OUR SOLEMN DECLARATION – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 23, 2019 under 2019 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; June 23, 2019 from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Theme: If we will remember certain truths about the Lord’s Supper, we will observe it together in such a way as to truly love and honor Him.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
One of the most important things that we do together as the church is to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.
In this church family, we celebrate it at least 13 times a year. I have added up the number of times that I have participated in the Lord’s Supper with you in all of the years that I have served as your pastor; and I estimate that it is just over 350 times. And it’s my belief that, in heavenly glory, we will remember and rejoice over every single time we celebrated it together.
This morning, I’d like to share with you from a passage of Scripture that I have read to you almost every time that we have celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It’s found in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. And in it, the apostle Paul wrote;
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; 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.” 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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
This passage tells us the words that our Lord spoke to His disciples a short time before He went to the cross for us. It is a conversation our Lord had that is recorded for us in three of the four Gospels. But would you like to know something fascinating about this passage before us this morning? Out of all of the various times that those words of our Lord are given to us in the Bible, this passage from Paul’s letter is the earliest record of them. New Testament scholars tell us that, historically, I Corinthians was written before any of the four Gospels. So; what we’re reading is the first recorded account of our Lord’s teaching on the Lord’s Supper.
In fact, it may surprise you to know that the words we find in this passage give us the earliest written record in the New Testament of any of the words that our Lord spoke on earth! It’s very significant that the earliest record in the New Testament of our Lord’s words has to do with His command to us to observe and celebrate His supper. How fitting that it is so; because this ordinance from our Lord—this command to remember Him and observe His supper carefully—amounts to nothing less than a proclamation of the gospel message of His love to lost sinners; and the telling-forth of what He did to save us.
How important it is then, dear brothers and sisters, that in every time that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, we celebrate it with a clear understanding of what our Lord said that it means—and that we celebrate together it in a manner worthy of His love for us!
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Now; the Corinthian believers to whom Paul wrote these words were—sadly—not celebrating it in a worthy manner. Paul, you see, had been writing to deal with things that were going on in the church in Corinth. He had written many instructions to them; and in some of the things he dealt with, he he was able to write in an approving way of how they were doing. But in verses 17-22, he wrote;
Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 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. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 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 (vv. 17-22).
As we saw in our last time in 1 Corinthians, those believers were coming together in the church with a divisive attitude. They were breaking themselves up into ‘cliques’; and were excluding one another from their private little groups. And what’s more, some were demonstrating this divisive behavior by coming to the church’s gatherings ahead of others; so that they could eat the food before others got there. Some were going hungry; and others—shockingly—were getting drunk. As Paul put it, they were not coming together “for the better”. Instead, they were coming together “for the worse”.
And as we learned in our last time together, the root of this problem was self-centeredness. They were coming together in a self-serving and selfish manner—which is always harmful in God’s household. Their self-focus was hurting their fellowship together, and was causing them to treat the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. And in some cases, it was even harming their own well-being. Paul went on to give these instructions later in verses 27-33;
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. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 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 (vv. 27-33).
And this leads us back, then, to this morning’s passage. Before giving these very serious instructions and words of warning, the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers once again of what our Lord Himself had said about this important meal. We have found throughout our study of this letter that Paul always solves the problems of the church by getting everyone’s eyes back on Jesus Himself. That is always the solution.
So; this morning, let’s turn our attention particularly to the Lord Jesus Himself. Let’s look carefully at what Paul tells us that our Lord said about His own memorial meal. Let’s learn together from this supper the things that Jesus Himself did for us. And in doing so, let’s do as it says in that great old hymn by Isaac Watts;
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
If we will look carefully together at our Lord’s words about His own memorial meal—and will remember certain truths that He tells us in it—it will mortify our self-centeredness and pride. It will help us to come together before His table in a worthy manner; and in such a way as to love Him and each other more.
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Now; the first thing I suggest that we see about the Lord’s Supper is …
1. ITS DIVINE ORIGIN.
I see this in what Paul says in verse 23. He writes, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you …” We learn from this that the Corinthian believers already knew some of the truths about the Lord’s Supper, because Paul had already passed those truths on to them. But he began in this passage by telling them what was the origin of these truths. He ‘received’ them ‘from the Lord’.
How did he receive them? Was he saying that he received them by a special revelation directly from the Lord Himself? He did receive certain things from the Lord in this way. He told us, for example, that that’s how he received the very gospel that he preached. In Galatians 1:11-12, he wrote;
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12).
That, of course, underscores to us the divine authority of the gospel that Paul preached. And perhaps that’s also how he received the instructions about the Lord’s Supper that he passed on to his readers. But it may be that he was saying that he received these things from the Lord through those that the Lord Himself appointed. The Bible tells us that, after Paul met the resurrected Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and after he repented and believed, he then met with the apostles. In Galatians 1:18-19, he wrote;
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother (vv. 18-19).
If Paul had spent that much time with Peter, then he—no doubt—would have heard a first-hand, eye-witness account of the Lord’s teaching regarding His last meal with the disciples.
