Remember Jesus
This Sermon brought to you by Logos Bible Software: https://partner.logosbible.com/reviewlogos
1 Corinthians 10:15–21 ESV
15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
1 Corinthians 11:17–26 ESV
17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
It is fitting in a series on worship that we deal with the place and meaning of the Lord's Supper in worship. Interestingly, the Lord's supper is never called "worship" in the New Testament, and the gathering of the church where it happens is never called "worship" in the New Testament.
The point of stressing this is to break us of the habit of equating worship mainly with what happens here on Sunday morning.
This is worship. What we do here is, in fact, worship.
But maybe we should call it "congregational worship" or "corporate worship."
Because if we fall into the habit of equating this with the worship of the church, we will miss the new and radical point of the New Testament:
namely, that worship is driven into the heart as a matter of spirit and truth, and out from the heart, worship flows in all of life, not just in ‘worship services.’ “ [1]
So today, we’re going to cover 3 questions that I think we can inquire of Scripture as we look at Paul’s teaching about the Lord’s Supper. After looking at those questions, we will discuss a theological application where we will take 3 looks at Jesus as we prepare to partake of the supper together this morning.
As we examine the Apostle’s teaching on the Lord’s Supper, our first question to consider is:
Question 1: What is the meaning of the Lord’s Supper?
1) The Apostle Defines the Lords Supper as Participation in Christ’s blood and body
If we look at verse 16 in chapter 10, we see that the Apostle defines the Lord’s Supper as a participation in the blood and the body of Jesus Christ.
The greek word used here is Koinonia - sometimes we translate this as fellowship, but I think that is a watered down word these days. It is a word of intimacy and its a word that conveys giving… in fact, its the same word used by Paul when he commends the churches for their generous giving for the suffering church in Jerusalem. So participation in this sense is the giving of one’s self to another.
What Paul is getting at here is a real spiritual participatory intimacy with Christ in his death and resurrection of Christ. It is the same idea when Paul proclaims in Galatians 2:20 that “ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Theologians call this the Exchanged Life.
When Paul states that the Lord’s Supper is a koinonia in the blood and body of Christ, he is communicating a very important truth:
-We can not have life with Christ if we do not have an exchanged life with Christ. We must give up who we are are for who he is. This exchanged life is made possible because Jesus gave his body for our sins and he gave his blood as a seal of the New Covenant we have in him.
The New Covenant is the promise and seal of Christ’s work- a once and for all sacrifice for mankind’s sin and a seal that is made upon the heart of God’s elect children. This New Covenant and Christ’s saving work makes us into something we were not before— we are a new creation ---- co-heirs with Christ, united with him and seated with him in the heavenly realms...
The elements we consume in the Lords Supper are meant to reminds us of this truth. That’s why Jesus said do this to remember me.
The Christian Life is All About Jesus- It’s Not About Us - but about Christ in us.
When we remember Jesus we are reminded of this Exchanged Life which includes the promise of a relationship with our creator. C.S. Lewis put it this way- “The Son of God became the Son of Man, so that the Sons of Man may becomes son’s of God.”
This union with Christ is striking..... When you partake of the Lord’s Supper- It really should cause you to stop and ponder the audacity for what Christians claim..... God has turned an enemy (us) into a child.
Given all the vastness of God’s creation, the Psalmist declares what is man that you consider him?.... and the Apostle John reflecting on our adoption states:
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
I want to illustrate this with a Biblical Example-
If you recall, the Gospel of John gives us some different details about the Lord’s Supper that the other Gospel do not.
As he gathered with his disciples, Jesus began to teach that he would soon be leaving them and that they know the way to the place he is going...
and a very interesting exchange occurs between him and some of his disciples. In John chapter 14, the disciple Thomas responded to Jesus and said,
5 ....“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Now it’s so important that you catch this. If you know Jesus, that is, if you have koinonia with Jesus, then you know the Father… and Jesus gives you assurance in this… From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
This is the promise we celebrate when we take communion together. We have seen the Father because we see Jesus for who he is.
Now here’s the most interesting part about our union with Christ and the exchanged life..... When the Father looks at you, he sees Christ in you! That is the most astounding part of our union with Christ!
So here’s the application for that and the question that we need to ask ourselves when we partake of the elements- when the worlds looks at me, does it see Christ to?
Are we so united with Christ that we can claim as Jesus did- not in any ultimate sense but in a finite and contingent way- can we claim in a limited way, that if you have seen me, you have seen the father?
2) The Lord’s Supper is the Fulfillment of the Passover Festival
The second thing we need to understand about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper is that when we observe the Lord’s Supper we are, in fact, participating in the Passover feast as Christians.
