Lesson: What is the Lord’s Supper? (No. CB135

Lesson:

1. Read through the paper What is the Lord’s Supper? (No. CB135) unless it is read as a sermonette with the children present.

2. Children’s questions are in bold. This is a general review of the material covered in the paper.

Q1. What are the 3 times a year we are commanded to appear before God with an offering?

A. The three occasions are: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Passover is the first of the three annual harvests of God at which we are to appear with an offering (Ex. 23:14, Deut. 16:16; 2 Chr. 8:13).

Q2. What does the term “Passover” generally include?

A. Passover is the general term that, in the New Testament, includes the Lord’s Supper, the Night of Watching, Wave Sheaf and the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread.

Q3. How often does the Lord’s Supper occur and is it a sacrament of the Church?

A. The Lord’s Supper occurs one time each year. It is one of only two sacraments of the Church, the other is baptism. It is also one of the three fundamentals of eternal life.

Q4. What are the three fundamentals of eternal life?

A. 1) Believing and knowing there is One True God (Deut. 6:4, Mal. 2:10, Eph. 4:6) and Jesus Christ whom He sent (Jn. 17:3; 1Tim. 2:5; 1Cor. 8:46).

2) Faith in Jesus Christ through the knowledge of the One True God (Jn. 17:3). This leads to repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit from our faith that God raised Christ from the dead (Rom. 10:8).

3) Participating in the Lord’s Supper, including foot-washing, eating the bread and drinking the wine (Jn. 6:53-55; 1 Cor. 6:14), and obeying all the Commandments.

Q5. Can children partake of the Lord’s Supper?

A. The Lord’s Supper is only for baptized adults since at the Lord’s Supper we renew our baptismal covenant/agreement. In the Church of God infants/children are not yet baptised and have no need to attend this service.

Q6. Are adults to examine or look at their own behaviours before partaking of the Passover?

A. Yes, Paul instructs us that prior to taking the Passover we all need to examine ourselves (1Cor. 11: 27-2) so we can continue to repent, change and ask God for forgiveness for our daily sins so we can build better habits.

Q7. If we have or think we have a problem with a brother or sister in the Church, what are we to do?

A. If we have a problem with our brother, we need to do as Matthew 5:24 states and make things right with our brother by going and talking to him. If things do not work out the Bible instructs us what other steps to take to make things right.

Q8. If a person is sick or can not take the first Passover what are they supposed to do?

A. Since the Passover is so important, God provides a provision for those who cannot take the first Passover. They are to keep it in the second month (Num. 9:6-12; 2Chr. 30:2-4).

Q9. When was the Lord’s Supper first observed?

A. On the Night before Jesus Christ was crucified, he was gathered with his disciples for what can be called the Chagigah meal. After the meal, Jesus introduced the three symbols of the Lord’s Supper (Jn. 13:1-5), including the footwashing, bread and wine.

Q10. Are we to follow the example Christ set for us on the night before he died?

A. Yes; he also tells his disciples that he has done this as an example and that they should follow his example (Jn. 13:14-15). This is why we wash each other’s feet and drink the wine and eat the bread.

Q11. How many symbols did Messiah introduce at the first Lord’s Supper? What are they?

A. He introduced 3 symbols: foot-washing, eating the bread and drinking the wine.

Q12. What are the important points in the foot-washing service?

A. Jesus laying aside his physical garment shows us he laid aside his spiritual life to come to earth and pay the price for our sins. Christ points out that we must also learn to forgive our brother (Mat. 18:21-35). Jesus washing the feet of the disciples shows us we are to have an attitude of humility and serve and help all people (Jn. 13:6-17).

Q13. What did Eloah give the Israelites to keep them alive as they wandered 40 years in the wilderness?

A. Manna.

Q14 What does the unleavened bread of the Lord’s Supper symbolize?

A. God prepared and delivered the bread to the Israelites; it was the bread from heaven called manna. Messiah showed that the manna represented his broken body, which would be given so that mankind could have eternal life offered to them (Mk. 14:22). Christ is the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:33,35,48,51) prepared from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8), and sent down to the world. We are to eat of this bread annually at the Lord's Supper, because we need to be reminded that it is only by Christ living in us through the Holy Spirit, that we can have eternal life (Jn. 6:51).

Q15. What does the wine at the Lord’s Supper represent?

A. Jesus said it represented his shed blood (Mk. 14:24,25).

Q16. Where does wine come from and who is the true vine? Who are the branches?

