1 Corinthians 11:23-26: Feasting at the Table: How to Take the Lord’s Supper

Recommended Resources

The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions edited by Arthur Bennet, Banner of Truth.

Beeke, Joel R., and Paul M. Smalley, eds. Feasting with Christ: Meditations on the Lord’s Supper. Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2012.

Scripture Reading

Ezekiel 36:25–29 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules… and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.

Intro

How do you worship in the Lord’s Supper?

What is the practical, how-to of taking it?

For the last few weeks we’ve talked about the theology of the Lord’s Supper and have even looked at the macro, big-picture idea of what we do in taking it… but this week I wanted to get really practical and hopefully give you some nuts-and-bolts ways of making the Lord’s Supper more worshipful in your life.

From the very beginning we’ve said that in the Lord’s Supper we are doing two things:

Number 1… Remembering Christ’s Sacrifice and Death.

And Number 2… Celebrating the Salvation and Deliverance we have in Him.

Remembering His death… and Celebrating His grace.

That’s the “what” we are doing in taking the Lord’s Supper… The question is how?

How can you actually go about doing that whenever you take the Lord’s Supper?

Three Rs

The answer is the three Rs.

This will hopefully be a simple formula you can follow to Remember and Celebrate Christ’s Grace.

Some weeks you may focus on one more than the other… but all three of these are necessary in some way to Feast at the Lord’s Table and celebrate all that the Lord’s Supper Represents.

So what we are going to do is we are going to look at the “3 Rs”… and then in each of those 3 “Rs” we are going look at particular ways… particular applications for you might do them or carry those out.

These particular applications are not things you have to do but things you can do…

You might take some… you might leave some others… you might come up with some all your own…

My aim is to give you some Pastoral advice for if you asked me, “How do I actually take the Lord’s Supper?” you might have some direction of how to make the Lord’s Supper the most beneficial to you.

The Three “Rs” themselves… the three things you are always going to be doing when taking the Lord’s Supper are Remembering… Repentance… and Renewal…

Remembering… Repentance… and Renewal…

In Remembering We Remember Christ’s Sacrificial Death.

In Repentance We Repent of All Our Sin.

And in Renewal We Renew our Covenantal Commitment to Follow Christ with all of our life.

Remembering… Repentance… and Renewal… that’s how you feast at the Table.

Let’s Start with point number 1… to Feast at the Table and celebrate all that the Lord’s Supper Represents we need to first…

I. Remember Christ’s Suffering and Sacrificial Death

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 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, 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.” 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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

First and foremost… before anything else… the Lord’s Supper is a Remembrance of Christ’s suffering and death.

This is my body which is given for you (Luke 22:19).

This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28).

Do this in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The Lord’s Supper is a Remembrance and proclamation of the Gospel.

The Good News that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins and condemned under the just and righteous wrath of Holy God.

But God in His grace sent His Son to die for our sin.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

And Jesus… the Eternal Son of God… God’s own Word of Life and salvation… took on human flesh and live the perfect and righteous life we all failed to live and died the death we deserved to die under God’s wrath.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Out of His great love for us Christ laid down His life (John 15:13).

He poured out His soul to death (Isaiah 53:12)

He stood in our place and died for our sins.

He gave His life as a Substitute and rose again three days later to give Eternal Life to all who trust in Him.

That’s what the Lord’s Supper represents.

Christ’s body broken for us…

Christ’s blood shed for us.

His own blood shed to atone for all our sins by His once for all perfect sacrifice.

That is what we are Remembering every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper… Christ and His sacrificial death.

The ransom price paid… the blood of the Son of God Himself… freely given and freely poured out to forgive us all our sins and to satisfy the wrath of God and give us grace.

Remembering?

Now what does this remembering entail?

Do you just sit there waiting for something to happen?

Hoping that your affections are somehow stirred up?

What do you do?

The common theme that you are going to see in all three of these “Rs of the Lord’s Supper,” is that the way we do them is a lot of Preaching to Yourself and Prayer.