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he was celebrating the Jewish Passover feast with his disciples but he reframes it in light of his death & resurrection
What we’re seeing here is fulfillment theology at work- Jesus opens the eyes of the Apostles to see that the Passover feast is really about him. What happened with Israel in the original passover is a pattern that Christ will recapitulate in himself though his death and resurrection, Jesus is the lamb of God.
So, if we’re going going to understand the Lord’s Supper correctly, we also need to understand the theology of the Passover.
According to the Book of Exodus, God heard the cry of the Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt and he sent Moses to demand to Pharoah that the Lord commands him to Let his people go. And Stivey mentioned this last week- but it is a a very critical point- Why did God command this?
It was so that the Israelites could leave the land of pagan gods and worship the one true God according to his terms.
After Pharoah again refused, God judged Pharoah with the tenth and final plague- the death of all the first born in the land of Egypt.
God also commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to roast a a perfect lamb and mark some of its blood above and on the sides of their doors so that the Angel of Death would pass over them.
Then they were to consume this meal completely.
Then the Lord commanded that they repeat this feast every year as a lasting ordinance.
In the book of Exodus, we see Moses teach this; he says,
Exodus 12:25–27 ESV
25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
Notice here Moses said it is the Lord’s Passover. Paul uses similar language when he calls the Christian passover the Lord’s Supper. The point is both of these feasts belong to the Lord and are about the Lord.
Also, notice that it is the telling of this story that the people bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord.
When the Israelites repeated the Passover feast, they told the repeated the story about what God had done to save them from slavery and the judgment of God. This was their spiritual worship expressed with the physical elements of the sacrificial meal.
Jesus identified himself as the Passover lamb at the supper he had with his disciples....and that he would be going through a new Exodus that would change everything.
In Christ, mankind can find freedom from bondage to sin and death- The Lord passes over judgement for those who are in Christ because of what Christ has done- Christ is the Lamb who’s blood is taken up by Christians and painted on the doors over their hearts
The exodus of Israel from Egypt was not only to deliver them from slavery but also to free them to worship the living God.
So also, in Jesus’ exodus, He delivered us from the chains of Satan and sin and enabled us to worship God in Spirit and truth.
The Passover exodus of Jesus has reversed the curse and opened the entrance to life everlasting forever.
We partake of the Lord’s Supper to commemorate this event, but also to receive it and embody it as the community that God has saved.
OT Israel looked back to the Exodus through the Passover meal. NT Israel (that's us) looks back to the cross and resurrection of Jesus through the Lord’s Supper.
So we have an idea of What the Lord’s Supper is, but Paul is addressing a Problem with the Corinthian Church and that leads us to the second question that we might ask-
Question 2: What is required of us as we participate in the Lord’s Supper?
1) Paul clarifies how the Lord’s Supper is Corporate Worship and Warns Against Mixing in Idolatry
If we remember from the Scriptures we’ve already read through- there are 2 issues the Paul address concerning the behavior of the Corinthian church.
As we go back to the text in Corinthians chapter 10, we will see that Paul clarifies how the Lord’s Supper is Corporate Worship and then warns against mixing in Idolatry.
If you look at verse 17, the apostle stresses that there is one bread. Not only does this remind us that it was Jesus himself who claimed to be the bread from heaven but he has now equated this bread as his body given as a sacrifice for every believer.
In verse 17 Paul is stating that to take the Lord’s supper is to declare the oneness of God in Christ Jesus - there is only one heavenly bread- and also, there is only one body of Christ.
Paul illustrates this by making a contrast with Israelite worship in the sacrificial system… while Priests ate certain parts of the sacrificial animals on other feast days, all of Israel shared in the Passover meal.
There is one God and Lord and One Communal Feast for ancient Israel and for Christians, which leads Paul to address the concern of idolatry being mixed in with the pure worship expected at the Lord’s table.
Slide: vv. 10:19-21
During Paul’s time, Corinth was a Roman province that was known for its sexual immorality and its pagan culture. Some of the Corinthian Christians had considered it a right to eat the food of idols, knowing that an idol is nothing, but some had gone so far as to participate in the religious ceremonies for the false god.
Paul issues a stern warning that to participate in these ceremonies is to sit at the table of demons and then he makes a very important point- Christian liberty does NOT give you the right to violate the first and second commandments- nothing can be intermixed in your allegiance to God. It is Christ and Christ alone that we are to worship and pledge ourselves to.
