The Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper

Introduction

When we think of the reformation, we think of doctrines like the authority of scripture and justification by faith, but there was one doctrine that seemed to divide even the reformers. This was the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. during the Reformation, German State leader Phillip of Hesse saw that the Reformation was at threat because it was divided amongst the reformers. One of their central disagreements was around the Lord’s Supper so he called some of the main leaders like Luther and Zwingli to talk about the issue at what has been called the Marburg Colloquy. The question of debate was whether Christ was present in the elements of the Lord’s Supper: the bread and the wine. The debate stemmed from Jesus words in Matthew 26:26 “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” When Jesus said the bread and wine are his body, what did he mean? Traditionally, there have been four views on how to understand this phrase:

The Reformers were reacting against the Roman Catholic View- Transubstantiation which taught that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. At some point during the Roman Catholic Mass as the priest is praying the Spirit comes down and transforms the bread and the wine into the very body and blood of Jesus. This obviously led to all kinds of excesses within the Catholic church where the elements were worshiped and viewed as having magical powers.

Luther rejected transubstantiation, but still believed that the word is must be literal. So he developed the idea of Consubstantiation. This view taught that Jesus body and blood are present in, with and under the bread and wine, but the bread and wine remain bread and wine. Luther used the example of a red hot poker that has been sitting in the fire. The heat of the fire has made the poker hot and yet the poker is still just a metal poker.

Zwingli did not agree with Luther’s view view. Zwingli argued that Christ could not be literally present in the elements because Christ’s body had ascended up to heaven and is at the right hand of the father today. His view was based on verses like

John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” To Zwingli, the bread and wine themselves were merely symbols of the body and blood of Christ. He emphasized the purpose of the lord’s supper from Luke 22:19 “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” The Lord’s supper was a ceremonial remembrance of Jesus death on the cross for our sins. Zwingli also acknowledged that during the Lord’s supper we fellowship with Christ. He argued the Lord’s Supper is “no true meal if Christ is not present.” But by presence he did not mean physically but spiritually.

Calvin later further developed the idea that Christ was present spiritually during the Lord’s supper but the elements were still just bread and wine. In his view, the Christian is spiritually transported to heaven where he communes with Christ spiritually during the Lord’s supper. As we will see in a later message, the idea of communion with Christ is part of the Lord’s supper hence it is called communion. But I don’t believe it is by being caught up to heaven spiritually each and every time we have the Lord’s supper. Rather, Paul’s emphasis on communion with Christ is based on the fact that Christ is always with us and as a Church we are organically and mystically united to Christ in the Church, his body. While this is a truth that is always true, we can experience that truth in a more direct and special way through the Lord’s Supper. In this sense, the Lord’s Supper is more than mere symbol though the elements are merely symbols. As a Baptist church, we hold to this Zwinglian view of the Lord’s Supper. Tonight I would like to take you to a passage this view of the Lord’s Supper that Christ is spiritually present in the symbols of the Lord’s Supper. It is a passage that you probably have never thought of as a Lord’s Supper passage and yet there is no doubt that it is.

Text: 1 Cor 10:14-33

The Context

This section of text begins in 1 Corinthians 10:14 “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” The overall topic of this passage is dealing with idolatry and as the text continues, Paul is going to challenge them with this idea that you cannot fellowship with the Devil and with God at the same time. In doing so, he introduces an issue of wisdom that is needed in the church. Notice in vs 15, Paul addresses the wise. Sometimes in Christianity, we desire hard fast rules that say you can never do such and such or you must always do this; but the bible doesn’t always speak that way. The bible could never comprehensively deal with every issue we would ever face throughout all of history in black and white clarity and yet the bible does deal with every issue in that it gives us principles and wisdom to know how to make decisions. Paul is going to address an issue of wisdom in this text.

We are going to skip over verses 16-21 since we will come back to them in a second. Paul is worried that something in the practice of the churches is provoking the Lord to jealousy. What would make God jealous? A love affair with other God’s is what would make him jealous. He establishes two principles before jumping into the practical example:

Just because you have liberty to do something doesn’t mean it is whats best for you. vs 23.

We ought to seek the benefit of other believers over what we want to do vs 24.

These two principles of wisdom are then taken and applied to the issue of eating meats offered to idols. In vs 25, he says if you buy meat in the shambles the markets don’t ask any question about where it came from. So the temples would often take meat offered to idols and then sell it in the markets because obviously the idol didn’t eat it. Vs 26 says the meat belongs to God so you can eat it.

