““Worshiping the Lord of the Lord’s Supper”
(1 Corinthians 11:17-34)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
Lord’s Supper
- Take God’s Word and open to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 (page 773; YouVersion).
As we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper this morning, it has been some time since we have studied the principal text that informs us about how to observe the Supper. 1 Corinthians 11 is the passage in the Bible that gives the most information to the church about how we are to prepare ourselves to eat the bread and drink the cup and why it all matters.
The context of our passage concerns a great deal of instruction that the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth. You might say that he is writing this passage to “straighten out” the brothers and sisters at Corinth. They were doing some things that were not right. When it came to how they observed the Supper, they were really making a mess of things and Paul hears about it and he writes this section of the letter to inform them about what they need to do to observe the Supper correctly. So he is giving them instructions, which is why he writes as he does at verse 17, “Now in giving these instructions.”
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word. We’ll read the first few verses.
17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.
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.
19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
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.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Well, you can tell Paul’s pretty “ticked off” when he writes this section of the letter. He has heard that the church at Corinth is just making a mess of the Lord’s Supper and he writes this part of the letter to straighten them out.
Apparently the church members at Corinth used their gatherings at the Lord’s Supper to eat a big meal, a big feast where there would be massive eating and drinking and, apparently sometime during or near the end of their eating they would observe the Lord’s Supper itself. That seems to be what was happening.
One thing that is clear is that when the church gathered together there were these distinctions among them of rich and poor, the haves and the have-nots. That’s what Paul mesas in verse 18 where he mentions “divisions” among the people. He’s not talking about the kinds of “factions” or “divisions” that demonstrate the more genuine spiritual quality of some Christians more than others–his point in verse 19–but rather he’s talking about wrong divisions in the church.
Paul is addressing ungodly, unbiblical divisions in the church and his point is that these church members were coming together with little to no regard for the entire body of Christ. So Paul says in verse 20, “When you come together in one place it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. Verse 21, “For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.”
Now if that shocks you, imagine how it shocked the Apostle Paul. Look at how he begins verse 22, “What!” He’s like, “I can’t believe what I’ve heard about you guys! You guys are just glomming up all this food, you don’t care if some have nothing to eat, you just ignore them and some of you are even drunk!”
The Bible roundly condemns drunkenness. New Testament Christians lived in a time before refrigeration and in order to purify water and make a drinkable beverage they often added fermented wine to water and mixed it unto a drinkable beverage. But one was never to get drunk. Thankfully, in our day we have all kinds of drinkable beverages, our tap water is clean, we have purified water, Cokes, Diet Cokes, and God’s especially precious gift to all of His children–coffee! But it was different 2,000 years ago and Paul is just shocked when he hears that some of these Christians are even drunk.
So he says in verse 22, “Look, you’ve got houses to eat and drink in. Do your eating and drinking at home. When you come together here it is not for eating and drinking. That is, it is not a gathering that focuses on physical nourishment, but spiritual nourishment.
Now it’s important for us to remember this as well. We are gathered together this morning to observe the Lord’s Supper and it is important for us to remember that what we are doing this morning is a matter of focused worship. This is a profoundly important point if we are to worship the Lord of the Lord’s Supper.
So from this passage let’s draw a few implications about partaking of the Supper. First, partaking of the Supper is a matter of reverence.
I. It’s a Matter of Reverence (17-22; 27-34)
Paul’s concern for Christians is that they come together and think about what they are doing. It’s a matter of preparing both heart and head. Paul’s concern about preparing ourselves personally for this profound worship experience picks up again down in verse 27. Look at that section with me, verses 27 and following:
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.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
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.
34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
Partaking of the Supper is a matter of reverence. The Corinthian church’s irreverence amounted to a selfish, inward focus that showed little to no concern for one another and what is more, showed little to no concern for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ died for others. And the Corinthians fail to apply Christ’s others-focused atonement by not even thinking about what they are doing. These folks are not understanding the spiritual reality of why they are gathered together, that they are to be focusing on the body of Christ, His body and the body of believers who come together to worship Christ as Head of the body.
Now verses 30 and following cause me to sit up straight in my seat. They get my attention. Paul says in verse 30, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” The word sleep there is a metaphor for death. So Paul is saying, “Your irreverence during the Lord’s Supper has led to disciplinary action from God the Father. He has judged you and, consequently, some of you are experiencing judgment of weakness, sickness, and–in the most extreme case–even death.”
Now I don’t think that means that Christians should have an unnatural fear of being stricken dead during the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthian situation was especially unique and God’s judgment applied to the specific misconduct of these Christians at Corinth. It was an act of God’s discipline and mercy. The event is preserved in Scripture, however, to remind us of the importance of reverence before God.
See, Paul goes on to say in verse 31, “If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” If we are reverent during the Supper, we need not worry about God’s Hand of discipline.
Partaking of the Supper is a matter of reverence. Secondly:
II. It’s a Matter of Remembering (23-26)
The word “remembrance” occurs twice in the passage, once in verse 24 in relation to the bread and once in verse 25 in relation to the cup. Let me read verses 23-26:
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.
The reason the Lord’s Supper should be observed only by Christians is because only Christians can remember what Christ did for them. It is a matter of worship. Only the Christian can look back and recall Christ’s atoning death on the cross for the Christian’s sin. The Christian reflects and remembers this biblical fact. So it’s a matter of reverence and it’s a matter of remembering.
Now, what does Jesus mean when He holds up the bread and says, “This is My body” and what does He mean when He holds up the cup and says, “This is My blood?”
We do not ascribe to the traditional Roman Catholic view or the Lutheran view of the Supper, believing that the bread and the cup become the literal body and blood of Christ or even that there is a mixture of the elements of bread and juice along with the literal body and blood of Jesus.
