Worshiping at the Lord’s Table (Lord’s Supper)

Worshiping at the Lord’s Table (Lord’s Supper)

“Worshiping at the Lord’s Table”

(1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

Observance of the Lord’s Supper

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church Henderson, KY

(10-5-08) (AM)

 

  • Open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11.

 

We are interrupting our series on the book of 1 Timothy to focus upon an important passage of Scripture that helps us prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper this morning.  It has been three years since we have done an exposition of 1 Corinthians 11 so I thought it would be wise and helpful to us to read through these verses and study them together as they set forth for us certain actions to take as we worship at the Lord’s table.

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Holy 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; this is My body which is broken 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.

 

Introduction:

 

I have looked forward to our observing the Lord’s Supper together this morning!  Observing the Supper is an act of worship.  It is a time of coming together to commemorate and celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ.  And it is a special time to nourish ourselves spiritually upon the spiritual presence of Christ.

 

Our Lord Jesus left the church with two activities to be observed by the gathered body of Christ.  They are called, “ordinances.”  That means they are “ordained” by Jesus Christ.  We do not call them “sacraments” because the word “sacrament” generally conveys the idea of “making sacred” and may suggest that persons are somehow “made sacred” or “made holy” just by participating in the Supper.  Of course the Bible does not teach that so we prefer to use the word “ordinance.”

 

Jesus Christ ordained two activities to be observed by the local church body.  These two activities qualify as ordinances because they commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The two ordinances are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

 

Biblical baptism is baptism by immersion, that means going down under the water and coming up out of the water.  This is the mode of baptism taught and practiced in the Bible.  Biblical baptism by immersion is an ordinance of the church.  It is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  When the believer goes under the water—that is a picture of the death and burial of Christ, being laid down into a grave.  When the believer is raised up out of the water—that is a picture of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

The Lord’s Supper also commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We partake of the bread and cup which remind us of the body and blood of Christ.  His body was broken.  He spilled His blood.  He died.  He was buried.  The Apostle Paul tells us that when we eat the bread and drink the cup we “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”  So, as we partake of the Supper, we look forward, beyond the Lord Jesus Christ who died and was buried, to the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the grave and will gloriously come again.

 

Now there are three main actions we must take as we observe the Supper.  First,

 

I.  We Must Ready Our Selves (17-22)

 

That is to say that the Lord’s Supper is a time of preparation.  We must “ready ourselves” to observe the Supper.  Back up and look at verses 17 and following.

 

17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.

 

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and he says, “You folks are coming together for the wrong reason.  You should be coming together for worship, but your hearts are far from the Lord.  You have not prepared yourselves adequately.  You have not ‘readied yourselves’ for the Supper.”  How is that?

 

18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

 

Paul is saying that some in the church are divided against the others.  There are divisions in the church.  Then he qualifies this in verse 19:

 

19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

 

Paul says there are some divisions that are understandable: the division over truth, for example.  But he stresses that this is not what he’s talking about.  He’s talking about a division among church members as they observe the Supper, a division that occurred because of self-centeredness and a lack of concern for others in the body.

 

20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.

 

That is, “You all have not prepared yourselves, readied yourselves to worship the Supper.  You’re coming together for the wrong reasons.  Your heart is not in it.  In fact, you’re treating the worship of the Supper as some kind of food fest.”  Verse 21 and following:

 

21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.

22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

 

Paul’s point here is that the believers had not prepared themselves, they had not readied themselves for worship at the Supper.  Each individual was thinking only of himself.  The church’s observance of the Lord’s Supper followed a kind of fellowship meal that they ate first.  Nothing wrong with that, it’s just that they gorged themselves on food and drink and missed the whole purpose of this sacred time of worship.  Their hearts were not in it.  They were not prepared to truly worship the Lord Jesus Christ.  They were more concerned about themselves than they were concerned about the Lord and their fellow church members.

