There is much disagreement with regards to the regularity of the Lord's Table. Some churches observe it weekly, some bi-weekly, some monthly, some quarterly, while others have it whenever it seems 'right.'
Rather than defending one's traditions as to how one calendars for the Table, going to the Scriptures is always the safest bet when looking for answers.
Though there is no extended treatise on how the local church is celebrate the Table, there is nevertheless sufficient evidence that helps inform our decision as to how often we should "break bread" and "share the cup."
The first text worth noting is found in Acts 20:7. Here, we see that Paul has a week long layover in Troas while en route to Jerusalem. While there, he does what he always does: he finds believers to worship with and enjoy fellowship among.
Having done so, we read in the text, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight."
Many of us are familiar with what happens next: Paul gets passionate, and ends up preaching and teaching the assembly ("church") late into the night, resulting in sleepy Eutchys falling out the second floor window to his death, only to be raised to life again at the command of the apostle.
However, we are interested in v.7, where Luke says Paul gathered with the believers "to break bread." When we read this too casually or too quickly, we can easily pass over extremely important words, like "to." In the Greek, the verb is an infinitive of purpose, and thus we might better translate it as "in order to," or "for the purpose of."
That is, Paul gathered (literally, he "synagogued") with the believers for a reason: "to break bread."
This - the "breaking of bread" - is a common theme in the book of Acts, which chronicles the Lord Jesus building His church in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.
It is first used in 2:42, where, after the Holy Spirit powerfully visits Peter's proclamation of the gospel in Jerusalem, 3000 souls are saved and baptized (2:41). Then, as Acts repeatedly teaches, these believers begin to (super)naturally congregate together. What did they regularly do when they "gathered together" ("synagogued")? Luke writes, "And they were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers."
The definite article ("the") indicates that this was no ordinary "bread." It is clear from this text that just as regularly as they devoted themselves to hearing from and learning about the Scriptures, they also "broke the bread." In fact, the NLT translates the verse as follows: "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer" (cf. 2:46).
Many churches emphasize the necessity of including Bible teaching, praying, and giving every Lord's Day. But if we want to be consistent, and if we want to follow the NT example of gathering regularly on the Lord's Day, should we not also make "breaking the bread" a necessary component of our congregational worship and fellowship?
That breaking bread in congregational settings is another way of saying that they celebrated the Lord's Table is strengthened by Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 10:16, where we read, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
Clearly, Paul is talking not about eating regular 'bread' here. The context clearly shows us that for Paul "breaking bread" with other believers is the same as celebrating the Lord's Supper with them.
This is buttressed even further by his words in the next chapter (11:23, 26-28), where, quoting the Lord Jesus Himself, Paul shows that the bread the believers are breaking refers to that of the commemoration and celebration of the Lord's Supper (also see 5:7).
How often is the church to break bread? It would seem that the context clearly emphasizes "when you gather together." The verb is used a whopping 4 times in this short section on the Lord's Table, and complements Luke's own words about Paul's own practice in the book of Acts. How often did the Corinthians "break bread"? "When they gathered together." And when did they gather together? On the Lord's Day (see 16:2). Which means they celebrated the Lord's Supper every time they "churched" on the Lord's Day.
As inconvenient as celebrating the Lord's Table might be (won't it add another 5-10 minutes to an already long service??), I guess the questions we need to ask ourselves are: "What does God teach in the Bible?" and "Am I willing to obey God, no matter what?"
If celebrating the Table is, in the words of Bobbie Jamieson, "what makes the church the church", why don't we do this every time we gather as a church on the Lord's Day?
Perhaps celebrating it every week will lead to complacency. This is a favorite argument against the weekly observance of the Table. But would we ever say the same thing about reading the Bible, singing songs of praise to King Jesus, or even the preaching of the gospel? I think not.
Of course, not everyone will be persuaded with this view. My only response to such people is to encourage them to know why they do what they do, rather than to simply 'do what we've always done.' Surely the Lord would have us worship Him with all our "mind" just as much as with all our "hearts."
Whether one agrees or not, I appeal simply to Luke's words in Acts 17:11, where the Bereans were commended for being "open-minded" (what the Greek word literally means) and searching the Scriptures to see if what Paul was teaching was indeed true, and then basing their lives off of that (see v. 12).
In Christ, and for His glory in His church,
pastor ryan
