THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel according to Mark
Message Five
The Lord’s Supper—
A Symbol of the New Testament Economy of God
Scripture Reading: Acts 20:7; Mark 14:22-26; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 10:16-17, 21; 11:20, 23-26
I. The breaking of bread is to eat the Lord’s supper and to attend the Lord’s table—Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20; 10:21: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
A. The Lord’s supper is for His satisfaction—11:20: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
B. The Lord’s table refers to the enjoyment of the Lord in fellowship—1 Cor. 10:21. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
II. The Lord’s supper, His table, is a symbol of the entire New Testament economy of God—Mark 14:22-26: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
A. God’s economy is the New Testament age is involved with the Lord’s table—1 Tim. 1:4; 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 21. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
B. God’s New Testament economy is that God became flesh, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us as our life and to dispense Himself into us so that we may be transformed for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:16. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
C. God’s economy is a matter not of outward things but of Christ coming into us as food—John 6:35, 53-57; Mark 7:27-28. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
D. In Mark 14:12-26 the Lord Jesus partook of the Feast of the Passover and then instituted His supper, His table, with the bread and the cup: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
1. He initiated this new practice for the believers’ remembrance of Him to replace the Passover feast, the Old Testament practice of Israel’s remembrance of Jehovah’s salvation—Exo. 12:14. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
2. The Lord has fulfilled the type and has become the real Passover to us; now we are keeping the real Feast of the Unleavened Bread—1 Cor. 5:7. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
III. This new practice of the New Testament is to remember the Lord by eating the bread, which signifies His body given for us, His believers, and drinking the cup, which signifies His blood shed for our sins—11:24-25; Matt. 26:28: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
A. The bread denotes life, the life of God, the eternal life—John 6:35; 3:15. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
B. The cup denotes blessing, which is God Himself as our portion—1 Cor. 10:16; Psa. 16:5: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
1. As sinners, our portion should have been the cup of God’s wrath, but the Lord Jesus drank this cup for us—Rev. 14:10; John 18:11. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
2. The Lord’s salvation has become our portion, the cup of salvation that runs over, the content of which is God as our all-inclusive blessing—Psa. 116:13; 23:5. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
C. Such a bread and such a cup are the constituents of the Lord’s supper, which is a table, a feast, set up by Him that His believers may remember Him by enjoying Him as such a feast—Mark 14:22-24. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
D. Our eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord at His supper are our declaration and our testimony: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
1. Our declaration is that we are joined to the Lord and are mingled with Him, just as the bread becomes mingled with us after being received into our body—1 Cor. 6:17; John 6:56-57. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
2. Our testimony is that we live by eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord, taking Him as our life every day—1 Cor. 10:3-4. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
E. The Lord Jesus “took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body”—Mark 14:22: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
1. The bread signifies the Lord’s physical body that He gave for us on the cross in order to impart His life into us—Luke 22:19. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
2. The bread also signifies the Lord’s mystical Body, the means for Christ to carry out His heavenly ministry for the accomplishment of the divine administration—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; Rev. 5:6. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
3. By participating in the Lord’s divine life, we become the mystical Body of Christ, His enlargement; by enjoying the bread, we become Christ’s mystical Body—1 Cor. 10:17. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
F. The Lord Jesus “took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them…and He said to them, this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many”—Mark 14:23-24: (2006 WT, msg. 11)
1. The blood of Christ as the blood of the new covenant ushers God’s people into the new covenant, in which God gives His people a new heart, a new spirit, His Spirit, and the inner law of life—Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:10-12. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
2. Ultimately, the blood of the covenant, the eternal covenant, leads God’s people into the full enjoyment of God as the tree of life and the water of life both now and for eternity—13:20; Rev. 7:14, 17; 22:1-2, 14, 17. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
IV. By instituting His upper, His table, the Lord Jesus indicated of His followers that they would enter into His death and resurrection, He prepared them to receive His death and resurrection, and He served them not only with His body and blood but also with His death, His resurrection, Himself, and His enlargement, His mystical Body—Rom. 6:6; Eph. 2:5-6; 4:16. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
A. The Lord’s death, His resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement are for the producing of the new man as the full development o the seed of the kingdom—Mark 4:26-29. (2006 WT, msg. 11)
B. Today the Lord Jesus is still bringing us into the reality of His table for the fulfillment of God’s economy—Matt. 26:26-30; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Eph. 1:10. (2006 WT, msg. 11)