THE LORD'S SUPPER AND THE SERVICE OF GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
THE LORD’S SUPPER AND THE SERVICE OF GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
JT I have in mind to speak of the Lord’s supper in relation to the service of God in the assembly. The Lord has been bringing this subject before His own for several years, and consequently the Supper is, generally speaking, better understood than it was before, also the assembly, and the service of God as carried on now in the assembly. Luke gives us in general terms, public order, continuing and confirming Paul’s ministry. John also confirms Paul’s ministry, but more on the inward and spiritual side. Hence, instead of giving us an account of the Supper as is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, John quotes in detail the words uttered by the Lord, the same night that the Supper was instituted. In chapter 17, the Lord, after having spoken at length, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father”, so showing the way to His disciples. He wished them to understand that He had in mind to lead them to the Father, and that they might be able to say, “Father” to God. Luke, therefore, gives us the public side of assembly order in connection with the Supper, and John, the inward and spiritual side which accompanies it. If we do not observe these two sides together, neither the public side nor the inward side will be what they ought to be.
Ques Is not announcing the death of the Lord until He comes connected with the public side?
JT Yes, but the public act will be without power unless we are in the enjoyment of the side presented by John. If we follow Luke’s teaching and omit what John gives, we shall become theorists and lack spiritual power.
Rem What will give us spiritual power, is to do [p. 71] it in love. Our hearts will be led to respond to the thought and desire of the Lord in the Supper.
JT Yes. The teaching of John 13, John 14, John 15 and John 16 represents the spiritual side underlying the Supper. The ministry of John in these chapters leads further than the Supper, reaching to the heavenly side where we have understanding of the Father, and where we realise also, according to chapter 20, that we are Christ’s brethren, His Father is our Father, and His God our God.
It may be helpful to some here, if not to all, to indicate the way by which we arrive at an understanding of the assembly in its public character; that is to say, the kind of place it is in which the Supper is partaken of according to the mind of God. We find this instruction in Luke 22:7 - 13; where it says in verse 8, “He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the passover for us, that we may eat it ... there make ready”. The Lord could have told them the name of the street, and the number of the house, so to speak, but instead of that, He told them that they would meet a man bearing a pitcher of water.
Ques Would you say a few words about Peter and John; and why Peter is mentioned before John.
JT That opens up an interesting subject. Peter represents, I think, the Lord’s authority. He said to him elsewhere, “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 16:19), indicating that Peter has authority. On the other hand, John was the disciple who was in the bosom of Jesus; that is to say, he represents the love side. In a local assembly we need both authority and love.
Ques Will you say a little more about needing both authority and love in a local assembly?
JT We need to see to it that authority and love are there. Peter represents the Lord’s authority, which was seen in the elders in the early days of the church’s history. It appears today in those who are marked by moral worth among the saints; those who take care of [p. 72] the assembly, and watch that nothing that is contrary to the Lord is allowed there. They are marked by discernment as to what is suitable for God’s house; their behaviour is such as is outlined in 1 Timothy 3:15, “In order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”.
Rem That should help us to understand that authority must be maintained, according to the Scriptures, for the glory of God.
JT In maintaining authority, and in sympathising with the saints in this way, you make them understand that you love them.
Ques What difference is there in the authority as represented by Peter, and by the master of the house?
JT Peter and John are from the Lord’s side, His envoys. The master of the house alludes to the responsible element actually in a locality. This element is viewed as already existing, but it is put to the test by the request of Peter and John, “Where is the guest-chamber”. This was the message, “The teacher says to thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?” The Lord sends the message under the name of ‘Teacher’, that is to say, if christians in this town are altogether taught of God, they will regard the Teacher; they will respect His message. If on the other hand they have a party or sectarian spirit, they will not heed this message. This man raised no question. The Lord said, “He will show you a large upper room furnished; there make ready”. The secret of the readiness of this man to acknowledge the message lies in the fact that a man carrying a pitcher of water had entered his house.
Ques What does the man with the pitcher of water suggest?
