Bible Talk Host Deb Osborne. Why the Lord’s Supper Still Matters: Memory, Unity, and Proclamation

What if the most powerful sermon you hear this week is one you taste? We sit down to explore why the Lord’s Supper—often called communion—still speaks with force and tenderness to modern hearts. Starting with the Passover story and moving to Jesus’ words in 1 Corinthians 11, we unpack how a small piece of bread and a simple cup can ground our memories, heal our relationships, and send us into the world with courage.

We talk about the difference between going through the motions and truly remembering Christ’s sacrifice, and why God uses a physical meal to teach spiritual truth. From there, we look at the Lord’s Supper as public proclamation: every time we eat and drink, we declare that Jesus died for our sins, rose again, and will return. That forward-looking hope keeps the table from feeling like nostalgia—it becomes a practice that anchors us in grace and points us toward the King’s promised future. Along the way, we get practical about self-examination, repentance, forgiveness, and unity. The covenant shape of the meal stands out: God guarantees forgiveness through Christ’s blood, and we respond with renewed obedience and gratitude.

This conversation is warm, reflective, and grounded in Scripture, with clear takeaways for everyday life and worship. You’ll hear why frequency matters less than heart posture, how to approach the table without fear, and what it means to let this meal form your character, your community, and your mission. If you’ve ever wondered whether communion is just a ritual, or if you need a fresh sense of its meaning, you’ll find encouragement to come hungry for grace and leave ready to love.

If this episode speaks to you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others discover the message. Then tell us: what do you remember most when you come to the table?

Chapters

• 0:17 Show Intro and Broadcast Details
• 1:26 Setting the Scene: Passover to Last Supper
• 3:10 What Jesus Commanded: “Do This”
• 5:21 Why a Physical Meal Matters
• 7:13 From Routine to Worship
• 8:25 Remembering Christ’s Sacrifice Deeply
• 11:22 Proclaiming the Gospel by Partaking
• 12:43 Anticipating Christ’s Return
• 13:52 Examine Yourself Before the Table
• 16:06 Covenant: Forgiveness and Obedience
• 18:09 Not Tradition, But Christ’s Command
• 19:34 How Often and Who Should Partake
• 21:01 Keep the Focus on Jesus
• 22:30 An Invitation to the Table
• 24:27 Closing Prayer and Contact Info

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

I woke up in with my listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deva Osborne.

