The Lord’s Supper, Its Meaning And Importance.
1.Cor. ch.11 vs.26-34
There are only two ordinances or sacraments, outward observances of scriptural truths that are commended to Christian believers and in which they are asked to participate. For example we are not asked to observe Lent, Easter or Christmas as holy events. I will not criticise calendar-based observance of these events because anything that draws attention to our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatness of His Person and work can only be for His praise and our blessing. However we must recognise that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the only sacraments that the Holy Spirit of God has placed within the canon of Holy Scripture for us to observe in obedience to the word.
Baptism as a Christian sacrament is observed once in a believer’s lifetime. Its deep, personal significance is intended to continue and have a profound influence on us for the rest of life’s journey in the company of the One who died and rose from the grave for us. We are not saved by baptism but it is the obedient expression of the victory over death that we share with our risen Lord. Being baptised a second time is not according to scripture.
To remember the Lord Jesus in His death by the sacrament that is described in our scripture this morning is not just a privilege, it is a responsibility in obedience to the command of Jesus. Note the words in verses 24 & 25, “Do this…” It is not optional. Paul also suggests that it is something that we do “often” (1 Cor.11: 26). When we gather round the Lord’s Table, what are we doing, why are we doing it and why is it important? We must have answers to these questions. They focus our hearts on the meaning and purpose of the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross.
First of all, we should note that it is Paul’s account in this scripture that primarily gives us our authority to partake of the Lord’s Supper. If the three Gospel accounts of the Supper were the only records, it might have been thought that it was only for the Lord’s disciples who had been with Him in His earthly ministry. We must therefore note how Paul emphasises the divine mandate he has in writing this letter to Corinth. Firstly, as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, called by the will of God (ch1.v1), Paul stamps his authority in his insistence on church order. Secondly he reveals that it is truth that he personally received from the risen, ascended Christ, not from any earthly source, not even from the other Apostles. He might have had the events of the upper room described to him by one or more of the Lord’s Apostles who had been present, but He does not take his authority from such information. This account is therefore given unquestionable and absolute authority towards the church, local and universal, in every succeeding generation because it came from its risen, ascended Head.
Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was an Apostle by the will of God. It was through his apostleship that the church of God received teaching that has been its charter and guide down through nearly two thousand years. The letters that Paul wrote to the early churches and to individuals have the full authority of the Holy Spirit of God and must be accepted as God’s word. All departure from the truth and every schism in the church have been due to a failure to abide by some feature of Paul’s ministry.
In our passage Paul immediately directs our thoughts to the background against which our Saviour instituted this most holy of ordinances. It was the “night in which He was betrayed” (v.23) that He took bread and gave thanks. Note that there is no reference in Paul’s writing here to the Passover Feast. We have that in the Gospels. We are reminded there of the great typology of Exodus, the sacrificial lamb and the Jewish rituals that looked forward to the great anti-type. Here we only have the most simple details of the actual elements that our Lord ordained as a remembrance of Himself in His death. For that reason I believe that when we celebrate this love feast in remembrance of Christ in His death we should carefully restrict our actual method of doing so to the simplest possible form. We should not attach any formality, pomp or human ideas to the ceremony. We do not don fancy robes or uniforms. We need no incense or accompanying music. We should not attach the collection of money to the sacrament. We must not attach any importance to those who minister the word, serve in prayer or as stewards in this matter. We must fasten our thoughts, affections and hearts on Christ alone.
We have bread and wine, the simple basics of peasant diet peculiar to the time in which our Saviour lived as a lowly man in this world. He chose them carefully to represent His own body and His own blood. There should be nothing else on the table. The table itself is not an altar. The bread never ceases to be bread. The wine never ceases to be wine. The table on which they rest is only a convenient place to support the elements. The bread and the wine are symbolic. Our affections must be directed towards Christ and wholly focussed on the representation in these ordinary (note I use the word accurately) symbols of His Body and His Blood.