If we are proclaiming the Lord’s Death until He comes then we are first preaching to ourselves the glories of the Gospel and then responding to that Gospel in Prayer.

In short we are stirring up our affections for Christ praying that the Holy Spirit would bless that preaching and enlarge our hearts and our love and our affections for Him…

This preaching is no different.

My aim is to draw your affections towards Christ… to show you His love and His glory through preaching… with the hope that… by the grace of the Hoy Spirit… you will respond to Christ with love and give more and more of your life to Him.

The preaching that we do in t he Lord’s Supper with ourselves is no different.

We take the bread and the cup and preach to ourselves the glories of His love and His mercy and His grace in hope that our affections would be stirred up for Christ and that we would love Him more in return.

Its like what David does in Psalm 42.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God (Psalm 42:5).

Who is David Preaching to?… Himself.

Psalm 103 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! (Psalm 103:1).

There’s a preaching to our own soul and stirring up our affections for Christ.

Its preaching to yourself… “See Christ love for you in His body broken and blood shed for you.”

See His grace… See His mercy… See His forgiveness.

You preach to yourself Christ’s work and all the promises of the Gospel with the aim that you are preaching to the heart and not just the head… not just an intellectual remembering and exercise.

Spiritual Remembering

The Lord’s Supper is a spiritual feasting… a spiritual remembering.

Its not just remembering the Historical facts of the Gospel but the grace and promises of the Gospel.

Its not just that Jesus died… its that Jesus died for me.

He died for my sins.

He took my place on the cross and drank the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs that my sins deserved!

In the Lord’s Supper… we don’t just physically feed on bread and wine… we spiritually feed on the body and blood of Christ and the only way to do that is by faith feeding on all the bread and wine represent.

This Spiritual Remembering goes from the mind all the way to the heart.

Its an all of heart… all of soul… all of mind… all of strength remembering (Mark 12:30).

Its the whole man bursting forth in love and joy and gratitude for all of God’s grace in Christ.

So there’s this Preaching and a spiritual response to that preaching.

There’s a spiritual effort… its a spiritual exercise.

You can’t expect to just eat the bread and drink the cup and get something out of it.

You must eat the bread and drink the cup with faith… and faith comes from hearing and hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Applications

Now what can that look like?

These are those applications we talked about.

Different ways… different suggestions for how you might do that.

Elements Themselves

For one you can look at the elements themselves.

The represent the body and blood of Christ but there is also a fitness… a properness… to the elements Christ chose.

Bread

Take Bread.

We are told in Scripture that bread strengthens hearts (Psalm 104:15).

Bread satisfies hunger.

It gives life… Man shall not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4).

Well what did Jesus say?

John 6:35, 51 I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst… I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

We can look at the Bread and say, “Jesus… you are the Bread of Life.”

You are the bread that satisfies all my hunger.

By your death you give me life!

Wine

With Wine in the cup…

Wine is something in the Bible that cheers the heart (Psalm 104:15, Proverbs 31:6-7).

It gives joy.

Probably most important with Jesus calling it the fruit of the vine is that in the cup we are reminded that Jesus is the fulfillment of the New Covenant… He says this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

In the Old Testament Israel is repeatedly called a Vine planted n God’s vineyard.

But unfortunately as a vine Israel was a Wild Vine that only yielded wild grapes…

In other words Old Covenant Israel continually broke covenant with God (Isaiah 5:1-2, Jeremiah 2:21-22; Psalm 80:7-18; Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2ff; Jeremiah 2:21; 12:10ff; Ezekiel 15:1-8, 17:1-21, 19:10-14, Hosea 10:1-2, 14:7).

They were an unfaithful vine… a fruitless vine… that failed to yield the fruit and the wine God was looking for.

But then Jesus comes and says I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser (John 15:1).

I am the True and Faithful Israel…

The fulfillment of all of God’s Covenants (See Cole Shinall, “John 15:1: I Am the True Vine: An Overview of Baptist Covenant Theology,” 10/20/24).

