06/04/2026
SEVEN BENEFITS OF CELEBRATING WEEKLY COMMUNION
1. Christ Instituted the Remembrance Feast as an Ordinary Means of Grace to Strengthen and Sustain His Church.
The Lord commanded us to “Do this in remembrance of Me,” Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. What does it mean to remember? The word combines a prefix re- meaning again, and the Latin word, memor, meaning to be mindful of. So the word means “to be mindful of again” or to call to mind again. We remember Christ when we bring His person and work before the eyes of our faith, then our hearts delight in Him and our spiritual life flourishes
Remembering is a key element in Christian devotion and worship because the world around us makes us forget. The evil one designed this world’s culture to draw us away from our glorious God, to tempt us to forget that we are His creation and His redeemed children. Like Daniel, the believer must constantly resist this Babylonian war against our faith, Daniel 1. Remembering Christ through the communion feast helps us shake off the enchantments of this world. Remembering sets us free from the false narratives about life and death, suffering and hope, resurrection and our Lord’s return. Remembering Christ sets us free from idols!
Keeping the command to remember Him leads us deeper into fellowship with our Lord; remembering His
cross enables us to partake of all His benefits that strengthen our faith. Just as physical meals feed our physical bodies so communion is a spiritual meal that feeds our soul on the Person and work of Christ.
“And he took bread, and when he had 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.” And
likewise the cup after they had eaten,
saying, “This cup that is poured out for you
is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke
22:19–20, ESV)
Notice the repeated words, “for you” in the words instituting signs of the bread and the cup. Just as Christ death on the cross and the shedding of His atoning blood is for you, likewise, this sacrament is given for you, Christian. Christ instituted His Supper for our spiritual sustenance. Remembering Christ fills us with the spiritual energy to deny ungodliness and live for His glory. Consider the following encouragements from Guy Prentiss Waters and Harrison Perkins:
To deprive ourselves of the Supper is to
deprive ourselves of the strength and
assurance that God gives to our faith
through it. (1)
(1) Guy Prentiss Waters, The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, ed. Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt, Short Studies in Biblical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 14.
“When we see it as a meal that Christ uses
to give us strength, then we recognize why
we should want it frequently.” (2)
2. Remembering Christ Each Lord’s Day Restores an Essential Element of Christian Worship: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts
2:42, ESV)
Like, apostolic teaching, Christian fellowship, and prayer, the breaking of bread occupied an essential element in the Lord’s Day worship of the earliest Christians. It is still essential.
No one would suggest that we only preach the Word monthly or quarterly, or that we only sing praise to God on the second and last Sundays of the month, or that we only receive offerings from people or offer prayer once every quarter! Like preaching, singing, giving, and praying, the Lord’s Supper occupies an essential element of the church’s gathered worship.
C.H. Spurgeon writes, “This remembrance of the death of Christ must be a constant remembrance. The Lord's Supper was meant to be a frequent feast of fellowship. It is a grievous mistake of the church when the communion is held but once in the year or once in a quarter of a year. And I cannot remember any scripture which justifies once in the month. I should not feel satisfied without breaking bread on every Lord's Day.”
3. Weekly Communion Shows Our Solidarity with the Regular Practice of the Early Church. The New Testament suggest that this was the regular practice of the church, Acts 20:7“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”
Paul’s instructions regarding the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 are for “when the church comes together.” As Paul corrects the abuses of the Corinthian Church, he repeats this important description of when the church celebrated the Lord’s Supper in 11:17, 18, 20, 33, 34. It appears that the church met for
communion whenever the whole church came together.
1 Corinthians 11:17 “when you come
together”
1 Corinthians 11:18 “when you come
together as a church”
1 Corinthians 11:20 “when you come
together”
1 Corinthians 11:33 “when you come
together”
1 Corinthians 11:34 “when you come
together”
1 Corinthians 14:23 “when the whole
church comes together in one place”
Church history witnesses that weekly Communion was the practice of the church. The Didache or The Teaching (c.AD 60-120) the earliest Christian document about the practice of the church states that Christians come together each Lord’s Day “to break bread and give thanks.”
On the day which is the Day of the Lord
gather together for the breaking of the loaf
and giving thanks.