Let us return to that upper room. Judas had gone, greed blinding him to his own awful sin and the glory of the One whom he was about to betray. At the table with Jesus was Peter who would deny Him three times and the rest of His disciples who were ready to argue about who was the greatest. Outside, Satan was marshalling his forces for a final assault on the Holy One of God. His officers were the Jewish religious leaders in an unholy alliance with the power of the Roman invader. His army was the thoughtless rabble that had a few days previously cried, “Hail, King of the Jews”, and would soon cry, “Crucify Him, we will not have this man to reign over us.” Satan had recruited the most powerful force in existence at that time.
We cannot forget that Gethsemane with all its pressure lay before Him. Because of who He was in His Person, the Omniscient God of Eternity, He knew that He would face that alone too.
“Lo! At midnight, who is He
Prays in Dark Gethsemane?
‘Tis the Lord! Oh wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! Crown Him Lord of all!”
We remember the prophetic words of Psalm 69, “I looked for comforters but found none.”
Though all these details are bypassed here apart from the mentioned of His accursed but un-named betrayer, we must gather them up in reverent meditation as we approach the Table. Our hearts must be affected by the devotion of our Saviour to the will of His God and Father, His love for those gathered around Him and for every born again believer to this day.
Just let us pause to consider that Christ at that moment of such significance to a church not yet formed, should have every one of us in His affections.
Paul says, “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal.2:20)”. I look with reverence upon these simple elements, infused with such rich meaning and see there the love that knew me before I was born and determined that this was the only means to secure my eternal salvation.
There are two important purposes in our participation of the Lord’s Supper. Both must be the result of our personal attachment to Christ. The Lord’s Table is not a place for the hand of an unbeliever. In verses 27 & 28 Paul makes it also very clear that it is no place for the hand of a believer burdened by unjudged sin in his or her life. Before we approach this most holy sacrament Paul demands thorough self-examination. That means that I have to examine ME! I am not asked to examine YOU. I am told to look inside my own heart. In Mat.5:24 the Lord forcefully points out the need of being right in relationships with one another before approaching God. That is the principle here. It teaches us that there must be preparation for the Supper, an inward examination of my fellowship with God and His people.
For example, am I marked by a lack of forgiveness? Do I treat the coming together of God’s people casually? How long do I spend in prayer, reading the scriptures or meditating on the things of God? Is my private life pleasing to God? What are my associations in life? Have I sought in God’s presence to spiritually prepare myself for remembering the Lord Jesus at His table? I must answer all such questions carefully. It is the Lord’s Table. It is the Lord’s Table!
We must consider the two purposes of the Lord’s Supper according to this scripture. The first is to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. We have before us on the table these two symbols that He selected. The bread speaks to us of His holy body broken in death, a death of shame, humiliation and forsaking alone on the cross. The blood speaks of His atoning blood, the blood that flowed from the pierced side of His dead body, miraculously announcing a divinely provided atonement for sin, protection from God’s judgement, foreshadowed in the Passover lamb. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”.
We remember that he laid down His body in death. We remember that He did it on a Roman gibbet. We remember that He shed His precious blood for our atonement. It flowed as a result of the brutal callousness of man and the eternal love of God. Above all we remember Him. We remember our Saviour, our Shepherd, and our Friend who died there for us and instead of us. We remember His love and worship Him for who He is and what He has done.
Paul says in this simple but powerful instruction that Jesus “took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it…” What does that mean? The Lord Jesus physically took a piece of bread; it would be ordinary Mediterranean style flat bread, tore it apart and ate a piece, after giving thanks to the Father for it. Then he handed it to His disciples and commanded them to follow His example. It was a wonderful demonstration of holy fellowship.
