Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 4/7/2009

Question
I am a deacon in a Baptist church and am having a problem with who should receive the Lord's supper. Our church does let the children partake in the Lord's supper, however we have some teenagers who are lost by their own admission. I do not feel we should let them partake. Is there any biblical support you can give me to help me with this situation? I copied a quote you give someone else at he bottom of this question. I  agree with everything you said in it but I need scriptures to back it up. I hope you can help.
"A church should of course not offer the Lord's Supper to the unsaved, give it to young children or infants, or anyone who has not publically made a profession of faith and been baptized."

Answer
Dear Van,
   Thank you for your question and especially your concern over the proper administering of the Lord’s Supper.  I understand your concern because the Lord’s Supper is biblically reserved only for baptized believers in Jesus Christ.    This is the example the Lord gives us in the New Testament.

     In 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 Paul sets forth God’s will and instructions concerning observing the Lord’s Supper.    Clearly, taking the bread in the Lord’s supper represents Christ’s body that was broken for sinners.   The cup which follows represents Christ’s shed blood.   To the church and those that take the Lord’s supper there are several instructions concerning its meaning and observance.

    Verse 24-26 says the bread and cup is done to remember and to show the Lord’s death till He returns.     To the unsaved person, the one who has not publicly professed Jesus Christ as their Savior, Christ’s coming will be for judgment, not salvation.  His death, burial and resurrection mean nothing to them because they have not believed and thus are lost in their sins.   Thus the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ for the unsaved has no meaning or benefit.    Only those who have believed and by faith accepted Jesus Christ does His crucifixion and atonement for sin have meaning.  Jesus when He instituted the first Lord’s Supper said, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  (Matthew 26:28)
      The verse says this is done in remembrance of me.   To the unsaved, Christ suffer and death has no meaning and they have nothing to be in remembrance of.   
       Verse 27-29 gives a strong warning.   Those who take the Lord’s supper unworthily are guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.    Unworthily means those who have not believed and put their faith in Jesus Christ or those who have unconfessed sins in their lives.    Salvation is a solely received by belief in Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:1-4)   Children and the unsaved have not believed and therefore are not worthy.   The body and blood of Jesus Christ has not been applied to their sins.    It is Christ who imparts to the believer His righteousness that makes one worthy in God’s eyes and a child of God.    If, for what ever reason a person of any age has not believed and publicly professed Jesus Christ as their Savior they are not worthy in God’s eyes.  For them to take the Lord’s Supper would make a mockery of the ordinance that is to show the Lord’s sacrifice for sins.(Romans 10:9-11)
        Verse 29 says that person who takes the Lord’s Supper, not having believed is in fact eating and drinking damnation to himself, because he is not discerning the Lord’s supper.    If an unsaved person takes the Lord Supper, that means that the unsaved by his unbelief makes a mockery of Christ’s suffering for sins.    
        This also applies to the believer who would have unconfessed and unrepentant sin in his life and who would take the Lord’s supper.    It is a serious thing for a man to be so calloused in his heart that he would blatantly continue in sin knowing that Jesus had to suffer 2000 years ago for the sin his willingly and unconfessed sins.   
         Verse 30 says that some in the Corinthian church were sick and some God had taken their lives because of their unrepentant sin.  1 John 5:16 says for the Christian there is a sin unto death.  Hebrews 12:6-11 also explains that God will chasten His children who willingly continue in sin and refuse to turn from their disobedience.
         Thus taking the Lord’s Supper is a serious matter.   For the believer it is a wonderful thing to observe and picture in taking the bread and cup how thankful they are for the Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering and death for their sins.    It is good for children and the unsaved to see the Lord’s supper observed, because it is a testimony to them of those who have believed of their salvation.  Further is shows the unsaved their need also to put their faith in Christ.   It destroys the meaning of the Lord’s Supper to give it to anyone who has not believed and been saved.   It destroys the very thing the Lord’s Supper it to show and sends the message that taking the Lord’s Supper has saving properties.  This is the heresy of the Roman Catholic church and the Protestants who falsely observe the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament which makes is a part of and necessary for salvation.   Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly teaches works do not save.
      For a church to give the Lord’s Supper to children or anyone who has not been saved it is in truth be teaching them a false doctrine.  It distorts the reason Christ told us to observe it when it is given to those who have believed.    When properly only given to saved and baptized believers a church is preaching and teaching God’s truth and is being a testimony to the unsaved of their need to believe in Christ’s shed blood for their salvation.   

     It has been my practice over the years to explain from God’s word what the Lord’s Supper is and who should observe it.  As the pastor of the church I do not want to send the wrong message to our children or anyone in attendance.   I explain to parents and the children that only those children who have believed and been saved and baptized are to take the Lord’s Supper.   I have never had any problems in following this biblical procedure.   I explain why the unsaved that they should believe and urge them put their faith in Jesus Christ.   I use this ordinance to explain once again the wonderful love of God, in sending His Son to suffer and die for our sins and then offer us salvation by simple faith in Him.    It is the pastor’s responsibility, not the one who is administering the Lord’s Supper,  to make this clear and to properly teach what the Lord Supper is and how it is to be administered.   It should be the parent’s responsibility to also explain this to their children and thus be a witness to them.   Of course if parents are not present it would then fall on the one administering the Supper to give it only to those who have been saved and baptized.

     Sir, I hope this helps.  You are to be commended for standing for God’s truth and I hope your pastor and church would see the serious error they are making and ask the Lord to forgive them and then to set the matter in order, by correctly observing this wonderful ordinance the Lord has given us for us to remember His great love for us in dying for our sins.

     If you have further questions or comments please write.
Cooper Abrams
Romans 12:1-2
   "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity." (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)