“In Remembrance of Me”
(1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11.
While you’re finding that, let me say that I am already looking forward to preaching tonight! I am fired up about this evening’s message, Romans chapter 8, verses 31-39, and encourage you to read that text before you return tonight. We’re going to study this evening about “The God Who Is For Us.” I was up on the 3rd floor doing some study on that text Thursday afternoon. I sometimes go up and find a secluded room and shut the door to really concentrate and study, and I was so moved by just reading the text that I nearly started preaching to the empty room! It’s a great passage, Romans 8, but that’s tonight, and this morning we are in 1 Corinthians 11.
We gather together once every four months to observe the Lord’s Supper in our morning worship. The Lord’s Supper is a family meal. It is observed by followers of Jesus, members of our church who have said “Yes” to Jesus Christ, having repented of sin, been baptized, and are endeavoring to walk in the Spirit.
If you are not a Christian, more important than your partaking of the Lord’s Supper is your partaking of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Turn to Him and trust Him as Lord and follow Him in baptism.
If you are not a member of our church, but an active member elsewhere, following Christ in a church of similar faith and practice as our church, then please partake of this family meal with us. You are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let’s take a look at the key passage of Scripture in the Bible were we read about the Lord’s Supper and why we do what we do. It’s 1 Corinthians 11 and we’re going to be looking at verses 23-26.
Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat;[b] this is My body which is broken[c] for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Pray.
This is such a privilege, enjoying the Supper together as a family meal! And I never want us to take for granted what it is we are doing when we have the Lord’s Supper. It’s far too easy to simply go through the motions of eating bread and drinking from the cup without really thinking about what we’re doing.
A few weeks ago when we were commemorating 500 years of the Protestant Reformation we talked a bit about men and women who died as martyrs for Christ. Because of their embrace of Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone as our highest authority, many of them were burned at the stake for their faith in Jesus.
We may assume that this family meal is something about which all Christians were in agreement for all time, but that would be an incorrect assumption. During the reign of Queen Mary of England in the mid-1500s, Queen Mary I, notoriously remembered as “Bloody Mary” for her shedding the blood of those who opposed the teachings of the church, a number of Christians were burned at the stake for their beliefs, beliefs grounded in Scripture, but found not in agreement with church tradition, the Pope, and the magisterium.
These Christians had a view of the Lord’s Supper similar to ours and they were killed for their beliefs—among them Thomas Cranmer and Hugh Latimer and nearly 300 other Protestant Reformers, men and women, including some children, burned at the stake for believing that the bread and cup are symbols of the body and blood of Christ. Symbols. Memorials. As we believe today.
The official church position during Mary’s reign was that the bread was the literal body of Christ and the crushed grapes of the vine the literal blood of Christ, both bread and juice becoming Christ’s literal body and blood during the institution of the mass by the priest. This is still the view of devout Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox church.
So when I say that I never want us to take for granted what we are doing when we observe the Lord’s Supper, this historical reminder is helpful to us.
Interpreting the Bible in a simple, straightforward way, we understand that Jesus is speaking figuratively in this passage. The bread and juice are not literally his body and blood, but figuratively, representatively, His body and blood.
Verses 23 and 24 say that Jesus takes the bread—verse 24 now—“and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat (and these two words are not in some of your translations, but are nonetheless implied by what is happening—eating the bread), “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you;” or “this is My body which is for you.”
So Jesus is holding the bread and speaking figuratively and symbolically. This bread is the symbol of my body—clearly not His actual body because He Himself—His body—is holding it while He speaks. This is my body which is for you.
And verse 25, “In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” The cup does not contain the actual, literal blood of Christ but is, like the bread, a powerful symbol of the blood of Christ, the blood Jesus shed on the cross to secure and guarantee the new covenant between God and His people.
The old covenant was the covenant God made with His people at Mount Sinai, handed down through Moses. There was nothing wrong with the old covenant, it was a covenant initiated by God, a covenant to bless His people by providing for them, guiding them, protecting them, blessing them in every way. And God gave His laws for them—not that by keeping those laws they would earn blessings, it was a covenant of grace, but rather by their keeping the laws, they would enjoy the blessings of the covenant God had made for them to be their God and they His people.