All the Promises of God are Yes! and Amen! in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

So the wine should remind us… preach to us… that Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Covenant… all the works of the Law… all the promises given in those covenants… so that now in Christ… in the cup… we enjoy the cup of the New Covenant in His blood… the Covenant of Grace.

The fullness of salvation in a cup that overflows (Psalm 116:13).

Psalm 23:5–6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The idea would be that as surely as we hold the Bread and the Cup in our hands… we have Christ and all the blessings of the New Covenant He purchased for us.

So we preach those blessings… Life… Salvation… Atonement… Grace upon Grace and the forgiveness of sins…

And then we respond to God’s grace.

Scripture

Another way you can Remember Christ’s Suffering and Sacrificial Death is by reading particular Scriptures and then responding in prayer.

In that time… that moment of silence… open your Bible to a particular passage and wash yourself in the water of the Word.

You could go to one of the crucifixion narratives that describes Jesus’s death.

Read about the nails driven through His hands and His feet.

The spear in His side where the cleansing water and atoning blood began to flow from Christ’s death (John 19:31-34).

Christ crying out under the wrath of God… My God, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46).

And the great promise… It is finished (John 19:31).

Psalm 22

You could read Psalm 22 which is the Psalm of the cross…

Its the Psalm Jesus quoted while He hung there.

Its the Psalm of what Jesus was thinking… experiencing on the Cross.

Psalm 22:14–15 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

But…

Psalm 22:27-28… the Hope of Salvation… All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

Isaiah 53

There’s Isaiah 53… the prophecy of Christ’s death.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

There’s all kinds of Scripture you can go to to help preach to your soul and stir up your affections for Christ.

The goal is to life your eyes to Christ.

To see Him crucified in the bread and the cup…

To see with spiritual eyes the grace freely given us… and purchased for us by Christ.

Like Puritan great Thomas Watson said “When we see Christ in the Sacrament crucified before our eyes, [may we] behold Him in that posture as He was upon the cross, stretching out His blessed arms to receive us” and welcome us by His grace (Watson, The Lord’s Supper, Puritan Paperbacks, 67).

To Feast at the Table we need to Remember Christ and His sacrificial Death.

Number 2… We need to…

II. Repent of All Our Sin

Psalm 139:23–24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Repenting is the fulcrum where we move from Remembering to Celebrating the Grace of Christ.

We can’t celebrate the grace of the forgiveness of sins if we are still holding on to the sins that nailed Christ to the cross in the first place.

We talked a lot about repenting and examining ourselves for sin in the last sermon… so here let me give a brief overview.

Repentance is turning from sin to follow Jesus.

Its putting our sin to death.

As Paul said in Romans 6:2 How can we who died to sin still live in it?

So before taking the Lord’s Supper we must examine ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:28).

We need to Examine ourselves for any known sin whether that’s personal sin or sins committed against someone else against the body…

And we need to examine ourselves in regard to whether our not we have a sincere and earnest resolve to put that sin to death in our life.

To truly repent of it… to put it down and not pick it up.

Come Prepared

This reminds us that we need to come to the Supper Prepared.

This part of taking the Lord’s Supper should be happening all week outside the church.

Where you are daily repenting of sins… daily examining yourselves.

As the Psalmist said Search me and know my heart…. Try me and know my thoughts!… see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting!

God show me my sin that I might put it to death.

That time of preparation immediately before taking the Lord’s Supper is mean to be the capstone of a life of repentance.

You might respond to some conviction from the sermon that the Spirit opened your eyes to, but the work of repentance should largely be done where that time is more focused on putting that sin to death and resolving to follow Christ.

“God I again repent and I am committed to following you.”

Others

Its also before the service that you deal with any sin you committed against others.

Jesus said Matthew 5:23–24 If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

In your families… in your marriage… in our church we should all be keeping short accounts confessing our sins and forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

The Big Idea is that Repentance is necessary for taking the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner.

