For 1800 years Christianity nearly always used wine(fermented grape juice) in their central rite--the Lord's Supper. As the temperance movement gain in popularity, so did the use of grape juice in the Lord's Supper. Today most Protestant churches (e.g., Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Mennonite, etc.) use grape juice.
Some would point out that Jesus consistently speaks of "the cup" being filled with "the fruit of the vine." Davis' Dictionary says, fruit of the vine, the designation used by Jesus at the institution of the Lord's Supper...is the expression employed by Jews from immemorial for the wine partaken of on sacred occasions, as at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath (Mishna, Berakoth, vi.1). The Greeks also used the term as a synonym of wine which was capable of producing intoxication (Herod I, 211, 212).
Affirming on the basis of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions that our Lord used bread and wine in the institution of the Lord's Supper, the [Missouri] Synod has adopted two resolutions encouraging the use of wine, not grape juice, in the administration of the Sacrament...That pastors who are stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1) and are entrusted with the pastoral care of souls, remain faithful in their practice of Christ's institution of the Sacrament of the Altar through the use of bread and wine 'in order not to introduce an element of uncertainty into the sacrament' (Christian Dogmatics, Pieper, Vol III P. 354).
In the case of rare medical condition the language in these resolutions is carefully chosen, and does not explicitly prohibit grape juice. In cases of where pastoral concern arise concerning the reception of bread and wine by certain persons, the institution of Christ not be overthrown, but that the pastor stress the Gospel's power and total effectiveness in the individual's life and patiently seek practical solution which is faithful to the Word of Christ and sensitive to the desire to partake in the Supper of the Lord.
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