Rather, we believe the bread and cup are symbols, powerful symbols, memorials, reminding us of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus refers specifically to the cup as, “The new covenant” of His blood.
The new covenant is God’s commitment to save all who trust in Jesus. The cup of juice represents this covenant because the blood of Christ bought the covenant for us.
ESV, The old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, was made with Israel and was constantly broken because of Israel’s sin. That covenant has been replaced with the new covenant, a covenant which provides complete atonement for all the sins of God’s people–all sin past, present, and future.
So partaking of the Supper is a matter of reverence and it’s a matter of remembering. Thirdly, partaking of the Lord’s Supper is a matter of renewal.
III. It’s a Matter of Renewal
While not stated explicitly in the text, this point is implied by the very act itself. Observing the Lord’s Supper is not about physical nourishment, but spiritual nourishment. It is about renewal, renewing the soul that hungers for the spiritual presence of Christ.
This is the whole point of our eating this morning. It is not physical nourishment we seek, right? I mean how many nutrients are in a tiny flake of bread no bigger than the tip of your finger? Not many. There’s also not much nutrition in a tiny swallow of grape juice. It’s not physical nourishment we are after, but spiritual nourishment.
We noted earlier that we do not ascribe to other views of the Supper, believing the bread and the cup become the literal body and blood of Christ or anything like that, but rather we understand that the bread and cup are symbols, powerful symbols, reminding us of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
When we partake of the bread and drink of the cup there is a real feeding, a true partaking of the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ. There is, then, spiritual nourishment and spiritual renewal.
This renewal does not just happen ipso facto, by the very act, as though merely eating the bread and drinking the cup automatically makes one more aware of the presence of Christ. The renewal happens to the degree we have covered Points I and II, Reverence and Remembering. We have to use our hearts and our heads in worship.
As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, we worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Both heart and head are involved. So we remember the truth, the facts about Jesus, His death and burial for our sins, His rising for our justification. We think with our heads about Scripture truth during the Supper.
But the Lord’s Supper is not just about remembering truth. “Head” only is nothing more than dead orthodoxy, just as “Heart” alone is nothing more than emotional frenzy. Head and heart come together for true worship to happen.
So as we remember with our heads we feel with our hearts. We partake of the Supper and we feel deeply about what Christ did for us. We feel that truth in our hearts. That’s when worship happens. When you feel in your heart what you know in your head, worship happens. You glorify God. You can’t really glorify God without head and heart.
It’s a bit like encountering the presence of Christ in the preaching of the Word. Jesus often says, “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” You can listen to preaching but not really hear. On the other hand, when you prepare your heart in focused reverence and incline your ear with a view toward really “hearing,” then you hear God speaking truth to you and you feel that truth in your heart as you encounter the presence of Christ.
So when we prepare ourselves in focused reverence and remembrance in the Supper, we encounter the spiritual presence of Christ in the partaking of bread and cup. It’s an exciting thing to think about as we joyfully anticipate meeting with the spiritual presence of Christ in just a few moments.
If you’ll forgive the simple analogy, it’s a bit like we’re all in line for one of those thrill rides at a theme park. We’re all gathered together and we’re all looking at one another, smiles on our faces in anticipation of the euphoria that is to come. The time finally comes and the wait is over and together we experience something profoundly joyful.
In a similar way, here we come as the community of faith, Christians gathering together as the church, looking at one another in the pews, smiling in patient anticipation of experiencing the presence of the One who binds us together. The time comes as the bread and cup are served by our deacons and together we experience something profoundly joyful, the presence of Christ. Renewal.
So when you partake of the bread and cup you are worshiping God by way of reverence, remembrance, and renewal.
Because when you do those things–reverence, remembrance, and renewal–you are in that moment treasuring the infinite beauty and splendor of God. By treasuring Christ you are treasuring the infinite worth of God.
So let me help bring our hearts and heads together as we prepare to partake of the Supper. Here are a few things for you to think about and feel as God renews your soul. First, Allow God to Renew Your Soul by:
1) Delighting in His Pardon
Use your head to think of the sins God has forgiven in Christ since the last time we participated in the Supper and feel that forgiveness in your heart. Think of one or two in particular. God says that the Christian’s sins are entirely forgiven–all sin past, present, and future.
1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Did you do something you deeply regretted since we last observed the Supper together? No doubt you confessed and repented of that sin right away. This morning, delight in God’s pardon of that sin through the atonement of Christ. Jesus died for that sin. Think it and feel it. Delight in His Pardon.
You can also allow God to renew your soul by:
2) Delighting in His Provision
The Bible says in Philippians 4:19, “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
As you partake of the Supper, delight with head and heart that God has met your every need–maybe not all of your wants, but all of your needs. He has provided for you. You have received food, drink, and last night you had a place to sleep. You have physical life and you have spiritual life in Christ. Count your many blessings, delighting in God’s provision for you.
Treasure the infinite beauty and splendor of God by treasuring Christ in the Supper. Allow God to renew your soul by delighting in His pardon, delighting in His provision, and:
3) Delighting in His Purposes
Romans 8:28-29 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,”
Whatever happened to you in the last week or last weeks, remember that God is at work. He works all things together for good, for His glory and for your good. His purposes through your difficulties are to grow you and draw you closer to His precious side, conforming you to Christ’s likeness and thus, bringing glory to Himself.
God is sovereign and righteous. He is in control of all things and though He both “gives and takes away,” He always does what is right because it is His nature and character to be always good and always kind and always perfect.
He is working out His perfect purposes in your life. Believe that with your head and feel it in your heart.
Trust God by treasuring His infinite beauty and splendor by treasuring Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
- Let’s pray.
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