In this lesson we come to the various kinds of meetings and their natures. It is evident that a person must know the focus and activities of each meeting if he desires to serve and function in the meetings. We will first consider the bread-breaking meeting.
Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 10:21 and 11:20 show that the bread-breaking meeting is the gathering of the saints to partake of the Lord’s table and to eat the Lord’s supper. We must know that this meeting is divided into two sections. The first section is for the remembrance of the Lord, and the second section is for the worship of the Father. Since this meeting is divided into two sections, the activities in this meeting are also of two natures. The activities in the first section are to remember the Lord. The activities in the second section are to worship the Father.
The purpose of the first section is to remember the Lord; therefore, we should never bring in any activity related to the worship of the Father into this section. The focus in this section is on breaking the bread. Our coming together to break bread is for the remembrance of the Lord. This section of the meeting has two aspects.
As clearly presented in 1 Corinthians 11:20-25, eating the Lord’s supper is the first significance of this aspect of the bread-breaking meeting. Eating the Lord’s supper is for the proper remembrance of the Lord. There are three points for us to understand related to the Lord’s supper.
First, the bread signifies the Lord’s body that hung on the cross for us. This was His physical body that was given for us. The Lord’s body was given and broken for us on the cross so that we may obtain His life. Every time we come to the bread-breaking meeting and see the bread on the table, we should have a strong feeling in our spirit. We should have the realization that the bread signifies that the body which the Lord clothed Himself with in His incarnation was broken for us on the cross so that we may have His life. At His supper we partake of the bread that signifies His body that was given for us that we may obtain His life. Our receiving and enjoying the Lord is our remembrance of Him. This is what the Lord meant on the night of His betrayal when He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).
Second, the produce of the vine in the cup signifies the Lord’s blood, shed for us so that our sins may be forgiven. On the positive side, the bread signifies the Lord’s body given for us so that we may have His life. On the negative side, the cup signifies the Lord’s blood shed for us so that we may be delivered from sin and everything we have that is outside of God.
It is very strange that while the bread on the table is identified as the bread, the blood on the table is not identified as the blood, but as the cup. If the cup was referred to as the blood, it would denote only redemption. However, the significance of the cup encompasses much more than merely redemption. In the Bible the cup signifies a portion, a blessing. Psalm 16:5 says, “Jehovah is the portion...of my cup.” Therefore, the cup denotes the portion we obtain from God. The portion God measures out to us according to our condition is the cup God has given to us. Therefore, Revelation 14:9-10 says that the fallen sinners who worship the beast and his image receive the cup of God’s wrath as their portion.
According to our true condition, we also deserve the cup of God’s wrath. But we thank God that the Lord drank the cup of wrath for us on the cross. Before His crucifixion, the Lord prayed in Gethsemane, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). When He was arrested, He said to Peter, who drew the sword to protect Him, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). These verses show that on the cross the Lord drank the cup of God’s wrath for us who have sinned, fallen, and should perish. On the cross He was judged by God and shed His blood. Therefore, the Lord’s blood is proof that He bore our sins and was judged by God. His blood declares to the universe that He drank the cup of God’s wrath that we, the fallen sinners, should drink, and He suffered the punishment that we should suffer. He fulfilled the righteous requirement of God. Hence, the Lord’s shed blood indicates that He has washed away our sins before God.
The Lord has also established a covenant by His blood. This covenant enables us to receive God Himself and all of His blessings. This covenant established by the Lord’s blood is included in the cup. This cup speaks forth that God Himself and all of His blessings have become our portion. The cup that we have received from the Lord is the cup of salvation in Psalm 116:13 and the cup that runs over in Psalm 23:5. On the negative side, this cup speaks of the Lord’s blood that has washed away our sins before God. On the positive side, it speaks of the blood of the Lord that has paid the price for us so that God and all that belongs to Him are now our portion for our enjoyment. This is our blessed portion.