Church- we may think that we don’t have to worry about this issue but Idols abound in our society. Sure, we don’t have pagan temples on every block but we sure do “idolize” pop stars and movie stars… we look at the business owner and say things like, “there’s a self made man,” political parties and politicians, social media, TV, Football, our over inflated sense of self-identity, sexual identity, and individual freedoms… who said you are god of these things… only you determined that
Let me illustrate how idolatrous a lot we truly are with a series of questions:
What or who is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? Also, what’s the first thing you look at when you wake up in the morning? Who is the first person you look at when you examine a picture that you’re in? How many selfies do you take before you find just the right one? How often are you in the company of someone else and you find social media more interesting? How often does TV or Social Media take up all your time so that you don’t have time to pray? How many of you have driven half-way to your destination only to turn around and go back home because you left your phone?
Me, myself, and I. That is the number 1 contender for your worship and number 2 is that device in your pocket that you carry around everywhere. An idol is a man made object of worship indeed. Some of you are more in love with your phone than the person you pledged yourself to at the altar before God in Holy Marriage. And that person is supposed to be your number 2 person of devotion after God.
And I think possibly the number 3 idol in our lives is our allegiance to other priorities that take precedence over the Kingdom of God. Some of you set your priorities in this order - Job, Country, Guns, Football, Phone, God. Or maybe its Kids, my Kids Weekend Sports, Phone, Favorite TV Show, Spouse, God.
Listen, I’m not saying any of these things are bad or even wrong to be concerned with or devoted to. But the priority matters and what you’re willing to give up matters....
I'm sure many of you would say
I would never say those things are more important than God - and probably thats true - you wouldn’t say that
But I’m not talking about what you say but what you do in your life
If I’ve offended you in some way by saying this, then I’m sorry for your hurt but you probably need to repent of your idolatry
-if you’re not willing to give any of them up for your allegiance to God, then it is an idol. And we’re good at putting idols in our lives.
John Calvin said the human heart is “a perpetual factory of idols.” Rather than worshiping God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24), we reshape and remake him until he is safely under our control.
Philip Graham Ryken
Church, God is exclusive and you can’t participate in worshipping him if these other things take priority. If there are idols in your life, its time to confess this to the Lord today and repent of these practices. There can be nothing that you place higher than your relationship with the Lord Jesus… if you bring such practices into your participation in the Lord’s Supper, you are not feasting with the Lord.
Listen, the Lord loves you and wants you to truly celebrate the exchanged life we receive from him, but we’ve got to give up those strongholds that take priority in our lives
The preacher preaches to himself first, brothers and sisters - my heart stands convicted too.
We want revival - we desire it and we desire to be a part of it
But revival begins with repentance.... and that’s the invitation of the Lord’s Supper
to Repent of our idolatry, to lay those things down so that we can pick up Christ.
So all that said, I mentioned that there are two issues that the Apostle addresses, the first being the potential of idolatrous synchronism and the second, is found in chapter 11 and it concerns division in the church body..
2) Division in the church body means that it is not the Lord’s Supper but has become man’s supper
The communal feast at Corinth had became divisive because of the behavior of its participants and was therefore no longer belonging to the Lord- man had perverted it- just like many things in our world that are given as good things by God- The feast had become about them and their needs, it was first come first serve and marked out by classes and cliques....
The feast was no longer about worship but about position.
How ironic, the very feast that celebrates Christ giving everything he had to his disciples was being hoarded by his disciples in practice.
Paul’s language is strong here.... he says, “What! Don’t you have your own home to indulge yourself in.”
The irony of the situation multiplies because on the same night that the Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper he also took up the task of the lowest of servants and washed his disciples’ feet and then said, go and do likewise. Christ set an example of selfless service -
Christ’s selflessness in giving his life for others stood in stark contrast to the Corinthians’ selfishness during the Lord’s Supper [2]
I want you to put yourself in the place of the Corinthians for a moment....
Imagine if we had a Wednesday night fellowship dinner and we invited everybody to come to it, but some arrived early and ate everything up. That’s exactly what happened in the Corinthian church
You see, the Corinthians celebrated the Lord’s Supper as an entire meal eaten together which culminated in the sharing of the bread and wine in honor and remembrance of Jesus.
Except what was supposed to be a meal that defined the strength and unity of the church became an exercise in self-fulfillment.
The apostles says plainly that because of this, it is not the Lord’s Supper. Divisions, factions, and selfishness have no place at the Lord’s Table.
So, it may be hard for us to grasp this issue since we don’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper in this way. Here is another illustration that might hit closer to home for each of you
Imagine that some new members come into our church fellowship here at TBA. They listen to the preaching and participate in our offering of worship through singing, and think- wow that was a great worship service.