JT He suggests more than a creed: a creed is not represented by a pitcher of water, for it may be anything from 300 to 1,000 years old, and however good it is it [p. 73] is the work of man, and lacks freshness. A pitcher of water carried by a man is carried intelligently. You may be sure that he went to fetch fresh water; it was a pitcher that a man could carry, suggesting that it was drinking water, refreshing, and I believe that the fact that the man carrying it entered the house, immediately accounts for the Lord’s request. Hence unless fresh water is brought into a meeting, the Lord’s rights will not be recognised there; at the end of this gospel, when the Lord came into the midst of His disciples, He asked them, “Have ye anything here to eat?” Luke 24:41. We are tested as to what we have in the house; if we do not bring in some water — in other words, some living ministry, nothing will be done. Some believers may be present, certainly, but what the Lord asks for, is “something to eat”. We are all tested as to our religious associations; is there any refreshment, or anything to eat in a spiritual way in the associations in which we are?
Ques Do you think the Lord is still asking, “Where is the guest-chamber”?
JT That is what this passage teaches; it is written for our teaching; have I learnt the lesson?
Ques How can we acquire what is refreshing? Do we get it as together or as individuals?
JT In the way it is set here, the question is, Is there a man carrying a pitcher of water into the house? In other words, if I am exercised to find the place where I should be in fellowship, I should look diligently for the existence of this principle, “a man ... carrying an earthen pitcher of water”. It is not an empty pitcher, so I can follow him and find water there. He has water in his pitcher, therefore I follow him. Where that man is, there is ministry; he is carrying something. The woman of Samaria came to the well with her pitcher empty, to get it filled, but she met the Lord Jesus who spoke to her of living water and “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water,
springing up into eternal life”, John 4:14. The woman then left her waterpot and went to the city. She had living water in herself; that is the idea, a living ministry in earthen vessels, in persons such as we. This passage shows how we can get guidance as to the place where we should take the Supper. The Lord said, “He will show you a large upper room furnished”. The word “large” implies that there is plenty of room there, spiritually alluding to the greatness of the assembly. How much room there is for every believer in the assembly! It is an upper room; it is not a cathedral nor a church, which are on earth level; there is no moral elevation in such structures. Since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, there has been no stone building which has had the slightest moral worth. It is a matter today of a spiritual house having moral elevation, as is said of believers in the epistle to the Hebrews, “Whose house are we” (Hebrews 3:6), and “Ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2:22. This passage therefore, teaches us the moral conditions necessary to celebrate the Supper.
Ques Why was it that the room was furnished, yet the passover was not prepared? The disciples had to make that ready themselves.
JT It was a question as to what those whom the Lord sent were to do. Christ must always be presented.
Ques Will you say a word about those who were sent?
JT Peter and John represent the authority of the Lord in this matter; they were the ones who had to make ready. So it says that the three thousand, who were converted in Jerusalem, persevered in the teaching of the apostles — not in the teaching of Luther, nor of Wesley, nor of Calvin, but in the teaching of the apostles, of those who represent the Lord’s authority. All christians who desire to move in accordance with God’s thoughts must come to this. It is not that the teaching of the men I have just referred to was not more or less [p. 75] right, but they are not representative of the Lord in the same way as the apostles. The three thousand, it says, “persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”, Acts 2:42. In the place where we find that fellowship, we shall be sure to find the Lord’s supper. Apart from the teaching and fellowship of the apostles we cannot have the Supper. It may appear to be the Supper, but the apostle Paul would say, “It is not ... the Lord’s supper”, 1 Corinthians 11:20. The Lord said, “There make ready”, and it was Peter and John who made ready. Then comes the eating: certainly it was the passover that was immediately in view, but for us the teaching of the passover is in 1 Corinthians 5, where we are to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This opens the way for the Lord’s supper in 1 Corinthians 11.
Ques Would you say briefly the difference between the passover and the Supper?
