Outline and Manuscript:
I. Understanding the Lord’s Supper
II. How We Dishonor the Lord’s Supper
Manuscript:
As we learned last week, the Corinthians are segregated and selfish—and they’re not bothered by any of it. They hold public worship services and have the Lord’s Supper, but Paul says when you’re doing it, you’re not doing it. Paul says you can call it the Lord’s Supper, you can say its worship but it’s not because the way you’re going about it dishonors the Lord and your brother.
As we get started this morning, let me ask you two questions:
1. When we have the Lord’s Supper, is there something spiritual and powerful happening between you and Christ. (The answer is an obvious, I think most of us would say that we sense a deep connection to Christ during the Lord’s Supper).
2. But what about your brother? Is there anything spiritual happening during the Lord’s Supper between you and other believers in this room? (That’s not a question we often consider, we tend to view the Lord’s Supper as personal, just “me and Jesus,” but its bigger than that!)
Main Idea: Here’s my thesis for my message today: During the Lord’s Supper, there’s something spiritual that is happening between you and me and Christ.
Introduction: At the Last Supper, just before His trial and crucifixion, Jesus ate bread and drank wine with His disciples, two elements that would stand as symbols of the new covenant established in His blood. After that night, the Last Supper was transformed into the Lord’s Supper—a perpetual act of worship that His people would observe regularly until Jesus returns.
Did the Corinthians not understand this? Did they look at the bread and wine and go, “I can’t remember…what does these represent?” No, they understood the vertical aspect of the Lord’s Supper: Jesus died for their sins to reconcile them to God. What they failed to esteem in this context is the horizontal dimension to the Lord’s Supper—that there’s something spiritual happening between you and me and Christ.
So let me set this up…whether we fully understand it or embrace it, Christ has called His people to be a part of a local church and live in community together. We’re not called to merely “go to church” but to cultivate love for Christ and each other. And when we observe the Lord’s Supper, it’s not an act of worship meant to be done in isolation, but a congregational act of worship. In addition to the Lord’s Supper, there are so many NT instructions that are intended to be exercised by believers participating in worship together. Some examples: We admonish one another. We confess our faults to one another. We restore one another. We are longsuffering and patient with one another. And the list goes on and on…
When it comes to a professing Christian’s involvement with the church, often Christians ask the wrong questions: “Do I have to go to church to be a Christian?” (Asked in a way that’s on level with asking the dentist, “Do I have to get a root canal or can you just pull the tooth?) Or, they think of church in terms of personal fulfillment: “I get more out of watching “so-n-so preacher” on TV than going to church. Or, “I get a greater worship experience out of sitting on my front porch with a cup of coffee and being alone with God and His creation.”
Maybe these are true, but these conclusions miss the point. They never ask the Author of the Church what He wants! Isn’t it reasonable that we should seek the desires of Christ above our own? Another way to say this: Does the Lord of the Church and its Supper get His preferences over ours?
Illustration: When C. S. Lewis became a Christian, he thought he could take Jesus but leave out the church. In his book, God in the Dock, he says:
My own experience is that when I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn't go to the churches and Gospel Halls; and then later I found that it was the only way of flying your flag; and, of course, I found that this meant being a target. If there is anything in the teaching of the New Testament which is in the nature of a command, it is that you are obliged to take the Sacrament and you can't do it without going to Church. I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit." God in the Dock, pp. 61-62.
See, what it means to be a Christian is bigger than just what happens between you and Christ; it’s also horizontal—it’s about what happens between you and me and Christ. There is something physical happening here: we come forward and eat bread and drink juice. But there is also something spiritual and holy happening here between us. The question is, do we honor that, do we properly discern the body of Jesus? This is a central question in the text.
Illustration: Pastor David Cassidy poses two questions that help us begin to see this horizontal aspect of the Lord’s Supper:
1. Is the church in heaven more forgiven than the church on earth? More than you right now? (No, it’s the same grace and forgiveness.)