The problem with the old covenant was that the people broke it! And they broke it time and again. Because they broke the covenant, they could not be made perfect and complete through it. Though they had promised God, “All that the Lord says we shall do,” they did not do! They rebelled against God and sinned against Him through idolatry and unbelief.
God had designs to make a new covenant, a better covenant than the first, another gracious covenant, yet even more gracious in that He keeps both sides of it. He makes it and He keeps it for His people. And in this way, His people can be made perfect and complete before Him. God does this by coming to us and taking on flesh, living for us and dying for us a perfect and complete substitute on the cross so that by faith in Him we may be perfect and complete.
The Old Testament sacrificial system of animals being offered for sin pictured and pointed forward to this full and complete and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
God set up the priestly sacrificial system with the blood of animals, animal sacrifice, to prefigure and point toward the One and Only True sacrifice, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who utterly and completely, once-for-all, takes away the sin of the world. This is the blood of the new covenant. A covenant that works through new creation, an inward transformation of the believer as God writes His laws into their hearts and minds. It is this new covenant that ushers in true and complete forgiveness of sin—all sin past, present, and future—through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the new covenant about which Jesus is speaking in these verses.
Then, we’ll note twice in verses 24 and 25 Jesus says, “This do in remembrance of Me.” What we are doing this morning is remembering Christ. But why does Jesus say this twice? Why the emphasis upon our remembering? This do in remembrance of Me.
In my reflection upon this passage, I’d like to offer at least three reasons why Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” First, we need to remember because:
- It’s Far Too Easy for Us to Forget Christ
We may not like to admit this, but it’s true. We are sinners and our minds are affected by the fall. Even though we have been saved from sin, its presence remains. Sin no longer reigns, but remains. And remaining sin causes us to forget.
Given the busyness of our lives and the hurriedness of our ways, It’s far to easy for us to fill our minds with everything but Christ.
We get busy with home life, the kids, groceries, house repair, car repair, maintenance, clothes, food, friendships, parents, in-laws, out-laws! Health, work, school, sports, band, tests, job, boss, production, worries, anxieties—to say nothing of recreation, leisure, reading, writing, movie watching, internet surfing.
We allow ourselves to get so busy. It’s far to easy for us to forget Christ. Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
And there’s a joy and peace that comes along with this time of observing the Supper that is so much a re-orienting of our lives! A re-centering. Even a re-booting.
The Supper slows us down and makes us fill our minds with Jesus Christ. When we take time to remember Him, He gets back into our heads and takes more space in our hearts. Our heads and hearts are full of Jesus!
Another reason why Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me” is because:
2) Proclaiming the Gospel is our Chief Concern
I believe this truth is embedded in the text in verse 26: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”
The gospel is about our Lord’s coming to us, coming the first time to live for us and die for us, and coming the second time to usher in the final state of our salvation.
When we partake of the Supper, we as the church, are “proclaiming the Lord’s death till He comes,” till He comes again. So the Supper points to Jesus as the One who has come, has lived, has died, and has risen again from the grave. The phrase “till He comes” implies resurrection because Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father and will come again in fulfillment of His promise.
So partaking of the supper is one way that the church fulfills her chief work and ministry, proclaiming the gospel to sinners. Eating of the bread and drinking of the cup is to remember the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and thus to proclaim the gospel—the good news—that Jesus Christ has come to save us from our sin.
In a moment we’ll sing about Christ alone…
In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
God made a way for sinners to be reconciled to Himself. This way is the only way through Jesus Christ. We are sinners, we have rebelled against our Creator and His wrath is directed upon us. So there is no amount of good deeds or works we can perform to earn His favor or blessing.
