Weekly Eucharist By Paul Duggan (Part 3)

The Scriptural Basis II

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even til break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. Acts 20:7-12

The purpose stated for which the people assembled was not primarily to hear the preaching of Paul, but as the text says, they gathered to break bread. The reference here to breaking bread is most obviously to the Eucharist. Their reason for coming together was to do that which Christ had ordained as his memorial. Paul was available to preach the word of Christ to them at the same time.

Coming together, hearing the Word, and breaking bread are in this text all religious elements. This verse is quite properly used as the evidence of weekly assembly for the hearing of the word, and on the first day. It therefore also stands to fix the observance of the Eucharist on the same pattern. The preaching of the Word which Paul ministered included the breaking of bread in course of the complete service. This text is primary in establishing weekly communion, other verses which are perhaps less clear should be understood in light of it.

For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When yeou come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. I Corinthians 11:18-20

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. I Corinthians 11:33

These two sections should be incontrovertible, and when they are understood properly, they reinforce the usage in Acts. The Corinthian church is plagued with problems. They are misusing the Lord’s Supper, to the extent that what they are eating is not even the blessed sacrament. But the statement as to the frequency which they misused the proper ordinance should be clear. Every time they came together as a church they attempted to celebrate the Eucharist. Paul doesn’t instruct them to partake less frequently, but to partake with self- examination and in the bonds of love for the whole church. Thus, as we meet every Lord’s Day, the Lord’s Supper should likewise be celebrated each time, as by this example. We come together for the purpose of eating.

…This do in remembrance of me. I Corinthians 11:24

The Lord’s Supper is a memorial of Christ. Like the Old Testament memorials like the Rainbow or Joshuah’s stone heap, it signified God’s mighty delivering act in history, and was a token of the covenant which God would see, remember, and act upon, coming in His presence in blessing for his people. The Passover was a yearly memorial of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The Feast of Booths memorialized the presence of God with his people in their wilderness wanderings. We in the New Covenant stand in the consummation of all these types and symbols, and we have a need to memorialize Christ weekly in worship. The Scriptures are not given for this God-directed memorial function. The Word reminds us of the work of Christ, and to “do” the memorial act. The memorial is for God to see, like the Rainbow (Genesis 9:14-15), and it is to Him that we “show the Lord’s death till He come” (I Cor. 11:26b). The need for the word to remind us of our salvation, is surely for each occasion of worship, and the need to eat the Lord’s supper as Christ’s remembrance is likewise weekly.

For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. I Corinthians 10:17

The bread of the Eucharist is particularly a sign of the individual and universal Church’s unity. This needs to be expressed each time we come together. Shall we assemble ourselves and not be united? The unity which the church has must be expressed in truth, of course. Thus those that refuse to repent must be excommunicated, cut off from the sign of God’s blessing and church unity, from which they are cast out.

Paul commands the Corinthians to expel the immoral brother. Were the Corinthians only having Communion monthly or annually, such a sanction is of little effect or even importance. It would hardly matter at all, as he would note no difference between what he experiences and what the church experiences three fourths of the time. But Paul rather commands that they “keep the feast” with the “old leaven” of wickedness purged (I Cor. 5). It serves the interests of church discipline to have the central means of that discipline to be administered weekly.

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