SPEAKER_02: 0:35

Bible Talk will be airing on WTUK 105.1 FM every Sunday at 4 p.m. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on the 421 Podcast. Stream it on Apple or Spotify. You go to the website at H O R 421 Show.buzzsprout.com. And I'd like to give thanks to all the listeners and supporters. And always keep us in prayers as we spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you'd like to contact Sister Dave, you can email her at Osborne Deborah K at gmail.com. That's O-S-B-O-R-N-E.com. And if you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash H O R 421. Or you go through the website at H O R 421 Show.buzzsprout.com. Now I give you your host, Sister D.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's awesome to be back here just talking about the Word of God. It's just awesome. So what I want to talk to you about today, uh, I don't know, some people think it's controversial. I don't. I think it's exactly what it says. Um so so for a little background, on the night before his death, our Lord Jesus Christ, he gathered with his disciples in the upper room to eat the Passover meal. Well, and this was just no, this wasn't just a regular, let's all have dinner together meal, right? So usually the Jews would meet at this particular period in history. They would eat the Passover, okay? And we know that was a special meal designed by God to celebrate the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. So we know that Israel was in bondage for, you know, in Egypt for over 400 years. And God, you know, heard their cries and and God was going to deliver them and bring them back to the land of Cana. You know, the promised land was going to be their own land. And so God used uh a series of plagues uh to deliver Israel out of Pharaoh's clutches. Um and finally with the very last plague came. Uh I'm not going to go over all those, you can read them. But the very last plague, which was the killing of the firstborn throughout the land of Egypt. And the only way that the children of Israel was going to be able to protect themselves uh from the death angel was to uh kill a lamb, you know, put the blood on on the lamb at their doorp doorpost and lantel and stuff, and then eat the meat with some unleavened bread and some herbs, and this became known as the Passover meal. And so they ate this meal, they made a sacrifice to God, and they put blood on their door, and the death angel passed them all over. And this was the very key to the deliverance of Israel out of Israel, right? I mean out of Egypt. And so God made the Passover meal to be done annually as a remembrance, and it's still done today, right? But we can be sure that that from that point on, that night on, the disciples, apostles would probably remember the crucifixion of Jesus anytime that they broke bread and took divine, took a drink of wine, right? And so baptism and the Lord's the Lord's Supper and baptism, they're the two practices commanded by Christ, and it was taught by the apostles and practiced by the church from the very beginning. So the Lord's Supper is a tradition in the church that was authorized by Jesus Christ Himself. Now I'm going to say Lord's Supper. I may slip up and say communion. Uh people call it sacrament. They call it several, you know, a couple different things. I'm I'm trying to keep to the Lord's Supper because that's what I've titled this, or that's what I put in here mostly, the Lord's Supper. Uh but if I slip up and say communion, that's just what I call it. So uh so at the Lord's Supper, you know, what we call the Passover meal, Jesus ate with his disciples. And people, this is on this is in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23 through 26, uh, is what this is based on. Okay? So Jesus gave a command. He said, do this. He he took some bread and he gave thanks. He break it and he said, This is my body that's broken for you. He said, Do this in remembrance of me. Then he took the cup, you know, and he said, This is the New Testament in my blood. He said, Do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. So the Lord's Supper, uh, it proclaims the gospel. Or, you know, when you eat it and you drink it, you're saying, you know what, I know, I believe Christ died for me. I know that. And I'm trusting him. He died for me, and this is in remembrance of him, because that's what he tells us to do. That's exactly what he tells us to do. And it might sometimes probably, when you were younger, it probably seemed a little weird that, you know, you eat a little small piece of bread and drink a little juice from a cup at church. You know, and it you you you might want to ask yourself, you know, people probably younger days and maybe even now, uh, ask yourself, you know, is it really necessary? I mean, does it do anything? Um, what exactly are we supposed to feel from it? What are we supposed to get out of it? But see, because it's a physical thing, some people tend to assume that God only cares for spiritual things and not as much for the physical stuff. But the thing about it is, people, you know what, when God made us, he made us physical. He made the animals physical, he made physical trees and he made physical fruit, you know. He his own son took on a physical flesh, which led him to a physical cross. And so I think that if God had only wanted things to be a spiritual kingdom, he would have very well made it that way, but he didn't. You know. And so for some people, this this dreary religious ritual is what some people call it. You know, you may have given your life to God at a at an early age, or maybe you went