But in any case—whether it was personally by revelation, or secondarily through it being passed on to him by other apostles—Paul had accurately passed on to the Corinthians what he had received as from the Lord. And the point in all this is that the Lord’s Supper is not a mere ceremony or ritual that was created by men. It was not something that has its basis, in any way, in mere human ‘religion’ or ‘tradition’. It is something that is given to us by the Lord Jesus Himself. It is something that He commanded that His church do together regularly.
So; let’s always be sure to remember its divine origin when we celebrate it together. When we meet at His table, we’re celebrating something that our Lord Himself commanded—something that He Himself wants for us to do.
And let’s also remember that this thing that the Lord wants us to do—this memorial that is of divine origin and that has divine authority—was first presented to us in connection with a historic event that gives it great spiritual significance and meaning. Let’s notice next …
2. ITS SACRIFICIAL CONTEXT.
Paul wrote in verse 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 …”
Do you remember that this first ‘communion meal’ our Lord was having with His disciples was actually a part of another very important observance? It was the Passover Meal. It was the feast in which the Jewish people remembered the way that God had miraculously delivered them from their bondage to the Egyptians. It was the night that—in obedience to God—they would take the Passover lamb and slay it and eat it together. It was the meal in which they remembered how the Jewish people of old were commanded to paint the blood of that lamb upon the doorposts of the home they were in. It was the night that they remembered the way God had brought judgment upon Egypt, and yet—when He saw the blood—graciously ‘passed-over’ that Jewish home. And the disciples would have had that sacrificial lamb in their mind as they ate with their Lord—and as He spoke these words of instructions to them. They would have understood that He was presenting Himself to them as the true Passover Lamb of God—the one who made it possible for God to ‘pass-over’ those who trusted in His shed blood; and spare them in His just judgment of sin.
And do you also notice that Paul said that this was “on the same night in which He was betrayed”? In the original language of Paul’s letter, he used the particular form of the verb that meant that Jesus took up the bread even while His betrayal was—right then—going on. Judas had already made arrangements with the officials to betray the Lord into their hands. And during the meal, the Lord—knowing this—told Judas the betrayer, “What you do, do quickly.” Judas went away to bring the soldiers to where Jesus would be; and soon after the supper, the Lord Jesus took His disciples out to the garden where He was betrayed by Judas, and arrested, and led away to be tried and crucified. And it was while all of this was going on—while He was even then being betrayed—that He taught His disciples about His memorial meal.
It would be a terrible thing to observe this meal together without remembering all of that, dear brothers and sisters. Even as He instituted it to His disciples, He had already set in motion the events that would lead to His own death on the cross for us. Let’s never forget the sacrificial context of this important meal. Let’s never forget His dying love for us in it.
And as we think of its sacrificial context, let’s also remember …
3. ITS MESSAGE OF GRACE.
It is a very subtle thing, and almost easy to miss. But we see it set before us in verse 24; in the fact that our Lord—after taking up the bread—had “given thanks”.
Do you know what the word for “thanks” here is? In the original language, it’s the Greek word from which we get the word ‘eucharist’—the name that many traditions of the Christian faith have given to this meal. In a very real sense, the Lord’s Supper truly is a ‘eucharistic’ meal—a meal of thanksgiving. When we celebrate it together, we ought to give thanks to the Lord in it for what He has done for us on the cross.
But look again at our passage. Do you notice, in it, who it was that Paul said was giving thanks? It was the Lord Jesus Himself. Even as He was being betrayed, He lifted up the bread of this Passover meal—that meal for which He Himself was serving as the true Passover Lamb—and gave thanks to God the Father. And do you realize what this means? It means that our Lord’s sacrifice for us on the cross—as it is represented to us in the Lord’s Supper—was the Father’s doing. It was His act of grace to us—an act of grace that the Son of God was grateful to fulfill.
We sometimes have a very unworthy picture in our minds. We think of God the Father in heaven as angry and wrathful and ready to destroy us for our sins; and then, of the Lord Jesus standing between us and the Father, appealing to Him not to pour out His wrath upon us. But that’s not the case at all. The Lord Jesus came willingly to die for us; but He came in obedience to the Father’s loving plan to save us! You remember John 3:16-17; don’t you? We often think of what those two verses tell us about the Lord Jesus. But let’s never forget what they also tell us about the Father:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17).
When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, let’s always remember that the Lord Jesus Himself gave thanks to the Father in it. He thanked the Father for the grace that the Father Himself has shown toward us in sending His own precious Son to die for us.