2. Is the church in heaven more forgiving than the church on earth? (Oh yeah!)
Definitely! That’s what often makes being a local church so difficult. People hurt other people. Or they get offended about something and they refuse to forgive. They won’t reconcile. They will avoid each other and refuse to speak—sometimes for years. And the worst part is that some people are content in doing this.
But in heaven it’s not like this. No one walks up to her neighbor and says, “Hey I didn’t like your snarky comment on Facebook.” Or, “You were rude to me last Tuesday!” Or, “What you said in our small group was really ugly and inappropriate!” Doesn’t happen in heaven. In heaven, the love, humility, grace, and forgiveness we experience will be perfect.
But here’s the deal: We are called to be images on earth of what it is in heaven. We get started here, but perfected there!
But Corinth didn’t look like this. They were prideful, divisive, and gluttonous. As we learned last week, when they gathered and had the Lord’s Supper, they ate a meal together. The wealthy members brought most of the food and wine and felt entitled to it and went ahead and had their own little private elite suppers. So, on one side of the room, you’ve got the elitists eating filet mignon and drinking aged merlot but on the other side of the room, you’ve got the poorer members eating spam/bologna and drinking “2 buck chuck!” This kind of selfishness and gluttony turned worship into something it should not be.
I. Understanding the Lord’s Supper
So, Paul takes them back to the basics again because they have made the Lord’s Super into something different…
-The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Jesus held that bread and broke it and was in essence saying, just as this bread is broken, so My body will be broken because of your sins. This wine represents My blood that will be spilt to bring you forgiveness of sins. God is a God of holiness and justice; therefore, sin must be punished. Your sins must be atoned for; someone must pay the price, and I will do that for you.
Gospel Appeal: At the end of your life, your sins will face God’s judgment. That’s true for every human being that has ever lived—from the first man, Adam—to the last human being born on earth. The only question that remains is, will you pay for them or will Christ? He has made provision to do that for you, if you will trust in Him today.
By the way, did you notice the word remember? It’s mentioned twice in the text—remember my body, remember my blood. The word remember is important to understand. It’s more than just recalling the historical facts of Calvary; it’s actively engaging and fellowshipping with Christ. Two examples to help us understand this:
Illustration: In the OT, the defining event for Israel was the Passover. Annually the Israelites would memorialize it. In Exodus 12:14 it says, “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord.” They would remember how God delivered them from slavery, rescued them from their enemies and established them as a nation under Moses’ leadership.
Now when the Jews did this, it wasn’t purely an intellectual exercise (i.e., merely recalling historic events with gratitude). That was the beginning point. But it was also about actively bring the past into the present. As one writer says, “Not dry history to be learned but dynamic history to be lived.” (Dustin Crowe, The Gospel Coalition.) In other words, the Passover was a time of spiritual renewal and consecration for the Israelites in the present. As they looked back, remembering/celebrating God’s faithfulness, it encouraged them to trust in and follow the Lord in the present. We trusted Him then, we can trust Him now!
Illustration: To understand this another way, think about your wedding anniversary. My wife and I will be married for 22 years on Oct. 14. Isn’t she just so lucky! Now let’s imagine that when the 14th gets here, I look dryly at her and say something like, “Hey, today is the date of our anniversary; we’ve been married 22 years. How about that.” And then I just go about the day with the same daily routine. Now…you don’t have to be a prophet to know that if I do that, it will not go well with me!
Why? Because such a half-hearted response dishonors the occasion. You don’t remember your anniversary by merely stating its historical factuality; it goes beyond that—it involves activity and celebration: a nice card, a special gift, reminiscing about special past days in our marriage, some flowers, dinner together, a little romance. What does all of this do? It renews our love for days and years to come. So, remembering is recalling facts but it’s also about actively renewing your love for each other in the present.
This is what it means to remember Christ’s body and blood at the Lord’s Supper. We recall in our minds the suffering of Calvary, but we bring that into the present, with renewed love and consecration for Him. We come to the Lord’s Table with gratitude that our sins are forgiven—not because we’ve earned His forgiveness or because we’re better than other people, but because the Lord has been kind to us. We come to this Table hungry and weary, ready to be renewed by the true Bread from heaven. Just as food renews us when we are weak, by faith in Christ, we come to this Table in desperate need of Him to feed us His sustaining grace and power.