JT As we were remarking, the passover is spiritually the death of Christ for us; that is, the death in which God judged man in the most unsparing way. “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; so that let us celebrate the feast ... with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”, 1 Corinthians 5:7,8; it is the death of Christ. On the one hand we have God settling the sin question, and on the other hand, the unleavened bread which has to be eaten for seven days, for the duration of the feast. In other words, in my everyday life, at home or at work, I walk in self-judgment, in accord with the death of Christ. I am sincere in whatever I do; there is to be sincerity and truth. We thus keep the passover and can meet together, can sit down in assembly, and partake of the Supper.
Ques Do we keep the passover during the week, and take the Supper on Lord’s day?
JT We keep the feast, but not in a formal way as we do the Supper. It speaks of “our passover”, then it says, “Let us celebrate the feast”. In our passage the [p. 76] Lord says that although He then ate the passover with them, “I will not eat any more at all of it”; that particular feast ended there. In the gospel of John, it is called, “the passover of the Jews”, (John 11:55) showing that it had lost its spiritual character. Now it is “our passover”, the antitype of Exodus 12.
Rem In a practical way, applying the passover to our everyday life, it is what the apostle said, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”, 2 Corinthians 4:10.
JT Just so. It is a question of the way we judge ourselves every day, at home, at work, or wherever we may be.
Rem It involves separation from all that surrounds us in the world.
JT Yes, we should sit down in assembly as self-judged persons: “Let a man prove himself”, 1 Corinthians 11:28.
Ques Is Peter always before John; the side of righteousness before remembrance in love?
JT Authority must be maintained before love can have free course. These then are the conditions in which the Supper is taken. The apostle says that “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it”, (1 Corinthians 11:23,24) indicating what occurred when the Lord instituted the Supper. We should observe what the Lord has said, so that the order followed may be in accord with the mind of God.
Now, I would like to say a few words in connection with John 17. There are so many things to say about the way in which the Supper opens the way for the service of God in the assembly. It should be noticed that in Luke 22 and in 1 Corinthians 11, the Supper, or the breaking of bread, is a memorial of Christ; that is to say, we recall Christ in this particular way. He is absent; He has been rejected by men, and crucified. He has gone into heaven; He is no longer here. Those who love Him should remember Him, and do so in the way He Himself appointed. As we are thus calling Him [p. 77] to mind, He comes to us, and as we realise His presence in our midst, as in Luke and John, we acknowledge Him as Head amongst us, and worship Him. He is the Minister of the sanctuary, and He leads the service. Certainly He makes use of the saints in thanksgivings, and by the Spirit He helps us, but it is He who leads in the assembly. It says in Hebrews 8:2 that He is “minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”. He leads the service of God in the assembly. Hence, in thanksgiving, and when giving out hymns in this part of the assembly service, we should make a distinction and not make use of hymns, or thanksgivings addressed to the Lord, but rather to God the Father. This is why, at the beginning of John 17 it says, “Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come”.
Ques “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name”, Hebrews 13:15. Is that the thought?
Rem At the beginning of the meeting then, it is suitable to sing hymns addressed to Christ, and praise and thanksgiving to Him, but after the Supper, would our hymns and our thanksgiving as led by Christ as Head, be addressed rather to the Father?
JT The Supper, the Lord’s supper, is the beginning of the meeting, when we have the Lord before us. We partake of the bread which is his body, and of the cup which is the new covenant in His blood, so that we are impressed by the love of Christ. The new covenant is not made with the assembly, but is between God and the house of Israel and Judah, yet it manifests love. The Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts God’s love. So while speaking to the Lord Jesus in the Supper, we go on in the service to speak to God, as in new relations. If, therefore, we realise that the Lord Jesus comes into our midst, He leads His brethren, as it says in Hebrews, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren”, (Hebrews 2:11)
[p. 78] and sings praise in the midst of the assembly. Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father”, and we touch assembly ground when we say, “Father”. Jesus is the Son of God, and we are sons of God, as brethren of Christ. The service of God continues on this ground, and those who take part in the assembly should follow this movement, both in hymns and thanksgivings.
Ques In practice, we often seem to fail to reach the Father; is that because we are not responsive?
JT It is because we are not sufficiently exercised about it, and not sufficiently prepared for assembly ground.
Rem Possibly although we may sing the best hymns, we do not really enter into these things.