While those of us who are baptised or who have reaffirmed our faith in Christ partake of the Lord’s Supper every month, there may be a tendency for some of us to partake of it in a wrong or unworthy manner. This matter is addressed in 1 Corinthians 11:28-29 – "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body." The time of self examination before taking the bread and the cup helps us to check our motives and our thoughts to ensure that we are taking the elements to commune with God, and that our thoughts are focussed on Christ.

There are some who think that the words "…this do in remembrance of Me" (1 Corinthians 11:24) imply that the Lord’s Supper has no other value for us than a commemoration of His death. There are also some who think of the Lord’s Supper as an imaginative commiseration with Christ, where we express sympathy or compassion for His sufferings. Others think of it as a communication from Christ.

But the word that best describes what the Lord’s Supper should be to us is the word ‘communion’. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper we should be spiritually communing with Christ. The word communion is found in 1 Corinthians 10:16 – "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" The word in the original Greek text is koinonia, which means ‘fellowship.’ The idea of sharing sweet fellowship is highlighted in what Jesus said to Christians at Laodicea – "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) Thus Christ invites us to commune with Him personally as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.

The term "communion" does not imply that Christ is physically present within the elements, but that He is spiritually present with us, for us to have blessed fellowship with Him. This view of the Lord’s Supper is the Reformed view, and it was expounded by John Calvin, and expressed in the Westminster Confession – "Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements, in this sacrament, do then also, inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive, and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of His death: the body and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses." (WCF 29:7)

Since the benefit of partaking the Lord’s Supper is a spiritual benefit, you must prepare yourself spiritually for it. This involves the preparation of your heart. As J.C. Ryle said, "To enjoy a spiritual feast we must have a spiritual heart, and taste and appetite. To suppose that Christ’s ordinances can do good to an unspiritual man, is as foolish as to put bread and wine in the mouth of a dead person. The careless, the ignorant and the wilfully wicked, so long as they continue in that state, are utterly unfit to be communicants….A worthy communicant is one who possesses three simple marks and qualifications – repentance, faith and charity [love]. Does a man truly repent of sin and hate it? Does a man put his trust in Jesus Christ as his only hope of salvation? Does a man live in charity towards others? He that can truly say to each of these questions, "I do," he is a man that is Scripturally qualified for the Lord’s Supper." (Practical Religion, pp.148,149) The next time you partake of the Lord’s Supper, you can use Ryle’s three questions to examine yourself.

Nothing will be gained from partaking of the Lord’s Supper if it is done without understanding. For this reason, the minister who conducts the Lord’s Supper reads a relevant portion of Scripture, and reminds communicants about the significance of the Lord’s Supper in his remarks and prayer before the Lord’s Supper, and leads the congregation in singing a hymn.

J.C. Ryle says that taking the Lord’s Supper with understanding can provide communicants with "clearer views of Christ and His atonement, clearer views of all the offices which Christ fills as our Mediator and Advocate, clearer views of the complete redemption Christ has obtained for us by His death on the cross, clearer views of our full and perfect acceptance in Christ before God, fresh reasons for deep repentance for sin, fresh reasons for lively faith."

When your heart and mind are able to apprehend these things, the next step is to let your soul respond to them. There are at least four responses of the soul in the Lord’s Supper:

1. Contrition: The sight of the emblems of Christ’s body and blood reminds us how sinful our sin must be, if nothing less than the death of God’s own Son could make satisfaction for it, or redeem us from its guilt. It should deepen our repentance.

2. Comfort: The sight of the bread broken and the cup reminds us how full, perfect and complete our salvation is. We are reminded of the enormous price that was paid for our redemption, and that "there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

3. Consecration: The bread and the cup remind us what a great debt of gratitude we owe to our Lord, and how thoroughly we are bound to live for Him who died for our sins. (cf. Romans 12:1).

4. Commitment: Every time a believer partakes of the Lord’s Supper he is reminded to maintain his commitment to lead a consistent life. It should have a restraining effect upon him against yielding to sin and to the world.

