In Remembrance of Me
Notes
Transcript
We have Been going through Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. the Church in Corinth had problems,
Divisions over which apostle they followed.
When the Apostles were all working together to build the church up.
Sexual immorality that was so bad even the pagans rejected it.
Pushing Chasity instead of marriage,
debating over whether they could eat food sacrificed to idols,
and how much freedom they had in christ, rather than how best to live like christ.
Today we are going to be focusing on Just one chapter of 1st Corinthians, but it is an important one.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
We start where we left off last week, when discussing their freedoms in Christ Paul concluded that the best practice is to imitate him, as he imitates Christ,
That is imitate your teachers, imitate those who came before you, find someone who imitating Jesus and imitate them.
Then we get a rare Commendation from Paul,
Becuase the Corinthians, to their credit, remember the things Paul taught them before.
Now From here Paul goes into a little bit of detail about the appropriate clothing for prayer, men with their heads uncovered, and women with their hair covered.
And i am only going to look at a couple of verses here:
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.
The Key point Paul is making here, is that how you are dressed when praying is a matter of respect, Men remove head coverings out of respect to Christ,
Women add hair covering out of respect to their husbands.
And we could go into this, but it seems to be largely a cultural issue,
Especially in Corinth, which housed the temple to Aphrodite, and the “priestesses,” would not cover their hair, as they were trying to entice men,
so this whole conversation is about being noble and modest when praying to God, and respecting those around you.
We live in a different culture, at a different time.
That said when we pray if i am wearing a hat i may remove it out of respect, but God is more concerned with our hearts.
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
And Paul says as much, he says “judge for yourselves”
and he appeals to the natural state of things, where men tend to have shorter hair, and women tend to have longer hair,
But that is by no means universal. - there are parts of Africa where women shave their head during the warmer months, and men grow their hair out.
So the point is to be respectful when you pray publically, because it is a holy time.
And more so, to not be contentious about this.
And now we get to the part I really want to talk about
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. 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, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
So after encouraging the Corinthians about something that they were doing right, Paul then immediately comes back and says, “but this you are doing wrong”
And it seems like we are looking at more church divisions,
But I thought Paul already addressed that.
They were dividing themselves between Paul and Peter and Apollos,
But this time it is different.
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 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.
The Divisions that are arising are coming during communion, the Lords supper.
And Paul is saying “when you come together, because of your divisions, you are not actually partaking in communion.
Because some people show up early, and eat all the food and drink all the wine,
and those who are late get nothing.
Now before I continue i want to point some thing out.
In the Early Church, much of the church meeting was a shared meal.
Church potlucks go back to the first century. Back to the day of Pentecost
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The church in it’s earliest days focused on 4 things when they met together
The Apostle’s teaching - learning the Word of God
Fellowship with each other
the breaking of bread - communion - a full meal
and Prayer.
Church i think that is a great pattern to follow,
and for many years i went to a house church on Saturday nights that focused more on these things than the typical church does today
and there was something beautiful about it,
Becuase the Early church mostly met in people’s homes,
and it is easier to make and share a meal when you are meeting in someone’s home.
But the Corinthians were doing something wrong,
They were gathering in the home, and starting to eat right away.
They were not waiting for everyone to get there.
Now the assumption that most commentaries make is that the wealthier individuals within the church would show up early, because they had time, and then the poorer members would arrive later, because they would have been working until the last minute.
And this puts this whole thing in a different context, because you have the wealthy showing up and eating the shared meal, and gorging themselves, while the poor, who probably are relying on that free meal, miss out and go home hungry.
But remember this isn’t just a meal, at the center of it is communion! the Lords supper! which comes from the last meal of Jesus before his death, from passover.
We partook in Communion today, and i read from this passage,
and the reason why i read this passage in particular instead of one from say Matthew or Luke, is because the Gospels were written decades after the letters to the Corinthians, so this is actually the earliest record of communion that we have, even if it is from a second hand source.
But think about the issues i just mentioned, where the wealthy members of the church are eating the meal before the poorer members arrive, and consider these verses in that light.,
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.
What Stands out to you?
“Do this in remembrance of me”
Lets look at how the gospels describe this event
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Mark is the earliest gospel written, and tradition holds that Mark was the son of the family that owned the house with the upper room where Jesus was eating passover with his disciples.
So he was probably there
Mark als was the scribe for peter later in life, so this could also be Peter’s retelling
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Matthew was one of the 12 Disciples, so he was there, and his account matches Mark almost verbatim.
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Luke adds some interesting extra details, Jesus had wine before and after the bread, Luke also adds the words “do this in remembrance of me”
Luke is a scholar, he is acting like a historian, his account is based on interviews he had with people who were there, but his is a second hand account.
And John, who records the entire conversation around the last supper, does not include the communion, by the time John wrote his Gospel everyone already knew that part.
What is my point here?
Matthew and Mark, which are likely both eyewitness accounts, give what Jesus says, the bread is my body, take and eat, this wine is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins, take and drink.
Luke, who was a traveling companion of Paul includes the “do this in remembrance of me” after the wine
And Paul writing before the gospels are being written, as a second hand account includes “do this in remembrance of me” after both the bread and the wine.
What this looks like to me, is that Paul is emphasizing the purpose of the Lord’s supper, to remember what Christ has done for us.
His body was broken,
His blood was poured out on the ground
to forgive us of our sins.
The Corinthians were treating it just as a meal, and some were not sharing.
The Exact opposite of what Jesus stood for.
so Paul continues
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. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
Paul tells them to examine themselves and actually think about what they are doing when they eat the Lord’s supper,
Eating the broken body of Christ,
drinking the blood of the new covenant.
and those who have failed to do this have gotten sick and some have died.
WHAT?
Church, that is why communion, is so important.
Because it is a holy thing, and just like prayer, it is to be done with respect for God.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
And this gets to why when we meet on Sundays, and take communion, it is just bread and juice, not a full meal (other than the goodies that the hospitality team provides), we set communion apart as something we do together, as something holy, and we can have individual meals whenever we want, and occasionally, we do have big church meals together. I’m looking forward to doing those again.
I want to close with one last scripture.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Now I will point out that when Jesus says this is causes an uproar, because many think he is telling them to commit cannibalism.
But this is why we put so much respect on communion, because it is not just “in remembrance of Him” though it certainly is that,
It is also part of how we interact with Jesus, it is how we abide in Him and He in us, it is becoming a part of Jesus, it is Communing with him in his suffering.
And in proclaiming and recognizing his death in our place, we are made alive.
