Is It Right to Take the Lord’s Supper Multiple Times on One Sunday?

Acts 20:7 prescribes the frequency that the Lord’s Supper is biblically authorized to be observed. Like the contribution (1 Corinthians 16:1-2) and other acts of New Testament worship (singing, prayer, preaching), the Lord’s Supper should be observed every first day of the week. The Lord’s Supper is the only act of worship that Scripture authorizes exclusively or only for the first day of each week, since giving, singing, prayer and preaching can be observed in Scripture occurring outside the Lord’s Day assembly. Congregations that may have more than one worship period on the first day of the week often provide an opportunity for persons who were unable to attend an earlier worship period to partake the Lord’s Supper at the latter worship period.

However, I am not personally aware of anyone partaking the Lord’s Supper more than once on the Lord’s Day. It seems that the example of Acts 20:7 admits of only one worship period on that day in Troas; it is fairly certain that first century churches did not partake the Lord’s Supper multiple times on the Lord’s Day. Contemporary churches of Christ have not learned from the Scriptures to observe the Lord’s Supper multiple times per Lord’s Day. The biblical requirement is to observe the Lord’s Supper once weekly on the Lord’s Day (first day of the week), and I know of no biblical reason that anyone would desire to observe the Lord’s Supper more than once on the Lord’s Day. If someone has a non-biblical reason for observing the Lord’s Supper multiple times on the Lord’s Day, then it is beyond the authorization of the Scriptures. At least, no one could insist that others likewise partake of the Lord’s Supper multiple times on the Lord’s Day.