins, consider the bread not something common but holy, and our participation in the Lord’s table must be the unique fellowship of His unique Body without any division in practice or in spirit.