 

So we note here that, like the ordinance of baptism, the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is for believers.  It is for those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Note also the threefold occurrence of the phrase, “come together” there in verses 17-22.  It occurs a total of five times in the chapter: “come together.”  That is, the Lord’s Supper is a time when Christians, specifically church members, “come together” for a time of special corporate or congregational worship.”  Paul even uses the phrase, “as a church” in case we miss it there in verse 18: “When you come together as a church.”

 

Our culture misses so much of this congregational aspect of worship.  People talk about worship services as something that is optional or they say, “Well, I can worship God as easily on a mountaintop or on the lake as easily as I can worship Him in the church sanctuary.”  That’s not the point.  Congregational worship is not about you and what you can do alone.  Congregational worship is about a focus upon others, about a love for others, about a “coming together” to be with others, to inspire and encourage others as you and I together look upward to our Lord.  So the writer of Ecclesiastes says in Ecclesiastes 4:9, “Two are better than one.”

 

So we must ready our selves for worship.  Secondly:

 

II.  We Must Renounce Our Sins (27-34)

 

I want to look down at verses 27 and following to see how Paul somberly concludes this discussion of worshiping during the Supper by telling us about the consequences of not preparing ourselves properly for the Supper.

 

27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

 

Whatever else verse 27 means it certainly means that we are not to observe the Supper flippantly.  To do so would be to observe it in an “unworthy manner,” failing to treasure the precious gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul says rather in verse 28:

 

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

 

We’re going to take some time in a moment to “examine ourselves,” but before we do, note the consequences of parting of the Supper flippantly, in an unworthy manner:

 

29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body (failing to appreciate the significance of our Lord’s death).

30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep (that means some died).

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another (remember the congregational aspect of worship)

34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment (the Lord’s Supper is not meant for physical nourishment, but spiritual nourishment). And the rest I will set in order when I come.

 

Now note again verse 28: “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”  Here is a call for the individual aspect of worship.  We are to examine “ourselves.”  We are not to be thinking of the sins and failures of others, but rather we are to think about our own shortcomings and confess them to God.

 

I believe a time of silent confession of sin before God is one of the best ways to prepare to observe the Supper.  We want to ask God to forgive us for our failures, to turn away from our sin and ourselves that we might turn to our Savior.

 

Let me lead you in a time of silent confession.  Bow your heads with me and let’s renounce our sins and ask God to forgive us.  We want to be spiritually prepared to observe the Supper.  Pray silently and I’ll pray audibly after a minute or two.

 

We must ready our selves, we must renounce our sins, and thirdly:

 

III.  We Must Remember Our Savior (23-26)

 

Here is the focus of our worship.  We remember the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.  Paul writes:

 

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; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

 

We remember that Christ died on the cross for our sins.  As the Prophet Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Christ in Isaiah 53:5, he said that Christ Jesus was “wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities.”  And David prophesies in Psalm 22:16 that the Messiah would say, “They pierced My hands and My feet.”

 

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.”

 

Jesus takes the cup and says, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.”  That is, the cup represents God’s promise to save all those who believe in Jesus Christ, all those who believe that Christ shed His blood for their sins.  When we drink the crushed grape of the vine, we remember that as Jesus’ body was crushed there on Calvary’s cross that His blood spilled out.  His blood was shed for you and me, for the forgiveness of sin.

 

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

 

So we prepare to proclaim the Lord’s death.  Observing the Lord’s Supper is a bit like preaching the Gospel.  By eating the bread and drinking the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes again.

 

And the great benefit of all this is to us is that we are spiritually nourished.  By partaking of the bread and cup, we nourish ourselves not physically, but spiritually.  We feed our hungry souls.  We nourish our souls by focusing upon the spiritual presence of Christ.  We remember His benefits: salvation from sin, the promise of His presence in this world, the certainty of heaven when we die.  When we focus upon our Lord, He feeds our hungry souls with a greater sense of His presence in this place among the body of believers.

 

And so we are blessed with strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.  Christ blesses us with His strength to live the Christian life!

 

  • Let’s observe the Supper now