But then as they leave they notice that all the people they don’t know are gathered together in the lobby, speaking to each other. Some gathered in the middle, some gathered together by the children’s area, and some gathered together, by the cafe.
Week after week goes by, and no one introduces themselves. When the worship leader invites the church to greet each other no one walks over and welcomes the newcomer to the church family.
Let me ask you this- have we fulfilled the Lord’s command to love one another. Would the world know us as Christians by this practice.... are we worshipping the Lord if our worship neglects the fellowship of the brothers and sisters in our community who don’t fit into our cliques?
When we remember Jesus by worshipping in Spirit and Truth, we remember that Jesus’ body was broken and his blood was shed for the entire church and so we must also practice the Lord’s command to love one another and give up our own lives and our own needs for the sake of others....
Paul addressed this problem with the and then recounts the formula passed on to the church and describes how the Lord’s Supper helps us remember Jesus..... which is our third and final question
Question 3: How does the Lord’s Supper help us to Remember Jesus?
1) Twice the Apostle Echoes Jesus’ words to do this in remembrance of Me”
As we read the communion tradition passed on to Paul and down to us even today, we see that the Apostle echoes Jesus’ twice proclaimed exhortation to do this in remembrance of me.
We need to be reminded often of What Jesus has done … that is why elements of the gospel and this great gift of salvation are spoken about each week and why it is important for us to also observe the Lord’s Supper together:
Because Jesus knows that we’re fickle and forgetful, he redefined the Passover into the Lord’s Supper so that when we worship him, we would
hear the gospel in the message
see the gospel in the elements
share in the gospel through participation
Verse 26 in chapter 11 is going to be our anchor text as we come to a close... in the verse we see 3 looks at Jesus that we participate in when we commune together for the Lord's Supper
2) For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, [present] you proclaim the Lord’s death [the past] until he comes. [the future]
I want to convey this truth with a story that I think will serve as an example for the depth of this practice and its meaning.
I want you to imagine what it would be like for someone who has committed an atrocious crime. The criminal admitted his crime and even though he was sorry for it, he was rightly judged for it and spent many years in prison waiting for that day…
And that day has now come. It is the day of execution. You see, the seriousness nature of the crime required a serious consequence no matter how bad he felt about his actions.
But as the man prepared for the moment of his execution something amazing happened. To this man’s great astonishment, the judge who had ordered his execution walked in and laid down in his place to give up his life in exchange for the prisoner’s to be set free.
With great compassion, the judge who had ordered the execution looked at the man and said, I have done this so that you may have life.
And so, it was done. The righteous judge took the criminal’s place.
Now if we stopped there, those of you that understand the Gospel and the Lord Jesus’ great gift of salvation will understand the correspondence of this illustration.
And like all illustrations, the story breaks down at some point because what God did in Christ Jesus is so much bigger than this type of story can actually convey.
But, as you can imagine, in this story a great debt was paid by the judge and the man stood in awe as his judge took his place… you might say that he loved him for it because the judge loved him first, and you might even guess that this changed the man’s life forever.
But that’s not the end of this story.
You see, this man was also married. Not only did the substitution offered to him save his life, but it also gave him freedom and that’s because the penalty for his crime had been paid – he was now a free man.
Can you imagine what the reunion with his wife would have been like? Locked up for years, sentenced to die….
What amazement the man had that someone righteous would die in his place… but what joy and what celebration he had walking away from certain death into freedom to be with the one he loved and the one who loved him most.
You see, there’s multiple things going on in this story, there’s a substitution being made from certain death, but also the giving of the gift of love and abundant life.
With that story in mind, I am going to invite you shortly to come and partake of the body and blood of Christ at the Lord’s Supper.
As you do that, I want you to take these 3 looks at Jesus
When you participate in the Lord’s Supper, look first at the present and examine your heart- are you worshipping the Lord in Spirit and in Truth; Remember that Jesus is here with you advocating for you and constantly calling for you to follow him. There can be no other important thing in your life.
Then look to the past and Remember that Jesus died for your sins and mine and that he did this so that you may have abundant life with him.
Then look expectantly to the future and Remember that Jesus is coming again. He is coming in Judgement of a world that will not receive him as their king.... and He is coming to collect his church to be with him forever where he will be our God and he will dwell with us.
It’s time to worship together at the Lord’s Table. Remember to Remember Jesus.
Endnotes:
1. This is a mostly a quotation from John Piper’s Intro in his Sermon - “The Lord’s Supper as Worship.” It fits well with the message series that it was easier to use word-for-word. See full sermon here: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-lords-supper-as-worship
2. Daniel L. Akin, “The Bible and Sexuality,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1828.
3. Kenneth Boa, Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 118.
4. Ibid.
