THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
[p. 710] THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AND THE LORD’S SUPPER
The first day of the week is very prominent in the Acts and in the epistles. It became prominent when the Lord rose from the dead. It shows to us that christianity is the beginning of things spiritually. The special day that is connected with christianity is the first day, not the last. The Supper is connected with it; it is in keeping with that thought. The Sabbath was to Israel the sign of God’s relations with them, and we are told in Exodus 31, that God rested on the seventh day, and was refreshed. It comes in after the instructions were given to Moses in regard to the tabernacle, and would correspond in a measure as to its place with the place the Lord’s supper has in Paul’s ministry. Paul received it from the Lord, in connection with the new heavenly system, and delivered it to the assembly, the Lord’s supper and the first day of the week having in view refreshment for divine Persons. Luke is really writing in the light of Paul’s communications, in the light of what we have in 1 Corinthians 11. Hence the Lord’s supper is brought in in his gospel as connected with the assembly. Paul and Luke would dissociate it from the passover, whereas the other two do not. Paul connects it with the assembly. I think the bread and the cup suggest what Christ is to us. The bread speaks of Christ’s body in which He did the will of God here. My will must be given up if I eat of that. As one’s will is broken, one is set free to enjoy divine love. “This is my body, which is for you”. It is Christ’s personal love for the assembly and He laid down His life for it. He said “I have authority to lay it down”. The more we ponder what He was as a Man here, the more we appreciate what love is. “This is my body”. It was in His body that He suffered.
[p. 711] Consistency with it is brought out in our links with one another. What breaks unity amongst the saints is will. The Lord removes our wills, so that there might be room for the Spirit. If we are in the allowance of an unbroken will, we do not rightly partake of the Supper. I am committed to unity.
What is before us immediately in the Supper is the Lord. The Supper by itself is a memorial of Christ, of Himself. The Lord took a loaf, which was a material thing, and hung spiritual thoughts on it. So the cup also introduced spiritual thoughts. He gives us the cup and in it is all that speaks of love. It is all in one vessel, and the idea is communion. We all break the same bread and drink the same cup. It is the idea of unity. The Lord’s supper is the symbol of unity. So in chapter 12 where the two ordinances of christianity are alluded to in a spiritual way, Paul says that “we have all been baptised into one body ... and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. The reference is to baptism and the Lord’s supper. We give thanks for the cup and maintain the symbol in its simplicity. That which is in the cup, according to the Lord’s mind, He has put into it. It speaks to us of things according to His perfect knowledge of them. It is for us to see that we get them into our souls. What we feed on is one thing, and what we drink of is another. You appreciate the emblems as you partake of them. It is a sign of the moral greatness of the Lord that He talked about love and shows it when all around showed hatred. We do not continue to be occupied with the symbols, for the Supper makes way for the headstone, for Christ to be supreme personally. The headstone will be put on. The full thought of unity is brought before us in the Supper. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. The bride says it too, as well as the Spirit. The cry, “Behold the bridegroom” brings in the Supper, and immediately you are conscious of the need for the Holy Spirit. The five [p. 712] foolish virgins were without the oil; their lamps went out. Those that have the oil go on to the end. The saints are being brought back to the truth of the Spirit, and to make room for the Spirit in full measure in order to go on to the end. John tells us that He giveth not the Spirit by measure. The fourth of John is the proof of it; for it is a well which springs up into everlasting life, and in John 7 the Spirit flows out in rivers. It shows the abundance of it. Every time you drink of the cup you are reminded of the place the Spirit has, we are given to drink into one Spirit. The apostle Paul is said to be a minister of the assembly. There is also “the ministry of the Spirit”, which Paul says, “subsists in glory”. All this is to bring us into unity and into liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. That carries us right on to what Christ is to us. But we all with unveiled face beholding the Lord’s glory are changed into the same image. I think the glory of the Lord is the outshining of Himself and it is brought into our hearts by the Spirit.