THE LORD'S SUPPER

THE EARLY YEARS: (AD 30 – AD 300)

 

If we would see the Church at its best, carrying on its master’s commands and commission, faithful in witness, filled with his Spirit and blessed by him, we need look no further than the book of the Acts of the Apostles. There we see true faith; living, active, loving, working, faithful faith. The first followers of Jesus, fresh with their master’s saving message, and motivated with his vision of a perishing humanity, lived in expectation of his imminent return. They were diligent to live by all the commands of Jesus. ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ – the words used by Jesus in his instituting of the Communion – Luke 22:19, was a command they rejoiced to obey, not from a spirit of fear but from a spirit of love.

 

It should always be remembered that these early Christians enjoyed none of the privileges of religious freedom that we tend to take for granted in England in the late twentieth century. They were hated, both by the Jewish authorities and the civil authorities – i.e. the Roman government. Christianity was not a ‘tolerated’ religion. The followers of Christ were sought out and fiercely persecuted and indeed were often called upon to give up their earthly lives for the faith of Jesus Christ. Consequently they met in secret, not in splendid church buildings, but instead in cellars and crypts and deserted places. Their communions were simple – simple acts of remembrance. They expected and indeed received God’s blessing, but the blessing came simply through their obedience in participating, through the powerful illustration impressed upon the mind of what it means to be daily feeding in the heavenly Paschal Lamb. There was no ‘magic’ or ‘mystery’ involved. They rightly took these words in their simple and obvious sense – ‘this represents my body – my blood’. Early Christian worship was characterised by its simplicity and sincerity and by the absence of mystery and superstition. And the early church was blessed by God.

 

Despite the severest of persecution and in a world of far slower than our own, the gospel spread throughout the Roman world and beyond within a hundred years of the apostles. Far from being eradicated, the church was growing and at a greater rate than it has ever grown since. God was with his Church. Jesus has promised ‘I will never leave you alone… I will send you another comforter and he will be with you always’.

 

You may think the picture I have drawn of the early church is a very rosy one, and surely it was not quite that simple. Of course there were difficulties, there were errors – how could it be otherwise when God’s people are weak and sinful with a tendency to err and stray from God’s truth. Even amongst the twelve disciples, remember, one betrayed Christ, another openly denied him, and most of the others deserted him when he hung on the cross. Yes, even in the third century errors were creeping in, both in faith and practice and with the beginnings of unspiritual clergy, but in general the church was it its best during the first two hundred and fifty years. It was not until the beginning of the fourth century, firstly with the Act of Toleration (313 AD) and then as Christianity quickly became fashionable throughout the Roman Empire, that the errors  became widespread as pagan ideas were imported into the church, chiefly as a result of Baptism, the Supper of the Lord, and the Ministerial Office.