And that repentance involves confessing our sin and turning from our sin to follow Jesus.

Confession

Now confession so important… Doesn’t God already know?

Is confession just God’s way forcing us to come with our hat in our hand to beg for grace that He’s begrudging to give?

Not at all!

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.

Confession is more for us… for our benefit… its one of those means of grace that God has given to help nourish and grow our faith.

First of all confession is how we humble ourselves before God.

Its how we say God you are holy and my life belongs to you and I have broken your commandments.

Confession back on the throne of your life where with your sin you made yourself your own God.

And that’s the other thing confession does… its how we stop lying to ourselves.

When Adam and Eve sinned they bought the lie seeking to be wise in their own eyes (Genesis 3:4-5).

Be their own gods… determine for themselves what is good and evil.

Well in our sin we bought the lied.

We lied to ourselves in some way to justify sinning against God.

And confession is how we say God I exchanged the truth of God for a lie… please forgive me.

Its how we say and preach to ourselves… its rewiring of our brains… a renewal of the mind… that way leads to death… that’s a lie.

Confession is how we turn from the lie to follow Christ because when we admit that its a lie we cannot keep walking in falsehood.

So we need confession and repentance.

A cutting off the hand or gouging out the eye to say I don’t ever want to give into that sin again.

And when we have that small whisper of not yet and just a little more we confess that to asking God to change us… even the desires of our heart… from the inside out saying I believe help my unbelief (Mark 9:24).

Application

Now how do you go about doing that.

Pray

Obviously… you pray.

That’s how we confess our sins to God assuming we’ve already repented to anyone we’ve sinned against.

Because what tends to happen is Christians are really good about feeling bad about their sin without ever taking that next step of holy warfare of actually confessing and repenting of it asking for God’s grace to help.

We just go about feeling bad about our sin without ever dealing with our sin biblically running to the only one who actually has the spiritual power to change us.

The goal is not just confessing our sin but breaking our love for sin… hating our sin… renouncing our sin and leaving it all behind.

I love the way the prayer… “The Gospel Way”… says it in the collection of Puritan Prayers called the Valley of Vision: “Help me give up every darling lust” (62).

Confession says Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! (Psalm 119:29).

Valley of Vision

Now how I go about doing that is that I might read a prayer from the Valley of Vision.

There are several good ones in there and if you don’t have that book you should.

You can find some prayers and then bring it to church to help you pray in that time of Reflection.

Psalm 51

But what I usually do is pray through that great prayer of confession in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:1–2, 10, 12 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

Remember there’s a spiritual engagement here. Its not just reading the words but reading them from the heart…

Engaging the soul!

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

God change my heart!

Put me on and give me a desire for the right path.

Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

God uphold me… strengthen me… renew me by your grace.

Pray through the Psalm… use God’s own Word to run to Him and rest on his grace.

Number 3…

III. Renew Your Covenantal Commitment to Follow Christ

Jesus said…

1 Corinthians 11:25 This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

The Lord’s Supper is a Covenant Meal… a fellowship meal between us and the Lord…that’s why we call it “Communion.”

A Covenant is a formal and binding relationship built on oaths and promises…

And the New Covenant is God’s promise to forgive our sins and remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8:10-13).

Its an unconditional covenant meaning that all the blessings and promises of that are guaranteed by God’s own promise independent of our works.

In other words… we don’t do anything to earn it that is why it is called the Covenant of Grace.

But that doesn’t mean there are not obligations and promises from our side of the covenant.

The blessings of the Covenant are guaranteed by God Himself independent of our works but in that Covenant we promise to live all of our lives for Him.

In other words… if God has saved you and you belong to Christ by His grace as a gift… then you will live all of your life for Christ not to earn your salvation but as the fruit of your salvation.

Its the idea of Galatians 2:20 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.

So the Lord’s Supper is a meal of Remembering God’s Promises to us and Renewing our Promises to worship and follow Him.

I will be their God they will be my people.

In the Supper God confirms His promise to save us and be our God and we renew our promise to be His People.