However, you should first confess your sins
so that your sacrifice may be a pure one;
and do not let anyone who is having a
dispute with a neighbour join until they are
reconciled so that your sacrifice may not be
impure.
For this is the sacrifice about which the
Lord has said: ‘In every place and time let a
pure sacrifice be offered to me, for I am the
great king, says the Lord, and my name is
feared among the nations.’ (3)
Justin Martyr (c. A.D. 152) describes Lord’s Day gatherings as including prayer, Scripture, preaching, and the Eucharist. Church history scholar, Everett Ferguson observes that the literature of the post-apostolic age indicates that the Lord’s Supper was a constant feature of Sunday worship.
(2) Harrison Perkins, Take & Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the Lord's Supper, B&H Academic (Brentwood, TN),
(3) Thomas O’Loughlin, The Didache: A Window on the Earliest Christians (London; Grand Rapids, MI: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; Baker Academic, 2010), 170.
4. The Lord is Uniquely Present in Holy Communion as the Object of our Faith and Spiritual Delight: Christ is uniquely present with his people during the remembrance feast. Though Christ is present always with his people, Matthew 28:20, yet we enjoy the manifestation of His presence through the Holy Spirit while we receive Holy Communion in a greater way than through individual devotion. Luke 24:30-31, 35 reminds us, “He was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them,” Matthew 18:20. John Calvin affirms, “Christ descends to us by his Spirit, that He may truly quicken our souls by the substance of
his flesh and blood.” (4)
The Puritan, John Owen, preached in his Sacramental Discourse X that there are three ways Christ fulfills His promise to be present with His church to the end of the world.
First, Christ is present with us by the His
Spirit that He sent to indwell His church.
Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I among
them.”
Second, Owen explains that Christ is
present with us in His Word. Colossians
3:16 “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you
richly,...” To dwell richly means Christ
dwells in us abundantly by faith in His
Word. Ephesians 3:17 affirms that “Christ
dwells in our hearts by faith.” Christ is
present with us by His Word!
Thirdly, and most importantly, Owen says
that Christ dwells with us in the sacrament
of the Lord’s Supper. The presence of
Christ in communion is not corporeal but
spiritual. “Nowhere is God so fully
manifested as in the person of Christ. And
nowhere is Christ’s presence so fully
manifested then in the Lord’s Supper.” (5)
The Lord is represented in the bread and the cup because He Himself is the food and drink of our souls, who alone satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst. We do not believe, like Roman Catholics, that Christ is present corporally in the bread and juice. Spurgeon explained, "Brethren, these symbols are but as
the veil before the Holy of Holies. You must look beyond the symbols to that which is within the veil, or else of what use are the signs to you? The bread is nothing. The wine is nothing. That which the bread sets forth is
everything. Feed thou on that. That which the wine portrays is everything. See to it that thou art a partaker of that.”
So Christ is present representatively in the supper. But that is not the only way Christ is present.
“Christ is present in the Supper, but he is
present to his people in the Supper in the
way that he is present to his people on any
other occasion, by the ministry of the Holy
Spirit working by and with the Word of
God, to the faith of the believer. We may
affirm, then, that the bread and wine are
the body and blood of Christ not physically
or superstitiously but spiritually for God’s
people, as we approach the Table and feed
upon Christ by faith. At this covenant
meal, we truly dine with our covenant
Head.” (6)
When Christians gather in the name of Christ Jesus, the Lord is present according to his promise, Matthew 18:20; 28:20; 1 John 1:3; Zechariah 2:10-11. And He Himself communicates the blessing and benefits of his death and resurrection to his people, even as John Owen clarifies:
The Lord’s Supper is “An holy action i
instituted and appointed by Christ, to set
forth his death, and communicate unto us
spiritually his body and blood by faith,
being represented by bread and wine,
blessed by his word, and prayer, broken,
poured out, and received of believers.” (7)
(4) John Calvin, Institutes, Book IV. 17
(5) John Owen, Sacramental Discourses, Discourse X, The Works of John Owen,
(6) Guy Prentiss Waters, The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, ed. Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt, Short
Studies in Biblical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 113.
(7) John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 491.
The bread and the juice represent the real presence of Christ with us. So as the believer meditates on Christ in the supper, as he gives thanks and remembers the suffering of the Lamb of God for his salvation, he has special fellowship with Christ. As Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 10:16 “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” And, as Jesus taught us, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my
flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me,” John 6:55–57.
