Featured Communion: does it matter if ......

While I believe the leavened bread and grape juice are okay, I really prefer wine and unleavened bread. Maybe they are just trying to save money.

 

I'm really only concerned about one matter... is the bread fresh or stale?

Rob

 

Yes in our Baptist Church it mattered... Wine (we used Mogen David Concord Grape) and sisters made the unleavened bread... Brother Glen

 

If one cannot obtain unleavened bread and wine, then grape juice and leavened bread is acceptable. But out of respect to the importance of communion (fellowship with Jesus and all of God's people past, present, and future), we should make an effort to use the appropriate elements.

 

Wine ( be careful, most commercially available wines are artificially "stimulated" to produce more alcohol than natural wine ever had, IMO ) and unleavened bread.
As I see it, if natural wine is not available, then "new wine" ( crushed purple grapes, with the juice then poured off into a glass ) or grape juice may be substituted.

Unleavened bread is not only a picture of purity in doctrine, but purity in general as well as the sinlessness of Christ.

 

I don't think old Tom Welch would like this thread.

 

One of my missions professors told me that they used potato chips and coke in one country. I dont remember which one

Anyways, they couldnt get the other stuff and chips and coke were highly prized.

I guess that they did what they could

 

You could use popadoms, or water biscuits which are unleavened.

 

That depends on your view of the Supper. If you are a sacramentarian it probably makes no difference. If you believe it is symbolic it can't be anything other than wine and unleavened bread as no other substances can correctly symbolize his blood and body.

Grapejuice cannot symbolize His blood because grapejuice symbolizes the blood of wicked men in scripture.

Leavened bread cannot symbolize His body because leaven symbolizes sin in Scripture.

At the time Christ instituted the Lord's Supper the Jews used red wine mixed with three parts water and unleavened bread. That has been their consistent practice since. The Mishnah demonstrates this.

 

The wine and unleavened bread is symbolic of the blood and body of Jesus Christ... In our Sovereign Grace Baptist Church it mattered but saying that, it didn't become the the blood and body, it was a representation in symbolic form of the same... Brother Glen

We also were feet washing Baptist but that's another topic.

 

Because that is the only proper substances that can convey symbolically what it teaches. If you don't have unleavened bread and wine then the Supper should not be observed until you do. Unless, you reject it is a symbolic supper and it is a sacrament necessary to convey literal grace/salvation.

 

Ideally it should be unfermented juice of the grape and unleavend bread. By reason Jesus refered to the passover drink as "drink of the fruit of the vine." Luke 22:18. Leaven is the fermentation of bread And at the passover the bread was to be unleavend.

But from the stand point it is symbolic - it would not be an essential.

 

No, for what only matters is if we are in spiritual communion/relationship with Jesus!

 

What?!
I thought you said you hold to The Confession!

30:3 "and bless the elements of bread and wine"

 

What goes in our mouth does not matter, what goes on in our mind is the essence of communion.

 

The Greek word for the bread used in communion is invariably artos. It means bread. Any sort of bread.
The word for 'unleavened bread' is azumos (c.f. Mark 14:1). It is not used in connection with the Lord's Supper. That doesn't mean that using unleavened bread is wrong; it just means it's unnecessary.
Our Pastor's son is gluten intolerant, so when he was in the church (he's moved away now) we used to give him gluten-free bread rather than insist on him having a belly-ache every time he took communion.

With regard to the wine, I would be happy with real wine, but one has to have care for those who may be recovering alcoholics (c.f. Romans 14:13). We use a non-alcoholic wine; whether it is fermented or not, I don't know. I think the key verse in all this is 1 Samuel 16:7b.

 

At our monthly table we offer a gluten-free product along side the matza

And the many AA attendees appreciate the alcohol-free grape juice.

Rob

 

First, no such drink existed in biblical times as "unfermented" grape juice as fermentation began the very moment the grapes were crushed. Second, wine is the only possible drink that can symbolize the cleansing power of the blood as grape juice poured into a wound will infect you and kill you. Wine is the only drink that can symbolize joy. Finally, wine is the only drink ever used by Jews in the Passover in their entire history and Jesus used the common provisions for the Passover which was wine and unleavened bread.