to church on a regular basis, but you s but it's still considered an uninspiring church activity. And maybe you went to church and you you walked in and you looked up front as as a younger, maybe teenager or a younger kid, and you saw this the Lord's Supper table sitting up front, and you'll be like, Wow, man, you know, church is gonna be longer tonight, and we gotta gotta go through this ritual. And friends, if this describes you, if this is how you grew up feeling or thinking still, then I hope today's message will help you understand the Lord's Supper, understand it better, maybe give you some more meaning and depth to you, right? Now, some people think that the Lord's Supper is just a religious duty. And to these people, it probably stirs very little, if anything at all, up inside of them. They've participated in it so many times, uh, you know, it's become just routine. They it it doesn't have as much significance anymore. It's just a a religious activity, and that's what some people tend to think about it. They go through the Lord's Last Supper uh like a habit. They don't give it much thought, and it has little impact if all on their lives. But then there's those other people that approach the Lord's Supper with delight. These people, these persons think that they think through the death of Jesus Christ, that the sacrifice that he paid, the pain that he went through, they think about that, they dwell on it when they do, uh they they kind of think this is an act of worshiping God. Through the Lord's Supper, they think it impacts them, it moves them, it motivates them to be more thankful, more forgiving, more committed to Jesus Christ. It it's a genuine act of worship to these pe these type of people. But friends, I'm here to tell you right now, if the Lord's Last Supper is done right, unity and forgiveness will be the outcome. You know, if it's done with the right attitude and the right mindset, you will be motivated to seek forgiveness, you know, from for those that maybe you've hurt and and maybe and give forgiveness for some people that may have hurt you. So worshiping through the Lord's Supper uh should also make us gracious, you know. And and and and and as you take the Lord's Supper, you need you need to you need to ask God, you know, is there anything, anyone that I need to forgive? Is there anything that I need to ask forgiveness for? Anything I need to ask forgiveness that I've said or done to somebody, you know. So you think about the death of Christ and you think about how it restores and it reconciles you to God because it gives you that opportunity to say, God, I do I need forgiving for anything? Do I is there is there something that I've done in my life that I need to talk to you about? And and so it kind of gives you a chance to get your get everything under the blood of Jesus, right? Now in 1 Corinthians 11, 24 and 25, we are told, do this in remembrance of me. And friends, today I'm trying to get through to you is that the Lord's Supper is about remembering our Lord Jesus Christ and his death. It's it's and to remember, you know, it it it not saying just to bring something to mind. I'm talking about to really think about it, not to merely recall something that happened last year or whatever. I mean to truly remember is to go back in your mind and recall as much of an event or an experience as you possibly can. Like remembering a a significant moment, like remembering maybe your wedding day and all the things around you and all the things that's said and done, or or remembering when your children were born, or and when Jesus, when he said, Do this in remembrance of me, this is exactly what he's talking about. To remember, uh uh to think about, to relive, to think about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, to remember his life, his agony, his suffering and death. And we need to, when we do this, we think about this and remember it as much as we humanly possible. And when he said, Do this and remember of me, Jesus is telling us to think about the price he paid, the pain he went through for us. He's telling us to remember the greatness of him taking up that the cross that should have been mine, it should have been yours, it should have been everyone's, but he took that cross for us. And he wants us to remember that it's because of it, and it reminds us how much he loves us. And that's what he wants us to remember. The Lord's Last Supper should also remind us to reach out and proclaim Christ to those people around us. You know, the message of the cross and the Lord's death is not only for us to remember, but also to proclaim, to preach, to teach, to share, to testify. The Lord's Supper is an act of an act of proclamation. And I've heard a lot of people say they don't want to do, I know one person individual said, I don't want to have nothing to do with that, you know. But see, when you partake of it, people, you are saying, you know what, I believe Jesus died for my sins. When you partake of the Lord's Supper or communion or whatever you want to call it, you're saying, I believe he rose again on the third day. I believe he died for my sins. I believe my sins are paid for by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And I believe I have eternal life because of that. And when you take the Lord's Supper, you are telling people around you that you're a Christ follower and that you're not ashamed to proclaim Christ. When you take the Lord's Supper, you know, you think about how important the message of Christ is and how you can share it at work, at school, with family and friends. He should remind