This is why the Lord’s Supper is also called Communion, because we enjoy, partake, and delight in Christ Himself for us, with us, and in us. And this blessing of His Presence is ours by receiving Holy Communion by faith in a spirit of worship and reverence.
John Owen explains that our delight in Christ by participating in His Supper is not a carnal, self-pleasing satisfaction, but a holy, soul-refreshing contemplation on the will, wisdom, grace, and condescension of God... to communicate himself unto us, so to excite and draw forth our souls unto himself... (8)
5. Receiving Holy Communion every Lord’s Day Urges Us to Spiritually Prepare: Because the
remembrance feast is the climactic event of the churches worship, believers should prepare an offering, a sacrifice of praise to the Lord before gathering for worship.
By meditating on the person and work of Christ, the Spirit enables us to understand, admire, partake, and rejoice in Christ. Therefore we prepare a spiritual sacrifice as we gather for this feast, Hebrews 13:15. By reflecting on the beauty and glory of the person and work of Christ, our adoring thoughts of Christ
become a fragrant incense to God as we sing, confess, hear the Word, give thanks, and remember His death.
For example, preparing for worship by meditating on the sinlessness of Christ is essentially the same as an old covenant believer examining the lambs of his flock to find that spotless one who is worthy to be
offered to God, Exodus 12:5-6. Such spiritual exercises fill the believer with worshipful thoughts and thankfulness for our salvation.
Likewise, preparing for worship by reflecting on how Christ took all of our sins upon Himself is the same the Old Testament worshiper putting his hand on the head of that lamb and confessing his sins to God, Leviticus 16:21. These spiritual exercises lead us to rejoice in Christ, our great Savior.
6. Holy Communion Calls Us to Confession and Repentance: The Lord Jesus instituted the sacrament of communion for our spiritual accountability to the Lord and our church family.
“Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the
old leaven that you may be a new lump, as
you really are unleavened. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us
therefore celebrate the festival, not with
the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth...”
“...But now I am writing to you not to
associate with anyone who bears the name
of brother if he is guilty of sexual
immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler,
drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with
such a one. For what have I to do with
judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the
church whom you are to judge? God judges
those outside. “Purge the evil person from
among you.”” 1 Corinthians 5:6–13
Receiving communion requires preparation of our heart to remember the Lord with reverence and adoration. Paul explains that receiving Holy Communion must be preceded by self-examination and repentance.
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty concerning the body
and blood of the Lord. Let a person
examine himself, then, and so eat of the
bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who
eats and drinks without discerning the
body eats and drinks
(8) John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, Vol. 15, (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.),458.
judgment on himself. That is why many of
you are weak and ill, and some have died.
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would
not be judged. But when we are judged by
the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may
not be condemned along with the world.” 1
Corinthians 11:27–32
We must examine ourselves and confess our sins. If we judge ourselves then we will not be judged says the apostle. If we take communion for granted or treat it as mere ritual then we will eat and drink judgment to ourselves. God calls us to worship and He calls us to prepare to worship through self-examination and confession of our sins. This exercise of repentance is essential for our spiritual well-being and the purity of the church, 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.
7. Holy Communion Calls Us to Reaffirm the New Covenant: our participation in communion affirms our new covenant union with Christ. John Owen explains this vital benefit:
“...He (Christ) comes here to seal the
covenant; and therefore the cup is called
"The new testament in the blood of Christ."
How in the blood of Christ? It is the new
covenant that was sealed, ratified,
confirmed, and made so stable, as you have
heard, by the blood of Jesus Christ. For,
from the foundation of the world, no
covenant was ever intended to be
established, but it was confirmed by blood;
and this covenant is confirmed by the blood
of Christ; and he comes and seals the
covenant with his own blood in the
administration of this ordinance.” (9)
Communion reminds us that, “I am His and He is mine!” And “I will be your God and you shall be my people.” The Holy Spirit fills us with assurance that the bond between us and our triune God ratified in the blood of Jesus cannot be broken. To remember Christ is to remember His promises in Hebrews 13:5-6 “He will never leave us or forsake us, so that we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
(9) John Owen, Sacramental Discourses, Discourse X, The Works of John Owen.
~ Bob St. John
