The purpose of believers gathering together is to devote themselves to God’s teaching, to encourage one another toward love and good deeds Heb 10:24,25, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and to pray Ac 2:42.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians addressed the abuse at the Lord’s Supper.  The purpose of the Lord’s Supper was for believers to come together, as a body, united in their gratitude towards Jesus for his victory over sin and death for them 1 Co 11:24.   They would share a meal with two key elements, the first was bread, which sustains physical life representing the truth that Jesus gives and sustains spiritual life.  Jesus is the Bread of Life Jn 6:35 who conquered death 1 Pe 3:18.  The bread was broken, a picture of Jesus’ death and symbolizing our need to be broken––die to self, so that we can experience true life in Christ Gal 2:20.  The bread contains another truth.  We are one body in Christ like a whole loaf of bread but many individuals making up the loaf 1 Co 12:12.   Like the bread which Jesus broke into many pieces Mt 14:20, the body of Christ keeps multiplying getting larger and larger.

The second element, the wine, symbolizes Jesus’ blood which was shed.  This represented the New covenant, in which the Father would no longer hold sins against any individual  Heb 10:16,17,18; 2 Co 5:19.  The only sin that God will not forgive is the sin of unbelief Mk 3:28,29.  In this passage, the Pharisees witnessed the miracles of Jesus but because they did not want to lose their religious position Jn 11:48 claimed that the miracles Jesus accomplished was by the power of Satan, thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit by making him the Unclean Spirit Mk 3:22.