He associated Himself with His disciple in the inauguration of this ceremony of remembrance that was to be the central act of Christian worship for the next two thousand years or so. He sanctified the act with his words, “ This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, can I ask you to consider the depth of feeling that our glorious Lord must have had as He ate that bread in anticipation of His own death? May I ask you to consider the feelings of His sinless, perfect manhood as He likewise drank from that cup that represented His own blood before passing it to His followers? He was the Holy Lamb of God. He was about to offer Himself as a sacrifice for my sins, for your sins.
In the last opportunity that He would have, He made provision for generation after generation of His followers to remember Him in a manner that the humblest could afford and the most exalted dare not ignore.
In the first chapter Paul had reminded the believers in the Corinthian church that they had been called into the fellowship of God’s Son. Here we have the holy, exclusive rites of that fellowship that only the born again, self-judged child of God can be privileged to participate in. With the help and power of the indwelling Spirit of God we remember our Lord in Holy Communion. He is physically absent from us but according to His own promise is powerfully among us by the Spirit of God’s presence within us and service to us. My friends and brethren, can there be a greater privilege for lovers of God in this dark, sinful world? What comfort it must be to the heart of the Saviour to see this declaration of loyalty to Him; what a blessing, what a joy for every believer who has such a privilege! How the Father must approve of such recognition of the worth of His Son in a world where the cry still is, “We will not have this man to reign over us!” When we honour the Son, we honour the Father.
We come now to the second purpose of the Supper. In verse twenty-six Paul says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” The Lord’s Supper has two aspects as we can observe. Firstly the private, intensely exclusive aspect of the occasion; a secret feast or ceremony of remembrance, whose deep meaning can only be enjoyed and understood by true lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and from which all others are excluded. Secondly a public proclamation or announcement to the world that Jesus died, Jesus rose and Jesus is coming back! We are announcing that awesome truth to an unbelieving world.
If unbelievers could understood the meaning of this and grasp its holy implication, the result would be astounding. Those who mocked would heap more ridicule on us. Those whose consciences troubled them might seek after God. Those who really hate the Name of Jesus would be motivated to further great persecution of all that profess His name. The fact is that the Lord’s Supper condemns and warns of God’s approaching judgement on an unbelieving world in its enmity against Him and His Son. Men last saw the Son of God hanging in humiliation, suffering and defeat on a Roman cross. In our holy sacrament we proclaim to that unbelieving, ungodly world that He will return as King of kings and Lord of lords. He must reign until He puts all enemies under His feet (1 Cor.15:25)
The rapture of the saints of God will take place first according to scripture, but Christ will return to this earth in person. Many prophets of old starting with Enoch (Jude v.14) foretold this great event. It is no afterthought. God is not in the business of changing His plans or having afterthoughts. Jesus must reign until He puts all enemies under His feet, according to scripture. He will annul death; that will be the last enemy to fall in defeat before Him, according to scripture. This is what we look forward to when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together my brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what we proclaim at the Supper! The future is glorious because Jesus died in our place on the cross. It is the eternal answer to that awful cry, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
We could say much more about this most holy of subjects but time has gone. Let me make an appeal to any who as yet have not received Christ.
If there is anyone here who has not received Jesus Christ personally, coming to Him in repentance and faith, then I ask you now not to delay. Your need is most urgent. You can come into the blessed knowledge and experience of having a part in the fellowship of God’s Son by repentance and faith. That is the promise of God.
There is a clear dividing line marked out in the word of God between those who are lost and those who are saved. Those who are lost can be saved. Those who are saved can never be lost. There is only one way to be saved. There is only one way of salvation. There is only One Saviour. I am not going to put words of a prayer of mine in your mouth. My words don’t count for you. My faith cannot save you. Look to Jesus now and live. The life He offers you is eternal. All a preacher can do is lift up the Saviour. All the sinner needs to do is to look to Jesus in faith, repenting of his or her sin. The Philippian jailor cried, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s answer to him is the answer the Spirit of God gives to you today, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
May God bless the word and encourage us in our most holy faith.