Hence, the bread denotes life, and the cup signifies blessing. The bread always refers to life; it is the bread of life. The cup always refers to blessing; it is the portion that man receives from God. By receiving the bread, we testify that we receive the Lord as life in our spirit. Our receiving and enjoyment of Him in this way is our remembrance of Him. At the same time, by receiving this cup, we testify that we receive all that He has accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood on the cross. Hence, every time we receive the bread and the cup, we have a fresh receiving of the Lord Himself and what He accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood on the cross. This receiving is in spirit for our inward enjoyment. Our receiving Him, enjoying Him, and eating and drinking of Him are our true remembrance of Him.
Here we see that our remembrance of the Lord is completely different from the worldly commemoration of famous people and memorials of relatives. In the world people exercise their mind to contemplate the ways, conduct, works, and love of the one whom they are remembering, but there is no element of receiving. When we remember the Lord, however, we do not merely meditate on Him; this is but a small part. The focus of our remembrance of the Lord is our eating and drinking of Him. The Lord said, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me...This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24-25). The Lord’s words clearly state that to remember Him is to receive Him as the One who was given for us and to receive all that He has accomplished. Our eating, drinking, and enjoying Him in such a way is to remember Him.
Hence, every time we come to remember the Lord, we should not remember Him merely by meditating in our mind. We need to receive Him and all that He has accomplished in our spirit as our inward enjoyment and allow Him to mingle more with us. This is the true remembrance of the Lord.
The significance of bread-breaking is also the meaning of our Christian living. The Christian living is a life of eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord day by day in order to allow Him to mingle with us. We should not do this merely on the first day of the week when we come to the bread-breaking meeting. This should be our daily living. As saved ones, we live by eating and drinking the Lord.
If our understanding of bread-breaking to remember the Lord is not up to this standard, our bread-breaking may be merely something superstitious. This would be like the mass in the Catholic Church. Catholics believe that they come to God by keeping the mass and that they are thereby forgiven and able to receive His blessings. This is altogether superstitious. The significance of our coming to eat the Lord’s supper by remembering the Lord is absolutely different. We declare to the universe, testifying that we live by eating, drinking, and receiving Him so that He can enter into us to be our life and be mingled with us. This is not merely an outward ritual; it is the reality of our daily living. Only those living in this way are truly remembering the Lord; otherwise, bread-breaking is but a superstitious religious ritual.
Third, when we come to break the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of the Lord, our focus is on eating, drinking, receiving, and enjoying the Lord, not on thinking about the Lord. Hence, when we come to the bread-breaking meeting, we should not consider the Lord too much with our mind; rather, we should exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and have fellowship with Him. We must have a deep realization regarding this point. According to our human concept, we may think that as we break the bread, we should tremble at the sight of the bread. We may also think that when we touch the cup, we should consider each drop the Lord shed of His blood. We may remember how the Lord left His throne, was born in a manger, went to Nazareth, went up to Jerusalem, was crucified, was buried in a tomb, and then ascended to the throne after His resurrection. We often hear people pray in this way at the bread-breaking meeting. This is man’s natural concept.
We need to know that when the Lord established the supper, He passed the bread to His disciples and told them to take and eat it. He also passed the cup to them and told them to drink of it. He told them to do this in remembrance of Him. The main focus in the bread-breaking meeting is not to remember the Lord in our mind but to fellowship with the Lord in our spirit, receiving the Lord whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed in order to redeem us. When we have such fellowship with the Lord in our spirit by eating, drinking, and enjoying Him, we are fed in our spirit. This can be compared to being invited to a feast in which the host does not want us to think about the dishes that he has prepared; rather, he wants us to eat to the full what he has prepared. This is the Lord’s revelation regarding the bread-breaking meeting. This is completely different from man’s natural concept.
The Lord desires that we eat the bread and drink the cup in our remembrance of Him. He said, “This do unto the remembrance of Me” (v. 24). When we contact the Lord in this way, we will spontaneously think of His acts and of what He has done for us. However, this is not the focus of our remembrance of the Lord. The focus is our eating, drinking, receiving, and enjoying Him.