However, if we believe on Jesus, believing what God did for us in Christ on the cross, then the wrath of God is satisfied because it is absorbed by Jesus Christ, the perfect atoning sacrifice, our substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We said earlier that the Lord’s Supper is a family meal observed by Christians, by brothers and sisters, followers of Jesus. And if you’re not a follower of Jesus, your greatest need is not the Lord’s Supper, your greatest need is Jesus Christ!
If you don’t know Him, and you feel convicted of your sin, you go to Jesus. Go to the cross. Talk to the Lord. Just say to Him:
“Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but, through you, I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you for paying my debt, bearing my punishment and offering forgiveness. I turn from my sin and receive you as Savior.”
This is the gospel. Jesus lived for us, died for us, and rose from the dead for us. Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me” because in the Lord’s Supper, the gospel is proclaimed and the proclaiming of the gospel is the church’s chief concern.
The third reason I offer as to why Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me” is because we need to remember that:
3) Christ is our Greatest Treasure
By taking time to eat the Lord’s Supper together we are, by remembering Jesus, reminding ourselves that He is our greatest treasure! We were created to treasure Christ with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. We were created for Him, to glorify Him, to enjoy Him, to abide in Him!
He is our soul’s greatest satisfaction. Partaking of the bread and cup provides spiritual nourishment as we feast upon—by faith—feast upon Jesus Christ, remembering He is our greatest need and greatest satisfaction.
Sin is largely our replacing Jesus with something or someone else. That’s largely what sin is. The Lord’s Supper, then, is a time for us to look to Jesus afresh and anew as our greatest treasure.
You’ll discover your greatest treasure by looking at what occupies your mind, your heart, your calendar, your phone. What is it that vies for your attention, turning your eyes from Jesus to something or someone else—maybe a human relationship has been more important than Jesus—you’re worried about a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, parent, child.
Or perhaps you’ve been treasuring things harmful to your body—alcohol, drugs, pornography. These are cheap, temporary, sinful substitutes for our greatest treasure.
When we partake of the bread and cup, thinking about Jesus with head and heart, we strengthen our faith, and our souls are fed as we recall that Jesus Christ is the object of our heart’s greatest yearnings and longings. We nourish our souls by looking to Jesus. Jesus! Our greatest treasure!
So these are at least three reasons Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Because it’s far too easy to forget, because proclaiming the gospel is our chief concern, and because Jesus is our “chief relationship,” our greatest treasure.
We’re now going to enter into our time of partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
Our deacons will come and prepare to serve this family meal. The deacons serve you because that’s what their name means. Deacon. It’s a title. It means to serve. These men are good men, godly men, servant leaders of the church. They serve largely through the deacon family ministry, serving you by being your deacon, on call, ready to visit and pray. So they are serving you this morning.
I’m going to pray in a moment and then we’re going to worship in song, a hymn that encourages examination and remembrance. While our deacons serve you the bread and the cup, we’ll sing about Jesus, in Christ alone our hope is found, preparing to eat the bread—the symbol of Christ’s body, and preparing to drink of the cup—the symbol of Christ’s blood.
After we sing and everyone is served, I’ll lead you in taking the elements, eating the bread, drinking the cup. Let’s pray.
Pray: “Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, the one who died for us. The one who is coming back to us. We thank you that because of Jesus we can be forgiven of our sin and live in a way that draws people closer to You. Forgive us for our sins. We repent. We love you and we thank you for the hope we have in Christ alone. In His name we pray, amen.”
While the deacons serve you, remain seated, and sing this great hymn together:
1
“In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
2
In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
3
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
“The Bible says that on the same night in which Jesus was betrayed, that He took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).
[Eat bread]
“Then the Bible says that in the same manner, Jesus also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26).
[Drink cup]
Amen. Stand now and let’s sing the final verse, No guilt in life, no fear in death…
4
No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.
Amen! Before we are dismissed to Sunday school, I want you to know that I will be in the Response Room over here in the office area in case you have spiritual questions or there is some other way you wish to respond to the truth of the gospel this morning—salvation, joining the church, requesting baptism. I’ll be in the Response Room between services this morning.
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