Arthur Gonçalves
Aug 18, 2025
Teaching Series on Weekly Communion (Part Three)
More Than a Meal
The Lord’s Supper is far more than bread and cup. It is a Spirit-given means by which the gospel is pressed into our hearts in a tangible, sensory way. It is an act of worship where we remember Christ’s death, rejoice in His resurrection, and renew our love for Him and for one another.
In our first article, we saw from Scripture that the early church joined the ministry of the Word and the ministry of the Table each Lord’s Day. In our second article, we saw how believers throughout church history followed that same pattern.
Now, in this final article, we want to show why weekly communion is not only biblical and historic—it is deeply pastoral. It will help us, your elders, shepherd you more faithfully, and it will help all of us grow in love for God and for one another.
1. The Gospel Will Shape Our Hearts More Deeply
The Supper is a gospel drama—bread and cup as visible signs of Christ’s body broken and His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:26:
“As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Every week, the Table calls us to look back to the cross, look around at our brothers and sisters, and look forward to the wedding feast of the Lamb.
Hearing the gospel preached is essential, but seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting the gospel drives it home to our hearts in a unique way. Weekly communion provides a steady rhythm of gospel reinforcement—like a hammer striking the same point until the truth sinks deep—shaping us into a people centered on Christ’s finished work.
2. Weekly Communion Will Preserve and Strengthen Our Unity
The Supper is not only vertical—between us and God—it is also horizontal, uniting us to one another.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:17:
“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
Every Lord’s Day, the Table reminds us that our unity is not built on personality, politics, or preference, but on Christ alone.
It also compels us to keep short accounts. In Matthew 5:23–24, Jesus teaches that reconciliation with a brother or sister takes precedence over acts of worship. Weekly communion gives us regular space for self-examination, repentance, and reconciliation before bitterness takes root.
3. Weekly Communion Helps Elders Shepherd Your Souls
Hebrews 13:17 calls elders to “keep watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”
Weekly communion gives your pastors a consistent pastoral checkpoint:
We can better discern spiritual struggles. If someone refrains from the Table repeatedly, it prompts loving, careful follow-up.
We can encourage repentance sooner. If conflict or sin is keeping someone away from the Supper, we can help bring gospel healing more quickly.
We can affirm signs of grace. Watching you come joyfully to the Table each week encourages us that the Lord is at work in your heart.
In this way, the Supper becomes a weekly spiritual pulse check for our whole congregation.
4. Weekly Communion Will Minimize Lingering Division and Unaddressed Sin
In many churches, relational fractures and hidden sin go unaddressed for weeks or months, deepening the wound.
But Paul exhorts in 1 Corinthians 11:28:
“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
This self-examination, when done weekly, shortens the distance between conviction and restoration. Weekly communion weaves reconciliation into the regular fabric of church life, so division doesn’t harden into disunity.
5. Weekly Communion Will Deepen Our Love for God and One Another
When we proclaim the gospel each Lord’s Day through Word and Table, the Spirit works in us to fulfill the two greatest commandments:
Matthew 22:37–39:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and… you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Supper fuels this love:
Love for God—as we remember His sacrifice, grace, and covenant promises.
Love for one another—as we share the same bread and cup, testifying that we belong to the same body.
A Step Toward Gospel-Centered Maturity
Church family, weekly communion is not about novelty or mere tradition—it’s about maturity. It is about the gospel shaping us week by week, keeping Christ central, preserving our unity, and enabling your elders to shepherd you faithfully.
By God’s grace, when we hear the gospel preached and then immediately see, taste, and touch its promises at the Table, our hearts will be anchored in Christ, our love will grow warmer, and our witness to the world will shine brighter.
In this new season, let us commit to this rhythm of grace—Word and Table together—until the day we drink it new with our Lord in His Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29).