Tag Archives: early church

The Table of the Lord: The early church breaks bread

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Some of this material is a rerun, but we like leftovers, right? Let’s see what the rest of the New Testament shows us about the church sharing meals.

We see the early church gathering for meals almost immediately after the resurrection. That’s logical of course; they were a community and would naturally eat together. From Acts 2, we can see that they did so on a daily basis. Acts 20 shows us that these common meals were so important that Paul interrupted a hurried trip and waited seven days in Troas just to participate in one. Jude 12 and 2 Peter 2:13 speak of “love feasts” which the church held.

It seems likely that all of these refer to a sharing of the Lord’s Supper. It’s even possible that early Christians took a moment during EVERY meal to remember the death of their Lord. At some point, very early on, this became a Sunday activity (this from church history, not from the Bible).

That’s a quick trip, but it concludes our whirlwind tour of what the Bible says about the table of the Lord. Before going on, let me hit some high points:

  • Worship in the Old Testament was built around a structure of community meals eaten in the presence of the Lord
  • The Lord’s Supper is related to the table of the sacrifice, not the altar
  • The Lord’s Supper was established in the context of the Passover, a meal celebrating God’s redemption of His people
  • At the Lord’s Table, Jesus is present as host and participant with us
  • The Bible never tells us to take the Lord’s Supper with sadness, but with thanksgiving
  • The Lord’s Supper is a communion with Christ and with one another; we cannot “partake” alone
  • The practice of the New Testament church is not set out in a legalistic framework. There almost seems to be a studied ambiguity about the whole topic.

Next I want to look at some non-biblical influences on how we take the Lord’s Supper, before offering some recommendations. Thanks for reading!

Assembly in the New Testament

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02forangeSomeone asked me to continue this study, not putting on the brakes when I hit the end of Malachi. I’ll do my best, as long as everyone continues to contribute. I’ll be in Cuba for a week or so, so you’ll have time to comment.

Jesus and his early followers were Jews. They attended the synagogue; they participated in daily temple activities; they participated in feasts. The early church was very Jewish. They continued following Jewish behavior for many years (Acts 21:20).

It’s amazing how little is said about the assembly in the New Testament. To be fair, some have suggested that since the letters were intended to be read to the assembled church, much of what is said can be assumed to be directed toward assembly behavior. I’m not convinced, but I’ll mention that argument out of fairness (or an attempt at the same).

1 Corinthians discusses the assembly. Hebrews 10 talks about “assembling” (sorry folks… the term “forsaking the assembly” isn’t in there). We have Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 20:7-12. And that’s about it (let’s throw in Matthew 18:17 for good measure).

Fill in the gaps for me. What am I missing?