With the establishing of the New Testament Church on earth by Jesus Christ before His ascension, the Lord’s local church was made the exclusive and inclusive administrator of the Lord’s work. He placed just two ordinances in His church, i.e., water baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The New Testament Church is a local congregation of baptized believers, joined together by God as the Body of Christ, with Christ as the Head. The church is responsible for the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20. Its mission is to preach the gospel, baptize the believer, and teach them to observe all things commanded by Christ.
Christ set forth the observance of the Lord’s Supper with His apostles, who were the first set in the church. It was not set forth as an open communion for public participation, but was delivered to the local membership only. The Bible gives no record of the observance of the Lord’s Supper in any other capacity other than local church observance.
Since Christ made the local church the agent and administrator of His work, and the Lord’s Supper was delivered to those in local church capacity, the local church is then the agent and administrator of the Lord’s Supper, as well as the ordinance of water baptism. 1 Corinthians 11:2 declares that the ordinances are to be kept as they were originally delivered. They are not to be expanded by man’s innovations and aspirations. They are not to be reduced to the level of accommodating the desires of men. But their value is seen in being administered according the Heaven’s authority unto having Heaven’s sanction.
The scripture requires the local church to have jurisdiction over the ordinances it administers. The Lord’s Supper is not an individual ordinance, but a local church ordinance.
1 Corinthians 11:18,20,33 – “…when ye come together in the church”, “…when ye come together into one place”, “…when ye come together to eat”, etc.
And in coming together, the members are to examine themselves in view of
their standing with Christ, as a member of His body, and observe the ordinance with respect to Christ, who purchased for them their position and privilege, by His own shed blood.
A church has no authority to serve the Lord’s Supper to non-members. Non-members cannot examine themselves with respect to their standing in the church as a member. The church has no jurisdiction over non-members. Until one becomes a member of the local church, they are not included in what that particular Body is doing in observing the ordinance. It is not a matter of excluding non-members from the ordinance observance, but a non-member is not in the position to partake as a member of the Body in the observance.
SHARING
