Revisiting The Lord's Supper Part 11 Giving/Sharing

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’ Supper Part 11 Giving/Sharing 

Taking, thanking, breaking and now we come to giving, the fourth of the action words.   Taking, thanking and breaking are centered in the individual.  It takes those first three to build the kind of unafraid, uncompromising character that can step out and give, share and distribute the blessings we have been given.  

No one said it’s easy.  

It takes work to build a character with faith.  When Paul tells us we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Php.2:12), we are not working to get salvation.  We got it when we accepted the Lord Jesus.  Everything from that point is salvation being worked out. Now here’s the biggie.  We were saved to rely on faith in Jesus in our every next moment.  The issue now then is working out our salvation with faith from one moment to the next.  It sounds daunting, I know, to develop the kind of heart that is impervious to social pressure, personal struggles and bad moral choices.  That’s why Jesus tells us we have to receive the Kingdom like a child (Mt.18:2-4).  That’s what faith is all about.  Like children we are building spiritual character so when the moments come, the character we’re building is activated to give to the demand of the moment whether it be emotional, material or spiritual.     

Salvation is working out from our relationship with the Lord Jesus, taking His guidance through the Spirit.  For that, we need spiritual nourishment.  Just like our physical body gets tired from labor and needs nutrition and rest, the same is true with our spirit.  We need rest and nutrition.  True, He gave us His Word to read and study and to feed our mind bu the heart and spirit need boosting as well.  It’s a real spiritual feeding.  That’s why the Lord gave us His Supper, a spiritual meal to bring Him into our consciousness, our worship times and our lifestyle.  The Lord’s Supper maintains our focus to be aware of His real presence wherever we are. What more dramatic visual can we have than the fact of the Lord’s Supper also being called the Last Supper and the one He had with His disciples just before His Crucifixion and Resurrection?  The one He said to do in remembrance of Him.  This is no quaint traditional liturgy assigned to make us feel pious and self-justified.  This is a real spiritual experience bringing us personal and relational intimacy with the Lord God.  Part of our salvation experience is to be fed in order to continue building the kind of character that takes, thanks, breaks and gives, the intimacy of the Cross as we take up ours, living every next moment by faith in Him. 

The good news for disciples, that kind of character is built while we are on the way.  We don’t wait to get the right knowledge and an established faith like the world’s way of building a resume.  Disciples of Jesus start right away.  They pray, study the Word and get moving.  Disciples have the ultimate qualification, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.  They consult the Word while they are on the way.  They worship while they are on the way.  They build a lifestyle while they are on the way.  A disciple’s resume is their testimony, the accumulating knowledge of how the Lord has worked in their heart while they were on the way.  It’s the faith they exercise while they are on the way from person to person, place to place and event to event.  It’s walking by faith in His presence and open to the Spirit’s leading that strengthens us.  It’s choice by choice and decision by decision led by faith that Jesus is working through His Spirit that defines us and develops us.  Every day we are learning the knowledge and love of the Lord.  We are not growing to die comfortably like the world trains us. We are growing to live eternally and help others do the same. 

When we have this while-we’re-on-the-way focus, growth and knowledge happen.  It’s spiritual, personal and relational growth.  It’s the purpose of the Lord’s Supper; its agenda, its meaning and its feeding.  We need an awareness of the Lord’s Presence in worship and lifestyle.  Is it any wonder the Lord would prescribe a feeding to nourish them?  He came in a body, used physical images to declare spiritual truth and died physically to declare a spiritual lifestyle and rose again physically to secure our spiritual lives eternally. 

Now we’re ready to talk about giving and sharing which, for a disciple, are pretty much the same.  Disciples of Jesus are a while we are on the way people.  Thus, we are always ready to give what we have been given and share what has been shared with us, spiritually, personally and relationally.  

While the Apostles Peter and John were on their way to the Temple, a crippled man was being carried there to beg.  Seeing Peter and John he begged them for money.  “Peter said “Look at us, silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  Taking Him by the right hand, he helped him up and at once the man’s feet and ankles became strong (Acts 3;6-7).”

There’s much to be seen in this event.  While the disciples (now apostles) are on their way to the Temple they stop at the request of a man in need.  Note here that religious duty would come first prior to anything else but Peter and John respond to an unexpected human need, we might call a divine appointment.  It’s not the material assistance they give, but the spiritual.  This doesn’t imply that we shouldn’t give materially but rather it means we start approaching every event of life thinking and reacting spiritually, focusing on Jesus, while we are on the way.  Peter took the man by the right hand and helped him up.  That’s the real point here.  Peter stepped out in faith.  He was working out his salvation.  He was saved to think and act, trusting Jesus along the way.  That’s how he and all future disciples grow.  You can say, “Well, that was great for Peter.  He saw Jesus personally.”  Remember this, what Jesus replied to Thomas when he finally believed, “Because you have seen me you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed (John 20:29).”  We were saved to work out our salvation by faith in Jesus in every next moment while we are on the way.  This kind of effort, faith, needs feeding.  Any questions?

 Giving is the trajectory of a disciple.  Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).”  More on giving and sharing next.