But it doesn’t stop even there. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we do it with anticipation of the future.
• 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The Lord’s Supper is looking forward to Christ’s Second Coming. We eat with one eye on the cross and one eye on the sky, hoping that before we can hardly swallow the bread and juice, that Christ will return. And when He comes, He will bring justice to the earth, an end to suffering and evil, and the glorification of His people.
II. How We Dishonor the Lord’s Supper
Now, at this point, you might wonder…why does Paul give them a lesson on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper when the context is addressing their division and gluttony? Answer: You can’t dishonor the body of Christ without dishonoring Christ. When you mistreat His people, you mistreat Him.
Illustration: In Acts 9 we learn that Saul of Tarsus had devoted himself to persecuting the church when he met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. When Jesus spoke to Saul He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Not My church, but Me! To persecute the church was to persecute Christ. You can’t mistreat His people without offending and mistreating Him.
And so, Paul is making the point that there is an inseparable union between Christ and His church. What he says next drives this point home even more.
• 27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
Let’s be clear on Paul’s meaning here. When we read this, there’s a tendency to think that we have to be worthy to come to participate in the Lord’s Table. But if that’s the standard, if that’s what Paul meant, then it totally destroys the foundation of grace. Grace says we receive God’s forgiveness in spite of being unworthy of it. Grace welcomes the unworthy. “The Lord’s Supper is not for sinless people. Sinless people do not need the Lord’s Supper or the atonement it commemorates.” (RC Sproul, Ligonier.org). Communion is for sinners—those who want to rid themselves of it and find grace. If that’s you, Jesus welcomes you to this Table.
The idea of partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner is connected to v. 29, “those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.” Some scholars believe and I agree, that “body” here in v. 29 refers not to the Jesus’ physical body but to the church. This seems to fit the overall context—that the Corinthians had dishonored the worship of Christ by being factious and selfish. Eating in unworthy manner is connected directly to our treatment of others: are we acting in love towards others here or are we living selfishly and divided?
What happens if we fail to this? According to the text in v. 30: judgment. This is why many were weak, sickly and some have fallen asleep—because of how you’ve treated others in the church. Do you think the Lord is serious about cultivating love for Christ and each other in the church?
-If your child was sick and the doctor gave him a particular medicine and urged you to follow the prescription on the medicine bottle, you would do it because accurate prescription usage is a serious matter and you care about your child and it could be a matter of life or death for your him/her.
-If a driving instructor told you that a car can be either a tool for good (transporting you and others from one destination to another) or a weapon (that can hurt others—you would listen because that’s car safety is a serious matter—and you care about your life and the lives of other people
-If you went to a firearms class and the instructor went to great lengths to teach you how to properly use and store a gun, you would listen and follow his instructions because gun safety is a serious matter—and you care about your life and the lives of others around you.
In each of these scenarios you would listen and follow the given instructions unless you are obtuse, foolish, or evil. This is because these are all serious matters and most sensible, decent people recognize that. But how is it that many in the church can hear a passage about cultivating love for Christ and each other and not take that seriously? How is it that we can be content with division, and fractured relationships, not recognizing the serious matters these are and how they affect us and others around us.
Paul ends his instructions with these words:
• 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. 33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. 34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
During the Lord’s Supper, there is something spiritual that is happening between you and Christ but there’s also something spiritual happening between us as brothers and sisters. We eat this bread and drink this cup as a community of believers. We can’t say, I love Jesus and hate my brother. I love Jesus but don’t give a wit about her. I want to be reconciled to Jesus but could care less about fellowship with those people in the church. To do so dishonors your brother and Christ and this Supper.
Conclusion: We come together to this Table—hungry, needy, often discouraged and sometimes beaten down by stifling temptations. As we eat the bread, we are acknowledging that we need the true Bread from heaven—Christ. And as we drink the juice, we are asking for the grace that washed away our sins through Jesus’ blood, to once again, empower us to follow Christ. But we do not do this alone; we come together as one people, undivided in love for each other and loyalty to Christ.
