Worship and the Lord's Supper

By Wayne Shi

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread... (Acts 20:7a).

John Piper on The Lord's Supper as Worship:

So I conclude that, in a few minutes, when we eat the bread and drink the cup, we may nourish our souls by faith on the spiritual presence of Christ. When we remember and proclaim his death, he manifests himself to us as infinitely precious. He shows us all that God promises to be for us in Christ. This is the food of our souls. With this we are nourished and find strength to live as Christians.

The Lord's Supper is worship because it expresses the infinite worth of Christ. No one is more worthy to be remembered. No one is more worthy to be proclaimed. And no one can nourish our souls with eternal life but Christ. So let us come and remember, and proclaim and eat.

A few additional thoughts:

1. As I've mentioned before, I agree with most of Eric Svendsen's conclusions in his Lord's Supper series - I mainly disagree with unbelievers being invited to eat the bread and drink of the cup.

2. In Tim Keller's article on Evangelistic Worship, he talks about "presenting the sacraments so as to make the gospel clear":

In addition, the Lord's Supper can become a converting ordinance. If it is explained properly, the unbeliever will have a very specific and visible way to see the difference between walking with Christ and living for oneself. The Lord's Supper will confront every individual with the question: "are you right with God today? now?" There is no more effective way to help a person to do a spiritual inventory. Many seekers in U.S. churches will only realize they are not Christians during the fencing of the table after an effective sermon on the meaning of the gospel.

3. I like this question from Doxologue, not because we should ignore either but because both are important:

Do you prefer approaches that emphasize our communion with each other or our communion with Christ Himself? How do we keep both in tension?