1 Corinthians 11:23-34 - Remembering Christ’s Grace

There are moments that shape us dramatically.

Wedding day/birth of a child/baptism (last week)

Then there are those moments that shape us quietly, perhaps even more than you realize.

Not a loud, dramatic moment—An ordinary moment that you go back to over and over again.

When we were preparing to plant the church and went through a leadership training Assessment.

We were having our normal conversations about leading a church and the subject about my leadership type came up.

“Is he a type A or B”

My pastor at the time, Larry, said, “He’s a total type A. Look at him. I think people have simply put him in a box, but once he realizes he has no lid, he’s going to do incredible things.”

That conversation rocked me to my core.

I think about it often when I feel inadequate in leadership or stuck in my own head.

When I forget about what’s important, I remember that ordinary moment that has shaped me for years.

Paul is writing to the Corinthians about the Lord’s Supper because to them it has become a mundane ritual that has lost it’s meaning.

They were still gathering. Still taking the Lord’s Supper together. Still going through the motions.

This seems like a very ordinary thing, but this meal that we get to participate in is meant to shape our entire lives.

Big Idea: The Lord’s Table makes us remember Christ’s grace.

Big Idea Q:

Stand to read

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

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.

Leader: This is God’s Word

Everyone: Thanks be to God

Paul reminds the Corinthians of the night that Jesus was betrayed.

Jesus, with his best friends, taking the Passover/knowing He was about to be betrayed.

Jesus recontextualized parts of the Passover meal to make His sacrificial death the central focus of the meal.

The Passover reminded Jews of when God liberated Israel from Egyptian slavery in Exodus.

The Lord’s Supper reminds the Church of Christ’s victory over sin and death, setting us free from it.

Paul is explaining to the Corinthians the significance of this meal.

This isn’t just something we do because we’ve always done it.

Generations of Israelites intentionally put aside time to remember God’s historical work.

They didn’t let the Exodus fade into the past and occasionally read about it in history books.

The Passover was at the forefront of their minds.

It dominated their lives as it combined a remembrance of the past with joyful movement toward a future with God.

Jesus took the bread and the cup and pointed.

Church,

The Lord’s Supper reminds us of the cross (vv. 23-26)

The Lord’s Supper should orient our hearts and our minds toward remembering Christ’s grace being broken and poured out onto us.

The Lord Jesus had come to lay down His life on the cross to atone for our sins.

He was perfectly sinless.

He marched to the cross like a man on a mission.

Jesus endured the worst punishment toward sin imaginable.

His body was broken and His blood was poured out as a sacrifice to God for our sins.

The nails and spikes were nothing compared to the curse of our sin He took on Himself.

He experienced the full weight of God’s wrath on behalf of sinners so that we could be right before God.

Yet, here our Lord sat with His closest friend, speaking for us—”Do this in remembrance of me.”

My mother in law was a 1st grade teacher for forty years.

Every year, her students would ask what she wanted for Christmas—She told them an ornament.

After 40 years worth of students, each Christmas she puts up the tree and decorates one with those ornaments, telling the stories of the kids she had through the decades.

A small gift like an ornament made my mother in law remember that student every time she decorates and looks at the tree every year.

Every time we as believers come to the Lord’s Table, it should be a moment of remembrance.

Of the life you lived before Christ.

Of the sin that was leading you from God to hell.

Of the blood that was shed on your behalf.

Of the life that Christ laid down for you.

Of the grace that overflowed out of Christ’s heart.

When we take the Lord’s Supper, we are taking in all of the death of Christ and we are proclaiming, “When Jesus died, it counted for me.”

This meal is exclusively for Christians to be reminded of the sacrifice of Christ made on their behalf.

Transition

Paul warns the Corinthians of participating in this sacred meal in an unworthy way.

It’s so easy to overlook sin in our lives, so this calls for deep reflection.

1 Corinthians 11:27 ESV

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

Prior to the explanation, Paul refused to commend the Corinthians because when they come together as the church, there isn’t genuine unity.

The rich were demonstrating their prestige and not sharing with the poor in the church.

