Communion or the ‘Lord’s Supper’ is an act of worship that involves eating bread and drinking wine. At Bible Way, we observe this at least once a month and use non-alcoholic wine.
The Lord’s Supper is one of the central acts of worship in the Christian Church. It is based upon the specific command of Jesus to His disciples on the night on which He was betrayed. At that time, Jesus met with His disciples to eat the Jewish Passover meal. In the course of the evening He took bread, gave thanks for it and shared it among them with these words, ‘Take, eat; this is my body’. After the supper He took the cup of wine and shared that also, saying ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; and Luke 22:14- 23).
In doing this Jesus established a practice that has been continued ever since by His followers. Through this simple meal, He assigned a meaning to His death which would follow on the next day. He interpreted it as a death for us which would bring about the forgiveness of sins and a new relationship with God.
The early church continued to practice the Lord’s Supper and it is referred to in particular, by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 in what have come to be called ‘the words of institution’. These give a glimpse into the way communion was shaped in early times.