God’s Promises

On God’s part the Supper confirms His Promise that God will surely forgive us in Christ.

In the Supper we have God’s own testimony that all who trust in Christ and His saving work will be saved and adopted as a beloved son or daughter of God (John 1:12-13).

Its God’s own promise that all the promises of the New Covenant are ours in Christ.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

I will be merciful toward your iniquities and I will remember your sins no more (Hebrews 8:10-12, Ezekiel 36:25–27, 28-29).

I will be your God and you shall be my people.

When God says He will be our God He is saying I am your shield and your salvation (Genesis 15:1).

I am and always will be all-sufficient caring for you and providing everything you need.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

When you are weak… then I am strong.

When you are helpless then I will help you.

When you are drowning and ready to sink I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Our Promises

On our part the Supper is a promise of faith and faithfulness.

That God is our God and there is no other.

That we will live for Him and worship Him with all of our lives.

As Jonah said But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:9).

In the Lord’s Supper we die to ourselves and renew our commitment to take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23–24; 14:26–33).

We don’t just take the promises… we live in light of those promises.

We bear fruit in keeping with repentance and walk in the fullness of our salvation (Matthew 3:8).

We examine ourselves for a holy resolve to live all of our lives for Christ in a universal subjection to Him (Psalm 116:16).

Our minds to mediate on thee…

Our heart to adore thee…

Our hands to serve thee…

And our mouths to praise thee… (Watson, The Lord’s Supper, 78).

Its Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Again as Watson says, “Christ gave himself a sin-offering for us, let us give ourselves a thank offering to Him” (Watson, The Lord’s Supper, 74).

In remembering God’s promises we renew our commitment to live all of our lives for the glory of Christ.

Application

That’s obviously going to take prayer… examining yourself for that holy resolve and then praying for it… dedicating your life to the Lord.

Valley of Vision

You could also read prayers from The Valley of Vision that we talked about earlier.

There’s lots of great prayers on living a life fully dedicated to the Lord.

There is even a prayer called “The Lord’s Supper” that you could literally print it out from online and put it in your Bible to pray through it every single week.

If you did that and if you were spiritually engaged you would cover all the Remembering… Repenting… Renewing that we do in the Lord’s Supper.

Renewing is saying God thank you and living in light of that thankfulness.

Psalm 119

You could go to Psalm 119 for prayers of dedication.

Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! (Psalm 119:5)

Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! (Psalm 119:29–30).

I turn my feet to your testimonies (Psalm 119:59).

I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end (Psalm 119:112).

The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise (Psalm 119:57–58).

You can pray God’s own Word back to Him with full confidence that He will surely answer.

You are literally praying for God’s will!

Psalm 103

Or you might go to one of my favorite Psalms that I like to pray to celebrate God’s grace and Salvation… Psalm 103.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:1–5).

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:8–12).

Pray that and renew your commitment to live all of your life for Him as your Lord and the only God of your life.

Conclusion

Remembering… Repenting… Renewing.

That’s what it takes to Feast at the Lord’s Table.

In the Lord’s Supper we remember Christ and His sacrifice.

Trust in Him.

Repent of any of our known sins

And resolve to live all of our lives for Christ relying on His strength and grace.

This is how to make the Lord’s Supper a means of grace that can nourish and grow your faith in Christ.

I can think of no better words to close out this series on the Lord’s Supper than those of theologian Joel Beeke… that can serve as a prayer to help us as a church to always celebrate the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner to the glory of Christ …

May God grant us to taste and see that He is good and gracious in His holy Supper.

May he allow us to experience it as a genuine feast for us:

a commemorative feast to remember his Son;

a strengthening feast to nurture our faith;

a covenanting feast to covenant ourselves back to him who covenants himself to us;

a witnessing feast to declare our need of him;

and a love feast through which [we are] loved by him and… love him from whom all blessings flow.

Church and Last Things (Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 4) Conclusion > Chapter 22: The Lord’s Supper, Part 2

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