The rich were presenting themselves as better-than the other Christians.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

How rich you are or your social status mean nothing in the Church.

No Christians is inherently better than another.

Paul warns the Corinthians to examine themselves.

They were fostering disunity because they viewed themselves more important than someone else.

This unworthy manner refers to sinful attitudes and actions.

Religious hypocrisy tears church’s apart and hurts people.

I was preaching at a conference where the theme was “Loving the Unlovely.”’

I preached the first night, and preached a flyover of the church at Ephesus.

I ended with charging the church with “Don’t forget the gospel. Do not leave your first love.

The second night, there was another preacher who stepped up and for 30 minutes gave ample examples of people he knew who were detestable to him.

He ragged on his golf buddies, and his daughter.

Then for his finale, he told us about how he loves them despite them being unlovely people.

“Oh, what a hero!? This makes me want to follow Jesus!”

NO! I was so angry!

This is the religious hypocrisy that drives people from Christ!

So many Christians engage in this type of behavior!

Claiming to celebrate the Church’s unity while holding disunity in the palm of your hand.

This doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect—No one is worthy of the body and blood of Jesus.

This implies that we are pursuing the gospel!

We recognize that we are unworthy sinners in need of a Savior!

We’re not trusting in our worthiness or perfection

We’re trusting in the cross of Christ that makes us worthy.

Taking the Lord’s Supper with unrepentant sin in our lives brings guilt and judgement onto us for falsely proclaiming Jesus’s work on the cross.

Therefore:

1 Corinthians 11:28–31 ESV

28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

We must examine our hearts—Is there any unconfessed sin in our hearts? Are there sinful relational tensions with another person in the church?

Two ways to identify the body (v. 29)

The Body and blood of the Lord

The wealthy Corinthians were eating and drinking without regard to Christ’s work on the cross.

They were believing they were better than all the other believers because of the check the wrote to the church.

Their social status and financial success mean nothing in the Church.

The Body refers to the Church, the body of Christ.

The wealthy Corinthians were eating and drinking without regard for other church members.

We must examine ourselves, which include how we relate to the rest of the church.

Before we take the Lord’s Supper, we are to reflect on the cross of Christ which should reveal our sin.

It should remind us that we don’t deserve this meal.

It should remind us to stop looking at each other’s inadequacies and sin and look internally.

The Lord’s Supper reminds us of our sin (vv. 27-32)

When we think of the cross, it shouldn’t fill us with warm/fuzzies.

It reminds us of our brokenness and ungodliness before the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11:32 ESV

32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Discipline and condemnation are different from one another.

The Lord condemns non-Christians.

The Lord disciplines Christians.

The goals of punishment and discipline differ.

Punishment upholds justice—You get what you deserve.

Discipline transforms character.

The Lord disciplines His children to make us more like Christ.

It shouldn’t lead us to hopelessness but to thankfulness and repentance.

Repentance ends in forgiveness and the presence of God.

The broken body and shed blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us worthy to be with God again.

When we come to Him in repentance, claiming the blood of Christ, we enter into a peaceful fellowship with God.

This also impacts our fellowship in the church.

Church,

Examine your heart. Repent of your sin.

The Lord’s Supper is an invitation for us to walk with Christ.

Our minds are easily clouded with busyness and numbness toward Christ.

This is a time for us to deliberately ask the Lord to uncloud our view of Him.

As we approach the Lord’s Table together in just a moment, there are some next steps I want you to take this week.

Take the Next Step

Examine your heart today

What is keeping you from a thriving relationship with the Lord or other Christians?

Pursue reconciliation and the Lord.

Conclusion

Church, the Lord’s Table is not a ritual to rush through — it’s a mirror to look into.

When you see the bread, remember the body that was broken for you. When you take the cup, remember the blood that was poured out for you.

So don’t come to the Table casually. Don’t come pretending. Don’t come clinging to sin or holding onto division.

Come examining. Come repenting. Come remembering.

Because the same grace that saves you… is the grace that calls you to walk in unity.

And as we come to the Table today, may we say with humble hearts:

“Jesus, search me. Jesus, cleanse me. Jesus, keep me near Your cross.”