With these three steps in place – preparation of heart, understanding the meaning and responding in the soul – the true born-again Christian will find the Lord’s Supper to be a great source of blessing to him, and he will eagerly look forward to every occasion when it is served and he can partake of it. It is for this reason that Christ prescribed this sacrament for us and commanded us to have it regularly.

There is no frequency prescribed in the Scriptures. All that we are told is that the Lord said, "this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:25) This is not a command to observe the Lord’s Supper often, as some have thought, but a command to observe it in the proper manner whenever it is observed.

There are churches that observe the Lord’s Supper every Sunday (cf. Acts 20:7 – "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread"). But there are also churches where it is only held once a year, on Good Friday, following the Jews’ annual observance of the Passover.

Three considerations will be of help: Firstly to have the Lord’s Supper too often tends to make it lose its value and to reduce it to a common routine. Secondly, having it too infrequently will deprive Christians of enjoying its spiritual benefits. Thirdly, the early Church regularly had ‘breaking of bread’: "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:42) If this is a reference to the Lord’s Supper, then clearly it was something done regularly and not just once a year. With these three considerations, we arrive at our present monthly observance of the Lord’s Supper, which we feel is a good frequency for it.

Churches not only differ in the frequency of observing the Lord’s Supper, but also in the manner of conducting it. In some churches, one loaf of bread is passed around and members take a pinch of it. Then one big chalice of wine is served and everyone drinks from it. In other churches members must go forward and kneel at the communion rail to receive the elements, which consist of a small piece of bread and a cup of grape juice. Hence the congregation does not take them at the same time but in batches. Many churches observe the Lord’s Supper the same way that we do: small pieces of bread are distributed to everyone, and these are then taken together, after which the cups are distributed and taken together as well.

In our Church we use unleavened bread for our Lord’s Supper which resembles a little biscuit. These are specially baked by some sisters in our church. Eating unleavened bread has some significance: In the Passover meal (which the Lord’s Supper originated from) the Jews ate only unleavened bread. In fact, they were supposed to remove all leaven (yeast) from their houses prior to the Passover (Exodus 12:15-20). Leaven was a symbol of sin. Jesus also used the same symbolism when He said, "Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (Luke 12:1) Since the bread in the Lord’s Supper represents Christ’s body, the absence of leaven from the bread aptly denotes the fact that Christ is sinless.

How about the cup? If we follow the Passover, we should use alcoholic wine like the Jews do. But if you read the account of the Last Supper carefully, you will notice that wine is not mentioned at all. All it says is, "And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it" (Matthew 26:27). What was in the cup? Not necessarily wine, because Jesus said in v.29, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom."

This ‘fruit of the vine’ may very well be fresh unfermented grape juice. Dr Peter Masters of Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle expounded that Christ chose to use fresh grape juice to institute the Lord’s Supper because it better represents the fresh New Covenant, while fermented wine was used in the Passover to represent the Old Covenant.

Having said all that, there will be times when neither unleavened bread nor fresh grape juice may be available for the Lord’s Supper. For example in times of war and famine, or in some third world countries. Should Christians be denied of taking the Lord’s Supper just because these are not available? No. Substitutes can definitely be used. J.O. Buswell cites the example of a wartime situation where a pastor had to use a green paste for the bread, and some soup for the cup, because these were the only things available. Remember that what is important is not the elements themselves but what they represent.

If you are a baptised Christian, or if you have reaffirmed your faith, and you understand the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, you should always partake of the Lord’s Supper and not excuse yourself from it. Since we have two English services in our church, you can take the Lord’s Supper at the other service if you have to miss it at the one you usually attend for legitimate reasons.

However, if you have not examined yourself before the elements are received, you should refrain from partaking of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28-29). To eat and drink unworthily means to partake with unconfessed sin. Therefore you must take time to examine yourself before partaking of the elements. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23,24)