In vs 27, he brings up another situation they might face. If someone has you over for dinner and they put meat in front of you eat it asking no questions. But if they tell you it has been offered to an idol don’t eat it for the sake of the other person’s conscience. Here is our classical passage on doing all to the glory of God, but what does that mean in context? Even though I might have liberty to do something, if I hurt another brother’s conscience in this matter I have not brought glory to God.

The basis for Paul’s discussion though is based on another principle found in the verses we skipped over, so let’s go back to them for the remainder of the service.

The Meaning of Communion

Paul begins by establishing a point that participating in the eating of the sacrifices is fellowship with the one to whom they are sacrificed. Let’s see how he develops this though:

vs 16 Let’s define some terms before we jump into the verses though:

cup of blessing- this is the cup from which they drank during the Lord’s supper notice the connection Paul makes with the blood of Christ.

b. the bread which we break- is the bread from the Lord’s supper which he connects with the body of Christ. So clearly, we have in Paul’s mind the celebration of the Lord’s supper. Later in vs 21, he calls it the Lord’s table. But there is one other word I want us to see in this passage:

c. communion- this is the Greek word κοινονια most commonly translated as fellowship or partaker. It is the same word found in 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” It carries the idea of association and close relationship. Paul is grounding his argument on the fact that the Lord’s Supper is a time of fellowshipping and close relationship with Jesus Christ Himself.

Later in vs 18, he looks back at the OT and argues that those who ate of the sacrifices in the temple were partakers of the altar. This is the same word for fellowship. Those who brought their sacrifices to God were drawing near to God relationally if they came with a true heart.

He then takes this principle and uses it to argue against eating things you know were sacrificed to an idol because doing so involves a communion, fellowship, relationship with them. Paul acknowledges that the idol is nothing, but the eating is the key. There is an association between those who knowingly eat and the idol. There is some sense in which doing so is fellowshiping with the works of darkness. Imagine if I knowingly wore a pentagram on my jacket to preach in the service. Not only would it say I am associated with Satan, but the fact that I knowingly wore it says that I wanted to be associated with Satan.

So Paul concludes, you cannot eat of the devils table and the Lord’s table which is a symbol of your communion with Him. So the elements of the Lord’s supper while symbols of our faith are more than that as they are part of our fellowship with the Lord. If this is hard for you to grasp, let me illustrate it in two ways:

Let’s say you and your wife are separated for some time by some distance, how do you keep your relationship alive? You call, write letters, send gifts right. Ok, in Christianity, how do we keep our relationship with Jesus vibrant and alive? Is it not through the habits of grace I preached on last year: meditating in the word, spending time in prayer, fasting, attending church ect. Well, the Lord’s supper is one of those habits of grace by which we keep our relationship with the Lord close.

I think many of us fail to see that because it has become too routine and ritualistic for us.

The Experience of Communion

There are two ways in which we experience this communion in the Lord’s supper:

We seek to enjoy our relationship directly with the Lord

1 Corinthians 10:17 “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” That one bread is Jesus. Sometimes the Lord’s supper is a somber, serious time and there is a place for that, but as we will see in a couple weeks, there is more to the Lord’s supper than that. There is gratefulness and praise for what Jesus did for us. The Lord’s supper should draw us into greater enjoyment of our relationship with the Lord.

We seek to enjoy Christ through His people

Not only is our communion with Christ, but it is with his body. Who is the body of Christ? the church. Notice What Paul says in the first part of vs 17, we being many are one bread, one body. Each and every one of us is unique and diverse in the body of Christ. Each has different gifts and callings in the church and yet when we experience unity around the Lord’s table, we are fellowshipping with Christ. How can this be?

Each believer has Christ living in Him? The service and love I give for another believer is service and love for Christ. This ties us back in to Paul’s principles of wisdom. How I celebrate the Lord’s supper and if I wound another’s conscience by eating things offered to idols all comes down to my love for Christ and other believers.

Conclusion

So when we talk about the Lord’s supper as a memorial and a sign, we are not diminishing its value in our lives. It is more than a mere ceremony. For those who truly seek the Lord, it can be the sweetness of fellowship with Him and with other believers. So Christ is not present physically in the elements, nor are we spiritually chewing on Christ in heaven; but we do participate in the spiritual presence of Christ as we enjoy the fellowship and union of the Lord’s supper.