Let’s also remember another thing about the Lord’s Supper that we see in this passage …
4. ITS UNIFYING QUALITY.
We’re told in verse 24 that our Savior “took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it …” There’s great significance in the fact that He broke the bread into pieces. It was so that it could be distributed among His disciples; and so that each one of the disciples could partake of that one loaf of bread together. It was shared with all of them equally—and all together. When I read this, I remember what the apostle Paul wrote back in 1 Corinthians 10;
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
You know, dear brothers and sisters; on a strictly human level, there’s not always a lot of outward things that bind us together. We often find that we are very different from one another; and if it were left only to mere human factors, we might not have ever gotten together at all. But we share a common bond that is greater than any of those lesser things; don’t we? We are united in the fact that we share the Lord Jesus in common. We have all trusted Him as our Savior; and we have a common share in His body broken on the cross for us, and in His blood shed for our sins.
I believe that when we share the Lord’s Supper in unity together we greatly please our Lord. That’s why He broke the bread. That’s why He shared it with us all. It’s that we might be one in Him. Let’s never forget that when we celebrate it … together!
And that leads us to another thing this passage helps us remember in the Lord’s Supper …
5. ITS SYMBOLIC SUBSTANCE.
The apostle Paul tells us in verses 24-25; “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.’ 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.’” It’s not by mere human tradition that we happen to partake of such things as a piece of bread and the juice of the grape together. We partake of those specific things because the Lord Jesus gave them to us as representations of important truths by which we—through faith—partake of Him.
The bread, as He has told us, is a picture of His body. Just as bread is broken in order to be eaten, His body was broken and put to death on the cross for us. I believe that the bread is meant to be understood as a representation of His body—and not His actual body. It is a symbol. But I hasten to add that it’s not just a mere symbol only, and nothing more. In a way that is truly mysterious, when we partake together of that symbol—when we, in the communion meal, eat of that bread that represents His body—we are, by faith, actually taking to ourselves a share in His precious body. That’s why we should never do such a thing carelessly or in an unworthy manner.
The cup is a picture also. The cup contains the juice of the grape. Just as a grape is crushed and bled of its juice in order to make wine, our Lord shed His precious blood for us on the cross. But you’ll notice that He said that the cup is specifically a symbol of “the new covenant” in His blood. The old covenant had to do with all of the rules and rituals and regulations of the law that God gave to us through Moses. When someone sinned against God’s commandments, they were required to offer an animal on the altar as a substitute; and that animal’s blood was shed for the sinner’s atonement. But even the blood of that animal was only a picture; because the blood of an animal cannot take away sin. The blood of that animal was, itself, a picture that pointed ahead to what Jesus would do for us. And now, Jesus has come as the Mediator of the new covenant through His blood—shed once and for all for us. When we partake of the cup together—in a mysterious way—we are, by faith, taking our share in the new covenant brought about for us by Jesus’ death on the cross. All of our sins are atoned for and washed away; and we now stand clean and acceptable in the sight of God the Father.
Jesus said that we are to eat the bread—not as a thing in and of itself—but in remembrance of Him. And He said that we’re to drink the cup—not as a thing in and of itself—but in remembrance of Him. They are memorials of what He has done for us. May we always receive the bread and the cup humbly and with a sense of awe; and may we never forget how they remind us of the high price that God paid for our salvation.
In verse 26, Paul tells us something else about this meal. It’s something that reflects what the Lord Himself told us; and that is …
6. ITS REGULAR OBSERVANCE.
He wrote, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death …” Did you know that, whenever we partake of this meal together, we are proclaiming a message? We are, in a very real sense, preaching a living sermon to one another—and before the watching world. We are declaring our Lord’s death. We are proclaiming that He died for us on the cross; and that we have placed our faith in what He has done for us. What a sacred thing to do. No wonder we need to do it in a holy manner.
Paul wrote, “as often as …” But how often are we to observe this meal together? Well; the Lord Jesus didn’t say. And neither did Paul. But it’s obvious that it’s to be done “often”. I’m glad that we do it as often as we do. And each time we do it, we’re to be aware of the fact that we’re preaching the message of the gospel in it. It’s a message we ourselves need to hear again and again; and that we need to repeatedly renew our faith in. That’s why we’re commanded to do it regularly—repeatedly.
And note one more thing about the Lord’s Supper; and that’s …
7. ITS GLORIOUS PROMISE.
Paul wrote, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” Jesus died for us. And when we partake of His supper, we proclaim that death. But He did not stay dead. He was raised victorious. And we proclaim that too by the fact that we will only celebrate the Lord’s Supper together until He comes. And just as He was raised in glory, we will be raised in glory too in order to be with Him forever.
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Now I ask you, dear brothers and sisters; if we remember these things together when we come to the Lord’s table, how can we ever do so in a self-centered way? How can we help but be transformed by the self-sacrificing love of the Lord Jesus for us? How can we do anything else but love each other as He loved us?
I hope that from now on—as I read this passage to you on Communion Sunday, just before we celebrate the communion meal together—we will all think more deeply about the things it tells us about our Lord’s love for us. I hope that if you have never placed your faith in what Jesus has done for us, you’ll do so now—and that you’ll be ready to celebrate that meal as a part of the family of God.
And with the Holy Spirit’s help, may remembering these words help us to grow—more and more—to come together in a manner worthy of His love for us.
EA
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