you uh to share the good news when Jesus what he's done for us. And the Lord's Supper should remind you that uh the fact that someday Christ will return to get his people. And 1 Corinthians 11 26 says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shoe the Lord's death till he come. And each and every time you do the Lord's Supper, you take the Lord's Supper, you are proclaiming the cross of Calvary. I don't know if I'm if people are understanding this, you know. Um and if the Lord's last Last Supper is done right in your heart, people, you should be more exciting about uh the return of Christ. It's not just about the death of Christ, it's about his reign. It's about the reign of Christ. You know, Jesus died on the cross so that he could raise from the grave. He rose from the grave so that he could ascend to the Father. He ascended to the Father so he could come back and get all of his people again. Right. Amen. I mean, it's his reign, and that's what we ought to be remembering. You know? And and I think God also in in some of this when he wants us to use the Lord's Supper as a time of examining yourself. In First Corinthians 11, 28, he said, But let a man examine himself and so and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. And 11 1127 says, Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup and un of the Lord unworthy shall be guilty of the body and the blood. So examine yourself. You know, don't let that scare you. You should be examining yourself on a daily basis, not just when you do this. You should be saying, having an advocate with the Father on a daily basis anyway. But you examine yourself, examine your salvation. Have you really and truly surrendered yourself to Jesus Christ? Examine yourself, how you treat others. Are you showing kindness, respect, and love? Uh you know, does your attitude reflect of someone who has given their life to the Lord? And you know, there there's so many things that the Lord's Supper is to remind us of when we do this. You know, the the it should remind you that we are we are in a covenant with the Lord if you look at it. We the covenant has it has two sides. One is the forgiveness of your sins. God guarantees that your sins have been paid for and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. And the other side is obedience. We when you accept Christ as your Savior, you're saying to the Lord, I will obey you. Lord, you're telling God, I will obey you. You are my God and I will submit to you. And as God's people, as God's people, the Lord's Supper is a time to look up to God in heaven with our hearts, and we rededicate ourselves to the covenant that we have with him, knowing that he will always keep his end. We are the ones who sin and let our end down. We let him down with our end, right? We we am we don't we always have to let it we let him down and we always have to pray to him. You know? And people, the Lord's Last Supper is a visible picture and the practice that reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You know? And those of us who are saved and are partaking in the Lord's Supper, it stirs our hearts with thankfulness because of his sacrifice. See, Jesus never told us to remember his birth, but people he told us to remember his death. Do this in remembrance of me. And it's important also that to remember why he died. He died for our sins, he bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. First Peter 2 and 24. He died for our sins. And if that meaning and remembrance of the Lord's Supper doesn't motivate you at all, then listen, Paul explains why it's so important. You know, it the Lord's Supper isn't about tradition, it was led and delivered by Jesus Christ Himself. It wasn't just some religious practice invented by a church. If any man had to come up with that, uh it probably wouldn't have even held any value or real value anyway, and it wouldn't be worthy of even practicing now if it was just man-made, you know. It wasn't just invented by a church. The Lord's Supper was directed by the Lord Himself. He said, Do this in remembrance of me. It's a declaration. You know, it's it's a simple action that the Lord commanded his church. Remember the Lord's broken body and the blood that was shed for our sins, people. And proclaiming that Jesus died for me. And I take that very personally. I don't mind proclaiming the Lord's Supper. I do it every Sunday. I used to do it every week, every day, right, actually. And I I tone down to once a week, and and I I'm really ashamed of myself to admit that. But I do it every Sunday. He died for me, he died for you, and we need to proclaim it. You know? And when we do do the Lord's Supper, he didn't tell us how often, but I think we should do it as often as possible. Because he said, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. He didn't say how often. Like I said, I do it every Sunday. But and all believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior should partake of the Lord's Supper, communion, sacrament, whatever it is that that that you call it. We should be thankful for what Jesus has done for us, people. And we need to be partaking of the Last Supper. You know, we need to express our thanks and our praise to the Lord. You know. We should examine ourselves and and and talk to Lord, have I done anything? You know, examine yourself and then, you know, have you hurt others? Examine yourself and then partake of the Lord's Supper. You know, we friends, I'm telling you, we are we are to remember Jesus. And the focus isn't on Abraham or Moses or or Isaiah. It's not on the Jewish Passover or it wasn't, it's not even on when he was betrayed. The focus is on Jesus Christ. And he said, Do this in remembrance of me. And the Lord's Supper, it's a wonderful thing. It's an ordinance that Jesus Himself, and He He wanted us to remind a remind us of Him. And we as believers today, we need to understand the meaning of the Lord's Supper. That it's both a remembrance and a proclamation of the gospel. It's not a ritual, it's not uh or an it's not just an element tacked on at the end of a church service. It's a sermon, it's a memorial, a reminder of the gospel. It's a time for us to remember that Jesus gave his body for us on the cross. Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me. Yes, I'm said it over and over, and I'm probably say it again before I stop here. But how can, ask yourself, how can we forget a man like Jesus Christ? How here we have a man who actually healed people with visible deadly illnesses. Here is a man that actually prayed for people and who were dead and they came back. Here was a man who, out of his love for us, was willing for his body to be broken and for his blood to be shed for us. How do we forget someone like that? How do you forget a love like that? How do you really, how do you forget someone who was raised from the dead? But we do forget. We do forget, even important things. Lord knows I barely remember yesterday. But so Jesus gave us this table to share. He he gave us this this ri this thing, this this thing we can sit down at his table and do this together, you know, um with our brothers and our sisters as one community to remember the sacrifice that he made for us. We can remember it. And my friends, today, um today I want to close with an invitation. An invitation to go somewhere and find the Lord's table and sit down at it. Or when you walk up in a church the next time and you look back and you see the communion table or the Lord's Supper table or sacrament table, whatever you call it, and you see this back there, don't just think in your mind, well, it's a religious thing, riddle rich ritual, and oh well, church is gonna be longer. Don't think of it like that, people. Don't think of it like that. Everybody is invited, everyone is welcome. The only requirement is that you come in faith in Jesus Christ. And you can. You come remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made because he carried our sins to Calvary. He carried our sins to Calvary and He gave His life, He was the sinless Son of God, and He carried all of our sins, and He let His His His He let His body be broken and His blood be shed for our sins, your sins and my sins People, you have to remember that. And that is exactly what taking the communion, the sacrament, the Last Supper, that's exactly what it's all about, is remembering. Do this in remembrance of me. That's what he said. And friends, friends, I hope today that no matter where you are in your understanding and appreciation of the Lord's Last Supper, I hope this message maybe will be a little helpful to you to motivate you, to help you understand that he just said, Do this in remembrance of me. That's all he wants. Remember. He's saying, remember what I done on the cross. Remember, I carried your sins to Calvary. Just do that in remember of me. It's what he said. And I hope and pray that this has opened up someone's maybe a little bit of understanding better of communion or sacrament or Last Supper, like I said, whatever, uh whatever your your church or gathering group calls it. Um people don't neglect to do the Lord's Supper. Don't neglect to sit down at a table with your brothers and your sisters and think about the sacrifice that he made and thank him for it. And take that little bitty chip of bread and take that little drink of juice and tell him you remember it. You'll never forget it. I hope this has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you. And I hope I've gave you a little bit more understanding of the Lord's Last Supper. And I hope and pray the next time you walk into a church and you see that table, you will just smile and say, All right, yeah. Do this in remembrance of me. Anyway, I'm going to finish with a prayer and I hope and pray that uh everyone has a good evening. Our Father God in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this word that we just talked about. We thank you for each and every blessing. And I ask you, Lord, to bless each and everybody out here today that is hearing this, Lord, that maybe they'll get a bigger, uh, brighter understanding of the sacrament, communion, the Lord's Supper, that maybe they'll open up their eyes and their hearts to be able to say, okay, yeah, I remember. Just let it go to the hearts and the minds that it needs to go to, Lord, and just let them open up their hearts to the Lord's Last Supper. We thank you, Lord, for your sacrifice on that cross. We thank you for taking our sins to Calvary. We thank you, thank you, thank you. We'll never forget it, Lord. We thank you. Bless each and every one of us. We thank you, we praise you, we honor you. We ask these and all things in Jesus' holy name. God bless everybody.

SPEAKER_00: 24:21

I woke up this morning with my mind. Stay on Jesus. I woke up this morning with my mind.

SPEAKER_02: 24:32

You've been listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb. If you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at Osbert and Deborah K at gmail.com. Record it at the 421 Studio. For contact information, you can email at H O R 421 Ministries at gmail.com. Phone numbers 239-849-1502.

SPEAKER_00: 25:02

Walking talking with Bye bye.