Matthew Gasperoni’s Reviews > Take and Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the Lord's Supper > Status Update

“Some ask, since the Supper requires such genuine repentance, is it better not to take the Supper as often? Yet this reverses our true priorities. Rather than avoiding the Supper because it requires repentance, we should inculcate a regular posture of repentance so we are always ready to come to the Supper.”

—Harrison Perkins, Take & Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the LORD’s Supper

“GOD’s treatment of Ananias and Sapphira shows that GOD cares that we take every aspect of worship seriously … Although the Supper contains risk as we approach the table, the whole of worship contains that same risk at least in some measure. We cannot escape the risk of coming before the LORD simply by avoiding the Supper. Worship itself entails that risk.”

I appreciated the way Perkins handles the tension of coming to the LORD’s Supper rightly. There is clearly a responsibility to examine ourselves, but that responsibility is not meant to become a crushing burden. We are not striving to reach some imagined level of holiness before we are allowed to come. The Supper is primarily a gift of grace for needy sinners, not a reward for spiritual perfection.

“I sometimes wonder how it might affect preachers if every sermon had to end in the Lord's Supper. Would it give a healthy new dimension to the way our sermons develop and conclude? Would it force us back to the central things of the gospel? ... Might not our Church life be strengthened by frequent communion?" - W. Robert Godfrey

I have always thought about the manna as GOD’s active provision, but I love the deeper meaning as well: not only was HE providing for HIS people, but the manna was also a reminder of HIS presence among them.

“At one level, manna was physical nourishment. At another, it carried a spiritual significance that GOD was present among them and caring for HIS covenant people.”

“The acts of praising GOD, confessing sin, and contemplating the gospel are what we need to do every day. Gathered worship is important because it teaches us in a directed and specific way to build the rhythm of praise, confession, and gospel assurance into our hearts. We need that pattern locked deeply within our bones. Going through that pattern in worship trains us to live them out in the world.”

“We gather not to entertain ourselves but to give proper honor, praise, and respect to the GOD who made and saved us.”

—Harrison Perkins, Take & Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the LORD’s Supper

“Everyone comes to the table in the same condition, namely as sinners in need of CHRIST’s grace. This common reality unites us as we partake.”

—Harrison Perkins, Take & Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the LORD’s Supper