A WORD FROM GOD FOR SENSIBLE PEOPLE.
1 Cor. 10:14-21
Int: The Apostle Paul was a man whose approach to life was totally reordered by his personal experience with the Lord. The wisdom, which he gained through this experience, had enabled him to see through the pressures and preferences that tend to take up so much of our time and attention. Everything he did and every word he wrote or spoke was done with his awareness of man’s need for salvation. The Gospel of Christ was the driving force in his life.
Paul was given to understand in a special way the Christian’s struggle for survival in a world in which the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. The Holy Spirit directed him to write so as to under gird the people of God and to provide them with resources, which they would need. His writings are truly the operations manual for the soul, the rulebook for life eternal, and the road map to Heaven.
Since Christians are often ignorant of the many snares of the enemy, it was only natural for Paul to direct his attention to any place where God’s people may stumble or cause others to find reason to discredit the Christian way. The two areas that he places his focus upon in the letter to the Christians in Corinth are immorality and idolatry. Certainly these are two of the most potent weapons that the devil has in his arsenal. If he can plant the seeds of either of them in the mind of a person, eventually he can destroy his spiritual effectiveness and productivity. As with any one of his tactics, the devil always portrays them as innocent and attractive. In no way does he want the extreme measures of despair, deterioration or destruction they cause to be seen.
The Apostle Paul, with a full awareness of the devil’s tactics, gave his time and effort to exposing them. It was his desire that people would exercise the mental abilities that God had given them and have the good sense to resist the devil’s efforts.
In the text before us, Paul singles out the Lord’s Supper and holds it up as the deliberate plan of God for keeping His people focused on the very best concerns of life. The love, grace and faithfulness of God lie at the foundation of the Lord’s Supper. When this subject is explored. It reveals the unlimited contribution of a caring Father who has supplied the means of redemption to a lost world. At the Lord’s Supper, wit spiritual eyes we see the gates of Heaven opening and the gates of Hell closing. We listen and hear the Savior who bled and died but who now lives again, saying “Do this in remembrance of me!
I. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
When Jesus instituted the Last Supper, it was in the context of the Passover Feast. For a period of fifteen hundred years, the people of God had been reminded of the importance of this great event. The Passover was the time that the people who had descended from Abraham were given their freedom from the bondage of Egypt. The word comes from Exodus 12:13., “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Alternate – “I will stand guard over you!”
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.” (12:14-15) On the night before the Passover, each Jewish father would search his home and remove all traces of leaven or yeast. On the Passover Day, the father would bring a male lamb, one year old, without any blemish to the Temple to be sacrificed. He would slaughter the animal and then bring its blood to the priest, who in turn, would dash it on the base of the altar of sacrifice. The parts of the animal that were to be burned were given to the priest, then the reminder of the animal was taken home to be roasted for the Passover meal.
During the evening meal, a cup of sanctification, containing wine mixed with warm water was passed around for each to sip. Then a prayer of benediction for the cup and the day was spoken. They ate lettuce and other vegetables. After this, bitter herbs were eaten. The family would then eat unleavened bread along with the portions of the lamb that had been roasted. Another cup, called the “cup of explanation” was passed. When the children asked about the Passover, the father would then explain about the first Passover and how that their people were set free. They would sing a selection from the Psalms, pass around a cup called the “cup of blessing,” have a prayer for the meal and then pass around the “cup of consummation.” They would again sing from the Psalms and then close with prayer.
Passover was the first, and the greatest of the things the Jewish people were to share, because it represented the first and the most significant emancipation of the nation. It was a time of rejoicing, freedom, redemption and commitment. Above all, it was a time of remembering!
II. THE AMAZING TRUTH OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
In the New Testament, the Passover continued to be treated as significant. In fact, the life and work of Jesus was increasingly focused around the Passover. This is especially true in the Gospel of John, in which we have reference made to three separate years in which Jesus and His disciples were involved. He went up to Jerusalem in John 2, when the Passover was to be observed. On this occasion, He drove the money changers from the Temple. In John 6, near the time of the Passover, He fed the 5000. Then, in John 13, when He and His disciples were in Jerusalem for the most astounding Passover of all time, He announced something that was new and marvelous. He introduced the Lord’s Last Supper.
During the meal of the Passover, the unleavened bread was supposed to represent the hardships and deficiencies of Egyptian slavery. Now, Jesus takes the unleavened bread, blesses and breaks it as He said, “Take, eat, this is my body!” He then took the cup, offered thanks and said, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins!” The contents of the cup had always been a reminder of the blood of the sacrificed lamb placed on the doorposts to protect the inhabitants from certain death in Egypt. What is it that Jesus is now saying? What does He mean, “the bread is my body, the cup is my blood.” More than likely, the disciples did not fully understand what He meant. In these simple words, Jesus had uttered one of the most important truths that they had ever heard.
It would not be long until they would stand at the foot of the cross and see the pierced body of Jesus as He hung suspended by the nails through His hands and His feet. No doubt, they would remember the words of Jesus as they saw His blood covering His face from the thorns, and His hands and feet from the nails. It could be that they were saying to themselves, “this must be what He meant when He said, “this is my body and this is my blood.” As men such as we are, they were filled with grief on the one hand and bewilderment on the other. When they went to the tomb and found it empty, again they were torn between the joy of knowing Jesus was alive again, and the incredible reality of it. It was some time before the unbelievable finally became believable to them.
When Jesus returned to Heaven and then sent the Holy Spirit back to the waiting apostles, their minds were completely clear. They knew what had happened and now they were able to preach the good news with strong conviction. As soon as the Church was started, one of the first things they did was to “break bread.” This was the Lord’s Supper.
They had known the historical significance of the unleavened bread and the blood of the lamb, which reminded them of the freedom God had given their forefathers. Now, they saw in the bread and the cup a much more profound reality. Christ, the Son of the Living God, had redeemed us from sin and was going to usher us into the actual presence of God, the Father. So, as soon as the Church was started, one of its major characteristics was to keep the feast in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. THE CENTRAL POSITION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
Paul’s letters to the Christians in Corinth are generally considered to be some of the earliest part of the New Testament Scriptures to actually be written. The writing is dated in the mid 50s of the first century. This would have been before either of the Gospels or the Acts would have been written. In this first epistle, there is some strong teaching about the Lord’s Supper. He presented Jesus as the Lamb of God as having the central place in the Church.
In Chapter five, Paul had to deal with the problem of immorality. What was happening in the church was so bad, even the sinners would not have practiced it. A man had taken his father’s wife and they were committing fornication. “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. In the Lord’s Supper, we are to acknowledge that Christ is central to our moral lives! We can not commune if we are in sin!
In Chapter 8 and in chapter 10, Paul deals with the issue of idolatry. He makes it clear that an idol is a nothing. There is no such god, however, he makes it clear that if we give of ourselves to something other than to Christ, we are giving ourselves to demons. “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Conclusion: In the Lord’s Supper, we are to give our total attention to our Lord. He is the only one who is worthy of being our Master! The Lord’s Supper is a Legacy of Love and Loyalty.
