“Did the children eat their food?”

“Finish your food.”

These are some of the common expressions that we often hear parents repeating to make sure that their children are well fed regularly. They do that because they care for their children, and they also know that under-eating on a regular basis can lead the children to a number of mental, physical and emotional health issues. Likewise God, as a father who loves and cares for you, wants you to be nourished by His holy Word and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis. If you don’t, the sad result will be spiritual malnutrition.

It is like what happens when you don’t eat your physical food regularly. You know what I mean. When you don’t eat properly, your body begins to feel weak and hungry and you immediately know that you need to eat some food. Then if you don’t get any food, you will be hurt even more. It is the same with you and the spiritual food that your heavenly Father provided to you in His Word and the Lord’s Supper. It is the will of your God for you to continually be nourished by the ordinary means of grace, namely the Word of God, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and prayer.

The great invitation that you read in Isaiah 55: 1-2 (“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money; come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”) is actually an invitation from the Lord your God to the means of grace for your ongoing spiritual nourishment and growth in your Christian life. And one of those three ordinary means of grace that I mentioned above is the grace of God for you in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Moreover, the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ has given you as His clear command in the Scripture.

“And he took the bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you, Do this in remembrance of me.’”

  The “do this” in Christ’s words in relation to the table of the Lord’s Supper was not a suggestion or a recommendation for you either to do it or choose not to do it. Rathe,r it was a command for the Church to administer it to God’s people habitually and for the people (you) to participate in it continually and diligently. The apostle Paul ascertained the nature of this sacrament as a command, and defined what our response (duty) towards Him should be in 1 Corinthians 11: 25 by saying, “In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me”.

But why does God command you to take the Lord’s Supper? Why didn’t he just leave it as an option, something that you do whenever you feel like doing it or you have time for it? The obvious and biblical answer for the question is because the Lord’s Supper is meant to be your spiritual food and nutrition and your heavenly Father wants you to be feed by it as often as it is served to you by His Church. It is like an earthly father calling upon his children to eat their food constantly and properly so that their physical health will not be compromised.

In the same manner God does not want you to neglect the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace and growth, such that you may become spiritually weak and ineffective. Instead God wants you to be at the table of the Lord’s Supper to eat the bread as a representation of the body of Christ who suffered for you on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life, and drink the wine that represents the blood of Christ that has been shed for your justification and reconciliation with God for the following effects in your Christian life:

1. You continue growing in the knowledge of Christ;