A. Wine is made from fermented grapes that grow on vines. The Bible states Christ is the true vine (Jn. 15:1) and we are the branches. The Holy Spirit lives in us and we live in/through Jesus Christ. If we do not bear fruit we are cut off or pruned.

Q17. Can sins be forgiven without the shedding of blood?

A. The Bible tells us the shedding of blood is required for the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Jesus Christ did this once and for all by his perfect acceptable sacrifice. That is why we no longer have the need for animal sacrifices.

Q18. What were the Israelites instructed to put on their doorposts after they sacrificed a lamb on the afternoon of the 14th of the First month in the year of the exodus?

A. Remember, the Israelites were instructed to put blood on their doorposts. This blood offered them protection on the night the first-born of all Egyptian men and beasts died.

Q19. What did Rehab put on the outside of her window after she sheltered and protected the servants of Eloah that went out to spy the Promised Land?

A. She hung scarlet or red thread out of her window and everyone in the household was protected from the Israelites’ attack. When the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, Rehab and her family were protected by being in her house.

Q20. What did the High Priest do annually on Atonement that involved blood?

A. In Ancient Israel, when the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, on the Day of Atonement, it pictured him coming directly before God the Father. However, the High Priest could not do this until the blood of a sacrifice had been shed (Lev.16:6). In other words, the High Priest had to have his sins removed before coming into God's presence. The High Priest took the blood of sacrifice and sprinkled it 7 times before the mercy seat (Lev. 16:14), placed some of the blood on the 4 horns of the altar and sprinkled it 7 times (Lev. 16:18,19).

Q21. Did Jesus Christ’s perfect sinless life, and subsequent sacrifice, cause the temple veil to be torn in two? What did this represent?

A. Yes, only a perfect sacrifice would have caused this to happen. When the veil of the Holy of Holies was torn, it symbolized that mankind can now come before God the Father in prayer on a continual basis. (Heb.9: 24-26)

Q22. When an adult asks to be baptised what are they asking for and agreeing too?

A. At Baptism we agree to obey God no matter how hard or inconvenient that may be (Mat. 7:13-14), and we are asking for Eloah’s Holy Spirit to be placed within us.

Q23. How did Jesus Christ end the first Lord’s Supper service?

A. At the close of the Lord's Supper service, a hymn is sung following Christ's example in Mark 14:26. Usually we sing The Lord is My Shepherd from Psalm 42.

Q24. What is the date and time of the Lord’s Supper?

A. We see the Lord’s Supper occurs yearly after dark at the beginning of the 14th of the First month.

Q25. What else happened at daylight of the 14th in 30 CE?

A. This is a very solemn time for us to reflect on our calling and realize that in 30 CE at 9:00 a.m. of the 14^th day of the First month, they had already illegally tried Jesus Christ and placed him on the stake. At 3:00 p.m. when the afternoon Passover lamb was being sacrificed, he died.

Activity:

Science experiment - bubble trouble

Place a baby food jar in the sink, and fill it half way full with clear carbonated soda. Add 2 drops of red food colouring. We use red because we are washed in the blood of the lamb. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Every sacrifice is salted. See what happens to the mixture. The mixture foams because the salt pushes out the carbon dioxide (sin) gas bubbles in the soda to the surface; this is called effervescence. Discuss with the children how we should continually be putting sin out of our lives. The Lord’s Supper is an important time of the year for all baptized adults to look at their own personal behaviour over the last year and recommit and dedicate their lives to Eloah.

Art/cognitive activity - footprints away from sin

Have the children create their footprints. This can be done in a variety of ways: trace their feet on construction paper and cut out the prints, allow the children to use finger paint on their foot and “stamp” their footprints on the paper, walking as they step on the paper. Each footprint will correlate to the goal the child wants to attain; therefore, less footprints for the younger children.

Once the footprints are cut out or the paint has dried, the children write down their personal goals to walk away from sin.

If the paint is chosen for the activity, it is interesting to notice how the paint starts out very dark, and then lightens for each footstep that is taken. Ask the children what this can represent. Correlate it to putting sin out of our lives and at the beginning we can have a lot of sin. But the more we walk away from sinful things, the less sin we have in our lives and the easier it becomes to follow God’s way of life.

Supplies:

Bubble Trouble Supplies: baby food jar or some type of small glass jar, red food colouring, and clear carbonated soda, salt; sink or dish to set the jar into.

Footprints away from sin supplies: Water, paper towels, finger paint, foam brushes, construction paper, scissors, glue, large paper to stamp or glue the footprints on, markers to write their goals with.

Close with prayer.

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