An Apostolic Church - Devoted to Breaking of Bread

Acts 2:42-47

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.


The surprising thing I see in this first gathering of believers into a community is very normal things take on a deeply meaningful significance.

I have been given the privilege of being a part of three major moves of God. Two I would call revivals and one was what I would call a renewal. In all three the same sense of wonder and the demonstration of the miraculous was evident. What was lacking in the renewal which kept it from developing into revival was allowing God to move the church into a place of sharing their lives in a more intimate way with each other. The Lord's Supper was first practiced as he did, in an intimate setting of a home and a shared meal. Only later did it become a ritualized practice that could only be observed by a priest. The bible places no such restrictions on it since it is intended to be a cornerstone of intimate fellowship.


When God comes into our lives in an unfettered way we involve ourselves in each other's lives. We spend time together. I am not talking about more church meetings. I am talking about interpersonal relationships. These relationships have a quality of sharing normal, daily life in the wonder of the love of God. It is not the structure of these relationships. It is their quality.


We have to understand a bit of the Semitic mindset to fully understand why "breaking bread" together meant what it did to the early church.


The act of breaking bread to eat a meal together from a biblical perspective is participation in a covenant relationship.


I met my wife in Israel in the summer of 1973. We travelled around the land and one day she told me that she wanted to meet some Bedouin people and see the inside of their tent. The Bedouins are a people who live very much like Abraham. They travel from place to place grazing their livestock and live in tents. To be able to even speak to a Bedouin would be a significant honor. When she told me of her desire I suggested we pray that God would allow her to have that chance.

A few days later we were walking down the road from the chapel on the Mount of the Beatitudes and we saw a Bedouin tent in a field. As we got closer the man came out to the road. Finally when we were near enough for him to speak to us he motioned for us to come to speak to him. My Arabic was not great but I got that he wanted us to come to his home. We were invited to his tent where we met his wife and his twelve year old daughter. The tent floor was covered with beautiful Persian rugs. Both he and his wife were extremely friendly to us. She did not speak but smiled a huge smile showing off her gold teeth.

They asked us to share a simple meal of bread and coffee with them. Afterwards he began to ask about where I was from. I am sure he already knew but he wanted to make sure. He said American? I said yes. He told me his tent was made in America. Then he asked about Carie and me. I assured him that we were just friends. He and his wife both laughed. Then he began to talk about his daughter. Even through her lovely sun burnished skin I could see she was beginning to blush. It suddenly hit me that dad was on a mission for a potential American husband for his daughter. We had a wonderful time with them but I did not end up agreeing to a proposal. 

The thing that was significant in this encounter is that when a Bedouin has a meal with you it is a sign of a covenant. I learned later that if you had come under their tent and ate with them even if they later found out that you had killed their father they would not extract revenge on you because of the covenant of peace they made with you when they broke bread with you. Conversely, if you came into their tent and ate with them you entered into the same covenant.


This is the context of Jesus eating the last supper with his disciples:


Matthew 26:26-28
While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.


Luke gives us a little clearer picture of one very important aspect of a covenant - to remember:


Luke 22:19-20
And when He had taken some bread and 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." 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.


Finally Paul, writing at a later period emphasizes the importance not to miss the true purpose of the act of breaking bread. It is not to be taken lightly. We share in an act of covenant with Jesus and each other in our breaking of bread. It is not just a meal. Like the communion offering (peace offering) of the Old Covenant we sit down with Jesus and each other in a shared covenant meal.


1 Corinthians 11:23-34
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. . . .


If these words were so vital for the Corinthians, who had already began to devalue the Lord's Supper how much more are they vital for us to hear?


Devotion to the breaking of bread means that we continually affirm that we are a people of the covenant God made with us in sending His only son to die for us that we might be forgiven our wrongdoing. When we break bread together we declare that we are members of each other because we are members of the body of Christ. Failing to understand and confirm this was the problem of the Corinthians.


Passover was the yearly restating of the act of God that created a nation. What the first celebrants and those who shared its covenantal significance later did not know was it pointed to a much greater act of God that would create the eternal fellowship of God's children. The Passover saved the firstborn of every Jewish home. It pointed to the day when every person that ever lived would be given the opportunity of salvation through the death of God's firstborn son.

Unfortunately the Protestant reaction to Roman Catholicism has stripped our observance of the Lord's Supper of most of its meaning. We have reduced it to symbolism. The Lord's Supper is not a symbolic act. Jesus did not say, "This is the symbol of my Body.... the Symbol of my Blood." It is a terrible mistake to see this act as symbolic. He said, "This is my body..... This is my blood." Communion is a gift of grace. As we eat of it we sit down with the living God. He gives us His life in the elements. Understanding it as anything less than this is not understanding its power. We are in a covenant relationship with God through His Son Jesus' Body and Blood. Every time we break bread together we recall, recommit and receive that grace again to live in this eternal covenant. We should observe it as that kind of a meal.

Another problem we have is the actual way in which we partake of the Lord's Supper together. We do not have a single loaf of bread or a single cup as Jesus and the first church had. The individualism of our age and as a result of our theology is perhaps no more clearly shown than here. We each get our own piece of bread and our own little cup delivered to us. Why is this such a big deal you may ask? It is because the symbol of the cup and bread is that we drink from one cup and we, as the body of Christ are one body.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17



Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

One cup and one loaf. This is the only biblical manner in which to take the Lord's Supper and retain its true meaning for us. We are one body and we participate in one cleansing fountain.

Some will counter that for health reasons we should not drink from the one cup. This is primarily because of the reaction to wine in the prohibitionist movement. Most, if not all, protestant, evangelical and charismatic churches use grape juice instead of wine. The antiseptic power of wine would reduce most potential health risks. The churches that do use wine do not report problems with using a common cup. But even if there was a concern the church has had a practice of intinction where the bread is dipped into the wine/grape juice. This solves all health issues and retains the meaning of the single cup and single loaf.

The other thing that having one cup and one loaf does is make us have to go to the one who distributes them. This is a much less self centred act. We come to God in humility. We do not demand that he be delivered to us.

When I have followed the biblical pattern I have found communion to be one of the most beautiful and uplifting shared acts of worship in the church. I too am devoted to the breaking of bread.